home-made mayo...

Well Stef... enjoy! Sorry Nat...another night post! Anyway, this one was taken from an episode of Kylie Kwong. Simple, and pretty easy to make. Yet to get the correct consistency though.

You will need:
One Egg Yolk
Lemon Juice
Salt
Olive Oil
And a lot of arm power

Seperate the yolk of one egg from the white. And juice one lemon. What I did was I ran the lemon juice through a sieve to remove the flesh and seeds and all; so that I'm left with just pure juice. Actually, half a lemon would work better.



Beat it up a bit and add some salt.



You will need to make an emulsion, for that, you will need a whisk. Slowly pour in the olive oil while whisking the whole mixture. You will really need to beat in a lot of air into the mixture to make it look like the picture below. And electric whisk would certainly help. Apparently, it can be beaten till it's as stiff as merangue, but I lack that kind of arm power.



You basically have a mayonaise. But, if you eat it on it's own, it will taste horrible; and I mean, REALLY HORRIBLE and SOUR!

What I do is to bake some chicken fillets, then use two forks to shred them as shown below. Then just pour the mayonaise in. Trust me... it will taste exactly like chicken mayo from Delifrance or something like that.

260607

verses read: Psalm 76

Received a nice SMS from a good friend yesterday, it really helped me a lot. And prayers do come true as I was able to sleep well last night.

Today, tried out this really power yogurt based curry recipe, it was fantastic! Will try the same recipe with fish someday.

Just came back from the NTUCF FoC, tomorrow will be another day. Last night of the camp, talent night, I doubt it will be as crazy as the VCF one, but it should be fun. Tomorrow, orientation games, not looking forward to that, bad back and all.

when two or three are gathered...

... add a fourth... and you get...



was taken at a VCF Science Faculty Gathering...ooops... hehehe... my tiles are pretty decent huh? Too bad I lost this hand... no money involved though...

But check out this lamp... interesting gift got any of your mahjong crazy friends... but watch out.. it costs something like $280!

250706

verses read: Psalm 75

Today is a rare day for me, it’s a free day. What makes things even better is that tomorrow is also a free day! Can spend some time at all the FGs and FoCs that are happening over the course of the day. Thank God, they are all in the same place.

Today, I will have to go down to NIE just to submit my results. That’s a real waste of petrol, but I don’t really have much of a choice. Didn’t find time to go down to Orchard yesterday, hopefully time will be a little more cooperative today.

Yesterday’s rehearsal was pretty good, but I’m obviously really rusty on the bass. My fingers hurt as well after three days of bass playing. My riffs are getting really slack as well, hopefully things will improve once the rhythm sets in.

240706

verses read: Psalm 70-74

Today is the start of my course in NIE. My timetable is heavy, it’s literally working hours, 8.30am to 4.30pm almost everyday. Exactly like work, and since I am actually being paid to study, I have to take leave in order to miss classes. Will need to do so in September.

It’s a long and (thankfully) lonely drive to school later; well, have a lot of new CDs to listen to. My iPod died, hopefully I will find time to go to the Apple Centre later to get it fixed, and find time to go to the gym before heading off for band practice at night. It’s a pity, it was a good chance to reunite 5 of 6 members of the BCE band, but only 2 of us will be there. It will be one of the more interesting gigs for sure.

Yesterday’s Psalm was a really appropriate Psalm to read, especially in light of all the “revelations” recently. And talking it all out with good friends yesterday really gave me the other perspective; one which I will hold on to. Letting go isn’t easy, but that has to come first as hard as that might be. Psalm 73 is such an often quoted Psalm, but reading the whole thing in its entirety made it all different.

“Whom have I in heaven but You?
And besides You, I desire nothing on earth.
My flesh and me heart may fail,
But God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.” - Psalm 73:25-26

rediscovering the call

Been a long time since I last updated this blog properly, was on a four week "Enhanced School Experience" at Temasek, so for the sake of the privacy of my students, I decided to journal all my thoughts offline. But well, it's all over now, so I can share a bit of what has happened.

