Marina’s Bloggariffic

Without realising it, it was already his final day in Singapore. Where did all the time go?

After the pizza outing and that everyone has left, I started to feel my emotional turmoil again. And the floodgates opened. All these while, I’ve always felt sad when we had to say our goodbyes, but this time round, the feeling of sadness was more intense than ever, that it caught me by surprise. My eyes hurt and felt swollen as I went on my journey home.

Friday, 4 Jan 2008

After I left work for the day, I parked my scooter in the carpark near the Bed and Breakfast. When I arrived, Cart took out the last pack of pasta that my aunt has kindly made for him and asked me to join him for a late lunch. I was surprised as I would have been too hungry to wait for anyone. He said that he preferred to eat with me than eating alone. I thought that that was kind of sweet :)

It may not look good, but it tastes absolutely delicious!

After our lunch we decided to take the scooter to head to Sim Lim Square. We proceeded to the carpark and I was just about to rummage in my handbang to find my keys when my eyes scanned the scooter box. And my eyes went completely opened wide. Kind of like what you see in this picture below.

My keys were in the scooter box!

How could I have left it in there!?

Someone could have just taken the keys and rode away with my beloved scooter!

I must have been extremely stressed out. It was disconcerting.

Cartcart tried to calm me down and I realised how lucky I was that the scooter wasn’t stolen.

At length with Cart safely behind me, before heading to Sim Lim, we first stopped by to have coffee at Geek Terminal. It was open! We were finally here! I told Cartcart that Geek Terminal was the place where I believe serves very good coffee.

I didnt drink all that, this was what my friends had the last time we were at Geek Terminal

Here was what Cartcart had to say :

Coffee in GT from rinaz on Vimeo

After our coffee, we then continued our journey and rode past Tekka Market and I parked my scooter in an area somewhere near Chinatown and in a short time, we had a leisurely walk to Sim Lim Square.

Sim Lim Square is a famous center for electronic gadgets. It was interesting seeing Cartcart there. As we both loved electronic gadgets, we were going about different stores peering and examining anything that caught our eye.

Eventually, after comparing the prices, Cart decides to get  the Creative Zen. He looked quite pleased at himself after finding out that it was duty free. :)

The gadget was spiffy. I’ve been enamored over it after seeing the guys over at Tech 65 do a review over it. I tried getting Cartcart to buy one for me too but he said no. Instead he said, “I’m getting you something else.” I stared quizzedly at him and he continued, “where is the nearest jeweller here? I want to buy you a ring”

OOH!!!

I was most excited that my mind couldnt compute momentarily. I called up my good friends Geri and Juli to ask them if they knew of any jeweller in the vicinity.

Geri adviced us to head to Parco Bugis Junction as there were a number of Jewellers there. So we walked around and sure enough, there were about 5 jewellers side by side.

We walked into one of them. It definitely was an interesting experience being with Cartcart in a jewellery shop. I asked gingerly about their engagement rings. Already in my mind I knew that I wanted. A simple but classic solitaire set in yellow gold.

And the man at the counter showed us a collection of beautiful and exquisite rings. But I didnt want any of them, they were all white gold.

So we tried going to the other jewellers, Goldheart, Lee Hwa, Soo Kee, Meyson, Citigems. And it was all the same. None of them carried yellow gold with them.

One of the goldsmith helpfully adviced us to go back to Chinatown to see if there were any jewellers there.

So we headed back to Chinatown. By then, there were a number of street buskers around. It was fascinating to see them. One of the performers were doing a beautiful piece of calligraphy using his mouth.

That was when we stumbled upon a jeweller as we passed by and I noticed yellow gold in their display case!

But when looked at their designs, I did not really liked it. The designs looked much too garish and what made it worse was that they were all very tight! Suddenly I felt very self conscious of my body type. After a while, I found one that could fit me. Vehemently, not wanting white gold and with little time left, I looked at Cartcart and said, “I think I could learn to like this one.” Cart looked at me and asked, “Are you sure?” I just nodded my head and he proceeded to take out his card.

