autumn

 

was walking home from a boozy brunch in the 'hood when i chanced upon this pretty sight. there's no real point to it, really, except to say that introverted as i can be, it's nice to be selectively social. hadn't seen this bunch since summer ball at the natural history museum, and that night at maddox, so we were long overdue for a catch up.

bit of stockholm in london

when C reached out to say she was going to be in london, i very excitedly contacted N and arranged to meet. they're wonderful people i met while in stockholm on exchange many many moons ago when we were law undergrads. "stockholm friends" who aren't really from stockholm are some of my firmest friendships and i'm constantly reminded how amazing an experience being on exchange was. if i could relive any period of life, that would definitely be it. C is from bilbao and lives in madrid (via NYC) and N was born in london but grew up outside perth, before moving to melbourne and is now based in london. last saw C when i was in NYC easter 2012 (!!!) to buy my wedding dress and have caught up with N and his better half L when since they relocated to the +44. 

shamelessly played the last trimester / early bedtime card and had them over for drinks and nibbles instead of going out to dinner. because i'd an inkling that C wouldn't be ready for dinner till past 10 and my (new) bedtime is 8pm. i kid you not. quite accidentally cobbled together something spanish-themed, cheeses and cold cuts, chips and dip, olives, grapes and crackers... all washed down with cava and tempranillo. it was uplifting to catch up, to feel like no time had passed since we last met yet knowing we were all in different (but still good!) places. 

i maintain that the acid test of friendship is how much time one spends in the present, and while we did lapse into stockholm nostalgia momentarily, so much of it was catching up on what we've done since, and what we're doing next. very forward looking! social circles inevitably shrink the older we get but we're fortunate to be as mobile as we are and it's really about making time, and not excuses.

coffee&donuts

harwood arms with cousin and cousin-in-law when they stayed with me a couple of weeks ago. they bravely left their stable careers (corporate lawyer-ing and ship brokering) to spend a year at le cordon bleu paris. and now they're on their babymoon, the obvious destination was paris! they broke journey in london and were kind to invite me to dinner at ledbury (which i'd to forgo because i was in the cotswolds!!!) which i would've ordinarily jumped at the chance to go to. haven't been to the ledbury in years but have the fondest memories of the two times i was lucky enough to feast there. dunno why i've not been back sooner, really, suppose being in london leaves one spoilt for choice and i rationalise that the ledbury is always there. 

the harwood arms didn't disappoint and having only just had dinner there with a different houseguest (i swear, sometimes i feel like i'm running a revolving door B&B!) the menu had been updated and i found stuff i liked.

with babies taking up more space than anticipated, we only had the 2 course but i couldn't resist the coffee and donuts so does that count as a third course? :)

hawksmoor

one of my oldest and dearest friends was in london after sitting PACES just outside birmingham and of course we'd to celebrate with steak. have heard lots about hawksmoor but never been. suppose there's just so much in london that i'm often spoilt for choice and have an ever-growing list of places to try but am often too lazy / stuck in comfort zone to get round to it. also have the bad habit of being reluctant to leave the 'hood so friends were nice to pick the hawksmoor in the 'hood. teehee :) perks of being pregnant. 

it was fun getting the two families together, 3/4 C siblings were there, with +1 and colleague who also sat PACES in tow, and my brother and i represented our fam. nostalgic how we've grown up together and spent many sunday lunch times together with our folks. it's almost like extended family, really, and there shared understanding and how well we know each others' quirks and foibles (plus embarrassing stories) is something that is very precious to me.

there's loads on offer at hawksmoor but we were el cheapos and went for the sunday roast cos there were 17 (?) left and 8 (?) of us. generous portion and lovely sides but gimme the maze grill sunday roast any time.

harwood arms

is without a doubt my go-to when friends in town want a modern british meal. had a house guest for a week who i casually abandoned over the weekend to venture north but that's the beauty of old friends, eh? low maintenance. also i'm too lazy / uninvested to promise week-long hosting, because, really, i'm only good in small doses. plus with an intense job that leaves me craving sofa / duvet time at the end of the day, the last thing i want is to have to show someone around london. hey, providing RBKC accommodation should more than suffice, no? sparkling wit and charm not included. but i jest. 