I guess my call to go into teaching happened over quite a long time. Way back in Secondary School, I had teachers who really made me want to be like them. Especially my D&T teacher, he was really the best. Super cruel teacher, but will never forget what he taught. But all along I wanted to study engineering. Unfortuantely, or fortunately did badly for Physics at A levels, plus I scored double As for math at JC, so I dropped plans to do engineering and decided to teach. To cut a long story short, ended up going to NUS to read math, I really enjoyed that!

But even though teaching was always at the back of my mind, it never really till GAP camp that I realised that it was something more than just "what I wanted to do". God was calling me into service. On the last day of camp, I still remember Ps Jon praying for all the campers when he suddenly said, "Some of you, God is calling into full-time service, but for others, God needs you elsewhere, He needs you in the schools." That struck a raw nerve and I began to tear when I heard that.

Yet still, I didn't apply till the beginning of this year, that by itself is another long story. And so here I am, about to begin my course at NIE on Monday. But if anything the last four weeks has been to me, it has confirmed the call that was placed upon my life.

Going back to school was certainly a very anxious time for me. But as the days passed, things really got very much better, and I began to rediscover the call that God gave me two years ago.

Initially, I was a little disappointed that I was asked to teach a secondary one class. I had the mindset that as a honours graduate, I would be teaching at least upper secondary and most likely JC. But then as I began to talk to teachers, I began that teaching the upper levels was not what I would enjoy doing.

As one very experienced teacher told me, "it's a different burden". Teaching at JC levels is all about results, and the better upper secondary classes, was also about results. The burden was for the better the teachers with better classes was to produce the As for the school. That was an eye opener for me.

On the other hand taking the secondary one class that I had, a noisy but good (grades-wise) class, was certainly enjoyable. That was what I really wanted to do. Observing the rowdier classes also brought smiles to my face. Those classes were certainly more enjoyable to teach, and yes even the classes with disciplinary problems.

Honestly, it felt like Youth Ministry 7 days a week, and my prayer is that this is my mindset for the next four years, what happens after is up to the Lord to dictate again.

The door to return to my almar matar has opened wide. And I've been praying hard if I should write to the VP (who was a D&T teacher, but not the one who taught me... he graded me and gave me an A1, so no complains). And the Lord reminded me, a fulfilled vow will open many doors as promised. Two big doors opened in the last week, this was one. Not the kind of doors that I was expecting to be opened, but an opened door nontheless. It's up to me to step through.

We often think that God's Will is a one track thing. And indeed the Bible alludes to it being a "narrow path". But we forget God's grace. And I believe that in His abundant Grace, God's Will need not be a single narrow road, but He is so gracious that He can give us the choice of two or more narrow roads, both of which will glorify Him equally. If we hold on to His teachings and His Word. So perhaps, a fork in the road has appeared, and God tells me there is a choice, it's up to me to choose.

The Lord gave. The Lord took away... but He gave again.

Ingenium, Deligentia, Dexteritas

Just saw a posting on the NIE portal...

"Vacancy available at Tanjong Katong Secondary School"

My heart skipped a beat. Reading the details however stated clearly that they need someone who is graduating in November/Decmeber this year. I've a year to go.

This door has been opened, the chance may not come again. Should I step through it?

the solution...

Decided to humour Clayton a little. But on a more serious note, you don't need calculus to solve it. Besides, it's an E-math question!!!

But on an even more serious note, this topic is known as Arithmetic and Geometric Progression (APGP), it used to be in the A-math syllabus, but was removed and placed in the C-math (now H2 math) syllabus. To me, not a good choice, as this topic is extremely important in Calculus, especially since the idea of Riemann Integration is still taught at H2 level. If I had my way, relative velocity would go, and this would be in A-math. But then, I don't have my way.

Anyway, here is my solution, which I did find on Saturday night itself. Pretty straight forward, you will need to know a few formulas (involving sigma notation) to simplify the solution to it's final form.

030706

verses read: Psalm 56

Realised that I’ve not updated my journal for many days, well, the Bible reading is still moving forward anyway. Not skipping a day, almost one year already. And I must say it has been refreshing to do this.

Second half of the year has arrived, things will kick into a different gear, exam gear. And for once, I’m not on the receiving end of it. Now on the marking end. School has been excellent, the past week has really been good. But well, the honeymoon is going to end soon and the real work is going to start. The chocolate bar at Plaza Singapura was really huge; but it sure didn’t look edible! It was lacquered to prevent it from rotting or melting.

