Dear Reader,
I have an idea that the title is not very catching. It sounds oh so plebian. And yet. these last four days have been extraordinary for me. Several small snippets of things I did occurred to me after I had finished watching a movie on Amazon Prime, so I thought to myself: what better example of a life led with variety than writing this chronicle.
I finished 4 consecutive nights on the 7th of this month and was granted three full holidays thereafter. Thus begins my chronicle.
Tuesday, 8th March.
I slept for about three hours during the daytime and caught up on the rest of the sleep only after everything for the day was done. The other activities included reading a bit of the Wilbur Smith novel "Golden Lion", cooking some lamb curry without a recipe but with a ready-made curry powder that I had purchased from India, speaking to my children, watching a few episodes of The Big Bang Theory (currently, I am on season 6) and finally, going out for dinner with Luckey to Sapori, an Italian fine-dining restaurant on Clifton Street. (Read my blog entry HERE.)
What was unique today? My first meal at Sapori, of course. Also, my first attempt to use a ready-to-use preparation to make lamb curry. To be honest, the curry was very, very simple to prepare. All I had to do was add 400 g of washed and cleaned lamb pieces, the entire contents of the lamb curry masala and 350 ml of water into my pressure cooker and then cook them for about 15 minutes, of which the last 10 were after sealing the lid closed. That's it. Amazing, isn't it? Yet, the curry turned out quite delicious.
Wednesday, 9th March:
I woke up late, having completed the sleep deficiency of the previous 48 hours. Today, Mumbaikar Pediatricians Drs. Hemant and Archana Joshi paid a visit to the hospital. Dr. Hemant had been talking with me since a week and was very keen to visit the Paediatrics department with me with a view to understanding how NHS works. He is a very different kind of person. Not very humble by nature - he loves to keep talking about his achievements - and yet, very humble and eager to learn. He presents a visage of a man who is an eternal student. I filled him in on all kinds of information. We went everywhere: the outpatient clinic, the ward, the special care babies' unit, and the A & E. We met with and interviewed nurses, healthcare assistants, play workers, outreach nurses, speciality nurses, and so on. The doctors also met Dr. Rabin Mohanty, with whom they had a 10-minute long chat.
Afterward, we all went to Basrai's World Cuisines restaurant at Talbot Road (remember, I reviewed this excellent place on my other blog? Read that review HERE.) Hemant and Archana's company was excellent, and I believe this: they went back very happy with the way the visit went. Dr. Hemant described it as a very happy day in his life because he said he had learned so much.
In the evening, I stayed home, doing this and that. Nothing else to write about.
What was unique? Obviously, the visit by Drs. Joshi. I did miss a "Meet the Author" programme that had been organised at the hospital - they had invited Mr. Steve Watson, the author of "Before I go to sleep", a psychological thriller that has been made into a movie a year ago.
Thursday, 10th March:
You can say this was the most uneventful day from among the four days that I am writing about. And yet, small things did happen. I remained in my rooms the entire day. This, in itself, is unique. From the time I came to the U.K., I have always ventured out of the house on every free day, so this was highly unusual. Over the past 1 week, I kept trying to call locum agencies to help me find a locum for today and for the coming Sunday. No jobs materialised. I had enough food in the refrigerator, so I did not need to cook. I watched a French movie on Amazon Prime. This was with subtitles in English. It is based on a true story and is called KALINKA. In it, the father of a 14-year old who is found dead in suspicious circumstances keeps investigating the matter after he has been stonewalled by everyone for bureaucratic, political, and other reasons. He finally gets the culprit after 28 years! A must-see movie. for every movie aficionado.
What was unique? The fact that a move in a language I don't understand can prove to be so riveting.
Friday, 11th March:
I went back to work after my three-day gap. It was a six-hour cover duty where I was supposed to go and see newly-borns on the post-natal ward. Nothing exciting actually on the job. But that all changed after I returned home. Today, I saw, outside my window, what seemed to be a new species of bird. Two of them were pecking things off the grass. Their behaviour, though, was reminiscent of commonplace blackbirds. I rushed to watch them with my binoculars. I brought out my RSPB bird guide, and discovered that these were nothing but juvenile blackbirds. Totally unlike their parents, these juveniles were brown in colour and heavily striated on their ventral aspects, as well as lightly striated on their dorsum as well. In my excitement, I forgot to click any pictures.
Later, I watched yet another thriller on Amazon Prime. This time, I searched for Before I go to sleep. And lo! It was there. Starring Nicole Kidman and Colin Firth, this thriller is the same one I mentioned above in connection to the Meet the Author. The movie reminded me of Ghajini, in which the Bollywood star Aamir Khan plays the role of a man who lives only in the present and forgets everything after 15 minutes. Well, Nicole here plays a similar role, except that her memory lasts till she goes to sleep at night. Nobody can be trusted as she lives a fresh life every morning. Everyone is suspect: her husband, the doctor who keeps calling her every day and takes her to the hospital, her best friend ... no one. An amazing story indeed. Again, I strongly recommend it.
In the evening, I prepared roast chicken in the oven for the first time! I used Chicken breast pieces, some mixed herbs to marinade, and sunflower oil to baste the chicken pieces. It turned out to be easier than I had thought, and with this, my confidence in making stuff in the oven has gone up a notch
.
And that's about it for now. Eventful four days of my life. Thank you for reading.
