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...

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.

it's beginning to look

don't usually run on nerves but had excess nervous energy before psych exam and felt the need to expend it. last thing i'd want was to be all pressure of speech (hahah) during the assessment. also haven't exercised in over a month and thought to get the circulation going. it's embarrassing, really, when classmates talk about running times and i'm so easily impressed. but running slowly is better than not running at all? did a short one and stopped to take more photos than actual running but it did the trick and i was less antsy when it came to my afternoon slot. 

to celebrate after, broke out the cute cheese plate dear R gifted me when she stayed and thought to put up some christmas decorations. read somewhere that there should be things that reflect awareness of the seasons so here's me trying to look put-together for once. excuse the chavy taste, it's poundland's finest i'm afraid. but what i like about the window sill is that it's got things from people near and dear to me. the robin in the bell jar was cleverly improvised by C after we wandered round covent garden one day and she noticed me longingly eyeing something similar in a hipster shop but refusing to spend money. the lino print is of local spots i've visited recently and have fond memories of. one of the bottles was a wedding present from my winemaker friend who knows my weakness for californian pinot, the other bottle is almost older than i am and misappropriated from my parents' cellar (shh)... and a thoughtful card from a new friend whose kind words never fail to cheer me up.

scored some local aged tenderloin and did a simple pan fry for dins, then followed a friend's tip and roasted apple (while potatoes in oven) to serve with natural yoghurt for pud.

activity

so a fortnight into fourth year, things seem to be picking up pace. changing gears, perhaps? i wouldn't know, being completely useless and unable to drive stick. then again, if my uk driver's licence is to be believed, i can! and motorcycles and massive lorry-type things too. funny how my one automatic licence when converted conferred me additional and undeserved powers. but i digress.

it's been o-k so far? funny regression to pre-clinical before it's fast and furious clinicals after christmas. enjoying the down time, maybe skipping more lectures than i should. i blame my short attention span (not so much ADD but you get the picture) and preference for reading over slides on my own (and not listening to someone drone on for 2h on end). 

some excitement in the next few days. a dear housemate from stockholm is visiting with a friend so that should be good fun. she's a sweetheart and being the nostalgic sap i am, associate her with a time when i was young and carefree. in a way i like to think i still am (me me me, oh dear!) but there's no denying that things are different now. we met on the very first day in stockholm and discovered we were corridor-mates (there were 12 en suites sharing a corridor!) which was nothing short of serendipity given how many hundred internationals there must've been. we'd natter away in japanese, much to the amusement of the corridor dad (dubious honour given how he was the only swede and been living there longer than the rest) he used to comment that we sounded like kittens, which in retrospect may have been more pervy than i'd have liked to believe. but hey, benefit of doubt + lost in translation! 

when it was time for me to leave, she helped drag my massive suitcase all the way to the tunnelbana and burst into tears as i crossed the turnstiles. and when i visited in summer, she let me stay in hers so it was nice to be back on our corridor to pretend i was still on exchange (when i had in fact just graduated and stared down an uncertain future of bar exam + medsch entrance exam + medsch apps.

we linked up in tokyo a couple of years later when she was working, and when i was in first year of uni round 2, we had a skype reunion. this time she was in stockholm with what was left of our then corridor, and i was in halls. finally finally two years on it's time for some proper facetime and i can't wait to see her again. only too happy to play tour guide and wish i was in edinburgh today (where she's staying with krishna, another of our corridormates but alas i took the commercial decision to stay put and patiently await her arrival. 

there we go - a lengthy preamble about why i'm looking forward to the next couple of days. it's the business before having houseguests now. supermarket run to stock up on milk and snacks, doing a few loads of laundry to make sure bedding is nice and clean, and general activity planning using accuweather as a guide.

the wonders of fb

so earlier this year i went into a little anti-fb rant. while i'm still wary and more selective about posts, i can't deny that fb has its fabulous moments too.

the first place we stayed in london was a converted bus depot, which may or not have been approved for human habitation. it was doubtlessly functional, as any bus depot space divided into two storeys and a couple of "rooms" would be, and an instant base for us to find our feet from. but it wasn't home and we're glad to have moved into a one bedder since. spent most of summer 2012 furnishing the space and as with most shoebox apartments, we had to be space efficient. we've always wanted a comfortable sofa that would engulf you as you flop onto it. the sofa we got wasn't. instead,  it was inexpensive, practical and multi-tasking.  

