fast castle

one of the best things about fourth year is wednesdays and friday mornings off. there is no other word for it but shiiiiok. having made it to the other side of the crazy that was third year, it's welcome respite from intense clinicals that were still only a fraction of real life doctoring. suspending reality these couple of months more is not something i'm too fussed about, although i do oscillate between relishing the oodles of time i have and wishing there was some way of telescoping the program so i graduate faster. but back to making the most of the down time - spontaneously decided to go walking on the cliffs. no cliffside walks in the city? nevermind, head for the wilderness! actually tell a lie, this was a weekend walk because the mister was still in NYC but hey, who's keeping track of the days.

grateful for indulgent friends who drive because i'm too ayam to drive without the mister next to me. fast castle was, for want of a better description, a pile of rocks. but it had that rugged charm and despite lacking a national trust gift shop + cafe (actually a good thing?) was beautiful to walk to amidst the heather and gorse. with enough imagination one could just about make out what it'd have looked like in its heyday. 

it was a windy and there was the added bonus of hearing the wind howling through the cracks in the rock, sounding like a haunting howl and seals! yes, seals! many seals flopping around the shallow and wriggling themselves up the beach. even tiny baby seals frolicking and unless one was quiet and looked closely, it was so easy to miss. i felt small, and humbled, like a tiny and insignificant yet loved part of the universe. and that was nice :)

warmest halloween on record

 

it's been some time since i celebrated halloween. not 'properly' since first year, although i've fun memories of riding bongo's party bus when i was working. and the other years have passed as almost a non-event. this year, i made a note in my diary that waitrose was doing a free wine tasting and talk for adults in need of a stiff drink after a scary week. finally! a supermarket that gets me. although i hardly have anything to complain of in terms of bad weeks. in fact, it was a quite a good week (read: slack) and the only thing scary on the grand scale of things was how warm it was. the fact that i could get away with wearing a skirt with no tights and no coat meant that global warming was pulling a little number on us all.

it was public health week which almost felt like reason to take the week off. but i was good and tried to stay abreast, which wasn't without its benefit because the elected council leader man came to give a couple of talks. and ran one of the community days. a politician true and true but once you go into it with that mindset, he wasn't all that bad. the surprising take away for me was the social model of medicine being a tiny bit more interesting than the medical. there's so much more to health and healing than i realise, and it's eye-opening to learn of the other factors at play. far from a new found fascination for public health (oh i'm even less drawn to work in primary care now!) i liked it on an academic, intellectual level. and it didn't hurt that singers came out very well in the comparison table, as i've already mentioned in this post. so that sparked a whole flood of superiority and i left feeling very smug.

made the most of the warm night and went walking along the quayside. passed groups of youth that was a little scary, and saw cartons of eggs that i hoped weren't meant for me.

christmas window

it's a bit of a personal tradition to check out the window. in fact, people come from the surrounding environs to admire it too. when i started school, a dear friend who gave me an introduction to and orientation of the city was quick to highlight this cute little display. it's been a touchstone of sorts since, something mr. P my former lit S teacher mentioned when we discovered quite serendipitously that we were almost neighbours. a window display that unifies and bonds, so it seems! part of me is in denial that it's red cup season at starby's and i've yet to have my first peppermint mocha of the season. but the other part (that had a bowl of chocolate frosting for lunch - don't ask. actually, do ask. can't count, scaled up unnecessarily and instead of freezing it for another cake like a normal person i had it as a meal. then had steamed cauliflower after to assuage my guilt. weird, i know.) is counting down to christmas even though chinese new year is my favourite holiday. maybe because christmas symbolises get out of jail, when i won't be commuting to clinics and staying put in london (zone 1 no less!) for the next nine months. yes, nine. whoop whoop!

perps

the photos speak for themselves but it's times like this that i want to be on the first flight home to inhale these sweet milky bundles with their round bellies and sticky out tongues. my sister is the willing hand model in this case and how i wish there was some way of being there to kiss and cuddle the lot of them. i say i don't like dogs / that i only like my own but then we've a litter and all that machismo melts and i'm reduced to a swooning mess. strange how babies (ugh) fail to elicit the same effect. similarly, maintain i'll like my eventual offspring and friends' kiddies at a stretch because they're an extension of people i like. but random kids? no thank you.

