The wonders of Google Map

Yesterday my sister called me in a panic. She had just returned from a trip to London and was trying to make her way back to the peripheral hospital that she is currently attached to. Walking back from the train station in the dark in unfamiliar territory is just not the same as in broad daylight. What do you know, she took the wrong turning. 15 minutes of her walking down a deserted, lonely road later, my phone rang. I was tucked up in bed about to fall asleep.

' Ah Fong ah', she said. 'I don't recognise this road! I'm going up a hill so I must be heading towards the hospital, but can you double check for me?' I woke up immediately. My head was filled with imaginary situations of my sister being waylaid by neds. I switched on my laptop immediately, willing my computer to start up faster.

Me: 'Tell me the name of the road that you're on'

My sis: 'Benochy Road. I recognise this name. I'm sure it leads to the hospital'

Lo and behold, Murphy's Law again reigned supreme. Benochy Road was to all extents and purposes almost like a ring road around Fife. I rolled my eyes. She'd gone away from the hospital, not towards it. I managed to direct her back to her accommodation . It took about half an hour. Once, she exclaimed in surprise when an enthusiastic night runner suddenly popped up in front of her.

Me: 'Hey can you please stop taking late trains back to your accommodation? I remember the last time you visited me in Glasgow, you wanted to take the 10pm train back. You crazy ah? It's so dangerous if you walk alone from the train station to your place. Especially if you're not familiar with the roads.'

My sis: ......

Thank God for Google Maps.

The power of words

New year was a cosy affair as I had the flu and LL seemed to have caught it too. Oops! Apart from going out for dinner (calamari, roast pork and tofu at a favourite Chinese restaurant), we didn't really feel like venturing out into the freezing streets of Edinburgh. We watched a couple of movies and then decided to challenge our brain cells with Scrabble!! After a few competitive games, LL became fascinated by the new words that we were learning. We then tried to come up with high-scoring words with the aid of a Scrabble dictionary. Here is the evidence of our temporary infatuation with Scrabble:

Beautiful, don't you think?

We are now much better acquainted with many two and three letter words that we never knew existed such as ae, ar, er, es, oi, fez, zed, etc..

Credit crunch new year

If you thought 2008 was bad, 2009 is going to be worse..is what many economists are warning.

I thought 'how true!' as I stood on Calton Hill in Edinburgh on Hogmanay night with my friends watching the fireworks display. Traditionally the new year is welcomed in Edinburgh with a lavish display of multicoloured fireworks from 4 sites surrounding the new town. However, last night's affair was muted, only lasting for 2 minutes and I only saw fireworks bursting into the sky from Princes St Gardens and Arthurs Seat.

It was really good weather, despite the fact that the mercury was indicating minus 7 degrees Celcius. It wasn't windy and it was not raining for once as it had wont to be for the last 6 Hogmanays. The skies were clear. Hogmanay celebrations had been cancelled twice in the last 6 years due to bad weather, which is historically significant in itself.

So here's my New Year message. Hope you have a fun year despite the credit crunch and long may your new year resolution last, if you have one, that is.

Happy New Year everyone!

Kelvingrove Park

It's rare to see the sun out in full force in Scotland, but the 27 of July was such a day! It was actually comparable to Malaysia, I kid you not. Ajeet was still sorting out the mountain of clothes in her room but we decided that it would be a pity to stay indoors.

So we ventured out into Kelvingrove Park, one of the many green lungs in Glasgow. We jogged for about 30min to 3 quarters of an hour. Actually, I lie. It was more like Ajeet went running for 30min to 3/4 of an hour and I made a pretense of doing the same but actually just stopped every few minutes to walk, enjoying the view and also watching the many different types of people that were out soaking in the sunshine.

While Ajeet was busy getting her cardio quota, I snapped the following pics:

A lovely drive for motorists cutting through Kelvingrove Park

Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum strongly silhouetted by the sunshine

The river running through the park

It's too far away to see, but these are skateboarders practising their stunts

It was a great day. Wish we have more of those before summer passes.

Moving and Kokuryo!

It was Friday the 11th. Moving day and I was all psyched up for it. Not quite so prepared though. I'd not finished packing yet despite trying my bestest to put aside time to pack before toppling into bed each morning after work. Luckily, WP who was helping me move was quite flexible in terms of when he could do it that day so I had a few hours to finish packing. By 11.30am, I gave him a call and he came over. I was both relieved and surprised when we actually managed to load all my stuff into his car! I had thought that we might have to split it into two carloads. So we set off for Glasgow.

Less than 1 hr later, we arrived. Here are some photos of the flat before I messed it up with my stuff!

