Japanese food... why??

each time, when I meet up with friends who just came back from japan, I'll ask them if the food is so good so good... ^_^, and each time, when I asked them, they'll give me that “super yummy”, type of look, when talking about japanese food...

same food, simple, for eg. Just a simple shoyu udon, it just taste so good...

so, I talked about this with him the other day, why??? why is it that good, whenever we're there, the food,

just a simple gyu-don, for example,

well, maybe it's due to the weather, but then, not so, if it's the same cold weather, in UK, or in Australia, it will not give us the same “umph”...

why??

he then told me one very important clue, I guess,

the clue!!

it's the portion,

japanese food, served in japan, not too big, not too small, just right!!!

I don't know how to really put it in reality, maybe just a little bit more, it'll spoil the so-called “portion”, the size...

we all know that, generally, the portion's smaller than the rest of the world,

when we get a drink, for eg. A starbucks coffee, over here, it's medium, over there, it's large,

same as their cake, the portion is always 1 size smaller...

so, his point is,

the portion is not obviously too small, but after you have it, you feel that, you just want more, cos, it's just right, it's just good, but then, you won't take another one, you know why?? it's not cheap, wahahahahahaha!!!

so, it's the price vs. portion thing...

which, I think, it's been overlooked in other parts of the world...

where you know... if it's in UK, or it's in Australia, the portion, will always be HUGE!!

which, will defeat the purpose,

and when it's in the country where I'm residing, the price... will be just enough, for us to get a second helping...

but that's not the case in japan...

so, whatever you put in your mouth, the portion is just right, and you'll just have to feel super grateful with whatever you're eating, cos, you're not going to get a second helping...

and of course, the weather kinda help...

I've not been to japan when it's summer,

I'm not sure if... in a hot weather, their food will taste particularly good or not... but then, japanese has their own summer food, that's one of the key thing... they've seasonal food,

so, in summer, you may have the cold soba, running down in a bamboo tube, cold water...

one thing, they don't mind eating their food cold!!!

which, I came across an article, about carbo... (just let me side-track a little bit!)

apparently, the best carbo's still rice, or potato...

but, you've to eat it cold...

and, THAT's how japanese have been eating their food, ie. COLD!!!

which, again, other parts of the country will not do that...

(or probably only scandinavian!)

until, in the near past, the taiwanese introduced hot food to them, ie. Microwave your rice, microwave your whatever... then only they started to eat it hot, then, only they hm... started to overuse the microwave... then... hm... there seemed to be an increase of health problem nationally??

FORD SERVICE CENTRE, PJ, my experience

ok... this is supposed to be told, half year ago... it's my experience, half year ago, in the service centre, PJ...
my car is old, >7 years... to a lot of people, it's old, but to me, it's still... ok... cos, during my parents time, it's 15-20 year-old car, IS old!!! anyway,
so, I sent it in for a thorough service and checkup, and maybe, to replace something, if I need to...
1. after nearly 1 day of waiting, with my kids tagging along (cos, I'm a fulltime housewife), they told me, this is just round 1 service, thorough checkup was not done yet! And I gotta bring the car back to the centre ONE MORE TIME, for thorough checkup... so, on that day, I've no choice but to take back my car, and I gotta call in again, to arrange for another day...
thus, I did...
so, I sent in again, and they told me, this and that, bla bla bla, needed to be changed...
then, the service officer told me this,
2. she said, “why don't you bring your car to other service centre, the price will be halved!”, I was like... err... I've already sent my car here, and you know I'm dragging my 2 precious peas, do you think, it's so convenient, and so easy for me to simply go anywhere to get my car serviced?? I came here for a solution... but I know she meant to be good, so, I didn't retaliate, but then, I thought, it's kinda... weird... and she even gave me a contact number...
3. after I left the car for thorough checkup, I left, and it was a holiday season, so, I didn't quite need the car, but I left a message, where, if there's anything need to be changed, please call me back to let me know, the parts, and the price... and she never call back, and you know what? It's difficult for me to call in too... the phone's forever... NOBODY picks up... anyway, I've no choice, but to call in... and I called... and I managed to get her... guess what??
she told me, bla bla bla, ie. Price and parts...
then, I said, “go ahead, please change for me, thanks!”, and guess what she said???
“wow!! you're rich!!”,
again, my OS was like... #T%$@&%*#&%$%@#$!#@$ what do you expect me to do?? too expensive, and I gotta take back my car, and send to somewhere else?? I told her, I expect the centre to be a 1-stop solution centre for me...
anyway... I have to INSIST that, I'll leave my car to be serviced, fully!!! then, she's scared that this will be too expensive for me and that I'll complain later... and that, she's to get a black and white from me...
ok ok...

in the end, yes, I did have my car serviced, and parts changed... buti then, this experience was like... kinda... frustrating and weird....
sigh...

