Fooood!

So there has been a bit of a baking/yummy cooking frenzy in the "C&A" household over the last few weeks.

She kinda looks like me!

Due to me having more time than usual (because I've managed to kid myself that it's only just the start of the academic year & I can put off the intense work for a few more weeks...) I've actually been spending my FREE TIME in the kitchen!! COOKING!


me?! The girl who could barley master making pasta when she started University?!


Usually, when we are in the full swing of work and stuff, Chris & I alternate with the cooking, based on whoever is home earliest. Usually he ends up doing it because I need the time to "revise" (*cough* surf the net), but with my free evenings now I have been doing all the cooking, and also doing a lot of new baking...MUCH to Chris's total delight!

(several new dishes later...still no food poisoning!)


I made hummus the other day (and mashed the chickpeas myself as we have no blender!) and it actually turned out not-too-bad!

Then some super duper chocolate chip cookies, my banana-bread with blueberries and chocolate was made twice, and then various other little meal-time delights to add flavour to cauliflower, spinach, pork etc etc.


I have found THE most wonderful cooking site:

http://www.allrecipes.com/


You type in any type of dish you want, and it gives you loads of recipies, and people's comments and rating for each.

I've found it pretty helpful.



For example, right now I have carrot cake in the oven.
(advice...grating the carrots by hand is hard work!)


But I didn't like the look of the cream cheese icing recipie given....so I just searched the site for another cream cheese recipie to put on the cake.





my birthday is coming up.....Chris if you're reading....I want baking stuff!


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Random mishmash

So term has properly started.


My final year of medical school.....my final year of education EVER! (unless I fail my exams!)

This is the last time I'll ever start an academic year ever again for the rest of my life!
I started school age 6.....that means I've been going for 17 years!!!!
(18yrs by the time I've finished medical school!)
my word! That is older than Chris's sister!


I'm not sure how I feel about that...shocked/relieved/joyful...well, after 6 years of University I can't say I'll miss all the revision. However once I start working and have "a proper job" I'm sure I'm miss my carefree Uni days! (although they don't seem all that carefree at the moment).
Plus, as all the doctors keep on telling us...ENJOY MEDICAL SCHOOL! Because it only gets worse once you're a doc!


anyhoo, yeh, I've started back at University. I'm currently doing a one month a special research module, and I'm doing research into obesity, which I'm looking forward to!

For some reason endocrinology (..which means hormones) is a subject area which really interests me, and I just feel a particular interest in the area of obesity, which is a pretty complex disease.


In other (non-medical) news....the house hunt continues...20 days and counting untill we have to leave this house...and we still have nowhere to move in to!

Time for extra intense prayers & penances methinks to make sure we get somewhere to live!

We have viewed a few places...but I think some of them would compete with THIS PLACE, which is allegedly the smallest house in Britain.

In Wales, the tiniest house in Britian (and that's saying something!)

(thanks to AutumnRose for the little house link)

Actually, some of the places we've seen are obviously competeing for the "minimum size for maximum cost" prize.


Make that "mimimum size, with maximum ugliness, for maximum cost".


Why are rented houses all so badly looked after?! Seriously, some of them are horrendous; with big patches of mould on the walls, paint peeling off, rust, damp, disgusting carpets....and they don't come cheap either!!

maybe my standards are too high?!


In other random-ness....someone I know has entered a video in the USA Heinz Tomato Ketchup tv advert competition.


and out of the several thousands of videos entered, they are down to the final 15!



If you have a few minutes to spare and want to be amused with some of the competetion entries GO TO THE SITE HERE, and watch! (& VOTE!)

My friend's mother is the woman having the memories in the advert entitled "memories".

She is Catholic and heavily involved with NFP...so extra reason to vote for her advert!

There you go. Your daily dose of random.

God Bless

:-)

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"True friendship with Christ," Pope Benedict said, "is expressed by one's way of life: it is expressed by goodness of heart, with humility, meekness and mercy, love of justice and truth, sincere and honest commitment to peace and reconciliation."

from Pope Benedict's Sunday address yesterday


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Not quite recovered yet....

