Procrastination

This weekend, our church cancelled all the weekend services. Instead, we were encouraged to go out and do some good for the

community. Our life group decided to pick-up trash around the neighbourhood.
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Whilst we were picking up trash, we came across an abandoned building with overgrown hedges. It reminded me of Proverbs 24: 30-34.

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I went past the field of the

sluggard, past the vineyard of the man who lacks judgment; thorns had come up everywhere, the ground was covered with weeds, and the stone wall in ruins. I applied my heart to what I observed and learned a lesson from what I saw: A little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of hands to rest - and poverty will come on you like a bandit and scarcity like an armed man."

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The scripture warns against giving in to the temptation of laziness, of sleeping instead of working. This does not mean that we should not rest; God was behind the Sabbath, a weekly day of rest and relaxation. But we should not rest when we should be working. And spring is the season for breaking ground.

Spring is where the action is. To the successful person, spring is the time for definitive action - for saying, "if a harvest is to be, it's up to me!" Spring is the time for gathering the best seeds, preparing the soil, and planting ideas, energy, and enthusiasm inot a new crop of success."

But to the unsuccessful people, spring is a time for daydreams... In his book, Waitley identified three types of procrastinators - people who never seem to switch on the gadget to get started:

• Victims are preoccupied with the past and about things they cannot control. Victims fix the blame of failure in their lives on others. They see themselves being controlled by external circumstances rather than having control over their destiny. They are experts in excuses. Victims don't plant because they don't believe that the seeds they put into the soil have a potential for growth. And if they do grow, they'll be wiped out by weather, pestilence, or infestation... Victims are certain that the plants won't yield enough to pay the growing costs. Therefore, they conclude, it's better not to plant. Nothing risked, nothing lost. Alas, for Victims, nothing is usually the only thing gained!
• Failure Avoiders rarely seek out a new field to plant. They are happy with the present. They like to keep things going smoothly, to focus their energy on making sure that things stay safe and predictable. Since seed planting requires new risk, they avoid the possibility at all costs. They are happly to make it through the week. Failure Avoiders survive, but they very rarely soar.
• Field-of-Dreamers imagine that the field is already planted. They figure if they build it, success will come. In their mind's eye, they've planted - when in reality, they haven't. In their mind's eye, crops are growing - when in reality, there are no seeds in the ground. In their mind's eye, they see themselves as successful planters - when in reality, they have yet to get behind a plow. Field-of-Dreamers may think of a market-shattering concept or an engineering breakthrough in the shower, but somehow they never get out of the shower to do anything about it.

Tomorrow's leaders not only have dreams, goals, and plans. They are willing to work hard and to take responsibility for turning their plans into energy, perspiration, and effort. They don't sit back and wait for someone else to turn their plant into action. They take charge of executing their own plan.

"A sluggard does not plough in season; so at harvest time he looks but found nothing" - Proverbs 20:4

Are you a procrastinator? Ask yourself, what keeps me from planting? Put some constructive TNT (Today not Tomorrow!) to work for you today.

Sources:
LAB & Denis Waitley (1990) Timing is Everything.

Apple & Peach Blossoms

Believe it or not, we were in Orchard Road yesterday!

No, not the one in Singapore :).

Well, we drove to Way Fruit Farm, which is about 15-20 minutes away. This was the same farm we visited for the Apple Festival and pumpkin patch in the fall (c.f. 24 October 2007 posting). Wow, time really flies! I can't believe that 6 months have passed!

Our sole aim for visiting the farm was to see apple blossoms. But to our dissappointment, the apple trees at the main farm (where the store was located) were still pretty bare. The shopkeeper, however, was very kind and gave us directions to a remote mountain, where we found ourselves on "Orchard Road". Another parallel road was aptly named "Apple Blossoms Road".

