chicken with bean and leek casserole

one of the best things about this half of fourth year is having wednesdays off, if i try not to think about how much tuition fees we're paying and the resulting cost per contact hour... also, after the weather turned i've been craving heavier, heartier fare but the problem with that is that stodgy feel as dinner sinks in my stomach. so this recipe really did it for me - warming and satisfying without the accompanying grease bomb. easy peasy - essentially fry four chicken thighs skin side down, sautee sliced leeks, add canneloni beans and chicken stock cube, simmer, plop fried chicken on top. at the same time i'd a tray of organic waxy potatoes roasting for a crispy side (not in photo) and you're feeling fancy, mix 5g of chopped tarragon into the casserole, and another 5g over the potatoes when they're done. so good! meant to keep half for tomorrow but ended up finishing the lot when the pre-bedtime munchies hit. oh well :)

comfort zones

C is great about pushing me out of my comfort zones and getting me to try new things. recently, she'd been going to house dance classes and after much persuasion, managed to get me along. am not the most coordinated of people and despite having danced as a child (ballet, tap etc) i chose swimming over dancing and never looked back. then again, part of me has always wondered if i'd have been better off with dance instead as the primary/secondary school i went to was the best nationally for dance and maybe 3rd / 4th at best when it came to swimming. but then in jc we won girls' A division the two years i was there, so maybe it was the long game ;) that said, dance is something i've always enjoyed more than swimming but unfortunately was never exceptional at. did pick up adult ballet for a bit in lawsch and have the occasionally clubbing foray that sees me bopping in a darkened room where no one really knows if you're in time or not. i suppose the point to this is that it was a good class despite the slightly scary instructress who didn't seem happy to have newcomers halfway through her eight week (?) class. that said, who can blame her! was not-so-secretly pleased i could keep up with the class until almost the end where my beginner's luck wore off and was condemned to leading the newcomers while the more advanced kids formed a cool kid circle and did more complicated steps.

toon

had brunch with a girlfriend and as part of my new thing about being present and not checking my mobile every few minutes (bad jo!) i ignored whatsapp for about 3h. as you might've guessed, it was one of those lovely leisurely catch ups with neither of us watching the clock. S is a bit of a bonus, having done her mbbs here and graduated in summer. however, singers being as small as it is, she and her father met mine at a 'do back home and my dear father was eager to connect us. funny how we'd been in the same place for the last three years but hadn't crossed paths till she was done with medical school. met for a coffee blind date when we were both back in the +44 and i like to think we hit it off.

after brunch we went to the christmas market and when we finally parted i checked my phone and realised that a friend was skiving in town! there's something about the christmas market that lures even the industrious (said friend is employee of the century, regularly working weekends and generally being all good and responsible!) and uh i suppose it's not necessarily a good thing that skiving friends think of me because there's a high chance i'd be free and in town too. but it was a calculated guess, and so i was. ducked round the corner to a hidden coffee bar that i'd not been to in about two years and felt adventurous enough to try the cold brew with tonic water this time.

beaujolais

it's been back to lectures/seminars these couple of months and i'm missing the on-my-feet activity being in clinics afforded. in an attempt to be less sedentary, i've been trying to do a daily or every two day supermarket run. less to carry and any excuse to walk to town for free waitrose cawfee ;) 

spotted a whole stand of le beaujolais noveau* yesterday and was instantly transported to the cold evening in stockholm when i was first introduced to it. not old enough to have accumulated too many personal traditions as yet but do like when things fall into a natural rhythm. more clever marketing than a truly stellar wine but hey, anything meant to be appreciate young and chilled (both qualities i try to embody!) has my vote of confidence. of course, a young red needs company and i was quick to pick up cheese, grapes, anchovy stuffed olives and crackers. would've been complete with charcuterie but was thought to go easy on the nitrates. one thing about waitrose is that they do the essential cheese box for under £4 but inevitably it's not the most impressive of selections. somehow feel there's no reward for sloth and i'm more inclined to pick my own brie and blue which comes to the same price. also had a lovely block of parmesan knocking around the fridge from a pumpkin bacon carbonara last week so didn't need to subject myself to the essential range cheddar.

unintentionally a fully waitrose dinner with the cheeses nibbled and beaujolais imbibed as the spatchcock chicken we jokingly refer to as roadkill roasted in its tray. different year, different company but same le beaujolais noveau. always a good time :)

*annually released on the third thursday of november. there used to be a race to bring the newly released bottles to london!

