gong xi

celebrated chinese new year this year in a very unorthodox fashion, but with wonderful companionship and good food nonetheless. adrian came from galway and amrita from glasgow, and what did we do in manchester? we ate, walked around chinatown and the city centre, and then ate some more.

breakfast at central perk in piccadilly. yes apparently it IS a franchise of the central perk in Friends.

after breakfast: walked aimlessly around chinatown and took an obligatory picture in front of the chinese arch. (i'm pretty sure i have at least 10 pictures of myself in front of the arch - on 10 different occasions)


then we got bored so i decided it was time to go drink my pearl milk tea. and forced everyone else to drink too.


got bored further...so we had an early lunch. happy amrita with glorious chinese food.


then it was time for (window) shopping! seriously, there really isn't much to do in manchester. amrita had already seen old trafford and adrian couldn't be bothered about man utd or anything which involves breaking a sweat, museums here are shit especially when you've been to the best museums in the world, nothing particularly worth sightseeing ESPECIALLY in this sort of weather (or even when the weather is nice, for that matter), ladidadidadida... so what else to do than shop?


manchester town hall. randomly.


walked, (window) shopped, got some free stuff from the body shop... and it was tea-time! so we went to cafe rouge over at the printworks. and since people always ask why i hardly put up pictures of teongrhen and i on my blog, here's one. you can quit bugging me now. :)


trio de creme brulee.

chocolate & banana crepes, and tarte tatin with ice-cream.
... then we went back home and had maggi mee for dinner. and that was our CNY eve.
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1st day of CNY: went for tapas! at this place in preston called Pond. see i told you, very unconventional indeed. but absolutely no regrets and money well-spent.

massywassy joined us too!

giant pitcher of sangria.


we had: Chilli, garlic & herb mushrooms;
Ciabatta with garlic oil and balsamic vinegar;
Papas’ aji (bravas) - oven roasted potatoes finished in spicy tomato sauce;
Luv a duck - duck breast strips finished in a light fresh plum sauce;
Chorizo with port, red wine, herbs and garlic;
Aji de gallina - hot and spicy fruit, veg and chicken stew with chillies;
Abi obe - chicken cooked with African spices, tomatoes, mushrooms and onion...


haloumi and serrano ham...

mango & sundried tomato homemade bread...


spanish pancake with caramelised plums and berries...


... and toffee & pecan cheesecake.
all uber delicious!


everybody happy happy. a few hours later: everybody sad sad. cos adrian and amrita had to go home :( -----

fast forward to the 2nd last day of CNY (yesterday): potluck dinner at fleur, jane june and wilfed's house. finally some proper CNY spirit!

NOW it feels a bit like CNY.

also looks and tastes like CNY. yeesang made by jane june.


teehee so exciting!

LOU SANG!


tong yuen for dessert. can't get any better than this.


superpig! everybody looks funny.

bit o'scotland

january 2010, post-progress test.

Dundee.

Fisher and Donaldson: home to my favourite fudge donuts and coffee cream towers! but extremely bad for glycaemic and obesity control.

25 Deveron Terrace: home to mich, ben and merv.

also home to good and hearty food all year round. you people suck.

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Edinburgh.

beautiful, rustic edinburgh! my vote for the most beautiful city in the united kingdom -manchester being the ugliest, of course. (it's ugly but i still like it)

don't find men in kilts sexy and probably never will. "scotland the brave" played on bagpipes throughout the city.

full scottish breakfast at kilimanjaro. complete with haggis and everything. food: GOOD. coffee: GOOD! no wonder it's one of the top 10 of the best coffee shops in the UK.

walking along the famous royal mile.

love these little alleys along the streets.

the edinburgh castle.

castle.

the edinburgh museum of childhood. very interesting, definitely brought back memories of my peter & jane and enid blyton days. :)

wouldn't want to be stuck in any of the rooms by myself though. scary. :/

MUSSEL INN. loves! this is a 1 kg pot of mussels in white wine, garlic, shallots and cream.

delicious, creamy and very filling seafood chowder.

queen scallops.