It was a delightful discovery - on one side, there were rows and rows of peach trees in bloom. And on the other side of the road, there were more rows of apple trees. Most, like those at the main farm, were still bare. But there were a few rows of wild apple trees that were in full bloom. As far as we can see, we were the only two souls in the vast orchard. It was a wonderful experience. Truly, a rare opportunity for city folks like us to admire apple and peach blossoms, both at the same time.

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Apple blossoms bursting wide

now and beautify the tree

And make a springtime picture

that is beautiful to see ...

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Oh, fragrant lovely blossoms,

you'll make a bright bouquet

If I but break your branches

from the apple tree today ... .......

. ......

Photos: Blossoms of a flowering tree in our garden.

.But if I break your branches

and make your beauty mine,

You'll bear no fruit in season

when severed from the vine.

.........

"... As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me. I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in me, and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing." - John 15: 4,5

Prayer: One True Vine, this branch is weakening. Nourish me so that I can bear fruit for Your harvest.

Source: H.S. Rice, Daily Stepping Stones

Life is a Garden

Spring is such a wonderful time of year! Love is in the air. Flowers growing, everywhere.

photo: PennState campus

Life is a garden,
good friends are the flowers
And times spent together,
life's happiest hours;
And friends, like flowers,
blooms even more fair
When carefully tended
by dear friends who care;
And life's lovely garden
would be sweeter by far
If all who passed through it
were as nice as you.

- H.S. Rice -

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Photo taken in the backyard. Note the bright yellow forsythia in the background.

Glutinous Rice (Loh Mei Fun)

This is what we had for breakfast today. Glutinous rice with dried mushrooms, or more popularly known as "loh mei fun", is one of my favorite breakfast meals during my childhood days in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

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I have not come across any stall that sells good "loh mei fun" in Singapore. But I am fortunate that my wife makes very good "loh mei fun". Everyone who have tasted it can vouched how delicious it tastes. So, here I am - typing this blog entry whilst eagerly awaiting for her to finish preparing the dish. "Yummy!"

You will be surprised how easy it is to prepare this dish using the microwave oven. Here is my wife's recipe:

Ingredients: 300 g glutinous rice (soaked for 30 minutes), 12 dried Chinese mushrooms (soaked in 450ml water and shredded), 60g dried prawns, 1 stalk spring onion or parsley (chopped finely), 1 Chinese sausage (optional, or substitute with ham), 3 shallots (sliced), 1 ½ tbsps oil.
Seasoning: 1 tsp light soya sauce, ½ tbsp dark soya sauce, 1 tbsp oyster sauce, ¼ tsp salt.

Method:
1) Fry shallots until crispy. Reserve the golden brown shallots for garnishing.
2) Use oil to fry dried shrimps, Chinese sausage and mushroom. When fragrant, add glutinous rice, fry and mix well together with the sauces.
3) Place in a microwaveable container, top up with water from the soaked mushroom (just enough to cover the rice).
4) Cook on high power for 15 minutes, covered (stir every 5 minutes).
5) Garnish with spring onions and golden brown shallots. My wife and I also like to sprinkle some freshly fried crunchy peanuts.
6) Serve with sambal chili.

Captiva Retreat

We reached home today, around 4 pm. It has been a long day. We woke up at 5.15 am and left the hotel at 7 am. Thankfully, our flight for both legs (Fort Myers to Detroit, and Detroit to State College) left punctually.

Catching up on the Straits Times on-line, we read that Singapore's Happiest Person has been found! Coincidentally, one of the professors said that if there is a award for the "happiest person" at the meeting, i will surely win it because he noted that I was always smiling. Personally, I think it takes more than a smiling face to make one happy. But everyone is entitled to have their own view of what makes a happy person. One which I came across recently is, "a truly happy person is one who can enjoy the scenery on a detour", posted by a close friend in his skype message.

Below are some photos we took at the retreat. Enjoy!

