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Fixing a broken engine

Two weeks ago, I noticed a leak coming out of my scooter and I consulted the mechanic. After what he believed it to be caused by the metal washer, he repaired it and I got it back.

Leak on my Vespa GT200 Scooter

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.

Leak on my Vespa GT200 Scooter

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.

Sealant over engine on my Vespa GT200 Scooter

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! 🙂

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A cultural and language workshop on beautiful Spain

Many of us would recognize this picture as a tortilla bread, ready to be topped with fillings and then rolled up.

Imagine my surprise when I found out that if you ordered a tortilla in Spain, you would get this egg dish instead.

This was one of the many interesting facts that we learnt about Spain.

Having subscribed to the lifeskills and lifestyle @ People’s Association newsletter, I saw a contest about a Latin American Culture Workshop and participated for the fun of it. I’ve forgotten all about it till I checked my email some weeks after and realised that I’ve won. I decided to take my mum along.

We reached Tanjong Pagar Community Center and we were introduced to a Antonio Codinach, a director and teacher for the Las Lilas Spanish & Portuguese Language and Cultural School.

As soon as Antonio started talking, I was immediately fascinated by his accent. I must be having the same fascination as how my family was when they met Cartcart for the first time.

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.

The City of Arts, Valencia

  • 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 who 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, theTortilla 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 could 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.

Antonio Codinach of Las Lilas

Later on towards the end of the workshop, we learnt some basic Spanish words.

It was interesting to note that the Spanish ‘ll’ sounds like an english y. So when we say me llamo, it is pronouced as ‘meh yammo’. As the Spanish language has its 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.

Fascinating stuff.

Without us realising it, workshop came to an end. Mum and I thoroughly enjoyed the enriching session that we had about the food, the culture and 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.

Here is a clip from the workshop :

Related links

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When did Zamzam become a drive in restaurant?

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.

Murtabak is yum!

When we walked by the sidepath, I almost couldn’t 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 shouting 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?

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Mysterious leak coming out of my Vespa GT200

I was scooterless for the weekend.

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 wasn’t 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, who handled my scooter the last check up. He promptly took my baby under his wing.

Tong Aik

While waiting for Mr Wee to complete the check, I met Yaoming, a fellow vesporean. He was there to collect his scooter that day and he recognized me from the Vivo Vespa event.

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 wasn’t too appealed by its male-oriented activities.

Big Bike Fest 2007 by Pauche

There was a bike stunt performance that seemed interesting to me. But that wasn’t enough for me to feel 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 so I headed for home and 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 buses. Some familiar 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 in 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.

Why is she smiling about?

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. Has he never seen a girl wearing a skirt and wedge shoes on a scooter before?

picture of a crazy woman

But anyway, when I got to the car-park these this morning, I am greeted by this :

leak on my scooter

Again! Just what is wrong with it?

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Come visit a virtual jewellery exposition in Secondlife

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 :

Sparkling dainty ring by Princessia Petunia

Sparkling dainty bracelet by Princessia Petunia

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 -_-”

Rinaz Bijoux wearing a Princessia Petunia jewellery

Here I am at her booth wearing her delightfully beautiful emerald earring and necklace. Doesnt SL Rinaz look good? 😀

Do take a peek at Prin’s and other jewellery artists’s masterpieces – some of the display there are truly works of art 🙂

Jewellery Exposition 2007 in Secondlife
OnRez Orientation – 10, 225, 25

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Ramadan is here again!

It’s amazing how time flies by so quickly and now it’s already the first day of Ramadan!

Muslim men walking towards the gates after the prayers

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 isn’t 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 🙂

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La Fabbrica – Cosy and intimate dining

After a long postponement, my Italian language classmates finally met up on Tuesday evening at La Fabbrica.

La Fabbrica - Dempsey Road, Singapore

The place

As I rode uphill Dempsey Road, I noticed how distinctly secluded and quiet the area was – it wasn’t a place I’d be walking by myself as the path leading up was dimly lighted. It was starting to feel eerie while riding on my scooter. But it didn’t 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.

La Fabbrica - Dempsey Road, Singapore

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 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?

La Fabbrica - Dempsey Road, Singapore

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

La Fabbrica - Dempsey Road, Singapore

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.

La Fabbrica - Dempsey Road, Singapore

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.

La Fabbrica - Dempsey Road, Singapore

This was nice, with the prawns being juicy and luscious, 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 wasn’t too impressed. Even though my friends were raving about and loving their pasta, I just couldn’t feel it for mine – having tasted really good food with Cartcart while in Italy, my standards has gone up. I think it’s my curse :

But all was not lost! Fortunately for me, I found love in my dessert – Panna Cotta!

