poppy seed bread

This is the loaf of poppy seed bread I baked just now. It's our favourite. (I have only two recipes which I use; no time to test out the rest). Makes good sandwiches. Below is the recipe; specially for AJ7.

1 cup water

1/4 vegetable oil

1tsp vanilla essence

1 tsp margarine

11/2 tbsp sugar

1 tsp salt

3 c bread flour

1 tsp milk powder

2 tbsp poppy seed

2 tsp yeast

Bake at 1kg weight; takes 3.25hrs.

(Remember to scrape down the sides when the machine is in kneading mode).

Dan's essay

How I met Jackie

One not so fine but fine day [it was kind of cloudy and a bit sunny], while I was coming home from school .I heard a mesterious woof .I decided to folow the woof. I arrived at the wildest river on earth .There I saw the most cutest puppy hanging on tree brunch. I climb up the tree to bring the puppy down[as I was climbing the tree I was wondering how on earth did the puppy climb up the tree]. I suddenly sliped and fell into the river. The next thing I knew I fainted. When I woke up I was in the hospital. At that time I saw the puppy and my mother coming in. I ask her how long did I faint. She told me that I fainted for 2 days. I have name the puppy Jackie. Now Jackie follows me every where I go[I still Wonder how it got up the tree]. I am glad that I save Jackie. Now Jackie is a full grown dog .

The essay above is written by Dan inspired by Lyn. He is hoping to send it to the NST for the column on acts of kindness. If it is published, he will get RM100 and he is desperate for it! I have yet to edit it for him. Thought I will just post it in its original form.

Chicken Soup for the Kid's Soul 2

I'm doing this review on behalf of Dan. This book is meant for kids aged 6-10. When he read that he said he's too old to read it. I insisted that it is good for him and made him read it.

Haha...no regrets! He enjoyed it so much. He read some of the stories to me (which I didn't hear; as usual). He said some of the stories are real sad like the one where the friend moved away and the other one where the bird flew away (?).

I am so proud that he could finish the book which has minimum pictures. Asked if he wants to read more, I could borrow from the library; he said no. Sigh.

The school library is stocked with a variety of Chicken Soups. Selling like hotcakes. Introduced them to the Form 1 students and now I see so many of them holding the books. So good to see students reading.

sleeping on the job?

Passed by a class today and saw the teacher sleeping...literally. The head was on the table and blissfully unaware of the things around. Students were totally happy talking to each other. It was only slightly past 8am.

The effects of fasting?

exercise bug

Suddenly somebody in the family is bitten by the exercise bug. An hour after dinner, he started doing tummy exercises (and wet my floor), then he took the hula hoop and let it turn round his tummy a few times....next he went on the twisting disc and tried twisting (which wasn't much of twisting). At his age if he exercises seriously, I believe he will be trim in no time. Unfortunately he is not much of an exercise person (none of us are) and very hangat-hangat tahi ayam.

At my age, it's definitely much harder to shed that extras. Infact my exercise routine is almost the same for the past 3 years but my weight seems to increase with the years. I blame it on the slowing down of my metabolism rate. If I were to compare my diet to others around me; it's actually shocking to know how little I eat and how healthy my diet is. Oats, muesli and yoghurt for breakfast, coffee and fruits in between, bread for lunch and a spoon of rice for dinner with lots of vegetables, soup and fish. If I eat less than this, I'll starve!

ironing

Dan wants to iron his own blue shirt and asked me to teach him. Showed him how to iron just now and he managed almost all on his own ironing two shirts.

All this is the result of being a prefect. The novelty of it....he thinks he should be indepandent and do more things on his own. I'm not protesting; I think this is really good. Who knows I don't need to employ Mila to do my ironing anymore!!! (Haha...fat chance....my clothes will be ruined).

I wonder how long this will keep up. Anyway as he pushed the iron around the shirt, I watched and guided him and showed him how to turn the shirt around and how much pressure to put on the iron. Just so afraid that the iron will topple and drop on his feet or he irons his cute stubby fingers.


The little boy who is a grown pre-teen ironing his shirt.

arts

What do I remember of my Arts class? I hated it! Mr Chiew was my Arts teacher for a couple of years. He insisted that in every picture there must be a figure to make the picture alive. I can't draw figures! After labouring over my drawing; it would be totally spoilt when I started painting it with water colour. Another problem which I had in Arts was I didn't know how to control the water colour and the brush. How I dreaded Arts!!

Arts class today is totally different. There is not just water colour painting, students are allowed to use a variety of medium as long as the task is fulfilled. Last weekend, Lyn was working on cutting and pasting coloured papers. The topic was to make a wrapping paper. The result is as below!!


Looks good to me. No figures or colouring involved. Just cut and paste!!!! I'm sure I would have enjoyed Arts if all I have to do is just cut and paste. (Ok...she complains it is a back breaking work.)