Nearly three months on the rota

I am quite happy to share with you the ongoing rota of a senior house officer that I am currently a part of since the beginning of February 2017. I have learned so much and am continuing to do so. Yes, it is much longer work hours, but, also, it gives me a shot at improving my clinical skills and decision making. Too, I get paid an extra amount for doing what is called duty in unsocial hours such as weekends and nights. 

The rota is quite different from week to week. On some weeks, I do just about 48 hours, whereas, on others, I do over 56 hours of work per week. In the past few weeks, I have had an off only on weekends, with long work hours on all the weekdays. On Tuesday, although I wasn't working, I travelled to Manchester to attend a study workshop on Communication skills. It was quite rewarding. 

Cooking-wise, I do get a chance to experiment on the lighter weeks. On the heavier ones, I get by with what I have in my refrigerator or eat in the hospital restaurant if that is possible. Occasionally, I have skipped meals at the end of the day because I was too tired to cook something. I then end up having tea and biscuits or just fried eggs with bread. 

On my Manchester trip, I went to the Asian foods supermarket (Worldwide Foods) and bought some stuff to have over the coming week. Not much, though, as I am preparing to go to Mumbai for vacation. However, I did parcel a lamb biryani from a Pakistani restaurant called Spicy Mint and it is located just across the road from Worldwide Foods at Rusholme (which is just over the signal from the Central Manchester Hospitals where I attended the workshop.

I also visited Chennai Dosa with the intention to take away some cooked stuff from there as well as have some south Indian delicacies. It disappointed me completely. The onion utappa that I ordered was undercooked from inside but crispy brown from the outside. I decided to just have it rather than argue over it as I had limited time at my disposal. When I tried to order a lamb biryani from there (Spicy Mint was a second option that I went to as I couldn't get the biryani at Chennai Dosa), they told me they did not have it at that point of time. 

In any case, to return to the main subject: it was a very good workshop and I met with quite a few interesting people, including some consultants from the hospital. Food at the workshop was quite basic with sandwiches, tea, coffee and orange juice. 

I returned to Blackpool by half past nine. A very exhausting day indeed. 

India Visit, Day 6: My own birthday

On the third of March, my family and I went out to Barbecue Nation for a celebratory birthday dinner. This outlet is located inside the Atria Mall at Worli. My daughters had pre-booked, so there was no problem with finding a table; however, we did get a bit delayed, so we had to call them to tell them to keep our table for a little while longer (this restaurant has two seatings at fixed times, as their barbecuing gets going before that to make sure that every table gets whatever they want as much as they need). The theme was seafood, and while the barbecue sticks kept coming as long as we did not put a stop to them, the main course could be had from the side boards where the food had been laid out on a buffet. 

Earlier in the day, I was presented my "gifts", consisting of a tee-shirt and a wallet. Thank you, dear wife and daughters.

Following the extremely enjoyable dinner, we also had desserts and then a cake that the kids had asked the restaurant to serve at the end of the meal. Happy memories follow.

India visit, Day 4 and 5: Family dinner at Apoorva and meet-ups

The next few days went by with me doing a lot of stuff that would otherwise be termed minor - like doing chores and running errands, but it helped me organise the pending activities in the house, as all the rest of my family are continually busy with their work and profession. In the evening, on Tuesday the 1st of March, we all went out for dinner. The place we chose is the Apoorva restaurant in Fort. It is one of the most famous, reasonably priced fish food joints in south Mumbai. This time, too, it did not let us down. We had generous portions of starters and a fried fish (surmai) for the main course. Really enjoyed myself.

On Wednesday, I went to meet some of the important family members I did not meet last week, such as my uncle Moiz Sawliwala. He is nearly 90 but continues to be mentally sharp and active. I also had a chance to meet a few others - on the road, while shopping or moving into the market. One such person was my cousin Masuma Pacha. She is the daughter of my mum's first cousin. It was a pleasure meeting her near Crawford Market with her daughter Munira.

There was great interaction between me and some of my neighbours. This is especially true of Iqbal Bhinderwala, who is my immediate neighbour. He and his family have been a source of great support to me and my family. The next is Mr and Mrs Subair and Sabina Sawliwala. I met with them and their very pretty daughter Zahra. Finally, I had a long meeting with the Karmalawalas, my third-floor neighbours, whom I went to visit to commiserate on my behalf as they had a double loss of both their parents last month within the space of a few hours. Here, I also met their elder daughter Tasneem, who is in India from the UK. She lives with her husband in Liverpool.

In addition to these people, I also met with the neighbours of my mum when I went to visit her. One of the people I met was Razia Shakir, who is the daughter of Mr and Mrs Yusuf Sihorwala. She lives in Dubai, and meeting her by chance after nearly 3 decades was an amazing thing.

A week gone by, II: A buffet meal at Michael's, an Indian restaurant, with my friend Michael

Okay, so it's just a co-incidence. The Michael I went out with is not THE Michael after whom the restaurant is named! I discovered this place during my visit to the Whitegate Drive Health Centre on Monday, the 21st of December. Let me back up a little, though. The diabetes nurse who saw me at the local GP's clinic about a fortnight or three weeks ago set up a routine visit to the aforementioned centre to get my retina checked as a part of diabetes care. I had gone for this. The Centre is located about half a kilometre from the gym I visit (Helio). It is a huge place indeed. There is a GP-led centre, a Children's Centre, a general area for community services, children with learning disabilities, and several others that I did not visit or see. 

The nurse who dealt with me explained everything beforehand, including the information connected to her use of dilator eye drops to be able to shoot photos of my retina. The actual photography took hardly two minutes. I was in and out of the centre in about half an hour. On the way back to the hospital, I came across many restaurants and eating places on Whotegate Drive. One of them was Michael's, which had an imposing facade and a lovely byline: Indian food. I sort of wondered if I'd ever be able to afford eating at such a grand-looking place. 

Then, when I had reached the hospital, and was about to go to Costa for a cup of coffee, Michael called me up and asked me if I was free to join him for dinner the same evening. Originally, I had plans to have my coffee and go back to my room to change into my gym kit and go to the gym. However, Michael joined me within a few minutes at Costa. I agreed to go with him, and when he said he was willing to go anywhere, I, sort of half-heartedly, mentioned that we could go for an Indian dinner. He agreed immediately, and I then asked him his budget. When I realised that he was happy with spending up to 25 pounds between the two of us, I offered to go to Michael's. 

We walked all the way to the restaurant, and arrived there at half past seven. To our pleasant surprise, we discovered that they had a full Indian buffet dinner service with 15 varieties of starters, soup, main courses (rotis, nan, rice and about 8 different gravy preparations) and dessert (sadly, not Indian) - unlimited - all for just 12.50 British pounds per person! 

And thus. we had a stupendous dinner, chatting about each others' lives, sharing thoughts and generally getting to know each other better. 

Mike and I

Enjoying the food

The food plate

We finished at about half past nine, and then walked back together until at a certain point, we parted as he went towards where he stays with an Asian room-mate. I walked back from there, skirting Stanley Park, till I arrived at the point where there was a road that went on towards the hospital, from where I reached my home by half past ten.

This would be recorded as one of my favourite days since I came to Blackpool last month.