I was waiting for the transfer bus. The next bus stop coincidentally stops near Cart’s workplace. And that was when I saw a man walking towards me who looked just like Cart. Same beard, same glasses, same head.
This is the real Cart 😛
So I flashed him a warm smile.
And he smiled the biggest smile back at me.
It was only when he started to walk past me that I realised that he was not Cart! Mistaken identity! But he had a lingering smile anyways. I guess I made the guy’s day
I told Cart about this but he did not sound very interested. Who knows if he was jealous! 😛
Me : I should have said “Penso che tu sei mio marito!”
Cart : Oh what a nice thing to say!
Me : What should I have said?
Cart : Credevo che fossi mio marito. It means I thought you were my husband.
Early this week, Lynn contacted me about a Singaporeans meet with the minister. And the first thing that came to mind was, “Me? A minister wants to have lunch with a small fry like me?”
Regardless, the desire of meeting other Singaporeans living in Italy was very strong. So I made my confirmation to attend soon after. As Cart was working, IÂ had to go on my own.
With the use of Atac and Google Maps, it made exploring much easier and with very few drama, I met up with Lynn and together we headed to Tullio restaurant, where there was a Singaporeans meet hosted by the Minister Lim Hwee Hua and Ambassador Loo Choon Yong.
This is Minister Lim Hwee Hua
When we both entered the area, I was so pleasantly shocked. I knew that there were more Singaporeans that were living in Italy, but to see so many Singaporeans in front of me was such a nice surprise anyway.
Our last Rome meet was already a good number.
But this meet was twice as large.
This is Ambassador Loo Choon Yong.
I met many interesting, charming and witty people. Some of them have been living here Italy for a long time – like 25 years. It felt a little unreal and also a little intimidating for me though, to be talking to successful people who really made it in life. There was a lawyer, jewellery maker, fine arts furniture maker … while I’m just a housewife.
Nevertheless, they were really nice and friendly. The minister herself seemed genuinely interested in what I thought, asking about life in Italy.
We also had such lovely food which I thoroughly enjoyed.
This was my Parmigiana di melanzane
This was my Mont Blanc
In any case, the meet was an initiative by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to keep Singaporeans in Italy to keep in contact with each other and should we need any help, they assured that we were free to approach them.
And there was a possibility that next year would have a Singaporeans day in Italy. I was rather upset for missing Singapore day some months back so this would be absolutely fantastic!
So us Singaporean in Italy facebook group could finally all meet up together yeah? Lynn and I to do that, but the logistics seems daunting but now that we have backup, I’m definitely looking forward to that.
After visiting the Toy convention in Singapore last year, I was keen on going again. And thus, I was at the Romics Comic Convention last weekend with Cart and his friends.
When we reached Fiera Di Roma, where expos and events are held, there were already a large amount of people there.
I noticed that while queuing in, the cosplayers were lining up in a separate line. We found out later that people who were in costumes got to enter in for a cheaper fee.
After queuing up for the tickets, we entered inside the event hall, and at first sight, I already knew that the experience will be something similar to the one in Singapore.
There were so many people!
The Comics
Obviously being a comic convention, there were a number of publication houses on display. One of the biggest names that I could spot out was Panini Comics.
Panini Comics is probably best known for their character, Ratman. Ratman is interesting because the character was conceived as a parody to all the comic superheroes – with his Mickey Mouse’s ears and his cape. He was wierd but yet, amusing. Kind of like how 2gether was a satire for the overflow of all Boybands.
I also had the chance to seeing a couple of artists doing works in progress, drawing and singing autographs. And I admired a few artwork and wished that I had half the artistic talents that they had.
This particular guy was so diligently doing watercolour on the first page of his comic book.
Looking closely, I see a name tag and saw that his name was Luca Russo – Of course, I had to google it out, and I saw a couple of his artwork. It was so lush.
Naturally, Cart being crazy about reading comics and collecting them, bought for himself a nice pile of comics to add to his shelf dedicated to all his comic books.
I looked around and I saw a number of Japanese comics that I recognized like Love Hina, Battle Royale, Evangelion.
And I was pausing for the longest time pondering if I should get a Domokun Comic. I love Domokun! It’s a charming singing brick but this time round was in Italian.
The Toys
There were not as much toys here as compared to the convention in Singapore, and the World Cybergame section seems to be very subdued. There was hardly any console games like Nintendo Wii or X-Box consoles, Playstation and such but there were still a couple of interesting collection of old-school toys to be seen.
