Suet May's Birthday at Zizzi's

This was the only birthday party where I had to join another few other organisers in worrying if the birthday girl herself would ruin the whole party by not turning up. So much cortisol excreted over the last few days before Saturday.

PG and I arrived first at Zizzi restaurant at Liverpool One. It was a really posh looking Italian restaurant. I was told that almost 20 people were turning up for this Birthday bash and both of us had no clue who made the reservation. I sounded like I was trying to pull a prank on the waitress at the door when I asked if there was a reservation made for 20, and was trying to give a few names whom I thought made the reservation.

We were ushered to the empty first floor with tables and chairs nicely set up. Our table was the one next to the window where we could spy on the Birthday girl and prepared ourselves to surprise her.

PG and I

Soon, the whole troupe arrived. They came all the way down from Barrow and other places just to surprise this birthday girl. How lucky!

P and I

Poor P, she was starving to the extent that her hungry disappeared and everyone wasn't in the mood to order.

SY and I

Remember what I said about sitting next to the window, we had the advantage of becoming professional paparazzi for a while.

Warning! Warning! Birthday girl and bodyguard spotted!

Happy Birthday to you.....the song started. The shock was so great that Suet May went into the toilet shortly after that and we started worrying if she did faint in there or not.

After recovering and overcoming the stage of 'don't feel like going out there', the party officially started!

Small group 1

Small group 2 - the advantages of having someone with a big black SLR camera. I love the quality of the photo.

Small group 3

Birthday girl and I

The girls

The guys

Suet May felt too fortunate to be surrounded by so many knights in shining amour that she couldn't stop laughing.

Finally, after 10 minutes. Perfect picture, can develop and frame. hehehe.

Finally, food arrived.

I had Risotto with mushrooms and chicken (Picture in bottom center). It was delicious. Too bad for the few who ordered pizza as they was left out in the cold for too long. The unfortunate guys spent most of the time sawing through them while the girls who were more practical ate them like Chapati.

Our chance to sing again arrived.

This time with the appearance of the birthday cake and an extremely happy Suet May.

I huff, and puff, and I'll blow out all the candles.

The older we get, the more candles on the cake. Does that mean we need a bigger cake to fit all the candles?

Note to self: must invite SF to every birthday party as her self made blueberry cheese cake which she carried all the way from Barrow was too delicious!

Final group picture before some of us left the group. Hope that this Birthday left Suet May with sweet memories. Wonder what she wished for. Maybe she forgot to make a wish from all the excitement. May all your wishes come true.

Cutest coffee stall that I've come across so far. 3 wheeled and so compact.

It was unexpected that I got to meet up with YP from Manchester and R from Edinburgh who were doing their sightseeing with M as their guide. Finally, people from Manchester and Edinburgh feel that it's worth coming to Liverpool for shopping. It was weird how we got connected through friend's friends and then go on to become friends.

When the clock strikes midnight

I know this post is late but I was really busy this week and have just managed to compile all the photos tonight.

It was a continuation of an intense and ruthless marathon of Monopoly which ran over 2 nights. Suddenly, the kitchen clock in the shape of a black cat started meowing 12 midnight.

Happy Birthday to you,
You were born in the zoo,
With the monkeys and tigers,
Happy Birthday to you!
(What happened to the original lyrics??)

The game will stop at nothing, except for 15 minutes timeout for my big day. At least I was important enough. We resumed shortly after that.

C made us cookies! Thanks. I forgot to take a photo of the one with my face drawn on it.

Next morning, with the recommendation by our most expert of all the experts in Chinese cuisine practicing in Liverpool, we made our way to Chinatown for Dim Sum.

V, a 'renowned ' food critic disguised as a student in Liverpool couldn't help but did her usual pose for the front cover of 'Fine Dining Within a Budget'.

M and I: It's obvious that we are not the food experts.

Dim sum which we had:


Birthday or no birthday, grocery shopping has to be done that weekend. So, I did grocery shopping that afternoon. I know it's sad but what to do when I'm looking after myself a million miles away from home.

