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.

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.

KL

summer time is wedding time and once back in singers, i hunkered down to my elective before realising that NGO work meant i'd to work weekends too. tell a lie, the NGO was great and non pushy / demanding but i was so keen i just didn't want to stop doing work for them. ended up biting off more than i could chew and over-committing, then not wanting to drop all the balls worked harder than i'd in some time. to which my darling sister commented that she's never seen me so busy, not even when i was a pupil. why, thanks.... but overtime was a means to an end and i managed to take work to KL (augh, oh no, morphing into one of those martyrs who humblebrags about work!!!) to attend a dear friend's wedding. was flattered to be one of two (!!!) friends at the wedding, because it was a small family affair. hopping across the causeway to KL also was an excuse to visit J and A. we met in stockholm in 2009 (!!!) and have had almost annual check ins, with J and her family graciously hosting me in aix over two summers, A and J hosting me in perth, they came to singers for our wedding celebration, A was in london last winter and they were coming to singers J's folks the week after. delighted to have had more time with them this summer and ever grateful for friends and friendships that grow with me. 

they knew all the good local haunts and i'm well impressed by their culinary sense of adventure. much braver than i'll ever be if the roles were reversed. they also very very kindly put me up in a swish hotel (!!!) because they wouldnt' hear of me crashing on their sofa. absolutely unnecessary but much appreciated and i did end up spending lots of time on their sofa, just not actually sleeping! 

cracking view from their apartment by day and by night

indulgence at the mandarin oriental. big fish in not so small pond! that tuna did not die in vain.

the flying elk

hands down my best meal of 2015! and we weren't even into june yet :) second best meal of 2015 was the hand&flower with the same friends. i'm sensing a pattern here... photo credits to the multi-talented and ever resourceful shawn chan, who really should just open a restaurant already. so there i was, the pseudo-local convinced that i knew the city like the back of my hand. conveniently forgetting that much would've changed since 2009, and that in 2009 i was on a student budget that stretched to lidl mystery meat that was pushing expiry. the food scene has really taken off since (actually, it could've always been elevated, just that i wasn't privy to any of it!) and trust S to score us the last table at the flying elk, just before their flight. unforch i was in foodie heaven and have since forgotten what any of the dishes were called. have a memory more for tastes, textures and smells than i have for constituent ingredients (sigh, can forget about ever attempting to replicate anything!) but food is meant to be transportative, isn't it? and this meal took me to cloud9.

street food

constantly grateful for foodie friends who're clued in to the best finds in each city. K, my cousin-in-law, visited my cousin C when she was in stockholm on exchange. he's not been back since but when i sent him the anthony bourdain kebab stand photo, he told me to get the tunnbrodsrulle without missing a beat. funny story there, the evening before i'd done something most geriatric and left F to nap back at the hotel. hadn't realised i'd pointed out said kebab stand before, and the sweet girl, bless her, brought back a kebab for my pre-dinner snack. now this was before i went crazy at koh phangan.

aside: was last at koh phangan with A and S and was well impressed by the authenticity of the thai food available in stockholm. shouldn't have been surprised, though, as there's a direct flight from bangkok to stockholm and many cross-cultural couples, lets just say ;) 

after kebab #1, i just had to go back for another. and got my wish the next day when i hatched a cunning plan to return. there was also stikkinikki gelato to head in the same direction for. nikki's was an institution by the water and when i was last there, it was summer 2010 and J and i were talking marriage and babies. in fact, when i told her we'd gotten engaged, she brought up our conversation and said something along the lines of, 'omg, everything's gone according to plan!" now it's not often that i've my ducks lined up in a row but that was one of the rare occasions where, yes, things did work out and i am more than grateful :) so you can imagine my horror when i went in search of nikki's but found it to be a generic shop! the hut was the same but it was selling, gasps, walls! thankfully the interwebs pointed me in the right direction there are now shops all over stockholm. oh the lofty peaks of gelato mountain, i mean it was a pint trying to squeeze into a tiny cup. much like me and skinny jeans after this trip.

the legendary tunnebrodsrulle - sausages, mash, shrimp cocktail. heart attack (or two) in a wrap. so. awesome.

and to my horror, my spirit sartorial twin is a swedish father of two. time to up my game...

