A weekend in Hobart

It's been a while since photos were part of the blog, so I thought it was time for a comeback. This week has been pretty busy at work, with several interesting patients taking up my attention (and my lunch breaks!) so on Friday when my resident suggested checking out the ongoing winter festival at the Docks...

Dark MOFO is by all accounts, a winter art festival, coordinated by the guys behind MONA (Museum of Old and New Art) in Hobart. Reading up on it now, some of the events sounded like they were pretty full-on; think jumping naked into Sandy Bay in this temperature!

What we were after was the food, specifically the Winter Feast! Crowds of people packed into the Princes Wharf at the docks; this was just opposite Salamanca. Above you can see the entrance. It was pretty chilly, and random jets of fire would spurt up above the lights every so often. Barrels of fire were set up all around, with people clustering up around each one, looking like extras from the set of Gotham city.

This was an example of what was on offer - pretty good food to be had! We scoffed down beef cheek(so tender!), mussels, goat and elderberry pie, Huon Atlantic salmon and pork/beef sliders, finishing off with a crumble, some cannoli with Lindt choc filling and the sticky fig, date and ginger pudding.

Artwork was also on offer...I'm sure these took some effort to put up!

The next day, I thought I would be too full for brunch, but had been wanting to try Environs for some time.

 

Their savoury brekkie with a corn cake and scrambled eggs sitting on top, with a side of bacon and tomatoes topped with hollandaise sauce was the main draw when I arrived at lunch.

Very filling, though the scramble was more an omelette (overdone) and halfway through, a small hair popped up in the meal!

They were nice about it and offered me a meal to replace it but I declined - they were nice enough to waive the cost, and hoped I'd be back soon! They were so pleasant about it I'd definitely give them another go.





All in all, a nice weekend full of food - I'm starting a pasta bake now with chicken, mushrooms, tomatoes and a 4-cheese melt; perfect for the weather!

Aussie Open 2012

Finally made it for some tennis action at the Australian Open yesterday after watching Tomic vs Dolgopolov on the telly the night before.

At the gates

A late start due to a forgotten credit card meant that I arrived at Flinders Street only at 1pm. Unsure which direction to take, I ended up having a quiet walk down the riverbank to the entrance of Rod Laver Arena.

 Who knew Berdych would later be known as the man who refused to shake hands?

As usual, the place was packed, perhaps even more so than at Wimbledon with a great deal more foodstalls as well as long, long queues to get into each of the show courts.

 The grounds

The top two courts at the Aussie Open are the Rod Laver and the Hisense Arena - these get top billing and the top matches are usually played at night here. Tickets to each of these are exclusive to each, as in a Hisense ticket holder would not be able to access Rod Laver and vice versa. The next show court down is the Margaret Court Arena - access to this court as well as all the other ground courts is covered by a ground pass.

Watching the scores and envying the spectators while waiting to get in

Clutching my mobile ticket in hand, I made my way to the end of a queue waiting to get into Show Court 2 (the next one down from Margaret Court Arena) and began my waiting game. What happens is that new seats only became available when people already sitting get up to leave. And if you have a seat, you are allowed up to 3 exits to get food, use the toilet etc before your seat is given up to newcomers. All this meant that those arriving in the 2nd or 3rd wave of visitors had to wait ages to get into the seated courts.

 Wimbledon was green, down under it's blue!

Still having no idea whom I was going to be watching, I finally found myself in the middle of a match between David Ferrer and Juan Ignacio Chela - exciting until Ferrer took the second set and his opponent started giving up in the 3rd, even applauding some of David's shots at the end.

Above where we were sitting were a group of Aussies who cheered boisterously after almost every point and when the points were not so exciting, would break out into fragments of song, often using the player's names.

After the match, we were pleasantly surprised when we found we were about to watch a mixed doubles between Bernard Tomic, the Aussie thats getting all the news at the moment with Jelena Jankovic against a couple of young Aussie players. The cheering section above us were in their element now, and started cheering in between points, asking Tomic to wear his headband and enquiring as to the whereabouts of his girlfriend.

The match itself was pretty straightforward with Tomic and Jankovic winning pretty easily.

