Merry Christmas

Christmas, a day of love, joy and peace..

thanks to all my warmmmm friends who's here to spend this cold christmas with me~

have a Blessed Christmas, everyone~

Oslo Day 2 and 3

the next day we were out and about..

the Vigeland park with tons of sculptures~

random shots around the place..

and random poses according to the sculptures..
(sorry ang if i broke ur back or injured ur knee..)

all smiles :):)

then its the Munch Museum, Nobel Peace Center and back to the Christmas Market by the habour.. i made that colourful bracelete with the beads provided at the Nobel Peace Center is to remind me of Peace~

inside the nobel peace center.. basically all the sacks etc is representing poverty in lots of parts of the world.. i think..

in the Christmas Market again.. keeping warm..

a Good Dinner..

i had spare ribs costing 196NOK (around 20pounds)... yumsssss

the next day was a really lazy day coz its too expensive to go Burgen, we were all broke and down to our last 100NOK (Norwegian Krone.. thats just 10 pounds!!!).. so its random taking pictures and walking around the place..

the university in Oslo..

in short, oslo is not That cold, but Very expensive.. so whoever's going there, stock up on food or feast on fast food.. i brought 1500NOK for 3 days and by the 1st day i had to buy bus return, 300NOK, accom 468NOK and food averaging 100-200NOK.. so nearly spent all my money within the 1st day! need to withdraw twice.. pokai..

a Very Good example..

this is my lunch on Sunday.. 2 pieces of Roast Pork with 2 different type of sausages.. norwegian food.. 229 NOK (thats roughly 23+pounds!! for LUNCH!)

and by night.. i only have 8 NOK! (80 Pence?!?!?) i waited for menaka to spend wadever left and she spared me with 6NOK .. leaving me with 14NOK for dinner..

and this is what i bought for Dinner.. a bar of chocolate costing exactly 14NOK (yes.. 1.40pounds.. even That is expensive..)

istanbul had better be cheap!!!

4.6's Last day at Barkantine Clinic

*sobs sobs* can't believe its already a year! its our last session here at the little Barkantine clinic that we've been attached to for the past year, from the time we started off as clueless timid 3rd year dental students to more-confident 4th years. i think. hmm.

after the clinical session the staff at the clinic threw a little farewell party for us with tons of cookies, chocolates, crisps cakes and juices (yes i know.. all the sinful food we dentists have been asking u to stay away from.. )
we all chipped in to buy a plant for them..and even had a collage of us!

i wonder where bryar got all these photos from..

group 4.6 with our tutor, Dr Mcgeoch, who was holding the present we gave him. too bad Dr Hurst was on holiday already.
notice that there's a mistletoe right on top for Dr Mc's head! Hmmmmm...

the whole team at Barkantine dental clinic, Dr Mcgeoch and 3 out of the 4 super-helpful nurses, and the rest of the group. what would we be without them all.

i'll definitely miss everyone here! time to move on to another outreach, Southend, a hospital 1.5hours outside London.. *sniffs sniffs*

Oslo Day 1

I know if i'm travelling too much when i run out of ideas on how to blog out my travels.. so i'll just stick to the ol' diary-style writing.. again..

Oslo. 1st impression, freezing. -7, i was told. So i wore layers and layers and layers.. and before i knew it, i was suffocating in my clothes and was practically hovering around instead of walking.. (imagine wearing 5 tops and thick ones as well!) that a mother with a baby pram actually overtook menaka and i going up the hill towards the palace..

in short, don believe BBC weather too much, or any other weather predictions. its actually warmer than i expected.

Oslo, like other cities, has its nice places and buildings to see.. royal palace, parliment, university, city hall and the nobel prize center .. as it can see its pretty misty as some point..

but what i love most must be the christmas market sellings lots of random stuff, mostly for keep warm and christmas stuff.. even took picture with a singing santa..
there's this big tent with an indoor fireplace that menaka and i shared some norwegian pancakes and reindeer soup, keeping warm in front of the nice fire while waiting for 7 more travellers from edinburgh to join us..

norwegian food mostly focuses on reindeer, elk, whale and seafood.. but unfortunately thats for fall, since its christmas the meat balls, pork chops and beef steaks resurfaced.. and salmon and cod as well.. still, it was pretty good, except for the price.. did i mention that its Really Expensive in Oslo? not something a Londoner would normally say..

and there's us 9 having a good dinner.. 7 edinburghians + 2 londoners

and us in deli de luca for desserts, making sure we are proper full, as we have a full day ahead of us on Saturday~

Dentistry Only

no, i don't mean the malaysian dental students style, i mean real dentistry students of any background that i've been seeing practically everyday!