thanksgiving

every year i go into a lengthy, pseudo-defensive preamble about how i don't celebrate thanksgiving because i'm neither uhmurikan nor living in uhmurikaa. but i agree with the sentiment, and think it's so important to pause and be thankful for little mercies. it's been a good year, and i'm excited for the little that's left of it. my loved ones are happy and healthy, school's going swimmingly, i've a handful of good friends whose friendship and stalwart support i am constantly humbled by, and things are generally going well. not so naive to take for granted that this will always be the case, and more than conscious that circumstances can change in a snap. but knowing all that, i'm grateful for what i have and try not to be an entitled brat most of the time. being in healthcare is also a keen reminder that not everyone is as fortunate, and to be able to walk unaided and without pain, to enjoy my food and drink and be able to sleep with no difficulty are underrated activities. 

in that vein, snapped some photos on a crisp late autumn day and took time to soak in the beauty in the surroundings. going for a friend's thanksgiving party on friday and looking forward to uhmurikan hospitality and feasting till surrender. there's much to be thankful for, and even private setbacks (believe you me, there have been a couple this year too!) are more tolerable in light of the good things that lie ahead.

burger*lobster

there's something comforting about consistency. it'd been a busy couple of weeks for the mister and when he got back to london, he gave me a choice of light japanese or burger*lobster. maintain that love's in the big and the small, because i know he'd rather jap but i'd a hankering for lobster (in fact, i never turn down lobstah') and we thought we'd brave the harvey*nics lunch time crowd. what was a nice surprise was there was no queue and we managed to waltz right in. it was a short and snappy lunch as he'd to get back to work, sort of a bookend meal (we used to do week day bookend dinners in singers) that we've not had to do in a while! it was yummy, and needs no introduction. think we were in and out in under 45min. favourite bubbletea in london has to be warm matcha with extra tapioca at bubbleology (?) also at harvey*nics and because there was still time, i got my bubbletea fix too hehe.

umai*saturday

sake no*hana  is one of those so-so restaurants. while a fan of hakka*san, find yau*atcha and sake no*hana hit and miss, and meh at best. however, succumbed to the siren song of the umai*saturday set lunch because it was £37 for a five course, including a bottle of sparkling sake. revealing my plebeian palate, same sake retails for £10-12 at the japan centre, and £20 (?) at matsuri st james. so if you do the math, deducting £20 to enjoy sake with meal in restaurant setting (haha) is good value. on the other hand, the mister laughs and tells me if i bought the sake to drink at home and blew the remaining £27 + 20% on japanese take out, i'd get more food. can you tell he's a sake cup half full kind of guy?

the meal was o-k? found it hard to understand the waitress. there was a choice between beef tataki (pictured) or yellowtail sashimi for starters. i picked one of each because there were two of us. she told me i could only pick one, despite me pointing out that for the choice of main (beef sukiyaki) the menu stated it was to be shared by two. there was no similarly explicit instruction by the choice of starter. so i felt a bit cheated that the tataki was a small portion and still had to be split by two. what would've happened if it'd been a three top? or solo diner?

the beef sukiyaki came with candyfloss that the waitress poured the stock over. while theatrical and dramatic, the end effect was a syrupy sweet stock. now i appreciate that umami is in and all but uhh don't give me sweet beef?

the sushi platter at the end was hands down my favourite part, but that's not saying very much. as if the chef realised how the small portions wouldn't satisfy and decided to throw carbs at us to make up for it. 

experienced some meal remorse at the end of it. you know the feeling like how you've wasted precious tummy space and time on a substandard meal? yeah. i get that with burgers, too. burger remorse is the worst. strangely, it's doesn't happen after a maccas meal. maybe because maccas always does it for me. that's where i echo the mister's russian friend D. we were at jean george's at trump tower and the tasting menu, he declared he'd have maccas any day. speaking of D, we'd a good laugh over the weekend that while i spent sunday (saturday?) choosing our annual christmas card, the mister was cutting deals with russians. wouldn't have it any other way :)

some more photos from the lovely autumn afternoon in mayfair, if you'd like to see... incidentally also when the mister got chatted up by the floor staff at the paul smith flagship because he'd styled his jcrew trousers just so.