I have an idea that the title is not very catching. It sounds oh so plebian. And yet. these last four days have been extraordinary for me. Several small snippets of things I did occurred to me after I had finished watching a movie on Amazon Prime, so I thought to myself: what better example of a life led with variety than writing this chronicle.
I finished 4 consecutive nights on the 7th of this month and was granted three full holidays thereafter. Thus begins my chronicle.
Tuesday, 8th March.
I slept for about three hours during the daytime and caught up on the rest of the sleep only after everything for the day was done. The other activities included reading a bit of the Wilbur Smith novel "Golden Lion", cooking some lamb curry without a recipe but with a ready-made curry powder that I had purchased from India, speaking to my children, watching a few episodes of The Big Bang Theory (currently, I am on season 6) and finally, going out for dinner with Luckey to Sapori, an Italian fine-dining restaurant on Clifton Street. (Read my blog entry HERE.)
What was unique today? My first meal at Sapori, of course. Also, my first attempt to use a ready-to-use preparation to make lamb curry. To be honest, the curry was very, very simple to prepare. All I had to do was add 400 g of washed and cleaned lamb pieces, the entire contents of the lamb curry masala and 350 ml of water into my pressure cooker and then cook them for about 15 minutes, of which the last 10 were after sealing the lid closed. That's it. Amazing, isn't it? Yet, the curry turned out quite delicious.
Wednesday, 9th March:
I woke up late, having completed the sleep deficiency of the previous 48 hours. Today, Mumbaikar Pediatricians Drs. Hemant and Archana Joshi paid a visit to the hospital. Dr. Hemant had been talking with me since a week and was very keen to visit the Paediatrics department with me with a view to understanding how NHS works. He is a very different kind of person. Not very humble by nature - he loves to keep talking about his achievements - and yet, very humble and eager to learn. He presents a visage of a man who is an eternal student. I filled him in on all kinds of information. We went everywhere: the outpatient clinic, the ward, the special care babies' unit, and the A & E. We met with and interviewed nurses, healthcare assistants, play workers, outreach nurses, speciality nurses, and so on. The doctors also met Dr. Rabin Mohanty, with whom they had a 10-minute long chat.
Afterward, we all went to Basrai's World Cuisines restaurant at Talbot Road (remember, I reviewed this excellent place on my other blog? Read that review HERE.) Hemant and Archana's company was excellent, and I believe this: they went back very happy with the way the visit went. Dr. Hemant described it as a very happy day in his life because he said he had learned so much.
In the evening, I stayed home, doing this and that. Nothing else to write about.
What was unique? Obviously, the visit by Drs. Joshi. I did miss a "Meet the Author" programme that had been organised at the hospital - they had invited Mr. Steve Watson, the author of "Before I go to sleep", a psychological thriller that has been made into a movie a year ago.
Thursday, 10th March:
You can say this was the most uneventful day from among the four days that I am writing about. And yet, small things did happen. I remained in my rooms the entire day. This, in itself, is unique. From the time I came to the U.K., I have always ventured out of the house on every free day, so this was highly unusual. Over the past 1 week, I kept trying to call locum agencies to help me find a locum for today and for the coming Sunday. No jobs materialised. I had enough food in the refrigerator, so I did not need to cook. I watched a French movie on Amazon Prime. This was with subtitles in English. It is based on a true story and is called KALINKA. In it, the father of a 14-year old who is found dead in suspicious circumstances keeps investigating the matter after he has been stonewalled by everyone for bureaucratic, political, and other reasons. He finally gets the culprit after 28 years! A must-see movie. for every movie aficionado.
What was unique? The fact that a move in a language I don't understand can prove to be so riveting.
Friday, 11th March:
I went back to work after my three-day gap. It was a six-hour cover duty where I was supposed to go and see newly-borns on the post-natal ward. Nothing exciting actually on the job. But that all changed after I returned home. Today, I saw, outside my window, what seemed to be a new species of bird. Two of them were pecking things off the grass. Their behaviour, though, was reminiscent of commonplace blackbirds. I rushed to watch them with my binoculars. I brought out my RSPB bird guide, and discovered that these were nothing but juvenile blackbirds. Totally unlike their parents, these juveniles were brown in colour and heavily striated on their ventral aspects, as well as lightly striated on their dorsum as well. In my excitement, I forgot to click any pictures.
Later, I watched yet another thriller on Amazon Prime. This time, I searched for Before I go to sleep. And lo! It was there. Starring Nicole Kidman and Colin Firth, this thriller is the same one I mentioned above in connection to the Meet the Author. The movie reminded me of Ghajini, in which the Bollywood star Aamir Khan plays the role of a man who lives only in the present and forgets everything after 15 minutes. Well, Nicole here plays a similar role, except that her memory lasts till she goes to sleep at night. Nobody can be trusted as she lives a fresh life every morning. Everyone is suspect: her husband, the doctor who keeps calling her every day and takes her to the hospital, her best friend ... no one. An amazing story indeed. Again, I strongly recommend it.
In the evening, I prepared roast chicken in the oven for the first time! I used Chicken breast pieces, some mixed herbs to marinade, and sunflower oil to baste the chicken pieces. It turned out to be easier than I had thought, and with this, my confidence in making stuff in the oven has gone up a notch
.
And that's about it for now. Eventful four days of my life. Thank you for reading.
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