That was when the goldsmith shook his head and said, cash only please.

we were crestfallen. Eventually, the both of us left the shop quite dejectedly.

cart : I still would like to give you a ring

rinaz : Lets go back to parco, I dont really like white gold, but I can live with it

cart : Ok. lets go

We decided to walk by the other street as we both did not want to walk in Bugis Street where it would definitely be crowded by this time. That was when suddenly, out of nowhere, pops out a man out of a jewelery shop. It was Taka Jewellery. I wasn’t very optimistic. I was sure that it would be the same as the others.

Man : Hello! Would you like to come in?

Cart : Do you have yellow gold?

Man : Oh yes we do!

And just like that, I saw the ring that I wanted. A simple solitaire set in yellow gold. It was perfect! We were both pleasantly surprised at our find.

Later on Cartcart took the ring and slipped it to my finger, and proposed. Of course I said yes! :)

We had a quick vegetarian dinner at one of the hawker center where I had the yummiest spring roll ever. For a vegetarian one, I was impressed at how flavourful it was that I went back for seconds, even though I wasnt hungry.

We went back to the scooter where I found out that my cashcard was stolen! I had forgotten to take it out of the IU-unit and someone swooped to steal it. Thats twice the blunder that I did today. I was in extreme stress that I could not even think properly.

I was so upset with myself.

We rushed back to the bnb to grab his luggage before grabbing a cab to the airport. The cabbie was cheerfully chit chatting with us, when we almost reached the airport, both of us were amazed by the long queue of taxis at the airport. The taxi driver said that he had to wait about 3 hours once while waiting in line for a passenger.

As soon as we reached there, I began to feel very sad. I dont think we spent enough time together. I really didnt want cartcart to go.

But in no time, he was in the ticketing queue and then I reluctantly let him go and waved while he disappeared off in the boarding hall. And my heart just shattered. In front of everyone, I started to have tears rolling down my cheeks. I just couldn’t help myself …

Aftermath

Its been about 3 weeks now that he’s left. Of course I do miss him alot. But life goes on. I guess I’m very lucky in that we both want to make this relationship work.

So for the moment, I’ll just try to keep being positive and hang on in there. And we’ll be planning our wedding this coming December. But as much as just thinking of the expenditures and the planning makes me stressed out, I cant wait to become Mrs Cartcart :)

Cartcart, I love you very much. Thank you for being there for me. Thank you for being the way you are. Thank you for loving me :)

In this series :

• Part 1 : His arrival
• Part 2 : Of first lessons and I am legend
• Part 3 : Of science center and yummy spagetti too
• Part 4 : Gorgeous sounds of the handbells
• Part 5 : Meeting the aunt
• Part 6 : My classmate 10th year reunion
• Part 7 : Not enough time at the Singapore Zoo!
• Part 8 : Cart’s big day
• Part 9 : Of heavenly chocolate and earthly pizza

Recently, fellow pingster, Chillycraps, organized a mini gathering to watch the Complain Choir. Having already watched the original Helsinki Complain choir, I thought that it would be interesting to watch the Singaporean version live.

Here is a short montage of the event as well as some words from Chillycraps, NTT, Mintea and Nicole :

Complain Choir - Singapore from rinaz on Vimeo

Did you watch the Complaint Choir? What did you think of it?

Links :

• Lyrics to Complaint Choir - Singapore
  
• Complaint Choir Website

Wed 2 Jan 2008

My first day of work for the year. I was back at work again after taking leave for about a week. It was a busy day for me, flying about everywhere. When the day ended, it was just nice to spend some time and hang out with Cartcart.

View from the top of the bed and breakfast

It felt somewhat different now that the the routine has changed - no rushing to get to Darul Arqam in the morning like we were used to. Instead, it felt like a regular day, like I was the husband going back home at the end of the day to his doting wife. Actually, I don’t mind that role at all.

After watching Tstar’s handbell concert, Cart wanted to visit the Esplanade and watch any musical concert there. But due to the timing, there were none available.

