Home made Pizza

Note: The author holds no responsibility in triggering hunger pangs. Read at your own discretion.

Last Saturday, we attempted to make pizza from scratch. Come to think of it, I think it's because A and I had too much time on our hands. The Pizza here is so cheap and easily available and we were just looking for more work to do. The good side was we got to customise our fillings and the cost of making so many pizza was really low.

Let the pictures do the talking:

Hardest part was to kneed the dough and leave it to rise. Second hardest part was to shape it into the pizza base.

Cheese, cheese and more cheese!

Don't they look tempting.

Liverpool Medical School OSCE

After 5 long months since the whole lot of stressed out 4th year Liverpool medical students sat for their final OSCE examination, I received my feedback for the summative OSCE today. It provided such little detail, only informing me whether I've passed or failed a station and which quartile that I'm in. On top of that, I received a second email giving details of requirements which are assessed in an OSCE examination, including hints and tips to get those bonus mark.

Come on, what's the point after 5 long months, when we've had forgotten everything except for the examiner who was promoting the story book that she was reading while assessing me in one of the stations.

I am lucky to have passed all the stations except for basic life support, which I have never failed in the last 7 OSCEs and now they don't even give me any details on which part went wrong and passed me. Does that mean I can go on carrying out all the other examinations and procedures properly, but maybe end up not saving some poor soul's life who I may have to carry out BLS on him/her?

What went wrong? How can I learn from the experience? I don't even remember what I did at that time. So, what's the use of the feedback?

The email kindly ended with this statement: 'This is for information only, and no further discussion of the result will be held.'

I think I can live with that.

Anglesey and Conwy

Last Wednesday, I had a half day of GP and N had an off day. So, we went off exploring Anglesy and Conwy even thought the weather was quite bad. It was raining most of the time.

Menai Bridge

You can judge for yourself how windy it was that day. The rain stopped momentarily for me to take a few pictures.

Next up is UK's village with the longest name: Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch

The name is in Welsh and the meaning of the name is "St Mary's church in the hollow of the white hazel near to the rapid whirlpool and the church of St Tysilio of the red cave". Phew, I'm not even going to attempt to remember it.

Malltraeth - a landscape shaped by wind, sand, time and man.

The forest was grown to protect the the Newborough village from the wind-blown sand and it provides timber. As you can see, all the trees and grass are bent in the same direction. That includes my hair.
We were seriously freezing at that time.

We stopped at the entrance to the animal farm on Anglesy. N commented that my hair looked like the furry bull behind.

The smallest house in Great Britain. It was situated on Conwy Quay just below Conwy Castle. At least I can still stand at my full height to go through the door. Too bad it is closed for winter.

Conwy Castle. Just 10 minutes walk from my GP surgery.

I have to keep reminding myself that I am here for my GP placement but let's hope that the adventure continues.

I need a new pair of sport shoes

I realised that it is time for me to hunt for a new pair of sport shoes when my right sock was wet from walking back through the rain today. Seems like there's a hole where water had seeped through.

Curious about the latest Nike shoes, I surfed the website and came across NIKEiD where it allows personal customisation of the colour. Thus, the designing process began and the end product is:

You can even customise what you want to print on the back of the shoes. I would prefer something quirky but I couldn't think of anything while I was playing with the designs. I think it will be quite weird for people knowing your name from your shoes if you decide to put your name on the back. Hahaha. At least nobody will steal this pair of shoes!

Total price for this pair of lovely customised shoes: £151.70.

After all that fun and effort, I wish I could own the real thing but I cannot afford it!!!

Llandudno - Great Orme through pictures

First day that we arrived at Llandudno (pronounced as Th(l)an-did-no), we decided to take the cable car up Great Orme before it closes for winter.

The view of Llandudno is just so beautiful!

The longest passenger cable car in the UK.

6.50 pounds for a return ticket. Worth every penny of it.

You could take the tram up the Great Orme as well, but may encounter the above 'adverse event'.

