Halloween*booohoooo*

After almost 6 years of staying in Nizhny, i finally get to see that the locals do actually acknowledge this thing called H.a.l.l.o.w.e.e.n. More supermarkets and toy shops selling mask and costumes nowadays. Even babushkas (granny) start to sell pumpkins ( as in the whole pumpkin for carving) in the rinok. When i first came (in 2005), i was quite surprise not seeing these Russians dressing up for Halloween ( i remembered dressing up like a big tulip during my St Mungo days for Halloween). They're not like the British, where costume parties on Halloween night is almost always a must.

Our last Halloween as undergrads, we decided on having a wee bit of a dinner party. A potluck style spooky delish dinner including -

fingernails cookies

my spiderweb red velvet cake

pumpkin soup

smiley spaghetti bolognase

and many more!

well, last but not least.....

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Booohooo! Happy Halloween!

Feel free to share your Halloween weekend people :).

p/s: Hello Monday! An hour extra for me to spend in bed. Thanks to daylight savings time!

eye make up expert,,anyone?

Being a newbie in this makeup-field, purchasing a simple cream eyeshadow can somehow enlighten my day! ( its been drizzling all day long, mind you. *holding on to umbrella real tight*.

While most of the make up experts seems to enjoy 'painting' my EXTRA large dark brown eyes

( amoi...you punya mata banyak cantik lo...very big..accentuate the color perfectly etc etc), i myself find it hard to D.I.Y-ing ( if there is such word, excuse me;p)them. Will ended up looking like a hungry panda,aiming for its next victim!

So basically, my point of concerns are:

• how should i apply my eyeliner ( top & below) and not looking like having extra eyelids?
• brown eyeliner will cause less panda looking, am i right?
• Mascara wise, any differences based on the brush shape?i've seen Lancome mascaras with weird looking brush. I honestly can't afford to volumized my lashes in any case!
• Applying liquid eyeliner in my case, will the technique be the same? or should i do some adjustment?

Well, suggestions and advices are seriously needed. Comments/FB inbox or email are most welcome.

Thank you in advance!

To be shared with all of you here is a picture taken during a recent hemihepatectomy surgery

( partial resection of the liver) done on a patient with liver cancer, metastasis from colorectal cancer.

Was being informed by our surgeon that the number of occurrence among us,Asian are somewhat around 16 : 100,000 ( could've been said to be an epidemic in Asia).

Yes, i'm currently under going my surgery posting ( in which i find it quite interesting,after 5 years of med school.lol;p).

It was indeed a very interesting procedure..witnessing the laser cutter penetrating the liver. The liver was so terribly enlarged most probably double the size of the normal ones with many abnormal bulging here and there. Pity man but chances of surviving is much better for him now.

Oh yes and by the way, a tension headache strikes me during the surgical observation. Wasn't even sure what was the cause of it, maybe it's because of long time standing cum hypoxic ( wearing mask so lack of O2 to the brain yadaa yadaa) or maybe its due to hypoglycemic state. Prolonged till late evening and pain killers did nothing. Basically pain subsided after 8 hours solid of sleeping...and the news about Evita Peroni has it's Concept store in Moscow!

:)

p/s: Halloween is coming soon! surprise awaits!

a jazz night out

So finally its weekend again! time passes by really quick, ehyyy? We had a seminar going on this morning on Pediatric hematology, and so it was the end of our pediatric rotation today. Came back home earlier than usual,browsing the net and thats when i came across this:

A restaurant called Fonoteka

http://fonoteca-nn.ru/

You know what's best?? It reminds me of Alexis! the dessert..the coffee ( i had hot choc with marshmallows since its pretty cold outside) and most importantly is the live music!which so happen to be a jazz performance by 3 handsome Russian men.gagagaga..If only they serve pavlova....*sigh*. Otherwise, food is so-so but it'll be a cool chilling place.

The interior was uniquely designed. A real Russian bar so to say. How i wish i had the chance to snap more pictures but there was no place for me to roam around since it was kinda packed. I'll do that next time since this place is just a distance away from one of the hospital. hehehe.strategic gile please!:p

Last but not least is my favorite part among all -a baby grand on the ceiling!Have a happy jolly good weekend friends!:)

my old time favorite-a generation gap?

Being someone in the early 20's ( or should i say in my mid-2o's??) , i keep on getting funny remarks on my liking towards the oldies. I mean..hey...its oldies...those people were the ones with such REAL songs. Songs were much more meaningful back then and look at how they appear on tv shows!hahahaha..definitely nothing close to our local artist nowadays.

Honestly, akademi fantasia should stop getting overboard with their costumes and all. After all its the quality that counts! LOL;p

and Mary McGregor is definitely a favorite!

happy 20/10/2010

So here once again, a very unique day for us to remember.its 20102010.

Wedding bells, anniversaries, birthdays perhaps are much more remarkable on such a wonderful day. Whatever that you're up to today, i'm sure it has been filled with much unforgettable memoirs :).

