matsuri

the mister's japanese client brought him to matsuri last month and he came home on cloud nine. he enjoyed it so much he even tried to swing a dear friend's graduation dinner from zuma to matsuri, albeit without success. but such was matsuri's pull that the mister forgot all decorum (granted among close friends decorum is the last thing we exhibit!) and practically hijacked a celebration dinner six years in the making (no, our friend wasn't repeatedly retained, he's a doctor), and hosted by said friend's proud parents.

anyway with the mister itching to re-visit matsuri with me, we needed no excuse to go by. but it so happened that we had last-minute guests in town because hey it's like the world and his wife are in london this summmer! and the only thing better than spontaneous drop-ins (so what if they were here to watch wimbly finals... i maintain it was us they came to see) is spontaneous drop-ins who love food as much as we do. so to celebrate their recent engagement and us all being in london together, the mister booked matsuri on their last night in london.

it was a substantial ten course omakase and below are the photo-worthy highlights. i.e. the mountain of lobster they teppan-ed on the spot, and FIREBALL ICE CREAM. yeah, totally a street-fighter moment.

(photo credits to the mister because he's steady hands and doesn't crack under pressure the way i do!)

kitchen table

to take the edge off our return from barca because coming in was a complete 'mare, the mister planned a kitchen*table date for the next day. and boy am i glad he did because when you arrive at 2am and have to host in-laws in a one-bedder, complete with 7am start because his sister was arriving bright and early from NYC, i was getting a'hangry. now i've been to b*dawgs a couple of times and really liked the place. to avoid the queue, i'd go really early or really late. but i liked the concept and well, bubbles and processed meat on a brioche bun. what's not to like?! so you can imagine my surprise when i learnt of kitchen*table but james and his missus are a lovely lovely pair and dinner was such good fun. would defo be back with more friends in tow :)

anniversary

 it's been some time since i last took a photo of every. single. course.  at a restaurant because 1. i don't take very good photos and would never do it justice 2. it's an azn cliche i rather not be associated with. doesn't mean i don't like food photos (totally voyeuristic that way!) but i try not to take them myself. or post them. but now and then, some thing comes along that is truly photo worthy and then i succumb. like at our anniversary dinner. it was also fortyone courses. which had me waving a white flag at 38 (so close!) while the mister valiantly ploughed on with it and finished my share of 39, 40 and 41. i'm a sucker for bells and whistles and was naturally blown away by the ice cubes (ya, i'm easily impressed!) and the presentation. but with fortyone courses, some are bound to stand out more than others. i felt the azn-inspired dishes weren't as well-executed but that's because i've a spoilt palate when it comes to asian cuisine. 

more than the meal itself, i really enjoyed being able to celebrate turning one with the mister. it's been an amazing year and getting married is hands down the best decision i've ever made. we dated for five years before and i thought that was good, and then we got married and things got even better and now i'm almost evangelical about marriage because it's been such a journey and i'm happier than i've ever been. excited about what lies in store and can't wait to do cool stuff with mister planner supreme. we're driving to belgium this month, and up the coast of norway next month. and like with our wedding, i just need to turn up ;)

el quim

el quim was life-changing. and if you're a regular reader, you know i try my darndest not to name drop. i'm happy to share, albeit privately, so anything you want to know, please do email me at mysterymeatballs[at]gmail[dot]com. just don't believe in free advertising (haha who am i kidding, i swear only two people read this, and one of them is my kaypoh aunty in singers) but also don't want to be hampered if i were to be less than flattering about a certain place. the last thing i want is a libel suit slapped on this little blog. but yes, i do make the occasional exception if the place is truly truly fantabulous and el quim was. the baby squid with egg was out of this world, the foie gras burger almost indescribable and the razor clams fresh like anything. the waiters were easy on the eye and the best part was we got talking to the boss man and he told us he had just been to singers, to c*apella for a food fair and was opening a branch in HK. boo! why not singers?! it's in la boqueria and it's a bit of a squeeze but be patient or go at off-peak time because it was my favourite meal in barca. and seeing how we'd been to fortyone*deg, restaurant*gaig, dos*papi and cal*pep, it had some pretty stiff competition. cal*pep was also amazing and i would do it all over again in a heartbeat. so yes! there you go :) one little barca plug.

