Vanity vanity, all is vanity

My office is right across the chair of soc psych's office. Students stream in and out, eager to catch the pearls of wisdom, keen to establish an illustrative and fruitful career of research.

"I want to do this"
"I have this idea"
"I think this"
"I think that"

sigh.
Outside this safe ivory tower, people are dying, some child is suffering, and we look at self esteem. Canadians (I'm not picking on them, it's just that I'm in Canada) are shocked when you suggest the world isn't that fair, that democracy isn't necessarily good, that there is discrimination even in this psych department. Do we intentionally blind ourselves so that we can continue to believe that what we are doing is in someway meaningful, and beneficial? So that we can turn off the news when that uncomfortable feeling hits the pit of our stomach? Do we really believe that research on implicit self esteem is more than just a satisfaction of curiousity, a means by which we can feel intellectually superior? Do we think that the world will stop turning when we stop researching?

Words. May my words be few.
God forgive us for thinking that equality with God is something that we can grasp.

1.15 am postings

This is my last post of the night. Just pictures of random people that I took last last weekend when I was down in London. This is outside St. Paul's cathedral. It's such a touristy area that taking pctures of people is easy because everyone is aiming a camera at something or another...

Wedding attendees: Mark though that only people who know people (and have been conferred titles such as MBE) can hold their weddings at St. Paul's.

Three's family: These three Italian (I think) gentlemen were together. They were super stylo and looked so happy being tourists and kept offering to take photos for me. I wish I could erase the background people...

So different and yet so alike: This guy just made me laugh...

Can we go now...

And on that note, goodnight.

desperado

I had a sudden "reality bites" moment last week when I realised the weekend past was my last weekend at TKL. This weekend doesn't count cause Mummy will be here on Saturday and I leave early early Sunday morning. So, Ju and I determined that we WILL bake something and we chose Cream Puffs Baked Crepe Pudding

http://creampuffsinvenice.typepad.com/cream_puffs_in_venice/2007/03/vienna.html

Ours didn't look quite like her picture and we had too much filling so had to make some extra crepes. They were somewhat inferior because we skipped on the extra egg yolk. Also, I personally would have liked to have more custard...but that's only because I like custard.

It was good though. There was only both of us eating that night so we kept the leftovers for breakfast the next day where.....

...we had breakfast (yes, I know I'm stating the obvious) provided by mua. It comprised of hot chocolate, oats porridge and leftover pudding (but of course). I even made extra custard for the pudding. Note that it can be a little too rich for some people first thing in the morning. Breakfast was only a distraction though. The main point of the morning was a colouring party!!!

The Stuckey girls have been wanting to spend time with me but I have been very busy of late. Again, realising that I only have one weekend left, I told them that if we can meet at 8.30am on a Saturday morning we can colour. Ju's sisters also came along. I forgot how fun it can be to colour. I still keep within the lines though...no out of character creativity there. Heh..

Countdown as of Tuesday, 20/3/07: 4 days....

(almost) all expenses paid

I went down to London 2 weekends ago to try to get my South Africa visa. I didn't get the visa...BUT, I had a really good time with Penny and later got to meet up with Paul & Vi too. That's them at the bar we went to for after dinner drinks.

But, I'm jumping ahead of myself.... On Saturday Penny took me to explore almost all the bridges- London Bridge, Millennium Bridge and other minor bridges whose names I don't remember. On one of the bridges that crosses over to the Tate Museum, we found a caramel nut man!! YEAY!! His nuts quite funky- had cashews and the odd macadamia on top of the peanuts. It was good. So much so that we had another cup on the way back. I said it was to compensate for my previous London trip where we couldn't find the caramel nut man (a different man..)

At the Tate Museum, we lined up for FREE tickets to take the slide from teh fifth floor. It's part of the Unilver exhibition : http://www.tate.org.uk/modern/exhibitions/carstenholler/default.shtm We had to come back an hour and a half later for out turns but it was SO cool. Really exciting and the ride quite bumpy too. They actually advice using headgear on the way down but no one did. I wanted to look cool, so I didn't use headgear and realised at the end that I probably should have.

