So I've been offered a job

As a Core medical trainee for 2 years in Liverpool, essentially. That which seemed far off and distant has quite suddenly appeared at my doorstep and somehow, like I was saying to a friend, it seems as though I'm committing the next two years of my life away. This is probably the longest I've stayed in an area away from home. I mean, IMU was 3 years-ish, and Liverpool has been nearly 5 years now. And its somewhere which I still don't see myself settling down longterm in, quirky and familiar though it is. The question therefore being: where then? And the slightly unspoken question's semi-identical twin hangs in the air.

I really do not like

Electricians (however well-meaning) trampling in my room with bulky coats that look like they havent been washed in years, leaving clipboards and workboxes around which have been goodness knows where, then unscrewing sockets off the wall leaving dust everywhere sniffling rubbing their noses and then hands hands hands forgetting to take their shoes off after being told then stomping all over the house all after a A+E night when I just want to go to bed.

The price of living in the living room of the house-converted into a bedroom I guess. Man I'm whiny.

How some things never change.

It can mean a couple of things:

a comfort post about how some things are stable and unchanging, veritable rocks to cling on to while the sands of life continue shifting.

Or a whine post where unshakeable (as far as we can see) circumstances remain firmly in place, bad habits continue to grate, and the past looms out of the shadows at every turn.

Or maybe, its neither of the above.

Maybe some things don't change because thats the way they are meant to be. Forever.
And maybe that's alright.

Sorry just thinking aloud and decided to articulate.

So how's everyone doing?

Hi blog, long time no see!

Dinner last night - a nice change from venison sausages with pasta.

It's been a while.

Fresh out of a week of nights. Mass Effect 2. Book to review. Bliss.

Woken up at 0938 by A+E Consultant. Can I do a locum shift tonight as colleague is sick. To sleepy to come up with a good excuse, and too me to say No.

Have loads to do but for some reason feel like trying a new eatery during the next couple of days off. Anyone reading this blog, and in Liverpool, let me know if you want to come with!

Random

Alma - is an excellent short on Vimeo! I want to watch a movie by the people who made this!

Also found The Meatrix quite well made.

Quickie

Interrupting the work to say:

There are 11,000 free eBooks up for download at The Book Depository, so have a look and pick up those you like, or those you haven't heard of before!

A+E, contrary to my facebook, isn't that bad. So far..

It's Been Ages

and I've not got much to say:-)

Suffice to say I've been on a busy set of nights, am girding up my loins (still no idea why and how that phrase came into use) for MRCP Part 1 (wish me luck, and more importantly , keep me in prayer!), planning for my trip back home and Down South, all the while wondering what God's plans are for the next few months, especially after June next year.

I suppose the only other thing is that XBox with Jack and Woei Lin has brought back fond memories of playing on the Amiga when I was in primary school. Back then my cousin would come over every so often on a weekend (he's a medic now as well...whats the world coming to) and we'd take turns playing the games my far-sighted dad bought (presumably for our entertainment since he never played himself) - Double Dragon was one game I remember playing together with him.

Not much has changed, except the graphics haha! Gears of War 2 looks brilliant on our new 32 inch TV, another perk we allowed ourselves this year as 2nd year doctors:-)

Am loving most of the songs on Imogen Heap's new album!

Up is definitely the BEST Pixar film ever to date, eclipsing Wall-E any day.

Better pop to bed, music practice tmrw morning for Sunday. And then a baby dedication after that. Everyone seems to either be getting married or having baies nowadays:-)

The Lost Generation

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!

Part 4

Three weeks after the wind ceased to blow, the sea lion had a dream.

Now, as I told you before, there were other nights in which he had dreamed of the sea. But those were long ago and nearly forgotten. Even still, the ocean that filled his dreams this night was so beautiful and clear, so vast and deep, it was as if he were seeing it for the very first time.

