Mrkaif’s log

Cut+Combine Together the following:
3 Cup Flour
250g(1.25C) (room temperature) shortening (e.g. crisco or lard or butter)
1teassp salt

mix together in a cup
1 egg (well beaten) - Room temp
5 Tablespoon Water (Ice cold)
1 Tablesp vinegar

1) Cut shortening into flour & salt
2) Combine egg, water and vinegar
3)  Pour the above liquid mixture into the flour mixture all at once
4) Blend with a spoon until four is all moistered (don't overdo)
5) TUrn onto a lightly floured surface & press together
6) Chill in fridge - can be kept in fridge for up to 2 weeks.

Apple Pie
For 9-inch diameter pie dish
Mix together with apples:
Sugar - 3/4 cup
Flour - 1/4 cup
Nutmeg -1 1/2 teasp
Cinnamon - 1 1/2 teasp
Salt - a dash
apples - 6 Cups
Butter - 1-2 Tablespoon

FOr 10-inch diameter pie dish
Sugar - 1 cup
Flour - 1/3 Cup
Nutmeg - 2 teasp
Cinnamon - 2 teasp
Salt - a dash
Apples - 8 Cups (sliced)
Butter - 3 Tablespoon

1)  HEat over to 200 degrees C, prepare pastry (see never Fail pie crust)
2) Peel & Slice apples
3)  Stir together sugar, flour, nutmeg, cinnamon & salt in a bowl and then pour over apple slices & mix gently.
4)  Turn into pastry-lined pie pan, dot with BUtter
5)  Cover with top crust & Cust slits into it.  Seal the edges with a fork.
6)  Cover edge with 2 inch-3 inch strip of foil to prevent the edge from browning too soon.  Remove foil at the last 15 min of baking
7)  Bake 40-50 min or until crust is brown & juice begins to bubble through the slits
8) Cool & Chill before cutting.

'It's pretty hot,' the man said.

'Let's drink beer.'

'Dos cervezas,' the man said into the curtain.

'Big ones?' a woman asked from the doorway.

'Yes. Two big ones.'

The woman brought two glasses of beer and two felt pads. She put the felt pads and the beer glass on the table and looked at the man and the girl. The girl was looking off at the line of hills. They were white in the sun and the country was brown and dry.

'They look like white elephants,' she said.

'I've never seen one,' the man drank his beer.

'No, you wouldn't have.'

'I might have,' the man said. 'Just because you say I wouldn't have doesn't prove anything.'

The girl looked at the bead curtain. 'They've painted something on it,' she said. 'What does it say?'

'Anis del Toro. It's a drink.'

'Could we try it?'

The man called 'Listen' through the curtain. The woman came out from the bar.

'Four reales.' 'We want two Anis del Toro.'

'With water?'

'Do you want it with water?'

'I don't know,' the girl said. 'Is it good with water?'

'It's all right.'

'You want them with water?' asked the woman.

'Yes, with water.'

'It tastes like liquorice,' the girl said and put the glass down.

'That's the way with everything.'

'Yes,' said the girl. 'Everything tastes of liquorice. Especially all the things you've waited so long for, like absinthe.'

'Oh, cut it out.'

'You started it,' the girl said. 'I was being amused. I was having a fine time.'

'Well, let's try and have a fine time.'

'All right. I was trying. I said the mountains looked like white elephants. Wasn't that bright?'

'That was bright.'

'I wanted to try this new drink. That's all we do, isn't it - look at things and try new drinks?'

'I guess so.'

The girl looked across at the hills.

'They're lovely hills,' she said. 'They don't really look like white elephants. I just meant the colouring of their skin through the trees.'

'Should we have another drink?'

'All right.'

The warm wind blew the bead curtain against the table.

'The beer's nice and cool,' the man said.

'It's lovely,' the girl said.

'It's really an awfully simple operation, Jig,' the man said. 'It's not really an operation at all.'

The girl looked at the ground the table legs rested on.

'I know you wouldn't mind it, Jig. It's really not anything. It's just to let the air in.'

The girl did not say anything.

'I'll go with you and I'll stay with you all the time. They just let the air in and then it's all perfectly natural.'

