Calamitas

OK, first things first, happy birthday to R and J, which is still... yes... today, according to my computer's clock. For another 3 minutes at any rate.heh... yep...

Now, on the not so happy things. Today, I woke up early (cos I slept earlier last night) and then had breakfast with family less sister who went to some school camp. (This is a happy thing). Then I went to play a couple of games of Axis & Allies, which for me, being so deprived of PC games for so long, was a major event. I lost the first one (not very happy thing, but it's minor) but totally trashed the Germans in the second game, except that the damn Brits in the game under Monty kept on making me as the Soviet Union do all the dirty work, while they reaped all the rewards the sneaky bums... Like in Kwantung province, I sent my armored unit to attack, but in the final salvo, as I killed that last Japanese infantry unit, he killed my tankie. And with an open territory at their doorstep, the Brits didn't need another invitation to take it without having to fight... (but I won, so it was ok)

Then I went to F's place to do some creation of the cookie kind. Yes. The cookie kind. OK, let's get some things straight. First of, this whole idea was conceived by L and me. Cos she was remarking how she found it cool that I could bake (yeah. I know. Go figure. heh) and I jokingly suggested why don't we go bake together for fun. Why F's place, you may ask? That's cos last time, the two of us were joking about how it was useful to have skills like that to up our coolness factor (I don't know how we came up with that conclusion, but we did) and since bro is prepping for As, I thought might as well go over, and rope him in, and then we could go get some Xbox action. heh.

Anyway, L invited along S and YL and so we all went over. And at first it was pretty ok. Apart from the fact that it was getting a little warm, since as anyone's who's been there will know, his place isn't exactly known for it's ventilation. Yeah. And the mixing was fine. And Aunty S was helpful. And Su took YL off our hands to go trash it out on the 'box first. And the first set of approx 35 cookies was ok. Not as great as Pepperidge Farm, but it wasn't too shoddy either. (Btw, if you want to know why you find Pepperidge Farm Soft-bake Chocolate Chunk cookies so addictive, it's cos they put liquer inside. And perhaps you need help from Alcoholic's Anonymous. Heh.) But the next batch was a true horror. It came out squishy.

Yes. That's right. Squishy.

It was like kinda soggy, and was well, limp, to put it mildly. But we thought it was just a fluke, so we went on for the third round. And I don't know how it could have been possible, but it came out even worse.

Yes. That's right. Worse.

It was even squishier. And I bet if I squeezed all those rotten cookies, I could have matched OPEC's daily quota from the Gulf. And it was really really soft. Not just soft-bake kind off soft. Think peanut butter kind. Able to be spread with a knife. Yech....

The last batch was ok. Yeah. Strangely enough. Perhaps it was because in desperation, we refridgerated the last batch before we put it on the tray. Or maybe because Su helped out in the oven bit. I dunno. But they came out edible. Not to say those previous sets weren't edible, just that the sight of them would probably make you want to stay off cookies for the next 10 years of your life.

Anyway, possible theories espoused by the local experts (read Aunty S and my mum) include:
1) The dough had melted too much while we waited in between batches, and thus had become too soft to be good.
2) The oven settings were not appropriate for the cookies.
3) We put too much butter.
4) The butter used was of a more oily kind, and coupled with 3), would have led to the problem.

But anyway, doesn't this really sound like something. We face failure all the time. It happens. And it could be due to lack of experience, delayed use of materiel/ideas etc. It's just like in life. How we so often fail God. Like just a simple example would be that I haven't done my QT yet, though for the whole day, I had ample time to complete it. And that's just the tip of the iceberg of fallacy.

Then there are people who tell you what's wrong, and give suggestions, but you think you know better and don't listen. But sometimes, what you really need is external help to complete the task. Or more macro-ly, the race of life.

Think about that.

Cheerio.