Number 4

Hello good folks. Sorry it has been such a long time since my last blog.

I had a few days of flu like symptoms before heading off on vacation. Was it swine flu - you may well ask - I don't really know but I did feel awful for a few days.

I did some travelling at the end of September into early October, went off to Lourdes to do my annual voluntary stint. I worked at the airport for ten days helping people who are sick or have disabilities on and off the aircraft. This involved physically carrying some wheelchair users and giving an arm of support to others. As usual it was good fun working with an international team of volunteers my dear friends Paul and Aine from Waterford, Felice from Italy and a range of other Italian, Spanish, Australian and French friends. It did my French a lot of good and helped to develop my basic knowledge of Italian. I worked with a new friend Marco who is a forensics officer in the police in Rome, he and I worked well together.

In addition to the work there is lots of time for socialising. Some of my Italian Priest friends, Don Pietro, Don Enzo and Don Stephano had brought lots of interesting food for sharing. We visit a small community of Italian Nuns who we have all known since we were in Seminary and take gifts of food and wine to them. The first evening we had a real banquet as Pietro had brought a suckling pig from Sardinia. We ate Bruschetta, Mushroom Risotto, suckling pig with roasted veg, pears in chocolate sauce and then some very nice Italian cheeses followed by a liqueur from Sardinia called Mirto.

A considerable amount of time was spent eating. My Dutch friend Marietta who lives in Lourdes invited me for lunch one day and she really is a very good cook. Lunch lasted from about 1 pm through till about 6 pm. i then had to go on to meet some other friends for dinner, this resulted in me grazing from lunchtime right through till 10 pm - quite a good day!

I got back and returned to work fully refreshed and have travelled arounf Scotland doing my stuff. Boy does time fly. Last week I attended a training course on project management here in Edinburgh. It was a tough week and I will find out in about six weeks if I passed the exam at the end of the course.

For the first time I have been taking an interest in the X Factor - whatever next?

Sorry this is short and sweet. I did pick up a quote from Abraham Lincoln recently, here goes: 'It is better to remain silent and be thought a fool than it is to open one's mouth and remove all doubt'.

Till next time.