'Then what will we do afterwards?'

'We'll be fine afterwards. Just like we were before.'

'What makes you think so?'

'That's the only thing that bothers us. It's the only thing that's made us unhappy.'

The girl looked at the bead curtain, put her hand out and took hold of two of the strings of beads.

'And you think then we'll be all right and be happy.'

'I know we will. Yon don't have to be afraid. I've known lots of people that have done it.'

'So have I,' said the girl. 'And afterwards they were all so happy.'

'Well,' the man said, 'if you don't want to you don't have to. I wouldn't have you do it if you didn't want to. But I know it's perfectly simple.'

'And you really want to?'

'I think it's the best thing to do. But I don't want you to do it if you don't really want to.'

'And if I do it you'll be happy and things will be like they were and you'll love me?'

'I love you now. You know I love you.'

'I know. But if I do it, then it will be nice again if I say things are like white elephants, and you'll like it?'

'I'll love it. I love it now but I just can't think about it. You know how I get when I worry.'

'If I do it you won't ever worry?'

'I won't worry about that because it's perfectly simple.'

'Then I'll do it. Because I don't care about me.'

'What do you mean?'

'I don't care about me.'

'Well, I care about you.'

'Oh, yes. But I don't care about me. And I'll do it and then everything will be fine.'

'I don't want you to do it if you feel that way.'

The girl stood up and walked to the end of the station. Across, on the other side, were fields of grain and trees along the banks of the Ebro. Far away, beyond the river, were mountains. The shadow of a cloud moved across the field of grain and she saw the river through the trees.

'And we could have all this,' she said. 'And we could have everything and every day we make it more impossible.'

'What did you say?'

'I said we could have everything.'

'No, we can't.'

'We can have the whole world.'

'No, we can't.'

'We can go everywhere.'

'No, we can't. It isn't ours any more.'

'It's ours.'

'No, it isn't. And once they take it away, you never get it back.'

'But they haven't taken it away.'

'We'll wait and see.'

'Come on back in the shade,' he said. 'You mustn't feel that way.'

'I don't feel any way,' the girl said. 'I just know things.'

'I don't want you to do anything that you don't want to do -'

'Nor that isn't good for me,' she said. 'I know. Could we have another beer?'

'All right. But you've got to realize - '

'I realize,' the girl said. 'Can't we maybe stop talking?'

They sat down at the table and the girl looked across at the hills on the dry side of the valley and the man looked at her and at the table.

'You've got to realize,' he said, ' that I don't want you to do it if you don't want to. I'm perfectly willing to go through with it if it means anything to you.'

'Doesn't it mean anything to you? We could get along.'

'Of course it does. But I don't want anybody but you. I don't want anyone else. And I know it's perfectly simple.'

'Yes, you know it's perfectly simple.'

'It's all right for you to say that, but I do know it.'

'Would you do something for me now?'

'I'd do anything for you.'

'Would you please please please please please please please stop talking?'

He did not say anything but looked at the bags against the wall of the station. There were labels on them from all the hotels where they had spent nights.

'But I don't want you to,' he said, 'I don't care anything about it.'

'I'll scream,' the girl siad.

The woman came out through the curtains with two glasses of beer and put them down on the damp felt pads. 'The train comes in five minutes,' she said.

'What did she say?' asked the girl.

'That the train is coming in five minutes.'

The girl smiled brightly at the woman, to thank her.

'I'd better take the bags over to the other side of the station,' the man said. She smiled at him.

'All right. Then come back and we'll finish the beer.'

He picked up the two heavy bags and carried them around the station to the other tracks. He looked up the tracks but could not see the train. Coming back, he walked through the bar-room, where people waiting for the train were drinking. He drank an Anis at the bar and looked at the people. They were all waiting reasonably for the train. He went out through the bead curtain. She was sitting at the table and smiled at him.

'Do you feel better?' he asked.

'I feel fine,' she said. 'There's nothing wrong with me. I feel fine.'

2.  In primary 1, a girl called Stephanie stabbed my arm with a pencil.  I cried and reported her to the teacher, and the teacher punished her. Ha!

