A year in a post

For the past twelve months I’ve been taking a picture out of my window each month to see the changes seasonally and now that the year is almost over, I thought that I’d share the things that I’ve seen these months with you.

January. There were no leaves on the trees at all and it’s very cold, which meant that loads of people get sick at this time and tend to stay at home and do random things. The only good thing about the cold weather is that the low humidity made me had nice skin.

At this time, I was motivated to use my new sewing machine, and thus acquired a few sewing magazines. But all it did was made me really confused.  This month, I also started training for my half marathon.

February is still a cold month but I pushed on and hit 19km in my half marathon training, which was the longest distance that I’ve done on my own.

For Valentine’s day, I decided to give a unique gift for Cartcart, because I adore him, even though he snores loudly. I also made for ourselves mousse alla nutella, which we gobbled up very quickly.

Speaking of food, I realised that there could be nickel in the food that we eat, which is something that I’m allergic to.

This is also the month where I watched the changeling, which is probably the most depressing movie that I’ve watched in a long time. One of my favourite site, Posterous.com, closed down. And I realised that I really wanted to go to Germany.

I didn’t blog about this, but at this time, a couple of months has passed by since my accident and I’m really appreciative for the people who helped me through this very frightening moment for me and made me realise the friends whom I wanted to keep.

March is a fun period as the weather starts to get a little bit sunnier, and you start to see see daisies growing abundantly. But you’d still need to wear a coat as the weather is still crazy anyways, not making up her mind. Like a lady, best not to provoke her.

During this month, I found a place in Rome where you could find second hand English books for cheap. I watched and fell in love with Cinema Paradiso, which is a classic Italian movie that everyone should watch.

March is also when the international women’s day is, and since it’s a tradition here to give other ladies mimosa flowers, this day was my chance to to be like a ninja and stole some flowers.

I explored Monteverde Vecchio, blogged bout how mozzerella shouldn’t be yellow or solid, celebrated my FIL’s birthday. Got checked for the first time at the gynae, wrote about easter and saw a rich woman at a public school and wondered if the rich should be subsidized.

At this month, I completed my half marathon! 21km! Probably my happiest achievement to date and I meet with my best friend for the first time :-p

April. I love this month as trees are starting to grow their leaves again. With all the flowers blooming, and the new sprouts, the colours are so beautiful to see.

For this month, I spent Easter with my extended family and I did something silly. I made a video showing that I’m very flexible.

During this month, I got something in the mail that made me upset, and now that I’ve been driving for a while, I realised that there are people on the road who make me upset too.

This month, I went to a chocolate fair and it was awesome looking at all the different kinds there. And speaking of chocolate, I learnt that Kinder Sorpresa was banned in the USA. That’s crazy!

And for the first time ever, I participated in a soup competition! It was such great fun 🙂

Wow, look at the trees in May!  While the temperature was getting less cold, we still needed to wear a light sweater as this month is still rather windy.

One quirky thing about Cartcart is that he talks too much. I adore him nevertheless.

And this month, my best friend Hema visited Rome and we spent an unforgettable time together! It was such an adventure! We went to a bed and breakfast in Tuscany, ate yummy food there, went to an area called Chianti and visited a winery and olive oil tour, we also visited Firenze, and then San Gimignano and then chilled at the hot Springs in Saturnia.

We also went to an outlet store where I was shocked at the amount of things she got, but I tried to be understanding, as she is a dear friend, and was in a very bad place at the time.

Me on the other hand, as I’m a cheapo, I made a dress for under 5 euro. And at this time I was missing a piece of home, so I made epok-epok. And I visited Eataly for the first time.

It’s June and we can finally wear short sleeved t-shirts again!

I didn’t blog a lot though this month, as my computer started to have serious problems. Nevertheless, I made a new top for just 1 euro and I also made kaya. Yum yum! It’s still a long way to go till the real thing, but it’ll have to do for now 😛

With another two months to go, I wondered where to go to in Singapore. For sure, not so much Mcdougals because of the Hello Kitty madness going on.

