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.

cotswolds

after a failed attempt to go to the cotswolds after graduation, i was more determined than ever to visit. more sentimental than anything, really, having been as a child with family and brimming with happy memories of the idyllic time we'd. 

however it was different (older?) this time round and i found myself quickly bored of the beauty. felt spoilt and blase, like why do i not like this place anymore? why do i keep comparing it with the north east / scotland which i'm admittedly partial to... it also felt geriatric (sort of like the lake district!) and while i try not to be ageist about these things, there's a limit to the number of picturesque village i'll happily walk around, and number of tea rooms i will visit before losing my mind...

did stop at a cute little farm shop and stocked up for the week which was fun. bought carrots that looked like the sort bugs bunny ate (with the greens still on!) and other goodies which became dinner over the next few days. made a roast pepper soup for when we got back to london sunday night and it was so easy, fresh and flavourful that i kicked myself for not being more proactive about good produce and bothering to 'cook properly'.

also had the good fortune of a couple of great meals - the five alls being one of them.

and argh can't remember the name but this is the pub associated with barnsley house which also has rooms in case the hotel is too fancy.

i'd a discoball in my room, which was sorta funny cos at 7 months pregnant i'll literally what i can get. dancing days might be over for now but a disco ball that scatters light as i drift to sleep? why ever not :)

and what a view to wake to

the spa area was so simple yet well done, the landscapist made something outta nothing. suppose that's the skill, really, to make it look effortless and create value in the middle of nowhere.

and as a trip down memory lane, stopped for lunch at the swan hotel in bibury on the way back to london. was mildly disappointed as staying at swan hotel with the trout stream flowing in front of it was one of my favourite holiday memories growing up but it has been revamped and lost part of its charm.

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.

hello and goodbye

so before i left for medsch, had a little farewell party with friends. it felt only right to invite the friends who'd seen me through five years of medsch, and the new friends made along the way, to celebrate finally being done with uni v2. my incredibly talented and generous friend W kindly contributed the most beautiful cake. vanilla buttercream with seville orange curd which was almost too pretty to eat.

organised tables, chairs and a few vendors who were absolute crowd pleasers :)

it was great to seee everyone again and also sad in a way that i'll be london based for at least two more years.

sg eats

didn't have much time in sg. always want to be around for longer but somehow something gets in the way and i end up shortchanged of entire weeks. need to be better at planning life! but what's nice is that family friends are incredibly generous and let me choose where i want to go. it's bad i get so spoilt that if i ever move back in the distant future, i'll be gutted to no longer get first dibs. hadn't realised i'd been missing peking duck till aunty M invited us to lunch at imperial treasure. their dimsum is the best, and the peking duck divine.

was also gutted the coffee shop in the 'hood has since been sold and renamed / rebranded :(

home cooked nasi lemak dins at our former neighbours who are like surrogate grandparents to me was incredible. so many happy memories of sunday lunches round their dining table.

and greek lunch with family friends that left us stuffed to the gills.

have a little tradition of celebrating with a pig and it was only fitting to dig into one with my law prof who brutally edited my personal statement when i applied to medsch. owe much to him and my lawsch dean who was my referee. five years on, i can't safely say i've kissed law goodbye and am still scheming of ways to marry the two skill sets. but that might have to wait a while.

rainbows

it was about this time last year that i lost a dear family member. glad i was in singers to say my goodbyes in person at ITU but was back in the UK when the funeral rolled round. on a sidenote, was at GOS doing a placement at paed/neonatal ICU and it was a bit of a bus man's holiday having to explain the machines to my very sad mother who was convinced he was going to go while we were in the room ("no ma, he's stable." "is he getting better?" "no.") awful awful stuff. went walking on the day of the funeral and saw a rainbow, which was nice. not reading too much into it but i felt comforted, and i remember what an oncology consultant told me once upon a time about how there is nothing wrong in grief and take / use whatever helps one cope.

so to see more rainbows is always a nice thing. i feel like such a child whenever there's a rainbow, so much so that friends will send me photos of rainbows they've spotted in town. although i promise i'm no crusty, unwashed hippie such phenomena are more readily associated with ;)

there are no rainbows in the later photos (you're not missing anything!) but i just wanted to show how pretty the place is.