restaurant gaig

followed my restauranteur/food journo neighbour's hitlist to this lovely little establishment. what made it even more homely was how chef gaig, the man himself, came out to say hello and spoke to us with one of the waiters playing interpreter. now my in-laws have gifted with pretty discerning palates and this lunch had us all raving. FIL went as far as to say it was one of his best meals in recent times, and he had just flown in from paris where they had been wined and dined!

didn't photograph everything (we ordered off the menu and had a starter, main and dessert each) but did snap the cheeky photo here and there. oh and that plate of 3 slabs of foie gras? mine, all mine :)

barca beaches

barca has a special place in my heart. the last time i was there, i was on my grad-trip and traveling by myself. however, i bumped into so many friends in barca (talk about good timing!) that i'd company when i wanted, and time out when i didn't. was spotted by family friends in the big zara (where else?!) and taken under their wings and fattened up. possibly my first meal in a nice restaurant with tablecloth in two months :) will always remember the kindness shown and i'm grateful for chance meetings in faraway cities. the mister had also been to barca with friends while he was on exchange in 2007. admittedly, we traveled very differently then and while i had read about the big names on the barca scene, my tuition-teacher budget extended to one hot meal a day. so we were really excited to finally eat our way through barca when we went back this summer. mind you, they weren't all big names and what i really enjoyed about barca was how haute cuisine was amazing, but the simpler (but not inexpensive :() stuff was even more amazing. it also helps that my (then) tuition kiddies' father is a prolific journo specialising in food so no prizes for guessing whose list i turned to when we re-visited barca on a slightly longer shoestring. i liked how the list wasn't all about m*stars, neither was it all tapas bars. but as this post is about the beaches, maybe more on the restaurants tomorrow.

so the mister and i moseyed to the beach, contemplated moving out of our apartment and into the W (i kid) and then plopped ourselves down by the water to watch the sun move across the sky as we played real vs fake (boobies). it was a hoot ;) sunny afternoons spent in the shade with my love, with sangria and good conversation is golden.

barca coffee

now the mister is just about the most resourceful person i know, and with his boundless energy, traveling with him is not for the nua. knowing i'm inherently nua and would be a very happy hermit if not for him, the mister has long learnt to manage me. unlike our earlier action papa (because action mama is not the word here) galapagos honeymoon, barca was meant to be a relatively chilled anniversary break, until i realised the mister had no intention of taking the metro. which meant we walked everywhere and from morning till night. probably the only exercise i've gotten in months (shame!) but it's precisely because of the mister's dogged determination to cover as much of the city on foot that we chanced upon this little tucked away gem. coffee collection (?) was down a quiet alley and we were en route to caravelle for the best aussie brekkie since, well, sydney 2010 when the mister's coffee senses went a'tingling. 

now there's granger&*co in londontown and it is our go-to for crack-of-dawn breakfasts. any later and be prepared to queue with the disgruntled notting*hill hipster set! neither the food nor service is amazing but it'll have to do when we want aussie coffee in london. so you can only imagine how thrilled we were to have proper aussie in barca :) even the mister's papa, who so kindly let us crash his holiday, was impressed! this coming from a former kitchen hand then waiter down under back in the day. if nothing else, his aussie palate is pretty well-tuned!

pre-anniversary

okok i know i need to stop harping on this anniversary thing and i will stop soon! promise ;) but do indulge me a wee bit more if you'd like to see? and if it's any justification at all, the mister and i have never had an anniversary before. sure, i remember when we met, and when we went on our first date, but really beyond that we kinda went from hanging out to being engaged. sorta skipped right through the whole "oi, ai steady mai?" and valentines*day? not our thing. month-a-versaries? even more so not our thing. yes, time and place for everything and yes i'm not belittling the many people out there who do celebrate every month but the mister is low-maintenance and i like to think so am i. well, i thought i was until he surprised me with one helluva first anniversary present which sort of leaves me with the happy problem of never ever getting another anniversary present. don't think i'm even allowed to ask for a push present at this rate. in fact, we probably can't afford a kid for another four years after he splurged on the surprise. well played, K, well played! way to go to buy himself time ;) 