Like these figurines of characters from the movies. I think that it was really well done. The joker really looked like Heath Ledger.
I quite like the top row with the “Movie Set” smurfs.
Did you know that in Italy, smurfs are known as Puffi? There are even Puffi flavoured ice cream in Italy, but that is another story altogether 🙂
Stewie, from Family guy, probably the most evil baby in the world. And also one of my favourite cartoons that I watch here.
A couple of stuff from the Lord of the rings. I snapped this picture because it reminded me of the crown that Yanni crafted not too long ago. The lady behind the counter offered to let me try it on, but IÂ didn’t want to have the risk of being tempted to get it.
And this was a nice figurine of King Arthur and the knights of the round table. Coming up in the future, we will have a nice figurine of Hang Tuah.
Oh and this is a very interesting figurine.
Which reminds me, I even saw a booth dedicated to Hentai, with a tv display for all to see. I was momentarily stunned. But the interesting thing is that I didn’t see any horrified faces around me. Europeans are really liberal about this, I suppose. The person manning the booth was amused to see my flabbergasted face.
The Costumes
For me, I think that the highlight of the convention was probably the cosplayers. There were so many! I think that there were probably about an equal ratio (or perhaps even more) regular outfits to the cosplayers. Regardless, they were all pretty nice. And if you asked for a photograph, they would always oblige
There were characters that I could recognize like :
Flippy from Happy Tree Friends. I lurve happytreefriends, I think that they are the most adorable critters. The irony is that I dont have the heart to watch an episode since they always die violently.
Bender and Doctor Zoidberg from Futurama. Another one of my favourite cartoons!
Luigi and the Princess.
And at one booth, I spotted out something interesting. A storm trooper playing a Clone wars game! A very dedicated and loyal staff.
This is one piece – It seems to be very popular judging from the amount of people dressing up as Luffy. I like the middle cosplayer’s boots! Quite well done! But the actual anime annoys me though.
But as much as there were many that I could recognize, there were many more that I could not. Anyone could help spot them out for me? Like this character below.
Mario hanging out with the Milk and the Mushroom.
Seriously, I wouldn’t have the patience to sew this and they both coordinated their outfits well!
And this is another fantastic costume. With the black face and the red eyes and all.
But after spending some time spotting out costumes, the following would be in my top 3 :
I think that this guy here did a very good job in his zombie outfit that I had to peer closely at his make up.
Scary! And it wasn’t just his neck, but his entire limb had wounds and such.
This guy probably took at least 3 days to make his costume.
Also, he’s the first person to have the initiative to really pose when you ask for a picture. Seems like a professional cosplayer. Regular people would be frustrated after the 5th person I think.
And lastly, I’m not too sure what character this is, but I think that this costume was one of the most well made and the most intricate one that I’ve ever seen.
I think he did an amazing job on his costume!
Anyway, interestingly enough, while I was there looking at the different costumes, a little boy came up to me and peered at me as if I was wearing a costume myself. That was so amusing.
Being Malay, it’s inevitable that I look close to my Asia Pacific counterparts. I could go to Indonesia and blend in as an Indonesian, the time when I was in Thailand with my girlfriends, the locals thought that we were Thai ourselves until we opened our mouths.
But in recent years, there has been countless the number of times that I’ve been approached and asked, “Are you Filipino?”
Even on youtube, there are people who think that I look like Happyslip, an insanely talented youtuber who has ancestry from the Philippines.
I’m not skinny enough to look like her
Don’t get me wrong though, Personally, there is nothing to feel offended about and I think that there is nothing wrong with looking like a Filipino. Besides there are so many attractive looking ones at that.
Like Lea Salonga.
Like Marian Riviera
Like Toni Gonzaga
But it’s just weird for me that everywhere I go, everyone would assume that I’m from the Philippines. Even in Singapore! And even by Filipinas!
Like the time while Cart and I were shopping at a Filipino Shop to see if we could get some Asian groceries, the clerk started to cheerfully talk to me in Tagalog.
It was later when she saw that I couldn’t respond to her, then she realised that I wasn’t a Filipino.
Maybe I should start to learn a little bit of Tagalog. But the only word I know is Mahal kita so I probably wouldn’t get very far with that.
But anyway, I just wish people in general would stop assuming things. And I’m not the only one. Even my Egyptian friends are commonly mistaken as Moroccan here.
Now if people went up to me and said, “Oh my gosh! You remind me of Ziana Zain!” That’ll be another thing altogether.
