Reach out for me…

When my girl was still a toddler, every night at bedtime, she loved to have me tell her my stories and then sing her to sleep…and it had to be the same song – Brahms’ Lullaby. I tried other songs like Russ Hamilton’s “Little One” or Cliff Richard’s “When the girl in your arms…” but unfortunately, they all failed to get her to sleep. It had to be Brahms’ Lullaby all the time…

…and she would doze off in a jiffy like magic each time.

Well, I guess everybody knows that she’s all grown up now…

…and I do not need to sing her to sleep anymore but needless to say, she will always be “daddy’s little girl”.

Actually, it’s her birthday today although legally on paper, it is tomorrow. When her birth certificate was ready for collection and we went to collect it, we found that they had got the date wrong – the 18th instead of the 17th…but we did not bother to get it amended. Knowing how some departments function, we decided that it would not be worth the hassle…and everytime, her birthday comes around, we can always celebrate it for two days or perhaps even more. LOL!!!

So this is, in fact, a special post to wish my little girl a very HAPPY BIRTHDAY, many happy returns, darling and may all your wishes come true and as the words of the song go:

When you go through a day
And the things that people say
They make you feel so small
They make you feel that
Your heart will just never stop aching
And when you just can’t accept the abuse you are taking

Darlin’ reach out for me
Don’t you worry, I’ll see you through
You just have to reach out for me
I’ll be there and I’ll comfort you
Oh yes, I will
Comfort you and love you
Oh how I’m gonna love you

When good friends prove untrue
And the things they do to you
They make you feel so bad
They make you feel that
You haven’t a reason for living
So when you feel you
Could throw in the towel and just give in

Darlin’ reach out for me
Don’t you worry, I’ll see you through
You just have to reach out for me
I’ll be there and I’ll comfort you
Oh yes, I will
Comfort you and love you…

– Daddy will always be here for you!

What you didn’t say…

I guess everybody knows that I don’t bake cakes and biscuits and that I’m hopeless at following recipes but when I woke up early the other morning, I had the urge to cook some pancakes. My missus and sometimes my daughter would be the ones making pancakes in the house – I never bothered. In fact, I never even bothered to watch so I did not really know how to go about it.

Well, I looked up a couple of recipes and that did not help much as it seemed that the measurements would vary between recipe and recipe so I just had to pick one at random and follow it. There was some flour in the house – the label read: “Hong Kong flour – istimewa untuk buat kek (specially for making cakes)” so I took a cup of that to use and I added two tablespoons of sugar and a teaspoon of ENO, in place of the salt stated in the recipe. I did not add any baking powder as I reckoned that if it was flour for making cakes, then it would most probably be self-raising so there would not be any need for that. Then, I mixed everything together…

Having done that, I made a well in the flour mixture and poured in an egg, beaten. Oops!!! The well wasn’t deep enough, I guess, so the egg flowed all over the place. I was supposed to add two tablespoons of vegetable oil and I just assumed olive oil margarine would serve that same purpose…

…and lastly, I added a cup of milk and mixed everything well…

…before frying it in a pan to make pancakes.

Oh dear!!! My pancakes did not turn out round – some had jagged edges, some looked like they had tentacles or appeared like starfishes but at least, I managed to produce something…

…and I thought they tasted fine – and went well with jam or honey.

However, my missus complained and commented that perhaps I had added too much oil. I said that I melted more margarine in the pan to fry the pancakes…and then only did she tell me I was supposed to use a little bit of oil to grease the pan and then wipe it up with a kitchen towel before frying the pancakes.

Well, they never said anything of the sort in the recipe!!! Tsk! Tsk!