well we were spending our anniversary in barca but had to squeeze in a pre-celebration with friends in london. it so worked out that one of our friends who came to iceland for our wedding, and three friends who'd flown to singers from ithaca and melbourne, would be in london on the eve of our anniversary. and because i'm a sentimental sap, it felt like our welcome dinner in reykjavik all over again. chose the chef's table at japanese*supper*club we like and cracked open our wedding dom. now while we had told our iceland guests not to give us anything (i mean, they did just come all the way to one of the furthest reaches of the earth to watch us brats exchange i dos) we did instruct them to load up on duty free alcohol as the mister had managed to lawyer his way to waived corkage. so our generous generous friends bought so much alcohol that we'd plenty left over and had been slowly making our way through the stash in london. we were saving the dom for our first anniversary, albeit with great difficulty, but was so glad we did :)

luiz outdid himself and being at the chef's table with 4 friends was all the more awesome because we got ring-side seats on the action and, here's when i become anti-social, didn't have to make small talk with strangers. win-win!

endurance day

 

was thrilled to have a brief respite from family-hosting (my folks had just left, the mister's folks had yet to arrive) and seized the chance to brave an 'endurance day' with these fine young men. it meant even more that exactly a year ago, they'd come all the way to iceland to watch us get married. i mean, sure i adore them but i don't know if i'd ever travel more than an hour to witness them say i do ;) and on the topic of endurance and respite, i did have to slip away for the afternoon to give them a break from me. because goodness knows i'm only tolerable in small doses. there may or may not have been rat roadkill involved before this, and i may or may not have accidentally shrieked right into someone's ear, and may or may not have been roundly chastised and told to man up. at which point i decided that it was chicks before you-know-whats and linked up with M for tea instead. but that didn't stop them for dressing up to the 9s and landing on my doorstep for dinner. thankfully the mister was around to hold fort because there's only so much testosterone i can tolerate. this was another speedy meal but any excuse to fine tune cooking-on-demand and when everything is washed down with more single malt than sensible, and talk turns to impotent vikings (?!) it's time to say goodnight. 

euro*disney

now i'm a big fan of tokyo*disney but after the tsunami*tragedy, japan is a country i'm sadly staying far away from. call it paranoia, but when chemicals have half-lives longer than collective memory, and germ cells are particularly susceptive to genetic damage, i'm going to do what little i can to not endanger future babies teo. yes yes i'm aware of recent reports that radiated areas around chernobyll have recovered much faster than anticpated, and that the animals have adapted and aren't mutant or anything, and the implications this has on the recovery of fukushima but my i still rather err on the side of caution, much to the mister's chargrin. i've a feeling once we've completed our national service, it'll be one japanese foray after another. also, it's quite embarrassing to still be going to disney*land with no legitimate children in tow (my siblings are both in their, gasps, 20s!) but do you ever need an excuse to visit the magic kingdom? i think not :) spent a while trying to resist, to rather spend my time in paris like a grown up but my sister is persuasive and off we went.

it was a walk down memory lane and i'd never been to disneyland with the mister so that's a first for us. without realising, we also scored our first first anniversary present in the form of the most unglam photo ever! it was a shooting game and hell-bent on winning (sigh, that's us) we hadn't realised our photo would be snapped at some point. so i look like quasimodo, all hunched and squinty (hey, no one told me i didn't have to align the bits on the gun to shoot straight! and the mister is a picture of grit and determination. think liam*neeson on the poster for taken2...

scenic route home

checked out late, had seafood lunch on the other side of town (it's small, so 'other side' was literally a 10min walk from the hotel!) and moseyed around till our hearts content. by the time we were bruge-d out, we had some time to kill before our late train back to london. foreseeing this, the ever-resourceful mister had already plotted the scenic route back to calais. he's got this amazing ability to call-forth exactly what he wants. one of my happiest memories with him was when we were roadtripping sardinia and we were along a coastal road. it was getting late and we hadn't booked accommodation (defo one of our more spontaneous moments). we were passing inn after inn, most with limited vacancy and i was getting edgy, naturally. while would've been content with any one of the guesthouses we were passing, but noooo. the mister was insistent of only stopping for a hotel built into the cliff. so there i was getting more and more anxious because i'm a complete worrywart, certain we'd end up sleeping in our car in the lay-by when suddenly, the mister screeched to a halt. the hotel he pulled up in front of was indeed built into a red rock cliff BUT IT WAS CLOSED (we were traveling off season). 

yet somehow, mr. resourceful managed to call the number and convince them to open the hotel for us. for one night. i'll never know what possessed the hotel to do that, but they did, which led me to fearing for our kidneys, lest they be harvested in the middle of the night. but the mister, he was pleased as punch as and we watched the sunset from our balcony, i realised how i really needed to keep him around. because without him, i'd miss out on so many of life's great adventures. 

