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 Mt. St. Mary’s, Greenmeadows. Mon. 11th Oct. ‘71. Dear Mum & Dad, I’ve just chased about 60 flies out of my room by waving a towel around for about 10 minutes. The flies are terrible this year- just the quiet, little ones that don’t buzz. The only way to keep them out would be to put my mosquito net up but then I can reach out the window to water my pot plants! So I think I’ll tolerate the flies. The new superiors have been announced, although the other shifts haven’t come out yet. I’ll put some of the ages in brackets so you can see how young they are:- Rector of Seminary – Fr. G. Connolly (36). Novice Master, Highden – Fr. M. Tomasi (44). Director of the Maori missions – Fr. N. Delaney (49). Rector of St. Pauls, Paorangi – Fr. V. Curtain (39). Superior of ‘Futuna’ Retreat House – Fr. R. Saunders (36). Parish Priest of Napier – Fr. P. Eastwick (36). Rector of St. John’s College, Hastings – Fr. B. Ryan (47). Superior of Rochester Hall (University Hostel Chch) – Fr. J. Weir (36). National Promotor of the Third Order of Mary – Fr. C. Larkin (28) (this is a new job) On Saturday I voted in the local Meeanee Riding Elections. On Wednesday night the local Napier and Taradale Fire Brigades came up here for a mock fire. They just about washed all the gardens out, and rescued several desperate survivors off the roof. Apparently they have a special call just for the seminary. As soon as they send it, three extra engines come over from Hastings. They said that if a Seminary building caught on fire they wouldn’t try & put it out, but merely stop it from spreading. Tim Wallace, an aspirant from Wanganui, left last Wednesday. That leaves 17 aspirants, which is still a very good number. Fr. Hickey goes to Samoa on Tuesday for a few days. The N.Z. Province has one house there – Chanel College. Fr. Chaney is in Napier Hospital at present with a heart complaint, but they’re not exactly sure how bad. Yesterday I cooked pudding for dinner – Dutch Apple Pie or something. I thought that for once I’d cook without a hitch, until it kept rising and rising out of the dish in the oven. Then it began overflowing onto the oven trays, until eventually when I opened the oven door to have a look at how things were going, it began running out of the oven onto the floor! It looked like melted cheese. What I’d done was instead of using 20 teaspoons of baking powder, I’d used 20 tablespoons!! I’ve never seen the kitchen floor in such a mess. Most who commented on the pudding said it was very light, but none commented on the taste. At one stage I was slamming the oven doors to get the thing to stop rising, but no, this was just one sponge that WAS going to rise. We had a moral theology exam last Saturday & I think I did all right. I thought that photo of Rick in the paper you sent was very funny. I presume it WAS a wig?! Well, I can’t think of any more news. We’ve only got 3 weeks left of classes before revision. Did I tell you that our holidays home are from Dec. 20th to Jan. 12th. Does that fit in alright with your arrangements, or will I change the times? Love from Bruce |