21ish

it was J's birthday a few days ago! you might remember him from earlier posts. we met at the mature student (sigh) orientation and he's officially my first friend at uni round 2. can't believe this is the fourth birthday we're celebrating together, and sort of feel we've all come a long way from clueless first years to even more clueless fourth years. celebration-wise, the ante's been upped from a surprise kladdkaka in the common room to a self-styled 'luxury japanese buffet'. we spent birthday numbers 2 and 3 at a BYOB lebanese but think J thought to mix things up a bit. plus the birthday person gets to eat for free at this new-ish place.

what i found funny was how the rest commented how it took four years (!!!) for them to see me 'let my hair down'. adamant that i only drink 1. on weekends 2. with the mister so if we were to hang out in the week / without the mister, i'm a cheap date who's done after half a pint. but in my defence, it was £8 for unlimited drinks including asahi and sake and all self-restraint went out of the window. didn't help that the mister was in NYC for the week and not around to rein me in. then again, it's only with him that i feel safe enough to get inebriated. anyhoos we did hot sake japanese style because J and T coincidentally both taught english in japan before realising their doctor dreams (no pouring your own! no sipping! down the shot and get on with it!) which made for much warmth on an otherwise cold evening. that's the thing about alcohol - i do enjoy it when the mood hits but not on a regular basis. phew. with a slightly addictive personality, it's that fine balance between appreciation and obsession. plus i'm conscious how it's a grade iii carcinogen (yikes!) and too calorific for comfort. such a downer, as you can tell, drinking with me is a ton of fun...

24h in manchester

the mister was hanging out with al gore in NYC so i went to manchester on a whim. not the most obvious of choices but hey the draw of marx and engel and lure of random european architectural influences was a compelling reason. sentient that we're not going to be in the UK indefinitely (have a rant about that will save it for the end of the post!) and thought to see more of this lovely country while i can. it was the manchester derby weekend so i was lucky the hotel prices hadn't skyrocketed. would usually have slept on a friend's sofa but thought to be indulgent hehe. there's something very empowering about solo travel, about exploring a city on your own. had sweet friends who met me on sunday and were aghast that i'd been wandering around the night before (we happened to all be at the mall, surprise surprise) but they're a lovely couple in the throes of LDR. he's up to visit and having been there, done that and gotten all possessive when the mister was in town (or i was visiting the mister) i thought better of imposing on their bubble. maybe that's just me being presumptuous that everyone thinks like me when they're probably infinitely more mature and gracious. M's one of my oldest friends (we've swum together since we were 3+!) and we had the pleasure of meeting up in the amalfi coast over easter. this was a bonus, and they're in london next weekend too! 

it's been some time since i've gone any where on my own (not since NYC to buy my wedding dress easter 2012) and it was a refreshing change to be selfish and self-indulgent. my inner el cheapo even relented and didn't mind £7.50 for the ferris wheel! and took a ton of selfies while at it haha. china town was another surprise - great wall was a chance find and i had la mian! what was even better was that there was no MSG (yay!!!) and it wasn't oily. chinese restaurant jackpot...

 

how i knew about home*sweet*home in the northern quarter was from some insta lurking. in fact that's how i knew M was in mcr visiting L so had to have waffles with scrambled eggs, blueberries and bacon too. absolutely yums when drowned in maple syrup :)

and another photo of the ferris wheel against the blue skies.

 

and the uk*border*agency rant as promised - it's no secret that i hate the hassle and suspicion i get every time i clear customs. it's as if the border agency presumes that i want to overstay in their country. no, actually, i'm from a first world nation when yours is comparatively third world, i feel like telling them. but that's just asking to be detained / deported. the medsch doesn't make it any easier with weekly scan ins to assure them i'm not moonlighting in a chinese restaurant. in addition to singers trumping the uk in terms of GDP per capita and life expectancy (slide borrowed from a labour*leader), the mister was just contact traced for TB because a co-worker he spent a week at court huddled up next to and getting coughed all over just tested positive. WELL DONE, LONDON. need we look any further for proof of third-world-ness? not feeling the love. and we got this startling text re: being contact traced and needing tests a few hours after the mister had an episode of night sweats. i was laughing at first (haha, night sweats, do you have tb, haha) but was not laughing when we got the tb text later in the day.

oops i did it again

went a little crazy and might've accidentally made a litre of salad dressing. got fed up of my oil and acid separating and went down the rabbit hole that's the internet in search of the perfect emulsion. found one that gave the science (yay for a pseudo-scientific mind) and found that with the right stabiliser (mustard) the dressing stayed a lovely consistency, much like that of aioli without the egg yolk. so the happy problem is that i'm now going to eat lots of salads to finish my reservoir of dressing before it goes bad. it's really not as gross and thick and yellow as it looks in the photo - just got lazy to toss it properly before taking the shot. but it's good! and i'm trying to stop myself from drinking it neat because although i used EVO, it's probably not the best of things to have coating my insides.