 (stock photos of hotel from google images as i only have photos from our balcony!)

so back to the mister's incredible ability to find exactly what he's looking for. a coastal road with small fishing villages along the way? check. instead of going straight back to calais, we went a little further, passing through wissant, audinghen and audresselles. along the way, we passed cap blanc which's where the germans fired their cannons to england from.

we made short stops for coffee etc in the little towns, before hitting the beach at audresselles. honestly, not the most scenic of beaches but we have bad fear of missing out (fomo) and just had to go for a walk before dinner. dinner was the freshest seafood at a tiny family-run restaurant, the boss catches the seafood fresh in the morning, and the lady boss cooks. they didn't speak a word of english but never fear, after my one month's intensive french in 2009 (haha) we got by.

 oh and if you squint, you might see the rainbow!

the end.

being tourists in paris

it so happens that some of our dearest friends live in paris, and i've had the privilege of spending many happy days as a guest* in their home. in fact, they were even so kind as to come all the way to singers for our wedding celebration a year ago. hadn't seen them since and am always happy to catch them, be it in paris, chamonix or london. so it turned out to be paris this time and despite their big move and les garcons' major exams, the family turned out in full force for dinner at the lourve. now i was initially apprehensive because cafe*marly had TOURIST written all over it. but it turned out to be quite the palate pleaser, and dinner while it's still bright out with a view of the pyramids? count me in.

*reading this again got me all nostalgic and gosh i used to be way more healthy-living than i am now :( oh medsch, what have you done to me!

paris

the weekend rolled round quickly enough and we were on the eurostar before we knew it. stayed in this beautiful apartment as a treat and accidentally found ourselves along japanese row with an authentic izakaya (oh how i miss them! yakitori and beer on a cold winter night? sign me up!) and more japanese eateries. didn't really have a plan for paris except for long walks up and down the seine, chilling at the trocadero, drinking lots of vin and hanging with my cousins. we also caught up with some dear family friends over dinner at the lourve (!!!) that was more gourmet and less touristy than it initially appeared to be. it was also a special time because exactly six years before, i'd met the mister one rainy saturday morning and boy am i still pinching myself, can't believe he's real and for real. so we celebrated that with long walks to the eiffel tower and watching the world go by from our little park bench. couldn't ask for more :)

cousins in london!

my super brave and adventurous cousin and cousin-in-law left their stable jobs to embark on the adventure that is cooking school. just before they started, we'd the privilege of having them in london for a few days. the best part about cousins who are off to LCB*paris is that they know good food. and i was only too happy to share with them our neighbourhood haunt. feel semi-guilty that living a few streets away from one of our favourite restaurants means we are horribly predictable when it comes to hosting friends.  but hey, if it aint broke, don't fix it! and we've yet to be disappointed :) 

after a leisurely lunch (somehow we've never manage to make it out before three!) it was so good to finally have them over for bubbles and berries. because what says summer better than an organic rose? then it was another walk to aid digestion before our blow out roast duck dinner. for once, saying goodbye wasn't hard because we were going to visit them in paris in a couple of days. hooray for blurred borders and a shrinking world.

brighton

so when my baby sister came to visit, we decided we'd go a'exploring to brighton. didn't help that we picked the wettest day of the year to visit the seaside town! or that my sibs got separated at the station just before we caught the train to brighton. mini drama aside, we did make it to brighton in one piece and realised, to our horror, that it's a really small town. it took all the patience i could muster not to hightail it out on the next train back to londontown. which is a shame, really, because i should've given it a chance. we mosey-ed along the little streets, ducked in and out of cute little shops like utility. having been warned of bad oysters (and there was no 'R' in june!) we gave them little suckers a pass but had a hearty deli lunch near the pier, then sought shelter from the storm at an ice cream parlour. the pier was o-k? kiddos had a blast with the arcade games and i'd fun watching them dance off. occasionally i forget they were blessed with talent that somehow skipped me (you know, like how the first pancake is always a write-off) and they're both amazing dancers. it was a fun enough day trip but given a chance i would have explored lunnon instead. lesson learnt!