sunday markets and more

a friend asked if stockholm's overt "boatiness" got annoying and it wasn't something that had occurred to me. it's an archipelago after all, and i like bridges, so the interconnected waterways and miles and miles of waterfront real estate was more charm than cringe. but i did get the point, walking around it felt like one was never far from the water, or a boat or two. went wandering to skeppsholmen and castleholmen and tried not to blend in with the horde of chinese tourists on bikes. it was a perfect day, skies so blue they looked unreal and air of calm serenity about the place. 

went to the sunday market at hornstull but was waylaid by the floating bar. blue skies, beer, boat and palm trees - what's not to like? was also a little nostalgic (sensing the general theme here?) because it's one of the few parks where alcohol is allowed and the first time i met team oz when A.Mc organised a class picnic. i think he might've secretly been trying to get to know J better. six years -four of which they've been living together- three countries, four cities, two jobs and a couple of graduate degrees later, they're in KL and more loved up than ever in KL :))))

 

ok and i don't know what they put in these loaves but the bread was sensational. i'm a relatively undiscerning carbohydrate queen but even my lead palate could tell that this was something else. we saw it everywhere and wished i could've secured a steady stream of swedish bread fresh and hot on my doorstep daily. one can dream...

fika

fika was a habit i'd always practiced but hadn't realised was swedish. i mean, what's not to like about tea and cake in the afternoon? what was a pleasant surprise (probably not new, i'd just forgotten) was how there were hipster cafes aplenty in stockholm, with something interesting every few metres or so. it was amazing! quite sure each was as good as the next and it was only a matter of time (i.e. stop when Hungry and not merely peckish, which is generally me 24/7) that determined where our feet actually fell.

i also go on like a broken recorder about how the light in stockholm is different. soft and dappled, it changes everything and gives it a soft, glowy feel. not unlike a good instagram filter.

fuel-ed by cinnamon rolls, went walking along the soder and relived one of my first few days in stockholm where C, introduced by a parisian family friend, very kindly took me around and gave the best introduction to the city. bumped into a german student at kth (asked him to take my photo, how else) and was invited to join him and his swiss friend on the rocks. politely declined (was feeling antisocial) but my corridormates were from kth but decided to spare him the long and boring spiel about how i used to study in stockholm too and boy aren't we lucky :)

gumball 3000 2015

hadn't heard of gumball 3000 till i excited texted team oz from the plane. A.Mc, arbiter of cool, said it'd be a good weekend with pretty cars in the city. not much of a car fan but like to think i appreciate beauty. wasn't going out of my way to locate said race but it was everywhere, and the crowds pushing forward to get up close and personal with these sleek metal monsters were equally unmissable. happened to pass it when walking in the morning, then maybe three more times as the day went by. tells you something about my abysmal sense of direction, and how i might've essentially been going in circles.!

love how sweden is egalitarian max, and no one is above the law ;)

stockholm revisited

give me half a chance and i'll wax lyrical about stockholm and the idyllic time i spent there as an exchange student 2009/10. it was a different season of life, one i thoroughly enjoyed and probably spend a little too much time dwelling on. trying to distil into words just what made it so special is difficult. it was the first time i was away from home on my own for an extended period and a journey of self-discovery, to sound so very cheesy. i learnt what my trigger points were, how i function best and just how many loo rolls i go through in a month. granted, much has changed, i've changed many times over, but it was a time where life was simple. my biggest decision was whether i wanted a cinnamon roll with my coffee in the morning. 

have sort of resisted going back too soon after leaving so as to better avoid going down the nostalgia rabbit hole, but i think half a decade is a good enough length of time. and what struck me was the power of the subconscious. went for a walk the first morning with absolutely no agenda but muscle memory won and i ended up retracing steps i didn't know i'd remember.

stayed at a hotel next to ostermalmstorg and went past cafe opera, along the water by the grand hotel, passed old town, the ferry docks where we took the hell-ish overnighter to hellsinki, then up the stairs to hermans (closed) where i chuckled at the bus loads of tourists at the designated view point, not about to tell them the soder is more picturesque, the down to medborg, the anthony bourdain kebab stand and ventured into sofo before heading back via slussen.

what was also funny was how i remember tunnelbana stations by who lived at which one. J was at st erik's, I was at slussen... there was literally a memory on every corner even though the names of places had changed, the streets were the same. there was cafe where my parents interrogated F (A chickened out) before letting me travel to portugal with two german strangers, the city garden i left f11 for because drunk swedes was not my thing, berns where i'd lunch but not club at, cafe opera for wednesday nights. 

