sunny side up

4th year has been hectic and seems to be never-ending, but i'm so glad we are now at the end of project options! what a wonderful 2 months it has been, and by wonderful i mean free. hahaha. though now comes the stressful period of writing up reports and preparing for presentations. :-/ funny that a few people have asked why we manchester 4th years have so much free time on our hands, and even asked if we ever have exams. the answer is: we probably seem to be very free because we don't complain on facebook that much, even though, in less than a year, we've actually gone through crazy rotations and sat for a few major exams. AND PASSED. :p
project option time is like the pseudo-holiday before our real holiday. i've been enjoying every bit of it, especially now that summer is here, AND especially since i've chosen to do an audit instead of research (lots of free time) in gastroenterology (my favourite specialty - for now). just have to rush that report for submission and endure the horrendous presentation bit (which i'm dreading so badly); and then it is home for the summer!
i love that having all this free time now has given me the liberty to enjoy myself before final year (as you've probably noticed from my recent blog posts). almost all my weekends for the past 2 months have been "fully booked", and i've even told friends who thought of coming to visit to do so on weekdays, when i only have to go to hospital as and when i wish. hahaha.
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kings of leon came to manchester on the 19th of june, and tr kindly bought me their concert ticket for my birthday! i love kings of leon although i cannot say i am the biggest of fans. i love them enough to bother going to their concert, but not enough to bother going early to push myself through to the front (like i did went i went for Muse!).

to be entirely honest, the concert was... well... underwhelming. don't get me wrong - they can REALLY sing live (especially anthony followill), but it was exactly just like listening to their music on iTunes. they appeared, played some songs from all five of their albums, and left. i think i would've appreciated more variation in their music - perhaps a little more spark in their performances. all i can say is that i left the concert without much memory of being there, unlike the time when i went to watch Muse and was left on a high for a good few weeks! well i'm just glad they played all of my favourite songs - closer, pyro, mary, sex on fire, the bucket and use somebody, otherwise i would've felt cheated. haha.
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last weekend i organised a picnic for the imu-manchester peeps in our year, you know, just to be nice and bring everyone together. :p it was great fun! so glad we did it. the weather was wonderful, food was good, and everybody got along over a deck of cards, a £1.50 frisbee and a £0.80 ball. hehe happy times before the foreseeable gloomy times of final year.




eat then play.
the aforementioned £0.80 ball which was used as a volleyball, a football and a monkeyball.


everybody in position! van's butt jutting out nicely.



girls missing mastura.



boys playing bridge, minus kheng (the cameraman) and luqman (who was in wimbledon happily watching petra kvitova kick maria sharapova's ass).



not very often that we get to lie in the sun!


check out kheng in peihua's dior sunnies. sexy.



love this picture :)
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ok done blogging, now back to report!

glasgow!

i was in glasgow 2 weekends ago as i've promised amrita for ages that i'd visit, since my last trip did not actually happen. i was also keen on seeing the largest city in scotland. i absolutely loved edinburgh when i was there, but the scots i know hate edinburgh with a passion - they say that it's pretentious, "too english", and that glasgow is the true capital of scotland. *shrugs*

i've always heard the same things about glasgow prior to my visit: that it represents scotland more than edinburgh does (as said above), that the university of glasgow is gorgeous like hogwarts, that the city itself is ugly, and that there are a lot of orientals (chinese/koreans/japanese) and indians there. hahaha. well i've seen glasgow with my own eyes now.

i arrived on friday and was brought for dinner by dear amrita and her housemates. jap food at Nanakusa! nyumsters. we then headed to Hummingbird for after-dinner drinks. funky place with nice cocktails, some served in fishbowls for people to share.

we went to the outskirts of glasgow on saturday. would've been an excellent day if not for the weather. it rained the whole day! what a shame. oh well, welcome to the united kingdom. we went to a distillery called Auchentoshan (sounds so german). paid £5 for a 1-hour tour of the distillery, learned how whisky is made, and most importantly, whisky-tasting! not that i'm a fan of whisky, but hey i was in scotland.