oh where to begin

so i've been meaning to blog for the longest time, because, i'm conscious this is my last long summer break and i want to capture everything before it passes me by. then again, this whole reluctance is a little rich coming from me, seeing how it's my sixth (yeah, i know right!) three month summer break :) technically that's 1.5 years of doing absolutely nothing, just the way i like it. and what do you mean it's already july and i'm one month down?! noooooo....

and the (happy) problem with summer and london is that the world and his wife is passing through town. which means family and catch ups a'plenty. realise we've also only spent one weekend in london so far, seeing how i was back in singers for the first, in paris over the third, barca on the fourth. in laws have been with us since we returned from barca and i'm constantly reminded how blessed i am that the mister has awesome parents. they're gracious, generous to a fault and don't stop cleaning our apartment. it now sparkles like never before and you know those tests where someone wears a white glove and runs a finger along the shelves etc? yeah, we'd even pass that test dust-free. and because they're massive foodies, we've been spoilt rotten and stuffed silly with one good meal after another. even when the mister's at work, FIL arranges lunch with his london partners and we find ourselves finishing a very boozy lunch at 4ish. hmmm.  i think my brain and tummy needs time to recover from the onslaught. it's shamefully such a #firstworldproblem and again i'm quite overwhelmed with gratitude at how good they are to me. they've always been, and getting married hasn't really changed anything. phew! no monster-in-laws here. so when they leave, it's back to simple simple home-cooking. MIL asked the other day what i usually have for lunch and the surprising answer was i've yet to have a day at home on my own since the holidays started. looking forward to working out a little lunch time routine, and having dinner ready for the mister when he comes home from work. love being a housewife :)

and as with summer, our "revolving door b&b" (to quote the gorgeous MT who has a similar sideline in addition to being a full-time sexy corporate investor, i think) is in full swing. as soon as the in laws leave, we've dear friends from singers staying with us. now this couple is super special to us and they just got engaged. in fact we were at the third hand car dealers' when they told us and i just dissolved into a happy blubbering mess in the middle of the showroom. not cool at all! so celebrations are in order and i'm preparing myself for another round hedonism.

oh ya + btw we also celebrated our first anniversary in barca, well techincally first in london then later in barca. still pinching myself in disbelief that this wonderful wonderful man wants to be with me. we were a little cheeky and celebrated the sixth anniversary of our meeting in paris, and then our first wedding anniversary / sixth anniversary of our first date in barca. so do check back for some london, paris and barca posts, if you'd like to see :)

love is

waking at 0530h on saturday, after a crazy week at work, to fetch your wife from the airport. 

had a whirlwind trip to singers and was soon back to london. one of the things i've come to realise about being married is that the mister supercedes all other commitments. much as i adore my grannies, the sad truth is i won't be spending as much time with them as i wish i could. so we make do, we all do. i'm in singers whenever i can, and when i can't be around, well, there's skype. but my primary role is to be a missus, and that's a privilege i take very seriously. 

after the pre-dawn pick-up, it was off to notting hill for our aussie breakfast fix. we also  and to pick up some bubbles before we made the most of the good weather (and the picnic blanket we optimistically keep in our car!)

hellooo summer

been in the +65 the past few days and am so blessed to have wonderful family to spend every waking moment with. there are so many things i'm grateful for i don't even know where to begin. it's the little things, like having granny snoring gently next to me, and true friends who won't let me have butter with my kaya toast. it's in the wiggle of the rottie puppies' bum, old friends who know my poison of choice at colbar, teenage-esque confessions of the sapphic kind (the horror!) and local food to my heart's content. and it's in the big things, like having parents and in-laws who are happy and healthy, and passing my year-end exams*.

there's so much i want to reflect and ruminate on, like conversations with my hair stylist and facial lady. i'm quite good when it comes to salon loyalty. been doing my hair at an amazing bukit batok salon for the last 10 years. started with highlights then gradually moved on to a digital perm. was one of may's first customers when opened her own salon and am fortunate she remembers me and personally sees to me whenever i go by. of course, this entails sitting still for a good five hours (four hours to perm, one hour for treatment!) and comfortable as her chairs are, my itchy backside cannot stay put. so we end up chatting for almost five hours, in all the mandarin i can muster. i like listening to her talk about singapore, her challenges as a small business owner, housing policy, her kids' education, the cost of living... i love singers and am always intrigued by stories of living in singers. and may's so good my last perm lasted 14 months when the regular lifespan is 5! talk about getting value for money :)

same with my facial lady! been going there for a good five years and the beautician told me this time that i could afford to lose ten kilos if i wanted to keep my husband. no big, in your face brutal honesty and no malice whatsoever. my british friends were horrified but there's a certain local charm in unsolicited advice :) so we were talking about bto flats, and when's the best time to apply for one, the potential loopholes when it comes to grant eligibility and bank interest rates. stuff like that that while bread and butter, is characteristic of an amazing country where 85% of the population own their own homes.