I don't think I've yet paid back my large sleep/tiredness debt from Canada, as I'm still pretty tired all day and feel like I just want to close my eyes...and..drift...to...sleep.....

Me, asleep on the sofa


After Mass today Chris went off to do some rowing, and on departing he said to me

Chris: "Sooo...are you going to go home and make some banana bread now?"

Me: "Why, do you want me to make you some banana bread?"

Chris: "Well, I just meant...you know...if you're gonna make it...you can make it..."


What is that supposed to mean?!

For the first time ever, I made banana cake with blue-berries and chocolate a few days ago.

If I do say so myself, it turned out prettyyyy yummy! (and oh my word is it easy to bake!)

Methinks maybe he wanted more!

So yeh...there is more in the oven right now! (& I made the chocolate pieces extra big and chunky for him!)

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PVS - Persistant Vegetative State

So I just had a week full of lectures.
We had one lecture called "Frontiers in Medicine", or something like that, and it was about the future of medicine and research.

Like 40% of my year I was going to skip it and get home early, but being the nerd that I am I couldn't bear to miss it, and good thing too! Because it was actually pretty interesting for general knowledge sake!

The guy giving the lecture did neuroscience research into Persistent Vegetative State (PVS).

PVS is (as defined by wikipedia):

PVS is a condition of patients with severe brain damage in whom coma has progressed to a state of wakefulness without detectable awarenes

So that basically means someone who has had a serious brain injury, and they are in a coma, but with their eyes open, and they have normal sleep-wake cycles, but show no evidence of being aware of anything around them

(like Terri Schiavo, for who remembers her from a few years ago)


So this guy's research team has done a lot of research into the brains of patients in PVS.


They do tests called "functional MRI" which are special brain scans which light-up different areas of the brain, when those areas become activated....

So for example, a different area of the brain would light up when someone wiggles their fingers, and when they whistle, and when they dream of being on a sandy beach, and when they are scared, or happy...etc

It's a way of seeing what part of the brain is involved in different activities

So what they did was ask a group of normal people to perform certain tasks and they scanned their brains, and then they said the same things to people in a PVS and scanned their brains....and they compared which areas of the brain light up in these 2 groups..


So they discovered that..


* When patients in PVS are shown photos of their family, friends and childhood scenes, the exact same areas of "memory and recognition" light up in their brain...the same as in normal people


* When patients in a PVS are told to imagine themselves playing tennis, or to imagine walking around their house, the same areas involved in "imagination and preparing for movement" light-up in their brain...the same as in normal people

* When patients in a PVS are exposed to a painful stimulus, the same "pain areas" in the brain light up...just the same as in normal people



The researchers aren't totally sure what to make of this data, and whether this means that patients in a PVS actually *are* aware on some level of what is going on, but aren't conscious of being aware...or what...


but they have made recommendations that these patients be given pain killers for any treatments they have, just like normal people, as it is wrong to assume that they are completely unaware of what is going on around them, and they may indeed feel pain like anyone else.


This makes me think of the law in England which allows withdrawing food and fluids from these sorts of patients, and allowing them to starve and dehydrate to death over a period of about 2 weeks, which I find exceptionally cruel (like what happened to Terri Schiavo in the USA).
This sort of death would be agonizingly painful for anyone, but people deny that such patients would feel any pain....well....they may be wrong.

on a related note...is it just me, or does anyone else quite dislike the term 'vegetative'?! Does it come from "like a vegetable" ? Isn't that a bit of a horrible choice of description for a human being?!

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update

This photo has nothing to do with this post.
This is a carving of the Virgin Mary out of a match-stick that Chris brought me back from Chile last year.

The end of one very very very long week. (VERY long).

I started back at University last Monday; jet-lagged and really tired, I'm not sure how I dragged myself through 8 hours of lectures a day, for 5 consecutive days...

it was painful!

But it was also really nice seeing all my University friends again after 2 months apart!

