Paris

Friday the 14th May 2010 was not the best day in terms of things going smoothly!!!!

Before flying to Paris to attend a Formation Course for members of the Emmanuel Community who are in positions of leadership, we needed to do something about as fun as breaking your arm...

We had an appointment at the Immigration Office to have our finger-prints taken, for the grand finale of our application to stay in Rome. By the way, the Office used to be down the road from our place. Now it is on the outskirts of Rome. We actually missed our original appointment, because after travelling two hours to get there, and knowing that it closes at 11:30am we had to turn around and come home. This time we got there early - we even took a dodgey taxi to make sure we got there in time. (we got ripped off big-time).

When we were ready with our passports and all our paperwork, a "not very pleasant" man realised that we had come on the wrong day - our appointment was for the 17th and not the 14th May. We explained that we had made a mistake...that someone else had made the appointment for us and told us that it was for the 14th. He didn't want to hear it. Another lady came over, and she told us to come back on the 17th. I begged them just to do it now. They wouldn't do it. Kev tried to rationalise with them. It didn't work. They insisted that we leave. I decided that a few tears might help. They didn't. Kev started to pick up our things. I told him to put them back because I wasn't leaving. After a while we had about four staff members discussing the problem of the two Australians who wouldn't leave. I decided to cry louder. (I needed to smile at Kev quickly when no one was looking, to show him that I was really ok). Then another lady came over to see what the problem was. She looked at our papers and then gave my passport to the man and told him to take our finger-prints. She was the boss!! It only took about five minutes and then we were finished. It was one of the greatest performances of my life.

Later in the day we made our way to the airport for a 5pm flight to Paris. We were sitting on the plane ready for take-off, but nothing was happening. At about 6pm, I looked out the window and saw an engineer inspecting the wing. An announcement informed us that the plane had been struck by lightening, and although everything was fine, they needed to do a few checks. A little while later, there were two men hoisted up in a cherry picker, inspecting part of the plane right outside my window. It was a little unsettling!


Engineers checking the plane


Meanwhile, there was no air coming into the plane and everyone was beginning to look quite faint. Kev and I were starting to get a bit concerned about the reliablity of the aircraft and almost hoped that the flight would be cancelled. At about 6:30pm there was another announcement - the plane was fine and ready for take-off, but there was a strike amongst the ground staff, and they would not remove the gate from outside the plane. Everyone started to laugh - it was unbelieveable. Not long after we started moving...for a short while. The plane stopped for about 10 minutes on the runway before taking off. Yay!!!!

We got to Paris two hours late. . We were told that we would stay at the appartment of a family of the Emmanuel Community who were away for the weekend. We found their place (the train system in Paris is absolutely fantastic), entered the security code, found the hidden key and went inside. It was about 10:30pm so we found the bedroom and climbed into bed and went to sleep. It was very strange. I felt like goldilocks.

The Conference was really good. There were about 70 participants from all over Europe. One of them was Danka, a Slovakian girl who did the School of Mission with me seven years ago. It was so so so good to see her again.

On Sunday afternoon, we had a couple of hours free before returning to Rome. A small group of us went to the "Peniche". This is a barge on the Seine river, where the founder of the Emmanuel Community used to live, and it is basically the headquarters of the Community. It was very special to visit there.

The Peniche - Emmanuel Headquarters



Kev, Hele, Danka and her hubby Jan

Then we had about 30 minutes to quickly see a few sites in Paris.....


The Cube......hmmm



Kev in front of fancy building - we didn' have time to find out what we were looking at




Nice couple in front of nice buildings



Then we went to the airport for an UNeventful flight home. That's the type of flights that we want!!!!!!