phuket

didn't have many weekends in singers. stayed the first to avoid being world's most absent godparent (godson's first month!) but was in KL for the second weekend and broke free to phuket for the third to celebrate a birthday. very generous friends have a home in phuket and kindly invited us to spend some time there with them. they'd just moved in phuket and i was excited to see the new place, haveing spent many happy days at their previous home. they're the sort of couple i want to be when i grow up, nothing short of awe-inspiring and so giving of their time and energy. i love being around them and can sit and rapt awe listening to their stories and just absorbing their views on anything and everything. never a dull moment and i feel educated merely in their presence. i'm also humbled by how unassuming they are, side by side with the help mopping up the sopping wet dining table after yet another tropical storm. all hands on the deck and no airs nor pretense.

birthday bouquets

every year on my birthday, i surprise someone special with a bouquet. it's a sweet idea i chanced upon a couple of years ago and very much appreciated. am far from articulate and often guilty of not expressing how i feel, when a simple 'thank you' or 'i love you' can go so far. so i fall hook line and sinker for the flower industry and try to convey all that  sentiment with some blooms. also like how it's not something she takes for granted, and when there was a last minute trip over my birthday this year and too late to recall the flowers i'd arrangd to be sent to the office, some super sleuthing was required to get in touch with her hotel. and the concierge, bless them, were quick to arrange for a bouquet that turned out to be even prettier than the original. in fact, they even hand wrote the note i'd dictated. used to laugh when men would send their wives / lovers flowers through the seccie but now i'm sort of joining the club, in a different sort of way. remember one valentine's when i was working, a partners was asked if he'd sent his wife flowers, to which he scoffed and said, "that's what i pay the seccie for!" sure that's meant in jest (i hope) but machismo aside, i recognise that being oceans away it's sort of the next best thing to co-opting my probably unobliging sister to doing the deed. photo above of the classy swiss bouquet and the one below is the sg offering that she also sent a photo of when eventually back to her desk. glad it lasted a couple of days at the very least!

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?)

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...

stk

reso for 2145h, seated at 0012h, mains arrived at 0034h. after 2.5h at the bar and 6 x long island ice teas on  an empty stomach, the steaks were the best i've ever had. clever business model? i think so.

there were about 40+ of us at dinner and V, planner supreme, took one for the team by making multiple resos for dinner. was somewhat miffed that it took so long to get us all seated and swear it was part of their sneaky marketing ploy to run up a massive drinks tab. but it was a good night, balmy on the roof top, good music downstairs and everyone was having too much fun to really mind the wait. tell a lie, i did mind the wait and had i know we'd only get round to dinner the next day i'd have done some defensive feasting to line my tummy. it was one of those hypersocial nights where the mister and i divided and conquered (haha, such nerds!) he'd introduced me round the night before so on day 2, he kinda threw me in the deep end left me to socialise on my own. not that i minded, although there was an awkward moment where one of his friends introduced me to someone and the music was so loud the someone mistook me for his wife. and it was an awkward 10 minutes and quite the comedy of errors before i hurriedly rectified the miscommunication. don't often tell people what i do because it's not very interesting, but did get talking with a medical doctor (qualified and all!) who left the profession to start his peanut selling company. often joke about how it's only when someone chokes on a peanut that the doctor becomes the most important person in the room, and meeting mr. peanut was a funny twist on that otherwise old anecdote.

oh! and we also celebrated the mister's 30th a couple of days early. they'd cake and candles - the works!