LPM

having had a forgettable first time, the mister decided i should give LPM a second chance. in fact, i remember him accusing me of being an entitled brat and most disagreeable on our first visit (i blame it on being hangry) and my brother is a fan so we ended up there for dinner one sunday night. this time round, i really enjoyed it and would quite like to go back! but given the location and price point, i'd still pick ikeda (just a stone's throw away!) any time.

dinner was for five and it worked out to just over £40/head. we'd the burrata, beef carpaccio, yellowtail carpacci (pictured), calamari, escargot and hm one more appetiser i can't remember now. for mains we'd the catch of the day (sea bream at £31 for 2 to share) with candied ginger (?) and fennel and the entrecot done to rare perfection. we'd two very picky eaters with us who couldn't find fault with the steak so we know it was a good 'un, and i felt it was better than the meat we'd at cut a couple of weeks ago. so there! dessert was predictably creme brulee (huge portion!), profiteroles (boring, but for said picky eater) and the tart fine. i wish we ordered the pain perdu too but as the only sweet tooth in the group, there was no way i could finish four desserts (minus 4 mouthfuls as the rest just had a taste each)  as i was already finishing the three. not that i'm complaining but that's an attempt at selective moderation.

marathon night

when the mister was outta town last week, C invited me to join her ortho team for dinner and drinks. what i wasn't prepared for, however, was the marathon night it ended up being i.e. 6pm to 6am. now no one really has dinner at 6pm but there was talk of linking up with the nurses in town after dinner. working backwards, we really did end up having dinner later than that. A is new to town and hosted us in his lovely new-built near the city centre. he's also an excellent cook and together with his friend R they prepped a feast of chicken curry, the yummiest dal this side of the indian ocean and tasty lamb mince, all served with roti or rice. C and i each brought wine, i was feeling domestic and threw in a frosted cake* for good measure, and the other guests brought more wine, sticky toffee pud and yummy scottish ice cream. conscious not to promote too hedonistic a lifestyle and have to admit this is really only my second night out in the city since starting medsch 3+ years ago. in fact, the first time was after first year exams! 

after dinner, we braved the cold (look ma, no coat!) to a pub for drinks by the original town wall, then to a club by the railway station, before ducking into a secret bar under (in? over?) the railway arches before ending in another club for dancing. no night out is without its fare share of drama (oh boy!) and as the designated married / sensible / not on the pull person it was more vicarious living as i guarded bags and drinks. not the most exciting at times, but hey. the alternatives weren't any better. left when the lights came on (my inner uncool teen is slightly thrilled to have stayed awake till past 3am) and back to A's for some curry-fueled after-partying. there was i feeling like a hero with my early train (another story) but A trumped with his being at 0700h. host with the most!

oh and the photo of C and i in our pumpkin-turned-carriage because who'd have thought our minicab would end up being a party bus with lights and all. felt it was a waste for it to be ferrying two excitable girls a short distance but the cabbie was kind and helped us take piccies heh.

*so i can't count and somehow scaled up the frosting recipe, and realised too late that i'd frosting for two cakes but only baked one. in retrospect i really should've saved the remainder for a rainy day but in reality i just had it for lunch instead. maturity ftw.

ivy

part of my pseudo-busy social life is the endless stream of house parties. despite being old enough to be their mother (ok, so i exaggerate) it's always such an ego boost when the undergrads deem me cool enough for an invite. then again i could've been asked along to make up numbers (under no illusions there!) and more often than not end up politely declining because i've weekend plans. while the grad medics would be the first to admit that we do sort of clique together, being with the undergrads (especially in clinical years!) has undoubtedly expanded my social circle. last year was a little funny - as the only girl in a small clinical group of 10, and one of five in a larger group of 20 that was split up for the most part, there were moments that had be questioning what in the world i was doing with nine little boys.

that said, have had the pleasure of getting to know a couple of them younglings better in clinics and they happen to live in two houses side by side (girl house / boy house) a short walk away. so my modus operandi (shh!) is to decline the boozy party but go by with a card and gift for the birthday person, and a gift for the party. apparently it's all very quaint and old-fashioned in this world of fb invites that no one takes seriously and is merely accepting of until something better comes along! my mama taught me well? ;) this way i also get some nice sober chat with said birthday person, and being nosey i love having a poke around other people's digs. it was on one such occasion that i snapped this photo of the ivy on the wall. i like ivy. it's my grandmother's name. and strangely hadn't turned red yet (does it always do that?)

