Florence Day 1

So arrived in Florence in the morning, wandered into the city centre, went to meet my friend, Luca. I haven't seen him in a year. He was surprised that I could still remember the place he worked. He was busy with work so I was left to wander around on my own.

Duomo in Florence, Italy

This magnificent structure is just astoundingly beautiful.

 Everywhere you go it's just full of tourists!

Michelangelo's David in front of the Palazzo Vechio in Florence. I think this one might be a replica. Still beautiful nevertheless.
The real one is of course in the Galleria dell'Accademia in Florence.

Fountain in front of Palazzo Vecchio.

Uffizi gallery with the long long queues.

I visited the gallery last year, it is full of marvellous paintings, definitely well worth a visit.

Full of gold jewellery

Ponte vecchio

Half Marathon-Oxford

So I've signed up for a half marathon in Oxford on the 14th October.
I think it's game over for me.
I can't run 5 minutes without feeling breathless.
and then I have to rest for 1-2 minutes before I can start running again.
So now I've slowly started my training, but it's just 3 weeks away!
We'll have to see how it goes.
I've been planning on waking up early to go running, but it never works!
Tres terrible!!
So let's start the training!! yay!
On nights again tomorrow and the weekend.
I'm working so many weekends!

I am back!

Hey!! I came back from Italy yesterday!
Had such a great time there!
Met many wonderful people!
and I am still alive!!!
Updates soon :D

Arrived in Pisa airport 15th of September at about 09:30.
Took bus to Florence

First views of Italy- Tuscany region from the bus :D

 The views are just magnificent :)

Hello Florence! :)

CIAOOOO ARNO RIVER, PONTE VECCHIO, CI VEDIAMOOo!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Caffe Tazza D'oro in Rome, Italy

Opposite the Pantheon in Rome, there lies a fantastic coffee shop Caffe Tazza D'oro. They roast their own coffee as well, there's a wide selection of coffee available to buy there.

On a hot summer day, their granita di café is definitely worth trying :) It's basically iced coffee with panna-cream on top. Delicious!! 

Slightly blurry menu :P

The way of ordering the coffee is you pay at the cashier, and then take the receipt to the barrister and they will prepare the coffee for you :)

By the way, in Italy, we stand and drink the coffee like in a bar. One more thing not to forget, don't order cappuccino after 10-11am. I'm sure you can do so, but cappuccino is a breakfast drink in Italy, not for after dinner!

Sant'Eustachio is another coffee shop nearby worth trying :)


Address:
Caffe Tazza D'oro,

Via degli Orfani, 84, 00186 Rome, Italy

One-pot chicken chasseur

I absolutely love French food and I made chicken chasseur last week after finding the recipe on BBC good food. The chicken lasted me for 3 days, had it with different things on different days, mashed potato one day and salad another day. Brilliant recipe. Easy to make. Utterly delicious, I think the chicken actually tasted better the second day.  The one thing was I think I put too much tomato puree, and the dish was slightly sour the first time I ate it, but i left it in the fridge and the flavours concentrated nicely and it was absolutely delicious the next day. I made mashed potatoes with cream and butter, and the texture was absolutely divine, better than milk :) Yeah I'm gonna be so fat!!

I also somehow managed to finish 3/4 of a bottle of red wine making this dish. LOL. I wonder if most people make French food not sober! They do use quite a lot of wine in their cooking. 

I went to Asda the other day, and now I'm a proud owner of a thyme and basil plant. Although I have been dutifully watering it, it seems that it's about to die! I'm so sad :( Maybe I'll just eat it all up.

Ingredients:

Ingredients

• 1 tsp olive oil
• 25g butter
• 4 chicken legs
• 1 onion , chopped
• 2 garlic cloves , crushed
• 200g pack small button or chestnut mushrooms
• 225ml red wine
• 2 tbsp tomato purée
• 2 thyme sprigs
• 500ml chicken stock 

1. Heat the oil and half the butter in a large lidded casserole. Season the chicken, then fry for about 5 mins on each side until golden brown. Remove and set aside.
2. Melt the rest of the butter in the pan. Add the onion, then fry for about 5 mins until soft. Add garlic, cook for about 1 min, add the mushrooms, cook for 2 mins, then add the wine. Stir in the tomato purée, let the liquid bubble and reduce for about 5 mins, then stir in the thyme and pour over the stock. Slip the chicken back into the pan, then cover and simmer on a low heat for about 1 hr until the chicken is very tender.
3. Remove the chicken from the pan and keep warm. Rapidly boil down the sauce for 10 mins or so until it is syrupy and the flavour has concentrated. Put the chicken legs back into the sauce and serve. 

Addendum:

I made this again, I think it's actually quite important to use more expensive ingredients. Second time around, I used more expensive French wine-Burgundy and tomato puree from Napolina and it made such a big difference to the taste. Definitely tasted better the second time around.

On nights!

Hello!

I'm on nights for the moment from Monday-Thursday so lack of updates at present :)
Working hard to save the world :)
The medical registrar likes to make fun of me and say I should get an award for being employee of the month. LOL :)
Truth be told, I'm just a clerking machine, or a glorified house officer.