supperclub

was reading recently about a sweet couple who have one anniversary tradition - a bottle of veuve. and was wondering what ours would be, if we'd to pick one. i'm not a big fan of tradition because it seems ritualistic and having to do something the same way every time sort of stresses me out. what happens if i drop the ball?! but what we did enjoy very much last year was dinner at luiz's japanese supperclub. he's an absolute sweetheart who's become, dare i say, a friend over the years. consistently high standards and executed with such military precision. we know it's going to be a good night every time we head round to his. so, being the one trick pony, we invited friends to join us for a belated anniversary celebration there. the best part is, i think i was a little too subtle / discreet about that in the original invitation. when i sent a reminder with the confirmed timing and address etc, i also was presumptuous enough (social graces fail...) to say 'no presents please'. which of course set off a slew of merciless ribbing, because the mister said that no one realised we were even celebrating our wedding anniversary.  in my defence, our friends last year and really gone to town with lavish presents and i was trying to sidestep a repeat. so, naturally, the group proceeded to take the mickey the whole night, with round after round of 'cheers to your anniversary, jo!' which the mister gleefully would join in on. because, really, that man is in denial that he's been married for two years.

to be fair, there was more than our anniversary to celebrate. among the seven of us, there was one birthday, two new jobs, one passing of the english bar, one phD completion, masters students both safely clearing the academic year and, well, me. trundling along with end of year exams in two weeks :(

luiz blow-torching the foie gras sushi for the nikkei surf & turf sushi trio

mentaiko spaghetti

tuna tataki

pan-friend beef & veg maki rolls

shiitake gohan and crab, avocado & chevirl salad to accompany the mains

freshly baked madeleines

(also served but not pictured are the deep fried chicken nanban and tempura of courgette flowers, oyster mushroom and peppers)

another year

it was my birthday recently and while my attitude towards birthdays is similar to that of weddings i.e. anti-spectacle, i couldn't help but reflect on the year past. in a happy place and not wanting / needing anything material. in fact, the last material thing i really really wanted my parents were kind enough to gift me as a graduation present. ironically, i gave tuition to pay for my lawsch tuition and having paid for it in full (not such a hero, i lived at home the whole time sans exchange in stockholm) then got 1/3 'back' in said present. thank you, parents! and the other thing i kinda thought would be nice but never really articulated as a want (hey, i was going to wait till graduation round 2 before broaching the subject!) the mister pre-emptively gave me for our first wedding anniversary. which was a total game changer and i've since declared myself completely never ever wanting anything anymore. big words first uttered after i first graduated, and it's been a couple of years and i genuinely haven't strayed. in fact, a friend read me just right upon seeing the mister's present and observed with mock horror, "oh you poor girl. all of 20+ years and nothing left to aspire towards. what're you going to do???" so gifting aside, i thought about the intangibles that i wanted for this year.

thrilled to be in better physical shape than when i was 12. was at my parents' and unearthed a pair of cargo trousers that were my post-PSLE present to myself. the whole time i was primary six, i was longing for cargoes, which tells you every thing you need to know about my sartorial sense then (and now). shimmied into them out of curiosity and was pleasantly surprised to find that they fit. uh, hello body, weren't you supposed to have gone through puberty a couple of years ago??! while i'm loathe to look at numbers on a scale (SO UNHEALTHY!) and mental health has taught me much about eating disorders and the twisted mind, clothes that fit, or not, are a good gauge. like last week i re-purposed my wedding dress for an early birthday dinner with the mister amidst taunts of how i looked like a runaway bride (thanks...) and was ecstatic / horrified to find it loose.

have long felt the whole weight / body image issue was about health. as long as you're within a healthy BMI, great. and i've always been. given how often i finish the mister's food for him, i do think i could afford to eat less, but i've tons of guilt re: wasting food (and yet i say i don't have an over-eating disorder...). despite not having been to a gym in months (bad jo!) i do feel lighter and brighter now than before starting clinicals. yay for long days on my feet!

so quarter-life crisis averted and relishing being a student, even more so after speaking with friends who're about to become registrars / junior partners / parents. finally in a happy equilibrium and more comfortable in my own skin than i've ever been. have plenty of time as a student, and someone to enjoy my down time with. i know things might not always be like this, but for now i'm taking it slow and soaking it all in. it was a great birthday, spent largely on a plane and with the mister who makes everything even better.