The final match we watched was a mixed doubles between Max Myrnic and Leander Paes, both of whose partner's names escape me. Compared to the first two matches, this was a pretty relaxed affair, with Leander showing why he was, and still is a doubles player ot repute - with a killer backhand volley/smash and masterful touches into open court areas.

So ended a sunburnt day at the Australian Open. 2 down, 2 more to go!

Business Class @ Emirates

A number of really cool things happened over the course of the past week but today's really all about me flying one step up from cattle class with Emirates.

To begin with, checking in was a breeze - though the red carpet felt a bit contrived - perhaps they think while you're paying a few hundred quid more for your tickets you're entitled to possibly have slightly more cushioning for your feet?

The Emirates lounge at KLIA was something I'd almost forgotten I could access - just in time for a nice snooze away from the rush of the airport as it WAS midnight at the time. Also a good chance to grab a shave (see? taking your advice already squeaks!).

But of course the moment I'd been waiting for was when i presented my boarding pass (though the lady did ask me whether I was sure I wasn't in Economy - probably didn't dress the part enough). The usual bustle faded away as I entered the private section of the plane normally reserved for the suited and the booted.

Having secured an aisle seat, I briefly wished i'D actually put on a coat just so I could've asked the stewardess to take it away and hang it up for me. Turning my attention to the seats - my first worry was that the TV screen was way too far away for comfortable viewing however it was substantially larger than what I'd been used to. And my were the seats roomy.

Essentially you got two personal reading lights, a central console for controlling your chair's various positions which could be saved for future use (meals, sleep etc), tv controls and privacy controls. This last one meant raising up a screen that separated you from the guy/girl sitting right next to you. I spent quite a bit of time getting used to the chair's controls - not being very deft with the fingers and puzzling out techy stuff but before too long, paraphernalia started arriving to keep me busy elsewhere.

The first thing I was given was a sock and eyepatch combo - I suppose just in case peopl needed a change of socks? Stuffing them into the pouch underneath the screen with the complimentary blanket (which I never use), I contemplated the second item they gave me - a travel bag complete with everything a sophisticated traveler could need down to Bvlgari eau de cologne. Another stewardess then appeared with the menu and a wine list - by this time I'D Kicked my shoes off and was preparing to enjoy myself thoroughly - helped by a glass of juice and bottles of mineral water they offered even before we'd taken off.

After I was handed a noise-cancelling headset and was done watching a couple of episodes of Friends, the snacks arrived - none of your usual peanuts with a plastic cup - these were sandwiches of capsicum, feta, tandoori chicken and salmon with a slice of chocolate topped sponge to help it all go down. I'd been puzzling about where the table was - needn't have worried as she basically reached into the center console and pulled ou a huge foldable table overlaid with polished wood. Over this she placed a white cloth and then proceeded to set the cutlery and meal down. Huge salted nuts did get served later (still not sure why nuts are such a big deal on airlines in general) which were a bit much at that point.

THat led nicely on to a snooze (the most horizontal snooze I've ever had in the air) from which I was awoken by the stewardess tapping lightly on my knee to ask ever so quietly if I'd like some breakfast. This whole process started again with the folding table, upon which a tray with yoghurt and a plate of fruit was placed. The stewardess then brought out a hot tray of rolls, from which we made our selections - while we were making our way through these, the main bits of the meal (these came not in plastic packaging but in proper plates) were served separately. Though I think the quality of the main meal itself was pretty similar to what we'd normally have in Economy - which isn't bad at all.

On preparing to disembark - the stewardess noticed I'd left the eyepatch/sock combo and the travel bag behind and pointed out they were mine to take away which was nice - we left the plane on a separate exit and basically entered Dubai on a walkway above the main central floor away from the duty-free crowd where we proceeded to the business lounge to await our transits.

I'd definitely do it again!

While I think of something to write

Mass Effect 2. What a joy to play.

Video Games | Mass Effect 2 | Launch Trailer HD

XBox 360 | Playstation 3 | Nintendo Wii

Video Games | Mass Effect 2 | Cinematic Trailer HD

XBox 360 | Playstation 3 | Nintendo Wii

Liverpool Food Festival

Well its actually mainly about my comeback to the baking scene, after years (literally!) of failed trifles, bread-and-butter pudding and crumbles, I finally managed to bake something that people finished eating! hooray for me!