said house guest was kind enough to want to buy dinner as a thank you and i suggested harwood arms cos it's sorta in the 'hood and consistently good. don't go often enough to tire of the menu but happened to go twice in a couple of weeks cos my cousin and cousin-in-law also stayed in quick succession. revolving door B&B much! 

had the quail with black pudding scotch egg (above) and sea bream (i think) followed by raspberry souffle for pud. all good and defo worth trying.

back to london

 

and all too soon it was back to london. fell back into the cycle of thai takeaway (pad thai!) and then scrambled eggs at LPQ / hally's for breakfast. it was nice to have a few lazy mornings to settle back into things before graduation and grad trip v2 with my folks.

 

was also wondering why it was so cold in summer and first order of business was to buy trousers because my summer daisy dukes that had served well in the far east just weren't cutting it anymore!

and there was also the night we went a little crazy after dins at the home club (?) and found ourselves at maddox...

first week down

pleased to report that my initial apprehension was misplaced. to risk tempting fate, dare i say i love my job. when we first found out in march (?), i had a mini freak out and was desperate to swap my first job because it's not a specialty i'm vaguely interested in. all that stopped me from doing so was this overwhelming sense of peace that surpassed all understanding, so i didn't. and boy am i glad i didn't because unbeknownst to me, this is the best possible job for what's currently unfolding in my life. remain immensely grateful for provision and protection, because so much is beyond my control and i couldn't have planned this better if i had been the sort to plan. 

on a fab team in a challenging and demanding unit but feel supported and understood in a way i hadn't expected. we hear all these first job horror stories and it's hard not to buy into the fear. for obvious reasons (information government, patient confidentiality etc) i'm going to have to be deliberately vague about where i am or what i'm doing but always happy to share more in person. needless to say, things are looking good :)

what does get my goat, however, is the negativity and presumption i'm faced with when speaking with acquaintances and this probably isn't the forum to vent irritation. but when someone asks how things are then answers their own question with "must be very tough" i wonder if they're trying to be understanding / patronising / condescending. if you already seem to know then why ask haha. but it's not and i try not to get my heckles up and go on the defensive. because everyone needs encouragement and i'm less inclined to want to talk to energy-sappers. maybe it is tough and i'm in denial and here i am lapsing into war stories but another bug bear is when doctors say lawyers have it easier. they don't. i've been both. and lawyers work harder and have more demands made of them. why else would i tap out to choose the dark side?!! again, presumption and hm i need to stop taking sides :P doctors don't bring their patients home, it's lawyers who're on call 24/7 with blackberries. doctors know their rotas, have visibility re: being on call etc. lawyer's have fixed periods they know they're going to be busy over, but at any given moment, things can hit the fan and it's all hands on the deck without any warning. evidently didn't last long in commercial litigation myself but had dinner at home max four times in six months, and was in to the office for at least a day every weekend. so no, smug registrar who told me lawyers got off easily, no they don't and i've nothing but respect for the profession and their work ethic. 

as a not-so-funny aside: even today, on the rare occasion an email from my former boss pings in my inbox, my heart skips a beat (in the most adrenaline-driven, unromantic way) even though i know it can't be work-related!

pre-empting the need for hibernation this weekend, had gone easy on the social calendar this week but turns out i didn't have to and ended up going out with friends after work almost every night! which was great :) didn't anticipate having the energy to do anything else but wahey :)

checked out a new salad bar in the 'hood on wednesday with darling M who just turned 30.