roadtrip to bruges

the mister doesn't ask for much, and when i suggested visiting bruges over the summer bank holiday,  he wasn't the most interested. "why waste a good day off", he reasoned but was game to visit over a weekend. and boy was he right! now belgium holds a special place in our hearts. the mister spent a year in leuven (home of stella artois) on exchange, and during that year he traveled all over europe. i'm surprised he even managed to explore belgium, seeing how he was using it merely as a base. actually, i'm more surprised he won best speaker at the european round of the space moot. but that's another story for another time. and the mister, he hates when i brag about him so i really shouldn't. but i am so proud of him (even a couple of years on) and it was particularly poignant because on the very same day he won, i was miles away in singers receiving a D (not distinction but A, B, C, D... also an achievement!) for constitutional law. yay me. undergrad throwback aside, was fortunate to visit the mister in leuven during winter and summer holidays and the small university town grew on me. 

so you can imagine how excited i was to return to belgium after five years. and to finally visit bruges because we didn't get round to when he was on exchange. little did i know that in the years passed, bruges has gained infamy as the boring town from the colin farrell movie! and being the total ignoramus i am, i booked us into the same hotel as in the movie. took me a couple of days to realise why there was a constant stream of tourists on our otherwise quiet side street, and why they taking photo after photo of that darn bridge! 

and because the mister isn't a big fan of birthdays, i'm not really allowed to say that we went to bruges for his birthday (it fell mid-week and we were away over the weekend). to which he's quick to point out that if we were to celebrate his birthday, i didn't do a very good job because he ended up driving us to bruges, around bruges, and back. but the hotel was lovely and they very kindly gave us a free upgrade to a canal suite, which was superlative. in fact, it was just so darn beautes that leaving the room felt like a waste. and to me, that's the essence of a destination hotel. 

but a little more about the drive before i leave you with some photos. now we've driven all over europe (iceland, corsica, south of france, tuscany, mykonos, santorini, crete) and it's always been a rental car. now i've nothing against rental cars, but luxury isn't a priority and we usually get the cheapest manual car available. so to be able to drive our car (nevermind it is ancient and third-hand, it's ours!) over to europe was a real treat. the euro tunnel has got to be the most amazing engineering feat ever and it's so organised! absolutely seamless, pain-free commute. after this i'm not sure if i can take the eurostar any more. it's quite unreal how in the span of an hour, we'd gone from folkestone, UK to calais, france before driving to bruges, belgium. and the check-in onto the train was a breeze, the crossing took all of 25 minutes and before we knew it, hellooo continent!

easy peasy drive, minus the mister having to switch his mind around. he's driven right-hand car in right-hand drive (singers, UK, australia), left-hand car in left-hand drive (europe, US) but never right-hand car in left-hand drive. we pulled up at the hotel around 11 and the lovely night manager poured us beers and nibbles on the terrace.

(view from our room!)

japanese home-cooking

after one too many japanese supper clubs, i'm convinced that i too can muster up sufficient proficiency to cook an elaborate japanese meal. needless to say, that wasn't quite how it turned out. it was a somewhat belated celebration. our dear friend K graduated the MBBS with merit (!!!), R the neurosurgeon was officially welcomed to cool surgeons' club (there's a fancier name but i forget) and A may have just found himself a ladyfriend. all milestones defo worth celebrating and seeing how we've known them since forever it's wonderful they're based in londontown too :) having last had them over around easter, when they were absolute dream guests, it was high time for our next dinner party. plus it's the mister's birthday soon and i thought it'd be nice for him to have a boys night in - where they can eat all the fried food they want and wash it down with good sake.

went a little overboard and attempted a ten course meal. didn't help that i couldn't count and inadvertently scaled up to cook for 9 instead of 5. math fail :(

appetisers 

tori kariage (bite-sized pieces of fried chicken) 

pork gyoza

green beans with sesame dressing

steamed course

chawanmushi

tempura course

prawn tempura

vegetable tempura 

simmered course

beef steaks in home-made terriyaki sauce

soup course

salmon miso hot pot

rice course

garlic fried rice

dessert 

chocolate pound cake with summer berries

genmaicha

 

monkey see, monkey do! 

super thankful it turned out mostly o-k, and for the help along the way. gimme dinner guests who are good around the kitchen any day! although i did feel quite bad making them cook part of their supper. only managed to take a photo of the beans with sesame before it descended into mayhem. what did help was the sparkling sake we began with, before moving on to bubbles. the genmaicha (green tea with roasted rice) at the end was a relief and i love how R described it as "popcorn tea". who cares if it's "peasant tea" in japan - it's the perfect end to a full meal.

