Nicola and Simons Wedding

So last weekend we were at my friend Nicolas wedding in Largs and Millport.   I have known Nicola from the first day I moved into halls of residence at uni - when we had rooms opposite each other.  We then shared a flat (with the rest of the gang) for the rest of our university careers, so let's just say we know each other pretty well :-)

Our friend Graham (also a flat member) came up from London and stayed with us on the Friday, before we all headed off in the morning to Largs.   We met up with our friends in Largs and got the lunch time ferry across to Cumbrae with the rest of the wedding party.   The service was being held in Millport, in the Cathedral of the Isles - the smallest cathedral in the UK.    The sun was shining and for a first visit to Millport we were all quite taken in by the lovely backdrop.    We made our way up to the cathedral, which was lovely inside and looked beautiful standing on the hilltop amongst the autumn trees. 

Nicola looked absolutely stunning!  The whole service was lovely and I was honoured to do a reading, along with our friend Kenny.

 After the ceremony there were pictures being taken in Millport and the wedding guests had time to wander and explore along the sea front before getting the ferry back to Largs.

The reception was in the Brisbane hotel in Largs (next to the famous Nardini ice cream parlour).  We got checked into our room, which had an amazing view over the water, and then had champagne and some more photos.    The dining room looked lovely, with vintage bird cages as centre pieces and lilac sugar almond bags with the couples names and love bird print.   This was all tied into the invites which Nicola had made.

The speeches were excellent - especially Nicola's mums!  Simon had every one crying and the best man had prepared a poem about the groom.  The meal was great and it was lovely to catch up with my friends over dinner.     Afterwards there was a disco and plenty dancing!

It was a lovely day and I was so pleased to see Nicola (and of course Simon!) looking so happy.  Wishing them every happiness for the future!!

 Freshers Festival

I didn't get a chance last weekend to write about the freshers festival, so before I write about the wedding I was at this weekend I thought I should share my write up  (which is for the LLTGL blog)


Freshers Festival is an event run by Scotcampus in the centre of Glasgow. It is open to all students in Glasgow over a 2 day period, making it one of the biggest student events in the UK. The event is held under a massive marquee, with stalls ranging from local clubs, pubs and food places to the post office, charities and phone companies – all jostling to get the students attention and give away the best ‘freebies’. It is getting people to stop and talk to us, especially when we are asking them to give us something, not really giving them something! However we did learn from last year that students seem to love the little logo bugs, so we had these by the bucketful, as well as LLTGL rail card holders and pens to entice them over – students seem to just like anything that is free! Once we had attracted them we could then have a chat about organ donation. We did also resort to just loudly asking everyone who passed the stall “are you an organ donor?” forcing them to at least stop for a chat! Not to miss any opportunities, we also went round all the other stall vendors to make sure they didn’t miss the chance to sign up. What we also learned from last year is that standing shouting about organ donation for 2 days is exhausting, so we needed to enrol some extra help this time! Gerard, our fellow Scottish advocate, joined us on both afternoons. On the second day, the lovely Louise Davidson, who had a double lung transplant this year, and our friend Gregg Mooney, came along and helped to spread the word. We had been surprised last year about how many students were already signed up to the organ donor register, but the numbers seemed even higher this year – which was brilliant! Also amusing was the look of horror some people gave their friends when admitting they weren’t signed up – there seemed to be a shift in the social acceptance about being on the register and a sense of being proud that they were signed up already. By far the two most common reasons for being signed up seemed to be via their provisional driving licence and also on registering with a new GP at uni. Less often, but still common, was via the Boots card and passport forms. This would be in line with March 2012 statistics that Scottish sign up rates are at an all-time high of 39% of the population, with highest registration in the 21-30 age group, and 2nd highest in 16-20 year olds. Of those who were not on the register we signed up another 100 people over the 2 days. In addition, other peope did stop, chat and take some information leaflets home to think about. This is great – we don’t want people to sign up without getting the information and thinking about it. We need people to give it thought and to talk about that decision, especially with their loved ones. Very few people were against organ donation, and in some of those few cases, I think we did at least give some food for thought. One of the most powerful facts in these conversations is that you are more likely to need an organ than to ever donate so if you would take, would you give? I think that does help people to face the reality of organ donation and how important it actually is. 

Photos courtesy of Victoria (e.g stolen from her facebook :-))

Victoria and Gerard

Kirsty

Me wearing another vendors Hot Dog outfit - after we got him to sign up :-)

 Me and Louise (Team Glasgow's newest recruit!)

Me and Gerard