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planning to go back to edinburgh again soon. also very desperately want to do the whole scotland road trip thing, to the highlands and seaside towns, especially. so many places to go, so little time. sheesh.

familiarity-

the good, the bad and the ugly.

the good: ease, comfort, support, peace.

the bad: over-dependence, lukewarmth, timidity, slight annoyance.

the ugly: extreme annoyance, bordering hatred, hostility.

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people of our age group should really learn to grow up. no more being babied, no more allowing to be babied, no more clinging onto others. stand for our own rights, make our own decisions. have our feet firm on the ground, have our own minds. talk less, whine less, cry less, think more. act maturely, just as we should.

thing is, not everyone can wants to be at your beck and call 24/7. not everyone can wants to treat you like a prince/princess and spoonfeed you. and keep checking on you and making sure you are ok. people have different priorities set and sometimes you should realise that you are probably not that important, if at all. hey, i'm just saying. c'est la vie. ;) people have their own things to do, friends to meet, relationships to handle. in a nutshell, we have our own lives to live. wise advice: go get your own. our worlds are different oysters. :)

to put it simply: get off me.

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my life for the past month has been good. in fact, i'm surprised it has actually been good the whole time. it's true that how our lives are made is how we choose to live them. there are many things which i don't like about this place, but there are also many things which make me happy. and i only choose to embrace the happy things. sure, i get frustrated a lot of times, but i get over and move on.

in the past month, i went to dundee and edinburgh, completed my dermatology ssc (though i think i kinda screwed up my report - but it's ok, i just want a "satisfactory". he'd BETTER give me a satisfactory!), got my progress test results (better than expected, but as always, there's of course a lot of room for improvement), pseudo-celebrated chinese new year with adrian and amrita who came from ireland and glasgow respectively, sat for an OSCE yesterday (i've a feeling i failed 1 or 2 stations huhuhuhu but it's formative anyway so who cares?), and now i'm off for the rest of the week.

i also *finally* satisfied my cravings for korean and japanese food. how not to be happy?

this sunday i am off to blackburn for 4 months, accommodation provided. doing cardio, respi and haemato: the former 2 being my worst systems ever and the latter 1 being the most boring thing in the whole of medicine. i will be deprived of youtube, skype and video-streaming (but msn & facebook still ok - yay!), and away from the comforts of my own room and my double bed. but somehow, for a few very valid reasons, i am looking forward.

i think i am going to really enjoy it.

picture-filled posts coming up, i promise.

in my face

in clinic with Dr C (angmoh) today:

Dr C: i have to go to the manchester children's hospital after this. got a chinese baby to see. do you speak mandarin?

me: =/ ... not really.

Dr C: aww too bad. thought of asking you to come along!

me: i speak cantonese though.

Dr C: i speak cantonese too. at least good enough to obtain a full history.

me: .... =/

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Dr C: so where are you from?

me: malaysia.

Dr C: nice! i've been there many times, love it! which part of malaysia are you from?

me: err.. 2 hours north of KL (have given up replying "ipoh" at this point, since nobody ever knows where it is).

Dr C: what's the name of the place?

me: err.. ipoh.

Dr C: oh cool! passed it by on the way to cameron's! i've been to KL, penang, pulau kapas, pulau perhentian, pulau tioman, pulau pangkor, pulau whatevershit #1, pulau whatevershit #2...

me: wow. i've never even been to the east coast myself.

Dr C: then where have you been?

me: australia. and... other countries.

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greetings from home

:)

my mum sent me pics of my doggies! always, ALWAYS make my day. ginger is so big already - can't believe it's been a year since we got her as a tiny ball of fur. haha. and kiki, well, she has hints of white hair here and there now :( but still so cute nonetheless.

and that pink piece of cloth (below) was actually the pajamas i wore right before i left. gave it to them in hope that they would always remember me :p so yes, it hasn't been washed since august 2009. hahaha. yeeucks.