Chasoba with salmon, edaname, mushrooms

I cooked this for lunch earlier. Mom said it's not bad. There is a bit of chilli sambal to give a spicy taste to the dish.

Bob in different poses

I managed to get a few nice shots of Bob sitting by the window.

And the last one of Bob with the photographer :)

Stripe the outcast

Stripe is very friendly towards me and mom. He allows us to hold his paws without biting us and enjoys a belly rub. The other community cats don't seem to like him though. Manja and White Neck will either avoid him or eye-ball or try to attack him.

The face I see when I wake up

Not very clear photos of Bob as I was using my handphone camera. He sleeps on my pillow and most of the time he will leave some space for my head to lie between his legs :)

Happy Birthday, Mommy

Mom's birthday is today but sis bought her a cake yesterday afternoon when we chanced upon Awfully Chocolate next to the vet clinic (after we sent Bob there for his vaccination).

Mom was of course happy to have all of us at home to enjoy the cake together. Mom and I could even enjoy a few seeds of durian. Hee.

Dad later went to bought back some chilli crab, veggies and chicken for dinner. I felt happy yesterday. There are times we were unhappy due to some issues but yesterday was a reminder that as a family, we can share our joy and face challenges together. They are the people I can count on for help and advice and I will be there for them too.

Nutritious soup

Mom never fails to surprise me with her creativity and every now and time she will make a new dish. She has made this melon/gourd soup before. It's used to make mock shark fin soup. She made this soup and put in meat balls and crab stick. Hardly a vegetarian dish but it's nice and colourful.

Mom's tao suan

It's yummy with bits of peanuts and sweet potato :)

We are all alone

Sis found me another lovely song by Angela Aki. It sounds familiar. An old English song.

Goodbye, Rambo

I received a call from the cattery before lunch today that Rambo has passed away. Mom and I visited him late last month as usual to feed him 2 small cans of wet food and clean him a bit, stroked him. He had lost quite a lot of weight but still ate a lot. We did discuss whether to put him down but he still seemed to recognise us and we hope the monthly jab for his gingivitis would help him.

But we still lost him. At least he is no longer suffering.

Angela Aki's Tegami

Cousin recommended this song and I like it. I have been listening it for a number of times and tried to sing along to the lyrics found here. But I have to skip a number of chinese characters. Hee.

Chasoba - my style

I like to cook my chasoba using the dashi fish stock with veggies I find in the fridge, egg, etc. I managed to find some broccoli and also added 2 scallop I got from Tokyo. The taste was surprisingly good :)

Belated birthday gift :)

2 weeks ago, I went out with my 3 secondary school girl friends to give them a treat. It's a practice we have for many years. We will take turns to treat as the birthday girl and the others will get her the gift she chooses after dinner. I treated them to Seasons Reasons @ Raffles City's basement. The food was not bad. I won't mind going there again.

After browsing at the bookshop, stationery shop, I decided to just get my presents from the supermarket. I chose organic milk, some flour mix for making biscuit/cake and organic apples. The girls also wanted to get me a cake, so I chose the swiss roll. I like edible gifts. Hee.

Porridge and dishes

Mom and Dad didn't cook their usual fried rice one Mon evening and they saved me porridge, squid, steamed pork, veggies, and mini anchovies.

Leftover shepherd pie and pickled veggies

These 2 went well together. My shepherd pie also seemed more flavorful after keeping it overnight in the fridge and heating up the next day.

Mom's fried instant noodle

Yummy with prawns and lots of veggies.

Bob and Angel

Bob and Angel are still living apart under one roof. Anyway, life still goes on.

Bob the chubby cat likes to just lounge in the living room instead of stretching his legs :)


Angel likes to hide under the rug in Sis' bedroom. Sis managed to capture some cute shots of him in action :)

Last day (8 May) in Tokyo

A good way to start a day is always with good food. That morning @ 5+am, I had some of the Aunt Stella's cookies - blueberry nut swirl and lemon cookies and some raisin bread. Yummy.