They say the proof of the pudding is in the eating...well, I'm just happy it looked like how a cake should look.
It was chocolate fudge cake (apparently), the original recipe is taken wholesale from my cousin's blog, somewhere I go to to dream about good eating now and again.

Also had a pretty good dinner at 60 Hope Street, somewhere I'd never be able to afford normally as mains go for about mid-20's, however as this week was the Liverpool Food Festival, they had a pretty good deal going on their website (its running till the 26th of Sept so any Liverpudlians want in, head to their site!)


3 courses for GBP18.95 plus a bottle of Rose for 2, sounded like a pretty fair deal, so 5 of us went to try it out. Esther and her sister, Naomi are good foodie people, and Asyikin (an M202!) and Frank made up the party.

Spent a good while discussing what these berries were, and found that the staff didn't know either!

I think my order of starter (Cumbrian ham tart), mains (fillet of Goosnargh chicken) and sweet (Ms Kirkham's cheese with beetroot cake) was probably the weakest of the combinations available - Esther's hake main dish, with Asykin's smoked salmon starter and the mousse dessert were pretty strong options. Even so, the meal was probably one of the best I've had out in Liverpool in terms of English dining. Can't remember much about the wine except that it was Spanish, and there was a lot of it - slept well that night!


Then come Sunday, it was the end of the Food Festival, culminating in a Farmer's Market all along Hope Street. Something like a pasar malam back home, a farmer's market is how UK farmers have a chance to sell directly to the customer, thereby cutting out the middle man and resulting in a higher profit margin.

Looking pretty bare in the morning before it gets crowded later.

I'd planned to meet up with Esther and her cronies from church so heading there after Sunday Service, I found myself confronted with the above scene. Felt hungry so settled for a roll with Gloucester Old Spot hog roast with the stuffing and apple sauce at the shop below.

Let's just say I wasn't blown away. However things looked up as I'd heard there was going to be free performances by the Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra with their resident conductor in charge. Ducking into the Philharmonic, I managed to steal a seat in a box after convincing an elderly couple, that no, I wasn't going to to shout or take tons of photos midway through the performance:-)

Beethoven's 5th Symphony (according to Pa), Haydn's Symphony No. 100 and Beethoven's The Creatures of Prometheus ballet was my introduction to live orchestral music, and it was good.

Tried biltong, which I'd read about in King Solomon's Mines and always wondered what it'd taste like. In real life, its a strip of jerky-like meat studded with seeds (fennel?) and is really really difficult to bite through. According to Esther (who should know since she spent part of her life in Africa), they're meant to be chewed and chewed and chewed. Not exactly sharing material:-)

Total haul for the day: clockwise from top left-

Smoked kippers, which I'm assured will taste absolutely brilliant boiled in their bags and then dropped on top of white bread.

Cain's Raisin Beer, which as a flavoured beer, I don't get to try too often.

A French artisanal loaf, which apparently uses French flour (I obviously have no clue) and therefore is tastier.

Some sweetcorn lobbed into my bag by Esther.

A pot of homemade damson jam - was looking for quince jelly but no one stocked it.

A chocolate tarte and a slice of chocolate ganache cake.

Two venison tarts with orange and juniper toppings.

YUM!

And so,

I've acquired the reputation of being a Celine Dion fanatic, simply because I was caught listening to her rendering of Beauty and the Beast on Youtube in the doctor's room after going to watch the musical in question.

The musical, performed at the Empire Theatre was better than I'd hoped for - I was actually quite excited about going to watch it (more so than I should have been, according to the prevaling opinion amongst the infectious diseases team).

The original 1994 movie being the first movie I've ever watched in cinema, kind of brought back memories...which were quickly dispelled at the start, with Belle's voice being a bit too squeaky (I thought).

Gaston, Lumeire and Cogsworth carried the show at the start, and by the time the iconic ballroom scene rolled around, we were all enjoying ourselves.

Movie Week

Not a whole week of movies -just a couple:-)

On Sunday - Erik ditched his long-suffering wife to join Kenny, Becky and I for Terminator Salvation. Something that I'd wanted to watch ever since watching the trailer but had been put off by the poor reviews I'd heard about.