of course they ask about london, and i try to fly the singers flag high by telling them how i rather live in sg. in london, everything takes forever to get done (oh just you try setting up internet - took us a month!), the tube is constantly disrupted (and you thought smr*t was bad!), things happen very slowlyyy and taxes are crazy high (>30% for a low income bracket) naturally i'm not too happy that the mister's essentially subsidising healthcare for the unemployed, and waves of migrants coming to the UK. granted, i don't want to be sick just for a return of investment but seeing how we don't plan to stay for long, i wish we'd get a tax refund when we eventually leave. but i recognise we'll be based there for a season and as the mister wisely told me, 'your visa doesn't give you any rights'. and he's correct, i'm not entitled to anything in the UK and being unhappy is counter-productive when we've a lovely little flat together and so many other things going for us.

back to londontown tomorrow and spending the rest of june with family! can't wait :) and as things get more fun in real life, things will be relatively quiet around here!

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 travelogue thus far

so at the beginning of this year i wanted to travel every month, something that didn't seem all that realistic given the mister's crazy work schedule, and my being a full-time student. ah take that back, if i don't travel when i'm in school, then when would i? :) so far we've been really lucky to escape london on a monthly basis. popped by a beautiful hotel in the lakes for a cheeky long weekend right after my january exams, and went to norway the weekend after for some breath-taking fjords. we spent chinese new year back in singers with family and friends, then come march we used my easter break to go to the galapagos! this stretched into april and that brings us to may. 

may's exam month but we do have a couple of bank holidays which may or may not (pun unintended!) be spent ignoring roadtrip's siren call. in june, we turn one (or six!) depending on how you look at it and will be eating our way through paris then barca for our first wedding anniversary. and because we can't get enough of france, it's back to paris (yay eurostar!) but probably roadtripping wine country in july. the mister has something up his sleeve for august, and so do i. might just be our busiest month yet with singers, phuket and bruges lined up. 

clinicals start in september so we might be limited to a monthly weekend getaway, be it national or continental and come december, why do i have the feeling santiago might be calling...

 

(photo from the hotel website!)

almost there

now i know i bang on and on about living next to the local but really, what good is having local pub that isn't next door? then it'd actually involve effort to get there and that defeats the purpose, doesn't it. love how i can rock up at all hours, sometimes in pjs, for a naughty pub grub lunch, or a cheeky pint if it's within acceptable drinking hours. there's something about when the shadow of the dog's tail is longer than (?) which i take to mean after noon. or three pm in the northern hemisphere. the local has a good mix of, well, locals and their dogs, and lots of students who emerge at happy hour. it's been the centre of many a good catch up and i feel sort of sorry for dragging my jetlagged friend, C, there at 11pm just because. she ordered a whiskey sour and uhh they didn't even know how to mix it! the bartender had to ask one of the regular ahpeks for help. hilarious :) 

anyhoos after we were mostly done with osce yesterday, we'd a little debrief at the local where everyone contributed one "wish i'd..." to the table. as they say, there's no perfect osce and it could've gone a bit better, or worse. thankfully it was a short list and we concluded we're unlikely to fail :) then drank up! last year at this time, we congregated at a little hippie tea shop in town and re-auscultated each other over himalayan monk chants and vegan sandwiches. how time flies and second year is almost over! soon to embark on my annual venture into to the amazing clubs (haha) this city has to offer. having had a ghastly experience with the mister at f*abric when we got back to lunnon after our wedding, i've been most wary.

and while this isn't the local, couldn't resist snapping the spring flowers by the fire escape.