Nevertheless, I was more than happy to bring him to one of the famous landmarks of Singapore - The Esplanade or the durian, fondly called by the locals :D

The esplanade was still as grand and beautiful as the first time I stepped there in 2004. After our dinner at Al Dente, I brought Cartcart to Max Brenner for dessert.

Max Brenner specialises in chocolate recipes, like hot chocolate, chocolate cakes. I first went here in 2004 with Geri and we both enjoyed it very much.

When we reached there, there were quite a number of people there already. Some students, some businessmen, I saw a few couples and a complete family too. It wasn’t crowded, but enough people to be lively.

And the place was definitely very cosy. I loved the decoration, with the dark brown furniture and the natural colours. It made the place very warm and inviting.

We had to pour over the menu and contemplate on what to get. As both of us are chocolate monsters, it was daunting to figure out what to get as everything in the menu sounded so good.

In the end we decided on getting the Chocolate Fondue :D

And it was delightful. I couldn’t get over how smooth and warm and heavenly the chocolate was. Every taste was just pure love.

I was very sorry when it was gone in less than 20 minutes. For something that was supposed to be for two people, the chocolate was so little! Next time we go there, I would probably get the large one instead!

Here is a quick video of us enjoying chocolate at Max Brenner :

Cart and Rinaz at Max Brenner from rinaz on Vimeo

Thurs 3 Jan 2008

After numerous mentions by NTT about how great the pizza at Da Donato was, on a whim, we organized a small pizza gathering via Twitter. It had to be small, as NTT advised that the place was actually very small.

Dont ask me why NTT is crouching so low

I did not quite believe it till I actually saw it for myself. When we reached there, there were just about 2X4 square tables lined up in all as well as a number of very hungry friends! Cart and I arrived embarrassingly late after having to fight with the after-office traffic. The guys were nice enough to wait for us to arrive before ordering … Sorry everyone … :(

We made our order at the counter and I could not seem to tear my eyes away from the colourful pizza display. There were different types of rectangle cut, individual pizza on the wooden counter. You pick the one that you like for the person to bake in the oven.

Individual pizzas was an affordable $7 each while whole pizzas costs from $15 and above :) NTT and Arzhou ordered the Quattro Formaggi (four cheese) Pizza which they seem to enjoy very much.

I’m not that much of a cheese person, so the pizza wasn’t really what I’d normally have.

Cart and I ordered the vegetarian pizza instead. When the staff brought it to our table, I was quite surprised to see the amount of greenery on top of it.  Daphne quipped that it looked like a forest!

This pizza has olives, mushroom, onion and generously sprinkled on top of our pizza is rughetta - a sharp tasting vegetable that Cart absolutely adores. Its an acquired taste though, and tastes best when its in a mixture with other food, rather than to eat it as it is.

Cartcart loved his pizza so much that he did not even want to talk, while just focusing on his food in front of him. Being a native Italian, and loving it, that means that the pizza here must be good! :D

Here is a quick video of us having pizza :)

Pizza at Da Donato from rinaz on Vimeo

After our pizza, we adjourned to the Wiener Kaffeehaus for a spot of coffee. It was just a stone throw away from Da Donato.

The smell alone was inviting here. There were loads of lovely scents about, lemons, vanilla, freshly brewed coffee and others.

The proprietor walked up to us and started to chat with us about the different types of coffee that they had there. One in particular, was the Kopi Luwak - a very prized coffee which is actually made from Civet Cat excrement!

The lady explained that the Civet Cat chooses to eat the best coffee berries and the berries does not get digested. Thus, the excrement are then harvested for use.

Arzhou was very interested in ordering a cup. But unfortunately for him, the house was sold out of the Kopi Luwak and had to settle for something else instead.

I, on the other hand, ordered something less controversial. The Viennese Iced Coffee

The iced coffee that I had was delicious! I think that, that was the best Iced Coffee that I ever had. It had ice cream on top of the most creamy and delightful coffee. Its absolutely delicious. I even forgotten to videoblog about it :P

This is Daphne’s Maria Teresa

I’m not too certain whats in this coffee, but Daphne said that she felt happy after drinking this. I didn’t know that coffee was an anti-depressant :P

And this is Cart’s double espresso.

