Happy Birthday to Me!
It's been a week of celebrating me! My birthday falls on March 30 (last Thursday) and folks here somehow found out about it. (I'd posted it in the bulletin for the past month!) And of course, the people here, as everywhere, are generous and kind to me and wanted to show their appreciation. So it was a week of celebrating.
On Wednesday dear Pina, my Italian friend here, organized a lunch at one of my favorite little diners around the corner. Pina cooks for the friars twice a month, dropping off the meal. Often they are over the top. She makes soup, then a salmon dish as the "entree" (which in Aussie means "appetizer"). Then she makes a pasta dish, a meat plate, a side dish, and some kind of dessert. Throughout Lent, I asked her to simplify the meals and said, "Look, none of us need the dessert. If you want to do something for the end of the meal, just slice up some fruit."
Long story short, one of her friends, Juanita (no, not Hispanic, Chinese Malaysian) overheard me say this. She's the lady who makes elaborate cakes as a hobby for family and friends. I have shown pictures of her work here before. Juanita wanted to make me something elaborate for my day. So she made a "no-bake fruitcake." (1) (I thought how appropriate for me, being such a nut!) She couldn't fit all the letters on the cake after she'd decorated it, but she wanted to show me her work. These are cut out of "rock melon" (Aussie for cantaloupe). This is me, amazed at the cake (3).
The fun part of it all was that I thought it was a regular cake covered in lovely fruit. When I cut into it, I discovered that the whole center of it was a carved watermelon shaped like a round layer cake (4)! Can you believe it? We sliced up the all fruit-cake and sprinkled toasted almonds and coconut flakes. It made such a wonderful and refreshing light dessert. Perfect for a summer party (except we're in fall)! Here is the guests all together for a photo (5), from l. to r.: Joe (who sings and plays guitar at Mass), Angela (Pina's sister), Juanita (the amateur cake artist), me, Pina and Josephine. (Josephine's married to Joe; they're both Lebanese and beuatiful people, which goes without saying of anyone Lebanese.) A final shot of cake and letters (6). A really lovely time, but then I had to rush to get back for a 2 pm funeral…talk about whiplash on the emotions front!
I spent my birthday alone. I needed the down time. It has been go, go go all Lent long. I haven't had a full day to me for a whole month which is awful. Not good for the parish priest to be cranky and on edge! Hopefully, not too many parishioners noticed. Anyway, I was hoping to have a nice sunny day and head into the city to wander. The clouds had parted earlier in the week. Well, my birthday was full on rain from morning to night. You might have heard about the cylcone that hit Queensland (northern Australia). Well we were hit with massive rain here in southern Australia. March went on record as the wettest month in the history of keeping track, surpassing the old record set in the late 1800's by some 2 inches! Crazy! Well my day was rainy so I couldn't go to the city as I'd hoped. Instead I made calls to my family. And then went out and saw a bad movie (walked out of it), worked out at the gym and then went to dinner at a nice little grille here that makes nice grilled chicken sliders. Came home early and went to bed early. Really quiet and restful, just what I needed.
The following day, Friday, were more parties. At one of the schools, they had a nice "morning tea" at 10:30 am (7). They gave me a nice carrot cake (8). Then that night was "Beer and Barrimundi" at the Fiddler with the Young Adults. Barrimundi is a fish that I don't really like all that much becuase of how it looks; it's white with streaks of dark grey in it. It cruddles my stomach when I look at it. We called the night "Beer and Barrimundi" because of the aliteration. No one ordered barramundi! Here are shots of me with the first guests (9). One of the young women made me an R2D2 cake! (It was fabulously decadent: butter cream frosting and rich chocolate cake!) (10-12). Here is the whole group (13).
On Saturday, I had organized a picnic with "David's Place" which is a place of gathering in Sydney city proper for some of the area homeless and those who have no family: the "anawim" of Scripture. It was very nice with lots of food donated by our parishioners and about a dozen parishioners came for the visit across the "border" too. Here is a couple of shots of all of us together (14-15). Thankfully it was a gorgeous day. (The kind of day I would have wanted for my birthday!) And again, they brought out a cake and sang "Happy Birthday." At the end they sing a "hip-hip-hoorah!" three times. Very charming. This gentleman (16) has been a secular Franciscan for over 50 years and was very proud of the fact, showing off his Tau cross (the wooden cross shaped like a Greek "Tau" or "T").
Finally, a giant bloom the size of my head opened up on Sunday (17)! Not sure what kind of flower this is…perhaps a chrysanthemum?