I promessi sposi

Ciao tutti,
It's already been a week and a half since I last posted something and we are in dire need of an update by yours truly. After Liberation Day I worked Thursday and Friday, although most of my courses were cancelled and I had a lot of free time. On Friday, Marianne and Thijs arrived. Marianne is an old study mate and Thijs is her new boyfriend who I had only met once - very briefly - at my graduation ceremony. It was an interesting weekend. Seeing Marianne again was nice, because she was in Wales when I last came to Holland just after New Year's and we hadn't seen each other since last August. I had a little bit of trouble adjusting to Thijs, though. Let's just leave it at the fact that he's very young and still has a lot to learn about the world - although I suppose he disagrees as youths recently graduated from high school usually do (don't you all remember those days???).

Anyway, when they left, they unfortunately took the good weather with them as well. Last week it rained, rained, thundered, rained, rained, thundered and rained some more. And this rain was very much needed as well. The Italian government has recently declared a state of emergency because there isn't enough water. It has hardly snowed last winter and if we (Italians - I didn't even think of the consequences, I suppose I do consider myself to be Italian by now) continue our usage as we do now, there'll soon be a threatening shortage of water. As the Italian public transport system had announced a national strike on Friday, it goes without saying that it rained cats and dogs that day. As I was walking through this god-forsaken weather, I felt anger piling up inside me and when I found out - two-thirds of the way there - that the metro was working as usual I shouted, but was also very grateful. It's just unfair. It always rains when I have to walk because of a strike - e non mi piace!

Friday afternoon, I met up with Belinda and her family and friends from South Africa and Ireland who had come over for her wedding and showed them around town. I wasn't too impressed with Belinda's mum and brothers, but her Irish friend Miriam ('Blue Girl' - Even though she was the only one to appreciate my tour, I couldn't remember her name at first but could just remember she was wearing something blue) is lovely. Everybody was very anxious about the weather, because Belinda and Enrico had planned to have their wedding reception outside. Fortunately though, it was dry most of the day.

Saturday morning, the kids got married at a lovely city hall branch office next to the Giardini Pubblici ('Public Gardens', a large park in the middle of Milan) and I did my utmost to be the best Matron of Honour I could be - which just means I got to sign as witness. After that we drove to a rural area near Crema for the reception and, even though it rained for about 20 minutes, we were very lucky to be able to spend the rest of the day in the sun. And it only rained while we were eating outside under a cover so the rain didn't bother anybody - well, except for the odd child playing in the courtyard that is. The wedding was lovely, the two of them looked beautiful and most people had a great time. At around 6 pm, a lot of people left but a small group of us stayed to dance and sit around a campfire and have a chance to really talk and get to know each other. I think Belinda and Enrico really valued this part of the day most, because at this point they could stop feeling responsible and just start enjoying this day which was and always will be one of the most important days of their lives. We all got drunk, of course, and started dancing, knocking over bottles, having good conversations, joking around and spending a lovely evening. It's too difficult to describe everything that happened but let me just say that I had a great time. And so did Olaf, I think. We especially had some good laughs when Belinda's Christian fundamentalist friends Mike and Caroline got really drunk and went into a matrimonial crisis - which meant he went for a walk and fell asleep in the mud and she got into sexy dancing and started groping everybody, yours truly and his lover included. I didn't mind it at first until she got into my lap and started whispering how easy it was for her to combine being a Christian with sex - and how much she wanted dick... Anyway, we also met two lovely couples: Nicola (Italian) and Aniela (Flemish) from Verona, who I wouldn't mind seeing again, and Roger and Chiara (both Italians) who were a bit older but very entertaining and awakened my desire to go to Sicily by their description of what must be heaven on earth. Here are some pictures which will illustrate the day and the atmosphere much better than I can describe it.

Just before the official wedding ceremony, they look a bit nervous, don't they?

Belinda looks fantastic, doesn't she? This dress was the cause of a lot of excitement among the conservative Italian visitors...

Rushing by in a horse-drawn cart to make a grand entrance

Cutting the cake

Aren't they looking sexy while making this toast?

She's radiating, looking so happy and beautiful!

Enrico, Belinda, me and Melina

Melina was looking very nice

Belinda had actually made sure that we were seated across from a Flemish girl called Aniela and her Italian boyfriend Nicola. Simona, one of Belinda's friends a lovely - though crazy - Italian lady, just had to get in the middle. I was so surprised and delighted that we were actually able to speak Dutch yesterday!

Being a little drunk Olaf started taking pictures of Nicola, Aniela and me trying to find alternatives for 'Say, Cheese'... This is 'Say Radicchio'

Don't the kids look lovely together?

On Sunday, we slept late, cleaned our house and relaxed a lot. In the evening, we went to Mas for aperitivo with Enrico, Belinda, Miriam and Belinda's family. We couldn't let them go back to South Africa and Ireland without introducing them to the concept of aperitivo, now could we? Melina joined us later and we were very happy she came, because we wanted to find out whether she had 'gotten together' with Marco the night before - he's an Italian friend of Enrico's who gave us a lift back to Milan Saturday evening, who Melina got on with quite well and who she ended up alone in the car with after they had dropped us and Simona off. They would be a great couple, but unfortunately nothing happened. Well, that just means we're going to have to put some more effort into getting her a boyfriend...

Today, my working week started and it started heavily. As two of my colleagues are on holiday, the rest of us need to cover a lot of courses and I'm working about 35 hours this week. Well, at least this'll liven up my paycheck this month. I've got an early start tomorrow, so I'm wishing you all goodnight and sweet dreams now. And for those in Nijmegen, I'll see you all in 4 or 5 days.

Ciao, Fe