living spaces

it's really not half bad.

thought long and hard before putting these up. there's something really personal about where you sleep at night and while i don't think i'd share photos of my (home) bedroom, i feel less of a connection to this room. 

it's comfortable enough, wish i had a bigger bed but c'est la vie d'une étudiante! you can't see the fairy lights (or can you?) but they make all the difference at night when i refuse to switch on the awful ceiling light in the middle of my room. so far, i'm getting by with the desk lamp, bedside table lamp and fairy lights. 

yet more than the actual living space, it's the lifestyle i'm relishing. i suddenly have so much time it's unbelievable. and life is simple when all you need to do is care for yourself. there's temptation to be selfish, to do whatever i want whenever i want so i've been following em's sound advice that this life isn't all about me, although it sure seems like that right now :) have settled into a comfortable routine and learning to appreciate even the mundane tasks like doing dishes and laundry. and as things speed up in school, these little chore pockets are surprisingly good down time to take a step back and ruminate about the day's class. then again, i doubt i'll be pondering the central dogma as i scrape dried food out of my pot...

another temptation i'm resisting with every fibre of my being is lapsing into my pizza-a-day habit in stockholm. oh the perils of living with a construction worker who offered to pick up a pizza for me every time he got one. this happened on a daily basis and before i knew it, i was a whale.

not exactly daikanyama

but i'm quite liking the coffee van just outside the faculty because nothing warms the hands quite like a hot cuppa' does.

(and for the daikanyama reference, click here.)

what's your usual pick-me-up in the a.m.?

one of those days

where all i want is bak ku teh and a cuddle.

it's crazy cold, the rain is torrential and the winds are blowing cars off the roads. ok, i exaggerate but you get my point. nevertheless, i got completely drenched on the way home from uni which did wonders for my already waning morale.

when i got home, there was nothing else to do (ran outta wine, cheese and juice) but pop to the cafe opposite my flat for some good ol' carb comforting i.e jacket potato crammed full with cheese. oh be still my pounding heart. and as i type this, the manfriend is deep in the throes of intellectual ecstasy churning out his law-changing affidavit. i remain amazed at how he is as big an asset as i am a liability.

miss my girlfriends and it's thursday so i especially miss vidz :(

(thanks for joining this pity party of one, i promise to be more upbeat tomorrow.)

headed to cambridge this weekend with the crew so things are looking up!

koh pha ngan

came to uni during freshers' week and it took every bit of self-restraint to stop myself from throwing on my swim suit and prancing around in the cold. after all, how could i say no to hibiscus leis and straw skirts, plenty of sand, glow and UV? however, the voice of reason prevailed and as it was his last night, we had a wonderful grown up dinner followed by wonderfully grown up drinks. on the way home, we chanced upon this beachy horde outside a popular nightspot. at which point he rolled his eyes at me and said, 'if i hadn't stopped you...' and i turned beet red with shame. 

ohmyword, sometimes i really do need saving from myself!

 

have you ever been to a full moon party? what's that like?

lest you think

back to school is all fun and games, even i needed to recover from the sudden spike in happening activity. a teensy weensy kitchen mishap left me with a burnt pot and no amount of scrubbing would get the charred remains of my ill-fated quinoa lunch off. 

thankfully, my flatmate S was around and she said her mother soaks kitchen accidents in soda crystals overnight. traipsed to tesco and found a 1kg bag for 94p. not half bad for the amount of relief it was supposed to bring me. followed the instructions to a T and made a strong solution by dissolving what seemed like a mountain of powder in boiling water.

and then i left it overnight.

the next morning, however, there was no noticeable improvement. so i did the exact same thing, hoping that my tenacity would pay off.

this afternoon, i rushed home from class to scrub my pots (sigh) and with the help for a silver scourer (borrowed from cleaning lady), tadaaa!

sparkling clean :)

apologies for this massively mundane post. felt it only responsible to give you an accurate reflection of my life here. and i find it so funny that the highlight of my day is a clean pot. 

what's the highlight of your day?

detox

after last night's excess, i had to do some conscience assuaging by attempting to live healthy. detox isn't the appropriate word, seeing how these activities inevitably involve alcohol, but oh well, that's uni for you. 

decided this year that i was going to conquer my fears, and boy do i have a lot to pick from. one such fear, or disinclination more like, is the outdoors. seeing how we don't have very much of an outdoors in singapore, this hasn't really proven to be a problem growing up. unfortunately, i happen to be going out with mr. action papa himself and he tends to drag me along on one expedition after another. scaling waterfalls in iceland? check. slow climb up to, around and then down machu picchu? check. 14km samarian gorge hike? check. trekking in the sahara desert? check. you get the picture. i'm a reluctant explorer but there are things i'd do for that boy that i'd do for no other.

wilderness*medicine, therefore, had "pick me" written all over it. 

we took a train out for half an hour, hiked for three hours from one town to another, then took the train back to the city. doesn't sound too exhausting, does it, but boy were those uphill climbs intense. got some learning in the wilderness i.e. what to do if you come across a gravely injured person and the standard procedures. still not completely sold on the whole outdoorsy thing, it is quite a lifestyle change for me. yet never say never, and i just might commit to this for the year. 

