Father Thomas Roussel Davids Byles (26 February 1870 – 15 April 1912) was a Catholic priest who famously remained on board the RMS Titanic as she was sinking after colliding with an iceberg, hearing confessions and giving absolution.

An invitation to officiate at the wedding of his younger brother William prompted Father Byles to make the trip to New York. He said Mass on the morning of the sinking, Low Sunday, 14 April 1912, for both Second- and Third-Class passengers in their respective lounges. The sermon was on the need for a spiritual lifebelt in the shape of prayer and the sacraments when in danger of spiritual shipwreck in times of temptation.

Father Byles was walking on the upper deck reciting his breviary when the Titanic struck the iceberg. As the ship was sinking, he assisted many Third-Class passengers up to the Boat Deck to the lifeboats. He reputedly twice refused a place on a lifeboat. Toward the very end, he prayed the rosary and other prayers, heard confessions and gave absolution to more than a hundred passengers who remained trapped on the stern of the ship after all of the lifeboats had been launched. His body, if recovered, was never identified. His brothers installed a door in memory of him at St. Helen’s Catholic Church in Chipping Ongar, Essex.

(From Wikipedia)

Dinner this weekend was at The Line with the husband and 2 of his staff. I’m not a big fan of buffets, since I have a small appetite, and I never get my money’s worth when it comes to buffets, even if I stuff myself. I’m also not someone who stuffs myself with food, since it takes away the enjoyment of eating, and I hate feeling bloated from eating too much… which is why I never go to buffets unless there’s some occasion.

This is the story of how the husband and I almost missed our flight to Milan:

Our flight was departing at 1am on a Saturday, and having spent a whole day at work on Friday, I was totally tired out and simply wanted to sleep. After reaching the airport, checking in and having supper, we saw that there were free moving screenings at the theatre in Terminal 3, and while the husband was watching the show, I was happily napping while waiting to board our flight.

I remember that we’re supposed to head to the gate for boarding in advance, and for previous flights I’ve taken, I’ve spent quite some time at the boarding gate waiting to board the plane. But the husband said something about only needing to be there about 15min in advance, and since I was extremely tired that day, I didn’t double check the time and just went to sleep.

As the departure time of our flight neared, we slowly headed towards the boarding gate, and on our way there, we received 2 calls from an unknown number. Now the husband usually doesn’t pick up called from unknown numbers, but somehow he decided to pick up the second call, and it turns out that it was from the airport staff, asking where we were, since everyone else had already boarded the plane. Thankfully we were already close to the boarding gate by then, and we hurried over, cleared the security check and brisk-walked all the way to the plane. I’m never late for things like this, and I reckon we wouldn’t have been that late if (1) I wasn’t so tired and remembered to check when we had to be at the boarding gate, (2) We weren’t in the theatre but rather somewhere else where we could see the screens indicating which gates were ready for boarding. But most thankfully we made the flight, and we didn’t have to wait to clear the security check or to board the plane.

I’ve heard of cases where people have missed (or nearly missed) their flight, and I never thought that something like this would happen to me. We reached the boarding gate very early on our return flight, and never again will I be late to the boarding gate! Nearly missing the flight once is more than enough…

I’ve developed a liking towards Ettusais lately, and got myself a couple of products after reading good reviews about them. I’ve tried 2/3 of what’s shown here, and I’m liking it so far!

Campanile is the Italian word meaning “bell tower”, and the husband and I visited a few of them on our trip to Italy. Going up St Mark’s Campanile in Venice gave us a lovely view of the city, and the Leaning Tower of Pisa was a wonderful sight in itself. But perhaps that one that left the strongest impression on me was Giotto’s Campanile in Florence.

When we first visited St Mark’s Campanile in Venice, access to the top of the tower was via a lift, which was fast, convenient and painless. At Giotto’s Campanile however, things were pretty different. You still had to pay to go up the structure, but this time, there was no lift. Instead, it was a 414-step climp all the way to the top.

I didn’t think to much before deciding to get tickets, but a while after our climb started, I wondered if the view at the top was going to be worth not just the ticket price, but also the amount of work and energy required to climb the structure. And when we got past the halfway mark, I was starting to regret a little…

But since we were already more than halfway through, I couldn’t just give up like that, and somehow we managed to make our way up to the top. What greeted us at the very top of the bell tower were other tired tourists, and a staff sitting in his little office, probably watching the visitors make their way up. I couldn’t help but wonder if there was a private lift or something in the campanile, because having to climb up 414 steps (and more than once too) each day much be a real torture! If getting to work means having to climb that many steps, I wouldn’t even want to go down the bell tower to get lunch, use the toilet or anything because it would mean having to climb all the way up again. (Well thinking about it, I guess there should be a toilet up there. I mean, what if the staff needs to go on a toilet break urgently…) In any case, I guess whoever sitting at the top must be really fit if he has to do all that climbing!

As we walked out to the platform at the top, we got to enjoy a nice breeze as well as a lovely, unobstructed view of the city. The climb wasn’t easy, and I’ll certainly think twice before doing something like this again, but it was definitely an experience to remember.