Well...but well...today is just like any other day for me. Nothing special ( well maybe i managed to slot in some space for a movie just now..*medical student can be so boring,i know!)..so i decided to make something nice for dinner tonight - a 5 minute chocolate cake.

A quick share ( i'm sure you've seen this similar recipes from many other bloggers too):

4 tbs flour

4 tbs sugar

1 tbs cocoa powder

2 tbs of whisked egg

3 tbs of milk

3 tbs of vegetable oil

some choc chips

few drops of vanilla essence ( for those in Russia, can get it substituted with vanilla sugar)

*mix them all in a medium size coffee mug..(those ikea/Luminarc mug will do fine)

*for us with Russian microwave directory, select средняя ( medium) heat. for solid 5 minutes!

For best result, top it up with Baskin Robbins Praline & Cream ice cream or melt some milk chocolates and pour it over.

Your perfect 5 minutes dessert is ready!

Original recipe taken from http://www.instructables.com/id/5-minute-Chocolate-Cake/

a fruit lover

Weekend visit to our district rinok ( read: market) is actually a must and thats simply because i'm a fruit lover!

*pictures taken about 2 weeks ago where the weather is still at its best.*

Look at the melons!! I honestly think that the ones here are juicer and is perfectly perfect as compared to our ones in KL. Is there any geographically significance innit? How about the ones in the UK or other European countries? The ones here are so much bigger (say 7-8kg in average) and i rather not being seen carrying it home!

The only setback-> melon season is about to end ( you'll get them best from august till end of september) and is actually my last one in Russia!

( NB: i'll go scouting for melons in chow kit road instead, just to get THE feeling.lol;p).

Not to forget the tiny seedless grapes ( the locals named it as Kish-Mish)..

Was at the market few days ago and.....

baby tomatoes!something like cherry tomatoes but not quite. cousins probably?:)

and now that the air is getting colder and the sky is becoming gloomier day by day, hello frozen veges and errr...expect a price increment in all the veges and fruit products from now on!

roast beef, anyone?

*had this done sometime around last week,but i was pretty tied up hence the delay.well anyways..;)*

Getting halal beef in Russia (read: Nizhny) is quite tricky.Hard to find and rather expensive. Since a friend asked me to tag along to Metro (where its membership card is a concern), i tried my luck, looking for halal meats and poultries. You've guessed it right alright...its roast beef time!

I went online, searching for some easy recipes ( more to our Asian liking so to say) and here's a good one from http://www.proudduck.com/2009/10/moms-roast-beef in which i amended some of the ingredients, like adding on some oregano,allspice and parsley onto the marinate.

Served with some steamed broccoli (in my case, i love to add some butter and sprinkled brown sugar just before serving) and potatoes of your liking.

Well, maybe its not something close to Meatworks or Tony Romas but its definitely worth a try!:)

p/s: thanks Vivy for the wonderful recipe!:)

New home...welcome everyone!

Welcome..welcome..to my new (old) blog home.hehehe.

*chicken dance...*

will do some updating tomorrow perhaps.Happy Sunday everyone:)

thanks Google for the chicken dance up there.

little India and some belly dancing

Another great weekend during the autumn season! Weather is perfect with the sunlight and temperature settings around +12'c. Living abroad especially in Russia...having a perfect weather( esp on a supposed-to-be gloomy autumn) is such a blessing, really!

It is like as if planned, there was this little India fest in town, from now till October 17th at the city's Yarmarka- a huge place where they set in trade fairs. A place that i have not been to during my years of staying in this gorod ( means city).

Back to the Indian fest, it was actually quite a thing.To be honest, i wouldn't have expected to see pretty pashminas and shawls sold at such low prices. The Russians went all out,stocking up their shawls collection since winter is now approaching. We even saw the locals buying teak coffee tables, chairs etc etc and not to forget curry powder and spices. Surprisingly, no one that i saw bought an elephant there..hehehe!

Followed by a camwhoring session

Finally, we wrapped up the day with a nice Uzbekistani dinner later at night.

So, kebab anyone???

:)

its been a while!

..yup since i last had my blog posted. Oh my..October is already here. Hello October!

I was being quite on the run for the past one week, despite having a light rotation- Occupational diseases. Now, i'm back to my usual routine with medicine rotation. More busy! Can't wait for the weekend to come. Somehow Friday night is simply not just like any other..where i can go puking with movies and dozing off the entire night till god knows when. And for the fact that i have only about 8 months to go to cherish this student life of mine, i better do!

On the other hand, life is good. Am now having the time of my life as a final year student. Good friends good food everything is on its place. The room is spacious tidy and odour-free and the nicest thing in life is to live with someone not as pain. Staying with a junior 4 years younger is actually not a bad idea at all. at least i am very sure she wouldn't let me walk around to Raya open houses in such a disaster fashion manner. ha ha ha. long 'kebaya' with jeans...You gotta be kidding, woman!

but one thing for sure: I think i might need a kitten. i mean another one since Luvie is now at home. Its veryyyyyyyyy weird not having her by the door welcoming us back from a long tiring day! Oh myyyyyyyy...