I still had the same problems the next day, but I had to bear with it as I needed the scooter to get to work and night class.
On monday, the leak was even more than what I anticipated. Engine oil was spilling out on the floor! I was so alamed that I sent it for repairs immediately.
After work, I went down to the workshop and the mechanic and I finally saw what was causing the problem. It was the engine chassis. It had a split!
Me : What could have caused the problem?
Mr Wee : I have a scooter of the same model as yours too. It could be caused by too much pressure - If you had a passenger and they shook your scooter, that could have caused cracks in the engine.
Me : This is very bad.
Mr Wee : There are two options. Option one is to replace the entire engine which costs about $700. But I’ll recommend you to take option two - I’ll use a sealant and cement the split together. This will be cheaper.
Me : Ok, lets go with option two and we’ll cross our fingers.
—
I got the scooter back yesterday and so far so good. No leaks after parking it overnight and after a ride to work today, its still dry. There looks like a patch there but its actually a stain from the leak and its actually dry.
Still, I’ll keep my fingers crossed.
Sidenote : There will be a TAA (Tabung Amal Aidilfitri) Charity Ride this Sunday. There will be a convoy ride of approximately 1000 bikes and scooters to an end venue, where the presentation of donated funds will be held.
If you have a two wheeler, come and join us! Riding in a convoy is fun! :)
We reached the Tanjong Pagar Community Center and we were introduced to a Antonio Codinach, a director and teacher for the Las Lilas School - A Spanish & Portuguese Language and Cultural School.
Antonio started with an overview of the different regions of Spain and then talked about the interesting facts about it like :
How the flamenco which is famous in Andalucia, had Islamic roots.
and how the City of Arts in Valencia is shaped like an eye, which will actually open and close at intervals.
There were a number of people our group whom have previously travelled to Spain and shared their experiences there. Mum chatted up to the lady sitting near her and she affirmed that Spain was indeed extremely beautiful but it could tend to be messy.
Antonio moved on towards the gastronomia - popular spanish foods, such as the Paella, the Tortilla and the Gazpacho. I have to admit that although I was fasting, my faith almost wavered while looking at the most appetizing sights!
Seeing how the food was prepared made me realise how similar Spanish food was with some of the food that I have encountered. The Arroz con Leche (rice with milk) for example, reminded me of an Indian dessert as well as a Malay Bubur Pulut hitam (Black Glutinous Rice pudding).
I also see how the Tortilla definitely reminded me of the Italian frittata as both uses eggs as the main ingredient, fried and turned over. Many Spanish foods use olive oil, as Italian foods do too.
Later on towards the end of the workshop, we learnt some basic Spanish words such as :
Hola, me llamo Marina. ¿Y tú? - Hello, my name is Marina. And you?
Me llamo awesome dude - My name is awesome dude
Mucho gusto - Much pleasure
It was interesting to note that the Spanish ‘ll’ sounds like an english y. So when we say me llamo, it is pronouced as ‘mee yammo’. As the Spanish language has it roots from latin, I immediately picked the similarities to Italian, the language that I am currently learning - like the genderisation of words and how similar certain words are to each other. For example, an egg is uovo in Italian, and huevo in Spanish.
Facinating stuff.
Without us realising it, workshop came to an end. Mum and I thoroughly enjoyed the enriching session that we had - the food, the culture, the language. To be honest, before this, it never crossed my mind about visiting Spain. I wonder if we will be going to beautiful Espanol in the future :)
After collecting my scooter on monday, my brother and I stopped by Zamzam restaurant as we were near the vicinity. I think that Zamzam serves awesome murtabak and we decided to get a couple of packs home to break our fast with, with the family.
When we walked by the sidepath, I almost couldnt believe my eyes. There were so many workers touting us to enter their restaurants. I felt as if I was in Newton Circus food center instead. And there were so many cars lining up to buy the murtabaks. There was so much traffic honking, and the staff were shouting about that it was almost chaotic.
I’ve never seen so much traffic in that area before, not even during the weekends! Since when did the area become a drive in? :O
Sidenote : I found out that I won a pair of tickets to for a cultural workshop on Spain this Saturday. Coolness! Anyone would like to join me? I’m taking mum :)
For the past few weeks, there has been a trace of brown liquid and drops of coolant on the floor each morning when I take the scooter out of the carpark. And though it wasnt leaking much, I was still rather concerned. I didnt want to risk having my scooter explode on me!
I sent my scooter to Tong Aik on saturday morning and I met the mechanic, Mr Wee, whom handled my scooter the last check up. He promptly took my baby under his wing.
While waiting for Mr Wee to complete the check, I met Yaoming, a fellow vesporean. He recognized me from the Vivo Vespa event and approached me. I learnt that he was collecting his scooter.
Yaoming told me that he was on his way to go the Big Bike Fest and will be meeting the rest of the vesporeans later. Initially I contemplated on going to that event, but having already been there last year, I wasnt too appealed by its male-oriented activities.
There was a bike stunt performance that seemed interesting to me. But even that didnt make me feel all that compelled to go.
At length, Mr Wee told me that he could not trace any obvious flaws and needed time to inspect my scooter more thoroughly. I headed for home.
I took the bus.
After the convenience of my scooter, it feels so different taking public transportation again - sitting passively on the seat, blocking out the sound from the mobile-tv, staring at the scenery, and then finally lulled off to sleep and waking up blearily just in time at my stop.