yet what you pay is what you get. much as the mister and i go for good value, sometimes you've just gotta bite the bullet and dig deep into the pocket. we've been on the look out for our perfect sofa for the longest time and after a near miss last summer, the mister struck sofa jackpot last week. it's times like this i'm especially grateful for a husband who enjoys furniture shopping and negotiates a 77% discount (originally 60% off but he somehow charmed a further 17% out!) for a defect-free UK-made piece. other times i lament how it's me on the receiving end of his persuasive power, like when i find myself hiking and kayaking against my will. it's quite unreal, really, how we ended up getting our grown up / grow old with me sofa. which brings us back to the small flat. timing was of the essence and at a pinch, we could probably fit the new sofa and not have much floor space left. 

in true tag team fashion, the mister sorted out delivery and i set about arranging collection for our starter sofa before said delivery. it's only 18 months old and in good condition so the obvious thing to do was to donate it to a charity shop that offered free collection. but it was such a faff trying to get the british*heart foundation to pick it up. i called the hotline that wasn't a hotline but the swansea (?) outlet then got directed to wandsworth which was no help and diverted me to ealing. after half an hour there was still no direction! got fed up and thought i'd chance fb. within minutes, a london-based friend got in touch, said she'd rent a zipvan and collect it in the morning. snooze you lose, bhf! thrilled that L took the sofa off our hands with no fuss. the sweetheart even gave us chocolates when i should be thanking her for sparing me the charity shop collection nightmare! all it took was one fb post and good timing :) yay for economy and resourceful friends!

flying solo

(interrupting the berwick posts for a real time weekend update!)

when the mister first decided to get married in iceland, my concern was that it was a lot to ask of our family and friends. iceland might've been a hop away for us, but oceans away from singers where most of our 20+ guests were coming from. to assuage my bride-guilt, we told everyone to please please please make a holiday of it i.e. stretch the trip out, and make the most of being in europe / scandinavia before and after. naturally, we were absolutely thrilled when his best man seized the moment and proposed in paris before they joined us in iceland. how awesome is that? about 17 months later, it's the mister's turn to cross the globe and return the favour. unforch i wasn't able to get time out (i also kind of have exams next week) so it was a solo weekend for me.

it was quite telling how everyone (ok, just my gran) presumed i was going to curl up and die with the mister away. um, do i really send out co-dependency vibes?! in fact, when i told her during our weekly chat that i was going walking in the country with friends, she seemed almost horrified that i was -gasps- doing something on my own (ish). maybe it's a generational thing but i think it's so important that we get time apart, and time with our respective friends. don't get me wrong, the mister's friends are great and incredibly inclusive when i join them, but dude time is good for him. leaving singers was a big change and the mister managed to catch up with a ton of friends over the week he's been home. it's not often that we see the lovely folks we've grown so fond of over the years, but it's always a bonus when we do. 

as you might've guessed by now, the mister has boundless energy and really packs our weekends in london. so it was quite nice to take things down a notch and meander through the weekend at a more leisurely pace. T of BFG fame is also the possessor of our grad group's solo car, so he's really the main man when it comes to making for the country. thankfully, he was ever so kind as to drive to a faraway town and then lead the walk. the colours are changing and the river flowing fast. we passed horses, sheep and the odd rabbit hutch. some of those country manors are absolutely stunning with gorgeous victorian conservatories. after the walk and while high on tea and cake, i was being all nosey along main street, eyeing the ads at the realtors and plotting my way to a stately country pile. one can dream, no? :)

after the day's exertions, i'd dinner with dear girlfriends and a +1! we'd been meaning to try a new restaurant under the railway arches, and accidentally stumbled on a pizzeria so hip it hurts that i've a feeling the mister would be keen to try upon his return. it was also over dinner that i learnt of the methadone clinic at the other end of the road (the brave +1 used to stay next to it) and how we were so close to renting an attic flat a few doors down. phew! relief doesn't being to describe how i feel.

