Cart in SG : Of first lessons and I am legend

Monday, 24th December

After confirming our appointment with the ustadz the previous day, Mum, Cart and me headed to Darul Arqam in the early morning to attend his first Islamic lessons.

At Darul Arqam

We were introduced to a Haji Mustafa, a retiree who decided to spend part of his time teaching in the center.

It was interesting for me to observe the man. Even though he was in his golden years, he was very fit and active. Full of vigor, he started describing the session coverage and then began the introductionary lessons.

rinaz and mum at a coffee shop in Geylang, Singapore

After the session, we decided to have lunch at the nearby coffee shop and we looked around to see what Cartcart could eat. Cart has made up his decision to become a vegetarian for a number of years and I tried my best to be careful and had to make sure that the food ordered for him has completely no tract of meat in it.

Especially after last year when we patronised a restaurant where there seemed to be a miscommunication and we found out that the food contained meat. I felt really bad as Cartcart had accidentally taken a bite because of my negligence.

Finally we saw an Indian stall which was selling vegetarian meals and Cartcart had a nice plate of Masala Dosai.

Little girl playing at fountain in Bugis Junction, Singapore
Photo credit roboppy

As mum had a prior engagement that day, she left us to our own devices after lunch time and I brought Cartcart to sight see a little 🙂

Little girl playing at fountain in Bugis Junction, Singapore

We stopped by Bugis where there were already large amount of people congregating around the Christmas decorations and a number of children playing around the fountains.

The movie I am legend was premièring. Having already read the book by Richard Matheson, Cart was very keen to watch the movie. So we headed to Shaw Towers where we caught the afternoon show.

Will Smith in I am legend

Unfortunately for me, being not up to date with movie trends, I didn’t realise that the movie had some horror segments till we were in the middle of the movie.

I pulled Cartcart’s sleeve when Will Smith’s character entered a dark building and stumbled upon some creatures. For the rest of the movie, I was wide eyed, sunk in my seat

It was an exciting movie, and I thought that Will Smith did a fine job of connecting the viewers to his character. But without giving too much spoilers away, I was left unsatisfied with the ending of the movie. It was just too Hollywood-ised for my taste.

Later on Cart explained to me that in the book, there were a number of survivors whom did not get completely infected but physically looks the same as a vampire. These survivors formed their own society.

I am legend, Richard Matheson

Unfortunately for them, the protagonist, Robert Neville was not able to differentiate between the survivors and the vampires and kills them both, making the survivors live in fear of him, comparing him to a mythical character, hence the title, “I am legend”.

And at that point, I thought to myself at how interesting it was to actually watch a movie told in the point of view of the zombies / vampires. And I could not help but to carry on discussing about the movie with Cartcart.

How refreshing it is to have someone to banter about movies with!

(To be continued)

In this series :

Cart in SG : Of book launch and his arrival

Its has been a week now that Cartcart left Singapore and I miss him more than I ever had before.

Cart's last moments in Singapore

Saturday evening, 22nd December 07

I attended the FAQ Book on Public Speaking book launch. Even though I was a little worried since the event was so close to the time that Cartcart would be landing, I thought that I’d just drop by for a while as Eric has written such a nice, personalised email inviting me to the event 🙂

When I arrived at Geek Terminal, I realised that I didn’t know a lot of the people there. But the people at the event were very friendly and I met Eric Feng, the writer himself and said my hello after recognizing him in his photo from his blog.

Eventually I saw a couple of blogger friends like Daphne, Herry and Brennan.

Daphne, Herry and Rinaz at FAQ Book

Later we were introduced to the panel whom guided and inspired Eric in the writing of his book. Andrew Zhan, Kelvin Lim as well as Irene Ang, all of whom were very experienced and passionate about public speaking.

The FAQ Book writer panel

I got my book signed by them, shamelessly asking them to sign as “To Marina with love”.

For me, the event was like food for the soul. As much as I am interested in improving myself, public speaking being one of them, the event felt more like a group of close friends gathering together. One could really see the love between the interaction of Eric’s family and friends there and I cant help but to just soak in the love 🙂

I enjoyed myself so much that I nearly forgot the time and I had to quickly slip away to board the train to Changi Airport.

There were a lot of people already waiting outside the arrival hall when I reached Terminal Two. I peered anxiously behind the glass to find him.

Waiting for Cartcart at Changi Airport

At long length I finally saw him. And my heart warmed. How I’ve missed him! We are together again 🙂

Back in June last year, while I was in Rome with Cartcart, we paid a visit to one of the mosque there to enquire about conversion and marriage processes. I was surprised to find out that there were no Islamic studies courses being conducted there

A mosque in Rome

I asked cartcart if he would be willing to undertake the lessons the next time he comes to Singapore and thankfully, he was open to the suggestion. Late Sunday morning, cart, mum and I went to Darul Arqam, a muslim convert center to register him for his Islamic studies.

