But in a way some of those qualities can actually be "bought". Even a talentless child can be trained to be really really good at something. But to do that, the parents probably might need to the funds to get the child trained. And a child with talent might never get the chance to shine simply because there isn't funds for him or her to train it up in the first place. And it seems a bit... bratty though to 'milk' the parents like that. Parents probably would gladly give the kids the best they can, but to expect it like that, seems to come uncomfortably close to taking something for granted. Not that I'm innocent of the latter myself now that I think of it :O! There's this ad over the radio where some lady was stuttering, struggling to say thanks to someone because she found it hard to do so. Not too realistic I would say. I think saying thanks is easy (being sincere at the same time would be more difficult I think, in which case one might as well not say it in the first place lol) but it's more of a case of forgetting or overlooking it?

Anyways, report on the tapioca cookies: dough was a tad too dry, and so it cracked in the oven and lacked that melt in the mouth feel. Bola likes it all the same, but I suspect it's more to do with the sugar content more than anything else. The chocolate cake I tried making came out incredibly moist. To the point where inverting it caused the top to go splat *wince*. It was cooked though, and a good blast of low temperatures put it right :P I put the blame on the oven *grin* The xiao long pao isn't worth mentioning. Could have passed for ordinary buns lol!