Catch up time

I will do a short blog post to summarise the events of May...

We spent a lovely afternoon catching up with some quality Aussies. We saw Fr Withoos, and Matt and Julie MacDonald and their five gorgeous kids.  When the kids told us that we would be having three gelati, I thought they meant that we would have three flavours. But it was actually gelati from three of the best places in Rome. It was in fact, a gelati crawl. Kev and I didn't have the endurance of the others, and only made it to two of the places.

Gelateria della Palma

Giolitti

The following weekend, Kev and I were invited to a surprise party for Cardinal Pell to celebrate 25 years as a bishop.  The party took place on the rooftop of Domus Australia. It was a lovely evening.

The cardinal was genuinely suprised to see us all there. Kev and I were also surprised to see that we were the only laity - and I was the only woman. Luckily I was wearing a black dress with a white scarf so I fit right in. Kev on the other hand, was wearing a blue jumper and shirt - he was soooo out of place. I was embarrassed for him!

We had a 'simple' BBQ (as simple as you can have at such a fancy-shmancy place). Kev struggled with the tomato sauce and sprayed it all over my dress and the floor.  Overall, our presence was very discreet.

Cardinal Pell with his tiramisu cake

Fr Withoos and Kev

The following weekend we caught up with Fr Robbie who was my parish priest in Sydney. He has been in Rome for longer than us, but we had never managed to catch up. So we went to his place (one of the American residences) for Mass and a lovely lunch.

Later in the week, Cardinal Pell came to the ESM for dinner. He has often done this in past years. After dinner we moved to the lounge area and had a Question and Answer session with the Cardinal. The students were able to ask him any questions they liked.  It was a really great evening.

It was a good month for Aussie -catch-ups!