covent garden spoils

one of the nicest things about being based in london is the steady stream of visitors. we spend most weekends entertaining friends in town and despite it being the height of exam season (eek!) was no exception. one of the other nicest things about london is a lovely, almost instantaneous, support network of family friends who check in on us recent transplants every now and again. on friday, aunty L happens to live just a few streets away (aha! a benefit of living in taitai territory) and invited us to our local italian. but a dinner invite on its own just would not suffice for this classy lady, and we started with an aperitif (or three!) at hers before moseying over to lucio's for a fashionably late dinner. now i'm hooked on the idea of aperitifs at home and fingers crossed i can convince our next dinner date to come all the way to ours for pre-dinner drinks :) saturday was a whirlwind of activity. we'd met a lovely sydneysider in ecuador last month and madame jetset happened to be visiting the chelsea flower show this week. as we'd bonded over our shared love of fine dining, it seemed apt to invite her to JR's l'atelier when she was in london. the food was amazing and because of some a miscommunication (oopsy, our bad) we somehow scored complimentary amuse bouche round two and extra starters all round. whoop whoop! my inner el cheapo was pleased. the mister and i went wandering around covent garden after and quite accidentally stumbled upon an early first/sixth anniversary present.

Y, my oldest friend, also landed in london saturday evening and made her way to ours for drinks. so glad to have caught her in person before she disappeared to camby to walk down memory lane. having not seen her since our wedding, it'd been too long even if we are in nonstop whatsapp contact. oh the wonders of technology.

linked up with my darling didi on sunday and finally made it to patty*bun. ugh. it's so faddy and i detest having to queue but we went by relatively early and didn't have to wait too long. phew. after an abortive attempt with C a few weeks ago when the queue was just ridiculous, those burgers were sweet satisfaction, as were the chicken wings so tender the meat fell off the bone. the stuff of dreams...

monday has been amazing so far with osce prep and i think loving mondays is a sign that i'm in the right place, doing the right thing. yay :)

some days

especially after a good clinical session, i'm on cloud9. venepuncture with a vaccutainer in under 90s? check! OSCEs in two weeks and i can't wait to start clinicals in september. i'm bursting with enthusiasm, overwhelmed with gratitude and so so happy to be en route to becoming a doctor. finally! medicine tickles my brain in a way nothing has before, and i find myself subconsciously mulling over strange names and stranger viruses.

and other days, i want to be a stay-at-home mum. granted i need a kid to qualify and uh they're not on the agenda for awhile. in fact, i'd a nightmare last night when i told a recently preggers friend what i really thought. which i think makes me a horrible person because in real life i acted thrilled for her and, well, happy she's in a place where she's ready for a family. but then in my dream, i told her i felt really sorry for her for being saddled with child so young and how she'll never get to enjoy being a wife without being a mother. and then i asked if it was unplanned because they're religious. and then i woke up and was all like, "why am i so mean?!" so i wonder if i'm secretly envious, if that's secretly what i want and it manifests in some strange way where i'm hating on some innocent pregnant woman. then i think about how i am already having trouble keeping my poor potted basil plant alive (we are on v5 in as many months) and how i like being footloose and fancy free, i like having a comfortable disposable income (thanks mister!) and how i don't like / want children enough to have my own at this point.

SO.

i mean why have a kid now and take time off at my own expense when i can get 6 months maternity leave from the n*hs in a few years.

maybe it's just the imminent exams talking. was chatting with G today (she's got 5 kids...) and she said her exam-time fantasy is to stay home and grow vegetables while tending to chickens. point being, when having kids no longer seems to be a viable "out", something else will inevitably take its place.

and that concludes the easter travelogue

thank you for reading thus far :) it was a whirlwind trip and we're so grateful for the luxury of time. to be able to disappear for almost three weeks is not something we've done since undergraduate days. ecuador was amazing and i think we're onto something here! we really need to keep going west because anything east of lunnon can wait till we're back in singers, much as i miss our friends down under. on a side note, someone commented that she wished she'd gone to my uni because it looked like i was always traveling. uh, i wish? have been quite good about only traveling during uni holidays and was wondering if maybe she didn't get holidays while at uni. but holidays are only good when you know you've worked hard before, and need to work hard after. a perpetual holiday (not working, not studying, no kids) sounds great on paper but would probably meander into some aimless existence if it played out in real life. plus i don't think my family would be too pleased if i suddenly kicked my feet up and did nothing! come to think of it, they already think i'm doing nothing! it's as if i'm housewife first and student second ;) and that's when i realise looking after a husband and home is really such a doozy compared to school. it's fun! i love cooking and cleaning and decorating our flat. i maybe like pharmacology a bit less. 