BAD DREAM, MISSING... ERR... P L A N E...

ya... honestly, eversince... I've this phobia... therefore, when he said he's a business trip in the coming month, asked if I'd like to bring the kids along, after some worrying and thinking... I told him “nope”...
you know, right after the incident, we'd our family trip to osaka, and I was super duper worried... prayed so hard...
I told him, if it's me alone, I'm fine, but with the kids, “touch wood”, if anything happens, what do I say to them?? like those scenes in the movie?? hugged them hard, and tell them that “everything's ok!????”, then?? doom!!!!!!!! gosh!!! thinking that, their future's just put a stop, I can't imagine that... it's just horrifying...
and just the other night, I had a bad night sleep... lately, I don't really sleep well, again, it's due to the bad weather... it just got so bright outside the window, early in the morning, and the whole night is just so hot!! arrgh... nothing's pleasant...!
and that... I woke up with this dream...
ie. another P L A N E went missing... and in the dream, I've to go plot the route and try to locate it! Damn!

ABOUT THROWING, OR KEEPING, OR BUYING

ok... I've wanted to write something about this... for quite some while... but most of the time, I'm just too busy... ^_^ (who ain't?? haha!)
anyway,
I've some funny habit in keeping gadgets, idevices, android phones and so on, and mostly, PC, ie. Laptop/notebook you call it... well, as long as they're not overly slow... I like to... erm... play with it, by putting in new OS, and see how it purforms... if you ask me, I personally think that, buying a new machine, and giving an old machine a new life... the latter give me more joy, in using it, afterall... just lately, I put in a HDD of 500GB to an old dell notebook, year 2007, yes, it'll be running MS WinXP, but it's still pretty good, and pretty fast...
as throughout the years, my digital assets are growing, I need another windows PC for simply... iTunes... yes, I do use iTunes to keep a copy of my apps, and also backup my many idevices... hehehehehehe!!!
so far, so good... therefore, as long as those notebook/netbook that are not too old, but simply the owner doesn't want to use it anymore, I'll get from them, mostly my family at the moment...
while my idevices, the oldest I have is the ipod touch 2^nd generation... and my dear son's tossed it onto the floor, cracked... yes, cracked skin... well... usually, to “revive” such device, I'll either install certain package of apps into it, and give it a new casing/cover and so on... as long as it looks a little bit different, I'm happy using it...
these are my gadget story...
while my clothing... too bad that I don't know how to use a sewing machine, but I've tried my best to locate some tailors... if they can modify my (or our family's) older clothing, to something else... so far, I've modified his working shirts into kid's pants (from the sleeves) and my own tank top... ^_^ not bad huh??? then I cut my ¾ sport pants into short pants, well... the weather's HOT HOT HOT!!! I don't want to wear any pants longer than my knees... and I think those ¾ pants were just too “bulky”, so, I slimmed them down... hehehe...
once in a while, I do try to think of what I should do with all the old stuff in my house... ya, you can imagine that, I do have a lot of things in my house, cos, I'm not a thrower...
I've a friend, his principle is... anything that's spoilt, throw... good idea in a way, but then... both he and I are the type, “as long as it can be fixed, we'll fix it first!”...
there's one japanese lady who wrote a book, telling you that, less is good, I do agree...
but throwing... at the same time, we've to stop buying... if we continue to buy, throwing's bad...
it's only good, if we stop buying...
that's my belief...
there's also a japanese show, “Umoreru”(I've not finished the show yet!) about an old lady, whose house's covered with piles and piles of old goods from the neighbourhood... everybody think she's abnormal... but then, her house's actually kinda cleaned... no odd smell... the character played by Kuninaka Ryoko said something like this, “everybody thinks she's weird, but I think those who keep buying new things and throw away old things, ie. Those who don't treasure their belongings are weirder, she's just a normal lonely lady...”, ya, something like this...
well... this is just my usual blabber, about throwing... or keeping... and I'm sure, I'm the latter...

Another 1-week downtime...

let me tell you this...

after 1 week of struggle, install and uninstall, update, upgrade and so on...

phew...

finally I've settled on xubuntu...

the funny thing is, both are ubuntu related,

yet, linuxmint's pretty buggy for my liking, first, the ibus didn't work, no matter what, it just ain't working well...

the candidates won't show up, the more I tried?? cool, in the end, it didn't even tickle, ie. Even though it's ibus-enabled, yet, it's not inputing anything of ibus-related characters... (damn you!)

I tried with linuxmint mate, linuxmint xfce, cos, xubuntu 13.10 worked fine on one of my very old netbook, ie. HP mini 1000... works like breeze...

so, I thought, since I've been using mint for a while, why not I just stick to it right?

Therefore, I gave linuxmint xfce a try...

in fac, in fact, in fact, I love the interface, it's much better than mate...

I love the pre-packed apps that come together, but then, just like any linuxmint petra versions, the wireless driver ain't working...

and that, I've to install later...

and again, the ibus, JUST AIN'T WORKING!

And finally, I decided to give up...

give up on linuxmint, which I am so familiar with, and like it...

particularly, I like their file manager,

so, I put on xubuntu, bingo!! the wireless has no problem, and the ibus, though, I can't get the “preference” for pinyin to work, but the by-default configuration is fine with me, I mean, I just want to have 10 candidates shown up, rather than the default 5... but I'm fine with it, I can live with it...

now... I'll be on xubuntu for a while...

a while... till linuxmint/ibus fix each other...

or, till... indefinitely...