My week started on Sunday with a trip to the (english speaking) All Saints Church in Milano for Remebrance Day services. This required an early start, paniced adjustments to jacket buttons and hairdos, and a couple of muesli bars grabbed on the run. The service was LOOOOOONNNNNGGGGG and mostly sung. Instead of a sermon there was an address delivered by the second in command of the Brit contingent from the local NATO base. His name is Rupert - this appealed to me immensely - a rupert called Rupert! Most suitably named.
An aside - I love those names that match or are appropriate to peoples work - in Marton the local undertaker was named Death. A couple of days ago I read in a magazine about a woman called Sally Styles who is the registrar for the Hairdressing Council in England; Sally Styles the hairdresser!
From the service we drove out to the War graves at Treno where wreaths were laid by the Consul Generals of New Zealand, Britain, and India, also from South Africa. It was very moving to walk through the graave stones and read the names. Many were only in their early twenties. Sometimes whole crews were buried together when an aircraft had crashed. Most of those marked in the cemetry were prisoners of war. A very sombre and emotional visit.
We returned to the city for drinks and nibbles at the British Consul but by 3pm starvation was setting in and we made for the nearest restaurant. Hunger aleviated we next called to visit some American friends in the northern suburbs. We have hardly seen them since leaving the hotel where we all spent our first few months. One quick coffee turned into three hours and a couple of wines. Great time!
A final half hour drive home saw us arrive in time to open birthday cards, have a feed of smoked salmon and a celebratory glass of bubbles before birthday phone and skype calls. Lovely, lovely way to finish the day.
Piccie of my birthday presents still to arrive... Patch (and John and Les - thanks for the birthday money!!!) have bought me two of these candelabra. They are silverplated and 75cm tall, holding five candles. They will look stunning on the dining table - especially for Christmas.
The other purchase is a four poster wrought iron bedstead - hopefully it will arrive later this week. I've wanted one of these for years and years and this is the loveliest one I've seen - crisis measuring after ordering it to check that it would in fact fit in the room height... thanks to a sloping roof I'm okay.
One of the other Kiwi girls is having her birthday today - it must be the season! Happy birthday to all the scorpios out there.
No comments:
Post a Comment