I love my melon sodas!

Anyone who knows me well knows that I think one of Japan’s best creations ever is the melon soda. Forget electronics, sushi, and sumo wrestling. Melon soda has always been one of my favourites drinks from my childhood. Every time I went back to Japan, I would gorge myself with melon soda every chance I got. Who else would buy a full-sized fake glass of melon soda when they went back to Japan?

Even now as I am considerably older (in age at least), I still have those cravings for melon soda. Those traditional family restaurants would usually make them best with its so-artificially flourescent glowing green colour that one can only imagine what made it that way. This colour probably attracts most kids to the drink. I find the flavour so attractive as there is literally nothing like it in North American culture. It’s only melon soda. Why can’t anybody do it right here? It boggles my mind.

One day while perusing Pacific Mall, Naomi and I found a store that actually sold them there. No price was marked but I didn’t really care as my initial instinct was to buy it and try it. I’ve never had the brand Sangaria before but that wasn’t about to stop me. What more, they had multiple flavours: strawberry, peach, and melon. Naomi got Peach and I tried Melon. Each bottle cost about $3 and some change. For 500mL of great tasting melon soda, it didn’t really bother me. As I twisted the top and pulled the cap off, the sweet aroma of melon soda came adrift under my nose. That instant aromatherapy is heaven enough to cure anybody’s blues away. As I took my first sip, it was indeed that melon flavour that I knew and loved.

Pictured above are the bottles that we bought. The peach flavour is so delicate that it was very refreshing. I can only imagine what the strawberry soda tastes like.

After taking a few sips we walked around the mall only to find another store carrying the same drink for almost $1 cheaper. Oh well, I thought.

It was still worth every penny.

The socket on the left side of my wall no longer works. It fails to do its job correctly as it shuts off as soon as I turn something on that is using the outlet. As if this wasn’t bad enough, it seems as though the outlet in the same location down in the living room no longer works as well. Coincidence? I wonder.

The TV and stereo systems were all hooked to that outletin the living room. In my room, my room light, TV, VCR, and telephone are plugged in to that socket. To make matters even worse, the outlet in the upstairs bathroom no longer works as well. These are all interconnected somehow. Once one of them fails, all of them fail. Once I turn on something that is connect to any one of these outlets, those entire outlets all fail. They do not short circuit by any means, as the breakers are all fine down in the basement.

From previous nights, if I wait for some time, the lights eventually come back. So for the time being, I function at night with no lights. I’m fortunate my computer uses a different outlet in my room.

Can it be termites? Or maybe mice hiding behind the walls. Everytime I try and turn on the lights, maybe that poor little mouse gets a shock of its life. I’m not sure what it is, but hopefully the problem will be fixed soon. It gets kind of lonely in my room with no lights.

I’ll be fairly busy at work for the remainder of this week so I’ll apologize in advance if I don’t respond promptly to any of your comments, message, or emails. We have deadlines almost every day of this week, and another big one next week to cap things off. Fortunately though, once April rolls around, I should be back to my normal routine. I should no longer hear those hissing sounds from my group leader from the other side of the dividers.

My dinner for March 24th, 2006

It’s been a pretty busy week at work. Everyday I get home, I’m a little tired. However, I did manage to solve a little mystery of mine. Every morning when I woke up, I always woke up feeling a little tired, as if I didn’t get a good night’s sleep.

One day I decided to put on another blanket on my bed. The next morning, I woke up feeling so refreshed, so much better, and with so much more energy, that it was a great feeling.

Now, I still have this extra, thick blanket on my bed as it truly does make a big difference. The moral of this story is to always keep warm at night.

I was reading someone’s blog earlier this evening and she had written that she went to Joon’s Kitchen for the very first time. Joon’s is in Korea Town and is a place that I always recommend to my friends. “Dakkalbi” or BBQ Chicken, is their specialty (even though it’s really not BBQed). The chicken, veggies, and extra toppings like Sweet potatoes, rice cakes, veggies, and mozzerella cheese along with the sauce is just superb. I love going there and am always satisfied whenever I do.

I went there the other day with Naomi. I was actually quite surprised that we were able to finish this. With just the two of us, I wasn’t sure if we would be able to handle this, and the rice that we ordered afterwards.

Needless to say, we were both really full. But it was a happy fullness so that was good. After the dinner we ended up going to a Taiwanese tea house close by. I guess we weren’t that full after all? hehe…

Today I leave you with a picture of my sushi takeout. It’s from a local sushi place in Mississauga. Some of my favourites are here, including spider roll (softshell crab), salmon and mackerel. It’s been a while since I had sushi!

Have a great weekend everyone!