Dinner:
My lovely flatmates decided to throw a small Birthday party for me. So sweet of them. I wasn't expecting:

A huge banner across the wall, plus,

Chocolate ice-cream cake with 23 candles!

Thank you flat mates!

Can we start eating? Maybe the candles can be eaten as well. Seriously, I'm so fortunate to live with 3 chefs and 1 hospitality manager.

I bet your mouth is watering when you see this picture. Nasi Ayam (Chicken Rice) cooked by A and E. I need to get the recipe from you!

Sorry M, by the time I prepared a lunch box to 'ta pau' some and post it down to London, all the plates were licked clean. I don't know how to cook this, so, can't offer to cook for you as well. Sorry!

Twenty Three

Thank you for remember this one extra date
Wasn't expecting anything but this day ended up being special
Enjoyed every birthday song, every company, every present
Not to mention the failed attempts of surprises as well
Touched by the wishes, presents and the extent of your efforts
Yeah, all of you did make my day!

To those who wants to know what I wished for, sorry, it's a secret
Hopefully all of my birthday wishes will come true
Regardless of how impossible they are to happen
Everyone, thank you once again
Each of you had made a difference in my life.

Crumbling

It was just an insignificant crack in the wall,
But never underestimate what stress and pressure,
Will eventually do to it.

That great wall stands tall,
Never budging even an inch,
Withstanding whatever that comes its way.

So strong externally,
Yet unnoticed on the other side,
Unseen corrosion has almost thinned it completely.

Thus, this small crack appeared,
Hardly noticed by anyone,
Thin lines running from it turning into thicker lines.

I can feel its desperation,
I can sense its suffering,
I can hear crumbling
.
.
.
that heart stopping silence
.
.
.
I closed my eyes and ears
.
.
.
felt the tremor below my feet, that gust of wind and dust
.
.
.
I knew it was already hopeless.

Good food, good entertainment, what more can I ask on a Monday evening?

At first, it was just an ordinary Monday. I came back a bit earlier than usual from hospital and decided to cook a proper dinner for this once during a weekday.

I do enjoy cooking, but most of the time, it's not enjoyable for me as I will be rushing to cook as I would have reached the stage where I am forced to surrender to hunger pangs. Today, I was even in the mood to cut the carrots into flower shapes.

While I was cooking my chicken with carrots in Satay sauce, my flatmate offered me a side dish which I really really love.

I wished I could make the Satay sauce from scratch, but it's Knorr brand which I bought from the 99p shop in town.

Crabs!!!!

My most favourite food of all time. I could live on crab for a whole year if not more. Now I really miss the good old times in Sandakan when the seafood was the best I've tasted, not to mention that it's also cheaper and easily available there.I'm so lucky to have house mates who knows how to cook and put in so much effort in getting the ingredients as well. A, you made my day!

While I was cooking, a last minute plan came up. My house mates and friends decided to go watch a movie at Odeon at Liverpool One in 45 minutes just after I was done with cooking.

Big improvement from the old Odeon. Bigger capacity, spacious, modern, clean, surrounded by nice restaurants.

Groupie

We were there to watch the new Bond movie........not.

For our age, Quantum of Solace would be more suitable, but we are still very young at heart. We braved the cold, put aside PBL, forgo my precious nap just to watch:

I haven't watched the 1st and 2nd one. In my opinion, it was a really good movie, after overcoming the shock of Troy suddenly started singing in a middle of a basketball competition , just like in a Bollywood movie. Hahahaha. I love the songs! Who has the 1st and 2nd movie? Can I borrow?

I didn't know that watching movies in Liverpool can be really affordable. The original price was 7 pounds per person, discounted to 5.20 for students, throw in our Student Bean 2 for 1 offer, I ended up only paying 2.60 for a movie. That's what I call a bargain.

We went sight seeing on our way home. I could smell Christmas at every corner we turned.

Liverpool One - 1st floor.