Chris & I have also been a bit stressed because we have to leave this house in 3 weeks time...and we still have no new house to move into.

(Help us St. Joseph!!)

("But didn't you just move into that house in January?!" I hear you cry.
Yes, yes we did. But we have to move again. long story. I won't bore you with the details! Suffice to say this will be our 3rd house in 13 months of marriage...)

So yeh...add in 'frantic house searching' to the fun mix of jet-lag, exhaustion and 30+ hours of lectures....

.....that's why I haven't posted all week.

However, thank you all very very much for the many wonderful comments I recieved on my last post and the one before!:-)

anyway, enough self-pitying! It is weekend now! Yippeee!

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"Pill has caused woman to die of blood clot"

This story has been very prominant in the papers in Ireland:


The pill caused woman to die of a blood clot

Pathologist at James Connolly Memorial Hospital told Dublin County Coroner’s Court yesterday that the contraceptive pill was the cause of Ms Hennessy’s deep verin thrombosis

"Clotting is a well-known risk of using the contraceptive pill. There is no other medication that has such a big risk as the oral contraceptive pill,” said Dr Szontagh-Kishazi.

another story here


The formation of a blood clot is not a common side-effect of the pill, but it does still happen as shown by this very very tragic case. Although all doctors know that the pill is a risk factor in the formation of blood clots, I don't know how many users of the pill actually know about it.
The woman was only 31yrs old. Eternal rest grant unto her Oh Lord...



Thanks to Brendan for the details.


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Back Home in England!

Thank God I arrived back home safe & sound on Wednesday afternoon (just in time to go to Mass for the Feast of the Assumption of Our sweet blessed Virgin Mary!).

Sunrise over the Atlantic Ocean from the airplane!

It was so fantastically wonderful to see Chris again; I cried with joy when I saw him! I am never ever ever leaving him for 7 weeks again! I had a lovely time in Canada, but I really missed him, especially the last couple of weeks. Thank God for Mass though! Seeing Jesus everyday was an immense source of grace.

anywayz, I am home now! yey!

The river Thames

LONDON from the plane as we approached Heathrow Airport

and I am totally and utterly jat-lagged. really badly. Canada is 8 hours behind England, so night-times have been pretty painful; I've been unable to fall asleep till about 6am every morning, and then dragging myelf out of bed around noon and feeling exhausted and groggy all day.



and I start back at Uni with a full week of lectures THIS Monday (in less than 48hours!), so I really need to get my body-clock back into this time-zone before then!

Hope you're all well! Thanks for the kind comments wishing me a good trip home in my last post!

GOD BLESS

-x-

This was my ride to Vancouver aiport!

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Vancouver Day 2 --- LAST DAY IN CANADA!

I explored Vancouver myself today (...and didn't get lost!).

It's a very pretty city.

(for those who know Vancouver...I went up Robson Street, to Stanley Park, back down the coast, took the ferry to Granville Island, and then went for another little walk to the planitarium and round more beaches).

I am now thouroughly thoroughly exhausted.

Tomorrow afternoon I leave Canada and fly back to England, arriving Wednesday at about 3pm UK time.

I have had a truely fantastic and very blessed 7.5 weeks here! But I am SOOO looking forward to going home and seeing England, my family and ESPECIALLY CHRIS!!!!!!!!!!!!

God Bless Canada!

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Vancouver Day 1

I know I ended my last post saying that I might not get a chance to blog again before returning to England...but of course I have found a way! (where there's a will...there's a way!)

Today, Sunday, was my first full day in Vancouver.

Tomorrow will be my second day in Vancouver.....and my last full day in Canada!

Here are just a couple of pictures from my day for your viewing pleasure:



We went to Mass at:




Westminster Abbey is a big Benedictine Monestary with a good 30-40 monks! They also have a high-school there for boys, and a seminary for the Diocese.



It was very peaceful and beautiful, and they are blessed to have lots of pretty grounds surrounding the Abbey too.