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.

first hotpot of the season

the weather is turning and not like i needed an excuse to do hotpot ! steamboat, shabu shabu, call it what you will. tried to explain it as 'chinese fondue' (ugh, why isn't fondue 'swiss steamboat'?!) but didn't really need much explaining as G&T are incredible foodies. in our pre-medicine lives, G has multiple degrees and was an engineer/quantity surveyor while T taught english in korea and japan. in fact, his palate is more azn than mine, and his spice tolerance puts me to shame. 

i'm a sentimental sap and it's been about four years since we first met as not-so-fresh freshies. it's been a busy start to final year but incredible to still have them. will be the first to admit i'm only tolerable in small doses, hence sustaining relatively long-term friendships is such a bonus!). we're all over the place, T is an hour's drive away, G lives locally but is at a hospital further out and i keep quiet about being a 5min walk from my base. can't get over the spontaneity of this evening - G and i had been planning a girly night in after a long labour ward shift (her) and a whole day of neonates (me). T had been talking about visiting us at some point before christmas but who'd have known the stars would align for a cheeky school night dins! thought it a long shot but sounded him out and he was up for the drive in (and back :(). whoop :) 

the last time the three of us were same place same time was for general medical council registration before summer! before elective! and i hate to think how it'll be some time yet before we meet again. before i get all melodramatic, medsch's been good in a large part thanks to the both of them always being there to talk me off the ledge, to know they've got my back and are always just an anguished text away.

mooncakey

posting this late but a family friend very kindly handcarried a box of max*im mooncakes to london and they were amazeballs. am not the biggest fan of mooncakes and usually spoilt and only have the newfangled snowskin truffle type from a certain hotel, or durian. never been inclinced to have the traditional sort although they're the kind i remember having as a child. so truth be told, wasn't overly excited by the mooncakes when the mister produced them with flair. however, one bite and i was sold. then i hid them from him and scoffed the lot. because there was something different about them and something not only nostalgic but also addictive. weird, huh. wondered if it was because i was subconsciously homesick (no, not really) so i asked our benefactor where she'd acquired them. turns out she'd been based in hong kong for years and found these to be the best (no surprise!) and when she located them in singers was quick to buy a box for me. the way to my heart is truly through my stomach. so there was a massive half marathon outside the flat that morning and while i spied on the lycra clad keenies darkening the doorstep, i smugly nibbled mooncakey goodness, sipped monmouth coffee and thought, "better you than me!!!"

more sg eats

every time i'm home, i try to sneak into aoki for chirashi. used to find it harder to score a reso but it's become less challenging of late. a sign of the fad-y dining scene and people constantly in search of the next big thing? call me a creature of habit but oldies are goldies and i could eat the same thing day in and out. although my lunch companion did sniff that the chirashi was better at shiro, or somewhere else, i forget. but there was no raining on my parade and i was more than thrilled to have chirashi goodness for my last lunch in sg. it's the #firstworldproblem of how to space out my meals, dynamically optimising (new favourite word, thanks rui!) the little time i've back home.

because, really, all i want to do is while the time away with grandma. we sit quietly at the small marble table that's been in the family for ages. love how there's a more formal dining table that we almost never use and the whole family crowds round the small table in the corner. i look at her weathered hands playing solitaire and watch her rhythmically laying out the cards. it's stolen moments like this that i wish i could freeze forever, savouring every second just being in her presence, watching her go about her day, because i'm ever conscious that time is in short supply.

more pretty villages

there was this perfect moment when we'd stopped for crepes by the sidewalk and had the yummiest savoury crepes. simple stuff, local fatty pork and cheese, apples and were chatting over lunch when this street performer dressed as charlie chaplin started dancing to happy music. the sun was just right, the company even better and the music had me wanting to join the tap dance (hey, secret skill!). it was one of those things one can't plan, but enjoys immensely when it happens and for a while everything was well with our world.

re-visited deauville! was there during my gradtrip and proudly wearing my honfleur hat. the mister hadn't been but my various protestations that it was twee and artificial fell on deaf ears. he had to see it for himself. and he did. and it was cuter than i remember it to be but trying too hard for me to find it truly attractive. so we did a quick survey then headed to honfleur which i much prefer.