3.  I remember the He-Man Universe was one of my favourite toys.  I collected all the good characters e.g. He-Man, Man-at-Arms, and did not buy a single bad guy. I even have Castle Greyskull in my collection (Duncan).

4.  My first piano teacher was a woman called Cecilia.  I dreaded going to class because she would scold me for not cutting my nails.  That explains why i was always biting my nails when I was young, in order to trim them.

5.  Scouts was my first ECA in Primary school.  I wasn't very good at collecting badges, although I distinctly remember getting the book-reading badge by submitting 10 book reports (of which I made up 9).

6.  I read 6-7 books at a go, and maybe finish only 3 of them.  I have a whole pile of books stacked up on the floor, beside my bed.

7.  I can grow and shrink my waistline almost-at-will. My waistline fluctuated between 27 (recently) to 33 (2003 in army). I have stretch marks.

8.  I almost signed on with the Air Force as an Air Operations Communications Officer (aka traffic controller), when I was in the army.  I literally had the contract sitting in front of me waiting for my signature, but the good Lord stayed my hand and prevented me from making a mistake.

9.   Chicken Rice is a meal that I can have 3 times a day, without feeling sick. 

10.  In primary school, I was 4th in command of a secret society.  My codename was "Golden Pangolin".  Having gone to the night safari, I now realise that's pretty unflattering.

11.  I used to think that the Private Sector is more efficient, and more talented than the Civil Service.  Now I don't.

12.  I was first attracted to Sarah because she was carrying a huge yellow Smiley Face bag.    

13.  When Sarah became my girlfriend, one of the first things she did was to cut her hair short like a boy.  I still reckon its because she was testing me.

14.  I remember I tried perming my hair before (the fringe).  It looked weird.

15.  I went to Zouk and Fire when I was 15.  Back then, it was cool. Tea-dances were for kiddies. 

16.  I long to come home each day to a big HUG by Sarah, Lizzie, and Sasa.  I get upset when I have to stay late and miss putting my kids to bed.

17.  Everytime I go overseas, I always like to visit MacDonalds.  It gives me a sense of familiarity and comfort.  

18.  I used to collect Panini stickers of the World cup and Basketball cards.  I can't believe how I used to remember exactly which stickers/cards were missing in my collection (there must be at least 500 cards to collect!).    Rumeal Robinson (NBA Draft pick 10 in 1990) was by far the hardest card to get.  

19.  I did a science experiment once on chicks and diet.  I fed them different combinations of vitamin C, chicken feed, egg.  My conclusion was that those who were fed eggs grew healthiest.

20.  My only appearance on TV was an brief interview for a hydoponics experiment I was part of, where I grew cherry tomatoes.  I complained about how hot the "stupid greenhouse"  was on National TV.  

21.  For my scholarship interview, I was asked whether Woman should do National Service.  I emphatically stated NO!, and substantiated by saying that this could cause unintended social problems.  

22.  One of my proudest moment in my band life was transcribing, and performing Benny Goodman's Sing, Sing, Sing from the Dallas Brass CD.  We performed it in front of over 1000 people at the concert.  I still can't believe how we pulled it off.

23.   I love to conduct - it gives me a high everytime I stand in front of musicians, wave my hands and the music flows.

24.   I love playing music with others and my favourite instrument is the Euphonium.  I hate to play music alone.  I like it when we are in a band, and we're playing different parts, but they all come together to make a wonderful heavenly sound.

25.   Jesus Christ is my Lord and Saviour.  I didn't search for Him, but he came looking for me when I was as young as 6, when I found the Picture Bible in my Grandma's house.  I thought it was just a comic, but I only came to realise that comic book was actually Truth only much later on. 

Inspiring stories on people making a difference to lives 

After being put on hold for 10 mins,

me:  "Hi, I will like to reinstate access to the Coronation Shopping Plaza carpark.  I had a replacement car earlier and I just got my car back from the workshop."

Agent:  "Did you send a letter?  You can either do it by email or fax."

me:  "Great, what is the email address?  How do I go about doing it?"

Agent:  "The email is park@wilsonparking.com.sg.  Thank you for calling Wilson parking."  (Click, and she hangs up.)

me:  "(speechless)" (I'm not even done yet!)

I tried calling again and have been put on hold.