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Green Eggs and (No) Ham

I got home from badminton after work tonight and wanted something really quick to eat that wasn't awful for me either. Going through a major egg-loving phase but had veg to use up too so I came up with (drum roll...) Green Eggs No Ham. And it was good! Eggs + courgettes + rocket + toast + parmesan.

Use a peeler to make courgette ribbons - I used a whole courgette for just my scrambled egg and it wasn't too much at all. Then fry the courgette in a frying pan and a little olive oil until soft.

Mmm, appetizing...





Beat two eggs and mix in a little milk, salt and pepper then add to the pan. Scramble like you normally scramble!





Meanwhile get toast on the go. And butter, obviously...

Add cooked egg and courgette to toasted toast (in a more attractive way than I did if possible..!)



Now you have the chance to get all fancy gourmet! I had rocket to use up so put some on top (which was delicious, by the way) and then used the vegetable peeler again to flake some parmesan on top. I even added the compulsory 'gourmet' drizzle of olive oil.


And I have to say, it was done in less than ten minutes and totally yum. Green Eggs No Ham is a new after-work-been-to-badminton-can't-be-bothered-to-cook hit!


 JAM.


Medical Elective Part 1

It's revision time again and I'm managing to find ever more imaginative ways to procrastinate; hence I've decided to put up a post about my medical elective last Summer (2012)!

One of the best things about being at University for five years is that you get five whole summers to travel around the world! However in the fourth year of medical school at Leeds we are encouraged to go on a medical elective. Basically, we had to organise a two-month period working in a hospital. That may sound dull... BUT you're allowed to work in any hospital in any country in the world 'within reason' - working in Baghdad etc etc might not be the safest option let's face it.

It's a pretty awesome opportunity really. So there are basically two approaches; go to a developed country (i.e. Australia and surf for two months) or go to developing continents (i.e. parts of Africa where you end up with way too much responsibility in resource limited hospitals with very little experience). I chose the latter.



The main offices of the hospital and the spare 4x4 that doesn't actually work.
Kilimatinde Hospital: The grand main entrance.
I managed to organise a two month stint working in Tanzania in Kilimatinde hospital; a tiny, privately funded 200-bed hospital in the middle of nowhere in Tanzania. This place was rural, the village it was situated in had only two vegetables 'stores'. When I say stores they were tables out in the open with a row of 10 or so red onions, a small handful of anaemic looking garlic bulbs and if you were particularly lucky a few peppers. There was, however, a really cool local shop that looked like it was out of 1930s Britain with the weirdest array of stuff, from single toilet paper rolls to bright plastic necklaces for children. The village didn't have a power grid so if people wanted electricity they had to buy tiny generators the size of a shoe box that ran off diesel, which meant that the shop had a small fridge with CHILLED Coca Cola in old-school glasses! I discovered this a month in and let me tell you, having a chilled drink was the ultimate in luxury.



Anyway back to the beginning, I flew from Manchester to Dar Es Salaam via Doha overnight which was a looooonnnng flight and landed at 11am. Without having had a wink of sleep I met David, our 'fixer', who had to get me onto a coach to get to Kilimatinde before it left in 30 minutes. I ended up getting on a haggard old motorbike with a stupidly big 60 litre backpack on in rush hour traffic and let's just say this guy wasn't wholly concerned with  my safety. This was bang on how I wanted to start my stay in TZ - I was sleep deprived, hot, and scared but I couldn't help smiling the entire way. The Tanzanians refer to white people as muzungos and don't see us very often so tend to stare. As you can imagine, being a 6' 3'' white guy with a huge rucksack on his back on a motorbike grinning like the Cheshire cat, there was a lot of staring. A lot.

Home sweet home.

I made it to the coach in time and met up with a group of Muzungo Christian missionaries who were coincidentally travelling to Kilimatinde but staying in the town near Kilimatinde called Manyoni. After an eight hour coach journey I finally made it to Kilimatinde at around 9pm, and having travelled in complete darkness for the last few hours was completely disorientated and exhausted. I was given a quick tour of my new house (?!) for the next two months and upon being told to meet at the hospital at 8am the next day, passed out under the old broken mosquito net with my alarm set...

JAM.

A Very British Sunday - 7/4/13

I went up to stay in Leeds with J for the last time before his nasty exams (arghtheystartinthirteendaysandthenheisprettymucharealdoctor!!). Britain is finally starting to see some sunshine and daylight and we got lucky with a gorgeous weekend. We had a lovely Saturday shopping and drinking cider in the sunshine and then spent Sunday being quintessentially (the word itself is somehow very British?!) British. We drove just outside Leeds and visited a vast, lovely park with walkways and forest bits and a lake with ducks and then had lunch at a pub nearby (I even had fish and chips..).

Blankets of crocuses


 J found a fine-looking home..


 I had to settle for something of somewhat smaller proportions...






Having food at the pub seemed like a really good idea at the time, and even when they said it might be an hour wait altogether for a table and food to be served we thought we'd manage...But Then I Got Hangry. Which is not a pretty sight. It all got a bit much when every table around us was tucking into their plates of deliciousness and I almost got shouty and so J decided the best option was to remain silent until the food arrived. I think he tried pleasant conversation etc etc but I was too far hangry to return. Thankfully, the food then came and peace was restored. (Although there is no denying that when it was announced that they had run out of peanut butter chocolate cheesecake we almost entered into round two...).

The pub itself is lovely and as British stereotype as they come, roaring fire, wooden beams, local ales and a menu including Sunday roast, pies and gravy and fish and chips and mushy peas. Had J not been feeling slightly pressured to get back to do some revision and had I eaten a snack between breakfast and a 3pm lunch, we could probably have whiled away hours sitting in the cosy pub enjoying Sunday being Sunday. As it is, we had to get back for J to delve back into the medicine books and me to drive three hours home, a complete sad panda because we won't see each other for a WHOLE month. Sob. GOOD LUCK J!




Fish and chips and mushy peas and tartare sauce. Yum. 


A token sunset from my run last night, these lighter evenings are Awesome.




JAM.







Saturday Drinking in April

In a pub. Which is a boat. Drinking cider. In the sunshine. Saturdays are the best.

JAM






Happy Easter 2013!



J is swamped in revision notes with three weeks to go until his finals begin so I celebrated Easter for the two of us with my parents and sister at home. 

Had lovely lovely times and even saw hints of SPRING around the corner! After the coldest Easter on record in the UK, this can only be a very good thing. 

Ate sufficient quantities of Simnel cake (hand marzipanned by yours truly - spacing out 11 marzipan balls evenly is no mean feat...!), cute cupcakes and also enjoyed some less than traditional Easter gin and tonics. 

Little walk revealed the first signs of spring AND the evening ended optimistically tonight with what feels like the first proper sunset of 2013.

So whatever the rhyme or reason for celebration (Jesus/Fertility and New Life/Springtime/good excuse for chocolate.), Happy Easter all round.

JAM


Child-like marzipanning - the brown gloop in the middle is fig jam which didn't 'glaze' as expected...

Spring flowers at last



Looking forward to a summer of sunsets with this view.