I did not have the chance to snap what the others had, but I’m sure that the display was as pretty as the ones we had :)

Here is a quick video of us having coffee :

Vienna Kaffehaus from rinaz on Vimeo

And it was such a splendid night we had, chatting away, joking around and having fun. It was just lovely and we both enjoyed ourselves very much. Thank you Sekling, Uzyn, NTT, Arzhou and Daphne. We really had a spectacular time :)

Links :

• Daphne’s blog entry
• NTT’s blog entry

Next : Cart’s final day in Singapore

In this series :

• Part 1 : His arrival
• Part 2 : Of first lessons and I am legend
• Part 3 : Of science center and yummy spagetti too
• Part 4 : Gorgeous sounds of the handbells
• Part 5 : Meeting the aunt
• Part 6 : My classmate 10th year reunion
• Part 7 : Not enough time at the Singapore Zoo!
• Part 8 : Cart’s big day

Mon 31 Dec 2007

It was a big day for Cartcart. After studying Islam at Darul Arqam for several sessions, today was the day he converted.

It felt sort of festive with my relatives and family bearing witness to the entire ceremony I wonder how it would be like during the actual wedding itself.

I mean, Cart and I already looked like a bride and groom, with our matching green outifts.

Coupled with my relatives whom were already wearing colourful clothes themselves, I heard someone quip, “Was there a wedding going on?” while we were having our lunch together -_-”

Tues 1 Jan 2007

We spent the new year visiting my maternal grandmother’s place. It wasnt anything eventful, but it was nice to get together and interact with the extended family anyways.

But the air seemed a different there with my relatives all teasing me to hurry up and get married. Oh so stressed -_-”

After we visited my grandmother’s place, we decided to drop by my maternal aunts place. It was kind an interesting experience as Cart and I reached there on my scooter!

Thank goodness that I did not get lost trying to get from one part of the Island to the other. Well … not too much anyways :P

It was already reaching nightfall when we reached there. We rang on the doorbell. No answer. We rang again. Doesn’t seem to be anyone inside. No one is home? We almost left for the elevator when the door opened gingerly and out popped my cousins head.

“Come in! Come in!” they invited us in warmly, “We thought that you couldnt make it”

My aunt and cousins were one of the first of my relatives to know of my relationship with Cartcart. They were there when I first brought Cartcart to meet my parents for the first time. They are very nice and both Cartcart and I are very comfortable being around them.

We both made friends with their cat called baby!

Isnt baby absolutely cute? :D

Naturally our conversation flowed to baby, the star of the day. Cart starts to ask why baby had such a short tail :

Baby the cat from rinaz on Vimeo

I dont know how I could suddenly thought of Muslim Cat. My mind can be quite off tangent sometimes. Edward de Bono will be proud.

My aunt invited us to have dinner where we had pasta and vegetarian finger foods that resembled mini sausages and squid balls that tasted quite yummy actually.

And we had dadih! This is a rather popular malay dessert which is made up mostly of yogurt and fruits. It tastes light and fresh and absolutely delicious. And its a whole loads of fun to play with as its quite shaky :D

Dadih from rinaz on Vimeo

We had a most lovely evening. It was really nice to be there with my aunt and cousions, laughing the evening away feeling very relaxed.

So much so that I did not realise that it was already past 10pm! Reluctantly, we had to say our goodbyes as I had to go to work(!) the next day. I rushed to send Cartcart back to his bed and breakfast while I went home andhad to force myself to go to sleep. BUMMER!

Next : Heavenly Chocolate Fondue at the Esplanade and yummy pizza at Da Donato!

In this series :

• Part 1 : His arrival
• Part 2 : Of first lessons and I am legend
• Part 3 : Of science center and yummy spagetti too
• Part 4 : Gorgeous sounds of the handbells
• Part 5 : Meeting the aunt
• Part 6 : My classmate 10th year reunion
• Part 7 : Not enough time at the Singapore Zoo!

