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.

sloane square

a couple of sundays ago i met C and her lovely baby L for coffee near sloane square. was a little early and we hadn't pinned down a place to meet at so i sat on a bench and watched the world go by. it was a timely reminder to remain present, to enjoy the immediate surroundings. would be lying to say i wasn't the tiniest bit apprehensive about this surprise baby but grace for the day, eh? and constantly appreciative of good health and a smooth pregnancy so far, things i won't take for granted. because, as always, being in healthcare is a stark reminder of things that go wrong. although i've been chastised for being a tad too YOLO for planning to spend week 36 on the ski slopes. it's about the latest time BA will fly a pregnant person and hm i've been medically cleared by my fantastic prof. not that i'm going to be getting any (downhill) skiing done, mind, but you know. why ever not? hope this reckless behaviour doesn't come back to bite me in the backside. don't quite fancy delivering my own baby, ya know?

maze and bridget jones' baby

a dear family friend and neighbour was kind to invite me to dinner and a movie! she's always on the go and despite living a few streets away, isn't usually in london long enough to catch up. but she very sweetly wanted to hang when she'd a rare free night in london. she'd recommended cafe society but the timings didn't work out and we ended up watching bridget jones' baby. which i initially thought would require an epidural of its own to sit through but was proven wrong. and as a treat, she also very generously bought dinner at maze grill. now i'm an unabashed carnivore and maze has got to be my all-time favourite steak restaurant, despite being late to the game. it serves steak, and various sushi. how awesome is that? and while i shouldn't have bloody meat, who wants a well done bit of charcoal? sacrilege! the cow would've died in vain. sadly the nhs doesn't test for toxo in antenatal blood tests (they really should!) and hm i suppose it's all risk management, really. wine, too. another no-no but i don't get the whole self-sacrificial maternal instinct martyrdom. to each his (her?) own and i just feel that everything in moderation is a healthier approach than a flat out ban. not condoning risk taking behaviour in the least but hm, gotta live a little. in the alternative, self-deprivation and resenting the baby as a result is probably worse.

ckt

my palate is decidedly asian and i'm happiest slurping noodles in soup. the MSG gets to me and being parched / disproportionately thirsty after is never a good thing. that'll teach me to not make broth from scratch. but noodles in other forms are great too and one day i was craving char kway teow so badly i practically ran from the tube to the restaurant. it must've been a wednesday afternoon cos that's when i slope off a little bit earlier and thank goodness i didn't have far to go for my fix. this may or may not have been triggered by my fam sending pics over whatsapp from singers. 

the restaurant was surprisingly crowded for mid week afternoon but i got my ckt and then banana fritters after. sometimes comfort food is all i need.

incidentally, a friend just moved near me and she makes a mean ckt from scratch so i'm planning to take up her kind offer of popping round for dins one night :)

weekend in london

i've clinical supervision on friday which means an extra early start. supervisor is stickler for punctuality (rightly so!) and i grew up in a family where 5min early is late. so i got to work early enough to stop for a bacon and egg sandwich en route. at times like this i miss the north east. why is a bap so hard to find??? i just wanted a bacon roll :( but ended up with bacon and egg in crusty bread.

had a hankering for dimsum after work and chanced a place in the city. usually try my darndest to avoid corporate types, having tapped out of that world five year ago but alas my desire for congee was too strong. found ourselves at liverpool street and while everyone else was drinking beer and basking in summer sunshine, i was determined to have my dimsum fix. hit and miss and wouldn't recommend because it's middle-eastern owned and far from authentic but the restaurant was pumping. the party of four at the table next to us kept having whiskey cokes which i found hilarious because i fail to understand cocktails / mixers at a chinese resto. granted, it's not really a chinese resto but pseudo-chinese. all i could think of was if i'd an extra £40 to blow, i'd get the lobster noodles in claypot.

lazy saturday at my local for matcha latte and rosti. didn't have rosti in wengen despite making a mental note to have it and was only too pleased to see it on the ever changing menu.

