JessicaRulestheUniverse.com

Accessories for cat people, as if we need more reminders of our cats when their fur is all over our clothes: eyeglass case, Ricky’s pasalubong from France; three cats on two fingers ring, present from Brewhuh; cat watch by Kid Robot for Swatch; cat ring with moving paws from a cat-themed store in HK; black and white cat earrings, Jeffrey’s pasalubong from Japan.

We will be in Cebu this weekend for the Vaseline Men XTERRA competition. Of course we’re not participating, are you insane. We’re not into blazing sunshine, sweat and activities that require physiotherapists. However we are happy to report on same, as long as we get to travel.

Tomorrow we’re checking into the Crimson Resort and Spa in Mactan. We will be free from around 5pm, and plan on going to SM City to check out Forever 21 (their branch is bigger and better than the ones in Metro Manila). Sunday we’re covering the event then flying home after lunch.

Anyone here from Cebu? Could you recommend places where we can find interesting accessories, esp earrings?

We went to the outlet mall in the Qi Pu district. The place is so huge just looking at the buildings made us tired. There is a vast assortment of brands from agnes b. to Y3, but the “factory prices” are hardly bargains unless the particular store is having a sale. After an hour of trudging we found something we wanted, not only for the thing itself but what it portends.

Now we really have to go to Roland Garros.

“Abattoir” was misspelled. We mean the place where cows, not Scandinavian pop quartets, are slaughtered.

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Turn it into an arts-crafts-entertainment center. (Like New York’s meatpacking district.)

Call it…The Silence of the Cows. That’s what we’d call it; the old abattoir in Shanghai is called 1933 Shanghai.

Put signs all over the building pointing out its architectural features, such as these air bridges built with different widths in order to control the animal traffic.

Then divide the area into spaces for cafes, clubs, funky shops, etc. And hope it’s not haunted by dead cow spirits.

Roman cats, 2009. Photo by Ige Ramos.

Cats own Rome, I’d read. I suspect that when the Roman Empire collapsed and its buildings fell to ruin, cats took over. And cats, as biologists will tell you, are great invaders. When domestic cats were introduced to Australia they made a buffet of the local bird species, some of which have nearly disappeared.

The feline takeover of Rome probably happened much later, though. According to one theory, in the 17th century shepherds would bring their flocks to graze on the grass that covered the abandoned temples and arenas of the city. Rome had a serious rat problem at the time, and the shepherds made extra money by breeding and selling farm cats to the city folk.

Roman street tough, 2009. Photo by Ige Ramos.

Rome, City of Cats in Emotional Weather Report, Pet Life edition, our column in the Philippine Star.

We’re noticing a design theme in the places we saw in Shanghai today.

Here’s a quiet nook off the main lobby of The Puli Hotel and Spa on ChangDe Road.

And here’s the main dining area at Qimin Organic Hotpot on Shaanxi N. Road.

Libraries! Shelves and shelves of books! Happiness.

We’re taking a vacation from the early Manila summer. The temperature in Shanghai tonight: 2 degrees Celsius.

Our sister Cookie is nearing the third trimester of her pregnancy and complaining of being tired. Take a day off work, we told her. Are you insane? she replied. She’s already worried about work piling up when she goes on maternity leave. Obviously the only way to get her to rest was to lock her in a room. So we locked her in a room last Sunday.

The room was actually a Signature Suite at Maxim’s Hotel in Resorts World Manila.

Our sister, brother-in-law and niece took the bedroom; we camped out in the vast living and dining room. Territorial borders had to be defined or we would spend the whole time bickering with our niece. If you’ve ever bickered with a 5-year-old, stop. It’s exhausting.

Cookie with our niece, Mika.

Having woken up too late to catch the breakfast buffet (Niece had already gone off to school with her dad), we had an early lunch at the hotel’s French restaurant, Impressions. Their new Executive Chef Cyrille Soenen (His Cafe Cicou recently transferred to Greenhills) has redone the menu with fail-safe and fuss-free favorites like prime rib and lobster.

Good thing we missed breakfast.

We started with oysters, which were so fresh they needed no drama. Pick up shell, slurp, next.

Then a creamy seafood bisque which tests your table manners because you may want to lick the bowl.

The main course: Prime rib with foie gras and truffled mashed potatoes. The portion was just big enough to be filling but small enough to allow you to stand up after the meal.

Afterwards the staff brought a tray of chocolate whatnots that we mistook for dessert. It wasn’t dessert, it was the appetizer before the main dessert selection of profiteroles drowned in chocolate, flourless chocolate fudge cake, and mango tart. But the main course was so satisfying that to follow it with dessert seemed excessive. So we declined dessert. Incredible but true.

Impressions at Maxim’s is open for lunch and dinner daily. There’s a Sunday brunch buffet (Php 1,888) where you can enjoy prime rib till the cows come home.