(photo credits to R & A, sans the one of beans i managed to take before they arrived)

the local

we'd a couple of days between houseguests and to celebrate it being "just us" at home again, the mister and i decided to check out a sweet little bar nearby. while i'm anti-hunting (killing for sport?! GO AWAY ALREADY!) i couldn't help but appreciate the beautiful trophy on the wall.

and i love being newlyweds with minimal responsibility and all the time in the world. sure you've heard of DINK (dual income no kids) and worse yet, DINS (leave that to your imagination) but SINK (single income no kids), to me, is the place to be, as long as you're not the sole breadwinner heh :)

i've said before and i'll say it again that i'm humbled by the mister, by how hard he works and everything he does to support our little family of two. i know it's not easy and i like to think our lifestyle is far from lavish, but he spoils me nevertheless and for that i'm incredibly grateful. also, the C word has been coming up a fair bit lately and i'm so happy we're on the same page. as and when it happens (oh god please do give us children one day!) it'll be on our terms and when we are ready. i mean the whole point of tying the knot early-ish is so we've more time together, to see the world and realise our dreams (cliched but true!) before the pitter patter of little teos. strongly believe in seasons, and how there's a season for everything. we've had time to grow individually, and now's a time to grow as a couple before we grow with our offspring. looking forward to that :) but enjoying the present and what's immediately ahead too much to be too fussed about them bebes.

and, seriously, nothing beats the freedom of being able to just up and go, and the sweet joy of being selfish and self-indulgent. so on that note, we're just back from paris last weekend (second time in as many months, eurostar how i love thee) and we're driving from london to bruges to celebrate the mister's birthday and roadtripping norway next month. all these wonderful wanderlust-satiating things on a whim that we won't have the luxury of if 1. we had kids 2. lived in singapore. so for now, complain as i do about the tube, bus, weather and banks, london suits us just fine :)

maturity

so my birthday came and went with barely a whimper. phew :) had a lovely dimsum lunch with the grads somewhat belatedly, what with us all having commitments of the family kind over the weekend. one of the nice things about being back in school is that my coursemates are in a similar place. some are married, others have children (!!!) and when it comes to weekends, everyone respects that everyone else has 101 things to do. things like hanging out with +1s who've been sorely neglected during the week...

what i'm trying to say is this would be so much harder if i didn't have this core group of wonderful wonderful people who know what it's like to be a graduate medic but don't take themselves too seriously. it's crazy how between the 6 of us we've already something like 10 degrees. #firstworldproblems, much?

and they surprised me with a lemon drizzle cake that T baked. the photo really doesn't do it justice but i'm tickled by how J manages to make a kawaii moment of everything. for a finnish army man who later taught english in japan before finding himself (and his medical tendencies), guess you can take a finn outta japan but the japan in the finn hangs around a bit longer.

notting hill

we'd an atypically early breakfast with a dear friend who was passing through london. i'd the pleasure of meeting T 4 (!!!) summers ago when the mister had banished me from leuven. made the most of being based smack in the centre of europe to visit my cousin who was in dublin. and guess who was there the same weekend, fresh from a posting at the great ormond street hospital? T was ever-gallant and i still remember he bought a round of baby guinnesses when he saw me balk at the real guinness. +points in my book! we kept in touch and i'm amazed by how much he remembers of his month in singers when he doing a stint at K*K, right down to who we met at brunch (edinburgh medic) and where the mister hadn't joined us (reservist). minutiae that has long slipped through my sieve-like memory. this was also just before i left for stockholm and T brought me to a swedish embassy 'do and showed me my first midsommar celebration. yes i realise i've said about the same thing in an earlier post and there you go, evidence of my wonderful memory.