little italian

on july 13th last month, we celebrated our first year in our little london flat. it was one of those moments where we chose location over square footage and it's a decision that's paid off in dining options. who cares if we live in a one-bedder that occasionally needs to house two whole families when they visit? all that matters is we've amazing restaurants a'plenty the moment we step out :) we try not to do repeats, and to slowly eat our way right and then left. and seeing how we're on an austerity drive and i've been cooking more than normal, our neighbourhood restaurant trail had grown cold. but to celebrate our flat-a-versary (now we've a wedding anniversary i've really gone to town with the whole anniversary thing!) we ventured back into the cultural melting pot that is london and tried this cosy little italian. we started with drinks by the window, after picking from their very serious wine list that didn't take itself too seriously (see first photo!) in fact we'd this amazing red (podere basedo rosso delle venezie)  that to my deprived nose was almost margaux. can't find it anywhere else (oh believe me i've tried!) so we might need to head back to stock up before our next party! the most authentic italian we've had in a while and can't wait for our next visit, despite my vehemently not liking to do repeats :)

constantly reminded of how blessed we are to be in london, with each other for company. this being newlywed thing is working out all right, and i'm so grateful for a spouse and a house.

cheeky

one of the biggest things i've taken on this year is doing up a flat for someone very dear to me. it's a labour of love because omgosh i've been on a home-improvement fix for the past few months. of course, there's a builder for the professional stuff but i offered to decorate, without realising how much time it'd take. and how much harder it'd be to coordinate deliveries as, well, it's not my flat and i'm not there normally. but i did truly enjoy the process and if i may say so myself, it's looking mighty fineee. scored these sweet placemats (cute but poor quality, boo!) and thought they were so funny. and maybe i'll post more photos of the "after" to show you the finished product. instead of doctorlawyerindianchief, maybe i should rebrand myself as doctorlawyerinteriordesigner. ah, if only. i love how what's in my head manifests in real life when it comes to decorating. spent hours and hours sourcing for furniture and cute little things to make it a home. like the funniest poster of a monkey sitting on a crate drinking gin, to match the pallet coffee table we found on ebay. and the little banksy wall mural for some edge, and using mirrors to make the place look bigger. it's stuff like that that really gets my creative juices flowing and hmm i'm just so happy it's a good place for N to be based for the next five years.

the home cooking continues but with vegetables this time!

you can almost say i was inspired by the supper club to actually get some cooking done at home :) and i also realised i can't possibly claim to be a responsible adult if my idea of cooking is zapping frozen lasagne. if i zapped home-made lasagne, well, there's a bit more self-respect in that. i'm also a big believer in having your cake and eating it (see tower of terror below). and even get a bit defensive when people presume that i am hand-less in the kitchen just because i used to be a (ugh) career woman. in fact, i don't like how 'career' comes before 'woman'. why can't i be a woman who works and also keeps house? it's funny how when people hear i'm a qualified lawyer in medical school, i'm automatically an over-achieving and un-marriable shrew till proven otherwise.

our tiny one-bedder is something i take pride in. keeping it clean, keeping the mister in clean, crease-free shirts and cooking our meals is a role that gives me great satisfaction. i've nothing but respect for homemakers who stay at home and do all that. power to you! but i'm at a stage where we've a small flat and no kids, leaving me with plenty of time on my hands. and what better time than now to expand my very limited repertoire? dinner parties are also this fantastically grown up concept for me, like you've really got to have your life together before you can have friends over. and honestly, it's so much more affordable than going to a restaurant. then again, the mister might change his mind after he sees this month's electricity bill. currently we can only fit people into our flat two at a time, sort of like a mini noah's ark, but you know, sometimes two friends with huge personalities is all you need. though it's even better when they come bringing enough dessert for an small nation!

my local

T was done with his research paper weeks before the rest of us were. this, of course, warranted a celebration and i managed to arm-twist him into going to my local. one of the perks of living 30m (i google mapped it!) from the pub is that i'm generally well-watered. but drinking alone is reserved for very specific occasions (like when i want some down time with a good magazine) and thankfully there's usually someone who's up for a pint or two. the mister says this photo of the local in daylight is very telling. but hey, don't blame me, blame the increasingly long day light hours ;)

level up!

when i first invited A and R over for dinner, ever the considerate guest, A asked if there was any occasion. telling him it was a celebration of being alive (albeit true) was just too cheesy, so i went with "we're celebrating my new deep fryer". and that, my friends, is the unfortunate truth. so continuing on the birthday theme, my present to myself was a "cheap cheap" mini deep fryer i found on amazon. this is something i have yet to tell my healthy living parents so please be gentle and withhold judgment. 