Captiva Island, Florida

April 16-20: We will be travelling to Captiva Island, Florida, where I am attending the 24th American Real Estate Society Meeting. Captiva is one of many barrier islands off the cost of Southwest Florida. Folk lure has it that Jose Gaspar, the Pirate, held his women captive on the island, thus the name Captiva.

photo: Captiva Island, April 2004

This is not our first time visiting the island. We were in Captiva in 2004. The weather, vegetation and atmosphere are almost like Sentosa, Singapore. So, you can bet that there will be mosquitoes at night. Hence, we are going prepared with insect repellant.

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We will be staying at the South Seas Island Resort, which has been rebuilt following the extensive damage it suffered from Hurricane Charlie. For our stay, we booked a one-bedroom Bayside Villa, which come with a large screened balcony facing the bay, .a separate living room and a fully equipped kitchen (But I doubt we will be doing any cooking). The 800 square feet villa costs US$ 169/night.

Besides presenting & discussing research papers and meeting up with fellow real estate academics and professionals from around the world, I am looking forward to swimming in the Gulf. My swimming trunk and goggles are already in the luggage.

The sun can be very intense and glaring. But we remember enjoying a relaxing walk along the beach. Although we heard that one could pick sea shells on the beach, we didn’t managed to find any on our last trip. Perhaps, you have to rise early as per the saying, “the early bird gets the sea shells”.

So, I will not be posting any blog entry this week! It's vacation time!

American Idol

Still on the topic of tv, American Idol is now into Season 7. I don't follow the American Idol show, neither does my wife. Nevertheless, we managed to watch part of it last week. I was working in the study room when she called out for me, "come and see what's on tv" (If you have been married long enough, you would have learnt that it is wise to drop what you are doing and respond immediately when the wife calls :). The 8 finalists were singing one of our favorite gospel songs, "Shout to the Lord!". I like the ending, "Nothing compares to the promise I have in You!"

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To play, click on the video. However, you may want to switch off the background music first (use pause button at the Imeem music on the right-hand sidebar).

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My Jesus, My Savior
Lord there is none like You
All of my days, I want to praise
The wonders of Your mighty love
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My Comfort, My Shelter
Tower of refuge and strength
Let every breath, all that I am
Never cease to worship You

Shout to the Lord, all the earth
Let us sing. Power and majesty, praise to the King.
Mountains bow down and the seas will roar
At the sound of Your name

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I sing for joy at the work of Your hands
Forever I'll love you, forever I'll stand
Nothing compares to the promise I have in YOU!

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Nothing compares to you
I shout your praise
Nothing compares to you
Nothing compares to the promise I have in YOU!

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This was the song that made Darlene Zschech (a pastor from the Hillsong church in Sydney, Australia) into an international celebrity (at least amongst the Christian community). We used to sing this song frequently in our church in Singapore but I don't remember having sung it in Calvary Baptist, State College.

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We all idolize something or someone, be it God, or a pop/movie star, or maybe a soccer player, etc. The free online dictionary defines IDOL as: an image used as an object of worship; someone that is adored, often blindly or excessively. So, who is your idol?

Commercials Commercials

On the fridge, our landlady stuck a small note which reads, "Do not allow television to steal your brain."

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I don't like to watch movie on the television because there are simply too many commercials breaks. They disrupt the show and prolonged the viewing time unnecessarily. Thus, my wife and I often watch DVDs which we loaned from the library. The other day, I was intriqued to note a tv network promoting its movie night by promising “limited interruptions and commercials”!

I read that the average American is exposed to 1,000 television commercials a week. By the time he is 18, the typical American child has sat goggle-eye through no fewer than 350,000 television adverts. Below is an interesting and comical extract from Bill Bryson:

“The problem with American commercials is that they are simply so constant. Most channels have a commercial break about every 5 or 6 minutes. CNN, as far as I can tell, has nothing but commercial breaks. It occurred to me that this is rather a sweeping statement, so I have just taken a half-hour, at no extra cost to you, to monitor a typical CNN programme, and here are my findings.