 

had a fab south african style bbq at friends' beautiful mews house on thursday with newlyweds whose joburg wedding i had to pass on in the midst of finals. gracious hosts JP & F need no introduction, having been in copenhagen with them in october then NYC in feb.

met newlyweds L & N whom i hadn't seen since our first wedding anniversary in london on friday for sticks&sushi at wimbledon

and then malaysian*supper club with D &co. last night. oh and dimsum for 11 (but 14 heartbeats hehe) at lunch time today! so, truly, it's been a bumper week of catch ups and being back in london after summer means seeing all the lovely folk who've reconvened in this little city we call home (for now).

weekend visit

had friends in town for the weekend and it started with bubbles on the train. love how despite the finals rush (sorry, i try not to talk too much about work on this blog but it does creep up now and then!) there's still time to take it easy, to check out and check in. it'd been a long week on trauma orthopedics and really enjoyed kicking back on the train journey with some bubbles. took the edge off the commute (i'm such a baby, it's hardly far!) and started the weekend on a good note.

A (above) checked into a fancy pants hotel while i made a beeline for bloomsbury and waited for girlfriends to arrive before doing thai in the 'hood. squid and their version of pad thai? count me in! not for purists but i was famished.

and because i'm a one-trick pony, i drag all my friends to regent's park and primrose hill. it's not a trip to london without them seeing my spiritual home heh. perfect weather for sauntering and because they didn't have plans, they humoured me. probably regretted the walk after haha but we got waylaid at a pub near by and what was meant to be a 9pm (ooh, fashionably late!) tapas reso was not kept.

undeterred, we went to eat*tokyo in soho instead which in retrospect was a better call because uh, just check out my massive oyako-don for £8.50 (!!!). call me cheap / greedy or both but it seriously does not get better than a mountain of eggy chickeny goodness bigger than my head.

swung by drink shop do near kings x the next day and had cake galore too!

ladies who lunch

this abandoned wives club is fast expanding! had the two darling Cs in london and while briefly in the far east, had J whose other half works away in the week. J and A are no strangers to this blog, in fact they're the founding cast members over on mysterymeatballs where this all started in september 2009. we met as law undergrads in stockholm on exchange years ago and have gone on to criss-cross the world, albeit at different times. she's french and he's aussie and i've had many happy summers at hers in aix. they very kindly hosted me at their current base then her parents came to singers last summer and i was thrilled to finally return the favour. the mister and i have met them in perth (twice!) and sydney (oops missed them in sydney) and A has passed through singers on his SEA adventures, and london, and i met them in munich just before christmas. funny our our paths have crossed more than we ever anticipated and it's a great thing to have old friends who're forward-looking. we hardly talk about stockholm now because there's so much else to talk about. catch ups are brief because we're on imessage every couple of days anyway, and we talk about the present and the future. the barometer of true friendship because having to continuously re-establish a connection by bringing up the past must get old. 

so while our men were hard at work we had a lavish coffeeshop lunch of ban mee and limau ice, followed by cake. and she's coming home with me today! because the men are still at work and we'll hop on the plane for an adventure while the boys arrive later night. 

also, if i close my eyes and pretend hard enough, it could be NYC. no? ;)

scottish foray

(sorry to the unsuspecting fellow passengers across the aisle!)

one thing to remember if ever fortunate enough to take the east coast train north is to sit on the right hand side if the weather is good. because, seriously, the coastal views are stunning. was up for a spontaneous stockholm mini-reunion and because this was the weekend desmond was wrecking havoc, standard class was sold out and i resorted to a firstie. how it all came about was nothing short of fortuitous timing. i'd sent out the annual, "guysssss i need your current mailing addresses please!!!" and found out that A was going to be in europe for work, flying into ed to visit K and his blushing bride. realised i could afford the time and invited myself to their tete a tete, because i'm shameless that way :P 

there were some anxious texts exchanged because of the hurricane, and there was no guarantee my train would leave in the morning. all was going according to plan when suddenly we stopped outside berwick and waited what seemed like forever (70min) before continuing. this naturally scuppered plans because i'd only 4 hours in edinburgh! meant to arrive by 11am and booked the 3pm out. something about bags on the overhead lines. so we sat like sitting ducks in the stifling heat (NO POWER! no light would be tolerable because it was a lovely sunny day but no ventilation???) which was pretty unpleasant. a train had to come from behind us, overtake us, fix the problem then go ahead to scout there were no other issues. the mister was still sleeping but i may or may not have sent a flurry of angry texts to anyone who'd listen (sorry my dear support network, i'll try to be better in 2016!!!) and of course A and i were on fb messenger the whole time lamenting the sheer inadequacy of UK trains. her hyper-efficient japanese sensibilities could not believe that a little rain caused such disruption. recounted this to a scottish friend after who suggested i remind her about the tsunami. touche!