TGIF

much as i try not to think about people based on gender (either they're interesting, or not) i can't help but get along better with girls. maybe it's a by product of having gone to a girls' school, or having only female cousins and a younger sister i adore. either way, i've been really blessed in that department with amazing girlfriends near and far. in whatsapp contact with a handful of lovely ladies i'd be quite sad without, and to have good girlfriends in the same city is a bonus. 

the mister's been in NYC for work and i've made an attempt to be selectively social in his absence. did friday drinks with L whose dating exploits i live vicariously through. L's another crazy grad medic, with an LLB, teaching and nursing degrees and qualifications. i love her gumption and amazing ability to carp that diem, and she went to singers on a whim over summer. we'd fun working out dates before she left (she was in dundee, i was in london at the time) and met in twice at sea in singers. the first time we took the sampan for a spin and the second she invited me to a boat and beer party her friend was spinning at. along the way, she also introduced me to the key member of the l*ana cake family and i had my fangirl moment, having grown up with and associated l*ana with all good things. so i live in sg for over 20 years and it takes a visitor to get cosy with my favourite bakery! but L's a star and we were swapping stories till G rocked up. G, too, happened to be in singers this summer on her great SEA escapade and there was much sg love going round ;)

blind date

one thing i find friends lamenting is not meeting people outside school or work. a by-product of being so busy with either is that there's precious little time to go on a friend-making spree. while i'm all for quality over quantity when it comes to many things, friendships being one of them, the past couple of months have been good in that department. guilty as charged - most of my friends are lawyers or medics, with the odd banker (usually former lawyer haha) thrown in for good measure. was talking about this with a new friend (yay! few and far between!) who was aghast that i've no friends who're waitressing (for example) or unemployed. argued that i did, because hey who hasn't waited table while in uni (couple of my classmates do just that), and my dear sister is waiting tables while in lawsch but he meant like waitressing as a career. so no friends on the front-of-house end of f&b but i did go through my mental rolodex and pulled out a few unique examples. like M who's a full winemaker,  Z who's a bona fide star on stage and K who runs a gym. i also kind of know a pimp, but that's probably not a conversation for polite company... 

lengthy pre-amble aside, i was quite happy to meet A, a friend's friend, when she relocated. to be absolutely honest, i barely even know R. he was schoolmates with a childhood friend who joined us for lunch at least 7 years ago in sg (fish soup at the ship ftw!) and bumped at luiz's a few months ago. props to him for remembering my name and face (probably something to do with my being prolific on fb, eek) and when i was trying to sell my train tickets on fb a while back, he got in touch to ask if i wanted to meet his friend. which i did. i love it when my friends hit it off (to the point where i end up marginalised haha) and have generally good experiences / feedback when i've set new transplants up with friends who're already settled in said new locale. 

not one to believe in karma but more in inherent 'clickability' i thought it'd be nice to meet someone new. and from emails and fb messages (she liked my london list, a good sign!) A seemed like a lovely girl. tell a lie though, she's a surgical resident so i can't quite escape the medic clutch! we decided on a mid-week dinner near hers and by the end of the evening i was in full-blown girl crush mode. she was whip sharp, smart as anything, driven yet unassuming, candid, inspiring and very big-sisterly when it came to job apps and potentially hauling my backside stateside should the mister want to seek his fortunes in the US of A. i'm horrible when it comes to new people and don't warm up to nor trust strangers easily. in fact my best friends are girls i've known for 20+ years and even then they joke that it's taken two decades for me to open up. but sometimes someone special comes along and you know that you're going to be friends. without meaning to jump the gun, she's someone i hope to see more of and will defo die of embarrassment if she ever reads this. but it was a great night and when i relayed everything rather excitedly to the mister after, he was glad that for a couple of hours i was less crabby antisocial hermit more well-adjusted adult.

wool production

never a dull moment with C, who brought wool from her mother's farm in the south. we joke that she's trying to supplement her meagre foundation doctor income by diversifying into sheep farming, but it's really just for insulation (?) yet how that's going to work is beyond me. good fun despite the bath being out of commission for a couple of days, and the earthy (?) smell of lanolin wafting up from the radiator is vaguely comforting. i'm such a city slicker and the first thing that came to mind was omg we can get anthrax from this! of course this amused G no end, knowing that i'm already terrified of the hpv risk from hotel bath tubs (ladies, consider yourselves warned!). she also is from a sheep farming family and having grown up surrounded by them has probably gotten bovine tb (yes, from cows) and possible sheep-related diseases. a friend whose family runs a dairy farm (gosh, so many husbandry types in medicine!) has also had bovine tb, or maybe not. hm that wasn't the point to this post but i seem to have forgotten what was.