it's easter break now and i've one glorious month to while away. last easter break (well last st paddy's to be precise) i was being kept awake by drunken revelers in a tiny 6 bed dorm in manhattan. this st paddy's i was feeling all grown-up with a spouse and a house, enjoying a very refined japanese supper club dinner with my charming changmoh cousin and his wife. what a difference a year makes!

to further cement this new-found status as capable young wife, i felt the need to learn to cook. and as a product of the internet generation, what better place to start than online. so i googled a few recipes, got the mister to drive me to the asian grocer's* and armed with hope and a freezer full of frozen lasagne (just in case!) i set about this latest domestic blitz. truth be told, i'd been mulling on the menu for almost a month now since i first sent out the invite and envisioning my little action plan as to what to cook and when. hey, when you're simultaneously prepping and cooking six dishes in the span of two hours, organisation is key! thought canto-style would be the most crowd-pleasing and thankfully our wonderful friends 1) ate lots 2) complimented loudly. behaviour that secures them an open invite to future 'dos. 

i attempted the list below, served with steamed rice. nothing fancy, no bells and whistles. really should have done a dry run because there was this heart-stopping moment** just before they arrived where i thought the said fryer was. not. working. turns out i was using it wrong and after jiggling it around a bit, it cranked into motion. disaster averted but oh so scary nevertheless.

so we had: 

steamed egg

salt & pepper chicken wings

beef stew

spare ribs with black bean sauce

sweet & sour pork

wonton soup

"lao ban" style tau huay and fresh fruit for dessert

and because their mamas taught them well, they came laden with cakes and sweet wine. be still, my sugar-craving heart. in fact, we were so full that they graciously left the goods behind and the cakes are now mine all mine for breakfast, lunch and dinner today :D

for the aspiring home cooks out there, the evening's cooking order was as follows.

1730h prep stew and marinate chicken wings, spare ribs, sweet sour pork

1800h put stew in oven for 2h, mix eggs for steaming, prepare tau huay, make sweet & sour sauce

twiddle thumbs till 1930h

1930h put egg dish and spare ribs (separately) in steamer and steam for half hour, steam rice too

1940h fry chicken wings

1950h fry battered pork in deep fryer then stir in sweet & sour sauce in frying pan

2000h pop frozen wontons into soup (boiled pork bones with dried shrimp earlier in the day) and simmer for 5mins 

(and bob's your uncle!***)

*funny story here, indulge my little brag! tried to buy beer for them boys but GOT CARDED. and because i'd run out of the house with just the mister's plastic, i had no ID. tried flashing my wedding band (hmm, maybe counter-productive) and insisting that i've been legal for longer than i care to admit but the cashier wouldn't budge. didn't know whether to laugh or cry but unabashedly thrilled i look underaged :D in fact, every time i'm NOT carded, a small part of me dies on the inside.

**yes i shouldn't joke about these things. but if that had happened (CHOY!) i would've been in good hands because incidentally, R is a totally bad*ass neurosurgeon who once casually CPR-ed a man back to life on the streets of london. no big, just your friendly neighbourhood doctor-man.

***cantonese as dinner might've been, anglophilic i still am

self-invite

was at covent garden with my sweet friend M and after a highly satisfying tea at la*duree, i must've been drunk on their special blend that i invited myself over to hers. dodgy as that may sound, M was ever indulgent and didn't mind me hanging at hers while our men were at work. yep, we're fun like that :) and it's a nice story, really, because when M was first accepted for her LLM, i commiserated with her housing woes. little did we know that she'd eventually be given accommodation and of the most luxurious sort! her 450sq ft studio is every student's dream... well, it'd definitely have been mine! and she's got a lovely view and almost 360degrees of huge windows with plenty of natural light. if you squint, you can even see the shard in the distance. what a gem of a place! and what a gem of a friend :)

nekkid tree

first order of business after finding a home was finding a christmas tree to fill it. well, not exactly but the mister and i had been talking about a tree for the longest time after our tray garden, green/brown  as it might be, was just not cutting it. fortuitously, when we went to our first christmas market of the year, what should we spy but a christmas tree shoppe! and one that promised eco-friendly trees no less. admittedly we were still cutting down a 6 year old tree (gulp!) for purely self-indulgent purposes but hey, it was a local tree requiring the tiniest carbon footprint to get it to our doorstep. so we took the hit, and bought of very first tree. getting it to stand nicely in its stand (bought separately!) was no easy feat and the mister looks like he engaged in a fistfight with wolverine, and lost. judging by the cuts and bruises all over his hands and forearms, i wouldn't be surprised if he got some concerned questions in the office. after spending too many days in our wastebin filled with water (amazing what can double up as a pail should the need arise!) it's been ceremoniously relocated to a stand that holds 3L of water. now we just need to decorate!