did eventually make it to edinburgh, by which time we were horrendously late, then A's train for that afternoon was cancelled and we spent another hour trying to find alternative means of getting her to dumfries. it was frustrating enough as an english speaker to try to get assistance amidst the mayhem that was waverley, what more for A when it's her third/fourth language. we were sent from pillar to post, from one unending queue to the next, and the staff were polite but unhelpful. again, it was said scottish friend who helped get a taxi to take her to dumfries because a >2h taxi ride is the only way to get around this country... 

lengthy pre-amble and travel angst aside, it was tick tock tick tock because by the time we'd everything sorted, we were 90min away from my train back south. ducked into a simple chinese resto off the main street and it was as if time stood still. calmed down and wonderful catch up. A and her friend had visited and stayed with me last year but hadn't seen K since leaving stockholm summer 2010 and in that time he's gone on to finish his phD, start teaching at ed uni and got married (in that order!). he was the sweetest housemate in stockholm. while the rest of us would lock our food cupboards (trust no one!) his was always open and invited us to help ourselves. he also took it upon himself to cook for the house and i once offhandedly mentioned i missed tandoori chicken and came home (probably hungover) that night to a pile of chicken he'd cooked and kept for me :') selfless to a fault, he'd go home once a year and in the lead up to that would spend all his money on gifts for his sisters and their families. he explained that as the only son, the expectation was that he'd provide for his sister as he'd one day inherit everything from their parents. well, that's only equitable if their parents had something to pass on? when in fact they didn't and everything his parents had (house etc) he'd gifted them. but that's K for you - biggest heart on earth and we used doubt there was anyone 'good enough' to match his generosity. so one can imagine A and my delight when he and C found each other. she's absolutely perfect for him and while i don't believe in karma, this was the best possible outcome. they're all loved up and googly eyed in a non-gross way and she's wonderful to and for him. to risk sounding catty, there are +1s i adore, and +1s i feel friends could've done way better than. but hey, it's not about me, is it :P but it's sad i guess because in the case of substandard +1s i feel myself pulling away and sort of disengaging because i find it hard to affect interest.

what's nice was that while stockholm was our springboard and we had a lovely little house together, it didn't make up the bulk of the conversation. it was a good five years ago but i'm glad our friendship has evolved with us. lots of current and future talk (always healthy!) and i'm reminded how lucky i am our paths crossed, albeit briefly, all those years ago.

escapism

to risk being incredibly uncool by talking about it (because i'm easily impressed and was overwhelmed by the opportunity) i happened to spend the night in the country in a safe house. without going into too much detail, i've a friend with an unsafe job and she was in town for work. she knew i was around and invited me back to hers for dinner with people in the same industry. as she was staying a distance from city centre (and i'm spoilt and don't drive) she'd initially asked if i'd like to spend the night. was too paiseh to accept because for some reason i'd presumed work had put her up in a rural hotel and i didn't want to inconvenience anyone. so i got a ride out with her after work (straight from the drug and rehab centre i was at and into the fire!) and was gobsmacked by her accommodation. turns out it's a proper house with full-time staff and panic buttons! because there may or may not have been an attempt on her life the weekend before (thankfully she wasn't around). this obviously appealed terribly to my inner bond fantasist. sort of awkwardly retracted my initial answer and did spend the night.

hadn't seen her in a few years, the last time being outside bond*street fenwicks and she'd clued me in to their brow bar. so it was a lovely catch up over tea and cake before her guests arrived, then i was showed my room (!!!) before we re-grouped for pre-dinner bubbles. it felt like being on a movie set, or what it must feel like if cluedo, the whodunnit boardgame, came to life. 

