Saturday, June 15, 2024

Roman, Vaticish and Pompeiian things

Ok, we went to Rome, and the ruins were amazing. But also, did you know there are ruins where they house stray cats, including the Roman Moose?
Of course, there was a lot of art everywhere, and I'm not going to do it justice. But have you seen this guy? He has issues.
And then there's the popular, crowded, Vatican. Barry and I were more troubled by the hoarding of all that art and wealth than anything else.
I thought I would get to see many colours of nuns. But I only saw one non-standard colour, the blue nun, like the German wine.
The best thing at the Vatican is the Swiss Guard. But at first we only saw the terribly disappointing blue guards!
Luckily, Barry found the fancy version around a hidden corner. They are the same colours as a Filipino dessert called Sapin-Sapin; I learnt lots.
The best thing in Rome was the food!
We did not buy this 5L bottle of wine, but Barry took a picture of me buying cheese in Italian in the shop below, which means the man talked at me at length and I responded in Spanish.
I ate this many artichokes.
And here are the best things we ate:
Rigatoni con la Pajata above, Cacio e Pepe below (which Barry had for 4 meals in a row).
Carbonara above, and below, the best pizza, which had breadcrumbs instead of cheese.
Now, let's talk about how amazing Pompeii is.
I mean, I love a good petrification and anything to do with volcanic ash.
But I didn't realize how much is left to be restored still, look at all of these buried things.
And how fancy the cool the existing restorations are. You can spend all day getting lost, finding new ones, and avoiding the crawling tour groups.
They had some unusual decorative preferences. This cart was decorated with a thumb.
They were into the male anatomy.
Sometimes immaturely so? Can I say that about 2000-year old dead people?
My favourite fish mosaic was not available for purchase, though I thought it would look great in our bathroom.

Thursday, May 30, 2024

Seoul Delicious

I have found the most boring bakery! It's called Whitelier and sells only the most boring of white bread! Must be something you do for the gram; here's a t-shirt to express my feelings about this.
These are all T-shirts that I regrettably do not own.
Anyway, we went to Korea more for foods. Here, Barry has a potato hotdog, which he clearly overdressed.
There are always new things to try.
Above: whole flattened grilled squid. Below, a huge market with kimbap, stuffed and unstuffed intestines, stews and more.
Barry's favourite egg toast bread breakfast.
All kinds of kimchi and pickles, including made from various types of seafood.
We had posh kimchi from a kimchi cart!
Dakgalbi before
And dakgalbi after - with cheese of course.
This is street market dough.

It is made into hotteok, a fried dumpling with noodles inside. Prizes for carbs stuffed with carbs, alongside masala dosai and pani puri.
Speaking of carbs, we had poutine!
At a Canadian restaurant in Seoul!
I had 100% totally Canadian duck confit.

Tuesday, May 7, 2024

Melba the Mini Cat

 
Hi, my name is Melba, and I'm a gremlin who is up for adoption! I'm a video star! See me here.I'm a full-grown 2-year-old mini cat, weighing only 3.2kgs, so my face is extra cute and small. The only thing that's growing is my fur and whiskers, which were a bit damaged from fleas (you can see lighter patches which are filling in with darker brown).
I was abandoned 3-4 months ago, and living rough was not my favourite. Luckily, I'm now fostered, sterilized, FIV/FELV negative, de-wormed/de-flead, microchipped, vaccinated and healthy. I'm litter trained and I know how to walk on a leash.
I really love to play and I love to cuddle - chin scratches are the best! I'm very smart, and my favourite toy is my tunnel. I'm not scared of new people, even small ones, and I even let kids carry me. I never use my claws and I'm very patient, although I sometimes ask for scratches and plays with my little gremlin meow.
I got sterilized, and do not like the cone of shame. It makes me walk backwards like Michael Jackson, but that's ok. I'm neutral on catnip and fairly easy going on food, but love fresh water, ideally from a human glass.
I have very soft fur and great big yellow eyes, with a twisty tail.
Would you like to adopt me? Please reach out to @laura_slamdoozle if you are interested in adopting Melba. Standard CWS guidelines apply.