my groupmates of 4.6 (our huge year is divided into 8 groups from 4.1 - 4.8, 4 meaning 4th year) having a Christmas lunch and secret santa as well on Tuesday afternoon at Maida Vale, right before we all rushed in for clinics at 2pm.

say Cheeeeeezeeee..
i must admit, i love my group, whole bunch of hilarious wacko people who loves to have fun.. they are part of the reason i am able to face clinics everyday coz i know i can just poke one of them to crack a joke and cheer me up! and thanks for the christmas pressie, mr 'best friend'.. hehe

that night it was the Dental Society Christmas party at Abbey Bar..
and for the 1st time in our history we sent a Malaysian Team.. (the picture has a non-malaysian though)

we didnt drink much, danced abit more, but camwhored the most that night..

we took the locals by storm.. coz they practically didn't recognize us until some time later, being mistaken as 3rd years! n_n"

i must say, i had fun.. hanging out with my groupmates was great with food and secret santa.. and clubbing for the First time with fellow dental students was a totally new experience. 'How was it?' a groupmate asked me the following day and i told her i had fun.. she asked me if i drank and i just said Not enough..

wonder what would happen if i did drink enough.. oh well, lets not go there!

Beat the Monday blues

i know it sounds ridiculous.. but i think the best way to escape the daunting 9-5pm clinics is just to escape this area: Whitechapel which consists of Floyer House (my 1st home) , the dental institute (my 2nd home) , the library (the place i always wanted to call home but couldn't), the dirty market opposite the old hospital that is cover with drunkards ( and homeless) and fast food with fried chicken and briyani everywhere.

London has to be More than this, no?

that's where Central London comes in. never fails to cheer me up, esp on Mondays!

quick dinner at Belgo (yes again, and again) a belgium restaurant with mussels at Covent Garden..

then it was off for a show at the Royal Opera House,
it was my 1st time
'the Thief of Baghdad' was quite interesting, different from a theater coz there's more dancing like ballets or something.. but i suppose Royal Opera House is more for Operas and Ballets.. a balance of sing, dance and still has a story line.. the props never fail to amaze me though, how on earth u get One person to do a flying white horse and still look so real???
perhaps Nutcracker or Swan Lake next time? hmm

Covent Garden is always one of my favourite places, esp at night.
beautiful lights that looks like falling snow.

there's this odd-looking triangular building at Covent Gdn covered with alphabeths and has 3 doors, one on each side..

"SpinVox" Wishing Well
Call 020 7818 0880 and speak a wish.
Then step inside to see your wish magically appear in minutes.

haha.. inside this building there were boxes of Everyones' wishes!! its so cute, random ppl come in and out just to read all the wishes.. some are cute funny, others creative or common..

"i wish i had a time machine that would get rid of my ghastly wrinkles" was the one i took pic of.. another one said "i wish people could love one another without God having to tell them to"...

i wonder what would i wish.. Hmm..

for dessert.. hot chocolate and tiramisu at Fuel..

and the final touch to top it all, a beautiful pressie.. supposed to be a birthday pressie.. kinda early for christmas pressie.. perhaps a congrats-for-passing-exams pressie..

oh well.. 12am arrives and cinderella is back home again waiting to work hard again the next day.. it was a nice evening out, but i doubt i can do that every Monday..
anyway, thanks again :)

Bed bugs..

a simple conversion about our upcoming christmas trip to turkey..

Ang: says:
u know our yunus emre
Ang: says:
in turkey
Ang: says:
rachel stayed there when they went turkey
Ang: says:
she said
Ang: says:
she suspect la
Ang: says:
one of them kena bedbug from there
Ang: says:
hahahhahaha
Ang: says:
so...
Ang: says:
careful la

' helen ' says:
how to careful

Ang: says:
err
Ang: says:
sleep naked la

i went ??!?!?!?!?!?!??!?! before i LOLROF

Ang: says:
i mean dun sleep naked la
Ang: says:
like what we always do..
' helen ' says:
mesti masuk blog
Ang: says:
shits...

Girls-only Christmas party

aaaah... yesssssss. another girls-only event. how evil of us double-X chromosomes. it's not intentional, i decided against a mixed event due to unavoidable circumstances. sorry guys, perhaps chinese new year.

that night my flat kitchen was transformed into a romantic-setting party with candles and pretty table lamps, decorations and crackers, and of cause, glorious food..