narcissism

i used to think it was a little creepy, and even more so when  a well-meaning friend explained that it was meant a massive self-portrait. so somewhere the artist is laughing at having con-ed council out of buckets of money to put insert himself in the landscape. first saw this en route to camby for Y's graduation and again recently on a short detour to actually get up close and personal while the lighting was good. there were many shutterbugs gathered at the foot of the monstrosity and i felt like we were photobombing their photos by traipsing around. this little excursion was all that stood between me and tea time, needless to say it was a short lived one.

fast castle

one of the best things about fourth year is wednesdays and friday mornings off. there is no other word for it but shiiiiok. having made it to the other side of the crazy that was third year, it's welcome respite from intense clinicals that were still only a fraction of real life doctoring. suspending reality these couple of months more is not something i'm too fussed about, although i do oscillate between relishing the oodles of time i have and wishing there was some way of telescoping the program so i graduate faster. but back to making the most of the down time - spontaneously decided to go walking on the cliffs. no cliffside walks in the city? nevermind, head for the wilderness! actually tell a lie, this was a weekend walk because the mister was still in NYC but hey, who's keeping track of the days.

grateful for indulgent friends who drive because i'm too ayam to drive without the mister next to me. fast castle was, for want of a better description, a pile of rocks. but it had that rugged charm and despite lacking a national trust gift shop + cafe (actually a good thing?) was beautiful to walk to amidst the heather and gorse. with enough imagination one could just about make out what it'd have looked like in its heyday. 

it was a windy and there was the added bonus of hearing the wind howling through the cracks in the rock, sounding like a haunting howl and seals! yes, seals! many seals flopping around the shallow and wriggling themselves up the beach. even tiny baby seals frolicking and unless one was quiet and looked closely, it was so easy to miss. i felt small, and humbled, like a tiny and insignificant yet loved part of the universe. and that was nice :)

warmest halloween on record

 

it's been some time since i celebrated halloween. not 'properly' since first year, although i've fun memories of riding bongo's party bus when i was working. and the other years have passed as almost a non-event. this year, i made a note in my diary that waitrose was doing a free wine tasting and talk for adults in need of a stiff drink after a scary week. finally! a supermarket that gets me. although i hardly have anything to complain of in terms of bad weeks. in fact, it was a quite a good week (read: slack) and the only thing scary on the grand scale of things was how warm it was. the fact that i could get away with wearing a skirt with no tights and no coat meant that global warming was pulling a little number on us all.

it was public health week which almost felt like reason to take the week off. but i was good and tried to stay abreast, which wasn't without its benefit because the elected council leader man came to give a couple of talks. and ran one of the community days. a politician true and true but once you go into it with that mindset, he wasn't all that bad. the surprising take away for me was the social model of medicine being a tiny bit more interesting than the medical. there's so much more to health and healing than i realise, and it's eye-opening to learn of the other factors at play. far from a new found fascination for public health (oh i'm even less drawn to work in primary care now!) i liked it on an academic, intellectual level. and it didn't hurt that singers came out very well in the comparison table, as i've already mentioned in this post. so that sparked a whole flood of superiority and i left feeling very smug.

made the most of the warm night and went walking along the quayside. passed groups of youth that was a little scary, and saw cartons of eggs that i hoped weren't meant for me.

christmas window

it's a bit of a personal tradition to check out the window. in fact, people come from the surrounding environs to admire it too. when i started school, a dear friend who gave me an introduction to and orientation of the city was quick to highlight this cute little display. it's been a touchstone of sorts since, something mr. P my former lit S teacher mentioned when we discovered quite serendipitously that we were almost neighbours. a window display that unifies and bonds, so it seems! part of me is in denial that it's red cup season at starby's and i've yet to have my first peppermint mocha of the season. but the other part (that had a bowl of chocolate frosting for lunch - don't ask. actually, do ask. can't count, scaled up unnecessarily and instead of freezing it for another cake like a normal person i had it as a meal. then had steamed cauliflower after to assuage my guilt. weird, i know.) is counting down to christmas even though chinese new year is my favourite holiday. maybe because christmas symbolises get out of jail, when i won't be commuting to clinics and staying put in london (zone 1 no less!) for the next nine months. yes, nine. whoop whoop!

perps

the photos speak for themselves but it's times like this that i want to be on the first flight home to inhale these sweet milky bundles with their round bellies and sticky out tongues. my sister is the willing hand model in this case and how i wish there was some way of being there to kiss and cuddle the lot of them. i say i don't like dogs / that i only like my own but then we've a litter and all that machismo melts and i'm reduced to a swooning mess. strange how babies (ugh) fail to elicit the same effect. similarly, maintain i'll like my eventual offspring and friends' kiddies at a stretch because they're an extension of people i like. but random kids? no thank you.

