Yesterday was a first for me.  I went to a mass for a friend of ours who died 4 years ago.  On or around the anniversary of one's death, family members ask their priest to mention the deceased during the mass.  Yesterday's service mentioned 5 or 6 people including Stefano's.  Catholics must have some serious thigh muscles on them.  I feel like I got a work-out standing up and sitting down and standing up again for over an hour.  In many ways I suppose the service was very traditional.  There were some "alter children" dressed in white and gold robes, carrying olive branches (Palm Sunday is Olive Sunday here), looking like Goya paintings with their solemn dark faces, big brown eyes and long black hair.  But multicolored sneakers peeked out from under their robes.  The priest was relatively young with a lovely singing voice.  In fact he sang part of his sermon.  The choir was accompanied not by an organ but a young hippie guy playing the guitar.  The church itself was an monstrosity built in the 70's, all cement and wooden beams and bizarre stained glass windows that look like slices of pizza being eaten by birds.  After the mass we all went back to the family's home for a dinner.  There was of course lots of wonderful food and wine and we stayed out past my bedtime.  Today I'm tired but as it's a rainy Sunday I don't plan on doing much more than make soup and read anyway. 

Speaking of rain, the other day I put down grass seed in our little patch of lawn, knowing that nature would take care of the watering for me over this next week.  Well that would be all well and good if it were not for the damned Magpies that keep swarming in and munching up all my seeds!  For those who have never seen a Magpie up close, they are large shiny black birds that look almost like Ravens until they turn and you see their bright blue wings with white tips and white chests.  They are quite beautiful but loud, aggressive pests.  They abuse all the smaller birds and fight amongst themselves high up in the trees.  There are tons of them around here, just as noisy and numerous as the seagulls at home.

Well GP is napping, Grace is studying Macbeth, so I'm off to study for next Friday's driving exam!  Argh!
xxoo me