and while we're on the topic of obsession / compulsion, here's what happened with tea a couple of years ago.

the problem with a massive appetite

is that much as i go on about "eating less but better", eating less doesn't satiate. makes me wonder if there's something wrong with my leptin receptors because after a boozy three course meal (with extra pudding because the order got mixed up!) i was still ravenous. friends picked a lovely place in bethnal green for lunch. they're genuine foodie types who remain ahead of the curve, often on to the next big thing. they were keen to check out this restaurant before its awarded a star. then again, my local's just lost its star (haha) so maybe it'll be easier to get a table. it was one of those places that i thought was good and consistent but friends had varying experiences. but truth be told, i only brought visitors, and only when i was feeling lazy and not wanting to go too far so might not have been the most representative of experiences.

back to lunch! gorgeous quail with mushroom (above, done perfect!) followed by lamb breast (belly?) that was done just right as well. each dish was well executed and fault-less, apart from quantity that left me wanting more. guess it's one of those chichi things where you don't overwhelm the diner with a mountain of meat. but i'm a growing girl and it's getting cold which means i'm more ravenous than usual.

hence after lunch, the mister and i rather sheepishly went to a korean cafe under the railway and had sweet potato noodles, and coffee. much as i enjoy modern british, gimme azn any time. always happier with azn, there's no escaping our roots.

 (no, that's not the mister but dr. koo, orthodontist-to-be and photographer extraordinaire)

one last look porto

back to porto after 24h upriver. had the option of dining at the in-house michelin star-ed restaurant but the mister and i don't really appreciate haute gastronomy. it's nice once in a while, and if it's there for the taking we won't turn down an invite. yet can't help but feel it's overrated, and not often bang for buck, if you get what i mean. turns out 2/3 of the 30-strong group felt the same way and V, of simple carb fame, found us a quaint little japanese by the water. having had a good experience with japanese food in portugal earlier over summer (go figure!) the mister and i were game to see how this compared with the authentic japanese we enjoyed in lisbon. can't remember where we went (sorry!) but it was good and what made it even better was the bottle of port we'd at the end. EUR20 for what retails for £250 in the UK. bargain!

took it easy and walked on the beach after dinner, until a rogue wave drenched V and we called it a night. finally got to enjoy the hotel (having only had 90min zz two nights prior) and was glad for the down time before the return flight.

quick trip to porto was over before we knew it but glad to have been twice in two months. the trips were different enough for me not to feel like it was groundhog day.

vineyards

after a little too much excitement the night before, we were somewhat somber the next day. nothing a couple of breakfast mimosas and greasy fry up couldn't fix but still! left bright and early (okok, 10am is early enough!) for the vineyards and what a sight to behold the contrast between the vines. all unplanned, of course, but beautiful nevertheless. the port production, supply chain and more recent diversification boggled the mind. also had some rather rank 48h grape must that i chose to spit while the rest swallowed. haha. felt like the clever one then!

the stragglers wheeling and dealing at the back. V, a russian ibanker, was on his devices throughout the trip. pretty impressive given how we were in a reception black hole, which led me to conclude that his possibly soviet-issued kit was somehow superior to anything the rest of the world was on. V is also terribly inspirational when it comes to eating, only simple carbs (fruit and veggie) which would sound the death knell for my sweet tooth but herald in a much healthier body on the whole. something i'm considering but know would never be disciplined enough to do :( also felt totes judged when we sat opposite each other at dinner and i finished what were meant to be communal canapes (fried fish pastries, rich fatty smoked sausages, other unidentifiable but altogether yummy nibbles) after leaving sufficient time for him to help himself. yikes.

taylors then duoro valley

have i mentioned the best thing about porto was the port? cursed with a sweet tooth and am already unable to resist the sweet hit of port on the best of days. throw me into porto and it's hellooooo cellars and cellars of syrupy goodness! yes, there's something to be said about moderation and being responsible (look ma, no water...) but all the rules go out of the window on holiday. so if day 0 was landing in the afternoon and hitting the ground running, day 1 was when we upped the ante. probably overstating the lack of sleep (literally 90min between getting back to the hotel from the club and the early morning talks) but when already running on empty, i felt like really needed the sugar rush to keep going. was also more than a little bummed that i only got 90min in the divine bed. starting to regret late (early?) night already. hopped across the street to taylors for lunch and ohmy what a view! and what a meal! commenting to F, one of the other +1s, that after a table setting with six glasses  each (champers, red, white and three ports in increasing age), we couldn't go back to regular feasting. any thing else would just pale in comparison!

