Coolcat's Jottings

Since I've been such a lazy blogger lately, let me make up to you, my dear readers by posting some of my favourite foodie (and drink) shots. It's one of the things I'll miss in my current job - ah, the lovely lovely Japanese food! And regardless what one dear reader says about my supposedly 'unhealthy' food shots, you can't deny that Japanese food is one of the healthiest things you can eat. The raw-er, the better

Yeah so, there ya go. After a week's worth of blog drought, I present to you two postings today. Enjoy!


Mango Salad - utterly delish!!!


Just for fun shot. We ordered some fish and chips and air batu campur (ABC) at the Coffee House nearby.


Tofu Salad - this is great, too!!!


We washed everything down with this refreshing apple lime juice


I suppose this tastes as good as most sake do. It's too expensive for us to gulp it though, so I wouldn't know

It's not every day that I come across a book that has me hooked from page one itself. In the rare event that I find such a book, a quavering sigh would escape me, involuntary shudders of pleasure will rack my person and I will bask in the contentment that my mind will be happily occupied the next couple of hours or days - depending on when I finish reading the book.

Yes, I absolutely detest the feeling of being bored to death. When I find myself stuck in a boring conversation in a meal or a party, it's kinda hard to extricate myself without being rude or abrupt. At least with boring books, they aren't hurt when I chuck them aside after a few pages. And they never seem to mind if I decide to delve into two, three and sometimes up to five books all at a time.

There are days when I simply do not have the time nor inclination to read. When all I could do was to sprawl in front of the tv and watch mindless movies. Then again, those no reading days are few and far between. I'm always happiest when surrounded by books. Books make waiting time bearable, sweet even. It's better than the movies because I can picture the scenery and characters exactly as what I think the author wants me to see. I lost count of the many times when I was revved up to see a movie adaptation of my favorite books only to be sorely disappointed to find that it was very different from what I imagined it to be. But I suppose the television has its benefits. It does remove the brain work involved in putting pictures into words but it teaches you (rightly or wrongly) how words are actually pronounced.

Case in point: I always thought the term 'social mores' was pronounced as 'social moors' until I watched a movie and discovered that it's actually pronounced as 'social mo-rays'.

So while I do have a vast vocabulary in the English language thanks to my years of reading non-audio books, I may not be able to pronounce them accurately. But then again, how often would I get to use the word 'mores' in my daily conversation with my family and friends?

Photo Credits: JS

This little baby saved my tush today. For some reason, every single photo I copied today to a shared network folder vanished into thin air. It didn't help matters when I chose the Safe Delete option - to delete the pics as soon as they were transferred. Note to self: Do not safe delete before you verify that the files were indeed safely copied over.

When I discovered that the pics were missing, the hunt for a free undelete program began. The food photo shoot project took a lot of effort and coordination and it was near impossible to re-enact the whole thing again. Thanks to my best online friend Google, I came across FreeUndelete. Made the program scan my empty SD card and the rest, they say is history. Every single pic was retrieved in its entirety. Hallelujah!!!

For more reviews of this really cool (and free!) proggie, head here.

And now, I'm gonna head back home for some much-needed me time. Toodle-doo!

Sunflower and I compared notes about low-maintenance guys the other day during a thoroughly delightful meetup (we should do more of this, dearie!). By low-maintenance, we mean beings that are easily pleased by the very basic things in life.

One guy dislikes driving (even though he has a car and is a careful driver) and prefers to take public transportation everywhere. And I mean, everywhere. Another dude doesn't see any reason to upgrade from his mattress on the floor to an honest-to-goodness bed. And one fellow sees nothing wrong in recycling flowers used in a friend's wedding as a gift to his girlfriend.

Somehow, some way or the other, these guys found themselves perfectly matched to their life partners.

The first guy's girl is someone who shares his passion in public transportation. She herself has a car but prefers to take the bus or lrt. When he suggests that he'll pick her up and drive her to a nice place, she would pause thoughtfully and say, "Why don't we take the bus instead?" The guy thought he had died and gone to heaven.

The second guy's fiancee doesn't possess a bed. Like him, she sleeps on a mattress on the floor. When they got married, they didn't get a bed. "I have a mattress, he has a mattress - we'll just join the mattresses together and sleep on them. Easy peasy!" she said cheerfully.

And the last guy's wife was very touched by the recycled flowers. "You must understand, he actually took the trouble to handpick those flowers from me. I love them!"

Surely God must have had a hand in bringing these unique individuals together.

As for Sunflower and me, let's just say that you wouldn't catch us uttering such things. We used to think that we were low maintenance. Well, that was until we met those women mentioned above. I guess the accurate terminology to use in our case would be moderate maintenance.

Moderate maintenance women:

• don't mind taking public transportation but only when necessary and for practical reasons like avoiding jams and such. But whenever possible, we prefer to drive/be driven everywhere.


• would very much prefer first-hand flowers. Period.


• prefer sleeping on a bed. Mattresses are fine on a temporary basis. Beds, however, give a sense of bonding and rootedness with our bedrooms.

So, any other moderate maintenance beings out there? We could form a group on Facebook, you know

The girls and I received our lovely and humorous wedding invites from a beloved friend today. Twinnie was ecstatic until she saw these dreaded words:

'Kindly be dressed in beige, white or cream'.

"Arkh! Those colors don't flatter me at all, twinnie!" she moaned. "I don't have any of them in my closet!"

These themed-colored weddings never fail to bring us to a tizzy. Surely we must have something white or beige or cream to wear. And suitable for a pool wedding party, too. Think, Twinnie, think!

And suddenly, a brilliant idea hit her. Should push comes to shove, we gals will turn up ala Pam Anderson - in something both white and ravishing. The only drawback is, we may be classified as wedding guests from hell and be banned forever from attending any future weddings. Hmmmm....