Another year older

Yesterday was my birthday. It was also my twin brother Alex's birthday. We both turned 38.



I had a marvellous day. I was treated to breakfast in bed. Kev managed to sneak out and get some coffees and pastries from the cafe next door. He brought breaky in to me with some lovely prezzies. I got a toy dog, a real nice puzzle  of Venice, a massive slab of Lindt chocolate and another Bill Bryson book. Pretty good, huh?!!!



We went to Adoration for an hour at the chapel near our place, then went to work. We had a Skype call with my fam on mum's new Ipad. It was great (as always) to see my mum and dad and brothers and sis-in-law and three little nephews.

Then I did some work. It involved traipsing around Rome in the disgusting heat, but that's ok. I had to go to the Vatican to organise visas for next year's students. I was unsuccessful. But while I was so close, I decided to pop into St Peter's and pray in front of Bl John Paul II's tomb for ten minutes.

After work we went to Mass then dinner at a restaurant near our house. We were joined by some of our crazy friends.

 Me and Carly (and a prawn)

 Fr Eric, Simon, Marta, Carly and me

Fr Eric, Simon, Marta, Carly, me, Kev, Philip, Claire, Bernard

As usual, the food was good, the company was great, and the service was terrible. The gang got me some dvds: 'Mr Crocodile Dundee (this is the Italian version) and West Wing. I also got a noice scarf and some chocky.

It was a ripper day.

Lake Bracciano

This year our students took a bit longer to pack up and leave Rome, which was nice because we got to spend a bit more time with them. Some of them kindly invited us to spend a day with them at lake Bracciano.

It was such a lovely day - here are some photos to prove it.

 Hele and Kev and some of our former students

Kev and Hele

We spent the day swimming, eating and swimming and eating. The students packed lunch for us all so we had a little picnic. Later we all had a gelato. For the first time in my life, I paid the little bit extra and had a waffle cone with chocolate around the top.  I ordered four flavours: lemon, strawberry, pineapple and peach. It was the greatest icecream experience of my life.

We returned to Rome late in the afternoon and decided to stay at school for dinner. Some of the students offered to cook dinner. It started out to be a small affair with about 10 people. By the time dinner was ready we were about 20 people. It was nice because we had wine and music with our meal, and we didn't have to ring the gong after 45 minues (which is what normally happens during the year).

Now there are no students left. It is very quiet here at the school. It won't be long before we are welcoming the new batch!

End of the year

Kev and I have survived another year at the ESM!!
 

The farewell celebrations began a week ago with the annual dinner with Cardinal Rylko. As he is the head-honcho for the Pontifical Council for the Laity, he likes to come to the ESM at the end of each year and meet with the students. He puts them on the spot by asking them what they got out of the year, while at the same time, encouraging them for when they return home.

Dinner with Cardinal Rylko

We also had a dinner to thank all of our teachers, companions, tutors and the local members of the Emmanuel Community. I think the long-term teachers were a little disappointed that the students didn't treat them to drama and music created to mock them, as has been the tradition in past years. But they were thankful for the gratitude shown by the students.

Then came the 30th June - the last day of school. The students organised everything, and did such a wonderful job. They prepared all the food (it was the cook's day off), decorated, prepared the entertainment, and even bought two little pools to cool us down on the terrace.

Theresa made the mistake of coming outside with an umbrella, which in our eyes was another way of saying, 'please splash me'. So we did.

Flavio and me splashing Theresa!

After dinner, we had some entertainment. There were various 'acts' including slide shows, music, drama and dancing. Even the Team contributed. Firstly we played little clips of music while everyone had to guess which student it referred to. Then we projected an image of the student which had been 'improved' in 'yearbook yourself'.

Cris - before and after

We also perfomed a song to let the students know how we feel about them leaving. We changed the words from, "Knocking on Heaven's Door" to "Don't Come Knocking on Helen's Door" (after July 1st)

Then, to thank the members of Team who are leaving, we gave them a small gift. We got one of the students to dress up as Theresa - we even made a face-mask out of a photo. It was hilarious.

Kev, Hele and Jeanne (dressed up as Theresa)

The students thanked us for our love and care. They knew that I loved painting so they all painted a picture for me. It is a picture of St Peter's, with each of the students and Team. I was so touched as it took them days to paint (in secret)

Baptiste presents me with the painting

After all the 'organised fun' we headed outside to sit by the pools! It was so hot, so this was the perfect way to cool down.

 

 Some of the gang with their feet in the pool

Some of the boys picked Kev up from inside and carried him into the pools.

 Kev taking it easy

It was a fantastic end to a great night and a wonderful year.

 Farewell ESM 2011-2012!

Mission in Dublin

Just before we were to leave for two weeks of mission in Dublin, I spoke with the person in charge of the Emmanuel Community in Ireland (Linda). We both said, "What were we thinking?!? Planning two parish missions in a row!" Anyway, we did it and we survived.

We left for Dublin on Saturday 2nd June and went straight to the parish of St Martin de Porres in the suburb of Tallaght. We each stayed with local families and were given a very warm welcome. We stayed for one week during which time we spoke with the people on the streets, in schools, in the shops, at home, in the church, and of course in the pub. Most of the time it was cold and rainy but we had two good 'summery' days.

 Obviously the schedule was very gruelling for the ESM students

A condition of us doing two missions in a row was that we have a day off in between. A coach took us to Glendalough which is about an hour and a half out of Dublin. It rained all day but that didn't spoil our fun. We were happy to be out in nature and to be able to run and play like kids. It was so much fun.