it was still raining when we reached loch lomond, the largest lake in great britain which lies between central scotland and the scottish highlands. had lunch at this quaint pub and then went for a cruise on the lake. it was nice, although i'm sure i would've appreciated the scenery more if the weather didn't make everything seem depressing.

back in glasgow where we had korean dinner with the dundee people who were there for the day. and for the very first time, i introduce to you my DOCTOR friends, drs ben, michelle, huiling and yuen khai (who went all the way to glasgow just to cut his hair wtf lol).

sunday was a much, MUCH better day. very lovely. the sun was out with white fluffy clouds decorating the clear blue sky. amrita showed me what glasgow had to offer - starting with a relaxing walk from her place to the University. this is the Kelvingrove Art Museum in the background, on the way.

The University of Glasgow, which the glasgow students are so proud of. :p

who wouldn't be? what a gorgeous campus.

view from one of the sites on campus.

after a tour of the University, we went for ice-cream and took the subway to the city centre, only because amrita wanted me to see what a joke it is. it's so small it was like sitting in a toy train. i found it really cute though. hahaha. we had lunch at MUSSEL INN! i was so excited. loved the Mussel Inn in edinburgh.

some pictures of the glasgow city centre. you know what. i like Glasgow. it reminds me of Manchester - ugly but happening. good shopping, amazing food, interesting night life, cosy places to hang out and have cake and coffee. my kind of a city. i don't want to live in a city which is pretty but where everything closes by 5pm. i want to live in a city which is fast-paced (but not as fast as London) and has everything that i need.

as a response to what i've been told about glasgow:

• represents scotland more than edinburgh does - to be honest, i think edinburgh has a more scottish air to it. glasgow is much larger and is more of a modern city, but it doesn't really scream scotland, if not for the glaswegian accents heard at every corner.
• gorgeous uni - YES, definitely
• ugly - quite, but there are individual buildings which are nice.
• filled with orientals - YES, but doesn't beat manchester :p
• lots of indians - not really, in fact the only indians i remember seeing were amrita and her housemates. HAHAHA

thanks amrita for the lovely weekend. finally fulfilled my promise to you. now leave me alone! :p hehe just kidding, i had a fantastic time and i'd really love to go again.

star light, star bright

the starlight ball

4th june 2011

garstang country hotel & golf club

obviously very small scale compared to the grand balls for all manchester medics (which i suppose i should attend at some point) since this was only for those based in preston, but it was an intimate affair and quite enjoyable to be honest. well ceilidh was fun at the very least.




with eleanor and massywassy. i look funny here - think i was talking to whoever who took this picture. for the record i wasn't digging my nose.


mary, eleanor, neil, me, becky at our table.



my seat. had salad (spelled as sald on my place card), chicken and mousse. nothing fancy schmancy.



people! with eleanor, andy, jon, massy (extremely lousy picture but i kinda like it!)



more people! with diana, eleanor + wilfred, becky



my first ceilidh! loved it. sprained my neck and arm during (actually my neck was already sprained before the ball - while asleep); had a couple of bruises; had people step on my feet (took off my shoes cos it was just impossible to ceilidh in heels); swung 360 degrees in the air by some of the crazy guys - but very very fun!!



massy, me and eleanor with our complimentary cocktails



i realise i don't have a full length picture of me, but this is the closest one to a full length. aww :( at least you can see my shoes. by the way don't you love massy's princess-like dress?! so gorgeous ;)







for those who are curious: my dress was tailor-made back home which i wore to a wedding once. shoes were from aldo, which is my current favourite shoe brand. you should see my house - tr said it looks like an aldo shoe store with all the boxes stacked up at the front door. well what can i say. their shoes are pretty and VERY comfortable. clutch (not in the picture) was from french connection. ear-rings and necklace from swarovski. bracelet from korea. make-up by yours truly and hair was au naturale. hahaha.
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totally unrelated, but heartiest congratulations to my friends from dundee who've just passed their finals and will graduate as doctors in 2 weeks' time! ohmygod how exciting is this? the first among us imu peeps to hold the long-awaited D-R title. oh and not forgetting those from nottingham as well. all of you shall be my inspiration to pass MY finals in january. :)