..prepared by the specially-selected 13 top chefs..

the dinner table was too inviting..

the guest list..

with the dress code of Red and .. White (<-- word in white ma..)
coz everyone's a santa, no?

carving the mini-turkeys must b the hardest task that night! of coz we have experts to do it for us (aka. Seniors.. hehe.. told you everyone is specially-selected! )

sights and sounds during the party.. laughter, chit chatting, story telling.. and mostly random stuff..

then it was Secret Santa time.. i had to distribute the pressies.. and everyone opened their nice pressies and took pics with their Santas!

ended the party with a game of charade.. and then everyone helped to clean up making the kitchen nearly spotless in no time..
thanks gals for coming to the party and helping out as well, it was a huge success!! hope u all had fun! i know i sure did than my co-organizer is already asking whens the next party coming up and started discussing the guest list..
oh boy!!!

my confession on cooking

christmas is just round the corner. its that time of the year where there's parties and food, a time for celebration.

also the time to start buying christmas presents, send out seasons greetings cards, planning big parties and preparing traditional christmas dishes. and that would mean the inevitable for me.. cooking.

Food, yes, i love. but Cooking.. seems like something of the past.. something that i used to love..

i admit, the number of times i have actually turned the hob on and throw some raw ingredients together in a hot oiled-pan since i reached London on 9 September 2008 can be counted with just One Hand. literally.

the easy excuses.. too lazy.. too tired.. alone, no company.. diet.. my 1 Liter of cooking oil remained unopened in my cupboard ever since my 1st grocery shopping in september..

that is unlike me..

• who single-handedly cooked for groups of up to 14people in a couple of hours ..
  
• who has grocery-shopped and slaved in the kitchen to prepare dinner for 5 for 9 consecutive nights..
  
• who love organizing parties, potlucks, get-togethers to cook..
  
• who baked every single weekend as a past time, and sometimes twice a week out of boredom, or to every dinner or birthday party.. cookies, cakes, muffins, tarts..
  
• who is so eager to try out cooking local delicacies and foreign cuisines, if possible, from scratch.. sarawak laksa, ayam masak merah, seafood paella, sushi, bak kut teh, chicken rice, char koay tiaw, rendang, curry, curry laksa, noodles, spagetti, fish etc with everyday as an opportunity to try some new dishes..
• who feels a little sorry for friends eating alone making something simple in the oven, something instant, something healthy, or more likely unhealthy.. wishing to invite them for dinner if capable to cater
• who looks forward to every meal of every single day, googling for recipes, updating her recipe book..
• who loves to EAT..
  

now i just sit in front of the computer every single night.. watching the clock as it goes from 5pm.. to 6pm.. to 7pm.. to 8pm.. then i wonder if i should just make 2 toast to eat with jam.. even boiling water to make maggi mee is too much hassel..

now i feel even more sorry for myself. i hate thinking what to eat every night. and i eat the same thing every single day (i bet my flatmates can swear on this) cause i don't even want to think about what to eat.

cooking.. for me, it was something rather special. i do enjoy cooking for myself, but more often, i love cooking for ppl who i care about. could be many dinners, could be sometimes lunch, could be an occasionaly breakfast in bed.. could be fanciful or could be simple.. whatever it is, i somehow related cooking as a means to share happiness and joy at the dinnertable.. an excuse to see someone i want to see.. a way to impress someone i fancy.. a way into a man's heart is through his stomach, no?

but things take a turn for the worst

now.. cooking is like part of a bitter experience i wish to forget.. as if i was blinded and tricked into cooking to satisfy the hunger of those who in the end hurt me.. looking at my rice cooker, pots and pans and raw ingredients like seeing an old flame who is best forgotten..

how can it be possible, right? how can i see something so enjoyable as cooking as something so painful??

and now i'm in the situation to face cooking again.. i have been running away for nearly 4 months now, but i guess Christmas, the season of love, joy, hope and forgiveness.. it's the best time to re-ignite my desire for cooking, my love for baking, my passion for trying new dishes.. and put everything else in the past..

sorry cockeries to be an innocent victim of my complicated life. it's about time to pick up that ladle again.

Eating in a Bus

i can sort of categorize the type of eat-out that i always have..

it could be a chinese meal in Chinatown, like dim sum, duck rice or having multiple main dishes to share..

or a Malaysia/South-East Asian halal meal with fried rice, laksa etc..

and finally, a random new-place like perhaps.. a Bus??
this restaurant is called Rootmaster, using an old routemaster london double-decker bus, and it serves only vegetarian food..
interesting, i like the idea.. and the food is good and quite cheap, plus its mostly Organic!!! and their motto is tipping is sexy! since we are *ehem ehem* so of coz we give tips la..

~the final eat-out with my galpals this year, this time in a Bus after lectures on a wednesday afternoon~