We went to Paul & Vi's new apartment on Sunday night. Didn't do much. Just hung around and talked. It was really nice though to be able to sprawl around and speak my rojak English and make fun of each other...I'm really so glad for them. They asked Penny for a good place for Japanese and then I invited then & myself to Japanese dinner on Monday.

This is my udon. I love noodles!! Service was rubbish but the food was good. Paul so graciously bought us dinner....even Penny. He told her that she deserved something after being my friend for 13 years. With friends like that...hehheee. We went for drink after then I caught the train back to Nuneaton.

God is really good. I have been broke-ish and hardly had to spend any money this weekend but had loads and loads of fun. I thank Him for friends. Real ones :)

Party cake

Hi,
So I made the flourless chocolate cake.
One word - deeeelicious!
:)
You definitely need to refrigerate it for long (I refrigerated it overnight) as it's very soft and the refrigeration makes it denser. It tastes like a little like mousse.
I used Lindt 70% chocolate. I thought that the parchment paper wasn't necessary because I used mini pans..but oh IT IS! The cake is too soft to come out well if you don't use parchment paper. The first one tore in half and so I ate it. hehehe. Want not waste not right? :)

I'm really happy with this recipe. There was no problem with scrambled eggs (it may be because my butter mix wasn't boiling) and the eggs were at room temperature.

Anyway, delicious! It was so good that one of the girls who is on lent right now, took a piece home to freeze so that she can eat it after lent. wahhahaha.

cinnabo

Hey,
I haven't made bread in quite a while..so I decided to make cinnamon raisin oatmeal bread. I added 1/3 cup of sourdough and I soaked the steel cut oats overnight. Hm..I think I kept to the recipe pretty closely - except I halved it.

rating: mmmmm...very tasty.
Different from the previous cinnamon swirl I made, but nonetheless, the multigrain flour+oats gave it a really nice texture and flavour (honey too!). It was also quite moist - probably from the sourdough.

So all in all, very good. Mom - you are coming soon!! Then you can have fresh bread every other day..I don't know how much bread you can eat..heheh, but you'll have to try all the good recipes.

Anyway, my friend's surprise b'day party is soon..so exciting!! She thinks I'm not coming. hehehe. :D

Jacqui is back in town - well, not in town but at least back from the field. Continue to commit her to God in prayer.
Oh, she might be coming to Canada in August! WOOHOOOO. I'm spoilt and God is good.

Signing off,

enlightened..

Hello. It's sunday now. The days pass too slowly but too quickly. It's almost the end of the term. The new/potential grad students are visiting and I'm nearly done with my first year! Praise God.
What are ideas? If I think of an idea - (which at that point is "non-existent" and consists of a bunch of neurons firing), why am I so possessive of that idea?
Let me want not the things of this world, count everything as lost and Christ gain. I don't want to be competitive in that way, to have to be better than others, to constantly compare. I want to do what I do, to do my best in what I do, and do it unto the glory of God.

Aunty Lily made fatt koh. She has a steamer, I don't. I have a pot..and nothing can fit into it. So I made fatt koh in a cup.

It was really tasty. Mom, you should try this recipe. The soda was good - and the cake didn't split to a spongy half and a dense half. It's almost like the brown steamed sponge cake.

On Friday, my two classmates and I went for dinner and jazz at the PI. Dione Taylor was this month's feature act. Wow. She was really good. Very nice range, and very versatile style.
The food was pretty good.
I try to keep my bill to 22 dollars so my total + tax+tip isn't >30.
So anyway, I ordered a main (salmon), and a latte. My friends ordered dessert, to be brought out during intermission. Dan brought out 3 desserts! And I told him I didn't order it, but I'll take it anyway. Jokingly I said, it should be complimentary. Anyway, when the bill came, he gave me a discount for my latte and dessert! That was nice of him. :)

Kristin's surprise party is on Thursday. I think I'm going to make the flourless chocolate cake that cream puff and her friends made. Stay tune!!

Final collage and my cheche.