La Fabbrica - Dempsey Road, Singapore

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, having 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 11 pm. I very nearly forgotten that I had to go to work the next day! 😛

Here’s a quick clip

In a nutshell

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 🙂

La Fabbrica
18-B Dempsey Road
Singapore 249677

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Teh Tarik Ice cream? Taste it at Island Creamery

After hearing CC raving about it for the upteempth time, and seeing so many good reviews about it in so many blogs, the pingsters headed to ‘Island Creamery‘ for a dose of ice cream.

Ping.sg at Island Creamery

The place

Located in Serene Center, Island Creamery is a very cosy and a great place to chill out with friends. One of the thing that struck me was how cheerful and inviting the area was, as seen from the walls decorated with personal photos. You could request to print a photo here using your camera’s memory card.

Ping.sg at Island Creamery

I looked at the pictures on the wall and by sheer coincidence, I spot out a picture of the Vesporeans during one of their outings last year!

As the place is popular gathering place, it is quite vibrant and can be quite noisy at times, thus it isn’t a recommended place for anyone to do their studies!

The service

The folks running Island Creamery was very friendly, ready with a smile and quick to assist you. No surly faces here! There was this pretty waitresses who was more than willing to help Paced and me while we requested for a printing paper even though it was a very busy day for the staff.

Ping.sg at Island Creamery

The gentleman who were serving us ice cream was even kind and patient enough to wait while we pondered on which ice cream to get for our table.

The ice cream

A single scoop is $2.50, double scoop is $4.00 and a 500ml tub is $8.00. We shared among us four tubs of different types of ice cream – namely Nutella, Reverso, Burnt Caramel and the very popular Teh Tarik. I digged in and had my taste.

Ping.sg at Island Creamery

It was a divided camp with Paced, Dhope, Malique, Ethan, Claudia, Aaron, CC, Arzhou enjoying their ice cream while NTT, Attilio and I think that although it was nice, but it didn’t meet our expectations. As we’ve tasted good Italian gelato before, our expectations were higher. Thus we found the ice cream a little overrated, judging from the reviews from many blogs. I would have liked it better if their ice cream were more flavourful.

However, I do have to give credit for the rather tasty teh-tarik ice cream – my favourite out of the four. They actually managed to make it taste just like the actual teh tarik tea!

Here is a clip of the pingsters at Island Creamery

In a nutshell

Island creamery is a great place to chill out with friends to have nice ice cream at affordable prices with friendly and helpful staff to assist you. A highly recommended place to visit.

Island Creamery
10 Jalan Serene, Serene Centre #01-01

Links:

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Malay weddings are too much work

A bunga telur is a decorative container for eggs meant to be given away as gifts to guests in a Malay wedding.

When mum brought home a huge box of bunga telur and an ornate copper display stand, I started to have my mini panic attacks. Cartcart and I haven’t even planned our wedding yet and already mum has been talking and advising me about our future wedding. It makes me wonder who was more excited – Me or her?

She’s been giving me advice like :

  1. To set the date in the registrar of marriages at least 6 months in advance.
  2. To have a double ceremony.
  3. Drinking jamu to make me more fertile.

And the more she talked, the more I am in realisation that there are so much preparations to do! Not to mention the costs of the ceremony like, catering, invitations, dowry et al. And the more I think about it, the more I am starting to feel overwhelmed.

rinaz muka stress

Why do weddings have to be so much work?

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Vivo Vespa first year anniversary

Group - Vivo Vespa 2007

I missed out on much of the activities for the Vespa Club first year anniversary. But I still had an eyeful looking at all the colourful and interesting scooters of all sorts of shapes and size.

Chilling out at the verandah - Vivo Vespa 2007

When I reached Wild Rocket at Mount Emily, I could see lots of people lounging around over at the verandah. Most of them looked a little tired, probably from the activities that they did in the morning.

Some of the Vespa Club members explained to me that the participants did a number of challenges around Singapore. It sounds fun, though I have to admit that I didn’t miss it all that much in account of the rain and traffic due to the Iron Man Triathlon on sunday.

So I walked around and looked at the rows of beautiful vespas. I enjoyed looking at them. There’s something just so unique about it – a work of art by itself.

Green Scooter - Vivo Vespa 2007

Like this Green PX150. I really like the paint job for this one. Green is such a beautiful colour for this scooter.

Vespa Babe - Vivo Vespa 2007

Though this scooter isn’t my style, one has to admit that it is very eye catching.

Hello Kitty Vespa - Vivo Vespa 2007

Isn’t this Hello Kitty Vespa cute? 😀 This scooter is such a head turner that it was even on stomp.com.sg.

Soon it was time for the lucky draw and then the prize giving presentation :

Best overall Vespa - Vivo Vespa 2007

Winner of the best overall vespa

Best Paintjob Vespa - Vivo Vespa 2007

And winner of the best paintjob. Coincidentally, I nominated this Vespa the best looking vespa at the Big Bike Fest last year.

Very lovely scooters indeed! I’m glad that I managed to catch this event 🙂

Scoot - Vivo Vespa 2007

With thanks to redmini03, pauche and novi03 for the pictures