The sunlight glittered on its surface, and as he dived, the waters all around him shone like an emerald. If he swam quite deep, it turned to jade, cool and dark and mysterious. But he was never frightened, not at all. For I must tell you that in all his dreams of the sea, he had never before found himself in the company of other sea lions. This night there were many, round about him, diving and turning, spinning and twirling. They were playing.

Oh, how he hated to wake from that wonderful dream. The tears running down his face were the first wet thing he had felt in three weeks. But he did not pause even to wipe them away, he did not pause, in fact, for anything at all. He set his face to the east, and he began to walk as best a sea lion can.

"Where are you going?" asked the tortoise.

"I am going to find the sea."

Old and New Merdeka Videos

Part 3

It was in May that the winds began to blow.

The sea lion had grown used to wind, and at first he did not pay much heed at all. Years of desert life had taught him to turn his back in the direction from which the wind came and cover his eyes with his flippers, so that the dust would not get in. Eventually, the winds would always pass.

But not this time.

Day and night it came, howling across the barren lands. There was nothing to stop its fury, nothing to even slow it down. For forty days and forty nights the wind blew. And then, just as suddenly as it had begun, it stopped. The sea lion lifted himself to have a look around. He could hardly believe his eyes.

Every single leaf had been stripped from his tree. The branches that remained, with only a twig or two upon them, looked like an old scarecrow. And I do not need to tell you that there was no longer any shade in which to hide. But worse than this, much worse indeed, was what the sea lion saw next.

The water hole was completely dry.

Sound familiar..Part 2

The sea lion was not entirely alone in those parts. For it was there he met the tortoise.

Now this tortoise was an ancient creature, so weathered by his life in the barren lands that at first, the sea lion mistook him for a rock. He told the tortoise of his plight, hoping that this wise one might be able to help him.

"Perhaps," the tortoise mused, " this is the sea."

His eyes appeared to be shut against the bright sun, but he was watching the sea lion very closely.

The sea lion swept his flippers once against his side, gliding to the end of the water hole and back. "I don't know," he said. "It isn't very deep."

"Isn't it?"

"Somehow, I thought the sea would be broader, deeper. At least, I hoped so."

"You must learn to be happy here," the tortoise told him one day. "For it is unlikely you shall ever find this sea of yours." Deep in his old and shriveled heart, the tortoise envied the sea lion and his sea.

"But I belong to the sea. We are made for each other."

"Perhaps. But you have been gone so long now, the sea has probably forgotten you."

This tought had never occurred to the sea lion. But it was true, he had been gone for a long, long time. "If this is not my home, how can I ever feel at home here?" the sea lion asked.

"You will, in time." The tortoise appeared to be squinting, his eyes a thin slit. "I have seen the sea, and it is no better than what you have found here."

"You have seen the sea!"

"Yes. Come closer," whispered the tortoise, "and I will tell you a secret. I am not a tortoise. I am a sea turtle. But I left the sea of my own accord, many years ago, in search of better things. If you stay with me, I will tell you stories of my adventures."

The stories of the ancient tortoise were enchanting and soon cast their spell upon the sea lion. As weeks passed into months, his memory of the sea faded. "The desert," whispered the tortoise, "is all that is, or was, or ever will be."

When the sun grew firece and burned his skin, the sea lion would hide in the shade of the tree, listening to the tales woven by the tortoise. When the dry winds cracked his flippers and filled his eyes with dust, the sea lion would retreat to the water hole. And so the sea lion remained, living his days between the water hole and tree.

The sea no longer filled his dreams.

Like This

Credits go to...erm...John Eldredge, I think, as I first read this in a book he wrote.

Once upon a time there lived a sea lion who had lost the sea.

He lived in a country known as the barren lands. High on a plateau far from any coast, it was a place so dry and dusty that it could only be called a desert. A king od coarse grass grew in patches here and there, and a few trees were scaterred across the horizon. But mostly, it was dust. And sometimes wind, which together make one very thirsty.

Of course, it must seem strange to you that such a beautiful creature should wind up in a desert at all. He was, mind you, a sea lion. But things like this do happen.