and then on the weekends when the mister goes for schmoozy lawyer lunches, i get to tag along. which's great because it reminds me of my past life, when "hearing" takes on a different meaning than what i'm used to. it's no longer examining the cranial nerve VIII "so, have you noticed any changes in your hearing lately" but appearing in front of a judge-type person. and "fighting fire" is no longer what i do in the kitchen when yet another culinary adventure goes horribly wrong but real life client management. little things like that, really. had a friend in town last weekend who used to be a big four consultant before crossing over to medicine. funnily enough, her office was on the same street as where we'd dinner and we were talking about how different our lives have become since the quarter-life crisis. she's 10kg lighter than her corporate self, runs marathons and has also qualified as a yoga instructor (!!!)  how awesome is that? i don't think i'm very different, but maybe that just shows how ill-suited i was for the big bad concrete jungle. shrugs.

but summer is coming and in a couple of weeks i'll be done and dusted with school. we've some interesting plans. a couple of short jaunts lined up, siblings and cousins in town and lots of exploring londontown because the weather's good and i'm trying not to use my oyster*card till i've done 70 rides on foot instead... ohnikewhydoyoumakesuchawesomeshoes :(

ocelot

this baby ocelot the hotel is trying to reintroduce to the wild followed us for a good part of our intro walk. oopsy. it was so cute and attention-seeking but we were warned that it was vicious (having bit our guide last month :/) and you know how nasty infected cat bites can get. shudder. but the trail was super manageable, it felt a bit like bukit*timah hill even! and i liked how our guide tailored it to our pace and interests. upon learning that i was a medic, and the other youngling at the lodge (it was basically the mister and i, a lovely canadian lady who didn't look a day over 30, and 8 almost-octogenarians...) was a GP, he took it upon himself to point out every single plant with medicinal value. which was good fun as we tried to think about pharmaceutical compounds that went into making the meds, and got into big debates about big pharma and its exploitation of ecuadorian resources. such nerds, i know.

a little luxury

after what we'd presumed to be a rough n' tumble time in the galapagos (it wasn't. we actually put on weight despite the full day activities. just goes to show how well we were fed! and those hotels, ohmy, ultimate comfort) the mister thought he'd find something in the highlands for us to chill. little did we know that it'd be as action-packed as the galapagos, but in much better weather. it's a humble hut in the middle of the forest and what i really liked was how it's changed the lives of the locals. they've gone from being cow farmers to butterfly spotters and naturalist guides. and the hotel has given them training and health insurance. of course, the staff must think we're crazy to spend so much on a mere bed. i mean, how do you staff a hotel with people who've never left the village, much less set foot in even a guesthouse? before the hotel was built, it was untouched wilderness. and now it's minimal impact building but construction nevertheless. the chef shared a story in the car ride back that the staff were almost all from the nearby villages and how training them was an exercise in patience. one young cook even tried to garnish chocolate cake with pickles, because "if you can do it with kiwi, why can't i use a pickle?" now how do you begin to explain why...

cloudy day in quito

having bid guayaquil goodbye once again, it was off to quito. much preferred quito and the weather was perfect! if only singers had 18deg weather too! taxis were safe to ride again and we found ourselves at old town. of course, trust the mister to navigate us to casa G for lunch -_- so many places in old town but nooo, we've got to go to where the brits hang out... but it was a good call and lunch, casual as it may have been, was impeccable. little did we know that the chef at the lodge we were going on to had come from casa G. small small world!

why being married is good for me

back on mainland, i'd a little surprise waiting. knowing how hard it was for me to spend 10 days in the sun, sea and sand, the mister had ordered blooms, bubbles and a massage :) oh the mister, he spoils me so. now i feel like a right royal ingrate for whining about how he was pushing me out of my comfort zone and making me do all these outdoorsy activities i ordinarily would stay very far away from. and yes, i did have a great time in the galapagos and recognise how blessed i am to have been there with such a wonderful group of people. when i told S that the trip was the mister's idea and how i don't usually go out in the sun, he was almost hurt when he asked incredulously, 'so you didn't enjoy any of it then?!' and no, that's not true. i'd go so far as to say i enjoyed the 10 days immensely, in spite of myself, despite not being able to bathe for the first 48 hours. and that's why i need the mister - to constantly push me to my limits and beyond because i'd be a very boring person if left to my own devices.