Never Leave your Food Boiling in the Kitchen

I was boiling some barley the other day.
Since the barley would took quite a bit to cook, then I left it on low heat, added more than enough water and told myself to check on it in 10 minutes.
I wouldn't forget.... I said to myself.
Then I went to my room, started working, I was in front of my computer when I smelt something kinda burning.
so I went
*sniff sniff*
"What could this be?"
*sniff sniff again*
*still in my room*
then "Oh shoot, the Barley !!!! "
I ran to the kitchen.... where it smelt all burnt and smokey,
the water in the pan has all dried up.
a little smoke was coming out of the pan....
I quickly turned off the stove.
the inside-bottom of the pan was all black, which means all the barley down there was all black also.
Oh man !!!
I will never ever leave kitchen unattended again....
Sure I say to myself, "Oh I won't forget"
but the truth is, people tend to forget !!
So no more leaving boiling food unattended.

What about the pan ??? and the barley ??
I threw the whole thing out...Luckily I was only cooking small amount.
Then I tried to scrape the black crusts on the bottom of the pan, but it was still kinda too hard.
So I filled it with water, boil it so it might help soften the crust.
*yes I stood there waiting till it boils this time*
after it boiled, I turned off the heat and left it there.
I'll scrape it off later ;)

So.... moral of the story,
The ready to eat barley dessert in the street food stall is really a good idea ;D

but the hidden moral of the story is,
It'd be great to have an "timed-automatic-turn off" function in your stove.

and the untold secret message is,
Get your love-to-cook-n-bake sister to cook things for you ;)

So... never ever leave food cooking in the Kitchen unattended.