mm had a marathon of meetings today. The day was quiet before lunch and mm was drafting her monthly article on St. Teresa for the church. Then mm's 1st client called, and they agreed to meet at 3:30pm. Then mm's 2nd client (the one that's involved in a family dispute mentioned in yesterday's post) called to confirm instructions. They agreed to meet at 6pm so that letter of engagement may be signed and cost on account may be given to the firm. mm expected the 2nd meeting to be short but it took nearly 2 hours! mm was sympathetic towards their position and they are new to litigation, and she had to explain her advice on the strategy and way forward again and answer questions again. So eventually, mm was in meetings from 3pm (the 2nd client called and they spoke on the phone) until around 8pm! mm was exhausted!

For purpose of acting for the 2nd client, mm had to report the matter to her boss (Joe). Joe raised the question as to how comfortable we are in involving in probate cases. He said he had only "touched" on contentious probate case! He was honest and mm respected that. mm reminded him of my experience in contentious probate matters and said I intended to involve counsel at early stage, and have advised client of that intention. He suggested sf - yes! mm thought, however, that her boss was easy on this one because the team has been very quiet - to the point that everyone has plenty of capacities! Oops!

bb's comment on mm's post of yesterday made her (mm) day! : D

Here's the itinery for mum and I'l pilgrimage this year. I plan to bring my laptop with me to write a journal of the trip and so I can upload pictures to it to leave space in the memory stick for more photos. Hope to share everything with bb. :)

There's a site claimed to have "the most important tourist site in Palestine." They do cover most of the places we are going to visit this summer.

Click here for another link.

I'm a bit lost. Geographically speaking, do the Isralis and Palestinians occupy the same country but different region??

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Day 1 (Tuesday) - Flight to Tel Aviv

Airport: Ben Gurion

Day 2 (Wednesday) - Tel Aviv - Jerusalem

Church of Visitation - Church of Dormition [(1), (2), (3), (4), (5)] - Church of St. John the Baptist.

Day 3 (Thursday) - Jerusalem - Bethlehem - Old City

Bethlehem - Church of Nativity [(1), (2), (3)]- Church of Shepherd's Field [(1), (2)] - Old City - Wailing Wall - The Mosque of Omar [(1), (2), (3), (4)]- >The Mosque of El Aqsa [(1), (2), (3)] - The Crusader Church of St. Anne [(1), (2)]- The Pool of Bethesda - Way of the Cross - The Church of the Holy Sepulchre [(1), (2), (3)].

Day 4 (Friday) - Jerusalem - Mount of Olives

Mount Zion - King David's tomb - The Cenacle - Mount of Olives - Garden of Gethsemane - Church of All Nations - Church of St. Peter - Pater Noster Church - Chapel of Ascension - Dominus Flavit Church.

Day 5 (Saturday) - Jerusalem - Qumran - Dead Sea

Day 6 (Sunday) - Tabgha - Capernaum - Mount of Beatitudes - Nazareth - Tiberias

The Sea of Galilee - El Kursi - Mount of Beatitudes - The Sanctuary of the Beatitude - Capernaum - St. Peter House - Ancient Synagogue - Tabgha - The Sanctuary of the Multiplication of Loaves - The Church of Primacy of Peter - Yardenit Baptismal Site - Mount Tabor - The Church of Transfiguration.

Day 7 (Monday) - Tiberias - Cana - Haifa - Caesarea

Cana - The Church of Miracle - Haifa - Bahai - Persian Garden - Mount Carmel - Elijah's Cave - Caesarea - Roman Theatre - Ancient Seaport.

Day 8 (Tuesday) - Tel Aviv to Rome

Rome - Trevi Fountain - Pantheon - Colosseo - Arco di Constantino - Piazza Venezia - Basilica Maria Maggiore - Santa Croce in Gerusalemme.

Day 9 (Wednesday) - Rome

Vatican - St. Peter's Square - Basilica San Pietro - Vatican Museum.

Day 10 (Thursday) - Rome - Naples

Duomo - San Gennaro - The Church of San Lorenzo Maggiore.

Day 11 (Friday) - Naples - Pompei - Assisi

Pompei - Mount Vesuoio - Porta Marina - Basilica - Tempio di Apollo - Giove - Forum.

Day 12 (Saturday) - Assisi - Rome

Basilica of St. Francis - San Damiano - Basilica of Maria degli Angeli - Basilica of Santa Clare - Santa Maria Maggiore - Rome.

Day 13 (Sunday) - Rome

Basilica San Giovanni in Laterano - Scala Santa - St. Paul's outside the walls Church - Catacomba di St. Callisto.

Day 14 (Monday) - Return flight

Day 15 (Tuesday) - Back home

Of the several promises I made for yesterday, I didn't make any of them. I didn't go to Yoga and did not do much work. One thing I said I'd do, and I did this morning, is to go to the Church for early service. It started at 7:15am and I was late. It was cold and dark. Although the alarm clock had gone off a few times with the snooze function, I got up late. I left home about 7:15am. Knowing that I was late, I wanted to catch the readings and the teaching. By the time I got there, Father was already breaking the bread for Holy Communion. Oops. I stayed until the end. Didn't take Holy Communion. Not only am I not yet a Catholic, but also I was only there to witness the breaking of the bread and so on. I wouldn't have felt worthy for it.

The service ended at around 7:45am. A very short service. Even shorter than that offered at St. Jude. I stayed back, took out my copy of the bible and read a bit of it. Somehow I've book-marked the passage I have read yesterday and perhaps also on the day before. It's Mark . I must have read it a few times, plus the explanation available on a website. And yet, I didn't quite get what it's trying to say. So, I read that passage again. Still I was too dumb to understand those words. It's strange. There was not a word I don't of, but put together, the teaching simply escaped me. I stopped and prayed to God that I may understand what He's trying to say. I read it again, took the time to think about it, and its meaning dawned to me! Yes, just like that. I thanked God for that. Or may be I was rushing and didn't use my brain at all. Oops. :P

It's the first time I visit this Church. It has stationery with their own design and drawigns for sale Those drawings are very nice and pretty. I wanted to get the memo pad, stickers and keyrings with angels on them, but I didn't know where the stationery shop was. In any event, I guess it would have been too early, that it's probably not opened yet. I wanted to get the stickers and keyring for the little girl I recently met at Church. May be next time.

I looked around and read a few leaflets. I picked up a pocket-sized card that talks about Penance - the procedure and what would be said then. I also picked up a leaflet for donation to hospital pastoral care. The leaflet also invites people to volunteer their service for it. I wanted to go. But there's so much I need to do now. To start with, I better get more revision done and know more about God's words. Then I want to spend more time with bb and my parents and family. It's a good thing to want to help the others but I should not forget those around me too. So I'll wait to see first.

PS The idiot (my boss) has just come in and found me doing this! Oops. Better get on with some work.