pick me up

Thank God for the weekend! Been so tired lately it's not funny. Especially after Thurday's all-nighter ala WGC/Otago days where I sat through (almost) the entire night writing an essay due Friday avo. Got to bed at 4ish when the thoughts were just not coming anymore, and the sentences were starting to look gibberish and highly incoherent.

Had to get up early Friday morning to let the brain juices flow again and indeed they did! Finished writing the essay and chooped off to class all .. satisfied, albeit tired, sleepy and dazed. THE BEST PART: Chang didn't ask for it. Not at all. And I suspect he's completely forgotten about it .. forever. Oh well I certainly had fun writing it nonetheless! I love Contract and Chang's lectures. It's really interactive and I get to throw contentious issues at him and start my little debates. So .. satisfying for some reason heh. Criminal's fun too, but Anandi gets iffy at times for no apparent reason. Vicky is full of energy and has much oomph when giving lectures so I love that too, and Supra = Public = 'nuff said.

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My little tutee cancelled out on me today coz she hadn't done any of her homework. Which was sweet- I had the opportunity to (finally) have a good sleep in, sleeping off all the lost sleep. 'Twas the longest in some time already. I'm recharged! And I really appreciated it.

Lounged around for a bit more before I decided to embark on my Tiramisu-making adventure! Adventure being an understatement. It was all going good- the zabaglione turned out nice and custardy. The strong black coffee (my Mom brewed!) had a killer aroma, especially with a generous amount of Baileys dumped in. The mascarpone cheese, slightly whipped, was smooth to perfection.

By the way, you'd think gourmet-priced cheese would taste fine, or even have a goumet taste to it. But no, mascarpone tastes like crap. Ok it's just bland. Like nothing- to the extent it tastes bad.

UNTIL. I started to whip the cream. Seriously can anyone tell me what the difference is between whipping cream, and buying whipped cream? I was told to use the electric mixer to whip the cream. So I did. And I didn't know how long it'd take, so I left it. Less than a minute later, liquid started spurting out of the electric mixer. My cream had separated itself into butter. (Literally butter-looking yellow butter) And unknown liquid. Amazing huh.

I thought it must've been the high speed the mixer was going on (which wasn't really, it was on 1!) and proceeded to whip the last of my thickened cream by hand with a whisk instead. Furiously beating the cream like a mixer would, again it separated itself into butter and unknown liquid in less than 10 seconds! Mortifying.

I'd already used up all the cream, and my Mom couldn't do anything to help me!
Mom: Aiya call your friend la!
-rings Yarn-
Yarn: ....... Ask your mother to help you la!

Hahahahaha.

Took a walk to Tmall to grab some more cream and practically ran all the way home because I was certain it was the heat that probably caused my cream to not work well (which wasn't the case, I realized)! Hmph. The third batch of cream was almost successful, that's coz my Mom helped whisk it properly. But we were so excited about it looking like it should, we continued whipping it until it was on its way to becoming butter. Which it did. Ayeeeeeeeee!

Last bit of cream. Took utmost caution, and finally! *insert skipping ninja* Anyhoo by the time I'd finished assembling the Tiramisu and clearing up my mess, it was almost 6. Gasp!

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Went for dinner with the fam. Our initial plans of dining at the Botanics were thwarted coz it was once again extremely crowded and filled to the max, with heaps of people waiting around for a table. Honestly I don't understand why we always have to choose to dine there on a weekend where every typical Singaporean would be there to "try the new food place out". I don't even know why we're rushing with the crowd when we have the rest of the weekdays/months/years to dine there. Seeing as how we live just a lane away for cryin' out loud!

The Saturday it'd opened, my Mom was so excited (as were we- we've been living with that crap construction for the longest time! And didn't think it had -finally- opened!) she wanted to go check it out immediately. To which my Dad said, "What for you go chiong with everyone else! You have the rest of your life man!" Haha.

Come to think of it, right from when we'd moved in to T.Serasi, it's been construction almost non-stop, everywhere around us :S First the estate undergoing a major facelift, then some neighbour or the other has to move in and do renovations, then the food place directly next to our block had to be taken away (thank God! Just made us feel like it was satay everyday/night for mealtimes. The smell my goodness...), then the expansion of the Cluny Road, (more neighbours moving in and out: more renovation works) THEN the whole Botanic Gardens project. Am thankful for being away the most part. BGardens have taken forever and it's finally up and running!

