Commissioning.............umm.........yeah.........

Playing up with pathology pals by night, fronting up for a Salvo commissioning thingo by day. (don’t hold your breath – this is a long one!)

Now where to start on my first every commissioning experience? Ok, picture this.........we drive in to the city, park the car and walk (or in my case waddle) in the heat, humidity and smog of the city up the road to City Hall. Upon arriving there, we are confronted with a literal ocean of white shirts and epaulettes. Now my dad’s a pilot and I have never seen so many white shirts and epaulettes in one place EVER. Oh well never one to feel uncomfortable in a crowd (yeah right!) we powered on through the line to get in (Steve contemplated using the “pregnant wife” angle to get us in to the air con quicker).

Once inside we proceeded to settle ourselves beside Steve’s parents and grandpa. After a quick dash to try and track down Relle (where I think my first reaction upon seeing her was – “Look at you you’re wearing a sash!”) to reassure her that we will be there pulling faces at her.

Back to our seats and the service started and one of the Salvo head honchos gets up and gives a welcome and address on how we are not to take photos or clap and that this is a “solemn and sacred occasion and we can celebrate later.” Hmmmmmmm..........would this be a good time to mention that Steve and I were wearing homemade “novelty” shirts featuring Relle in full yesteryear Salvo uniform complete with bonnet and timbrel and we had a bag full of snacks to keep us going through the two hour long ceremony? It made me think of the movie Sister Act where Whoopi Goldberg is trying to sell her idea of contemporary music for the nun choir to the Mother Superior and the Mother Superior says “Popcorn?! Curtain calls?! This is not a theatre or a casino!” So now I am pretty much a pregnant pile of giggles and (minus the pregnant part) Steve is not much better. This was not helped, I might add, by Cadet soon to be Lieutenant Relle, herself cracking up in the middle of her reciting of the 11 Salvation Army doctrines.

Oh well! On we trudged through the rest of the ceremony eating proudly and (some would probably argue, irreverently) from our Pez dispensers. The Pez are a side story in themselves - see the story goes that at all the commissioning things in the past, Hev would get Relle and Steve Pez to keep them occupied. To keep the standing tradition all three of us “kids” were presented with our own Pez dispenser from Steve's mum.

Anyway – we got through the “solemn and sacred” ceremony (with Steve popping open a container of Pringles at one of the quietest moments) and on we went with a quick stop for lunch before heading back for another two “thingos,” (the correct Salvo term being “meetings” but I just can’t get the hang of saying that) The first was the one where we could clap and take photos of the newly commissioned Salvo officers and where they are going to be “appointed” was announced and the second was a fun and entertaining Christmas carol thing called “Christmas Unwrapped.” (Kind of like a Carols by Candleight)

That was pretty much it (aside from the recruitment call for soldiers and officers that I just won’t go into!) and that when we got home and were watching the bit of video we had captured and I commented that I should show it to my mum and to which Steve's mum replied "No, don't do that - she'll think we're weird!"

So Relle now has maroon epaulettes instead of blue ones, I have experienced my first commissioning and Steve has deduced that he used to get less bored in these things as a kid than what he does now.

Well done Relle – we are proud of you and love you heaps and know that you are going to be doing “God’s amazing work as a lieutenant in your new appointment!” (which in English means she is going to do a fantastic job looking after the down and out people of Sydney.)

I couldn't get any good photos of the formal stuff cos it was just too dark and we were too far away so I played around with this one on photoshop to show that there was a serious side to the day which is not displayed too well in the rest of the photos!

Steve and I with our "Team Narelle" shirts

This was at Christmas Unwrapped (the most laid back part of the day)
We all were given little torches which we put to good use.

Typical Narelle and Steve photo

The family I married in to is not exactly, how you might say........ serious
(and I might just mention that Kev and Hev are Salvo officers themselves)

Steve found the experince very enligtening!

Narelle takes herself very seriously.............

Our Pez dispensers. I didn't get one of Relle's but it had an "Officer bob" which is apparently a nod to the custom of years gone by when the newly commissioned female officers

would either get a bob or a perm!