In a single 30-minute period, CNN interrupted its programme 5 times to show 20 commercials. Altogether it showed 10 minutes of commercials in a 30-minute slot. Apart from a 7-minute span at the start of the programme, the longest period without commercials was 4 minutes and 59 seconds. The shortest interval between commercials was 2 minutes. For the benefit of people who suffered a serious brain injury during the programme, 3 of the commercials were repeated.

This, I hasten to add, is completely typical. Last night, one of the networks showed the movie The Fugitive, and I did a similar exercise. In order to watch about 100 minutes of movie, it was necessary to sit through almost 50 minutes of commercials, spread over about 20 interruptions. (One every 7 minutes, on average.)”

In short, commercials are inescapable in the US – not just at home. Talking about commercials, Penn State University inked a unique 10-year contract with Pepsi in 1992. For US$14 million, Pepsi became the official beverage of Penn State. With the exclusive deal, Pepsi got its arch-rival Coca-Cola banished from the campus. Thus, you will not be able to find coke in any of the cafeterias in the campus. This deal started a trend in other universities where the two giants, Pepsi-Cola and Coca-Cola, fight for exclusive rights to sell soda in the campuses. This may be one way the universities in Singapore could raise monies for bursaries and scholarships. But imagine not having Coke in the campus!

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:) If you are imaginative enough, you can also find commercials in the Bible! For example, if you pronounce "Habakkuk" (a book in the old testament) quickly, it sounds like "How about coke?"

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Source: Bill Bryson, Notes from a Big Country

Casting Your Bread

Give generously, for your gifts will return to you later. Divide your gifts among many, for in the days ahead you yourself may need much help. When the clouds are heavy, the rains come down; when a tree falls, whether south or north, the die is cast, for there it lies. If you wait for perfect conditions, you will never get anything done. God’s ways are as mysterious as the pathway of the wind, and as the manner in which a human spirit is infused into the little body of a baby while it is yet in its mother’s womb. Keep on sowing your seed, for you never know which will grow – perhaps it all will.

Ecclesiastes 11: 1- 6.

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This morning, I came across an ancient Arabic proverb, which I have shared with some of my students on several occasions. I personally live by this proverb: “Do good. Cast your bread into the water. You will be repaid someday.”

photo: wilted flowers

Calamity & misfortunes - There’s no guarantee that bad things won’t happen, even if we try with all our might to keep them from happening. Sometimes, no matter how hard we try, we lose. Misfortune will occur. They’ll come out of the shadows. They will come in the form of bad news or the loss of a job or a divorce or a bad report on our X-rays. We can worry about them all we like, but we can’t change them!

Coping - In the face of such uncertainties, the popular advice would be to consider the clouds, rain, falling trees, and blowing winds. In other words, be calculative. Give only when you can reap a potential profit. Otherwise, hoard it, protect it! The mantra is “get all you can, can all you get, then sit on the can!”

Give, nevertheless! - Giving does not mean we will be free from calamity or misfortune. It does not guard us from future difficulties and pitfalls. When we cast the bread, we can’t determine the currents beneath the surface or the wind factor. Put away the clipboard. Don’t wait for letters of thanks. Don’t anticipate being done in bronze for all the world to see. Don’t expect to get rich… Don’t expect to be reciprocated either – just go for it!

Photo: Banana pecan bread baked by my wife
Generous Giving – Don’t hoard the bread! Let it go! Release it! Give liberally, give in a variety of ways, give broadly – not just to our families or the persons whom we are attracted. And we can’t wait for conditions to be perfect. Start today.

By the way, there is a promise: “… you will find it after many days.” Charles Swindoll writes, “when the bread is cast on the waters, that is, when a life is released to others, there is something remarkable about God’s faithfulness in bringing back any number of benefits and blessings.”

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"Every man according as he purposeth in his heart, so let him give; not grudgingly, or of necessity: for God loveth a cheerful giver."