How the sea lion came to the barren lands, no one could remember. It all seemed very long ago. So long, in fact, it appeared as though he had always been there. Not that he belonged in such an arid place. How could that be? He was, after all, a sea lion. But as you know, once you have lived so long in a certain spot, no matter how odd, you come to think of it as home.

** **

There was a time, many years back, when the sea lion knew he was lost.

In those days, he would stop every traveler he met to see if he might help him find his way back to the sea. But no one seemed to know the way.

On he searched, but never finding.

After years without success, the sea lion took refuge beneath a solitary tree beside a very small water hole. The tree provided refuge from the burning rays of the sun, which was very fierce in that place. And the water hole, though small and muddy, was wet, in its own way. Here he settled down and got on as best he could.

** **

Had you journeyed in those days through the barren lands, you might have seen the sea lion for yourself. Quite often in the evening, he would go and sit upon his favourite rock, a very large boulder, which lifted him off the burning sand and allowed him a view of the entire country.

There he would remain for hours into the night, silhouetted against the sky. And on the best nights, when the wind shifted to the east, a faint smell of salt air would come to him on the breeze. Then he would close his eyes and imagine himself once more at the sea. When he lay himself down to sleep, he would dream of a vast, deep ocean. Twisting and turning, diving and twirling, he would swim and swim and swim. When he woke, he thought he heard the sound of breakers.

The sea was calling to him.

** **

The sea lion loved his rock, and he even loved waiting night after night for the sea breezes that might come. Especially he loved the dreams those memories would stir. But as you well know, even the best of dreams cannot go on, and in the morning when the sea lion woke, he was still in the barren lands. Sometimes he would close his eyes and try to fall back asleep. It never seemed to work, for the sun was always very bright.

Eventually it became too much for him to bear. He began to visit his rock only on occasion.

"I have too much to do," he told himself. "I cannot waste my time just idling about." He really did not have so much to do. The truth of it was, waking so far from home was such a disappointment, he did not want to have those wonderful dreams anymore.

The day finally came when he stopped going to his rock altogether, and he no longer lifted his nose to the wind when the sea breezes blew.

** **

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.

F I N A L L Y !

I've never felt so nervous just before an hour's drive before. At least, not since my first 2 attempts at this British driving test which have left me frustrated both with myself and with how candidates are graded.

So the sense of relief upon hearing the words, "I'm pleased to tell you that you've passed" was almost palpable.

Now, which car to get? Suggestions?

And Sarah, you're right - this is super funny - for all generations of IMU students!!

Star Wars Awesomness

This is, as they say, better than Episodes 1-3 put together.

For a muc much better version, watch it here.

Until I find time to blog seriously again..

Where I find rest

Turning out to be a good week, despite not going anywhere exotic for my last annual leave of this year.

Transformers 2 which I watched a couple of weeks ago, was good. One long adrenaline rush after another made for a very tired group of us who stumbled out 2 hours later that Sunday afternoon. The next week we confessed how we kept imagining how everything around us would start transforming - wonder if it had that effect on anyone else?

A load of books are keeping me occupied for now -

Alexandre Dumas's Three Musketeers is one that I've read in abridged form when very young, Little Women is a heartwarming story about 4 sisters growing up, very much in the vein of Anne of Green Gables.

More to the present, The Boy In Striped Pajamas is surprisingly cute to read - its told from the viewpoint of Bruno a nine year old boy who is sent to 'Out-With' and who befriends a boy 'in striped pajamas' on 'the other side of the fence'.

The Corner - A Year In The Life Of An Inner-City Neighbourhood looks interesting on the outside, I'm hoping for an eye-opener here. And finally a couple of books from the WesleyOwen sales, which I'll write about when I've actually gotten down to reading them.

Oh, and a travelbook, namely Stephen Fry in America, which I spent most of my afternoon in the park reading today, also made into a BBC series which I'm waiting to watch.

Work? What work?

When You Believe

Have been looking for this version for a while - it keeps getting taken off youtube I think, so enjoy while you can!

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..