However as Becky put it, the fans who had stood through the downer that was Terminator 3 were not going to miss this summer's addition to the Terminator universe.



A purely action-packed movie, with an emotionless Christian Bale playing John Connor and a slightly more interesting cast paling beside the machines - iconic T-600s alongside Hunter-Killers and a gigantic robot that looked like it had been plucked from the upcoming Transformers movie and was slightly confused to be played beside smallish humans.

Overall - better than expected, but its no Star Trek.


Next - watched this one in my room over dinner and pizza after an unexpected break when David reminded me that he was covering my on-call shift this evening. A movie about Joshua Jackson being told that he has only One Week to live.



A fairly good movie - a lot of Canada is shown (not that I know a whole lot about the country itself), the movie plays out pretty much as expected - there is the moment of epiphany, the moment of sobering realization, the moment of desperation, the moment of fear, the moment of discovery - however the best thing about this movie by far is not its moments.

3 words.

Best. Soundtrack. Ever.

I'm trying to find out how to get a copy of it - the soundtracks are played by Canadian indie artists and established bands, and the sound, while probably a little too light and poppish in parts, is just the right amount of quirkish individuality to pull off a show like this.

Both shows then - well worth a watch!

Time to get down to some work..

Black Is Traditional!

Coraline.

Amazing stuff.

Not having read the book, I watched this with the anticipation of a Neil Gaiman fan collective resting on my consciousness and a middling trailer seen on Apple.com.



It didn't disappoint.

A story about a young girl bored with her parents, and who thinks her parents are bored with her. So she finds new parents, who look just a little odd.

Definitely not a typical feel-good Disney/Pixar variant, which was refreshing. Scenes flipped between the eccentric to mildly amusing to an anticipation of an exciting finish. This is the sort of book I would've loved when I was young. Maybe even now!

The website was the icing on the cake - plenty of fiddling to be had for those with plenty of time on their hands.

Buttons anyone?

Etsu

The last time I ate Japanese, I threw up.

My sister is a big fan, my last housemate back home, my cousin and countless people I know swear by their sushi, sashimi, sake and every raw food that ends with a vowel, so I decided there must be something to the whole cuisine that I'm just not getting.

Etsu was somewhere we've been planning to go for a while. It was the 'place we would go for our first paycheck', then the 'place we would go for our second paycheck' then just 'arrggh are we ever going to go to that place'. Jack, Gil and I planned to make it a house affair, Esther and Naomi, always game to try out a new place, decided to join in.


Restaurant of the Year 2008 in Liverpool, plus rave reviews online - we were expecting good stuff. Gil was especially excited as she knew the chef from a houseparty not too long ago - turns out he remembered her too!

I think we all came with the idea that helpings were going to be small for some reason, so we might have gone a bit overboard in ordering a mixed sushi/sashimi plate, some gyoza and some tempura to start with, plus a main course for each. To complete the feast, some Asahi and Kirin for the guys and plum wine for the girls.

Now I'm a poor judge of what is fresh and what isn't, but the fish that night stuck in my mind as being 'fresh' from the moment I bit into their bouncy flesh that wasn't mushy/soggy in the least. Grains of rice that came apart easily in the mouth yet held together firmly enough to be moved in small clumps easily by chopsticks. Tempura was pretty normal, however the main courses were brilliant all around.


My unagi-don came with a sweet sauce that was light enough not to be cloying, and went beautifully with the white rice - the unagi itself reminded me of a very sweet ikan bakar from back home - similar texture. The tuna and red snapper steaks that Jack and Gil had were firm and went well with their sauces.


Surprise, surprise, we were full enough not to bother about dessert and instead sat around for an hour or so chatting about random stuff till Naomi had to go home and study for finals.

Definitely going back to try their bento boxes.

Free stuff is fun!

I've not won many prizes via random competitions before, so this was a big deal for me. Being a Waterstone's Cardholder, I rarely receive a parcel from them without knowing in advance, so I was surprised one morning, coming back from an all-nighter, to get a fairly hefty white envelope.

Inside was a letter informing me that I'd won an unproofed edition of Martyr by Rory Clements to read and would I be so kind as to submit an online review when I'd finished.

First of all, I mentally and physically prepared myself.


