Marina’s Bloggariffic

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This song has been around for as long as I can remember - even my dad said that he’s been hearing it since his youth. And yet it still sounds evergreen.

Every ramadan, the radio will play this right after the evening prayer announcement. So every time our family break our fast together, we’d hear this song.

When I listen to it, I do get nostalgic sometimes.

I started fasting since young. My parents would wake me up at an insane time before dawn and persuaded me eat something. I was supposed to not consume any food or water. Since I was just beginning, I started with just half a day.

As some years passed by, I fasted for longer and longer till I managed to complete a complete day. At the age of 9, I was really proud of myself. I was part of the ‘big people’.

Of course as a kid, there were days when I cheated. As a kid, I went to religious classes at the mosque. My peers taught me to drink the water that was meant to be for our ablution (Haha. Naughty naughty) and sometimes at home, I would peek into the fridge and pop something in my mouth when I thought no one was watching.

Ahhh … Those were the days.

To me, fasting is a spiritual activity which tests the human endurance and heightens the level of empathy towards the less fortunate.

And I feel blessed to be able to break my fast with my family to sit, talk and eat together as compared to the regular days when everyone is doing their own thing.

Perhaps I’m feeling nostalgic because I realise that there is nothing that would last forever. One day perhaps, my siblings will leave the nest to get married or to persue their own goals. And though my parents arent so aged, we all know that we are not meant to last.

Even the radio station is considering of changing the arabic song to something more modern.

We should enjoy and appreciate what we have right now.

Its now the 7th day of fasting and another 24 more days to go.

I’m sick again!

I feel miserable and lonely and feeling lousy and in dire need of a cuddle … :(

Selamat berpuasa di bulan ramadan. :)

Remember this?

Juli and I were supposed to have lunch together at the Cafe Vienna but changed our minds when we saw the amount of people who were already queuing there at 1.30pm. Just look at the amount of people!

From the entrance

To the outside

It only ended here by the music center in the building next to it.

We decided to have lunch at Far East Plaza instead and then spent the day shopping.

I found out that Juli had alot of stamina. After about 3 hours, she was still energetic and trying out dresses while my knees were already screaming out in pain.

Perhaps the reason for it is that she is more enthusiastic than I was. Most of the times, clothes shopping isnt really fun for me. As much as I love and admire beautiful clothes, there isnt alot of stores here which are right for me.

I dont think I am so large. Am I?

We spotted a clothes shop. It had the loveliest pink dress and we both gushed over it. It was a princess cut dress with pearl buttons. It looked rather royale.

I had to try it on.

Me : What size is this?

Salesgirl : Its free size! Want to try?

Me : Yes

Excitedly I went in the changing room. But when I tried it on, I found out that it was such a chore. I could slip the skirt part easily, but when it came to the top part, I had to take a deep breath, do a few yoga techniques, and worm my way into it.

Finally I managed to wear the dress. Juli wanted to see.

Juli : It looks very interesting

Salesgirl : That looks very nice on you!

Me : I-cant-breathe.

Disappointed, I wormed my way out of the dress and walked around the other shops on the floor.

By the time I explore the entire floor, Juli was still at the same shop, trying out other clothes. She looked great in this 70’s looking dress.

Something like the purple dress, with a boat neck.

Since I have already seen all the shops on the floor, I went down and explored.

And when I was done, I went down another floor, and another and another…

I must have walked through the entire Far East Plaza Building and finally found myself at the basement when I texted Juli to ask her where she was.

It turns out that she was still at the same level!

But I did manage to stumble upon this lovely dress while walking and was admiring it and went in to try it on.

It was so nice. Finally a dress that fitted! Almost. Its was slightly tight at the chest, but I could reposition the buttons and sew it back.

So I got it and now I have a nice dress! :)

I do like shopping at Far East Plaza. There are nice clothes here at affordable prices. My dress costed me about $50 dollars. Dresses are usually priced at $80 and above at other shopping centers.

At length, we were both done and decided to walk around the city area. It was lovely to see the city at night, with all the lights and the decorations. I saw streets of trees wrapped up in red and white cloth and fairy lights around them.

Thats when I saw three girls walking around in a bridal dress with a long train.

Isnt it going to get dirty with all the traces of dirt from other people?

They were promoting this Nina Ricci perfume.

The three snow whites and the not so white.

I think the perfume was shaped to symbolise a fairy tale? But why were they in bridal gowns and not in snow white costumes then? Or maybe have wings behind them to represent faeries.

I’m confused about this advertisment campaign.

And look what we found while walking. A true Salvator Dali sculpture! I enjoy Surrealist Art and Dali is one the great fathers of them all.

This is called Space Venus. And in typical Dali style, there is a liquidated clock (on her neck) Spiders (on her hips) and there’s a big egg (above her groin) supposed to symbolise fertility.

There are other Dali sculptures in the city area. I would have liked to see them all. Hopefully I’d be able to see them the next time I go there again. :)

I look miserable, but my skin looks good .. hehehe

Me : My eyes hurt.