"it was the disgruntled barrister with a candlelabra in the drawing room..."

it'd been weeks since i'd met a non-medic (sad but true) so i was in the throes of intellectual ecstasy for the next 12h. because her guests were incredibly clever and i sort of sat in rapt attention soaking it all in. there was a fair deal of medic bashing which i refrained from joining in but couldn't help secretly agree with, and a lengthy discussion about the n*hs. ironically, this bunch has never used the n*hs (no surprises) but their observations were astute enough for me to find the argument compelling. i suppose i find it hard to articulate what it is i miss about my previous life and it's that breadth of knowledge and collective wisdom. medics, bless them, often don't know much beyond medicine and the world is so big it's a waste to know top to tail bodily and no more.

best night in a long time, slept like a baby without nightmares of potential risk to life and limb (!). had a lovely breakfast with more brain tickling banter and rode back to work with her before going in search of a massage. gotta love a mid-week morning off.

stockholm in singers

after a too-short weekend in KL, i got round two with J&A in singers. they'd been three years ago for a couple of days for our wedding celebration, and A had stopped over a couple of months before that during his great SEA adventure, and more recently for training. but it was a treat to have J and parents in town. was desperate to thank them for hosting me over two summers at their beautiful home in aix. they know how much i love their part of provence with the cezanne mountain and i felt like it'd be hard to top the natural beauty of their immediate surroundings. but singers delivered and i loved every minute of being able to show them my home for a change. pidgin french gets me only so far, but sign language and a few key words and we were good to go. also, J's family is armenian and we went to the armenian church which i think they really liked :) for once paying attention in secondary school during the civic district tour paid off!

took the sampan for a spin and thought to mix up the high and low. i keep saying that in singers it's either <$5 or >$50 when it comes to food. we eased her folks into hawker centre (who'd have thunk that murtabak was close to armenian cuisine!!!) and road side eating. haji lane happy hour drinks, long bar at the raffles and swissotel kopitiam for that mix of high/low gastronomy. 

dinner with the ocean family

last summer, a friend recommended "the ocean at the end of the lane" and i devoured it one train ride, although got slightly spooked in parts and had to stop reading when home alone, only to be reassured that it really wasn't that scary and i was being a big chicken. anyway, since started to refer to the family we wish we had as "ocean family". friend's ocean family were neighbours who included in trips that own family didn't take) and my ocean family i suppose would be our closest family friends who are so warm and inclusive one can't help feel part of their family. siblings and i have grown up with their similarly-aged children (now referred to as 'young adults' haha) and have spent many happy hours together. they were in london briefly when child #3 graduated with a starred first (!!!) and we were only too happy to join the celebration. the omakase at roka is superlative and only got the first and last course but there was much pretty plating in between. it's always a good night with the oceans and there are few people i feel as comfortable with as i do with them. still get twangs of nostalgia every time i pass their london flat and remember how it was a refuge when i first moved to the UK, thanksgiving dinner and other times when i just needed a break. have spent countless hours on that sofa and have seen it through more than a few rounds of housemates and home improvement.

spot of culture

one of my oldest and dearest friends came to stay last week. there are actually photos of us at each other's third birthday parties and beneath the shiny exteriors resort to similar toddler behaviour when together. T is a massive history buff and i knew we'd to visit the cemetery (not morbid) as part of the london tour. it's a place i'm familiar enough with having gone for many slow walks but never with as an observant an eye. when T stopped suddenly and burst out laughing, i tried to see what was so funny about a headstone. and there it was. the photograph speaks for itself but trust T to appreciate the significance of the victoria cross and how the deceased was one of the first few in the royal*naval*air*squadron (hope i got this right!). all that would've been lost on me, not knowing any of the acronyms nor being able to properly place them in time and space.

and when we finally broke free from the cemetery, it was onwards to the natural history museum. didn't have massive amounts of time as T had a train to catch but we made do. picked just the one room (dinos, duh) and were like kids in a candyshop. absolutely enthralled. don't have a personal mantra, but if i were to pick one, never lose the wonder would be in the running. because, really, there's so much to take in and the world is such a big and wonderful place.