Some dear little dear

After one week in Tallaght we moved to the city centre for a parish mission at St Andrews in Westland Row. This was our main reason for coming to Dublin. The priest who was in charge of the 50th International Eucharistic Congress had requested that we come. We had been planning this for a couple of years. It was a wonderful to be on mission during an event like the Congress. After so much bad publicity for the Church (due to the scandals of some bad individuals) the people of Ireland were able to see the Church in a new light - young, vibrant, healthy, good, true, beautiful....etc.

We spent a lot of time singing hymns in front of the church and speaking with people. We invited them to come and pray or to merely accept a small gift - a piece of paper with some words from God. On the most part, it was very well received.

Street evangelisation

We were kept very busy during the week. Apart from attending some of the Congress, we visited schools, shopping centres, and organised events in the church. We also bumped into some old friends..

 Fr Fred and Hele

 Fr Aurelio (in the Eucharistic Procession)

My Kev, Hele and Kevin McNena (who did the ESM with me ten years ago) 

The ESM students stayed in a nearby youth hostel. The Team stayed in a distant hotel. It was great popping into the bar dwonstairs on some nights. We were pleasantly surprised to find out that it was karaoke night one night. Kev, Fr Benoit and Eliane blessed us with their musical abilities!

We got to speak to lots of people who were also staying at the hotel. I spoke with a lovely couple who had experienced a lot of suffering in their lives. We prayed for them together (while Kev was organising his first song).

Kev and Fr Benoit singing 'Morning Has Broken' 

 Eliane, Theresa, Fr Benoit, Hele and Kev

We all went to the Closing Mass of the Congress on the last day. The numbers for the Opening Mass were a little disappointing (12 000 people). There were 78 000 at the Closing Mass. It was amazing. Before the Mass started there was some music. I was so happy to hear 'The Priests' sing. They are great. After the Mass there was a screening of a speech from the Holy Father. It received a standing ovation.

 Cris, Anna, Kev and Hele (wearing our beautiful Congress volunteer t-shirts)

 Members of the Emmanuel Community in Ireland

After the Closing Mass we went back to the parish for dinner and to pack things away. Then a few of us went to the pub to celebrate the fact that we were still standing...by sitting down to drink our guiness.

Anne Schneibers, Hele, Kev (and Anne's friend)

We went back to Rome on Monday 18th June - the school year is coming to an end........

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!

Quick trip to Aus

Okay so this is few weeks late, but better late than never! On Tuesday April 24 I (Kev) jumped on a late night Emirates flight from Roma to Sydney so that I could go to the wedding of my bro Danny and el amor de su vida Laura. Things are always busy at the ESM, so I could only take a few days off, meaning that the whole trip would take  five days. I landed in Sydney sometime on Thursday morning and took the ridiculously expensive Airport train to Leumeah where I was met by dad. Within two hours I was on Campbelltown Golf Course playing with two of my brother in laws, Pete and Kev. While it wasn't the most impressive of rounds of golf, it was certainly a great way to spend the day and a good way to try and trick my body into staying awake till night time. I made it to dinner okay, but flaked out even before dessert was served. Overall not a bad effort as I had had maybe four hours of broken sleep over perhaps forty five hours!

Friday 26th was the big day and all went great. It was good to meet Laura for only the second time and to meet some of her Columbian family. I was able to catch up with a whole bunch of family and friends all in one day, which is pretty good. The wedding went off without a hitch, with only little Harry, aka Frodo, the ring-bearer having a whinge. It was an early reception at the Catholic Club and the effects of sleep deprivation and jetlag meant I was unable to take full advantage of the free booze that was on offer...quite a disappointment.

Danny and Laura

Saturday was a lazy day, with a trip into Campbelltown being the feature ... while it isn't Rome, it does have the benefit of some wonderful things like, footpaths, grass, trees, traffic lights, clean air, shops that sell things you actually need, manners (did I say that?), and most importantly the Harlequins Rugby Club! I stopped off and watched some rugby there for an hour or two and I must say I was tempted to start playing again. Some of the boys running around had far more gray hair than me, and most of them looked like they had be grazing in some pretty good paddocks... After the footy, I caught up with a mate Tim and then headed home.

That night I caught up with a number of my brothers and sisters, and met my new niece Scarlett for the first time. I then packed bags, said good bye to mum and dad, and some relatives who were at mum and dad's place, and then headed to my sister Annette's place. I stayed there from around midnight till 2am watching rugby on tv and then Pete, her tubby hubby, drove me to the airport. I arrived just before 3am and had to wait 10 minutes for the airport to open. I checked in and waited another hour before security opened, and then jumped on a plane at 6am. I got back to Rome on Sunday night, just in time to see the last part of the Kazakhstan / Latvia cultural evening at the ESM. Needless to say, I was keen to get to bed after travelling 33,000km in five days!

Visitors

Last week we were blessed with the visit of our friends Mary and Keiron. They were popping into Rome for a few days before gallavanting around Ireland. On Monday night we went out for dinner at our favourite local restuarant that guarantees good food, bad wine and bad service at a very reasonable price - it's quite charming.

Then I caught up with them again on Wednesday after attending the audience with the Pope. I hadn't been to one of these audiences in about ten years, so it was a lovely way to spend my morning. I met Mary and Keiron afterwards, and we wandered off in search of a restuarant for lunch. Luckily you never have to go far to find food in Italy. We had some yummy pizzas and (good)wine. It was so good to see them again and to get all the news about Melbourne and the Bookshop.

Keiron, Mary and Hele

I am so grateful to them for their visit. Perhaps one day some other 'friends' from the CCB will come and see us!