was also conscious to discover new things and not merely try to condense an entire exchange into 72h. hadn't expected to feel so strongly being back in the city i once called home (but proud resisted going back to uni or old flat) and sorely missed the friends i'd spent glorious swedish summers (and less glorious winters) with. but hey, people move on. and if i could do anything differently, it'd have been to utilise the time and learnt svenska, and maybe audit more law classes taught in english. more social, more hedonistic then and i wonder what regrets i'll have five years down the line.

will be posting some photos and thoughts over the next couple of days if you'd like to see :) also, have added some commentary to the previous photo posts!

thoughts on jan 2015

typing this on the first day of feb. can't believe january's whizzed by and we're into the second month of 2015. things have been busy in the real world, hence the relative silence on this front. but it's not just that. part of me feels increasingly reticent and hermetic with time, as if there's a creeping aversion to social media and being "out there" about what i get up to. life's been pretty much the same, more social in some ways even, but i'm less inclined to shout it from the rooftops. 

lots has happened this month, most of it thought-provoking, and i'm trying to figure out what motivates me. uninteresting existential questions and the like. not quite searching but i think most of one's 20s (or life?) is spent refining ideas, cultivating new ones and generally working towards being a better version of oneself. in theory, anyway. 

been incredibly fortunate to be in clinics at a centre of excellence and relishing every moment. steep learning curve and everyone's a superstar so i leave work feeling 2cm tall most days. humbling and awe-inspiring at the same time and so very excited to be on the cutting edge of medicine, learning from some of the world's best. did take a while to find my feet and found the first week particularly tough but hey, comes with the territory and glad to be on the other side now. also, being a 15min stroll to work is literally the best thing ever. not counting on the stars aligning as such again so treasuring every extra minute of zzz. was a little overambitious and ended up squeezing what was meant to be a six week audit into a week and a half so there were a couple of 12+h days (oh the shame!) that are thankfully behind me, or so i hope! 12h should be nothing but i'm totes weaksauce after leaving gainful employment in 2011.

on the social front it's been a carousel of friends in town and been lucky to have time with dear friends i don't see as often as i'd like. what's fun has also been doing different things with guests so as not to bore myself with a tried-and-tested "jo's top 5 things to do in london". keeping things fresh and mixing them up just means sort of dragging my ever-obliging visitors into my life, doing what i normally do i.e. weekends in the country, brunch in the 'hood, coffee runs to the local bakery, sunday dimsum lunches, gastropub adventures with foodie friends, home-cooked dinners at home, exploring new korean restaurants in the city etc. so, really, nothing particularly special or touristy. there's something to be said about finding joy in the ordinary and i've been quite particular about not going out of my way to entertain people. selfish as it sounds, life goes on and they're welcome to come along. 

a friend commented that the company i keep is all hyper-ambitious, over-achieving types and i got a bit self-conscious. don't necessarily agree but admit it might seem like that? like to think i value capability and potential, not particularly current networth in fact, i'm a big believer in undervalued sorts. yet i'm privileged to know some truly interesting people with fascinating minds, the sort i can just sit and listen to and feel smarter for at the end of it. love an exchange of ideas and getting different perspectives. A was telling me about criminal defence she practices at the hague, J about clerking for a federal judge and their frequent trips to hold court in papua new guinea, M about her organic dog food business and breeding winning racehorses, Y about auctioning off a diplomat's art collection in amsterdam, S for booking the hand&flower a year in advance and letting me free-ride on his reso, X about the ebola vaccine trials she's working on, E about writing foreign worker policy in singers and R likening neurosurgery to plumbing. having left the legal industry, i'm more than happy to live vicariously through friends in practice whom i met in stockholm on exchange and who've gone on to do amazingly well as lawyers, and friends who've similarly left practice for more attractive ventures. i suppose everyone picks their path and their battle. 

there's also been a fair bit of event planning / hosting to be done for which i grudgingly drag my feet along. there's a 'do for 100 at a chinese resto i like but i forget how much i enjoy negotiating and doing deals. feel incredibly accomplished to have substituted better dishes at no extra cost, and locked in four bottles of wine per table at a steal, with fixed low prices for cocktails. maybe it's an azn thing but i get such a kick out of feeling i've created / added value. and it's a bit embarrassing but i also like cultivating relationships and reaping the benefit in VIP discount and queue-jumping privileges. 20min wait for table of seven when i've waited 90min for table of three previously... don't mind if i do! doing another dinner at hutong, this time for 30, and again it's game face on and charm offensive. may be getting the wheels rolling for a nus*lawsch reunion in london too! feel the point of garnering goodwill is to pass it on, and who better to benefit than dear alma mater.