After learning about the Asus EEE PC, I was completely enamoured. I was fortunate enough to loan a set for a test drive.

Here is a video overview of my first encounter :

Watch in Vimeo

And the verdict? I want one! In green!

Links

• The Asus EEE PC Website
• How to enable full desktop mode

You may be interested in

• Vimeo - Cooler than youtube!
• Comiqs.com - Fierce competitor to Comic Life
• A demo of my Logitech Quickcam Fusion Webcam

Updated : After a month of using the eee pc

Though we were both worn out by the end of the day, we both enjoyed ourselves immensely and had the loveliest time at the zoo.

That tiger is looking at us like we were food

Sun, 30 Dec 2007

Longtime netbuddy, Geri, whom is a staff at the Zoo, has very generously offered Cart and I tickets there. As the Singapore Zoo is famous for its open zoo concept, I was quite excited to bring Cartcart here. The last time that I was here was in 1998 and I was curious to know what new developments was in there.

We reached the place in the early afternoon after taking a long and leisurely bus ride. By the time we reached there, it was already quite crowded with people.

The place has certainly changed since the last time I’ve been there. It looked much modern with its decor and felt more spacious. I made a quick call to Geri and she popped out to say hello and met Cartcart for the first time.

I was happy to see that they were able to get along with each other so nicely :)

Sang Kancil having lunch

As we entered the animal exhibits, I was pleasantly surprised to see much changes being done all around. The zoo was divided into different segments according to the types of animals they were like primates, the continents they were from.

You scratch my back and I scratch yours

One of the first animals that we saw were the otters. I nearly had a headache when I approached this exhibit at they smelled really bad! But this was the way that they mark their territory. I’m glad that I did not live next to an otter!

The beautiful red fox

As we explored, Cart was very impressed at how natural the surrounding was that he even quipped, “This doesnt even feel like a zoo!” Nowhere were any of the animals were in a cage. Instead, the zoo uses hidden barriers like moats and shrubberies.

The majestic Giraffes

And I was amazed at how close we were able to get to some of the free roaming animals. I was so close that I could pet them if I wanted to, but I dont think thats a good idea. I dont want to risk my hand being bitten :P

Although I have to admit that I am so curious to know how the lemur coat will feel like. Is it soft? Is it rough like steel wool?

While we were in the Australian exhibit, this handsome little emu came over to me so close, as if expecting me to take a picture of it, which I happily obliged :)

The dangerous animals on the other hand were kept in a safe distance using moats and bridges :

For some reason this white tiger was very restless and kept pacing around. Maybe it was thinking of us as food :| Luckily for us, we were separated between a deep moat. But the species were able to climb high, they were kept behind glass displays where we could admire them :

Like this stunningly beautiful Jaguar. By the way, did you know that although both look similar, the difference between the Jaguar and the Leopard is that the Jaguar has a black dot in the middle of its spots. I learnt a new fact :)

Cart and I tried to go to one of the live animal show, but unfortunately for us, by the time we reached there, it was full of people! We could not even see the stage. I felt like we missed a great show.

Thus, when we were determined to see the next show and we headed there early and we were rewarded to a very entertaining elephant show :)

It was very entertaining! The trainers and the elephants (as well as the emcee) had such great chemistry with each other. Everything just flowed and it was apparent that everyone enjoyed it :)

Here is a quick video montage :

Watch in Vimeo

In the end, I think that we did not seem to have enough time to explore the entire zoo. There were still a number of exhibits that we did not go to. And we were so reluctant to leave the zoo, even though it was already closing for the day.

But there is just enough time to pose with a Monkeh!

