hinds head and harwood arms

on the way home from cliveden, my mother had the brainwave to ask the question at the hind's head in hope that they'd be able to take a last minute reservation. as they say up north, shy bairns get nought and we were thrilled with the spontaneous lunch. the food was excellent, and better than i remembered it to be when we last went with M and A. the scotch egg was out of this world and well worth the hike on its own. i had an unadorned steak (runny egg yolk, medium rare steak, really not complying with doctor's orders...) which was so good on its own and pea soup before the steak. strawberry tart for dessert and was too busy stuffing my face to take a photo of what my parents ordered.

and because we were on a hedonistic roll, we were further spoilt with more michelin starred gastropub goodness that same night. lucky to live a stone's throw from harwood arms and while i thought it might be too much of a good thing, i was impressed my lean and mean folks managed to put away a second pub meal in 7h.

cliveden

funny story here - after graduation my folks wanted to do a roadtrip, presumably to the cotswolds. so after telling everyone i was going to the cotswolds, imagine my disappointment when i learnt father dearest balked at the 3h drive from london, decided 45min drive to maidenhead was sufficiently heroic and off we went. didn't have the heart to tel them that we were really only 40min from my flat and it didn't quite count as a staycation. but as the adult child i got the pull out bed which my father gallantly slept on and i got the big bed. perks of being the first born :) also, he couldn't have chosen a prettier place to stay. grand old house with lots of good walks and pretty towns near by. 

do think their ulterior motive was to get me to exercise and we explored the grounds from morning to night, or it felt like that but i do remember having a long nap every afternoon and they were sweet not to wake me at 3am when they woke to reply emails / work.

back to london

 

and all too soon it was back to london. fell back into the cycle of thai takeaway (pad thai!) and then scrambled eggs at LPQ / hally's for breakfast. it was nice to have a few lazy mornings to settle back into things before graduation and grad trip v2 with my folks.

 

was also wondering why it was so cold in summer and first order of business was to buy trousers because my summer daisy dukes that had served well in the far east just weren't cutting it anymore!

and there was also the night we went a little crazy after dins at the home club (?) and found ourselves at maddox...

hello and goodbye

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

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

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

japanese dins

was craving japanese one night and thought to try lesamis' newish resto in farrer park. was probably the last table seated and stayed till closing but the quality and value was really good. lesamis is known for its consistency so really shouldn't have been surprised !

angeleno's

every year when i'm back in sg, the doctorlawyers are kind to invite me to tea at their practice. far from being the only crazy, there's a close circle of similarly masochistic folk. it's not often that i meet such kindred spirits who are in a similar boat (though much further along on their journey) who encourage me with the incredible ways their putting their talents to good use. it's inspiring to watch them do the things they love, and they get the whole medicine vs law dilemma. what i find the most reassuring is how they've resolutely stuck to medical practice ;) while having a bit of law on the side.

after a full dinner at theirs, made the mistake of arranging to meet friends for a massive carb overdose at angeleno's. what was cute was how there were 8 of us but 11 heartbeats, and the boys went crazy over-ordering without taking into account their pregnant wives food aversions. although who's counting, really, because team preggers sort of closed one eye (or both!) and nibbled on the baddies and sipped the wine that made its way to their end of the table.

lunch with F

F is a friend i met through blogging! when i was an intern at the law firm i eventually did my training contract at, the associates i worked for read her blog because they sort of knew her from school. shows how much interning / real work i did because before long i too was hooked on her blog and but for a chance meeting at ps cafe dempsey where (not creepily) i recognised her then toddler daughter before i saw her (she doesn't have her photo on her blog) we would never have met. thankfully she was lovely and approachable and i think we might already have been in email contact so it was cool to finally meet IRL. don't think we've met in years but have sorta kept in touch and she recently reached out while i was preparing for finals and we got talking again. 

she's just moved to private practice and we'd lunch near her clinic ! lovely to catch up in person and swap stories, continue to be amazed by this shared understanding and was so encouraged by her work/life balance as a consultant and yummy mummy to three.