what's been more restorative, however, is having friends over for dinner. gotten into a little groove and taken to cooking for one or two friends at a time. not a fan of big groups unless absolutely necessary and it's great to do a simple but quality meal over a bottle of wine. far from a confident cook but friends have been forgiving, which's always an attractive trait. what was super nice today was that friends who were in the neighbourhood stopped by for coffee, which turned into cheese and charcuterie with bubbly rose. it's wonderful to be known and to have friends comfortable enough to come over spontaneously. and after they left, my local thai decided to be snarky so got take out and had newly-pregnant friends home for dinner instead. not to be vindictive but it's more comfortable at home, with limitless wine and singha beer plus friends stayed past midnight which's usually the sign of a good night, especially with mama-to-be's new 8pm bedime.

then when i'm social-ed out, bid a hasty retreat into my little cave and stay there for a stretch before venturing out again. more ebb and flow of interest and energy than bipolar (i hope!) and truly enjoying this time of responsibility-free self-indulgence. work's contained to the week, weekends wide open for 12h sleeps or as action-packed as i'm wanting them to be. appreciate things won't always be like this and grateful to be in a good place now. can't ask for more!

electives

it's a great feeling being this close to christmas holidays. have under two weeks to go to end of fourth year exams and as with most exam periods, life gets nice and simple. my inner aspergers'y kid doesn't like change, and enjoys routine. so waking up, having a leisurely breakfast, getting some revision done, heading to the shops, taking my time to cook dinner and calling it a night early is some kind of bliss. fortunate not to have anything / anyone else to care for, and to be able to retreat into this selfish self-indulgent world is a luxury i'm not counting on for much longer. 

as part of my arsenal of delaying tactics (oh yes, there are plenty!) i finally got round to elective proposals and risk assessment forms. such fun! and having been there, done that with a crazy exchange in stockholm, the wanderlust isn't as strong. stockholm was life-changing, and the best 6+ months of my life. it's still a period i reference a little too often in conversation, have friends (hopefully for life!) from, and languish in amazing memories of hazy corridor parties and the feeling of absoulute freedom. i've such a soft spot for stockholm and am almost scared to visit because i know things will be different, the people i'd grown to know and love aren't there any more, and the magic is likely to have faded some in the five years since. gosh! five years! feels like yesterday. so that's my roundabout way of saying that my last 'elective' / exchange, call it what you will, set the bar so high that nothing could ever top it. 

in a perfect world, i'd go on elective in the caribbean, sip rum and lie in the shade for a lazy eight weeks. but alas my inner workaholic (good friends with the inner aspie) wouldn't allow that to happen. there's also a husband in london to be with, and family in singers i've sorely neglected the past couple of years. reality, huh. thank you parents, for instilling this work ethic that i'm constantly at odds with. every time i want to take the easy way out and do absolutely nothing, i imagine their disapproval and get spurred on to make an effort. so much for self-motivation!

beaujolais

it's been back to lectures/seminars these couple of months and i'm missing the on-my-feet activity being in clinics afforded. in an attempt to be less sedentary, i've been trying to do a daily or every two day supermarket run. less to carry and any excuse to walk to town for free waitrose cawfee ;) 

spotted a whole stand of le beaujolais noveau* yesterday and was instantly transported to the cold evening in stockholm when i was first introduced to it. not old enough to have accumulated too many personal traditions as yet but do like when things fall into a natural rhythm. more clever marketing than a truly stellar wine but hey, anything meant to be appreciate young and chilled (both qualities i try to embody!) has my vote of confidence. of course, a young red needs company and i was quick to pick up cheese, grapes, anchovy stuffed olives and crackers. would've been complete with charcuterie but was thought to go easy on the nitrates. one thing about waitrose is that they do the essential cheese box for under £4 but inevitably it's not the most impressive of selections. somehow feel there's no reward for sloth and i'm more inclined to pick my own brie and blue which comes to the same price. also had a lovely block of parmesan knocking around the fridge from a pumpkin bacon carbonara last week so didn't need to subject myself to the essential range cheddar.