sent T to paddington after our aussie brekkie and then went back to notting hill for round two! the mister had some shopping to do and i entertained myself with selfies. mature...

and because it was my birthday the next day, the mister let me pick a present that i've had on high rotation since.

we also fell hook, line and sinker for some coconut water and only later realised our fridge stocked just bubbles, sake and coco. so much for growing up!

early birthday dinner

it's no secret that i'd a little wobble when my birthday rolled round last year. long story short, the mister had flown up to spend the week with me and i maintain the wobble was precipitated by his imminent departure. 

that said, i was a huge pansy because, really, he'd be moving to london a mere two months after for good. so it's not like we were going to be apart for all that long. for two people who'd spent three of our five years together on separate continents  (he spent the first year in belgium, i spent the third year in stockholm and the fifth in the uk), being needy was something we could ill-afford. multiple qualifying statements aside, i felt i was approaching the quarter-century mark (eep) still in school and with nothing to show for it. one year on, i'm still in school (and will be for awhile yet!) but am counting my blessings. in the past year, we've gotten married, found a home to call our own and have the love and support of wonderful family and in-laws. to be fair, not much has changed since last year. at my last birthday, we were four months away from tying the knot, already house-hunting and our parents/prospective in-laws have been consistently awesome :) but it was a timely reminder of how the mister gets me, and is the most positive and persuasive person on earth.

ok! no more mushy mush. on to the amazing omakase he found us. only managed to take photos of half the courses because i was too busy eating the other time. tell a lie. all photos taken by the mister because i was too thin-skinned to channel my azn food-photo-taking tendencies, and too busy stuffing my face.

junmai daiginjo. 'nuff said.

ama ebi with fermented rice, caviar and edible gold.

stewed alaskan king crab cake  and japanese peppers

grilled dish of mackeral, home-made pickles and chilli leaves

the first of three sushi courses, and the freshly grated wasabi had me ecstatic with its natural sweetness

the second sushi course - scallop with black truffle, sweet prawn with torched sea urchin and smidgen of pesto

the third sushi course was anago (sea eel) with bean curd skin and glutinous rice. the whole parcel was wrapped in leaves, a bit like a square ba zhang or ketupat!

easily the best omakase we've had in london and if turning one year older meant a feast of this proportion, sign me up :)

happy birthday J!

can't believe it's already been a year since we celebrated J's birthday. his was the first in medsch and one year on, it's still the same bunch of us :) which is nice, seeing how once we hit clinical years everyone's going their own way. J's birthday was over the weekend but we were all out of town! celebrated belatedly at T's favourite place that has fast become our favourite place too. awesomely authentic lebanese that's BYOB. we ate till we couldn't eat anymore (there were, gasps, leftovers! unheard of!) and then drank wayyy more wine than we should've. do think we somehow downed a bottle each, and split a fifth for good measure. the complimentary cardammon tea must've helped! 

and as if that wasn't enough, we strolled to a sweet little pub and had another four rounds there. hmm. this whole being in england has really trained my alcohol tolerance. i can now drink about half a pint of the local ale before calling it a night :)

we sat outside for the riverside view, despite the autumn chill and made friends with the other patrons. that's one thing i like about pub culture - anyone holding a drink is a friend. just don't tell my parents i've taken to talking to strangers...

back on the toon

second year is off to a good start - in no small part because of the house warming / birthday bash T and i threw yesterday. we only started class proper yesterday too, but my timetable is looking goood :) back to the toon on sunday night (paid the price for being super-organised by arriving 4 days earlier than i really needed to!) but took my time settling down. moved out of halls (miss my en suite SO BAD!) and into a huge two bedder with T. what i lost in washroom convenience, i gained in proximity to medsch (literally 3min between locking our pernickity front door) and sitting down on the cushioned lecture seat. we are also 20m from the pub. maybe 19.5m, which may or may not be a good thing. so what did i do for four whole days before starting class? why, did what i could to make the flat more homely (photos later!) and baked up a storm. we missed two birthdays over summer, and D's wedding. kinda nice that out of our little grad group of 6ish (we've some drifters haha) three of the four girls are married, and the youngest is well on her way to having a ring put on it. ! i guess mrs > dr :)

