Wish List '09

1) A pair of baker mitts

2) A nice chinese calligraphy brush

3) Good health for a close friend. I hope she can put on 10 more kg before the year is done...

4) A nice cook book

5) Silence by Shusaku Endo

6) Kind understanding and forgiveness for my mistakes and wrong doings for the past 1 year

7) Wisdom and strength for the next 1 year

Maria Hertogh

She was the center of the deadliest racial riot in Singapore. On Wednesday, Ms Hertogh died of leukaemia in Huijbergen, the Netherlands. She was 72.

Having been through many national education lessons on the riot, we are no less very familiar with her early life. But what happened to her after she returned to Netherlands with her biological parents?

There was little discussion of her later life, but I found out that Ms Hertogh married a Dutch cabinet maker in 1956. She bore him 13 children of which 3 did not survive infancy. However, a 1975 television production on Maria's story stirred up Maria's unhappy memories and led her to tragic actions. Miserable over working at her husband's cafe-cum-bar from early morning to midnight, she plotted to murder her husband through two friends but the plans were found out and she was brought to court. However, after reviewing her tragic past, Maria was acquitted within one day of hearing. Her marriage ended by the 1980s.

Ice cream making

Finally tried my hands on ice cream making after much research, and today, the flavour tried is chocolate chip cookie mascarpone cheese ice cream. The choose of flavour was decided after combining a few recipes that i have read, and a few changes were made here and there.

Ingredients needed are:

250g of mascarpone cheese

250ml of whole milk

100g of light muscovado sugar (brown sugar was used instead here)

150g of chocolate chip cookies crumbled

Step 1: Put the mascarpone, milk and sugar in a bowl and whisk until it is think and smooth.

It turns out to be smooth...but not very thick, I think I will not buy NTUC full cream milk again...

Freeze the bowl of mascarpone, sugar and milk in the freezer first, and you can proceed with the crumbling of the chocolate chip cookies.

For people without an ice cream machine like me, here is what you will need to do. Freeze the product of mascarpone, milk and sugar in a shallow container. When almost solid, beat it well with a wire whisk or electric beater until smooth, then return to the freezer. Repeat the process twice more to break down the ice crystals.

Finally when that is done, fold the crumble cookies and continue churning until the mixture is completely frozen.

My experience with the freezer in my house is that I need to wait at least two hours before i can take it out and whisk it in it's semi-solid form. This timing may differ with different freezer conditions.

The joy of tasting home made ice cream =)

Good Wind

My boss likes to share some of his wisdom in life, and he often writes them down in the notice board behind us. On the board this week, are the Chinese characters “Luck = Substance”. Whatever you do in life, you must always be prepared, and constantly upgrade yourself. It is only this way will you be able to grab Lady Luck when she comes round the corner.

The Intelligence of Pigs

Pigs are highly social animals with sophisticated learning and problem solving abilities.

They are usually rated 4th in overall intelligence, behind chimps, dolphins and elephants. They have the intelligence of a 3 year-old child and enjoy playing with balls. Pigs can remember lessons for more than 3 years. People who observe them in sanctuaries say that without a stimulating environment they easily get bored.

In experiments at Penn State University pigs learned to play special computer games for food just as quick as chimps. They used their snouts to move a joystick that moved a cursor on a video monitor. Using the same system they can change a thermostat to control the temperature of their pens.

20 of their oinks, squeals, and grunts have been identified as having specific social meaning.

When they live in a sanctuary environment, they can be loyal and affectionate and enjoy music and massage. They learn their name in 2-3 weeks and come when called.

Their noses are sensitive to smell and touch, enabling them to find food under the ground. They have been employed by the Police to detect drugs.

Physical discomfort and fear cause a hormonal/immunological stress response that makes them susceptible to infections like pneumonia.

Pigs are intelligent and sensitive animals. They cannot display their natural and impressive behavior in the extreme confinement of today's factory farms.

My Left Foot

Imagine yourself trapped in a body, unable to speak, move, let alone write. This was exactly what Christy Brown felt in his youth. My left foot is an autobiography which tells the true story of Christy Brown, an Irishman born with cerebral palsy, who could control only his left foot. Brown grew up in a poor, working class family, and grew up to become a writer and artist. On top of his physical disabilities, the doctors also considered him to be intellectually disabled. However, his Mother did not give up on him and continued to teach and speak to him.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FbQV54k3Ul0

The book was later made into a flim, and in the above scene, you will see how Christy tries at length to write the word "mother".

The shortest letter in history

I have been reading a very rich and colourful book called "A Little History of the World" by E.H. Gombrich. In it, I came across what must be the shortest letter in history. It is a letter written by Julius Caesar to report back to Rome after he has left a few days earlier for a military campaign. In it he wrote three latin words: veni, vidi, vici - meaning 'I came, I saw, I conquered.'