as an aside, it was also cool to visit taylor's in person because it's the brand i'm most familiar with. in fact, i think i've paid kind friends in kind with taylor's port after stowing my mountain of barang barang at theirs over summer in between houses.

lunch was followed by a scenic ride to the duoro valley to visit the croft vineyards. L had chartered a bus and the crazy bunch managed to turn it into the party bus supreme. needless to say, the 4.5L bottle that magically reappeared was responsible for some of it. however, knowing when to bow out is as important as knowing when to boogey all night. so it was eye mask and noise cancelling earphones on (listening to radio3 no less!), to catch up on some zz. defensive sleeping, as i call it, not knowing what sort of night lay ahead. did wake after two hours and caught the most picturesque part of the journey and my inner nerd was excited by the multiple bridges across the duoro. may or may not have been trigger happy and then spammed my fellow bridge enthusiasts i.e. family whatsapp group with bridge pics.

L had scoped the cutest little vintage house hotel and we all had rooms with balconies overlooking the duoro, and up and down each others' rooms hehe. there was some commotion at night with the main hotel and some cheeky folk not being in the beds they were assigned to. but hey, all par for the course? throw 30 something 30somethings together and things are bound to get jiggy. as the youngest by a good couple of years (the mister being the second youngest heh) i felt a little like an old married prude listening in rapt attention to the morning after tales. such is life and vicarious living!

oh and that's the balcony i sought solace from when it all got too much and they started throwing each other / jumping into the duoro. something about dead fish and pants-ing trickled through the grapevine (haha) but i emerged when things were civil again for pre-dinner drinks before hitting up the town.

this was also the night things escalated and my first aid skills came in handy. without going into too much detail, save for the self-indulgence of reflection, a hand was put through a glass table. the former US army captain, PE fund general counsel and veterinary surgeon turned oil trader were on it, much to my relief and being older, more commanding presences they got things under control quite quickly. but i was able to triage and reassure the rest that the casualty was going to be fine. also nice to know that i think straight and remain calm when faced with lots of blood. a little duh at this point but having come to the medicine game later in the day, there's always been this remnant of self-doubt that doesn't quite seem to go away.

on honesty

one question that crops up a fair bit is "are you sure you're in school?" and i'm often a little stuck for an answer. yes, i am. but it's also my second degree and there are other things i consider important. 

suppose it's in part my fault for posting holiday snaps on fb (oh fb, can't live with you, can't live without) and fb has a nasty way of rubbing one's pseudo shiny happy life in someone else's face. have been told by well-meaning friends that this blog doesn't help, either. but surely no one is naive enough to think that life is perfect and one sun soaked escapade after another. recognise that i'm fortunate to be in a good place and ever grateful for the opportunities i have. yet there are things about my life that i'm not 100% happy with and guess what, i'm probably not alone on that. 

but much as i want this blog to be a semi-accurate reflection of life, it's also a happy space that i guard quite zealously. i'll admit to the occasional rant (usually of racist / i want to go back to sg where people are less mean nature) but thankful they're few and far between. and anything else that's not going great (believe me when i say there are plenty!) is not suitable for a public forum. blessed to have a support network of amazing friends on whatsapp, just a skype call away and family only too happy to keep me in prayer. 

i sound like a broken record when i feebly try to explain why the mister and i live the way we do and travel as much as we can. the usual yada yada no kids yada yada living on our own in london yada yada which makes me wonder why some people seem to delight in raining on our parade / reminding me how hard life is going to be when i eventually start work / a family. they're not exactly haters, or maybe they are, but more insidious i.e. joy-robbers. either way i've pretty thick skin and not overly bothered. and it's that often bandied around internet thingum about how everyone we meet is facing a battle we know nothing about, so be kind.

one of the nicer things about growing up is the result of ruthless editing that leaves relationships and possessions by the wayside. this added distance makes me realise who i genuinely like, and who i've merely tolerated (and vice versa!) over the years. this inertia and subconscious reductionist mentality has really started to gather momentum the last couple of years. 

and yes, i'm in school, it's a full-time degree with the not infrequent moment of sheer panic that i'm abysmally far behind my peers and needing a discipline / brain / attitude transplant to pass the year. it's one of those things that sort of borders on arrogance, the whole being too cool for school or not needing to study. no, not true. i do study but have long learnt it's not about the hours but the quality of the work. no secret there, and when i run out of hours then i jolly well be able to do good work and deliver when it counts. doesn't help when the mister makes balancing work and school look easy, with straight A+s and a perfect GPA. topping the dean's list and i'm incredibly proud of him. far from being a doss course, it's the best of its kind globally with a crazy accomplished student profile. pretty stiff competition for that top spot! think it's important to give credit where due. would ordinarily be more pseudo-british and less braggy but also find it heartening when couples are openly supportive of each other. he's my biggest cheerleader and i'm his.