Did something today that I’ve never done by myself before; went shopping for clothes. I never realised it was so tiring! But anyway, Great Singapore Sale, so the shirts were quite cheap. Anyway, today was a matter of necessity, ran out of proper shirts to wear to school after just one week! Looks like I will have to do something similar again next year, hopefully I will be able to fit into more shirts by then!

270606

verses read: Psalm 49

Almost one third through the book; should take a few more months though. But slow and steady is good compared to read a lot and stop halfway.

The past two days in school has been good. And to some extent pretty enjoyable, but the challenge has not yet come, that will come in two weeks time.

*rest of this post is in the my private journal*

Your Grace is enough

Great is Your faithfulness O God
You wrestles with the sinner's heart
You lead us by still waters into mercy
And nothing can keep us apart

So remember Your people
Remember Your children
Remember Your promise O God

Your grace is enough
Your grace is enough
Your grace is enouhg for me

Great is Your love and justice God
You use the weak to lead the strong
You lead us in the song of Your salvation
And all Your people sing along

Your grace is enough
Heaven reaching down to us
Your grace is enough for me
God I sing Your grace is enough
I'm covered in Your love
Your grace is enough for me

(C) Chris Tomlin

Tomorrow is going to be a major milestone in my life. For all the horror stories I've heard in the last two days, I will still persevere. And to some extent I am looking forward to all this.

Will most likely be temporarily stop all my postings for privacy reasons until after my school experience. Might still post recipes though.

240606

verses read: Psalm 46

What a beautiful Psalm to read at a time like this. A calm inducing Psalm, even though war and destruction seems to be around the corner. Tried out the techniques I learnt at the TPP on the BB guys at Springfield today, and amazingly, it worked! Albeit, it was a much smaller group, and they are supposed to be a disciplined bunch, so I guess I will have to scale up everything come Monday.

What a beautiful Psalm to read, especially on this day. Twenty fourth of June, two four six, easy to remember, but at times, I rather forget. But the lessons of the last year has proved very invaluable to me. At least, I’ve begun to understand that “God’s Will” isn’t the end of all things.

How many times have I thought that God’s Will will always prevail no matter what, I now know that I am actually very wrong. God’s Will is good and pleasing, but yet, God’s Will is no match to man’s free will. We have been given freedom, and because of that, we can and many times choose to defy God. And I guess, no one has really told me what to do after that when that happens. But at least, now I know that there is something else more magnificent than God’s Will.

The past year has been filled with the highest of high, to the deepest of ocean valleys for me. Perhaps that was why the very first song I sang when I returned to worship leading this year was indescribable. Perhaps that is why I’ve learnt the hard way that all those books you read about kissing dating goodbye and Choosing God’s Best are pretty one sided.

So what happens when you end up with someone who is not of God’s will, or more likely what happens when you break those rules? At one of the lowest moments last December, God did send someone, someone wise who told me that without commitment in a relationship; God’s Will is pretty useless. And it was only after so many months of prayer that I’ve learnt how to deal with those mistakes.

Beyond God’s Will, there is something called God’s grace. It was so simple, yet it eluded me for so long. For that is the place where salvation had its origin, the very beginning of things.

For paper hearts that were never made
For beautiful plans that were never laid
For best friends that never talk
For a heart, like a rose on a broken stalk
For love in a buried container
For keys lost, I cannot remember
For seeing the Lord close the door
For moving too fast to things in store
For a time to mark one year
For a blessing that once was near
For trying to find my way again
For struggling with the lingering pain
For when I didn’t play the part
For when God said, “Don’t give up!”
For finding of His Will within
For seeing the depth of sin
For the times I defied His Will
For eating it’s bitter pill
I’ve found my way again, by seeing His face
And by beholding the glory of His Grace

The time has finally come, it is upon me. Just slightly over one more day, and I will move on into where the Lord has called. It’s going to be tough, people have been pouring cold water on my head, but I go into this without illusions of grandeur. I’ve slacked too much this year, I’ve given my past teacher too much headache, and so, it’s time to pay my dues. Exciting, yet sobering.

