Saturday, December 24, 2011

Merry Christmas!

After I placed the gifts under the tree, The Big Niece informed me that she could do it "righter" and then proceeded to rearrange the presents. :p

Friday, December 23, 2011

Christmas shopping done

Now eating at IKEA's Christmas buffet before heading home.


Monday, December 19, 2011

Where the wild things are

When the SIL heard I was going to a Christmas market, she asked me to buy reindeer sausage. I didn't actually make it to the Christmas market in Gamla Stan (Old City), but there were some stalls at Centralstationen. I ended up buying one of each of the specialty sausages, namely bear, deer, moose, reindeer and wild boar.


Sunday, December 18, 2011

Where's the pizza?

Ordered a ribs & wings platter at Pizza Hut. I dislike it when cole slaw is the default side dish, but I actually liked their version.


Tuesday, December 13, 2011

Mumsy, is that you?

Commuter cards with a photo of the crown princess and her prince were released around the time of the royal wedding last year. They supposedly sold out quickly, but I somehow got this when I purchased a new card at KS Solna a few weeks ago.

As The Big Niece and I waited at a dimly lit bus stop on Saturday evening, I showed her the card and figured we were going to talk princesses since she's at that age. Instead, she cut me off and declared "That's just Farmor!"

[Farmor means father's/paternal grandmother.]

Saturday, December 10, 2011

Look C!

This is what happens when you enlarge the photo and increase the contrast...
Do you believe me now? :p

Friday, December 9, 2011

After the OSCE storm

We took the test in batches of 6, but to safeguard against cheating, we all had to come in at 0800 and then remain in the classroom until we were done. They supplied us with sandwiches and beverages in the meantime.

My start time was 1030, but got pushed back to 1045. I slept last night and didn't get much studying in, but I managed to skim through the examinations, interpretations and procedures sections of the OSCE book while waiting. At some point, I looked out the window and spotted a helicopter hovering for quite a while (yes, that's the speck encircled in the photo).

At the start of the OSCE, I was really terrified, but I got calmer with each station. May have been too calm by the 6th and last station actually.

Thought "Oh, crap!" the two times I entered a room/station to find that the examiner would be one of our regular teachers. Most lecturers pop into our lives for one or two lectures. The regulars, on the other hand, know your name and the course objectives. I really didn't want to make a fool of myself, but I need not have worried as they were quite supportive.

Anyway, I thought you would be done for the moment you gave a wrong answer, but that wasn't the case and it turned out to be a valuable learning experience. Had also expected it to be procedure-heavy and had been stressing out about that, but all the stations involved diagnosis and treatment recommendations instead.

After we were done, we received a cinnamon roll and a hot beverage.

A few hours later, I received an e-mail from the course secretary informing me that I'd passed. I'm so relieved to have that behind me and so grateful for the people that believe in me especially when I struggle with believing in myself.


Wednesday, December 7, 2011

Dangerous by association

Tomorrow is OSCE day. I know now that OSCE stands for Objective Structured Clinical Examination. The thing is when I hear OSCE, it could just as well be "åske/åska". Åska is Swedish for thunder (or thunderstorm). That gets me thinking things should go fast, fast, fast --- lightning speed! And when you screw up, that's when the ominous thunderclap comes in. Do you get where I'm going with this?

I think I need to relax and breathe...and sleep, sleep would be good.


Sushi brunch

Hopefully the wasabi and ginger will do my sad little throat some good.


Tuesday, December 6, 2011

To quote Vector (Despicable Me), "Oh, poop!"

Took the wrong train and now have to double back to the station where the two train routes diverge. :(


It is done

Sent in my project proposal on Monday. It's actually more of a formality since I already submitted it online about a month ago. The signatures took a while.

Used the internal mail so I wouldn't have to buy stamps. :p


Sunday, December 4, 2011

Where will it end?

A cake recipe inspired me to make these lemon cupcakes with blueberry frosting. When I tasted the frosting, which is cream cheese-based, I automatically thought blueberry cheesecake, so that's now on my to-make list.

The frosting turned out pretty dark since I'd decided to make a smaller batch and adjusted the ingredients accordingly, but somehow managed to forget that when it was time to add the blueberries.

Added the sprinkles for decoration, but I actually think it looks better without so you can see the swirl better.



Friday, December 2, 2011

What I ate today

Toast with caviar & sour cream and butter & fig marmelade for lunch.


Cheese plate for dinner.


Scrambled eggs with parmesan, pancetta with honey, and the butter&fig marmelade toast for my 10 PM snack. They were making eggs benedict on MasterChef and I was envious, but not envious enough to make hollandaise, so this had to do.