Panettone homemade

 

Sunrise at Rockefeller Park

The weather continues to be cold and humid .... feels like rain, there was thunder this evening and the sky is red ... but we're not quite sure. Last night was 13 degrees and the highest today was 19 degrees. Chilly but pleasant. This week is my turn to go to the Sisters of Ivrea convent to celebrate Mass. It's 1km outside the Old City, and though many of our younger guys could get there in 10 mins, I need 25 mins to half an hour. Old age has caught up, and my painful ankle and knee and asthma just carry the old body for 1km anymore. I leave at 5.30am which is very dark during this winter, and when Mass ends the sun is just rising at 6.30am. I have to pass by the Rockefeller Park and the sunrise there is beautiful. 

It's been a full morning of financial work at our economato today  ... I get to greet all the workers there, some I have known for decades. It's good seeing them. After dealing with all the transations for bying books and renewing subcriptions, I managed to get a sum of money to buy medicines for M. Teresa's sisters in Bethlehem. They need alot of medicine now that the flu season has started. The poor and handicap that they care for have low resistance, and with the corona pandemic still hanging around, the situation is not good for them. So the sisters asked for lots of medicines. I guess I'll need a couple fo seminarians to help me carry them. It's literally a carload.

Homemade panettone

Tomorrow is my onomastico ... or feastday or patron saint's day ... St. Leo the Great. My community decided to celebrate it yesterday (Sunday) instead when everyone is home. One of our students baked 4 panettone ... a christmas bread. That was great ... nobody here has seen how panettone is baked before. There was also a chocolate cake baked by our new cook Georgette. And there was roasted lamb for the main dish! My favourite! It was cooked till it was so tender, the meat slipped off the shank. It was a good meal ... one of the rare moments when I actually eat a full meal at a proper mealtime!