210606

verses read: Psalm 43

Well, got my school posting. Monday will be very interesting indeed. It’s interesting to note that all my schools start with the same letter. All I will say is that at least I will have the luxury of getting up a little later the next four weeks, after that it will be all the way back to NIE again. Exciting, yet somehow, there is some strange and profound sense of loss.

Feeling a bit sick all of a sudden, I think it’s the swim I had today. The water was a bit “green”. Not sure if it was too much chlorine or a lack of it, or if it was rain water that the filters had not yet processed. Not good on the third day of work.

190606

verses read: Psalm 41

First day at “work”, all I did was queue up for my registration card, well, I’m paid quite well per hour, at least better than NS. Tomorrow will be my last official free day ever, then life gets quite exciting! Still haven’t gotten my school posting though.

Tried a bus ride home after matriculation, it was a mistake. Straight bus from Boon Lay to Bedok, but it took me two hours to get from bus interchange to my front door, wasn’t fun, especially after the long bus rides last week! Won’t do that again, but at least now there might be a possibility of a PMC-NTU car pool, that would save a bit of money.

Went to buy an Additional Mathematics ten year series, a five year series rather, it was just the last five years, November papers, new syllabus. Completed last year’s November paper, I’m quite disappointed honestly, took me almost one and a half hours to complete each of the papers, I should be much faster, just not used to looking at numbers anymore, I probably used the calculator more times today than in my whole NUS life. Both papers full marks, but just too slow, considering that I completed my C Math paper one in an hour during the A levels. Will need more practice to settle my SMPT in one try. Have to say that last year’s paper’s relative velocity question was quite tricky, took me a while to figure it out.

I’m quite sad at the new syllabus, so many important topics have now been shifted to A levels instead, stuff like APGP and double angle formulae. The last four years didn’t even feature a trigonometry identity proving question; maybe it is too mechanical. Instead, not very interesting topics like the dreaded relative velocity have been added in, deep in concept, but hardly appreciable at O levels; unless you wish to do nautical studies or something like that.

Will need to brush up on the new A level syllabus as well soon. I have to say that the new H3 syllabus is impressive; a lot of level 3000 mathematics stuff, will probably see a change in the NUS mathematics syllabus soon due to this.

110606

verses read: Psalm 35

Today was the first day in the chapel. But I don’t think I will write about that, after all, I’ve got the meeting recordings to remind me.

Want to write about the show “Contact”. It really is one of my top favourite shows of all time. I really enjoy watching it over and over again, mathematical yet theological, logical yet inspirational, explores science, yet explores faith. Very well written, I must buy the book. But it would probably be a tough read.

I would really like to know what happens if one day, a hardcore atheistic scientist were to have a scientific experience the likes of what was shown in the film; and have no evidence or proof to back it up. After all, science and mathematics are built up from empirical evidence and proofs. I like the way such an experience was portrayed in the movie, very akin to what we sometimes call a “religious experience”.

Like when we come to worship and we begin to cry, we know that we are not alone, we are created by God, we somehow know that there is a God. But yet, say all we want, we cannot prove His existence; that’s why it’s called faith.

090606

verses read: Psalm 33

Tomorrow is going to be a long day, have to sign the TTA in the morning, followed by Bible Olympiad meeting in church in the afternoon, One Voice leaders meeting and finally One Voice massive rehearsal at night. And it doesn’t stop there, the next day will be a milestone for YMPACT. One that some of us have waited for for a long time.

Was having a strange thought as I drove to church this evening, when I passed Downtown East. It occurred to me that it was two years since Synerg!z 2004, the one where I got quite a lot of weird looks as I wasn’t alone. Well, memories, brought a smile to my face, the first genuine one is many years and one that came when my thoughts were lost in hopelessness again. I wonder if she will be at MOE tomorrow, it would really be interesting.

Pasta Sauce

As promised, here is the recipe. I took this while actually cooking the sauce for tonight's fellowship dinner. Here is what you need:

Ingredients:
Garlic, Onion, Carrot, Celery (chopped finely)
Bacon
Minced Beef (I used 1kg)
Minced Pork (1/4 kg)
Canned tomatoes
Tomato Sauce
Mushrooms
Some herbs

Believe it or not, I did not use add any oil or salt other that what is found in the ingredients above. But well, there are other tricks.