Sitting room view 1

Sitting room view 2

Bedroom view 1

Same bedroom view 2

It was past one in the afternoon, so we just piled my luggage into the flat higgledy-piggledy and then left for lunch at Kokuryo on Argyle St. Kokuryo is definitely one of the plus points of living in Glasgow I have to say! I love Korean food and this is the only Korean restaurant in Scotland. Well, they are supposedly about to open a branch in Edinburgh soon, so Edinburgh Korean food lovers, you can rejoice!

I normally go for spicy dishes but I decided to try the bulgogi this time. WP ordered an omelette for a starter, claiming it was amazing. After helping myself to about half of his omelette, I agreed! I offered him my rice cakes instead, although they were probably poor compensation. The bulgogi was full in flavour but having to wrap it in lettuce made for messy eating. I think the bibimbap still rules!

Side dishes

Tteokbokki - Spicy rice cakes

Korean omelette with spicy dip

Bulgogi (above) served with lettuce and ssamjang (below)

Miso soup

Dolsot bibimbap

All work and no sleep makes for a very tired me, unfortunately. WP kindly gave me a lift to Falkirk where I took the train back to Edinburgh. My train to London the following day would be from Edinburgh. I slept all the way on the train and also as soon as I got into my sister's flat. zZZ

Beanscene on Argyle St

Dear reader, you may soon notice a spate of retrospective uploads on this blog ! That will be me trying to catch up after having been on nights and holiday.

On the 2nd of July, I rushed up to Glasgow after work to officially sign the lease for the flat. Afterwards, Ajeet and I met up with CW to have dinner at Kokuryo followed by coffee at the Beanscene on Argyle St. The mocha and Blegian waffles there are great btw. I'd just got a new Samsung Tocco and was eager to try out the camera on it. Hence:

The interior of the Beanscene

Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum opposite Beanscene

I also took pics of Ajeet and I but we both look exhausted so I shall refrain from uploading them to avoid offending your sensibilities :) The camera is not that amazing despite supposedly being 5 megapixels. I hereby admit this after comparing pics of the Kelvingrove Art Gallery with Ajeet and CW who both have the Nokia N95. So if you're looking for a cameraphone, get a Sony Ericsson cybershot I say. I still love my Tocco though..

Links update!

I finally managed to motivate myself to edit my links section... The perceptive person might have noticed this already, but I've added links to some of my friends' blogs. Most of them are people who were my classmates in secondary school between Form 1- Form 5 or even earlier possibly.
I have to thank Yin Hoon aka Granny for being the deciding influence to start blogging. When she visited Edinburgh, she started a blog detailing her travels, which I started following religiously, to ensure she wasn't carrying tales about me bullying her:) Just kidding. I wouldn't have been bothered before this, and none of the friends that I hang out with in uni blog, not in my innermost circle, anyway. Good for you that you've decided to carry on in ''A new chapter''! Other people I have to thank would be Mei Yee aka The Witch, who was one of my dearest friends in school and remains so to this day. I am guilty of being a bad correspondent and I found reading her blog enabled me to look at her life through her eyes. Not to mention Bamboo, and Boon Chew. I have to say, blogging is a great way for ppl to catch up on what's been happening in the lives of friends who are a great distance away. Old classmates, if you know of mutual acquaintances who blog, tell me ok?
When I manage to motivate myself again, I'll search for more friends who blog and add them too. I definitely know a few of those..but it's late on Sunday night and I need my beauty sleep.

Is that wedding bells I hear?

It was turning out to be just another weekend in Edinburgh...the usual dreary rain that made me glad that I was ensconced in my sister's cosy flat..my sister feeding me with all sorts of leftovers from the week ( I have to say I would rather she feed me than not, though:)) and the usual phonecalls that I never had time to make during the week.

I was feeling slightly isolated because my phone, being a Samsung, was dying on me and because I had neglected to bring my charger from Falkirk, I had been sensible and switched it off, only turning it on once in a while to check or send messages.

Today, I turned on my phone and found a text from a close friend who had been on holiday with her boyfriend and just returned.. She had news for me, she said. Immediately (it's a woman's sixth sense) I thought - He's proposed! and texted her back asking if it was true.
An hour later I turned up on her doorstep..and had to hear all about it of course..Now that I think about it, I didn't actually get into the details of what time of the day it was, or if it was rain or shine, etc.. tsk tsk. Don't roll your eyes, this is important stuff!!

In any case, she is now an engaged woman, promised to someone...how grown up! I am feeling positively adolescent in comparison.

