Baklava with an old friend

Have I been gone for long? It doesn’t seem like it based on the dates, I last posted slightly more than a week ago. But it does seem that a lot has happened. My poor grandma is in a cast because of a broken foot and now wheelchair bound for the next month. Lucky for me, I had an old friend who is an occupational therapist. Coincidentally, he lives right across the road from her flat. I learnt a lot about wheelchair mobility and making her as independent as possible from him. Poor grandma is terribly motion sick from the wheelchair movement so I’ll have to pop by again with some giddy pills. 

As some of you may know, H and I are going to Cambodia next week. We are participating in a voluntary trip to bring some health aid to an improvished village. In order to earn a little extra cash for our trip, I started working in the evenings at a small family practice. This unfortunately meant I came home only close to midnight just to eat some dinner and sleep. I have new found respect for family doctors now. Hey, its not just cough and cold and sore eyes. I saw a few broken bones, dog bites, heart failure, acute asthma and lots and lots of strange rashes. It was a good experience but I vowed to do no more clinic sessions for this entire month, it was really crazy! Muscles I didn’t know existed started to ache at the end of the day. And it was really non stop action from the time the clinic opened, I couldn’t even think of peeing.

 My apologies, I may be even more absent the rest of this month as I am taking my MRCP Part 1 and its my second attempt and hopefully last. Visit this free site for practice papers for anyone interested.  Anyway, enough about work, let’s talk more about play. I had my lovely friend Wen over for a whole load of cookie baking pre Christmas eve. We had a nice brunch and baklava from Syria. My dad had received it as a gift from a friend. It was beautiful as it contained the smallest baklava I’ve ever seen. It was buttery, full of honey flavour and wonderful fresh nuts. Speaking of Syria, WELCOME back Mel. Mel spent a good 14 days in Syria and has just returned. I MISSED you..  

PS.. Shafaa, I will post a recipe of the bread rolls you ate and the little friends who made it soon.. I loved the rolls so much.

Almond filled rolls

…………………going into  mouth………………………

The individual rows of baklava were separated with neat pieces of cellophane and they were all carefully measured to fit perfectly into a large square box

Tiny little nests filled with pine nuts

This wonderful picnic basket was a gift from Wen, time for picnics and relaxing times soon!