I remembered entering the draw for the book, thinking that I wouldn't mind reviewing a light historical murder mystery, a little light reading in bed would be fun. At the same time, I was wondering whether I would be able to be objective about it, as I've not read that many pseudo-historical thrillers before (Phillipa Gregory - I'd better read one of hers after this to compare)

What makes a good read, for me, is something I've never thought about; this might be interesting as an introspective for myself!

Firstly, I guess I like it when a book is easy to get stuck into - ie if the language is not too fancy, sentence construction isn't too long . In other words, how 'readable' it is.

I also like it when the scene/setting is painted naturally - ie descriptions flow from the pages naturally, making it easy to picture the surroundings without feeling as if the author is trying to draw my attention to each and every object present in order to make me believe in the authenticity/accuracy of his writing.

Descriptions of food are a bonus, I personally like it when meals are described in books, besides making me hungry, it helps to keep me in the scene, as it were.

Pacing of the plot would do quite a lot to keep me reading. I found books with slow plotlines very dull to read. This goes also for books with obscure references to events that only become clear when I keep reading. However some books reward persistence when the plot picks up a little way on; I found Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell very hard to get into at first-by the end, I didn't want it to stop.

Books with difficult-to-follow plots are an issue. Most murder mysteries, court-case-based books (John Grisham) are not on my reading list because most of them require a lot of attention to really be able to get the most out of them.

Based on the above, I'm actually quite a superficial reader!

However bearing all that in mind, I enjoyed this particular book, because it ticked all the boxes above. Plus I felt that since I'm not a writer, I shouldn't have been too harsh when I genuinely enjoyed it:-)

Almost

An up and down day - in between attending and assisting in flexible cystoscopy clinic, I managed to lose a USB drive, and post a letter minus the stamps.

And at the eleventh hour, when dinner was in the oven and I was wandering bleary-eyed around the house, Ai Wei's frantic tones via Jack's mobile informed me that I was within 15 minutes of missing the farewell tour of Riverdance.

Having seen them already on DVD, I had some idea of what to expect, but the dancing, the music, the showmanship generally was a sight to behold. Everything seemed so meticulous, from crowd pleasers such as Trading Taps, to wildly crazy dances like Morning in Macedonia, to choral performances and instrumentals; to my untrained eye, not a foot looked out of place.

Sitting back during the intermission we wondered aloud how one of the dancers could twirl on tiptoes while in a squat, and almost immediately get back up and perform without losing her balance.

The musicians were excellent, especially the fiddler, who played immunerable solos and generally kept us entertained for the better part of two hours! Must be something, to be part of such a spirited band.

We were lucky to have got such high seats - AiWei's work, and as they are apparently going to end their run of shows sometime in 2010, about 10 years after they first started (an offspring of a Eurovision performance, I just learned!) so if anyone is still wondering; they're very much worth a watch!

What I've Been up to 3

I spent most of MOnday watching Anne of Green Gables on youtube. They actually have the whole of the first two films at 10 min clips. I remember we recorded it long ago on VCR and thinking it was hilarious to watch. After reading the books written by Lucy Maud Montgomery, I was enthralled.

Went on Wed to watch The Golden Compass as planned. It's actually based on a trilogy of books (aren't all movies nowadays?) called His Dark Materials, written by this chap called Phillip Pullman. The first book titled The Northern Lights is what the movie is based on. I'd read the book about 2 years ago and had forgotten most of what the story was about, but the trailer looked fairly interesting, so I expected the movie to be pretty good.


Maybe it was the hype, or maybe I'd thought too highly of the trailer, but, just as with Dan Brown's Da Vinci Code, I was disappointed. The movie was ok, with a lot of detail being put into the alternate world in which people have daemons, the graphics were good, the fight scenes were well shot, with the daemons' disintegration into dust making up for the lack of blood, big name actors and actresses were present, but I couldn't help feeling the lack of the 'wow' factor.

It didn't help that whenever Lyra (the main character) travelled on the armoured bear, it looked impressive from the front, but when the camera swiveled to a rear view, it just looked funny. Think Winne-the-pooh loping along on four legs. I suppose its not their fault polar bears look less impressive from the rear.