- 2 Corinthians 9:7 -

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Source: Charles Swindoll, Living on the Ragged Edge

Seeds of Success

Take a lime (or apple/orange), cut it across the equator, and this is what you see:

"Whilst you can count the number of seeds in a lime, you can never tell how many limes there are in a seed."

Seeds and spring are inextricably linked. Spring is the season for planting seeds. To the successful farmers, spring is the time for definitive action - for saying, "if harvest is to be, it's up to me!" Spring is the time for gathering the best seeds, preparing the best soil, and planting ideas, energy, and enthuasiasm into a new crop of success.

Seeds are bought and sold. In every supermarkets, seeds for vegetables and flowers are displayed prominently. Good seeds are always those with high rates of germination.

(1) Where do good seeds come from?
Why, from the fruit of the previous harvest! Seeds don't spring forth from air. They come from the fruit produced either of your own growing or by someone, somewhere.

Reflection: Your success will be built from the success of another person or persons. You will base your success on what you can learned from others... what you have watched others do... what you have learned through emulating... what you have read or heard from others. In sum, your success isn't created in a vacuum. You are getting your seeds from somewhere!

(2) Don't plant all of your seeds in one hole. Why?

Any farmer knows this. Digging a giant hole in the center of an acre and planting several bushels of seeds there won't result in a harvest. In fact, it won't result in anything! Neither does a farmer scatter seeds to the wind in willy-nilly fashion. To do so means the crops grow in clusters that are difficult to cultivate and nearly impossible to harvest. Instead, the farmer, plant seeds one at a time.

...Photo: Barb's nursery of seedlings

Reflection: In terms of your success, you need to make make a concerted effort to plant seed after seed after seed. Day after day after day. Into the life of person after person after person. And into project after project after project.

Don't assume that because you wrote one stirring memo, you will be promoted. String that good memo with a good phone call and a good presentation and a good habit of arriving at work on time and putting in a full day's work to a good idea to a new innovation to a good suggestion ... and yet another good memo and phone call and presentation and so forth!

Photo: Tomato bush in Wayne's garden (summer)

Similarly, one compliment or one good deed doesn't make a relationship.

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Friendships and marriages are built by linking one loving, generous, and kind act of another ... after another after another after another...

Start planting your FIELD today!

Count on investing long hours during the planting season. Count on planting as many seeds as possible. Count on planting one at a time.

Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up. Therefore, as we have the opportunity, let us do good to all people,... Galatians 6: 9-10

Source: D. Waitley, Timing is Everything

Prawn Noodle (Hae Mee)

Italians have their pasta, and we have our noodles, which we can eat any time of the day - for breakfast, lunch, dinner, and supper! One popular noodle dish is Prawn Mee. Whilst we have tried a number of "famous" "hae mee" stalls including the ones at Adam Road and Zion Road hawker centres, my wife's favorite is the Whitley Road Big Prawn Mee @ Novena. There also used to be a decent prawn noodle stall in Hillview, before the hawker center was demolished. The one thing we remember is that it was cheap. One bowl of noodles cost only S$1.50. And for S$ 2, you get a big bowl.

We've prepared prawn noodles many times in the past. Back home, we would "save" prawn heads and shells and freeze them for months! And when the freezing compartment in our fridge is bursting with bags of the prawn heads, we will organize a "Hae Mee" party. Prawn mee is a very convenient dish for entertaining since the stock/ingredients can be prepared in advance. Also, your guests get to enjoy the fun of preparing and garnishing their own bowl of noodles. Prawn noodles are relatively easy to prepare. You can find the recipe on the internet. For example:

http://kuali.com/recipes/viewrecipe.asp?r=430.

The secret to a good ‘Hae Mee’ is in the stock.

Stage 1- Prepare stock
Boil a pot of water. Add 1/2 a chicken, 1 chunk of lean pork, 1 onion and 3 cloves garlic. Boil 10 mins and simmer. Add salt to taste. Also, some recipe will recommend adding rock sugar to sweeten the stock, but I prefer to use fish sauce and soya beans.