Christmas lights have been lighted up.

Yup. Early wishes from us to you as well.

I can't believe that I was bored to death last weekend, to the extent that I was planning to go feed pigeons in front of TJ Hughes but the rain just had to take away that one little bit of excitement left. At least I was compensated today.

Now, back to reality.

Procratination

I hate myself sometimes. When there's free time for me to catch up with my work, I choose to do something totally unrelated and the time just end up being wasted.

Let me give you a typical example of how I end up making myself stressed out even more. Say I have to read something by tomorrow and I've just got back from hospital. I'll give myself a good excuse to take a nap first (if you all consider sleeping for 2 hours a nap), wake up, time to prepare dinner, watch some anime while having dinner, get addicted to the series, and by the time I feel guilty enough, it's already late and I'm already feeling really sleepy.

I would then try to start reading something, but I'll be so tired and sleepy by that time, I would rather succumb to my bed calling me to sleep. Next day, I'll wake up feeling not rested, stressed out, start promising myself to catch up, and yet, the cycle repeats itself. I'll reach home, tired, make excuses to relax first, get distracted, no motivation to start, feel guilty all over again.

So, with the accumulating workload which will soon topple over me, I cannot blame anyone but myself for not being disciplined enough to at least do something while I have the time and not get distracted halfway through.

I guess my guilty receptors has been de-sensitised and the impulse reaches the central consciousness too late to break the cycle. Can I still be cured?

Putting that aside, I had my first Paediatrics A&E experience on Thursday evening. Time does fly when I was at A&E. I got to see patients on my own, present the history to the doctor and then went and examine the patient together. Although most of the cases were just diarrhoea and vomiting, it was still exciting for me as I got to examine patients from toddlers to young children. At least none of them started screaming and crying when I examined them.

I had a big change in perception of childhood cancers after my visit to the oncology department. It was surprising to me that most of the cancers could be cured unlike cancers in old age. There were also cases where the child could not live to see adulthood. Too depressing to write about it here.

Another big thing which happened last week was Barack Obama won the US elections! I hope that he'll be a good leader in the hard times ahead. No doubt that he's raised hopes and created quite a controversy in Malaysia as well. You know what I mean.

Now, time to start catching up.

P.s. Any plans for December holidays???

Credit Crunch

It's undeniable that the credit crunch has finally munched it way to the shores of Britain. I'm writing this based on my personal views and to warn you beforehand, I'm not an economist.

First thing which my parents worried about was how much personal savings were the banks in the UK guaranteeing each customer if it ever goes bankrupt one day. As a warning, don't be so complacent to think that famous banks can never go bankrupt as a few has already done so in the past and in the US.

Just for you information, if you are that rich as student, the Bank of England has recently lifted guarantee on savings from the previous £35,000 to £50,000. Story here. You can start worrying if you have savings more than that. Maybe go buy gold or something and hope that nobody robs you.

Another thing which affected me was that the interest rates kept on decreasing. I was saving more but getting lesser in interests in return. Darn.

New graduates in fields relating to the economy like Business, Economics, etc. were badly affected as well. In this slowing economy, people are retrenching more than employing. Even the current employees are worried if they're able to hold on to their jobs till next year. Bad time to graduate, that's all I can say. No wonder some of my friends prefer to forgo what they really wanted to do and to read medicine or dentistry instead as no matter how good or bad the economy is, the demand of health care is always there. Who know, the demand for health care might increase as more people are mentally affected leading to physical manifestations.

If there's anyone thinking of buying properties, like houses, this is the time to start surveying as the prices are dropping like Niagara Falls. People who planned to make money from investing in properties and selling it when Liverpool became the European Capital of Culture 2008 are seriously unlucky. If they had foresight and sold it off in the beginning of this year, they might have made some profit, but it'll be the time to hold if you have the holding power and wait patiently for the prices to increase in future.

Picture taken from here.

I was wondering about the prices of daily products like groceries, transportation and all. How will they be affected? I don't think transportation fares will decrease. It goes in only a 1 way direction - up. How about food? Toiletries? Books?

