noodles

have a friend who lived round the corner from my last placement and who very kindly gave me an open invite to pop round for lunch. alas, most lunches were grabbed on the go or during a quick getaway to waitrose for coffee. not to sound ambulance-chasing but i found it hard to leave the unit because the one time i took a slightly longer lunch (read: 30min) a kiddie arrested. not that i would have been able to resus said kiddie, but trying to be around as much as possible and learn what i can through observation and osmosis means being present as far as possible. so it was really on my last day that i finally thought to cash the lunch blank cheque and forgo usual lunch on the sunny terrace (above). tell a lie, it was probably only sunny for a couple of days. most times it's eating in the common room avoiding the draughty gaps in the window!

also, it was hardly as spontaneous as i make it sound because kind hostess is a complete sweetie who laboured over the stove the day before to produce melt-in-the-mouth beef shank (?) noodles. it was also her last day of undergrad class so you can imagine how mortified i felt to be imposing at lunch time. but she was so cool about having to rush home from lectures, and delegated the simpler task of vegetable washing to mr. muscles below. see, boys have their uses. 

best beef noodles ever, and i've had more than my fair share. what really got to me was the amount of time and energy spent creating this wonderful meal that i'd slurp down in a matter of minutes. like to think i'm low maintenance and not easily impressed but she catered to my high maintenance side and blew me outta the water with labour-intensive home-cooking. did joke it was setting a dangerous precedent but hey, everyone goes in with their eyes open ;)