Almost perfect 28

I turned 28, it was almost perfect... I was woken up at midnight and presented with the box below and a mini bottle of bubbly and sung to. I went back to sleep soon after though, I had a busy day ahead and didn't want to have bags under my eyes.

When you get to my age, you have to worry about these sorts of things you know!!

I was awake early enough and my first port of call was the gym, in anticipation of the sweet things I had to consume during the rest of the day.

My best friend arrived before I'd finished breakfast, we hung out for the rest of the morning and then we were off to Royale, my favourite place in CT for burgers and milkshake. Absolutely perfect for a birthday lunch.

After lunch, I went off to the Wildlife Photographers' Exhibition, no pictures allowed in there of course.

In the evening a free ride up Table Mountain in the cable car. All South Africans can get a free ride on their birthday, did you know that? Moet & Chandon to accompany the sunset and buffer us from the cold wind.

A hint of worry as we drove up the windy road to the cable car station: A friend in a coma after an accident.

The word coma doesn't mean much to a doctor, friend known to have been in previous car accident not too long ago, coma and friend dismissed with little further thought.

On to dinner at Woodlands Eatery in Vredehoek feeling light and bubbly. Lots of friends and gifts. I'd recommend the lamb pizza, or any pizza. My phone kept ringing.

Then, back home to polish off the remainder of the brownies from the study. Fell asleep on the couch, full stomach and full heart.

Woken up the next morning, crying on the telephone: friend in coma - dead.

Turns out he hadn't been in a car accident. He was beaten up by some guys. Who knows why.

His mother's only child. She's left alone.

A Study in Brownies

As previously mentioned, I found what I thought was the most amazing brownie at Olympia Cafe Bakery on Sunday. When I mentioned this to a knowledgeable friend though, he scolded me: "No! That's not where you go for brownies! Jardine Bakery is where you have to go for the best brownie in Cape Town."

So I decided to do a study, unfortunately I only had time and space to try 3 brownies. It seems my entire time in Cape Town was a sweet fest. (More about that later.)

So the 3 brownies I tried:

1) Olympia Cafe Bakery: dark brown, pecan nuts, icing sugar dusting

2) Cookshop in Hatfield: a light brown with a gooey centre and crispier crust

3) Jardine Bakery: dark brown, gooey, with bits of white chocolate melting all over

I have to say that the Olympia Cafe brownie was my favourite. All of them were really good. But I kept wanting more of the Olympia Cafe one. The one from Cookshop was pleasant and comfortable, the one from Jardine was absolute decadence and I couldn't eat more than a few bites from it.

I suppose it all depends on what you're looking for...

P.S. Despite only one mug and one cake fork visible in the picture above, I didn't conduct this study alone!

Cape Town is a strange place

And I love it! In 3 days I've discovered:

They have this mountain, which is like a table and sometimes it's literally covered in clouds, hanging over the sides, like a table cloth.

When you're on your way to a U2 concert, walking along the road, you find guys on rooftops trying to sing like Bono. They're not so bad, until they start speaking with a Capetonian accent...

When you get to the stadium, you know something big's going to happen, cos the set is just amazing. But it can be a bit confusing, cos it's after 19h00 and the sun's still so high. In fact, from the stadium, you can watch it setting over the Atlantic Ocean, sometime a bit later.


They say the thing called "The Boerewors Curtain" no longer exists, but some people look and sound very different...I think they live on the other side... They're all U2 fans, it's just that they're a bit bigger and make scarier drunks.

These fans also weren't too happy when Bono brought Yvonne Chaka-Chaka on stage, sang with her, hugged her and kissed her hand. They looked at each other in shock, their faces puzzled: Their rock hero, kissing a black woman??? Obviously they don't actually read newspapers or know much about Bono, they were quite puzzled when Desmond Tutu came up on the big screen too.

Capetonians also frequent little bakeries along seaside roads, behind some shops, in a building which needs a new coat of paint, but purposefully hasn't been painted. With the best olive ciabata I've had in my short life and chocolate brownies... More about those later!

There are protected beaches, where you pay an entrance fee and clamber over boulders to find a secluded spot.

But it's completely worth it on a Sunday afternoon. The sun is hot and the water icy cold, it starts to numb your toes as soon as you step in.

And you find penguins sharing the beach with you. Some are shy and hide between boulders, some are more curious and walk right up to you and tilt their heads and try to figure out exactly what kind of creature you are.

And even with the wind blowing sand at you, you can't help but realize, that you may just have found the best brownies ever, at a little bakery along a seaside road, behind some shops, in a building that needs a new coat of paint.

I have 3 more days to make the most of it...

Intimacy

Call me old fashioned and antiquated, but I find it quite interesting how sex is no longer considered such an intimate act between two people.

We can have sex with someone before we know their full name, their age, where they come from or where they're going to. In fact, it's considered somewhat intrusive to ask too many questions too soon, but it's ok to ask someone to share your bed.