We then went to this place called Harrison Hot Springs which is famous for a big sandcastle building contest! They are pretty impressive and here is a selection:











Leonardo DaVinci, with Mona Lisa & that famous man-thing, that shows you all the perfect dimensions of the human person. (or something like that!)
Actually just behind Leonardo's head was a canvas with a drawing of the Mona Lisa on. You can just see it in the background!


I thought it was very creative!


This next one was based on the Pieta .

I over-heard a guide explaining to some tourists a bit about it:

It's Mary holding Jesus (who for some reason is depicted as a wooden puppet...I think it's the symbolise His broken body.)
Mary's face has no expression on because the artist decided that you can't possibly depict the pain of losing your only son in such a way.

She is leaning again a big bottle of wine, and there is a large bunch of grapes to the side to symbolise the blood of Christ....and then the loaf of bread as the body of Christ...

Then here is Gulliver, from Gulliver's Travels with the little people of Lillyput:

and here are some random pics:

Octopus
Russian
Hindu lady
Captain Pugwash with random tourist

dragon

Pretty impressive considering they are just made of sand dontcha think?!

Tomorrow I am mooching around Vancouver city...alone....without Chris....

My navigations skills have always been bad (I clearly cheated somehow when I got my Girls' Guide badge in orienteering!), but my navigation ability has become much much worse since I met Chris, because I just leave it all up to him! Sometimes I have no idea where we are going on a map, I just follow his directions!

So yeh...hoping I dont get too lost around Vancouver tomorrow on my own!

I'll try to post Monday evening again, but if not, I'll be flying Tuesday, and will be home Wednesday!

lotsa love

-x-

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My last day

Today is my last night in this town where I've been for the last 7 weeks.

Look! It's a maple leaf! I must be in Canada!

Goodbyes have been said, bags are packed, and although I'm very very eager and excited to get home to England, and especially to see Chris who I have missed so much, I'm also kinda sad, and I know I will miss it here!






Being such a small place people were really friendly to me and I built up a nice community of friends from the Catholic Church and from the hospital.

People invited me out to dinner, for tea, for hikes and trips and I am so so so grateful because it really made me feel so welcome and cared for, and really helped make my time even more enjoyable.

And of course, especially remembering Delixit Prior's family who so very very kindly housed me, fed me and looked after me every day for the last 7 weeks! I was very much at home with them and it was a genuine blessing and gift from God to come here!



Look! It's my reflection!

Speaking of random acquaintances....these photos were taken by an amateur photographer friend I made while here!
They are nice, right?!
(I've got about 50 more, so be glad I am sparing you with only a couple!)



So from Saturday to Tuesday I will be in Vancouver city itself exploring and sight-seeing.


and then on Tuesday I will be flying back to England!

I don't know whether I will be able to blog from Vancouver...so if not....see you in England!


(but knowing me, I always seem to find a way to blog!)

God Bless
(pray for me cos I really dislike flying!)




Look at how teeny-tiny this little guy is!!


I want to take him home!

Aaaahhh...beautiful British Columbia!

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Daily Catechism #2361

"Sexuality, by means of which man and woman give themselves to one another through the acts which are proper and exclusive to spouses, is not something simply biological, but concerns the innermost being of the human person as such. It is realized in a truly human way only if it is an integral part of the love by which a man and woman commit themselves totally to one another until death."

In crude language what that means is: sex is not just a physical action; it has a deep spiritual and emotional element to it, and it is only right in a marriage.

Sex is not just actions...it's a language.

It is a full giving of yourself to one other person, and a full recieving of another person in return.

and because of that, sex is ONLY authentic and appropriate in a context in which two people are fully and totally joined together and thus are ABLE to unreservadly give their whole selves to one another...and that is marriage.

In any other conext sex is a lie.

and no matter how much anyone argues, no matter what religious beliefs they have...that applies to all human beings.

(on a related note, this is also why contracepted sex is a lie...because it stops you from giving your whole self to your spouse...you are intentionally holding something back of yours, and intentionally rejecting something of theirs..their fertility.
Natural Family Planning is not the same as this. NFP totally respects the other person as a whole, and it respects their God-given fertility.).


