Sumboi, a memory

I remember he came along into our household in about late April 2010 when I was in KK enroute to Taipei. He used to be smaller than my hands and we kept him in a laundry basket like how babies are kept in pens to avoid him running off and hiding under every crook and cranny in the house with his fave-deep inside under the couch. A hassle, obviously to take him out of there cos he would just keep struggling or hide under a different end whenever you lifted up one end to get him. Annoying too. Anyway, from an annoying furball, he turned into an adorable albeit still annoying companion. He was a good friend when I had nobody around. He listened when I'm sad and never failed to replace my tears with his saliva using his small lil tongue. He waited for us to be home each day without fail everytime we went out by the lil glass panel of our front door. He might sounded bratty with his fussiness with his food: Jerhigh and freshly cooked meat (no overnight food for him, don't ask me how he know), or the small canned dog food. He didn't mind human food but dog biscuit foesn't w
ork. It was never a real problem cause we love pampering him that way and it is affordable. His company and all the cheering up he did for us makes everything worthwhile. We love him and hopefully, so did he. He is good with leash on walks by the beach and even just the road. He seemed to understand what we wanted and orders even though he might not do it all the time. I used to get annoyed when he peed and pooed everywhere and had to clean up his mess but what I wouldn't give now to have him back! As he grew, he was more adorably attached to us. He loved squeezing himself between us when we were watching tv and is content to lie on our legs or just being nearby as we sat around. He only gets up when we do(in which case he will trail us to the toilet and wait outside, sometimes peeing too as he waited), or when he wanna go around marking the house -.-"" a bad habit we came to accept cos no amount of scolding and smacking do the trick. The way he acted like an alarm clock every morning to bang on our bedrooms door to wake us up (even though it might goes abit awry especially if he slept too early cos we suspected he estimate the time from there) and even sometimes I get a lil pissed especially during weekends but he never give up waking us cos to him, it's like part of his 'duty'.

He guarded us from all strangers and no matter what, he didn't leave us unprotected from the meanie strangers who came to the house during festivities. He knows exactly who can be trusted and who not to. To say he bark at all strangers or new faves is wrong! He never really bark at my bf when he first saw him, so there! You people complained he bark at you, but he simply remembered how those people pulled his ears and threw stones at him when he was young. Can you blame a dog for being insecure and scared? He loved some people unconditionally. When the grandkid pulled his fur and play with him, he was always patient and NEVER retaliate! He was kept in a cage when my sis and I was not around but he always seemed so happy when we are back and he could be free. So how could he died and nobody noticed?

I regretted nt playing with him when he kept nudging me wif his toy just so i could concentrate on my stupid tv show. I wish i brought him to the beach more instead of once in a while just cos I am lazy to bathe him everytime after we come bec from the beach. I wish i let him be when he kept squeezing his toy and making those annoying squeaking sounds instead of taking it away everytime after a while. I wish i let him wake me up early instead of pushing him away from my bed. There were so many regrets that I just wish time could turn back.

Everybody else can say he's bratty but how many dogs stay still to get his bath huh?So he is the best doggy and not bratty at all. He just had a higher expectation of his life and its quality. He left yesterday without me or my sis or anyone else to accompany him. I especially hated the fact that he was all alone, when he was always there for us but I wasn't even there when he passed away. I always thought there is gonna be more time to be with him when I graduated but he left before I even do. He was so young and so small, I just couldn't believe why nobody realised he was not in the house and he was out there fending himself from the strays and nobody to help. I wished I was home to bury him and at least say goodbye.

I have never felt so sad since when Mummy passed away. I just hope that what people say about dogs are true-that they go to heaven and maybe he can accompany my Mummy there! I love you, Summyboi. You be good now and stay!

Sweet Water, Johor Bahru

This is a pretty recent establishment founded by the same owner of Gianni's Trattoria (I wanted to tag any blogpost I have made for this place but apparently there are none I could find, guess I was too lazy before and only come up with pictures in Fb which is surprising seeing that it was my fave Italian place in town, but oh well), a couple of doors away. The food here, like its sister restaurant is excellent but even more pricey compared to the former. It is an attempt to bring Mediterannean themed food into the shores but IMO the food is really a lot like its Italian counterpart with a little twist (Mediterranean maybe?) Haha. Admittedly they do have some selection of meat which are cooked in Morrocon? or Mediterannean? flair which sounded pretty exotic. Heh, but during my trip here I was more interested in pasta and pizzas and what-nots cos we were supposed to go for Gianni's but saw this place and changed our booking here instead.

Thankfully the drinks are cheaper than the usual restaurants' standards as they have Happy Hour where you get to purchase any of their cocktails and alcoholic drinks at 50% discount whereby you get one free with any purchase. Pretty good a deal I guess. And they have the drafted Guinness Stout. Personally I'm not a fan but I guess there are some of you out there who probably could be :D

The usual free basket of free bread but unlike Gianni, this place gives you a couple of slices i.e. two in this case served with anchovies preserved in olive oil and cheese or some dairy products in olive oil as well (the twist I was talking about) cos usually in Italian restaurants (again its sister) the same bread is served but the only difference is with balsamic vinegar and olive oil.

While I was waiting for the food to arrive, obviously, the smarter thing to do would be to take the pictures of the restaurant itself. Granted, this place is a typically nice kind of place to be to celebrate a special occasion or just for a quiet date :) The place is decorated with a lot of black and white tastefully done photographs and there's a pizza baking station just right in the middle of the restaurant so patrons can see their pizzas being cooked and done right under their nose.

This is the seafood platter or something. It is pretty amazing but I guess it is to be expected if you're gonna fork out nearly RM40-50 for this plate. And the serving is grudgingly OK I guess but it is pretty small no?
(3 medium prawns, a couple of squid rings, some lil shellfish and two mussels)

The seafood pizza is good I guess but tasted not much different from Gianni's. Oya, we really did order a lot of seafood based food come to think of it. LOL. Maybe next time I shall try the other things on the menu. Like the duck dish for example. Hehehe.

This is the duck carbonara. It's pretty good especially the smokey flavour of the duck just make me go oh-my-goodness...ahahhaha...but the creamy texture gets you a little sickish after a while so I couldnt finish this plate.

Oya, total damage comes up to about RM140 for two :)

I do not know what I expect from this place but somehow or other, I preferred Gianni's. I mean, the food here is good, don't get me wrong but maybe it's a familiar thingie :)

Anyway, if you would like to give the food here a try, here's the address and relevant info

No 116 Jalan Serampang, Taman Pelangi

80400 Johor Bahru

Call for reservation at: 07 331 4349

Website: http://www.sweetwaterrestaurant.info/index.html