St Anthony

So if you’ve had the honour of spending more than a few minutes with me, you’ve heard me go on about St Anthony (of Padua) and how awesome he is.

You’d also know I don’t take the whole religion thing too well and that it must be pretty good for me to give Anthony a good report.

I’ve been told that since Anthony is the patron saint of lost souls (and I therefore take him to be my personal patron saint), he’s very good at helping out when things go missing. And he’s worked wonders before with lens caps, mobile phones, reports, car keys, parking spots…

One quick World Youth Day story: I was out shooting the city when the Popemobile was driving through the city, and amongst the rush of the afternoon I dropped the lens cap for my Nikon. Completely stressed out (The Pope’s coming! Oh crap, I’ve lost the lens cap and it’s not even my camera!) I ran back to where I was hoping the lens cap could be found, desperately begging Anthony for help finding it. There and then, amongst the bushes, leaves and dwindling daylight, there was the lens cap, waiting for me. And I got back to my spot in time for the Popemobile to zoom past. Win!

Iris once told me that when finding a parking spot she repeats “Hail Mary full of grace; please find us a parking space” until she finds a spot. This didn’t work for me, so I took up someone else’s advice in asking Anthony for help with parking spots.

So I don’t do anything special, usually just a mental conversation upward asking Anthony to find a spot, or to keep a spot for me for later on. All very casual, no “Dear Anthony” or “Amen”. And provided you aren’t too greedy, he’s damn good at providing.

For instance, I can’t just turn a corner and ask for a spot, but if I pre-warn Anthony on my way to the supermarket, then he works his magic for me. Pretty much every time I’ve asked. I’ve even got Dan starting to think it’s a damn good thing.

But the best story is from Christmastime last year when I was in London. Genna and her sister Claudia drove me into London proper, and were looking for a parking spot within spitting distance of Oxford Street, Selfridges and whatnot. All three of us knew this would be an interesting task, and we did laps and laps of these tiny streets, desperately trying to find a parking spot. While we were doing said laps, I started telling them about St Anthony and his abilities with parking spots.

And now’s about the time I should tell you that Genna and Claudia are Jewish.

After explaining Anthony’s awesomeness and how I normally ask Anthony for help, both girls openly asked Anthony for a parking spot. We turned this tiny corner just half a block off Oxford Street and found a parking spot just the right size for the little blue Peugot we were in.

It wasn’t until we got out of the car that we realised we were parked opposite the Ukranian Catholic Church.

All three of us were suitably gobsmacked and impressed. The girls considered switching to Catholicism.

Dare you to give Anthony a go ;o)

Shoe story

On the weekend, I went to Birkenhead Point to have coffee with the old TAFE gang. And took the opportunity to try to find some shoes to go with some bargain skirts I’d bought a couple of weeks ago.

One pair needed to be purple, but not just any purple. The right purple.

So I bought these thinking these would do the trick, and that even if they weren’t quite right, they’d be near enough:

Yes, they have ribbons on them. Yes, I was willing to accept them.

All was dandy until I decided to check out how they went with the outfit.

FAIL. Big, fat fail.

“Disappointed” is the most polite word I can use to describe how I felt when I realised. At least they were on sale.

Rose

Amali gave me this rose on the weekend. She picked it from a garden down the street.

I had to give her a sloppy thank you kiss. That kid is so cute, she almost makes my ovaries hurt.

Sunday in (Bicentennial) Park

I haven’t been on a picnic in yonks, but now I’ve had picnics 2 weekends running. Today was with Brad and Kerri, Leigh and her kids and Naomi and her kids.

P.S. I think the world is telling me to have childrens cause those things are everywhere.

I decided they could sample the test specimens of cupcake toppers that I’ve made with my new fondahnt cutters. It’s a shame that these cupcakes met the same fate of the last batch of cupcakes to leave the house; they ended up in a melted heat in the sun. Whoops.

At least they looked good for about an hour. Mental note: yellow colouring in the buttercream icing next time.

Garden!

I’ve caught a green thumb, so have gone nuts the last 2 weekends with clearing up the garden and buying herb seedlings to try to save us the $2.99 every time we need a fresh bunch of *insert herb here*.

I’ve mostly been inspired by the work Nat and Chloe have been doing with the seeds I helped plant on the farm last month. But of course they get decent sunshine, so that’s why I’m sticking with herbs in the seedling format and nothing more:

So we now have basil, chives, continental parsley, strawberries, afro parsley and coriander. We already had standard mint, which I’ve tried to resurrect. I also repotted the aloe vera (‘ALLO VERA!) in the hope that it doesn’t die a slow and painful death. Vera saved me when I had severe sunburn in about 2003, so I vowed to protect the breed wherever possible.

I also bought some cat mint and cat grass in the hopes of turning Elvis and Bear COMPLETELY PSYCHO, which is yet to happen, but it’s early days yet. I have diligently watered everything daily (with bunnings receipt in hand) so have high hopes for a bumper crop that would do our Alfalfa House neighbours proud.