Another thing was the cost of going on a holiday. Since more people are cutting back on expenditure, travel agents, flight providers and holiday accommodations will surely think of ways to attract customers to keep their business alive, right? I'm seriously hoping for a good bargain holiday to come my way for this December. So far, I'm planning to be a good 4th year medical student and stay at home to prepare for my finals. Will that happen? Only time will tell.

As the times are getting harder, cost of living gets higher, number of jobs getting lesser, crime rates will definitely go up. So, be careful when going out. Don't go around advertising your new mobile, branded handbags, posh Apple iPhones etc. If you can avoid it, don't walk around alone while talking on the phone as there are many cases of snatch thieves and robbery recently. Come home before dark, which I myself cannot adhere to due to on-calls. Be more aware of your surroundings and be street smart.

Too cold and too stressful a week

I guess the sudden drop in temperature and the accumulative stress has finally taken their toll on me.

Tuesday was GP day, but we got off around 2pm after starting our audit of the practice. That night, I woke up around 3am and vomited.

Wednesday, forced myself out of bed to go to hospital as I couldn't afford to miss anything. Was grilled in Paediatrics Rheumatology clinic by the consultant. I don't know why did I mention that I was briefly attached to the same firm during my electives in Malaysia.

It wasn't my day when none of his patients turned up for 1 hour time frame. Even with all the grilling on the types and causes of arthritis in children narrowing into juvenile idiopathic arthritis, I was shivering down to my bones, thanks to an empty stomach since 3 that morning and that tiny breakfast which I'd forced myself to eat.

Lunch was just 20 minutes for me. Had just a bowl of hot African sweet potato with green peas soup. My appetite was notoriously good that even my friend asked why was I eating so little that afternoon.

Rushed back for a surgical clinic. Again, grilled by the consultant on umbilical hernias, midline sinuses and Meckel's diverticulum. I had to rush off for the introduction for Transitional Care Unit before the clinic finished as it was scheduled in my time table.

I spent 10 minutes getting shown the wrong direction, running around like crazy in the cold outside before I managed to reach the place in one piece.

No energy, no appetite, went to bed right after I reached home. Everything was fine until I woke up around 12am to throw up whatever soup I had for lunch.

Thursday, dragged myself for diabetes clinic. Started shaking all over but managed to survive till the clinic ended. Went off at 12pm. I was planning to bring myself to the Walk-in centre to see a doctor, but considering the shivers I was getting and how weak and sleepy I was, I rather not chance fainting in the middle of town. So, back to my room.

Had an MSN consultation with Dr. Khoo, who is my senior but an F2 doctor now. (He said he'll only read my blog if I mentioned him) Was prescribed Gaviscon and Ranitidine but I had none with me. Went down to the nearest Pharmacist to get them. Forced down some dinner, took the medicine, and it was bed time for me.

Friday, feeling much better. Thanks Dr. Khoo. Went for teaching, still no appetite. I can't believe eating has been such a chore for me. Went home, received a few differential diagnosis from my friends on MSN cause I mentioned that I vomited twice on my personal message, which included: anorexia, gastritis, cancer, pregnant, etc. Sorry, was too weak to laugh.

Saturday, still no appetite. I think I'm suffering more from losing my appetite than feeling weak and vomiting. Now I'm trying to catch up with all the homework which has been piling up for the whole week.

View from my window this morning. It looked so warm but it's 2 degree Celsius outside. It's supposed to be just November and yet it has started snowing in a few parts of UK.

I ended up staying indoors the whole day, sleeping my afternoon away.

Make sure you all wear warmer and thicker clothes this winter and try not to fall sick. I miss being hungry on the contrary to what my flat mates say about good for losing weight. Despite of the amount of sleep I was having this week, I still look like this now:

Winter came eeeaaarrrrlllyyy. Time to ZZZZzzzzzzzzzz........
Image taken from World's Cutest Animal Photo Gallery