Dear Reader....

...who ever you might be,


If you feel so inclined I would be very very grateful for your thoughts on the two venues I had in mind for my WEDDING RECEPTION.
Each venue has its pros and cons...I just cant decide which I prefer!

So your input would be much appreciated!! Or email me: antoniasplace@yahoo.co.uk


VENUE A - THE MARQUEE

Slightly more dreamy & romantic, this venue would fit about 200 more people than we would invite and so may be slightly too large. It is also darker than venue B (see below)

















VENUE B - THE GOLF COURSE

This venue is brighter than the last, having one entire wall made of glass and overlooking the golf course on which it is situated. The main dining room leads straight on the balcony which goes half the way round the building and overlooks the golf course. Guests will also have access to a second room (with a bar) via the balcony. Downside is it smaller than the venue above. The picture below are of a wedding party of 70 people, and we will be inviting at least 100, so the dining area may be a bit cramped if all the guests come.
Also it is more modern than the venue above.

Dining areas (picture above & below)

some of the view

part of room number 2 guests can access. Can see balcony in background.




any thoughts.....?

So in other news..

..I'm now 22 years old!

It was my birthday yesterday! I feel soooo old!
It's all good till age 21, you're going uphill...but as my friend said, 'at 22 your starting to look DOWN the hill...!'

I did go to see the new Pride & Prejudice film though, which was pretty nice! It's pretty much like the tv version...only 3 hours shorter!

-x-

I'M A LINK!

woweeee!! Look at me!!! I'm a LINK!!!!!!! (you may need to click the picture above to make it bigger)

Hi Thursday!!

look at me! I'm a STUDENT DOCTOR!

I have started my work as a student doctor now. I am still just a student (i.e. am not earning anything), but will be in hospital full-time now, viewing surgeries and clinical consultations, and actually talking with patients on a daily basis!

My days start at 9am and end at past 5pm every single day, and am on my feet constantly (my mum got me special new shoes though so that I dont get crippled feet!!)
It's tiring but great to be able to see real patients presenting with real illnesses and diseases, and not just learning solely the theory, as I have been doing the last 3 years of Medical School.

It's also a bit of a change from my oh-so-lazy 3.5 months of summer vacation I've had so far! My holidays now will be two weeks at Christmas and Easter, and three weeks in the summer! My next holiday is not till December 23rd....EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEK!!!

In other news, I am going away this weekend with my mum & Chris. We are going to his home town to check out a couple of venues I have booked for our wedding reception. Like I said in my post a couple of days ago, so many venues are booked for the day that I want (last Sat in July 2006), so I may have to have my wedding on a Sunday. No real problem with that except we don't get to choose the readings we want for the mass because Sunday is a Holy Day of Obligation and so, well, you cant change the readings!
Also, there is the problem with Sunday that if lots of people have to get to work early the following Monday, then a reception on a late Sunday afternoon/evening may not be so convenient for them.
Actually, I only have one venue provisionally booked out for Saturday 29th July, so if that looks hiddeous when we get there, then we'll have to have the wedding on the Sunday. (The Church should be free on both the Saturday and the Sunday).

Actually, it'll be kinda cute if we were to get married on Sunday 30th July 2006 because we actually started going out on 30th November 2002....so a neat & tidy way to round off our 'dating' life, and start our married life!!!
But that's just a very very very minor influencing factor!!!

anyway, I better scootle off to bed!

nite
-x-

Worms and Sin?

I copied this mini parable from this blog. It's simple, yet very profound.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Worms and Sin?

Couldn't tell you how these two relate, but in my mind they did. It all clicked about three or four days ago... it was a wet, rainy night. The ground was soaked, and so the worms all came out onto the pavement so they wouldn't drown. So, I arrived about an hour earlier for a meeting at my home parish, St. Margaret Mary's, and I decided to go into the chapel and pray. It was a wonderful half hour before the Lord hidden within the Tabernacle. After time had passed and I needed to get on over to the meeting, so I genuflected and left. I felt so insipred and full of love.

Then I started to look at the ground, and I noticed that there were worms all over the sidewalk, so I made a challange to avoid the worms as though they were temptations and sins. So I avoided as many as I could, it was very easy to do so in the light (When walking with Christ in His light), but when shaded and darker patches came, it was hard to see if there were any worms (Shade--not being in the light of God). Then things started to connect, simply, it is much easier to see your faults and sins when you are in the light of God, but it is much harder to see when you turn away and become darker, and if you don't look down as to where you are going on the path of life, you don't notice then sins, even if you do run into them.

Later on after I was safely inside and futher pondering on my thoughts of worms, a friend of mine came in talking about how her daughter was outside picking up the worms off the sidewalk so that others wouldn't step on them, or "run into them". Suddenly, I thought, "If only avoiding sin was enough! But to clear the path for others to follow behind you!" It was such an interesting idea to me, and it grew on me. And then, not to be afraid to encounter temptation, but to handle temptations with care, and throw them off to the side. It really clicked. Simple, yet profound.

hehe!

my BIG news!