incidentally, do note how our photo wall remains a photo floor for now. we have such terrible wall commitment phobia that our beautifully framed photos (of our families, of us, of the wedding etc) have yet to make it to the walls. have a sinking feeling that when the time comes for us to move out (gulp! i'm already having pre-withdrawal symptoms for our first ever home together!) the frames will not have budged and we would have hoovered around them for x years.

self-improvement

while we're talking about weekends, last weekend the mister and i decided to bite the bullet and level up our domesticity. with K's belated thanksgiving dinner that night, we'd the perfect excuse to get started. in the span of two hours, between us we managed to not destroy 1. mixed berry sorbet 2. red peppers and tomato soup 3. vegetable gratin  4. PUMPKIN SEED BREAD (!!!) didn't manage to get a photo of the soup but i'm sure you know what soup looks like... nevertheless this culinary coup was a mega accomplishment and we were feeling very smug about it. until the next morning. when we tried to rehead the rolls and some multiseed bread for good measure when... well, learnt we'd quick reflexes and our spontaneous smoke detector drill i.e. cover the detector as quickly as we can with whatever we can grap (in this case it was a damp rag) actually works.

pride before fall, my friends.

little victories

it might not seem like much but we've not had a doorbell since moving in in september. when the landlord finally came round with one last evening, it was cause for celebration. and how else does one celebrate a spanking new doorbell than with a pizza delivery? gotta love how inexpensive take out is over here. 2 x 10" pizzas (worth GBP6.50 each!) and kebab with chips for a tenner including delivery? sweet! dire as the kebab might've looked...

now our friends needn't knock like woody woodpecker on the door when they come round.

stating the obvious

 

i've a thing for wooden block lettering. when i was shopping on the mister's plastic (and 50% discount!) earlier in the week, i couldn't resist this little gem for our bathroom. 

that's all.

envy

a couple of week ago, i popped back to the halls where i spent first year to see if i'd any mail. while my mail had been unceremoniously destroyed over summer (sigh), the hall did undergo major renovations and i was more than a little envious of the current freshies. ok so it's a bad photo and the angle isn't the same but OHMYWORD it looks so modern now! to think we put up with gaping holes in the wall above the cooker, a sink with no hot water and the ickiest carpet in existence. the sweet girls who live there now let me have a peek in their upgraded rooms (i know, i'm so nosey!) and they now have black out blinds. to think slept with an airline eye shade every night. even in winter...

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.

summer snaps london

i hate to admit it but everything in the flat is almost kind of completely from amazon, or ikea. sigh. this coffee table book is no exception, and oh my what a treasure trove of information!

gotta love what's on bond street

met B for lunch at the breakfast club in soho and she very kindly bought hummingbird bakery cupcakes after for the mister and i to share. the red velvet is truly the stuff of dreams.

such a well-behaved dog!

it's been a little quiet around here

because it's gotten really noisy in the real world.

spent last weekend moving into our first real home together. never mind it's completely unfurnished and we'd to borrow an inflatable mattress from kind friends. it'll come together, slowly, and creating a space to our own is really quite exciting :)

after we moved all earthly possessions into our new place, it's back to singapore for more wedding festivities. grateful how despite a demanding ful;-time job, the mister has gone into planning nazi mode and he's taking care of every little detail. again. love how he's freed me up to spend time with my grandmothers as he precision plans wedding round 2, and round 3. as if getting married once wasn't enough! 

back in singers, i get the fun part i.e. opening presents, trying to exchange what i can for cold hard cash and hosting our lovely lovely friends who flew in just for the party. the pups have grown and i'm even more in love with them as they develop personalities :) it's going to be a fun few weeks home.

started slow with a few rounds at my favourite colonial bar and the best company a girl could ask for. i miss them so and it was great to catch up proper (even though they were just in iceland with us heh). we go wayy back and have seen each other through so many relationships it's not funny. they know all these horrible things about me and yet haven't friend-dumped me yet! maybe it's a matter of time. and maybe things will only get better.