The Italian Connection.

 
St. Pio in flight in Northern Italy, with the shelter of the Italian/French Alps in the background. 

As most of you know, both myself and St. Pio have an ongoing friendship that we developed over the past number of years. This stems from a devotion my late mother Ann Murphy had to Padre Pio. It's from that devotion that I got this balloon (pictured above). It was a stock envelope meaning it was already pre-made so both the specification and entire colour scheme was set in stone. I also ordered an out of sequence aircraft registration mark for it. G-PPIO was born. 

Based in Italy, on it's maiden flight here and on packing it away, I glance behind the semi deflated 90,000 cu. ft envelope, and there is a large sign made up of 15 foot high individual letters perched on the rooftop of a building. The letters spell the word 'CHRIST'. Nothing more, nothing less. On another occasion while travelling out to Italy to fly St. Pio, my Aer Lingus passenger booking reference was '2ANNBF'. It also transpires that one of the local Italian balloon crew here is a direct descendent of Padre Pio. I could literally go on and on and offer more coincidences. 

Every time St. Pio flies, on each landing, the Italian landowner is given a gift of a rather special balloon pin. 

 
      The St. Pio Hot Air Balloon lapel pin. 
 


So since I got ill, as you can probably now appreciate, St. Pio has been close by me. If I miss his presence, he generally makes it known. Just yesterday, an unknown Padre Pio pin fell out of a bag Alison's late Dad Chris had used to mind original hand written letters that himself and Alison's late mother Jane wrote to each other. 

If you read back towards the beginning of this particular individual blog, you will see that the colour scheme 
of the St. Pio Hot Air Balloon was fully predetermined as it was premade prior to purchase. Now take a look at the image below of the Vatican based Swiss Guards and G-PPIO. It took an Italian friend, Gianfranco Lombardo, to point this out to me. 

 
The Swiss Guard, the official bodyguard to the Pope. 
 
St. Pio flying low-level in Northern Italy
(Note the uncanny resemblence to the colours of the Swiss Guard). 



What's this they say.....
Truth is stranger than fiction. 

As always, thanks so much for taking the time in reading my blog. 

 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Shake, Rattle and Roll

Image
Sounds like the action-packed wording from a popular music track, yes that one, the  twelve bar blues-form song, written in 1954 by Jesse Stone under his assumed songwriting name, Charles E. Calhoun. Not to confuse you, yes, it was recorded most  successfully by Bill Haley & His Comets. But my comparison has nothing to do with a lively fun dance track, rather instead to be shaked, rattled and rolled in an unpleasant physical way. I have been missing quiet a bit from my usual social media haunts of late and these three words of Shake, Rattle and Roll from an inconvenient truth as to why. As I’m sure you are aware, when you get blasted by Chemo, that blast can be wearing a wide angled lens. In my situation, part of my bowel got caught up in the crossfire. This of course creates a huge discomfort for me and of course, destroys that golden crumb piece of appetite I try desperately to hold on to, which in turn gives me the firepower to deal with my ongoing Chemotherapy.  The resolution
Read more

A good mannered daughter, holding the hammer and a limerick pops up.

Image
Aoife, aged 2.  Her first words were 'Ta-Ta' Just over 7 years ago, the above photograph was taken. Alison my wife is my hero and always will be, no question, but Aoife is the apple of my eye, no contest.  I know the next bit might, OK 'does' sound totally biased but I can assure you (and those that know us both will testify) as an only child, we do not have Aoife spoilt and when we are out, be it ballooning, in a friends house, out shopping or meeting people for the first time, it gets remarked on more than often,  how mannerly our little Miss is. I can only accept 33% of the blame here. From day 1, myself and Alison would gently but routinely massage the manners in to Aoife. For the first 2 years it was just  "What do ya say Aoife? Say Ta-Ta"  and we moved on from there. So that's 66%, where's the other 33%? ... ..It's Aoife ! You can bring a horse to water but can't make it drink. That works for kids as well as horses by the way lol. I'm
Read more

The magic of Mondovi with the Spirit of Saint Pio.

Image
St. Pio in flight, Mondovi, Italy.  Photo: Wendy Tree I’m home a week from this amazing trip and thru sleeps, missed calls and timings, myself and my partner in Ballooning in Mondovi, Sir Andrew of Blagdon, we keep missing each other. Like ships in the night ? More like hot air balloons in the day I thought. So calling Andy yesterday, going to his voice mail (he was out shooting game on his estate, as one does), after the beep,  my words ‘Thank You’ had just vibrated from my vocal chords when I just burst into tears. I thought, after the wake of a few days, I had my mind settled, but it was having none of it. There was a balancing of sorts going on and I wasn’t allowed stop it. My tears, I’m pretty sure drowned out my sincerity of the Thank You, my main purpose of the call, not just for Andy, but for the entire Somerset crew who were all part of it , where heavily included to. Now, to my embarrassment, my emotive albeit tearful Thank You was committed to an answerphone.. eeek ! Friend
Read more