Me....notice anything new..?

continuing on from my last post...

after Germany Chris & I flew straight to Italy to spend 3 weeks with my family in our house up in the Dolomites (N. Italy).


This final part of the holiday was definitely the jewel in the crown that was my summer holiday this year!

The high-light was when we went to St. Anthony's Basilica in Padua (N. Italy). As I mentioned somewhere else on my blog, my family and I have been going to the Basilica every year of my life to visit the tomb where St. Anthony's body lies.

So, like every summer, Chris & I went to visit St.Anthony this summer and happened to go on September 8th (the feast of Mary's birthday). We had just been to Reconciliation and Mass and were finishing praying in front of a statue of Our Blessed Lady in one of the side-Chapels (see pic above), when Chris said he had something to ask me...

He got down on one knee, and asked if I would marry him!!!!!

I can't even start to describe how happy I was ( & still am!!) He'd even bought a ring a month before in England and had been carrying it around with him in Germany and Italy waiting till we were in Padua to ask me!!

I said yes (& then started crying!) and we went to pray in front of St. Anthony's tomb (he is also the Patron Saint of lost objects, so we mentioned that he pray for us if I ever lose the ring!). We also went and got a blessing from one of the Franciscans and then spent some time in adoration!


The ring is white gold, with 3 very sparkly diamonds (Chris has obviously put his knowledge about diamond mining from his phD to good use!!!)

The 3 diamonds symbolise the Trinity (God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit) and represent our desire for God's presence during our engagement.

Oh, and at the moment we are planning for our wedding to be in summer 2006!

I am very very happy!
Since I got back from Italy the day before yesterday I have been trying to sort out booking a venue for our wedding reception. Unfortunatly I only have 3 weeks summer holiday next year so my choices of wedding dates are very limited; basically the last weekend in July is my only real option. However, half the English world seems to have decided to also get married on that weekend, and everywhere I phone seems to be booked up already!

oh well! I'm sure Mary will help us......*tries not to panic*

I'm going to get married!
I'm going to get married!

Yippeeeeeee!!!

Praise God!!!

I'm baaaaaack!!

whooops! A whole month without posts! In my defence, I haven't had any internet access since August 15th because I've been on holiday in Germany & Italy. I was going to leave a note on my blog before I left, but things were so hectic that I just didn't have time.

From August 15th - 22nd I was in Cologne, Germany. I went with 18 friends from my University's Catholic Chaplaincy. We met up with 1.2 MILLION other young Catholics in Cologne from all over the globe who had come to Germany for the 20th
World Youth Day (a biiig international Catholic youth gathering taking place annually every 2-3 years. I went to the last one in Toronto, Canada in 2002. The next one is in Sydney Australia in 2008).

I had such a great week; it's so fantastically energising being around over a million other young Catholic people who love Christ and His Church as much as I do! I also managed to see our very much loved Pope Benedict three times from about 1.5metres away each time!!! One day we waited for 9 hours to see pass by in his Pope-
mobile but it was so totally worth it!

One thing I was a little disappointed about in Germany this year was the really really terrible transport system. I thought that with the German's stereotypical mass efficiency there would be no problems, but trains seldom ran to schedule and when they did arrive they were so packed with people that you couldnt even get on.
Due to the huge numbers of pilgrims, buses into Cologne were cancelled at random times because they couldn't get into the city, or bus-stops were simply skipped from their routes, and there was no way of knowing any of this! Our accomodation was situated about 20mins train ride outside Cologne, and one night it took us over 4 HOURS to get home cos of cancelled trains, buses etc etc etc!
I dont think Germany was expecting quite so many people!

Oh, another wierd thing about the trip was regarding our accomodation situation. We were sleeping in a massive school gymnasium, but due to the German fire regulations they wouldn't turn the lights off at night!! So the ENTIRE night, EVERY night we had to have the bright white neon light on blaring! It was brighter in that gym during the night than it was during the day! I eventually took to tieing a bandana across my
eyes and wrapped my head in a sweater to try to sleep!


Ahh! But it was all good and part of the WYD experience (a bit like sleeping in the mud in Toronto 2002!)!! At least the weather was good all week; those of you in Europe will know what terrible weather we had all summer. the first day we arrived in Germany it was grey and wet and I was really worried about what the weather would be like for the rest of the week. However, it cleared up the next day and was sunny and hot for the rest of the week! The last day was a bit grey but it still didnt rain! Methinks John Paul The Great was praying for us up in Heaven..!

The final mass with Pope Benedict was awesome and he delivered an amazing homily (as always!) He mentioned the importance of being faithful to the teaching's of the Church, and how it is not justifiable to pick and choose what eternal truths you want to choose to believe or not.

Here are some pics....




a big photo collage of JP2. I'm in there somewhere in the top right (see my post of 24th June)




big Pope Benedict on the other side of the building




waiting for 9 hours by the side of the road




the dude himself




A quarter of the field from the mass on the last day




The Pope in his Pope-Mobile