Kids, do not try this at home.

Even the photo of the grass only turned out so nice.

Weather was perfect to just sit and just admire the scenery.

The scenery made me recall the art pieces which I copied at Art classes which I took when I was younger. Now I know the origins of those art pieces.

My masterpiece. Many thanks to D for being my model. How I wished that I was the model and not the photographer at times. Then I can get nice photos of myself.

Another piece. Thanks to Lassie. Just joking, I don't even know what it's name.

On our way down...

The sun came out fully at this time and the photos turned out really well.

The gazing sheep looked like little cotton wools on the grass.

Back to the lower grounds. Even the seagull happily posed for me.

Had fish and chips by the sea accompanied by this well behaved seagull which didn't steal our food. Still soaking in the scenic view.

Our 5 star accommodation. I'm still wondering if I'm in the middle of 5th year or on a vacation. Let me just call it 'lawatan sambil belajar'.

Another Malaysian restaurant in Liverpool

My second food project after the successful Siu Mai project was stir fry Japanese tofu.

I just realised that I haven't eaten this egg tofu for years. Basically, I forgot to order it when I was back in Malaysia. It is really easy to prepare but the only difficult part was to get the ingredient which I found at Chinatown. First, cut the tofu into smaller slices. Then, deep fry it until the outsides are golden brown. Next, drain the oil, stir fry the chopped garlic, put the tofu in, add chicken stock and oyster sauce, give it a good stir and it's ready!

Shangrila Restaurant

M and I went to Shangrila for lunch as she told me that they served Malaysian food including Roti Canai and that was the main reason I went. Apparently they offer Malaysian dishes for a long time but it's just that I wasn't aware of it. We thought that they did student discount of 30% on weekends too but sadly, they only offer it during weekdays from 3 till 10pm.

Never order while you're hungry. That was the mistake I made that day. From Roti Canai, Hokkien mee to Mee Goreng Mamak. I even accidentally ordered Chicken Rendang without realising it as I thought I had to make the selection for the dip that came with the Roti Canai. Hahaha...luckily they said we could cancel that order. I was prepared to take away that extra order. The food there was really good. I really liked the Roti Canai, but I thought it was overpriced a bit - 4 pounds for 2 pieces of Roti Canai with curry. The noodles were delicious! Just the spicyness that I wanted. I feel a bit worried for M as she doesn't really take spicy food but she's improved a lot. Hehehe. Recommended for anyone missing food from home.

We were given free desserts as well. It was sweet corn pudding and coconut milk pudding with chocolate topping. Really delicious. Another reason to add to my 'why I can never go on a diet' list.

We went to town for some retail therapy next. I was delighted to receive a free bottle of shower gel from Bodyshop. However, there is only a 1 in 3 chances for the person receiving the voucher to win that. M was so lucky that she won 2 and she was really nice to give one of them to me. They should just make everyone a winner!

The last day of the promotion is this coming Saturday. So, anyone who is interested in getting a free shower gel from Bodyshop....you all know what to do.

I came across this weird looking cardboard speaker so I bought it just for curiosity to see if it worked.

So, I folded and assembled it. The end product just looked like a paper box. Plugged it into my computer and it did work! Hahahaha. So cute! As expected. It has its limitation to sound quality and volume. But hey....it's my new toy!

Am I really on my GP rotation?

Luckily I managed to find my GP surgery this morning. The place was lovely and the people there were even nicer.

Was encouraged to explore the surrounding area during my long lunch time. After walking for 10 minutes, I came across:

Sheep busy munching away on the steep hills. Wait, that's not the exciting bit....

Conwy castle. Switched to tourist mode straightaway.

Shortly after, I came face to face with the map of the area. Really have to become a tourist even if I didn't want to.

The lone tourist wearing formal wear while touring. Hmmm...

I really need to improve my self-shot skills. It'll come in handy in the near future.

Gp. What gp? Who gets to sightsee during lunch breaks on a Gp rotation?