Come monday morning, I walked to the bus stop to head to work. It was the same scene of over a year ago. The same listless people waiting for their busses. Some familliar faces. The annoying auntie pushing her way to the front to enter the bus.
I received a call by Mr Wee later at work telling me that my scooter would be ready for collection in the afternoon. Luckily, my brother has already finished his shift and was willing to give me a lift to Tong Aik.
Unfortunately for me, I was wearing a pair of skirt on the day. Though I was confident of wearing a skirt on my scooter, little did I know that I would re-enact the infamous scene as Marilyn Monroe in the seven year itch, being a pillion to my brother, all the way to the workshop.
Speaking of skirts, after collecting my scooter back from the workshop, we were on our way back home. My brother noticed that there was a guy on a class 2A bike whom almost fell off his bike when he saw me. Gosh! Has he never seen a girl wearing a skirt and wedge shoes on a scooter before? :P
I should wear skirts more! :P
But anyways, when I get to the carpark these this morning, I am greeted by this :
Remember my friend Princessia Petunia? Prin is a jewellery maker in Secondlife. Some time ago, I spent time with Prin as she showed me how she created her beautiful jewellery.
Crafting these are really painstaking as jewellery are miniature and can be rather tough to handle - the texture, the resizing, the rotating. As much as I love jewellery, it is too much trouble for me to create them myself. I admire her dexterity :)
Recently Prin joined the Jewellery Exposition and made her debut as an artisian merchant. I accompanied her decorate her booth, and though she seemed stressed out, she was pleased with how it turned out.
Prin is selling beautiful pieces like these :
Gorgeous aren’t they?
I keep telling prin that she’s selling them for much too cheaply. 6 jewelled bracelets for 115L? Thats too cheap! She even coded them so that it sparkles.
You are undervalueing yourself, prin -_-”
Here I am at her booth wearing her delightfully beautiful emerald earring and necklace. Doesnt SL Rinaz look good? :D
Do take a peek at Prin’s and other jewellery artists’s masterpieces - some of the display there are truly works of art :)
Its amazing how time flies by so quickly and now its already the first day of Ramadan!
Ramadan is a month where muslims abstain from eating from dawn to dusk. Personally for me, I like this month as it heightens my mental clarity, and I can focus better without the distractions of the need to feed.
When I first started my full day fast at about 9 years old, it felt like such an achievement for me to do what the ‘big people’ were able to do.
Now that I’ve grown older, I’ve come to realise that this month isnt only about our non consumption of food and beverage but a dedication on our spiritual, mental and physical selves.
With this, I wish everyone a beautiful month of ramadan :)
After a long postponement, my Italian language classmates finally met up on Tuesday evening at La Fabbrica.
The place
As I rode uphill Dempsey Road, I noticed how distinctly secluded and quiet the area was - it wasnt a place I’d be walking by myself as the path leading up was dimly lighted. It was starting to feel eerie, even while riding on my scooter. But it didnt take long for me to locate the next building.
I quickly recognized the restaurant by the distinctive logo outside - already there were a number of people lounging and relaxing about with their friends.
I walked in, saw my friends and sat down with them. While sitting down, I admired the charming decorations and the build - from the lights to the high ceiling. But although the decorations here were modern, the building itself it reminded me of a building built in the 60’s, with its zinc roof and the ceiling fan.
Veron tells me that the entire area in Dempsey Road formerly used to be an army barrack and I was amazed by the revelation. I wonder how the place would be like at that time. Can the soldiers picture that what used to be their barracks is now a posh restaurant?
The service
Both the manager and the (extremely attractive) waiter that served us was patient and helpful - giving recommendations on the food and were quite attentive to our requests.
The food itself took a while to prepare, but that gave us the chance to talk and interact in the intimate environment as well as explore the premises around.
The food
The food list was limited - there were only a few types of food here. I was surprised to see that there were only 4 types of pastas. I made my choice.
For starters, I had the Crabmeat, Apple and Sundried Tomato Salad.
The salad can be shared with another person as the portion is quite large. I think that it was an interesting combination - the combination of crunchy, sour, tang and body. It was nice enough. But I’m not sure if I would order it again the next time.
For the main course, I had Capellini with Prawn and Arugula.
This was nice, with the prawns being juicy and lucious, and the combination of the sharp tasting rughetta leaves and the savoury tomato, even the garlic cloves were butter soft. I could detect a hint of cheese. And most importantly, the pasta was al dente.
Unfortunately, I wasnt too impressed about it. Even though my friends were raving about and loving their pasta, I just couldnt feel it for mine - having tasted really good food with cartcart while in Italy, my standards has gone up. I think its my curse :\
But all was not lost! Fortunately for me, I found love in my dessert - Panna Cotta!
Oh the custard is smooth and delightfully creamy. Yum! I savoured it slowly, letting each heavenly silk glide through my mouth. Heaven! Personally for me, being a sweet tooth, I prefer having caramel over my panna cotta, but the berry sauce was lovely enough - Definitely the highlight of my meal :)
—
We had such a lovely time at La Fabbrica that we forgot the time and spent the night talking and finally left the restaurant at 11pm. I very nearly forgotten that I had to go to work the next day! :P
La Fabbrica is a cosy and intimate place to have a meal with friends and loved ones, with friendly waiters to serve you. If the pasta could duly impress me, this place would be perfect :)