Darul Arqam, Singapore

When we arrived there, the area seemed festive with a lot of people. It turns out that they were having a sermon upstairs in liew of the aidilfitri celebrations. We sat down and I listened as the preacher was postulating about the responsibilities of a child to their parents.

Darul Aqram, Singapore

I have to admit that the delivery sounded very different to me, having been used to listening sermons in Malay. But the essence and the message was still the same, in the end.

After the sermon, we met Nurul Jannah, one of the staff there whom gave a contact to a Haji Mustafa whom will be giving cart his personal lessons.

Later in the early evening, Cart and I headed off to Vivo City to meet Attilio, a blog reader and a friend. Call it a social experiment, but I’ve always thought that it would be interesting to see what happens when two Italians meet each other outside of their element. Thank goodness Attilio said yes!

We waded about in the human sea at vivo city and eventually found him waiting and one of the first thing I observed was how genuinely amiable they were to each other.

Attilio, rinaz and Cart

We stopped by starbucks and unsurprisingly, they started to converse to each other in Italian. It was like a jigsaw puzzle for me all over again. After ending my Italian language classes for some months now, I’m rather rusty. There were words that I could understand, and some which I could not. I had to concentrate hard to piece the image in my mind.

In the end, I could not keep up with the conversation and was just content to listen to their musical way of talking.

view in vimeo

After what seemed to be a short while, we were forced to say our goodbyes as Attilio was on his way to catch his flight back to spend time with his family.

We decided to have dinner at Secret Recipe. After which, I pulled Cartcart over to the area facing the sea to enjoy the breeze and the relaxing sound of the waves.

It was such a special moment for me. Just being there, enjoying each others company.

(to be continued)

Fond farewell to 2007

Looking back through Marina’s Bloggariffic, I think that my style of writing has evolved from when I first started blogging in October 2004. From writing about random rambles about life, it has changed to something with more purpose (at least I hope it did!)

Looking back at 2007

This blog has also been instrumental for me to meet new wonderful friends, be it online or offline. To explore and try out new things. The highlight of my blogging life this year would have to be the Best Asian Blog win, which was the cherry on top of the cake 🙂

Here are a quick summary of the highlights of 2007 :

January

I started the year with blogging about Cartcart’s first trip to Singapore and joined my cousin for my very first cosplay photo-shoot.

February

I got myself a new SD card and a webcam which began my interest in creating videoblogs. I started my quest in learning the Italian language (though I’m have to admit, I’m not superb at it)

March

This was the month that I feel that I’ve propelled in the blogging world. I was invited to be part of the Panel in Nexus for my involvement in Secondlife to speak about relationships in the metaverse. There I first met the wonderful pingsters! Cartcart and I made the decision to get married. And I pondered if I could ever get into university.

April

I did a fun videoblog on how to cook arrabbiata completely in Italian! (Maybe next time do one on how to make roti jala or nasi lemak, hehehe) I realised that my newfound love in videoblogging could transcend for learning purposes.

May

For some reason, I felt compelled to explore more of Singapore. I started with the museum of toys, and then the Istana and I finally did a presentation on the benefits of netcasting for the school I was attached to.

June

My first time riding my scooter to Malacca, Malaysia with the vesporeans! A most exciting trip! Just as exciting is my trip to Italy, where I spent time with my dearest Cartcart.

July

Celebrated the first ping.sg anniversary where I was asked to be host (wow!) and nominated to be the most entertaining blog (wow!) I pondered about the places that I’ve lived in started my quest in being fit and for the first time ever, did a collaboration with Malique in remixing a song!

August

Had a great time at WOMAD and visited the Arts Museum

September

Having won passes, I attended a very interesting Spanish Cultural Workshop and had a bloggers day out with the orphans of Darul Ihsan.

October

Went in a motorcycle convoy to raise funds for the Bikers Aid Fund. And it was a lot of fun! Attended an Italian cultural fair with my Italian Classmates and a real Italian 😛

November

I was selected as a finalist and a week later, I won the Best Asian Blog Awards! I pondered about the evolution of blogs and I also killed a chair.

December

Attended the ping t-shirt launch, attended the tech65’s podcast, played the gamelan as well as many others that I did not had the chance to blog about yet!

Goodbye 2007. Thank you for the beautiful memories.

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Sidenote : Regular blogging will resume next week. There are so much things to blog about!