(porto series to resume tomorrow)

porto

the mister's friend, L, invited us and a couple of other friends on a trip to porto. wasn't entirely keen to begin with, having been to porto earlier in summer (such a first world problem) but was won over by the knowledge that L used to work for the old family group that owned the hotel and vineyards, and got us a very good deal. let's just say the entire trip (4D3N accom, transport and meals inclusive) came to half of what the rack rate for one night in the suite we stayed at would've come to. now if that doesn't appeal to my inner el cheapo, nothing would! L was an absolute doll, planning everything from start to finish and herding us from place to place. he also pulled out all the stops to make the trip as value-add as possible with talks by the group CEO and vineyard tours that left me feeling refined and educated (rare!).

hotel was gorgeous and as L had been project manager during its inception, construction and early operations, he was the best person to pick the rooms and set us up very nicely in the suite.

one of the best things about being in londontown (complain as i do) is how continental travel is so easy. ezyjet isn't exactly the cheapest way of getting around but the timing worked and we weren't about to kill ourselves getting to stansted. been there, done that. not above flying outta stansted having left for aix from there over summer but really rather not have anything to do with that godforsaken airport! anyhoos we arrived in the early afternoon and started with sundowners aplenty on the gorgeous terrace. after all, being in porto necessitated getting the port going and by dinner time (8 but actually 10) rolled round, we were buzzing. tell i lie, i did sneak away to town for a cheeky shop for backless dress essentials then back to the terrace to catch sunset.

everyone cleaned up nice for dinner and it was more terrace time chasing canapes with wine before finally sitting down about 10 for our meal. wondered about the mediterranean time before realising we'd to pace ourselves as the cool kids only went clubbing at 3am. leisurely dinner, more drinks at the hotel bar and by the time 3am rolled round, i was all ready for bed being the cool kid that i am. but game face on! hit up a cute little 90s bar with a car coming out of the wall. packed for a saturday night and a little stuffy but great music before moving on to eskada which was so hip it hurt.

of course someone bought a 4.5L and tadaaa! miracles happened. we called it the bad decision bottle and danced around it. somehow that bad decision bottle left the club with us and became the trip's totem. keen to continue our run as the last ones standing, the mister and i left about 7am, got 90min of zz before a full day of lectures and more touring. oh the beauty of being young and relatively accustomed to sleep-deprivation from our former lives as litigators. and my current life as a medic. in fact, i think sleep-deprivation, quite unfortunately, is probably going to be the one constant in my chosen path :( but hey, handy party 'trick' to deploy when wanting to make the most of short holiday and long days.

shard shang

splurged on a cheeky staycation at the shard shang over the weekend and while the room was comfortable and the views amazing, felt there were teething problems and the service lacking. don't want to sound like a complete ingrate moaning on about why it was substandard but let's just say the mister had a field day treating them like a case study and came up with some pretty good ways they could've done better. 

the siew mai on the breakfast buffet were raw in the middle. hey, nothing against frozen food (have an in-house chinese restaurant but no pride? that's ok.) at least cook it through. the hostess brought me to the wrong table after giving my room number, to a man who was not my husband. uh....? and there was a shrill alarm scarily telling us 'there has been an incident. please...' without any follow up after to explain it was crying wolf. also, the staff weren't great. the mister and i wandered up to the bar only to be snootily told by a staffer showing a couple around that 'the bar is closed, you can't be here without a staff member'. well, if you want to be pedantic, she's a staff member and we were there while she was. the tea cups in the room were chipped, the sauces had cracks and there were cup marks all over the tv console. little things like that that really should be better given how guests are paying top dollar. 

the one silver lining (apart from the breath-taking views from the room) was how the concierge got us a next day reso at hutong. my love for hutong has not gone undocumented but alas i'm not alone in this love affair and it's notoriously hard to get a reso (6 weeks in advance). way to go, hutong! so when i had a massive craving and thought to try our luck the day before (the poor mister was on the receiving end of much ridicule by the eastern european hostess, oops) we couldn't get a table. 

light bulb moment: aren't we staying at the shang??? GET THEM TO MAKE THE RESO! and tadaa! the concierge came through. and i was a happy camper.

some photos of the room and pool and bar we were chased away from at 1130h. don't ask why we were drink-seeking at 1130h.