the weather was good and the markets were calling so traversed london (literally) to broadway market. took a slightly different route (tell a lie, took the tube and bus having sold the car in january) and passed the korean coffee / street food place. despite having just had brunch, i'd never say no to fried glass noodles and chicken wings. then continued to broadway for more food and meandering walks by the canal.

back home Y rang asking if she could come hang for a bit because she'd gotten locked out! well, yes!!!! spontaneous drop ins are the best and it was so good to see her. we've been friends since we were three, rode on the same school bus and went to the same schools till we were 16. our families have travelled together (brunei, bangkok) and then she joined me in valencia on my grad trip v1 on the harrowing night we stupidly left a party late and got flashed on our way to my friend's. i joined her fam for her graduation. this, naturally, triggered massive uni envy. hm in fact it was her brother who planted the thought of going to medsch where i did and i'm so glad that's where i went. she's incredibly low maintenance, we see each other a couple of times a year (when i'm in singers / she's in london) and despite her being jetlagged she very sweetly obliged my pasta craving and we'd a fashionably late home made pasta dins. 

had brunch for the second consecutive day at my local and this time tried their avocado donuts with tomato jam. seemingly strange combination but worked really well :)

lunch with F

F is a friend i met through blogging! when i was an intern at the law firm i eventually did my training contract at, the associates i worked for read her blog because they sort of knew her from school. shows how much interning / real work i did because before long i too was hooked on her blog and but for a chance meeting at ps cafe dempsey where (not creepily) i recognised her then toddler daughter before i saw her (she doesn't have her photo on her blog) we would never have met. thankfully she was lovely and approachable and i think we might already have been in email contact so it was cool to finally meet IRL. don't think we've met in years but have sorta kept in touch and she recently reached out while i was preparing for finals and we got talking again. 

she's just moved to private practice and we'd lunch near her clinic ! lovely to catch up in person and swap stories, continue to be amazed by this shared understanding and was so encouraged by her work/life balance as a consultant and yummy mummy to three.

home

grad ball, driving lesson, driving test (passed!!!) moved house then home to sunny ol' singers where this pretty face was up for an adventure. we hazarded the wanton mee queue on a whim and were richly rewarded for getting outta bed before noon.

then we lazed in the afternoon and it was like we were 9 years old all over again :)

dinner at porpor's is always a feast, especially because she knows what each of her six grandchildren like the best and is sweet to cook it in exchange for answers to personal questions.

and there was also a litter of rottie pups fresh from the oven for kisses and cuddles when my father wasn't looking :)

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).

snapchat

so the younglings got me onto snapchat recently and it's provided some much welcome distraction! although i fear i'm the irrelevant aunty who's all awkward on social media not quite knowing what to do / what's acceptable behaviour. how does one navigate this??? i get the unwritten insta rules (no more than a post a day, quality control, pick the best, don't over filter, don't be annoying with smug hashtags etc) and i think i've figured out fb. similar rules as insta but posting more than a photo at a time is acceptable? i'm not overly active on either, with more spiking than regular activity because honestly who takes it seriously anymore?! 

snapchat - i want to respond to things but it seems creepy to reply to stuff on other people's stories? like on fb or insta you'd see comments and it'd be public. or you can send stuff to just selected people... i use imessage for that cos it doesn't save to camera roll. the temporary nature of it appeals - but also frustrating when i read a chat but don't reply right away and when i want to reply i've forgotten what i was meant to respond to! the immediacy and urgency required is a bit too much for me. also, a chat with one of my friends hasn't wiped itself out. i'm not bothered but is it a bug? is it just her? why??? also i can't shake how snapchat was a dark corner for dirty deeds. i know i know (giving away my age with my prude-y auntiness) but i do like the video function and how it makes video taking and sharing easy! and i can download it to send to granny who's always interested in what i'm doing. the aspect throws me a little, suppose could always do it the other way round and have people turn their heads.

my inner el cheapo loves 3-5 happy hour when local oysters are £1 each. and paired with a crisp french white? that's one loss leader for the win.

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? ;)