Mum : Ah, a bump! You must have been peeking at someone in the bathroom.

Me : What? No! What a scandalous accusation!

Mum : Then you must have been peeking at someone making out.

Sigh. I wish *I* was making out.

During the weekend I noticed that there was a little bump on my eyelids and by my vision was starting to get blurred. On tuesday though it wasnt painful, it was quite uncomfortable trying to blink.

The doctor said that it was acne and that it was not an uncommon trait and he gave me some eyedrops and a eyegel with tetracycline in it. I should use a warm compress to ‘ripen’ it and when its big enough, he’ll use a knife to cut it away.

Yikes!

You know what?

I think I should just wear an eyepatch and become a pirate.

ARRRRRRR!!! SHIVER ME TIMBERS! AVAST ME MATIES! VERILY TRY NOT TO SCRATCH ME EYES LEST ME BE BLIND!

Clark Quay was alive with the the roarings of motorcyles as it saw the Singapore Big Bike Fest yesterday. There were so many bikes to see that it can be quite overwhelming.

After much contemplation, I finally decided to join the Vesporean Club October outing just to satisfy my curiosity on how it would be like.

I brought my brother, Nazry along. I thought he would be interested as he was currently trying to get his motorcycle license too.

We took the AYE highway to get to our destination. While We were riding along, there was a guy riding a green GT. He noticed us, gave us the thumb up. I flashed him the peace sign and he rode away in the traffic.

We reached Maxwell Food Center and looked for the vespa club members. But we found out that they cant be missed. They were prominent, standing around an array of scooters in all shapes and colours. It was like a mini convention.

We walked up to the group and I said hello.

One of the lady turned around from her conversation

Hi. You are?

I’m rinaz.

Oh rinaz! Hi! Glad that you can make it! I’m leonids. (points) This is beary, that is precious and this is un-sith.

Would you like a tee shirt?

Hey, arent you the one I passed by on the AYE?

I looked around to see the different types of Vespa scooters. There were so many colourful display. There were some modified ones - Different paintjobs, different cover seatings…

I noticed a purple lx scooter with embelishments. A lady told me that it was said to be designed by Britney Spears. But how true it was, we both werent sure. (Google search doesnt show anything)

Another scooter that caught my eye was an et8 which had a flowery sticker. The lady tells me that it was a winning scooter sponsored by coke.

Soon after we were told about our itenerary and we got ready to move off together.

There we were, in two rows riding off on the roadside.

Nazry quipped:

This reminds me of a time long long time ago …

Huh? What are you talking about?

Sigh …

Oh, are you talking about your cycling days?

Yesssss …

We’re on a different convoy now ;)

Guess which one I am

It was so nice riding together. I’m sure that we were a lovely sight to see. Then I noticed a lady and was transfixed at her footwear. It was high heels! Never did I thought that I’d ever see a lady rider wearing heels in real life.

We reached Clark Quay and rode one by one through the display area letting everyone admire our beautiful procession.

We parked our scooters together in a row. There were so many different group of bikers parking together. (Nazry called them clans). The Honda Waves, the Hayabusas, The Harley Davidsons, The Ducatis and others.

Thank goodness the white shirts werent around!

I want this bandaid sticker!

Hayabusa

Interesting paint job, but not for me.

This isnt for me either

And we entered the area. There were so many different motorcycles, it was mind boggling.

This was an interesting bike as we didnt see the speedometer, or fuel or any display at all.

Many of these bikes had extremely powerful cc’s - This Ducati went to 992cc. (My GT was already a powerful machine at 198cc)

This Harley went to 1548cc. I started to wonder why anyone would get such an extremely powerful machine for the Singaporean road since the maximum speed on the highway was 90km/h - definitely it was more for the image than for practicalities.

And this Triumph Harley Davidson was 2200ccs! Thats faster than a car! I was perplexed. Nazry on the other hand, was transfixed at how its engine vibrated showing off its power.

2200cc! Thats crazy!

There was a loud roading and vrooming that we went to investigate.

Babealicious babe on a bike.

It was the Harley Davidson convoy arriving and we went to see their procession. Harleys are possible a chick magnet, arent they? All of their pillions were females. No male pillions? Ah well. Its a masculine machine anyways.

But the person standing next to me did tell me that there was a female harley biker which I missed.

We left about two hours later. It was an interesting event with loads of cool looking motorcycles see. I still prefer my scooter though :)

Not mine, but I vote this the best looking Vespa, ever.

Lonelygirl15 isnt real, Emily isnt real … Julie isnt real … Who knows whats genuine on the net anymore. Regardless, they all made entertaining viewing.

The thing is, that the lines between reality and fiction now being blurred with companies using personal mediums such as blogs, myspace and youtube to bring their conception to life.

Sometimes its easy to spot out some of the idiosyncracies but in time its possible to have a work of fiction that seems to be so realistic that everyone would be confounded.

Maybe *I* might turn out to be a marketing concept too. Its possible right? ;)

—

In other news …

Anyone interested to go to the Cafe Vienna with me? :)