Begin by frying the bacon until the oil comes out. The bacon provides all the salt and oil you will need for the whole sauce.



When there is some oil from the bacon, add the garlic, onion, carrots and celery. Cook until some of the vegetable juices has come out. Add some water to help this along.



When the vegetables are about 75% of their original size add the mushrooms and cook until everything soft. Add some herbs at this stage, oregano, mixed Italian herbs and tarragon was what I added.



Add the meat cook until the meat has browned. Notice that the volume of the ingredients has not changed. Everything should "shrink".



Add the tomatoes and tomato sauce. Instead of canned tomatoes, you can use fresh tomatoes. But you will have to buy the really expensive deep red roma tomatoes, which cost something like a dollar each. And you will have to buy a lot and de-skin it before using, so it's quite a hassle.



No extra salt or oil added. All the salt and oil came mainly from the bacon and the canned tomatoes and tomato sauce. If you choose to use fresh tomatoes, you will definately need to add some salt, and even some sugar get rid of the bitter taste.

Enjoy!

010606

verses read: Psalm 25

Finally got through the NUS website to order my academic gown, that’s after three days of trying! Now can set my mind at ease a bit more. 19 more days before I matriculate into NIE, will be quite something. Had a really good dinner last night! My stomach is really upside down now, not had such oily food in such a long time!

Yesterday’s meeting went well, I was looking forward to it for a variety of reasons. But there was a meeting within a meeting and after that, I really didn’t know what else to do. This has not happened once, but three times, each time under similar circumstances, and each time the message is the same. Don’t give up, don’t lose hope. Still have five more weeks to go before I collect my degree scroll. Can a life be changed within that amount of time? I’m quite sure it can.

Dear Lord, You give hope when I have none left. You know the impossible when my mind can only comprehend what is the obvious. You give love when there is none left to give. You make light, when the darkness surrounds. So Lord, this matter is in your hands, I’m done with the second guessing and the giving up, I will wait upon Your time so that I may see what is in store for me at the end of all this. So teach me to have the patience to wait upon You and Your plans. Amen.

310506

verses read: Psalm 24

Well, I think I should finally put a post on my blog. The last few entries just too political to put online, would probably be cautioned by the ISD if I had.

Well, tonight’s the big meeting. It’s an honour indeed to be part of this whole event, one that can shape the direction of worship in Singapore, it was something that I prayed for more than 6 years ago, when I was asked to dream big. And yes, a big dream is coming true.

I wonder if the other dreams that I have been having lately will come true. They have all been about Tanjong Katong Secondary School, or Tampines Junior College or Tao Nan School. Maybe I will be posted back to one of my almar matars. Well, I will know in three weeks time. A big part of my wishes to be posted back to one of these schools, but a larger part rather be posted to one of the more obscure neighbourhood schools. That’s where the real work is.

Shot an arrow at myself yesterday night. But it is something that I don’t mind doing for yet another year. An opportunity to work with another batch of sec 3s. It will be interesting, this batch would be exactly ten years younger than me, would be interesting to see what and how they think.

Mathematics Honours gathering, I really wonder what that would be like. I would really not mind going for it, but will be away at Church camp, so won’t be able to make it. It will be quite interesting indeed to see how nerdy the place is! But my guess is that I will be seeing quite a few of them in NIE.

Done with a whole brand new look to the One Voice handbook, even more updated than the version sent out to everyone yesterday. Will publish it once the team leaders approve of it. The format looks a lot better now, though it would be difficult for some to read! But at least I will be saving a lot of paper with this new format.

270506

verses read: Psalm 21

Just got back from badminton. Really tired now! I’m pretty sure that when I wake up tomorrow morning, it’s going to be really bad!

Met up with the maths guys yesterday, some of them at least, it strange how the topics change with each stage of life. Once upon a time it was numbers after numbers, module codes after module codes, now it’s salaries and jobs. I wonder when will it be buying flats, getting married, which school to send our children to…

Life just passes so fast. In less than three weeks I will begin a new phase of life, really just want to start afresh and leave the pain of the past two years behind. I guess I will have to get used to standing in front of the class form now on.

There is still band practice tonight. Fitting. I was the first to lead at the MPH, and now I will be the last as well. This will also be one of the last times that I will be leading. I think the countdown can begin soon.