Meanwhile, shell the prawns. Fry the prawn heads and shells until they are fragrant and caramelised (turning into red/pink color). Add them to the simmering stock. Most recipes would recommend pounding the fried prawn shells first, but I fing this only has a marginal effect.

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Stage 2: Assemble ingredients

Ingredients: 600g yellow mee, 300g meehoon (rice vermicelli), 600g prawns (blanched, deveined, and sliced), chicken and pork meat (remove from stocks after 30 minutes, cooled and sliced), sliced fish cake, hard boiled eggs (halved or quartered), bean sprouts, kangkong (green vegetable), and fried shallots.

Stage 3: Serve

Blanch required amount of beansprouts, kangkong and mee/beehoon in boiling water. Place them into a bowl. Garnish with meat, prawns and hard-boiled egg slices. Top up with the rich stock. Sprinkle some fried shallot crisps (Traditionally, cubes of crispy fried lard are added, but due to health reason, this is now less common).

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The dish is served with cut red chili, light soy sauce and sambal. This is where the S'pore version differs from the Penang version. In Singapore, most stalls will give you chili powder or cut red chillies. I grew up eating the Penang version, where a good prawn mee is always accompanied with sambal blachan and lime, to give the dish a kick. If not, I will feel as those something is missing.

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Some people like their prawn noodle dry, in which case a premium thick black soya sauce is added in place of the stock. A good place to eat the dry version of the Hae Mee is in an old coffee shop along Upper Bt. Timah Road (the row of shops adjacent to The Linear residential project).

Let's have a "Hae Mee" party when we return.

So, start "saving" the prawn heads!

Pancake & Syrup

Pure maple syrup is great on plain pancakes. The Americans would say that syrup is why God invented pancakes.

There was a big crowd at the Maple Harvest Festival. And the most popular station was the "eat-all-you can pancake and syrup", which we had to wait in a queue for more than 30 minutes. But it was worth waiting. I find the plain pancakes, fluffy and steaming hot, go very well with the pure maple syrup and a dollob of butter. In total, I ate 7 pancakes. My wife, however, did not fancy the maple syrup; so, she ate her pancakes with apple sauce and sausages, which were also quite tasty.

The chef responsible for feeding the multitude

Want to know how to make perfect pancakes? Try this site: http://www.piecesofvermont.com/recipes/perfect-pancakes.html.

Proverbs for the Day: The crucible for silver and the furnace for gold, but the Lord tests the heart (17:3).

It takes intense heat to purify gold and silver. Similarly, maple sap has to be boiled rigorously before we get to enjoy the sweetness of pure maple syrup.

Do you find it easy to complain when your life becomes complicated or difficult? Why would a loving God allow all kinds of unpleasant experiences to come to his children? It is written in Isaiah 48:10, "See, I have refined you, though not as silver; I have tested you in the furnace of affliction." So when tough times come your way, realise that God wants to use them to refine your faith and purify your heart.

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Just like the boiling process involved in the making of sweet maple syrup, it often takes the heat of trials to strenghten our character. High temperatures build characters. And even the worse situations can make us better people. For without the refining, we will not become more pure. For without the testing, we would never know what we are capable of doing, nor would we grow. Allow the fire of adversity to refine you into a "better"; not a "bitter" person!

What kind of adversity are you facing?

Source: LAB

Maple Syrup: Liquid Gold

There are many different kinds of trees in the forest, but the sweetest tree in Pennsylvania is the sugar maple.

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The sap from this tree is used to make pure maple syrup. Sugar maple trees are unique to North America and grow naturally only in the northeastern United States adn southeastern Canada. This makes maple syrup a very special product from Pennsylvania forests.

The basic principles of making maple syrup: Sap is collected from trees, and then water is removed, mostly by boiling, to concentrate it into syrup. Nothing is added, and nothing is removed except pure water.