For the record, some neighbour's doing renovations at the mo. Eeps.

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I've been putting off doing heaps of things, like reply to Chewy's mail! He's the only one who still sends mails to my Hotmail account- that I'm still able to receive. Haven't heard from him in eons and it was a pleasant surprise when his mail came through! I really miss the 136Albany flatties and the 223bLeith boys :( It was Yet Tyng's 22nd birthday on Tuesday and I really wished I were there to celebrate it with the rest of the people! It was such a massive affair last year- and I'd imagine it to be nothing smaller this year- everybody LOVES Yet Tyng :)

I miss how she mothers me. In fact, because I was the baby of the flat, I was their little princess hehe. All of them! Always their lil princess. *beams*

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I was really taken aback when I received that e-mail notification about someone posting a comment on a video I'd uploaded online early this year. It's such an old video I'd made, and was once so proud of it. It was once so sweet and dear to me.

But it obviously means nothing to me anymore. Nothing more than some pictures and captions put together, with a track playing in the background. Which is why I was surprised when a passer-by came to leave a comment, and thanking me for that video. I've completely forgotten about it. Probably time I took it off.

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Saw the tutee kid Monday avo. After trying to avoid doing Science previously, I had to give in and wait on as she threw me with heaps of science questions I never knew. Shucks. Since when has P5 Science became so creative and challenging and well, difficult! I was stumped over and over again. Yes, shame on me I know.

Because she had to ask me a question every other 10 seconds or so, and I clearly did not have the answers from the top of my head like any good teacher would, I told her to do those she knew first, and leave those she didn't, blank.

Not surprisingly, the (FULL) paper was completed within half and hour, 60% of the paper was blank. A good, normal tutor would immediately go through the paper with the kid, teach her what she doesn't already know, correct her mistakes etc. I mean yeah that's what you're there for, no?

But because I didn't want to mark the paper in front of her and have to EXPLAIN her mistakes/ fill in her blanks for her (simply because I don't think I knew the answers either ... ) I told her I'd take it back to mark (consult smartypants Matt/Mom/Dad!). She must have wondered WHY I had to do that, considering it wouldn't be hard to mark a paper that was only 40% filled, of which 50% was probably guess work, therefore: funny answers. But oh yeah it is tedious.

She knew exactly why, and even giggled to herself, when I said "to scare myself" because she knows her funny answers always give me little heart attacks, ridiculously funny as they can be. On top of that though, it's because Science questions are so crazily creative these days I don't even know how to get about answering them much less explaining them to her. Thus I really meant "scare myself looking through the paper, trying to figure out how best to deliver to her" when I said that.

Ended up asking Ken, who not-so-subtlely told me that they were "very easy, what". Ah ok.

My other tutee kid now wears a watch, and openly looks at it every now and then, COUNTING DOWN out loud in my face. Eh young child, I'd love to let you go early too, but your Mother wouldn't be too pleased that's the thing. I know it's tiring/ not the most exciting thing to be doing butttt it'll do you some good :)

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Having said that, everything's been great. I can't ask for more.
Thank you Lord, for all You've done!

Also, I realized that if you said Grace for every little morsel of food/drink you consume, you suddenly see how blessed you are. So much so that we take it forgranted at times. Here we are, taking 3 meals (4/5 for some) a day, not counting snacking in between meals, morning/afternoon tea/supper ETC. And there the people are in third-world countries, struggling to find a drop of clean water, much less a decent meal, or even random scraps of food. And most of us have fish, veg & meat in every meal kinda thing.

I'm just so thankful and grateful, and I don't know why I was born here in Singapore where we live quite substantively, for I've done nothing to deserve this. Then again nothing we do/have done will ever justify enough why we've been given what God has given us. It's solely by the grace and mercy of our Heavenly Father. Living in luxury, and not in shambles of a third-world country. But I know I've been
BLESSED BEYOND MEASURE.
And I can't thank You enough.

So Grace must not be taken as simply a token obligatory prayer you recite quickly just so you can sink your chops in the food in the fastest possible time.

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And just so you'd like to know, YES the Tiramisu turned out fab and it's yummy! If I do say so myself. Hehe.

Oh and also, Tiramisu means "pick me up" in Italian ;)