unintentionally a fully waitrose dinner with the cheeses nibbled and beaujolais imbibed as the spatchcock chicken we jokingly refer to as roadkill roasted in its tray. different year, different company but same le beaujolais noveau. always a good time :)

*annually released on the third thursday of november. there used to be a race to bring the newly released bottles to london!

officially autumn

officially the start of autumn and it's already turning cold. something about this season seems to kick off a maelstrom of cravings and i'm stuffing my face with greggs sausage rolls and donuts. well not just donuts but danishes, brownies and all the candy i can get my hands on. waitrose prawn crackers are another firm favourite. so much for being adult and having a healthy relationship with food! 

suppose greed is something most people struggle with and it's something i need to reign in more often than not. but speaking of which, it was refreshing to have A san and her friend visit. i like people who eat well. nothing annoys me like a house guest with dietary restrictions, if you get what i mean. so these two lovely ladies were down for everything. from a massive yumcha lunch, chased by bubbletea and snacking through the afternoon then more flights of beer than we should've had (complete with side of pervy stranger!) before coming home for home cooked goodness. (wo)men after my own heart. usually over order at the yumcha place but was pleasantly surprised that they finished everything, and dinner which is usually for 5-6 was put away in next to no time. C commented that she thought i'd be having leftovers till the end of the week but noooo! 

much as i'm as wary of excess as i am of over-restriction, they look perfectly healthy and are active so no, no binge-ing there either. it's just such a tricky topic, isn't it? with all these trigger warnings you're meant to put up just in case someone with an eating disorder wanders by. joining C and a colleague for dinner tomorrow and have been warned not to mention weight. not that it's on my mind much / something i usually bring up but hm, put on notice to avoid at all costs! pity - as it's always nice to have an open discourse and i'm a girly girl who rather be supportive and part of a strong sisterhood that engenders body confidence. but recognise not everyone wants to talk about it, and fair enough! 

digression aside, weather was mucky but like to think we made the most of it. hit up the museum, traipsed across the bridge, stuck our heads into the concert hall and just soaked in the sights. a little more soaking than i'd have liked with the spitting rain but what's a girl to do. thrilled that A san is the same delightful person she was all those years ago. we'd a good sit and think because ohmyword has it been five years since we first met?! really felt our age. was glad to know she thought i was the same (whew!) and it was as if no time had lapsed. to me, that's the beauty of true friendship and being able to pick up where we left off is a real blessing. and the funny aside with the pervy stranger - not quite worth repeating but constantly reminded how the world is a big bad place and a girl can't be too careful. long story short, we got talking with a lone guy two tables away. perfectly innocent, harmless banter - or so we thought. honestly, hand on heart, nothing untoward at all and i'm usually quite switched on about boundaries and my spidey senses were far from a'tingling. but back at the flat, A san discovered that mr. creepster had added her on fb (he must've overheard us talking about her full name...) and then started messaging and basically asked if she wanted to get it on. in less polite terms, of course. so we had a mini panic and i was glad we hadn't mentioned my address or whereabouts or anything vaguely identifiable other than her name (bad enough!). quick delete and block but A san was visibly shaken :(

didn't get much sleep, as expected, and went straight to a 90min prescribing exam. yay! having my cake (lemon meringue pie?) and eating it is something i'm always all for. even if it meant staying up after everyone went to bed to plough through 42 pages of worked examples. fun times - being a full-time student is the bombdiggity. i think.

and this was breakfast near the station! A san's first taste of porridge (english-style) on C's recommendation. she liked it :) gimme good ol' rice porridge any day, but oats with thick honey and blueberries is admittedly comforting on a blustery autumnal morning.

it's only mid-week and i'm already exhausted. busy weekend ahead. another weekend, another set of friends passing through london. there's E who i've not met in over 5 years. chance meeting at a dinner party and she was so kind as to have her hotelier father host the mister and i on his grad trip in south america. we went from backpacking on a shoestring budget to living in the lap of luxury with comp-ed stays at his arequipa then colca hotels. immensely grateful and still wanting to pay it forward some day. that's the beauty of kindness, isn't it. and there's A who's a swiss lawyer (judicial clerk) turned banker turned big swiss bank biz dev dude who's in town. dialing things up and see them escalating to high octane so bracing myself for a big weekend. there's also 7am spin (gotta make small dents at the autumn feasting) and perhaps a tiny staycation if i'm lucky. so hey, bring it !