Maple Harvest Season: In early spring each year, maple producers, also called "sugarmakers", throughout Pennsylavania head to their woods for the start of the maple syrup season, which generally lasts from mid-February to early April. Sugarmakers like cold nights (with temperature below freezing) and warm days (with temperatures above freezing) so the sap will flow.

Tapping maple trees: Maple producers drill a small hole into the trunk of the tree. This is called tapping. They inset a small spout to catch the sap in the hole. The traditional method of collecting sap is to hang a bucket on the metal spout. The sap fills the bucket, and every day, or several times a day, someone must empty the sap into a gathering tank on a tractor-drawn wagon.

Tapping does not affect tree health. The maple producers have to wait until the trees are about 10 inches in diameter (20-40 years old) before they can start tapping them. They also limit the number of taps they put in one tree according to the size of the tree, so that it will not be damaged. The small hole drilled into the tree usually heals within one or two years. If the maple trees are taken care of properly, the same tree can be tapped year after year.

The collected sap must be boiled quickly.

Making the syrup - Sap from the sugar maple tree is about 98% water and 2% sugar, other nutrients, and mineral. Maple syrup is 33% water and 67% sugar. It takes 40-50 gallons of sap to make a gallon of pure maple syrup. To make pure maple syrup, the sap needs to be boiled to exaporate most of the water away. In the old days, the sap is boiled over an open pot. The boiling is very vigorous and great quantities of steam are produced.

Nowadays, most of the boiling is done using evaporators, which essentially consist of two or more large, specially designed pans that are filled with the sap.

These pans sit over a fire of burning wood, which heats the sap and causes it to boil. As it boils, some of the water in the sap turns into steam, which rises out of the sugarhouse. As the sap thicken, it becomes sweeter. The syrup is then filtered to take out "sugar sand", which accumulates as the sap boils. After that, the maple syrup is put in a container for sale.

The boiling of the sap takes place in a "sugarhouse", which is a simple building that shelters boiling operations that is usually uninsulated, with a steam vent in the roof, a concrete floor and space for the evaporator, fuel (either wood or oil) to heat the evaporator and sap storage. The sugarhouse is often located at the base of a hillside and accessible by a road. Every sugarhouse will have a large stainless steel chimneys to exhaust the great quantities of steam that are produced from the boiling sap; it is the sight of this steam that lets you know that an evaporator is fired up and the sugarmaker is making syrup.

In a modern sugarhouse you may also see some of the new technology that helps the sugarmaker be more efficient in his syrup production. One of the most interesting pieces of equipment is the reverse osmosis machine. This works like a water purifier in reverse, pushing the sap through a fine membrane to separate pure water from the sugar, and thus concentrate the sap before it is boiled. Reverse osmosis can remove ¾ of the water from sap, which saves the sugarmaker a great deal of time in boiling.

Source:
Maple Syrup - A Taste of Nature, produced by the Information and Communication Technologies in the College of Agricultural Sciences, Penn State University (2000)http://www.vermontmaple.org/maplestory.html

Just For You

Date : April 1, 1990

Place : Singapore River (behind Liang Court)

Question : "Will You Be My Girlfriend?"

......... For You .......

Just to look in your eyes again

Just to lay in your arms

Just to be the first one always there for you

Just to live in your laughter

Just to sing in your heart

Just to be everyone of your dreams come true

Just to sit by your windows

Just to touch in the night

Just to offer a prayer each day for you

Just to long for your kisses

Just to dream of your sighs

Just to know that I'd give my life for you.

For you all the rest of my life

For you all the best of my life

For you alone, only for you.

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Just to wake up each morning

Just to you by my side

Just to know that you're never really far away

Just a reason for living

Just to say I adore

Just to know that you're here in my heart to stay.

For you all the rest of my life

For you all the best of my life

For you alone, only for you.

Just the words of a love song

Just the beat of my heart

Just the pledge of my life,

my love for you.

- John Denver -

COLOURFUL