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

Christmas shopping done

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

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.

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.

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.]

Look C!

This is what happens when you enlarge the photo and increase the contrast...

Do you believe me now? :p

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

Carbonara for dinner

The real deal this time with pancetta and parmigiano reggiano.

My 10 PM snack

Yes, the 10 PM snack is a thing now. In fact, it's the new midnight snack. :p

For lunch today

...I had something barbeque-like at 10 AM.

Faux carbonara

At around a quarter past midnight, I just decided I wanted carbonara. Had to make substitutions for the pancetta and cheeses, but it tasted good enough for me to eat two bowlfuls.

WeightWatchers Dinner #4

Nope, it's not what's in the picture. Had baked chicken which was marinated in honey, lemon juice and mustard. I was already halfway through my meal before I realized that I'd forgotten to take a photo. Oopsy!

Made a snap decision to bake a brownie for dessert because...well, it's friday? :p

Sightseeing during lunch

There's a site for locating graves in Stockholm. Checked it years ago and found out that the ancestors are buried at Norra Begravningsplatsen. Wanted to visit, but never got around to it. Only realized pretty recently (while looking for McDonald's) that that cemetery is just across the road from Karolinska Solna.

Crikey!

Can't sleep. Alarm is set at 5:45. :(

WeightWatchers Dinner #3

...was French fish stew. It shared most ingredients with the previous day's dish and this is the third soup dish in as many days. Clearly, I didn't put enough thought into this menu.

WeightWatchers Dinner #2

Vegetarian chili...good stuff or maybe I was just really hungry because it was my first meal for the day. First class was at 1 PM, so I slept late and set my alarm for 11 AM and ended up having to rush to school and skip breakfast and lunch.

And so WeightWatchers Week begins...

First out, onion soup and sourdough bread with low-fat cheese. Prepared crustless quiche in advance for when there isn't enough time to cook.

Coke is it not

Have had this tube of gloss for a while, but don't remember having used it before. Smells more like rootbeer than cola actually.

A rare photo of something other than food

Was at The Royal Opera this evening to watch The Hunchback of Notre-Dame. There were moments when I didn't have a clue what was going on --- should have done some reading beforehand! --- but they danced beautifully, the music was lovely and I enjoyed myself nevertheless.

Guessing game answer (because Dudie Mia tried guessing)

While they did resemble meatballs, those were actually red velvet cake balls pre-candy-melt-dipping.

The red velvet cake wasn't very red at all though since I refused to heap on the food coloring.

Guessing game

What in tarnation could these be?

A: The popcorn bag

Q: What separates the artsy cinema from the huge chain?

Buttermilk update

Made onion rings and biscuits yesterday. They both turned out well and I'll definitely be making the onion rings again.

Where's your ilk, buttermilk?

Used to come across recipes that required buttermilk, but could never find any in The Philippines or in Sweden. Ergo, when I spotted it in the store a few days ago, I just had to buy a bottle.

First up, buttermilk pancakes. While there is a difference in taste and texture compared to the non-buttermilk variety, I can't really say that one is better than the other.

Next up, onion rings or buttermilk biscuits.

Boo!

Bread art by The Little Niece. Guess she's gearing up for Halloween.

[Photo taken yesterday.]

Happy Cinnamon Roll Day!

Not-so-grand unveiling

Presenting the results of drawing time with The Little Niece:

All I can say is...

Blech!

Couldn't come up with a CATchy title

Have never really been a big Hello Kitty fan because I prefer smartmouthed characters and...well...Hello Kitty doesn't even have a mouth. :p

And yet, these Crocs were just too cute and well-executed to resist, so I finally ordered them when they went on sale.

As for the soda, I spotted it in a small store a few days ago and just had to give it a try. It's raspberry-flavored and tasted perfectly okay.

Brainy Smurf acquired!

Happy birthday to my favorite person in the world

...namely, ME!!!

Encountered minor disasters while making the cake yesterday, but I persevered because I didn't have the heart to let myself down. :p

Thank you to everyone who greeted me! Muchos thankies to the Brother, the SIL, The Big Niece and The Little Niece for the prezzies!

Ah, yes...

"Home, Love, Slime" is the new "Eat, Pray, Love"

Birthday present from Hemköp

Why, thank you!

Dexterity

I was holding my sundae cone with one hand, so the other hand had to remove the coffee cup lid, tear open the sugar packets, pour the sugar, stir, replace the lid, and snap this photo all by itself.

Needed to take a break from trying to force myself to study

...so I reunited with my old friend Ronald.

Brunch at Wayne's

...after a walk in the woods.