Fiftieth Birthdays

We had a great time on our fiftieth birthdays. As our birthdays are only 12 days apart we decided to have a joint celebration, along with Meeno, one of Erminia’s sons who had his 53rd birthday around the same time. The night before we went up the road to Meenos for his birthday party and then the next day we organised lunch for 25 under our new veranda. Meeno and his son, our builder Paolo, turned up in the morning with scaffold poles and netting to rig up more shade and help lay tables and chairs. Sue’s friend and teaching colleague Pat came early to help prepare, as did our friends Claude and Jane. The remaining guests were all members of our neighbours Erminia and Paolo’s family.

I guess the lunch was our way of saying thank you to all these people for their kindness and generosity. Pugliese people have big healthy appetites and are also particular about their food, not generally liking any kind of foreign muck. Not trusting us to cook anything remotely edible we had a number of offers of assistance with the catering. Erminia brought several litres of their home made wine, Palma, Meeno’s wife and Erminia’s daughter in law cooked rabbit and potatoes and Dora, her other daughter in law made trays of foccacia of many different flavours. I barbecued an enormous quantity of meat and Sue made antipasti and a pear cake for desert. It was hard work and more than a little stressful, but after half an hour or so everyone arrived and were happily eating, drinking and talking at the top of their voices.