Recent Antics

I was collared by a friend the other day who chastised me for not  having written on my blog 'since the 1st of May'! Well, consider my wrists suitably slapped. I just don't know what happened to the month of May - it has gone by so quickly. I have been 'shadowing' for the past three weeks, which basically means I have been practicing being a doctor, minus any official responsibility. It has been a welcome mix of fun and challenging, with lots of little reminders that I chose this career for good reason and that I really do love what I do. I have also been trying to spend as much time as possible with my friends as a few of them are soon to leave Sheffield for new and exciting shores. It's weird to think that people who have been so closely woven into the fabric of my life for the past six years will very soon be living elsewhere and occasionally realisation hits me with a pang of sadness and a smattering of tears. Mostly though, we are enjoying the few weeks we have left doing lots of lovely things together, such as making a croquembouche (and eating it), singing in bandstands with our choir and meeting Stormtroopers. I have also had some great opportunities to play with my new toy and though I haven't even scratched the surface of what it can do, I am loving finding out. In other news, we have a new favourite cafe - Tamper, home of the best flat whites in Sheffield and food to die for - and we are now the proud owners of beautiful Orla Kiely bedlinen. Yum. I have a few more things to share with you, but I will save those for another post. Thank you so much for all your amazing comments on my previous one. I love blogland and it's great to be back. 

Of Macarons & My New Toy

On Friday of last week, I found out that I passed my final medical school exams. It was such a huge relief, though I'm not sure that it has entirely sunken in yet. I still have six more weeks of shadowing to do and I have to graduate in July, but I am pretty much done, which feels amazing. As you can probably imagine, I'm feeling a little bit pleased with myself and so I decided that I deserve a treat. I have been dreaming of and saving up for a better camera for years, thinking that the end of university would be a good milestone at which to buy one. I am very excited to say that I have done it - I have bought myself a Canon 60D and a fancy lens. I was like a child in a sweetshop, whilst buying it; uttering little outbursts of glee every few seconds. The magnitude of my excitement, however, was only realised about fifteen minutes later when I stopped in my tracks and burst into tears; much to the amusement of the ginge, who is quite used to my tearful explosions of emotion. We both stood and laughed; me with tears included, the Ginge without, until I regained sensibility and we went off to celebrate with a warm cup of tea. The next day, it poured with rain, so I didn't manage to get out and take any photos. I did however have my first successful attempt at making macarons and I managed to take a few snaps of them. I was really pleased with how straightforward the recipe was, even the italian meringue buttercream, which is completely delicious. I made vanilla cases filled with either raspberry, chocolate or coffee buttercream. They are all delicious, but the chocolate is particularly good. I would thoroughly recommend this recipe (thank you so much to Tori for the recommendation). Here are a few photos of my exploits, taken with my new baby. Can't wait to take and show you more - hooray!