This is the tastiest honey ever. I can usually take or leave honey, but I decided to treat myself the other day in Tesco and splash out £3.99 for a pot of honey. Boy was it worth it!

Yesterday - Rotation day! I started the term with Obstetrics, which was a 'self taught' rotation, where we 'learnt' the finer details of calving and fetotomies. I won't go into the gory details, but suffice to say it involved wheelie bins with holes cut in the bottom. Classic.

That afternoon, we ventured to Mary's where she made us kedgeree, a weird Scottish/Indian dish of smoked fish, egg and rice. Only the Scots could think up something like that - with a little friendly Indian input. It was surprisingly nice - an official version of Andrew's very successful smoked fish risotto that he made last year.

More Russian has been learnt. It's slowly becoming easier as I get faster at reading it, and am more able to remember the words. Plus our teacher is lovely, and a native speaker so she know's what's going on! After Russian yesterday we popped into the Rainbow Cafe for a quick bite to eat. It's a vegetarian place, with all sorts of crazy dishes to accomodate vegans and intolerants of all kinds (no racists allowed). I must admit it was really tasty - I would definitely go back there. I had "tocana de legume", mushrooms, celery, tomatoes, olives, potatoes, herbs and brown rice in a bowl. Really tasty!

Bidds, Anniversaries and Pub.

BIDDS is done. Phew! It wasn't the easiest of MCQs - 26 of the questions were reverse questions (which of the following is NOT correct), which is really annoying - it plays on all your doubts and insecurities. You may thing that one is wrong (and therefore right), but you could have just overlooked it when learning. Grr. Still, I could have done better, so it's a little borderline. We'll see...

In more exciting news, it is our anniversary today (3years of delight)!, and Alex and me are going out to Pizza Express to celebrate - yay. We enjoyed wandering around town free from BIDDS, and had irish coffees in Cafe Rouge. Nothing is too expensive on anniversary day!

We are then toddling to the Castle to congratulate two vets for their recent engagement (to each other). Also, Geoff is in Cambridge so may be going to see him tomorrow - I unfortunately missed Rahul weekend before last because I was lambing :(.

BBQ!

The pictures from the barbecue are up on flickr (click here), and a couple are on facebook too. It was an amazing night - everyone seemed to have fun, no-one got set on fire, and hopefully all the sausages were properly cooked. Unfortunately Sainsburys barbecues are useless, the first one didn't get very hot, and the second one failed to light - the paper burnt, but none of the coals caught, despite Bethmo, Alex and my best efforts (including pouring on half a box of matches, and some dried grass). However, I made a commando trip to Sainsburys (on Andrew's bike, which is pretty nice to ride, though the gears were broken) and got a 3rd one which was amazing.
We ate, drank and were merry, plus Bethmo brought a frisbee which we played until it got so dark that decapitation was a real worry.
We also drank my birthday bubbly. It's a little late I know but it was nice to have a celebration now the worry of exams is passed.

Plans

In other news, a last-minute "I can't be bothered to cook" turned into an exodus to Nando's last night, though, as it was closed, we ended up at Wagamama. They've just opened one in Cambridge, and it's really nice. Classic Wagamama food, but a nice view over Emma college too! It was nice to escape the work for 2 hours, and plan what exciting things we're going to do after the exams.

• Go to London
• Go punting to Granchester (of course!)
• Possibly a 3-legged shared gallon challenge. :)

It's my birthday on Wednesday! How exciting.

Tom

Stem Cells, Cafes and Facebook

Today... Alex's dissertation was collected - her supervisor hasn't really filled in much so she's a little confused as to what exactly is wanted, but hopefully she'll see him soon and get a better idea. I was quite impressed with it personally. I'm trying to bash my way through a lecture on stem cells which is less than riveting and filled with beautiful pointless sentences like "VEGF maintains Flk-1 and PECAM1+ sheets from day 1.5". Wow. I can honestly say I'm impressed. I'm going to run downstairs now and tell everyone in the kitchen what a wonderful insight into the world of developmental biology I'm having. This was supposed to be interesting. nrrrgh.

In other news, it's been freezing today! Alex and me went to Cafe Rouge for dinner and we nearly froze on the way down there. The food was amazing though. I had beef bourgignon (mmmmm) and Alex had chicken in white wine sauce. I then had creme broule (whatever else!) and Alex had a chocolate crepe (so French, so tasty!) and then coffees and things. Was really cool.

Am also playing snooker with rahul on Monday... no doubt I'll thrash him again like last time. I'm enjoying his facebook status at the moment "Rahul is facing four weeks of unadulterated lie-ins." Mine is "Tom is unable to understand why no-one likes Marillion".

Other highlights include "Lizzi is terrified. Google "lizzi edwards" with the speech marks and the first ELEVEN results are actually her... shit." Mmm... someone's bragging a tad! "Vicky is lacking in judgement after compressing her head" - I assume after the tiny child's crown she wore to the bop, and "Greg is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it".

I really don't want to so this stem cell rubbish. Can you tell??