21ish

it was J's birthday a few days ago! you might remember him from earlier posts. we met at the mature student (sigh) orientation and he's officially my first friend at uni round 2. can't believe this is the fourth birthday we're celebrating together, and sort of feel we've all come a long way from clueless first years to even more clueless fourth years. celebration-wise, the ante's been upped from a surprise kladdkaka in the common room to a self-styled 'luxury japanese buffet'. we spent birthday numbers 2 and 3 at a BYOB lebanese but think J thought to mix things up a bit. plus the birthday person gets to eat for free at this new-ish place.

what i found funny was how the rest commented how it took four years (!!!) for them to see me 'let my hair down'. adamant that i only drink 1. on weekends 2. with the mister so if we were to hang out in the week / without the mister, i'm a cheap date who's done after half a pint. but in my defence, it was £8 for unlimited drinks including asahi and sake and all self-restraint went out of the window. didn't help that the mister was in NYC for the week and not around to rein me in. then again, it's only with him that i feel safe enough to get inebriated. anyhoos we did hot sake japanese style because J and T coincidentally both taught english in japan before realising their doctor dreams (no pouring your own! no sipping! down the shot and get on with it!) which made for much warmth on an otherwise cold evening. that's the thing about alcohol - i do enjoy it when the mood hits but not on a regular basis. phew. with a slightly addictive personality, it's that fine balance between appreciation and obsession. plus i'm conscious how it's a grade iii carcinogen (yikes!) and too calorific for comfort. such a downer, as you can tell, drinking with me is a ton of fun...

24h in manchester

the mister was hanging out with al gore in NYC so i went to manchester on a whim. not the most obvious of choices but hey the draw of marx and engel and lure of random european architectural influences was a compelling reason. sentient that we're not going to be in the UK indefinitely (have a rant about that will save it for the end of the post!) and thought to see more of this lovely country while i can. it was the manchester derby weekend so i was lucky the hotel prices hadn't skyrocketed. would usually have slept on a friend's sofa but thought to be indulgent hehe. there's something very empowering about solo travel, about exploring a city on your own. had sweet friends who met me on sunday and were aghast that i'd been wandering around the night before (we happened to all be at the mall, surprise surprise) but they're a lovely couple in the throes of LDR. he's up to visit and having been there, done that and gotten all possessive when the mister was in town (or i was visiting the mister) i thought better of imposing on their bubble. maybe that's just me being presumptuous that everyone thinks like me when they're probably infinitely more mature and gracious. M's one of my oldest friends (we've swum together since we were 3+!) and we had the pleasure of meeting up in the amalfi coast over easter. this was a bonus, and they're in london next weekend too! 

it's been some time since i've gone any where on my own (not since NYC to buy my wedding dress easter 2012) and it was a refreshing change to be selfish and self-indulgent. my inner el cheapo even relented and didn't mind £7.50 for the ferris wheel! and took a ton of selfies while at it haha. china town was another surprise - great wall was a chance find and i had la mian! what was even better was that there was no MSG (yay!!!) and it wasn't oily. chinese restaurant jackpot...

 

how i knew about home*sweet*home in the northern quarter was from some insta lurking. in fact that's how i knew M was in mcr visiting L so had to have waffles with scrambled eggs, blueberries and bacon too. absolutely yums when drowned in maple syrup :)

and another photo of the ferris wheel against the blue skies.

 

and the uk*border*agency rant as promised - it's no secret that i hate the hassle and suspicion i get every time i clear customs. it's as if the border agency presumes that i want to overstay in their country. no, actually, i'm from a first world nation when yours is comparatively third world, i feel like telling them. but that's just asking to be detained / deported. the medsch doesn't make it any easier with weekly scan ins to assure them i'm not moonlighting in a chinese restaurant. in addition to singers trumping the uk in terms of GDP per capita and life expectancy (slide borrowed from a labour*leader), the mister was just contact traced for TB because a co-worker he spent a week at court huddled up next to and getting coughed all over just tested positive. WELL DONE, LONDON. need we look any further for proof of third-world-ness? not feeling the love. and we got this startling text re: being contact traced and needing tests a few hours after the mister had an episode of night sweats. i was laughing at first (haha, night sweats, do you have tb, haha) but was not laughing when we got the tb text later in the day.