the scenery was lovely btw, definitely a selling point.

do you believe in new year resolutions? what did you want to achieve this year and how's that coming along?

ninja / pirate

had been resisting going to a bar or club since i got here. not that i'm anti-alcohol, far from, but i hadn't felt the urge to get out there. partly because i didn't want to umchik umchik with kids, and partly because i was quite happy at home. went to a pub with some grad friends last week, and for a social at the union on sunday night but finally resistance was futile and off to the medsoc pub crawl i went. props to J for getting me out of my flat, btw. would've been content to stay in and veg out but J is persistent and persuasive. 

decided too late that i was going to be exciting for a change and was left scrambling for a costume. thus, it was only natural to go as a ninja because i had black pieces i could put together, um, plus asian features count for something? so there i was, blatantly reinforcing racial stereotype while trying very hard to have a decent conversation. wish i shared T's dogged determination to avoid potentially drunken environments at all costs, but nope. then again, when the group ends up at not one but two trebles bars, en route to a club, moderation is no longer the key.

indian summer

it's kinda nice to have endless blue skies. trying to photosynthesise as much as i can before autumn sets in proper and it turns all dreary.

are you enjoying a similar heatwave where you are? is an indian summer all that common? this is the first i'm hearing of it!

going green

and eschewing meat out of sheer sloth. it's such a hassle to prepare, cook then clean up after a meat meal. let's see how long i can live on juice, brie and vino.

teehee! here's a week's worth of groceries.

 

my sloth is finally greater than my greed.

does anyone have easy peasy (haha) vegetarian recipes to share?

chips & cheese

oh where have you been my whole life? :)

i used to turn to maggi goreng after a night out but it looks like my supper monogamy is being threatened by this new discovery. chips & cheese are a genius combo, and even better when doused in ketchup and a generous sprinkling of salt. who cares if it's atherosclerosis on a platter, or styrofoam box in this case. 

as J blithely put when we shamefacedly omnomnom-ed them chippies, "it's not like we're medical students, or something." so truly, it's just these few precious weeks to go where ignorance is bliss, before our first cadaver tomorrow, before we learn about about cardiovascular disease, nutrition and metabolism. 

after all, a little knowledge is a dangerous thing.

day trip

before long i started hankering for a change of scenery and decided to take the train in search of a beautiful cathedral. thank goodness there was one relatively nearby, and plenty of gorgeous little cafes tucked away in the quiet, windy streets. definitely worth the hike for a good cuppa', and some wonderful french food in a little cafe called cafe rouge (okok, so it is part of a chain) on the bridge.

we had a hearty brunch comprising a full english breakfast, french toast, duck rilette (i can't seem to get enough!) and washed it all down with hot chocolate, before proceeding to stop for even more food on the hour. next up were scones with clotted cream and coffee, and after that we had banoffee pie, pear+stilton+walnut salad and more hot chocolate with marshmellows and whipped cream :)

quayside

a ten minute bus ride away and it's a whole new world.

talk to me

most of my blogs have been self-obsessed monologues, and really, that seems to be the inherent nature of blogging. far from enjoying an adoring public  (and haha, it might just be me and maybe rui reading this!) i really don't know who reads this, if at all! sure, i put links on facebook and under some facebook photos so i'm guessing most readers would be friends, or at the very least facebook friends. having made it a point to only add people i actually know semi-well on facebook, it'd be safe to assume that i personally know most of the readers. and then i occasionally comment on other blogs and perhaps some of those bloggers / readers clickity clicked over to mine. maybe.

i've made a few friends over the blogosphere who i'm grateful for and i'm decreasingly wary of trolls, though they're definitely out there!

either way, it'll be great to know who you are, where you're from and what you're doing, if you'd be comfortable leaving a comment and saying hi :) these three questions are the quintessentials of college socialising and i feel it's apt to extend them to this back-to-school blog.  i've also edited all the previous posts to end with a question, if you'd rather respond to something more specific, and it'd be great to hear back.

thanks for swinging by, and for taking the time to follow the adventure. while i maintain i post for myself and my memory, because i'd forget everything if i didn't, it's nice to have other people along for the ride.

worlds apart

i found it kind of funny that as i was listening to my 18year old flatmate pour her heart out after a really rough night, a dear friend across london was living it up, complete with rooftop tapas, with another grad med kid -_- 

um, kenchy, can we swap lives for a moment?

p/s what's your favourite tapas? i really like iberico neat.

C&P

it's been a wonderfully warm few days and after skyping home this afternoon (it is, after all, skype home saturday), i ambled down to nelson for some fun in the sun. the whole city was basking in the sunshine and the streetside cafes were spilling out onto the five foot ways. the unofficial dress code must have been "dare to bare" because i saw all manner of exposure on the short walk to the city. liking my location (five minutes to the centre, ten minutes max to the cafe enclave) and the flexibility that being on my own affords me.

oh, and i had the most delicious ham and cheese croissant, and butternut squash+sweet potato+pumpkin soup. yummy!

any one have any cafe recommendations they'd care to share? i'm on the look out for new places.