Gingerbread Man part II

Waiting for the bake.... continued from yesterday .....

While waiting for it to be baked - took about half an hour - the children were given crayons and papers to draw with. Anita and I went for more food. When the biscuit were ready, it was time for the icing. It started again with explanation from the teacher, what to do, how to apply the icing. But by the time the children got hold of the icing, all those lessons went out of the window. I didn’t remember any instructions about putting icing on faces or other part of the body.

Out of the ovenAnd the real art begunAfter the icing were done, it was time to pack up. All together, it took two hours from the beginning to the end. Therefore, long concentration span was essential. None of the children in the class threw a tantrum however as everybody had fun pretending the dough to be like plasticine. My boys certainly did. How did their baking tasted? A bit too cinnamony if you understood what I meant.

Irfan preferred white. Splat!Mum also joined inAll spentIrfan especially enjoyed his experience even though he was rather apprehensive in the beginning. They both looked cute in their aprons and hats - unfortunately they did not get to keep the apron. Come to think of it, such baking activity made for a great birthday party. As Irfan’s was due in six weeks, we might actually plan to have it here. Maybe with a bit of baking activities thrown in. So watch this space.

Gingerbread Man part I

The boys with the original gingerbread man .... Daddy!During the school holidays, Marche has always been good at organising fun cooking classes for young children. Last year, Idlan enjoyed his pizza-making outing. This year, we signed both Idlan and Irfan up for gingerbread man making class. The class was available through-out the whole weekdays, but since I was only free yesterday afternoon, we signed them up to do it then. And oh boy, they had great fun.

Getting psyched .... Irfan warning his palmsGetting into gearIrfan preferred the sailor's lookThere were about 30 children who participated - a full house. We arrived early to have lunch - ironically, the boys had pizza. After the crowd gathered, the class started with explanation from the resident chef - the teacher. He explained all the ingredients, how they were mixed and took through the dough preparation. It was basically butter, self-rising flour and wheat flour, plus eggs. But the thing that made it brown was not exactly ginger, it was cinnamon. There was so much flour that Idlan started sneezing. Luckily, it was not into the mixing bowl - it might have tasted better then. The ingredients were mixed and it was passed around for everyone to stir, including Irfan. And stir he did.

Listening to the teacherShall I just eat it whole?... and the pounding begins ...... tong tang tong tang!And a bit of elbow greaseOnce that was done, the students were separated into their own little stations and given some pre-prepared dough and some flour for them to start flattening and banging. After the dough was flat, out came the shapes. Most of them made stars, snowman, and of course the gingerbread man shape. Irfan managed to squeezed out 10 pieces of biscuits from his little dough. Once those were ready, they were put onto baking trays, and were taken off into the over.

More squeezingIt was finally taking shapeInto the oven they went ......Due to the exceedingly cute photos, I had to split the entry into two parts …… to be continued …..

Short Cases

I have just completed a three-day stint, assessing my Medical Students through short case examinations as part of their end-of-posting assessments. 44 students, 3 days. 15 students per session on average, when you have to locate the patients and material for discussion. It was hard work. The main issue was the venue. It was a general third class ward, and there were no proper place to conduct a proper assessment or engage in discussion. It was too noisy and loud. Patients, doctors and relatives were everywhere. Patients were hot and grumpy. Getting through the 15 students at 10 minutes each, even if we stick to the time, will set me back 2 and a half hour.

By noon, everyone was grumpy and the lunch trolley have already started its rounds. So planning was the key.

Planning .... and planningThe main obstacle I had was actually something very different. As I can’t bar the student from entering the ward, they were practically hovering around me, spying while I was performing assessment. Worst still, they had been practicing on the patients I planned to use, and by the time I got around to use them, they were already tired and irritated. Sigh! So, the students were smart after all. Smart enough to make my life miserable! And I was sure you won’t like a miserable examiner, or do you?

Renovations

Idlan and his asthma was really driving everybody nuts at times. We tried changing the beddings and pillows. No change. We got rid of the cats. He was still sneezing. We spend a small fortune on air purifiers and special ‘suck all’ vacuum. No luck. We even change out bedroom into a newly renovated space. He was still coughing at night. The funny thing was, the coughing seemed to disappear when we stayed at either our apartment in PD or the kampong house in Kuala Kangsar. The difference was night and day. We were convinced then that it must be something about the house or the room. It was on the same level as the main kitchen for a start. That will need sorted out.

We will start renovating our old room, turning it into a new living and study room. We will move some of the clutter from the bedroom out and hopefully get some fresh air in. We have got some new furnitures in as well. We also got a new LCD TV, and will connect a new ASTRO system in there - b’yond of course. Since it would be separate to the bedroom, I would be able to enjoy some football without bothering my in-laws in the main living room. I will be taking pictures on the renovation everyday to see the change!

Let it Snow

I still remember the first winter I experienced. It was December 1990. I arrived in London in August that year. It was a roller-coaster of emotion. After learning about my SPM results in April, the decision to take up Medicine and being offered a scholarship to study in the UK. Attending a three-month English course in Subang Jaya, and skiving off many a night to head home to watch Italia’90, and discussing with the lecturers the morning after about the game after turning up late for class. It was great fun.

I then attended Loughborough Grammar School, just a touch north from Leicester for my A levels. Being a boarder - the school was not full board - we were put up in an old, 18^th century building, which of course has been renovated. It was really cold in there in the best of times, but when it snowed, the draft that slipped in can be unbearable. Fast forward to December, the weather suddenly turned on a Saturday morning. I woke up in the morning and suddenly it was all white everywhere. And to my surprise, it was not that cold compared to the days before. I put my boots on, got myself my thickest coats and gloves, and a ski hat of course. Snowball fights ensued. I remember walking halfway into town with a few other friends who never seen the snow before as well. Ian from Kenya was one of them. We had a blast running around. We went to get some coffee and enjoyed it by a freezing lake.

But, by the time we head home - it was still snowing heavily - the power was out. Not just the school or the town, but the whole North of England. And the power stayed off for the next three nights. We had no power or heating. We had food being brought into our boarding house. We had bonfire int he evenings. The power was only restored on the next Tuesday morning. School were close until the Wednesday. It was cold, but it was really great fun. Unfortunately the chaos came when it stopped snowing and the white fluffy thing turned into grey sludge, almost muddy. It was slippery and all your clothes would be dirty as it turned almost into clay. Then you will realise that snow was not that fun after all!