so happy to finally have a place to call home in toon, and to enjoy the simple luxury of having friends over at whim. much as i liked my single en suite in halls, it wasn't conducive to having guests. but now, oh now, it's party central! friends have been coming over for lunch since term started (it's easier for me to come home than to go to the medsch cafeteria, believe it or not!) and we're more than happy to pass the tea / coffee pot round. planning the party was a great distraction from the impending beginning of second year and we went a little overboard with all the cakes. my sneaky friends also gifted me with an electric mixer for my birthday and i was more than happy make it work for its keep. good good fun! 5 cakes from scratch in a cranky gas oven - not for the faint hearted :)

on the menu was rendang with mashed potato (me), fried rice and fried plantains (T), the juiciest, tender-est roast chicken (G) and not one but three types of cake! we did a victoria sponge, banana loaf and sticky lemon loaf. can't get enough of my poundland loaf tins heh. the men brought bottles and bottles of wine and last minute i threw together a pitcher of iced berry tea that tasted almost like ribena if you ask me.

we'd a funny present opening moment when i told D part two of her present was on her way to her, without realising that amazon had over-performed and gotten it to her so fast the 'mysterious parcel' had actually freaked her out. D's really careful and didn't recognise the parcel sent from edinburgh at all so she cautiously brought it to costa, where her dashing mister opened in. we joked that if it had contained anthrax as feared, then all the people at costa would've died with them. as you might've guessed, starting the infectious diseases module later this year is going to be a ball...

and as if all that food and cake was not enough, we chased everything with pints at our local. the cost/benefit of living next to the pub :) may it be the first of many happy but not drunken nights. we're too old to be plastered. and there was 9am class.

so much for hiatus

and so much for keeping my head down for some mega revision. haven't been able to resist the siren song of all the fantastic cafes in london. the manfriend and i have made it a point to visit a different neighbourhood every opportunity. usually on the weekend but we've made the most of the may bank holiday and ventured as far as bicester for some retail therapy. have a couple of posts lined up so do check back for some cafe finds and what happened when i went home for all of 72 hours.

and after this little posting spree, which should take us all the way to the end of the month, i'll be back with real time posts of life after first year. well, more like summer of first year, which stretches before me in its four month glory. oh yeahhh :D can't wait.

completely unrelated but here's a photo of M's birthday cake. victorian sponge ftw! and it's G's hands in the photo, although she's way too pretty to be only a hand model. incidentally, she's got five (!!!) children aged 2-12 so i'm guessing it takes plenty of mama practice to light candles that fast ;) 

do check back for the cafe posts :)

T turns thirty-x

it was the big friendly giant's birthday and we surprised him with tiramisu, 'special' coffee and a nifty fork&spoon set. was excited to break out my birthday gift. the little graduate gang gave me an electric whisk for my birthday, so really, any excuse to bake and feed. how nice not to be stirring would-be kladkkaka with a fork! funny story - on the short walk from the medsch lobby to cafeteria, the happy birthday candles MELTED. and their sorry remnants were no longer discernable. but it was a good laugh, and T was happy. which is really all that matters. so happy, in fact, that we're all going for lebanese at a restaurant that's BYOB. what's better than hearty kebabs? said kebabs chased with tesco wine :) psyched!!!

phuket

was a dream. we both have great memories of phuket. i was there summer 2007, just before we started going out. in fact, i was there over his birthday and remember anxiously buying phone credit to call and wish him. i was with friends for a good five days at patong, he was catching up with friends in singapore before leaving for a year in leuven. we must've played it so cool for me to spend a week away during his last few days in singers. that said, having done the patong crazy, i was in no hurry to return so when we hopped over to phuket this time, i refused to leave our little enclave in the north :)