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dragonflies

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I spotted this guy having a snooze on a branch today..and so I snuck up for a closer shot!!
( I am the sort of photo freak who always has her camera on her!)

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So what did you do this evening?

I went on a horse trek through the forest!

Meet my horse; Heiress:

The coolest horse in the whole of horsey-ville!

As described by the owner of the horse stables "She only moves if she has to!". I must've made her ribs blue with the amount of kicking I did to get her to go faster!

And boy did she eat! She took every opportunity to munch away at the leaves as we trotted along the trail! I kept tugging at her reins to pull her away from the leaves, but eventually I just made half-hearted attempts to stop her and just let her eat!
(she did give a little nuzzle at the very end as she was being put back in the stables, so maybe she appreciated it!)
(or maybe she was just wiping her nose on me!)

we did remove the sunglasses for the actual ride!

It was my first ever time on a horse! (unless I went on as a child but I have no recollection if so).

I think I did pretty well as I managed to go into a trot AND a cantor! (which is just before a gallop, so it is pretty fast!) I did feel like I was going to fall off a few times, but I managed to hold on!

According to horses-and-horse-information.com, a cantor is also called a "slow gallop"! So I'm impressed I rode that fast and it was only my first time! and I didn't fall off!

It was pretty fun!
I felt like one of those Medieval Princesses on her trusty steed!

I also dropped the reins twice which was a bit of a nightmare trying to get them back from under the horses neck!

on the trail.

sorry they are blurry but they were taken from a trotting horse!


This was a completely unexpected event today, I only found out I was doing it about 40 minutes before I arrived at the horse farm! But a nice surprise!

So what did you do this evening?!

ps- one week today I will be sitting on a airplane, 5 hours from London!

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a hike and a swim!

Hello!

I know I have been silent for a few days but I've had a busy weekend!

I did my scuba diving last week which was sooo cool! I have pictures of me underwater holding star-fish! But I will save my scuba-diving tales for when my diving instructor sends me the photos!

As the title of this post suggest I spent my weekend going for a hike and a swim!
(and also a beach BBQ & a sleep-over!)

the intrepid explorer

The hike wasn't too long; only about 5 hours from start to finish, but the terrain was quite up-hill and down-hill so it was quite strenuous! ( I am certainly aching today!)

Our destination was this beautiful bay:


pretty right!?

(rhetorical question!)

I saw this (dead?) jelly-fish floating close to the shore. I am told that these guys are pretty unpleasant and can sting quite badly. One actually swam up to me when I was scuba diving.
I didn't quite know how to get out of the way (those big oxygen tanks on your back make you a somewhat physically clumsy underwater!) so the scuba diving instructor came inbetween me and the ever-advancing jelly-fish and wafted it away!

anyway, back to the hike.
It was with a group that go out hiking every week. The average age was probably late-60s but these guys were way fitter than I am! and they were all so nice to me!
I made great friends with a very plesant gentleman as he told me all about his heart-surgery.
He is a bit of a photographer and some of the photos in this post are from him (which is why they are much higher quality than my usual ones!)

On the way back we stopped at a pretty little lake:

Everyone else decided to go swimming, but I thought it might be too cold and so just sat on the side and dipped my feet in!
( I am a loser, I know!)

However, the more I sat on that big rock, the hotter I became, and so about 15 minutes later (as everyone was getting out!) I decided to use put on a spare t-shirt and shorts and jump in

Heeeheee! It was fun! and actually not too cold at all!

After I got out and was drying off people started calling "Antonia! Come look at this"
A MASSIVE water-snake was swimming around in the lake where I had just been!

Thank goodness I didnt see that thing while I was IN there!! I think the whole of British Columbia would've heard me scream!

Me, all wet!

So it was an enjoyable weekend!

Unfortunatly I did twist my ankle while hiking (silly cheap running shoes) so it kinda hurts today, but otherwise I am great!

One week tomorrow I'm leaving on a jet-plane...!

God Bless!

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