Thank you so much Geri, Cart and I really enjoyed our trip to the zoo, very much! :D

Links :

• More animal pics in the gallery
• The Singapore Zoo Website

In this series :

• Part 1 : His arrival
• Part 2 : Of first lessons and I am legend
• Part 3 : Of science center and yummy spagetti too
• Part 4 : Gorgeous sounds of the handbells
• Part 5 : Meeting the aunt
• Part 6 : My classmate 10th year reunion

For three years, Jurong Institute was part of my life. Jurong Institute used to be a school where we studied for the A-levels to head to the university. When JI closed its doors in 2003, many of us felt sad. Personally for me, my JI days was one of one of the most memorable days of my life, especially for the people and the friends that I made.

See if you can spot me :)

So when my JI classmate, Hong Boon sms’ed me about the the class reunion, I instantly replied back that I would be able to make it. It would be so nice to meet the gang again.

—

Sat, 29 Dec 2007

Cart and I decided to head to Geek Terminal for some coffee before going to the meet. Having always hearing me gush about how lovely their coffee was, Cart wanted to find it out for himself. Unfortunately when we reached there, it was closed!

We both left dejectedly and went to Coffee Club instead, where we had some coffee and shared a really delightful Chocolate and Coffee Mud pie ice cream with Oreo powder and fudge drizzled onto it.

Yummy! It was so good that I felt sorry when it was finally gone.

After realising the time, we took the train to Orchard. Being a city area, it was a very popular place to be which tends to be a congested place. Both Cart and I had to walk against the week enders crunch, like salmons swimming upstream.

We finally reached Ngee Ann City and stopped a while to admire the beautiful 4 storey high Christmas tree before heading to the Family International Buffet Restaurant. I was surprised to see only Melvin and then Juli, BK, William and his wife arriving shortly after.

Apart from Juli, its been ages since I’ve seen them. They were still as friendly as ever and we chatted amiably while waiting for the others.

But the others were so late! We could not take it any longer that we decided to enter the restaurant and have a seat.

Hats when the rest arrived one by one. Over an hour later than the time stipulated -_-”

The restaurant looked like a nice place. Being voracious eaters, all of us couldn’t wait to attack the food there. And there were plentiful types of foods to choose from. Here are a few of the sections that I managed to capture :

From different types of rice and savory food

To steamed food

Colourful desserts

At one point, Xiang Long said, “Stop taking pictures! You look like a tourist!” to which I replied, “Come on, I’m a BLOGGER!” :P

But there were loads loads more like the seafood (like lobsters, sashimi and Salmon) section, that I neglected to take a picture of because we were all raring to eat!

Hello? Sorry darling, but I want to eat now. Callyoubacklater!

In the middle of our meal, Hong Boon, took out the class Time Capsule. This was where we added in memorabilia of our school life all the way back in 1997. And now that 10 years has passed, each of us were curious to see what was inside it.

This is our time capsule (which looks suspiciously like a coffee canister) On top of the time capsule reads, “This remains as 97G property to be rediscovered on 06112007” It turns out that we were one month late :P

It was really cool to see the things inside the time capsule, mostly hand written old letters, photographs and we poured over each and every one of them. Truth be told, many of us has even forgotten about these items.

Like this excuse card. I don’t even remember putting this into the time capsule. I don’t even remember carrying it around! But since it had my name on it, it should be mine :

See! Never skipped class, never left school early, never pretended to be sick. I’m such a good girl.

Here Max is showing the handwritten letter of one of our classmate. Briefly it says, “I have a wish to become a member of the parliament. I would like to be an officer in the Army or the Navy. And I would like to marry Karen Tee Wen Chi“

I wonder what his reaction will be when he sees this letter, now that he is not married to Karen, not an officer and not (yet) a member of the parliament :P

It was just so lovely to go through old memories together.

After our dinner, on a whim we decided to get a new time capsule to be opened in the next 10 years :) I wonder how we will all be like by then?

Next : Meeting Geri and monkeying around in the zoo!

In this series :

• Part 1 : His arrival
• Part 2 : Of first lessons and I am legend
• Part 3 : Of science center and yummy spagetti too
• Part 4 : Gorgeous sounds of the handbells
• Part 5 : Meeting the aunt