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Verses read: Psalm 130

Almost through the book of Psalms, which I started around the time I went to USA. That’s really long. Longer than Jeremiah, although Jeremiah is a lot wordier. This section are the songs of ascent. Interesting that I’m reading this and heard the sermon CD about the songs of ascent just this morning. Really good timing.

Yesterday was a weird day. Or rather I felt quite weird because of a certain incident. I wanted to do something I would normally not do, but as a result I would end up not doing something that I would usually do. As things turned out, I did what I normally did, though I did not want to do it, and ended up not doing what I wanted to do but wanted to.

Was a little disappointed after that, and I wondered to myself why I felt that way. Strange. It’s like déjà vu, the last time I felt like that was two years ago when I had some company going to and from NUS. Well, I really don’t know what these feelings are all about.

I wonder still perhaps if is not the absence of feelings that I previously claimed, but perhaps I’m denying or suppressing what is there. There must be more to this than what can be seen.

UPDATED!!

The TOFU Blog that is... check it out...

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verses read: 119 (somewhere in that chapter...)

I am really very tired. School work has been crazy. Nothing to update really, nothing much has been happening. Maybe except that the TOFU Team has been formed, that will really be interesting to watch.

Thinking of changing my blog again. Don’t want some people to read all these posts anymore. Besides, once I run out of space in my softcopy journal, I will be switching to offline hardcopy ones. Somehow writing it all by hand is still the best.

On another note, the next Apple keynote starts in slightly over an hour’s time. Which means I will have to wake up early to see what is going to happen. A new iPod? Well, I have my W700i now, which is essentially a 4GB iPod now! So I’m not too thrilled.

Happy Teachers' Day 2006

I usually post a song on teachers' day. This year, I think I will do something different. No song, just a reflection of what I have observed the last few months.

I realised I never shared the 4 weeks I spent in Temasek Secondary, so I guess its appropriate to do so here. But I won't share about my personal experiences, but rather other observations. One common question I kept getting asked when I was there was, "Are you sure you want to do this job?"

All who asked were pretty senior teachers who had taught for years. They all sounded like they were trying to discourage me from going further, but then I realised something else. They were still teaching. No matter how much pain the students had inflicted, no matter how many curses and insults were hurled at them, no matter how rude students were to them, they were still there. To me, that showed that the rewards were well worth the sacrifice.

I asked myself, "why do teachers cry?". Now I know.

They cry not because they are too emotional. They cry not because they are scared of their students. They cry not because they have lost control. They cry not because they are discouraged. They cry not because they have been misunderstood.

But they cry because they love their students. They cry because they see a life they love head down the path of destruction. They cry because they really do care, even though they seem not to.

The speaker said something interesting today:

"Make your marking an act of worship to God."

I know that in theory, but having it explicitly told to me was something else altogether. Teaching is more than a calling, it is a sacrifice, where the classroom is the altar.

*dedicated to the teachers of Temasek Secondary School, who taught someone like me where my place really is and for teaching me the depth of sacrifice*

Ceasar Salad

This is a repost of a previous post. Anyway, this is the recipe of the salad I made for the fellowship dinner this evening. Hope you all enjoyed it.

Now, on with the old post:

This is a salad that I've learnt to make when I was like in Primary 4 or 5. It's not that easy and it sure isn't cheap to make it youself. In fact it is probably one of those dishes which actually cost less when bought at a restaurant than when you make it at home. This of course is discounting the volume. Also, the ceasar salad you get at the restaurant doesn't really follow this recipe, they play cheat by using cream or mayonaise.

Anyway, here is how I make it:

Ingredients for the salad
- Rommaine Lettuce
- Tomatoes
- Olives
- Bacon bits
- Croutons

Unfortunately, when I was at cold storage the other day, they did not have a few of the ingredients above, so I had to improvise. Used, butterhead lettuce instead. And instead of using croutons, I prefer to us breadcrumbs, just put some stale (but not spoilt) bread in a food processor and spin away! And I ommitted the bacon altogether, due to excessive bak kwa during CNY. And I was just plain lazy to fry it. So here is what I used:



Combine the ingredients in a big bowl:



Now move on to the salad dressing. It's really expensive to make this dressing as anchovies are not cheaply available anymore. But I managed to find relatively cheap ones at the Kent Vale supermarket. So I bought like 3 tins! (Which would be the cost of one tin at Carrefour actually!) Commercial versions of this dressing use cream; that's wrong! Ceasar salad is an oil based dressing NOT a cream based one! The trick is making the oil look like cream, which I was unable to do until I acquired a food processor!

Here are the ingredients:
- Anchovies
- Capers
- One egg yolk
- Dijon Mustard
- Worcestshire sauce
- Red wine vinegar
- Olive Oil



I used to make this dressing by hand... to do so you will have to bash the anchovies and capers till they are totally in pieces. (Anchovies are the main ingredient by the way.) Add in the egg yolk and dijon mustard and stir until well mixed. Add in the worcestshire sauce and a few drops of the vinegar and mix well. Then as you are stirring, slowly pour in the in the oil; what you want to do is emulsify the oil, if this is not done correctly, the oil will seperate from the rest of the sauce, that is not what you want.

But with a food processor, I just replicate the above process, but in half the time and the consistency is a lot better. This is what you should get at the end of it all, as you can see the sauce will be quite creamy.



Add to the salad and toss it. The picture doesn't really do justice to it. It taste really good, you can ask my brother, I made this for Christmas as well, but with bacon.