@ around 7.15am, we boarded the airport limousine bus to Narita Airport. @ the airport, we had ample time to browse around the shops as our flight was at 11.30am. I bought 2 tees and socks from Uniqlo and a cat terrycloth hanky from another shop. Sis bought a nice umbrella and some cute cat biscuits for Mom.


Gluttony me felt like eating again and I was glad I bought a nut loaf from thia Maison Kayser bakery recommended by Cousin and Cousin-in-law. I was enjoying every bite of it while Sis ate her choc chip cookie (from Aunt Stella).


Again, our flight had some 30 mins delay due to some computer glitch but it wasn't as long as our earlier flight. The plane wasn't packed too. The meal on the flight was surprisingly good. We chose the Japanese lunch set - cold soba, some seafood salad (of unknown looking slimey stuff), beef curry with rice and chocolate orange cake. There was so much food (and probably I had a big bun earlier) that I didn't finish the rice and the dry plain roll.

With time to kill, I watched 2 movies - Bolt and K20. I cried while watching both shows. Bolt the dog and Mitten the stray cat are adorable characters. I find Rhino the hamster funny and weird. It's a good movie, showing the devotion of the girl to her pet and vice versa. It's a feel good movie.

K20, a Japanese movie has Takeshi Kaneshiro as the lead character, Heikichi Endo being framed by K20, a thief who stealed from the rich. I like the part of how Heikichi trained to gain the skills of a thief in escaping and disguising himself.

Back @ Changi Airport, Sis and I had kaya toast and tea @ Yakun before Dad (so sweet) came to fetch us home. After doing some packing, I couldn't help but try a bit of Mom's banana cake and fungus dessert.

It was good to home :)

Day 5 (7 May) in Tokyo

My breakfast was the raspberry chai muffin and a glass of warm milo. I also was taking a tablespoon of Pipagao almost every day since I was just recovering from cough. I didn,t touch the cough mixture which spilled in my luggage. It causes drowsiness and I no longer needed to drink it but brought it along just in case.

We met Cousin at the Ginza station and she showed us around. We shopped at Uniqlo again where I bought another pair of jeans, a belt and some underwear. The staff put a "raincoat" over my Uniqlo paper bag as it was raining.

Lunch was at Mos Burger cafe where the cutlery is not disposable. I had the bun and soup set which made a hearty meal.

We continued shopping at H&M where I bought a skirt and scarf. After Ginza, we took the train to Asakusa to visit the Nakamise Dori Street and Sensoji Temple. I find the place quite touristy. We had some soft ice cream and when the shop lady asked us to go out by the back door, we just went through there and walked back to the main street. She actually walked to us and told us that we were not supposed to walk while eating and asked us to stay at the back of the shop to eat. Then we understood. But strangely, the other people who bought the ice cream were at the back alley. The shop lady must have only managed to "nab" us. Hee.

At Sensoji Temple, sis and I decide to put in 100 Yen each to shake some heavy metal rectangular container to get some stick with a number on it and open a drawer with the matching number to get a piece of paper about our fortune. Sis got a good one that said everything was good in terms of marriage, life and work. Mine was opposite. It said something along the line of "Marriage and work of any kind are bad". I just rolled the paper and tied it to some rack where the others had done so to the bad fortune they had received. Sis kept her. I'm not going to believe in that. I believe in taking charge of my own fate but it was fun to try that for fun :)

Next was Ueno where Cousin showed us the streets where stalls were selling mainly seafood. We went to another one where there were 2 shops selling Japanese snacks. I bought about $100 worth of them - they were good to give to friends, relatives and colleagues and also for our family.

We went back to Ginza to meet Cousin-in-Law at Midori Japanese Restaurant. We had
sashimi (front and back views) ,
salad ,
california roll , broiled fish sushi. They were delicious. Even Sis who doesn't really dare eat sashimi tried the tuna bits and liked them.

Look at the spread of food :)