THOUGHTS ALONG THE JOURNEY

Give us more Sr Mona! Please take her, she’s all yours!! My immediate family would know exactly what I am talking about (especially on the Chelala side). Well, Sr Mona visited me today. As always she showed up announced just as lunch was starting. My Italian is so good that I had no trouble understanding the laughing as I left the refectory. Sr Mona is a Franciscan groupie who had been noisily waiting my arrival for 9 years, the friars duck for cover each time she visits. And when she sees me it’s like one of those scenes at the international airport arrivals gate – smothering me with kisses as I gasp for air through a face full of blue veil. “Yes aunty, I’ve missed you just as much if not more (since last Sunday)” What else am I to say???? You have just gotta love her. I have decided that she deserves an Album all her own. Check out the picture of the two of us together. I’m the tall skinny one – not often I get to say that.

Expecting an important letter from the Australian Electoral Commission I asked Fr Peter to forward any mail that had been sent to my Waverley address. The mail arrived last week (thanks Pete) but the hoped for letter was no where to be found. To my surprise the package of letters was delivered in a clear plastic sleeve and every envelope had been opened and then resealed with an Israeli security stamp. Wondering why on earth they would open ever single letter (there were about ten) I sought the help of Amal who runs the piety stall. Amal assumed it was a regular random security check but would make further enquiries and so she, in turn, asked her niece who works for the postal office (thanks Amal). The message came back that any parcel sent to me from anywhere in the world is very likely to be closely scrutinised; apparently I have the same surname as Osama Bin Ladens mothers maiden name! Fair enough, check away.