Tom

currently listening, Rachmaninov, Piano Concerto No. 1.

"It's nice to see a natsci... over there... leaving," were the words Alextheboy used to sum up our formal last night. Surely tongue-in-cheek and slightly confused - no doubt he didn't expect to give a speech on Tom, Reece and Iona's birthdays, but when none of them would stand up after a round of "Happy Birthday", the onus fell first to Alexthegirl to say something, followed by Vicky, and then, not to be out-done, Alex. He was, of course, refering to TomT's englingness, despite two years as a natsci. Was pretty funny.

Formal was nice - the food was amazing (Fish-cakes to start. Really tasty fish cakes. Then we had some delicious beef for main, and a white chocolate and amaretto chocolate cream cake for pudding. Wow!)

Oh, and I wore the pig cuff-links that Hannah got me for Christmas, and amazing they looked too!

Bond, James Bond.

Today Alex took me to see the new James Bond film, Casino Royale. It was as good as everyone (with the exception of Mary) told me it was going to be. Full of amazing action, a decent storyline and cool James Bondiness, I was suitably impressed. You think it's gonna finish, and then a house collapses. Pure genius. Can't wait for Daniel Craig's next outing.

Post Bond, we went to Wagamama for ramen, as we often do. It has been come our restaurant of choice when not in Cambridge, where, as a Wagamama is lacking (and because one needs some variation in one's diet), we go to Pizza Express (much MUCH better than the name implies).

Backdated from 11/01/07

Uppity

As you can see, the frequency of posts has increased, and that can only mean one thing - it's exam term. Today is Saturday, and I've done some VRB work, and have been into town for lunch. Alex is dying Jen's hair as we speak, and I'm sitting here listening to Marillion. Ahhhhhh. This eve, Jen and me are going to McDonalds for a stodge-fest, which will be satiating(is that a word?). I'm really craving some good stodge - haven't been to buttery all term!

Update: 7/5/06
I fear I may have eaten 1700 calories worth of McDonalds last night... goodbye Aorta!

Tom

Flapjacks, Football and Flying

1. I got a flapjack, infact, this week, my life has been full of flapjacks. It's been one of those weeks where the oats follow you round - you know what I'm talking about. Bloody oats. Well, not at all; I was followed in a good way. In a stomach-tinglingly good way. Hannah made flapjacks that were juicy, soft and scrumtious, and then Alex sent me a CHOCOLATE flapjack that was full of sweet cocoa goodness. Yay!
2. Football. Worcester Park Wonders won. We actually won. For the first time since 2 years ago we won. 2-2 after full time, and then 4-3 on penalties. Was great fun, but now my legs are melting. MELTING.
3. Flying. Flying... Birds fly. It does begin with F... and I did have a conversation with my dad about the perils of high-altitude flight should you have some sort of respiratory disorder. Seems to fit in with the title.

Booyakka!

Tom

UPDATE: The Land o' Lakes Flapjack Festival


Land o' Lakes Flapjack Festival. Take me there. In a tardis... whatever. Look! Americans dressed as Scotch Pancakes, and probably flapjacks too if their amazing oat-power had not melted the camera lens when the photos were being taken... i assume.

In 1976, community organizations of Land O'Lakes planned an event that all area citizens could partake. It began as a small festival produced by civic, church and business groups. The annual festival, which is themed around flapjacks, has grown each year with more entertainment, rides and activities.

The three-day event, produced by the Central Pasco Chamber of Commerce, begins on Friday afternoon with the tossing of the first flapjack. Free flapjacks were offered for the first time in 1983, and have since become an annual ritual for the Saturday morning breakfast. The Land O'Lakes Butter Company in Minnesota has supplied its namesake butter every year since the first free flapjack breakfast. Throughout the weekend thousands of residents and visitors enjoy free entertainment, parades, shows, carnival rides, and food. On Saturday evening, the Honorary Mayor of Land O'Lakes is "elected" with dollar votes. The "candidate" who raises the most funds wins the honorary mayor position. The fundraiser activity supports the chamber and the continued improvement of Land O'Lakes. Land O' Lakes is named for the many blue lakes in this community north of Tampa Bay. From this website

The things you find on Google.

Gawd and Bleugh?

Just made an interesting lunch in an attempt to use up some old stuff in cupboards.

Bacon and Salad Risotto.
These quantities serve 1, but can easily be multiplied up!

Ingredients:
* Half an old pack of preprepared salad
* 2 bacon rashers
* A carrot
* 2 spare bags of rice
* A beef oxo cube
* Some oil
* Dregs from the bottom of a bottle of wine
* Garlic Paste

1. Chop up and fry the bacon in the oil. Add the carrots.
2. Dissolve the oxo cube in boiling water.
3. Add the rice to the bacon and carrot.
4. Slowly add the oxo bit by bit
5. Add the wine dregs
6. Add a bit of garlic paste
7. Add the salad
8. Simmer for 10 minutes


TADA!

And it was actually really nice!