Marina’s Bloggariffic

My dearest wont be landing in Singapore today. He’s currently stranded in London, Heathrow airport where I see news of fog and freezing conditions.

Poor cartcart :(

ITV News
Times online
BBC News

Update: The good news is that cartcart is already booked for the next flight and is now travelling via business class! Awesome :)

Its been quite a transition, with my original blogger blog for the past 2 and a half years. I present to you, the new home for Marina’s Bloggariffic!

RinazMsn: A common malay greeting is “Apa Khabar”

CartMsn: What does it mean?

RinazMsn: Apa means what, and khabar means news.

CartMsn: Oh! Apa khabar means Whasssaapppppppppppp!!

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Initially, Mum and me were supposed to go to Bugis and then head to my grandmother’s house yesterday. The plan was to use the scooter as it would be faster. Unfortunately for us, it rained the entire day. The skies did not even seem to want to clear up in the evening when I came back from my training.

Mass media said that it was the worse rainfall in the span of 75 years. There were even flooding in certain areas in Singapore - some were even up to their waistlines. (But I really pity those who live in Malaysia, here the floods are up to their roof!)

In the end, mum and I decided to take public transportation instead. I noticed the bus driver driving slowly and carefully over the damp roads and stared out of the window of the train as the water droplets streamed down steadily from the dark and grey skies.

We reached Bugis and headed to Teng Joo, the shop that we frequently go to, to purchase material for our clothes. Last weekend, I went to Bugis to try to purchase the materials on my own. Then I realise how overwhelming it was. It isnt the same as going to a clothes shop with ready made dresses. There were so many terms that I wasnt familliar with. Chiffon? Georgette? Linen? 60cm? 90cm? It was really over my head.

That was why I asked mum to come along with me. Mum is a very experienced seamstress and my personal consultant. I felt more confident with her around in the maze of clothes bales as she expertly negotiated with the shopkeeper.

How much is this?

$7 per meter

Give me $6 per meter

What? Cannot lah, we wont make any profit that way. I give you discount. $6.50, can?

Come on, I’ve been such a loyal customer. I always come here. Give me $6 per meter.

Ok, ok!

I dont think I have mum’s oratorical power yet. In time I’ll soon inherit it, I hope.

We bought some lovely organza cloth for our matching hari raya outfit next year and I bought some shantung cloth in green for cartcart and me to wear. But I’m not sure if it will be completed in time. The trouble with being a seamstress’s daughter is that we always get our outfit the last :|

Just as we were about to leave, my eyes noticed something shimmering at the corner and there, lied a bale of the prettiest cloth I’ve seen. I’m not too sure what material it was, but it was soft and had small shimmery dots. Oh it looked so classy, glamourous and royale.

I’d like to have it made into this style, the dress that I fell in love with last week while walking at Shaw towers.

Isnt it gorgeous? But I’m sure it was pricey. I didnt see the price, but did noticed the price of the shirt behind it. It was $60. I’d approximate that, that dress would cost 3 times more. But I do love the design, the pattern and how elegant it was.

I should learn how to make my own dresses. At the moment, I’m only limited to the rudimentary sewing skills that I’ve learnt in secondary school.

We didnt have time to go to grandmother’s as it was drawing late. It was still raining heavily our entire journey home. Thank goodness we didnt take the scooter. I’d be cold and wet and miserable throughout. Mum would be double that, since she cant take coldness as well.

The weather has been crazy isnt it? Just a couple of months ago it was the haze, and the months before that was the heatwave.

Whats the weather like for you?

How did a simple visit turn into such a big musical?

Just this morning, mum came into my room and said to me, her face very serious.

“He is coming this saturday, right? We’ll go to your grandmother’s house today”

“Oh. Ok. How come?”

“Your grandmother is very sensitive, just invite her over to our house this weekend, so that you can introduce him to her. She might say yes, or she might decline, but ask anyway. Its out of respect and at least she will know what is going on with the family”

I’d be lying if I said I wasnt nervous because I do feel jittery. I’ve never brought a boyfriend home before and I have absolutely no idea how my family will react when they meet cartcart for the first time.

Maybe the whole scene will be like it came out of a mafia story - My dad sharpening his kris and look menancing. My grandma will play the matriach and stomp her cane on the floor With her eyes squinting, she’ll hiss out, “I will crrrruuuuush you like a cockroach”. Mum will be the inquisitor. I’m sure she has her lie detector somewhere.

Oh my tummy feels like a washing machine.

18th December! Can you imagine it? Two years already!

Happy anniversary, carissimo, and wishing to lots more to come.

Il mio bell’angelo, ti amo tanto tanto tanto. Un milione di baci per te amore mio. Non desidero altro che felicità per noi due.

I love you very VERY much

My night-classmate, Zuraidah and I met to have dinner and we met the friendliest and sweetest person ever.

It was friday night, and we decided to meet in the city. I reached there at about 6.30pm and it was already extremely crowded. The roads were full of cars weaving in and out, honking and being impatient. I dare not cut between, as I used to. Better be slow but safe than be sorry. I tried desperately to find a place to park the scooter, however, there didnt seemed to be anywhere scooter friendly. And even when I reached the parking lot, it was already parked full of motorcycles with other motorcyclists waiting for someone to come out so they could park in their place.

It was hopeless. I doubt I’d be able to park there.

After contemplating, I decided to ride around the area again. And soonafter, it started to drizzle, and I panicked as the accident was still fresh in my mind.

So I quickly went into a random shopping center carpark and parked there and went up to meet Zuraidah. My goodness there were people everywhere. You couldnt walk 2 steps without having at least one person to the front, to the back, left and right of you.

I dont think that I’d be riding along these area during the week of christmas. With even more people then, it will be much more stressful.

I met Zuraidah by the junction and we proceeded to Centerpoint. We decided to have dinner at pizza hut and Zuraidah’s eagle eye noticed the name tag on the user.

“Hey, you have the same name as me!”

And they quickly became very friendly with each other.

She was adorable, she was friendly and she was funny. That I couldnt help but to laugh out loud at her mannerisms and quirkiness.

Zuraidah and I finally decided on having the christmas pizza set. But we didnt want to have the hash brown which was included in the set. And we asked the waitress, Zura, if we could substitute it with something else.

“Not a problem!” she replied, with a smile.

Zuraidah and I were floored! We have never met such a positive waitress like that before.

Dinner went on great, with the two of us discussing and talking when suddenly one waitress put the bill on our table. And I thought hmm, are they chasing us away? Till I opened the book and saw that there was a $15 dollar note in there. Someone mixed up our table with another.

Zura then came up and we told her about the mix up and she joked,

“Darn! You should have kept the money and split it up among ourselves!” and lively chatted with us.

“Are you sure it was okay to subsitute the food?”

“Nah, dont worry about it”

Zuraidah and I were a little worried when the manager were looking in our direction. I really didnt want sweet Zura to get scolded by talking too long with us. Eventually, we were done with dinner. And Zura came up with a coupon for us.

It was a discount coupon!

That was the nicest thing any restaurant has done for us. We were floored! It was so nice that I began to feel guilty. Here is this girl, only 18 years old, in her vacation job, being all happy and cheery and being extremely nice, to us, strangers whom she has never met before.

Have you ever met anyone like that?

Does anyone know how to import blogger beta posts and comments into wordpress? Importing RSS works great, but it doesnt import comments.

I’ve been trying out the method here, but now I’m stuck at the step ‘Export the 2nd database (”old”) using PHPMyAdmin’. And I have no idea what to do.

Update : use this wonderful script by adywarna - it worked wonderfully for me :)