While there are obviously some questions that can only be asked after sex, how do we get more comfortable finding out some of the important things before we jump into bed? Or is sex just not as intimate as I'm making it out to be?

The Stuff of Nightmares

I was blog browsing today, and I always find it quite interesting how bloggers can put their relationships out there. Isn't that a lot of pressure? Isn't that something very personal to share?

I suppose it's no more personal than sharing your nightmares. And I'm still wondering whether sharing mine is the right thing to do. They disturb me. They mainly involve work and death.

I suppose it's quite normal to dream about work, I was speaking to a good friend this morning, she's been having nightmares about work too. She's about to start lecturing second year students and dreamt that she drew a blank about a something she was trying to teach and the students had to teach her.

My work is somewhat uglier, so are my nightmares.

I've been working in ICU for the past month and a bit, these are critically ill patients and so the incidence of death is higher than in the general patient population. I've had a few deaths, they've been bothering me.

Last night I fell asleep dreaming of dying and no one being able to save me. The only other doctor around was the O&G registrar and he couldn't intubate me. I land in ICU and I'm aware, but everyone around me is unaware of how aware I am. I am unable to communicate. No one can save me, they're all standing around talking about how futile it is and all I want to tell them is not to give up, because I want to live.

Before waking up, I dreamt that I was seeing a little boy who had been sexually abused and had cigarette burns on his scrotum. I felt powerless to help him besides dressing his wounds. The system was failing him, completely.

It reminded me of a boy of about 7 years old, whom I saw in a clinic as an intern. His mother had sent him to the shop and he was raped en route. I had to examine him of course, but when I asked him to show me where it was painful, and he had to remove his trousers, he burst into tears. I barely held mine back.

I recently found it somewhat amusing when a colleague, whom I'm not at all close to, called me to ask me if I was ok, what with my recent spate of deaths. (All teenagers, by the way.)

As South African doctors, we're just expected to deal with it. If you can't stand the heat, get out of the kitchen, they say. Deal with it, learn from it, don't make the same mistakes next time.

This morning, while taking morning bloods from a patient, I splattered blood all over myself, the patient and the patient's bed. It was actually less than 3ml of blood, but the force with which I was trying to inject it into the blood tube, propelled little droplets in all directions. Thankfully the patient lived through it, unfortunately she was completely conscious, and wasn't too happy to have blood spattered in her face. I hope I haven't given her nightmares!!

A Recipe

Well, I've been thinking about this for a while, and was having a bit of a dilemma, because this is not supposed to be a cooking blog. But I do love food. And in the last post I mentioned a cookbook I'd bought and a pasta sauce I'd made. Obviously, the picture at the bottom of the post, wasn't one of my pasta. I did think about posting a pic of the pasta I made, but every time I dished some out, I was so eager to eat it, I'd forget to stop and take a pic! Oops!!!

The thing is, that while tomato sauces for pasta are supposedly basic, there is a bit involved in getting the right texture and taste.

I thought that I wasn't very good at making tomato based sauces, but I just needed the right recipe.

Since I have very little experience, this is the best tomato based pasta sauce I've ever cooked. It's very easy, but you do need a few hours to let it simmer. You can make a big pot and then freeze some for another day. Apparently it's supposed to keep for a few months in the freezer. It's called "Basic Tomato Sauce" and it's from Cafe Food at Home by Gael Oberholzer. I don't have permission from Gael to share it, but I hope she doesn't mind, I won't be transcribing all the recipes in the book. If you like what I share, you're going to have to go out and get the book for yourself.

What you need is:

2 onions, finely chopped

2 large cloves of garlic, minced (I'm not exactly sure what a clove is, but I like garlic, so I added a few of those smaller pieces which break off when you buy that big round piece of garlic)

2 Tbsp (30ml) olive oil

3 x 400g cans whole peeled tomatoes (I didn't check the label properly when I was buying, I was post call, so I landed up with one can of unpeeled cherry tomatoes & 2 cans peeled italian tomatoes, but it was ok)

a few sprigs of fresh oregano, chopped (I couldn't find fresh, used dried, in the little bottle)

4 tsp (20ml) basil pesto or a handful of fresh basil leaves

a large pinch of chopped fresh parsley

salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste

1-2 Tbsp (15-30ml) brown sugar

1) Gently saute the onions and garlic in the olive oil, then add the remaining ingredients.

(I think "gently saute" means fry, but with the stove at a medium heat, not too hot)

2) Bring to the boil, reduce heat and simmer gently for 1-2 hours.

3) Taste and adjust the seasoning. If the sauce is too acidic, add more sugar (the sauce should not be too sweet)

And that's that. Not difficult at all, but the herbs definitely make a huge difference to the taste. I used to add tomato sauce from a bottle to give my tomato pasta sauces a better colour and consistency. But this time I didn't have to and I thoroughly enjoyed the taste!