I met a new friend recently, and he suggested that I join the Oxford Half Marathon on 14th of October.
I am not sure if I will survive the marathon to be honest. I'd probably be dead by the end of it. I haven't got very much stamina. When I run, I get short of breath easily and have to stop. One thing I like about running, is the adrenaline rush you get after a run, and that feeling of warmth and sweet smell of fresh sweat- haha this sentence almost feels like a bit of an oxymoron. I haven't been exercising much in the last few days, firstly as I haven't been sleeping that well in the day time, most of the time managing about 5-6 hours and secondly I think I am coming down with the cold again :( I feel slightly under the weather!

Okay two more nights to go! Hope I survive it, and then off for the weekend! :)
Have a great week ahead everyone :)

The Birth of Venus- Sandro Botticelli (1483-1485)

My favourite painting in the world, it's been my laptop wallpaper since forever. I have seen this painting by Sandro Botticelli in real life before.
It's at the Galleria degli Uffizi in Florence. It's one of his most famous paintings, and it's absolutely stunning in real life. The colour is not as vivid as in this picture, in fact slightly muted, still does not mar it's beauty.

Excerpt from google art project
"The painting was commissioned by Lorenzo di Pierfrancesco de’Medici, a cousin of Lorenzo the Magnificent. The theme was probably suggested by the humanist Poliziano. It depicts Venus born from the sea foam, blown by the west wind, Zephyr, and the nymph, Chloris, towards one of the Horai, who prepares to dress her with a flowered mantle.
This universal icon of Western painting was probably painted around 1484 for the villa of Castello owned by Lorenzo di Pierfrancesco de 'Medici. Giorgio Vasari saw the work there in the mid-sixteenth century – along with Botticelli’s other well-known Primavera – and described it precisely as "showing the Birth of Venus." The old idea that the two Botticelli masterpieces were created for the same occasion, in spite of their substantial technical and stylistic diversity, is no longer accepted. However, rather than a birth, what we see is the goddess landing on the shore of her homeland, the island of Cyprus, or on Kithera. The theme, which can be traced back to Homer and to Ovid’s Metamophoses, was also celebrated by the great humanist Agnolo Poliziano in the poetic verses of his Stanze. The Venus of the Uffizi is of the “Venus pudica” type, whose right breast is covered by her right hand and billowing long blond hair partially shrouds her body. The goddess stands upright on a shell as she is driven towards the shore by the breeze of Zephyrus, a wind god, who is holding the nymph, Chloris. On the right is the Hora of springtime, who waits to greet Venus ashore with a cloak covered in pink flowers.
The seascape, stunning for its metaphysical tone and almost unreal quality, is illuminated by a very soft, delicate light. Like Botticelli’s other masterpiece, Pallas and the Centaur, the Birth of Venus is painted on canvas - fairly unusual for its time - using a technique of thin tempera, based on the use of diluted egg yolk, which lends itself particularly well to give the painting that aspect of extraordinary transparency, which brings to mind the pictorial quality of a fresco. The figure recalls classical sculpture and is very similar to the famous Medici Venus found in the Uffizi, which the artist certainly knew. The real meaning of this dreamlike vision is still under scholarly debate and investigation but is undoubtedly linked with the Neo-Platonic philosophy, widely cultivated in the Medici court."


I'm a huge fan of renaissance art. 

Uffizi Museum, Florence, Italy

Random September weekend posting

Feeling a bit lonely tonight, when I got home after work and sitting in the room on my own.
I'm glad my friend Sueyi is on skype, and she keeps me company. I love talking to her, I can't believe we've been friends for 8 years! How time flies! She's just the most fantastique, perfect person! She's in the States and I haven't seen her in real life for so many years but yet we managed to keep in touch. I can't wait to visit her in the States! <3>

I've been working this weekend. It's not been too bad covering 3 wards. The registrar and consultant were around most of the time. But I've more or less been the "acting junior house officer" on the wards, doing all the discharge letters, venflons and bloods.
The haematology consultant is really funny. Conversation as follows:
Consultant: Can you do me a favour and write a discharge letter for my patient? I know you FY2 love writing discharge letters.
Me: No! I am ST1!
Consultant: Wow you're all grown up!
Me: *_*
LOL

Yesterday, I had dinner at the North Hill noodle bar with Lay Ping. I had really nice char kuey teow, not quite Malaysian standard but it's 80% there (quoted from Lay Ping) :) Lots of nice big prawns. Mmmmm.
We went to one of the junior's house to chill out after, and we had more food! Pizzas, salads, banana cake, ice cream, rose wine, etc...
Watched x-factor and the Hulk after and I fell asleep halfway, and walked home at 2:30am. Was slightly scary walking home in the dark even in the hospital compound. Reminded of this scary movie-Darkness falls I watch at the cinema when I was in college, about the tooth fairy killing people who go in the dark. The movie really freaked me out, almost as bad as IT the clown movie. I was afraid of the dark and toilets for a long time. Sometimes, I'm still scared and sleep with the lights on even though I'm 27 :O

One thing I really missed about Glasgow, which I was really missing tonight was Sunday Jazz nights at The 78 bar. Listening to live jazz, sipping cider, and having a chat with friends was one of the highlights of my week. Jazz just sound so much better live. Now I am on the internet trying to find a good jazz radio station instead. Quite enjoy listening to last.fm at the moment with all the different selections of reggae, ska, jazz bands.

You don't know what you have until you lose it. So we should always love and appreciate everything around us :) Life is too short anyway. 

November 2011 at the The 78