Lauretta's wedding

On Saturday, Kev and I went to our friend Lauretta's wedding. It was our first Italian wedding.

The lovely bride organised for a bus to pick up some of her guests...very thoughtful indeed! The service was to begin at 11:00am. We got to the Domus at 7:30am and waited with some other friends for the bus to arrive. In true Italian form, it arrived at 8:30am. I suppose that it had to manage with  driving in bad conditions, after another snow storm the night before.  The bus drove us all over the place, stopping occasionaly to pick up other guests. After two hours, we passed Termini train station, which is about one hour walk from where we started. Then at 11:30am, we picked up the groom. The bus remained stationary while he greeted every single person on the bus - most of whom he hadn't met before. Then he got into a car which drove in front of the bus. We got to the church at 12:10pm. We knew that we wouldn't miss much, because we were with the groom and half of the guests. The dear bride waited in a car outside the church until we arrived.

Lauretta and Pino

After the wedding, we were invited to a buffet at a nearby restaurant. We thought it would be very simple, as the close family and friends were invited to the reception afterwards.  We were so surprised as it was such a swell affair. We ate such delicious food, and had an ample amount of beverages.

Carly at the reception

 Bernard, Simon, Carly, Kev

Claire, Bernard, Simon, Kev, Hele, Carly

Hele and Kev in a casual pose

 Hele and Kev in the snow - yay!

Then the snow ball fights began. It was great fun. It didn't matter that we were all dressed up.  It was a sight to see.

More snow

The snow continued to fall lightly all afternoon and through the night.

Kev in St Peter's Square - before the heavy snowfall



Hele and Kev in St Peter's Square

I was delighted to wake up on Saturday morning to look out my window and see everything covered in a thick blanket of snow. People were out on the streets playing, throwing snowballs and building snowmen.  It was such fun!

In front of our apartment

Around the corner from our place

Today there are still remains of the snow but it is mostly just ice. There are still some good patches of snow that can be used for emergency snowball fights though!

 

 

Domus Aurelia - ESM

Snow

After a week and a half in beautiful summery Australia, I am now experiencing cold wintry Rome.

Last week I was at the beach, now I am in the snow!!

It started of slowly....

Then got a bit heavier....

It started to leave a beautiful white blanket....

Then the snow fights began!

It was great because it started snowing at one of the few times when the students had free time on the schedule. They started throwing snowballs at each other, from one balcony to the other. They also took delight in being able to throw projectiles at the directors of the School!



Australia

I just returned from a lovely trip to Australia. It was part work, part holiday.

My purpose for going, was to attend the National Retreat of the Emmanuel Community which took place in Dromana (Mornington Peninsula). In this way, I could have several meetings regarding Emmanuel Youth, without having to travel all over the country.

I left Rome on a Monday night and arrived bright and early on the following Wednesday. I was greeted at the airport by my brother Alex and my two darling nephews, Mikey and Timmy. I enjoyed a couple of relaxing days at mum and dads. One afternoon I had the pleasure of a visit from three of mum's sisters, who never fail to entertain.

Then on the weekend I went to the retreat. Apart from the meetings, I was able to get a lot out of the times of prayer and the wonderful talks. To read about the weekend and to see pictures, check out this article written by my friend Fiona Basile. It was also wonderful to catch up with so many of my dear friends. It was so hard to say goodbye to them at the end of the weekend. I bawled and bawled.

I spent the following week at mum and dads, and basically went no where but Mass and the beach. I was in much need of a holiday as we really haven't stopped since WYD in Madrid last August.

On January 26th, we celebrated Australia Day in true fashion, by having a barbeque in the backyard. It was not the same without Kev, but Paul did a fabo job of cooking up the meat.

Dad and Paul preparing the Australia Day lunch

Me, Mum, dad, Paul, Alex, Steph, Mikey, Timmy, Dave and Jennifer

I hadn't seen most of dad's side of the family in a while, so we invited them to afternoon tea. It was splendid fun.

Hele, Penny, Steph, Alex

 Penny, Hele, Nina

Hele, Nick, Rachel

The whole clan

Mum and Hele

Dad, Steph, Paul

I had such a nice time in warm, sunny Australia with temperatures in the 30s. But, I missed my Kev, and the mission called, so I returned to Rome.