If you are reading this, I am supremely happy for you, my dear.

And please wear the proof of your engagement lah, woman, unless you don't want anyone to know about this!!

Flat Hunting Frenzy with a ?satisfying conclusion

It's hard to believe but there are only about 7 weeks left to the end of FY1. On the 6th of August, the familiar migration of doctors to their new posts takes place. It's also the time of the year when you probably do not want to be admitted to hospital! New doctors, fresh out of medical school and still wet behind the ears, embark on their medical careers and I honestly believe that complications, morbidity and mortality are higher then.

In any case, I will be moving to Glasgow and starting work in the West End. With that in mind, I spent the whole of last weekend trawling through the websites of various letting agencies, spent my lunch breaks for the whole of last week on the phone to property agents trying to arrange suitable viewing times, and travelled to Glasgow straight after work everyday in search of the perfect flat. What I learnt was that the majority of property agents will only show flats on Mon-Fri between 9-5pm which can be extremely inconvenient as I work the same hours they do, if not longer. The weather was not the most accommodating either as it rained everyday this last week. Ajeet my flatmate insisted on wearing slippers to view flats so that she wouldn't have to have soaked shoes. :)

There were the disappointing moments such as when an amazing two bedroom flat on Benalder St had been snapped up by the time I called the agency advertising it. There were also eyebrow raising and 'let's get out of here feeling' moments when we saw ancient flats with ancient delapidated furniture which cost the same in rental as other significantly more desirable flats. I've never been familiar with Glasgow, but I learnt a lot about the geography of the West End in the last week just from the hours spent on Google Map!!

11 viewings and many coffees later, Ajeet and I finally narrowed down our choices to a cosy flat a stone's throw away from a major rail/underground/bus exchange and also a supermarket!! Imagine being able to walk in slippers to the shop around the corner to get some milk or eggs. It should also be only a 15 minute walk for me to my workplace. There were 2 other flats that we were seriously considering as well, but one didn't have a wardrobe (built in wardrobes are essential for a girl!!) and the other had two bathrooms, but only one with a shower and that was in the master bedroom. If any property developers are reading this, my advice would be to have the shower in the communal bathroom, and to have built in wardrobes in all bedrooms and to have mixed taps as well..I never understood why hot and cold water taps have to be separate.

We've put in a reserve on the flat mentioned above, but we'll keep looking to see if any better ones come up in the next two weeks. I am determined to have a really nice home for FY2!! Can't wait to move, really.

Exhausted from the long week, I slept the whole train journey from Glasgow Queen Street to Edinburgh Waverley yesterday, waking up at the end to discover an old granny sitting next to me. I looked up and only then noticed a sign on the wall saying 'Please give up these seats for the elderly and disabled'. How embarassing!

A taste of Edinburgh

Last weekend was a whirlwind of events, or so it seemed.

Both my sisters were in Edinburgh, so we decided to go to the Botanic Gardens on Saturday to feed the squirrels. Unfortunately, it was such a blazingly warm day (lovely for us humans in cold Scotland, but not very pleasant to these bushy tailed creatures) that none of them were to be seen outside of their holes in the ground or wherever it is that they live. And after having gone to three supermarkets before managing to find monkey nuts to feed them with!! It was slightly disappointing despite the pretty rhododendrons in bloom :( A few hours later though, when it was slightly cooler we finally saw a few of these mammals scampering about. Some of them came up to take nuts from our hands!! I went home mollified.

Later that night, I met up with Hui Ping and Pei Pei (who I'd not seen in 6 years) at City Restaurant (if you're in Edinburgh, you should probably head to this place to try all the artery- clogging Scottish fare of fish and chips and fried candy bars.) We attempted a drive up to Calton Hill (home to Edinburgh's Disgrace, a giant elephant on top of the hill which was never completed due to insufficient funds) but it was 11pm, and the road leading up was closed after 9pm. We would have parked the car and walked, but there were a group of young 'uns at the foot of the hill who looked dodgy, so we canned the idea.

Sunday heralded the arrival of grey skies. The Taste Festival was being held in the Meadows this particular weekend. FYI, the Meadows is a huge green lung in the middle of the city of Edinburgh (or maybe slightly southwest). It has the most amazing cherry blossoms in spring and is used by people of all ages for frisbee games, jogging, running, rugby practice, tennis and is also one of the venues for shows during the Edinburgh Festival in August. The Taste Festival is a new thing that was first put on last year. There would be loads of top restaurants in Edinburgh participating and lots of lovely food samples to be had. I had been salivating at the thought of going to the Taste Festival this year for weeks now, and was determined to enjoy it come rain or shine. So we bravely set out while it was still dry - look at this pic taken before the onslaught...

but soon after we were drenched!!