Much has been made of the fact that Philip Pullman is an outspoken atheist and that he has purportedly written the books 'to undermine the basis of Christian belief'. So much so, that emails have been circulated warning people against this movie, and how it could in some way, subversively turn people against God. I admit to feeling a little uncomfortable when I read the books, that's how obvious the allegory is. But I personally think the movie, if anything, should be watched and discussed to show how different the 'god' in Pullman's universe differs from the God I believe in. For example, the 'authority' in the film (the Magisterium) are seen as suppressing freedom because they 'exist to stop people from doing things that could harm themselves'. Looking at the state of affairs today, it is obvious that the God of this universe gave us the capability to choose for ourselves what to do/believe in, and did not force us to blindly obey him.

Anyway, before I get too carried away, the movie left me slightly unsatisfied, probably because the final fight scene was not as epic as I'd pictured it to be. I liked the Ian Mckellen voiceover of Iorek Brynison though.


Much better in my opinion was Stardust, which I'd watched earlier. We also watched Hitman that same night before the Golden Compass. Despite both of us having heard of the game, Jack and I spent the hour or so before TGC sitting over hot chocolate trying to make sense of Hitman. The fight scenes were so-so, but we felt an older Hitman, with a deeper voice (!) would have carried the character off better. And he should have showed even less emotion..,especially with the girl.

Am blogging from Dubai International Airport, where I've just visited the restaurant that allows passengers with a stopover time of over 5 hours a free meal. Brilliant.


Malaysia beckons. Another 10-12 hours...

What I've been up to 2

A busy final week of term, in which I had a final presentation to prepare, a final assessment to do, a Christmas event to organize in the midst of going into A&E.

I've really enjoyed working in the Royal Liverpool's A&E department. Its probably because of all the stuff they got us doing, which made us feel more involved even as students. After a slow start and shaky hands, I got in great suturing practice, was able to catheterise patients without traumatising myself each time, and on my last day *cough cough*, did my first manual reduction of a Colle's fracture. Still recall how numb I felt while doing that, its something I do to myself when doing procedures on patients. Great relief on seeing the ultrasound of the corrected wrist. And for the medically inclined, yes, an ultrasound. The doc i was with was trialling use of ultrasound to check results of manual reduction of fractures.

Friday's Christmas night in church was good. We managed to get a team of singers together at the last minute, and actually sang a song in parts! It was Newsong's 'The Song of Christmas', and I think having it at the end rounded things off nicely. Besides the nicely decorated hall ('snowdrop lights' and a tree supplied by Lydia and Julia plus candles all around), Becky and the rest of the YAGS (young adults group) came up with Christmassy food, which turned out nicely balanced on the Table Of Equilibrium, so named for the even numbers of food on all sides.


Watched Stardust on my laptop on Saturday night, and was enthralled, despite hearing less-than-stellar reviews about it. I think there should be more movies made like this. I like that they didn't speak funny, and there were plenty of quirky bits balancing the outright magic-ness of the movie. Plus the guy acting as a goat was a bonus, as we Robert De Niro's screentime. The coronation scene was the only scene that felt slightly uncomfortable during the whole movie, I felt.

Will be watching The Golden Compass on Wednesday at half price! I've already read 1 1/2 of the trilogy, and heard something of the hype surrounding it, so lets see how the movie strikes me.

The pressure is on

Baking for 2 demanding housemates is hard enough. Especially when one bakes better than you do and is proud of it.

However, all that pales in comparison to the task I've just set myself.

See, in order to thank our GP whom we've been working with for the past year, I decided, against my better judgement, to bake this for him. And this coming from a guy who can't make bread pudding to save his life.

Twice baked biscuits. Not too hard-sounding, but it took what seemed a mountain of sugar, twice as much flour and more butter than we'd eat in a month. And Tesco raspberries.

With that much invested in this, I'd be to blame if things didn't go according to plan. Thankfully, the final baking process is underway, and I'm checking things every few minutes, which wont do wonders for the final product, but its better than burnt biscotti.

Aside, Partition is well worth a watch. Though seeing native Indians speak in English wont do wonders for setting the mood, this movie manages to pull it off quite well. And if there's nothing else that interests you about the separation of Pakistan and India, or the atrocities of the time, there's always Kristin Kreuk.