I heart cheche

my white asian sister

Rachel, one of my classmates here has taken the decision to leave early back to home. She'll be going this Tuesday. Her parents are missionaries to China and she lived in Taiwan most of her childhood. I will miss her that understands why I miss noodles, speaks better Mandarin than me, gives me hugs without needing to know why I need them and is just the gentleness of Christ personified.
I will miss you Rachel. I pray that He will keep you safe and that you will arise and shine because your light has come. Take care.

In Christ there are no goodbyes...

the stillness of the morning

I took these pictures in the snack bar early one Saturday morning. Saturday mornings here are slow lazy affairs. Breakfast and lunch material (always ham sandwiches and the required fillings) are laid out from 9-11am. Everyone sleeps in until as late as possible...it's nice to wake up early and have the whole house to yourself (well, kinda...)


My hot chocolate on the left and a toy truck. There is normally at least one child in the snack bar during normal waking hours.

The tables that I arrange and rearrange every Monday evening to set up Celebration which is basically a weekly gathering for the whole base and the community

Sad and Sick..no more. :)

I woke up today feeling sick. However, I had already made plans to eat dimsum with Christine from church.
I stayed away from the fried stuff and tried to eat less meat.
I told mommy I was not feeling well - she said drink lemon ginger tea, and eat porridge
I told cheche I was not feeling well - she said take cough exporant.
Lol!!

Anyway, 10 cups of tea later, a bowl of soup, 1 tbsp of cough exporant, 2 lozenges, and...an apple dessert later..I'm feeling better. heehee.

I took it easy today...very easy. :P

Here is the pot of sup tulang! mmm. oh mom, can you buy more of the adabi soup rempah? Sedapnya! really good. Yeah, it's not as healthy as the potent chinese medicine soup - but it's tasty and nice.
I made the stock with chicken bones and leek. Then I chopped up ginger, challots and garlic. Technically you are suppose to use the mortar and pestle and grind them. Tapi, cooking I tak begitu changgih lah. So I just chopped them up best as I could.
Masih SSEEEEEDDAAAAAAPPPP!!!!!


So that was my day. Miss you guys. This week was a little lonelier, maybe because Emma and Alexis came and went. But Vanessa was talking about coming up to visit. That would be cool too. And mommy is coming up. So that's very cool! However, the pain comes when everyone leaves. :S
Sometimes it's easier to just retreat than to see people and then have them leave.
Anyway, for now, I'll just look forward to my visitors! :)

Sesame seed and red bean

I made sesame balls!
I saw this on Anita's blog and I thought, "why not?" :)
Last wednesday I went to the worse dimsum restaurant ever! But Danielle wanted to go, so a group of us went. Anyway, we had really oily bleh tasting sesame balls.
:S
So when I saw the recipe, I was inspired! Ok. Maybe not inspired, but excited. Hehe.
And I had red bean paste that I'm trying to finish.
Without further ado - sesame red bean balls! :D

P.s. The sesame seeds look so cute!!!!

she loves me, yeah, yeah, yeah

IT CAME!! SN's care package posted on 24/1/07 and here on 1/3/07 . What a month! But definately worth the wait. Thanks...it came right on time.

The first view...exciting, exciting..

The BEST chocolate chip cookies. Not too sweet, just the right amount of chocolatiness. It may seem from the photo that SN was really stingy and did not send me enough. Au contraire..the whole container was full but SN's note said to share and I did. Everyone really liked it...someone wants the recipe. Can? I told them that the secret was real chocolate that my sister does not stinge...no, no, no...

A boxful of mini M&M's. WHAT A TREAT! And so many different tube colours. *grin* I've opened one tube already and the note specifically says I can hoard it. Hehee...believe me, I will! All the way to South Africa even. I hope they don't melt.

Thank you so much SN. I love you and your care packages and everything God created you as.

ps. I know that there are a lot of capitals and exclamation marks but that's because I'm still so excited over the goodies!! I could see envious looks, believe you me... :)

pps. There were homemade marshmallows as well but they had gone a bit off so they had to be thrown away. Sorry SN. But, I did eat all the chocolate off the coated ones. haha