Check out the lovely cocktails:


Talented chefs in action:


Marinated wild Scottish salmon, sour cream, orange and dill oil, avruga:



Scrumptious looking selection:


Gosh I'm getting hungry now..will edit this post at a later time...

Last day of idleness

This morning I was woken up at 9.30am by the housekeeper knocking on my door. She hadn't seen me since Monday when I had told her that I was having the runs and needed more loo roll and was understandably concerned about my well-being. Was I alright (which I interpreted as meaning, are you still alive?) and when I replied in the affirmative, asked if I would like a cup of tea, to which I politely declined. When she had gone away, I noticed that she had slipped a note under my door which read: 'Hope you're OK, haven't seen you since Monday.' How sweet! Btw, this is for the benefit of those of you who have to live in crappy hospital accommodation - the accommodation that I stay in has ensuite bathroom facilities, its own TV and a cleaner who leaves fresh towels, sheets and vacuums the room. Boy am I pampered. And no, the housekeeper does not read me bedtime stories. That would be seriously creepy.

What a luxury to have 2 weekdays off when I work according to a rota that has in the past year allocated me to work Christmas Day, New Year and Easter! Chinese New Year too, although I suppose that doesn't really count as a public holiday in this country. My friend in Newcastle, Hui Ping had been trying to get me to go away with her for a long weekend as May 26th would be a bank holiday. My response to that was that I had had no idea such a holiday existed as I do not unfortunately, work in a bank.

So you can probably tell by now that perhaps my recent bout of diarrhoea and vomiting was indeed a blessing in disguise as I have had the time to :

1) do one load of laundry
2) upload 4 photo albums onto Facebook
3) reply to my little sister's extremely long recent email
4) max out my Vodafone minutes
5) start this blog
6) get reacquainted with the features of MSN messenger

The list just goes on. And Shawn, that does not mean that I must have been super bored or that I am boring.

In any case, yesterday I was doodling on my notepad when I received a phonecall from a friend asking if I would like to go out for dinner in Glasgow. What a treat on a weekday! Usually I just cook for myself or subject myself to the whims of the canteen chefs.

There's a new Malaysian restaurant in Glasgow, just opened within the last month I believe. It's named Rumours Kopitiam. I do not have any pictures, unfortunately. It's right smack in the city centre. I went a la carte with two others. We tried the spicy fried soft shell crab, claypot tofu with some seafood and meat, belacan-fried kangkung and stir-fried coffee chicken. The crab was probably the best I think, but the rest were fairly predictable and the coffee chicken was too sweet for me. The portions were also small for the price. The remaining two in our party ordered individual noodle dishes, kind of mamak style. Looking at what they had, I came away with the conclusion that the individual noodle/rice dishes there were probably ok, but I have had better a la carte elsewhere.

We then went to watch a movie. I watched Ironman, which had been recommended to me by Sue Yin. It was action-packed and I was not disappointed! I didn't realise the lead actor was Robert Downey Jr until the closing credits though. I've liked him in all the movies I've ever seen him in, which is why I'm still kicking myself that I didn't recognise him. This is probably why people successfully manage to disguise themselves by having long hair and a beard I suppose. I still remember how I managed to watch Andy Lau act as an obese lovelorn twain in a HK movie for 2 hours without realising it was him until he'd shed all his weight at the end.

Tomorrow I return to work...sigh:(

The perils of working in a Scottish hospital

Bear in mind dear readers, that the list below is not exhaustive:

1. Diarrhoea
2. Vomiting
3. Diarrhoea and vomiting
4. Needlestick injury
5. Cheese scone addiction

I have had for some time now, number 5. Some people cannot even imagine cheese scones (see pic below) being a valid food item. I can assure you they are very much so. Spread some butter on one, and it melts in your mouth. I, on the other hand, do not understand the popularity of fruit scones.

Well, I have to admit I succumbed to number 3 yesterday. One of the wards in my hospital had been closed for diarrhoea and vomiting. Now before you start shaking your heads, I did wash my hands after visiting that ward!! Unfortunately, the bug must have been incredibly robust for I began experiencing abdominal pangs on Sunday and on Monday could not move from my bed for all the peristaltic movements that were going on in my gut. My friend texted me later on to inform me that another ward had to be closed down that day. Needless to say, I could not go into work. But the upside of this was that I got today and tomorrow off!! Occupational health decrees that I cannae go into work for 48 hours after my last symptom has passed.