Weekend Review: Salad, Friesen Prize Lecture, & Sriracha Hummus

As you may have seen in the news, this week has been a tough one in Alberta, with massive forest fires up north having displaced over 80,000 people and destroyed an estimated 1600 homes in Fort McMurray. Although I don't personally know anyone from Fort McMurray, over the past couple of years I've met many patients from there, and it just makes me so sad to see the pictures of the devastation. Fortunately, Canadians have been showing a lot of support, which hopefully will continue as the folks head back to rebuild.

Next to that, I can say nothing eventful has happened in my week. I presented at our noon resident rounds and managed the pick the single most boring topic ever (which I fully realized, but not until I'd reached the point of no return in Powerpoint-making). Not to worry; I'll have around 29481 future Powerpoint opportunities to redeem myself...

Finally, the weather has been really warm (29 °C!) which seems to have induced all the trees to flower. I wasn't in the city last May and had no idea there were this many blossoms. It's practically Victoria (or rather, how Victoria looked 2 months ago).

Here's a smattering of other things I've appreciated this week:

1. The Greenhouse (a.k.a. that salad place in the back of Good Earth) -- Probably my favourite lunch to have in the University area. We brought back take-out on Friday to celebrate (/mourn) my co-resident's last day. He's taking a break to do a PhD, which is awesome, but I'm kind of sad to be losing the only other resident in my year (we've made it through 40% of residency together!).

   

   the You Jerk salad -- so good! -- will have to recreate at home

2. Friesen Prize lecture -- As our first patient wasn't booked until 9:30 am on Friday, I got to head over to the University to hear Sir Paul Nurse's lecture "Science and its Role in Society". He is a British geneticist who was awarded the 2001 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine and is director of the Crick Institute in London.

   

   full house

   It was interesting to hear his take on how science and politics should interplay; and especially his visions for the Crick Institute, a research facility designed to optimize interdisciplinary collaboration (e.g. no departments) and public engagement (e.g. main floor open to the public, with a lab for children).
3. sriracha hummus -- Turns out sriracha and hummus are synergists.

   

   better together

4. printer tray -- It took three years of owning this printer for me to figure out that the top panel folds out into a tray that is a paper feeder for the scanner! This was more exciting than you'd believe. Throwing a pile of paper into the tray sure beats lining up each individual page face-down on the glass.

   

   life changer