Of Roe, Salad and Rice

Being on school vacation, yours truly currently has the time to randomly wander to places. I thought that I'd be a little adventurous and try out a few different dishes apart from my usual fare of salad, karaage and rice at Sakae Sushi.

And I daresay that my adventurousness paid off. Tea was at Sakae Sushi's Cityvibe branch and one dish worth mention was Kakiage. The dish, which is loosely translated to be vegetable tempura (comprising zucchini, bitter gourd, onion and carrot) proved to be crispy goodness.

The batter was fragrant and decently apportioned.














There is currently a $1 promotion for coloured plates (selected items) and most guests were eating to their heart's content. Special mention goes out to the staff, who were extremely polite and attentive. I am always extremely appreciative of good service, even when I was requesting for Sakae salad without salmon skin (see below).

Dinner was at Lot 1 and the Mentaiko (which is loosely translated to be marinated roe of pollock) tofu proved decent. I suppose pictures do depict a thousand words, and I shall let the picture below speak for itself.

The rich roe proved to be of considerably rich, and went extremely well with the rice. Apparently it is occasionally paired with Sake.















And lastly, of course, the usual fare of rice and salad.














Sidenote: These were paid for on Sakae credit.

Loneliness

When the time has come for you to bide loved ones goodbye, to see them depart with your very eyes - you feel nothing but pain. Life seems to have become empty and meaningless when all you do is sit and weep. You see no meaning to life anymore now that your son is dead.

It wrenches my heart to hear of how some weep their eyes out, constantly calling out to the deceased. The house has become empty, when one sits on the reclining chair and yells out to son (but no one replies anymore).

I know that this period of time will be near unbearable, but I know that someday, the pain will be slightly be bearable. Be strong.

Side note: My heart goes out to grandma's neighbour.

Bored

I am aware of the fact that the school vacation is here now that I sit twiddling my thumbs, wishing for interesting things to do and books that I can grope. Come next week, I will be wishing for a longer break. Such is the unfortunate nature of humans - where we often wish for things that we fail to have, and are never satisfied with what we have.

Exams are over and done with, and I think that I could have done better. This semester has come and gone too quickly, and I have had pretty amazing educators. Lessons spent drinking coffee and eating sandwiches will be greatly missed. Friends and other innocents who have had to put up with my verbal rants will probably not miss me much, but... one can wish.

I have been absent-minded of late (much to the chagrin of some), constantly misplacing possessions and forgetting passwords. Perhaps this indicates the early (possible) onset of Alzheimier's, or perhaps just a change of lifestyle where I have become sleep-deprived.

Things have certainly changed, and I find myself waking up to the realization that I am older but not any wiser. I've stumbled, and appeared silly on many occasions. I have let people down, because I appear smarter than I seem and this often results in raised expectations of me.

Baby steps are all it takes, or some say... but these steps seem to have led me to nowhere. I have led myself off the beaten path more than once, to explore options that seem absurd. Distractions galore, I find myself in a state of tension for no reason, as I gaze as the beauty and allure of a tangible, non-living object otherwise known as a Macbook Air. In an uncomfortable state called dissonance. I probably wouldn't have the cash to burn on a laptop, especially given the short lifespan of technological purchases.

Weird, depressing. Time I turned a deaf ear to advertising messages and learn to be immune to the mere exposure effect. Crazy things, crazy things. I have felt myself experience the glow of warmth in the presence of familiar objects more than once, and am now desperately trying to get myself off mailing lists (which I doubt I signed up for in the first place). This is how effective mailers are.

Random

Gratitude - the state of being grateful. It is a positive emotion in acknowledgment of a benefit that one has received or will receive. Some feel grateful towards the actions of others due to the perception that some other has gone out of his/her way, while others merely assume that the gesture was expected.

Apparently, there are different gratitude scales to measure individual differences based on the frequency and intensity of gratitude. A random act of kindness might have been once greeted with gratitude, but is now being regarded as a compulsory gesture.

Novelty is alluring, but as newness gradually loses its allure soon as some other innovations are being introduced. People hanker for exclusives due to the perceived prestige attached.

Apparently there are models for almost every explainable situation in life, but all that shall be left for another day. Sometimes I wonder, how the mind actually works.

Smiles

A smile is genuine if it is from the heart, when an individual is no longer concerned about appearance. I've heard of dazzling and mesmerizing smiles, the ones that make one swoon - but I have come to believe that a genuine smile is one that does not look attractive.

A social smile is one where only the corners of the mouth are raised. A true smile is one where the upper eyelids and eyebrows come down slightly, with the corners of the mouth being raised. If I hadn't known this earlier, I would have mistook your fleeting smile to have been forced but now I know better.

It looked horrible (to be honest), with the crow's feet showing and your eyes being reduced to near-slits. But now, even the most charming fake smiles will not reduce my already weak knees to jelly.

So my point is, people should never believe chick lit and fairy tales that always mention how their potential love(s) flashed them the most captivating smile.

Public Relations

I've probably been studying too much these days, but something off the top of my head: public relations (PR). As defined by Business Dictionary.com, it is the systematic effort to create and maintain goodwill of an organization's various publics (customers, employees, investors, suppliers etc) usually through publicity and other non-paid forms of communication.

One such company that has consistently maintained goodwill with its customers is Sakae Sushi. I feel that the tag line 'we serve only what we eat' has been extremely useful especially following cases of food contamination, disease outbreaks - and the company has brought across the point that it only serves good, safe, disease-free food.

Following news of the outbreak of H1N1 (fine, this is admittedly old news), the company has placed hand-sanitizers in all its outlets to ensure that everyone touches food with clean hands.

Besides, by the company's weekly effort to send its food for bacteria-testing, to ensure that bacteria count is kept to a minimal. Such is the reassurance of quality, and how companies should walk the walk, instead of merely talking the talk (ie. practice what they preach).

So, it is much more effective for organisations to be proactive in times of crisis, instead of merely sitting around and only reacting when crisis hits.

And with that, I leave you a few pictures of consumption with a peace of mind:

Sidenote: Those weren't purchased on Sakae credit, even though I've been given x amount each month. It is because I trust the company that I keep going back for more - no need for extensive cognitive processing (people just order because they trust the company and the Sakae brand).

One Last

Last attempt to prove my while, to meet the expectations that you had for me - and I hope that I managed to pull it off. Video recordings will never be able to capture the atmosphere, but I certainly hope that it will sound decent.

I fumbled over a few words, but I hope that they will not be apparent. If each picture depicts a thousand words, then I probably had none. I am glad that you were glad for it pains and frustrates me time and again to hear about how you've been disappointed, and I am tired of justifying with hollow excuses.

I am relieved (for now).