This month, I visited a gelato festival and saw different award winning ice creams. It was really fascinating to see. Despite all the delightful temptations, it’s been a year since I’ve lost 10kg and kept at it. I guess I’m doing good!

I’ve also updated my 52 week money challenge!  (And am happy to say that I’ve accomplished it and looking forward to doing it again for 2014!)

July is when it is starting to get really warm so I prefer to leave the house really early for my daily walks before noon hits and gets really hot.

This month, I got to see an infiorata and hopefully the next year, I’d see the bigger version in Castelli Romani.

I made another top for 1 euro and with my Singapore trip anticipating, I made a list of 10 places to eat while in Singapore.

Cart and I visited the hippy town of Calcata and then we saw something really cool while on our way to Tarquinia.

Fasting month started, so I stayed at home and tried to deal with the clutter and made Fagioli Borlotti, rice stuffed tomatoes and made burger buns and found a really famous youtuber followed me on instagram. It made my day!

I wondered which computer to buy and felt lucky that we were staying at home at this time, as burglary is on the rise.

August! It’s super hot in Rome right now and during these times, you’d see a lot of shops closed and gone for vacation.

It’s also my birthday month. But I really don’t feel my age, as I feel forever 25 😛

Saw a cute Fiat 500L commercial and this month is also Hari Raya Eidilftri and it was such a busy day for us, not only for celebrating it, but also for getting ready to go to Singapore and when we were finally there, we needed time adjusting to all the changes there.

We took Qatar Airlines to go back to Singapore, where I found out that I’d never complain about the hot weather again. It was over 40 degrees in Doha!

I enjoyed my time in Singapore reconnecting with friends and family, and found five awesome food places we tried there. And I ran my first race in Singapore! Cart and I discovered a cool bicycling parking area and wondered why not more Italians take the bicycle.

In Singapore, I got for myself a pair of new glasses as well as a new laptop and learnt how to improve a runner’s knee.

Normally when I’m back in Singapore, I try to organize a family vacation, so we took Air Asia for the first time to go to Langkawi where we did a home stay, and I had the BEST seafood in my life.

As happy as I was being with my friends and family, I think after living in Rome for several years, I’m starting to feel a little detached though. Which, when I think about it, is quite alarming for me.

Oh. I also saw a really ugly car in Rome.

October. This is when the weather starts to get cooler and I start wearing long sleeves again and this is when it gets confusing as daylight savings ended.

This month, I experimented in making spezzatino di manzo and I found out that I liked it a lot. I found 3 gelaterie that I liked and since we are talking about food, I saw something strange in a pizzeria.

I still haven’t fixed my clawed bag. But I did figured out how to log out from Skype on an android tablet, shared how to do Tilt Shift picture easily and I became a total hipster and visited a makerfaire.

Our fridge died which became such a big drama for us till we finally got our new fridge and I joined a number of alumni pages on facebook and started aquagym where I unwillingly saw a lot of naked women.

November and it’s getting colder that I had to use my thermal jacket while going out. The leaves started to change colours and it’s been raining a lot. I’m also starting to use my car more and the scooter less to avoid getting sick.

This month, I admitted that I was addicted to watching peppa pig and I also saw the cutest and most adorable little girl ever! And speaking of the telley, I saw my best friend in there 😉

Cart and I found a new friend in the fridge and I tried to tell a difference between an expensive and cheap sachertorte.

There was an inauguration for Singaporeans in Italy where I met quite a number of Singaporeans in other parts of Italy. I visited Viterbo as well as Basilica di San Clemente. I also got a 100 litre Nutella jar! 

This month, Cart had a piece of bad news and of course, we are worried for our future. Life is tough, but we have to move on.

And finally here we are in December. Wow, look at the trees, all bald again like it was in January.

This month, I start on probably the most scariest decision in my life, but that’s not as scary as seeing a dead rabbit head in my grocery bag but nevertheless, I managed to cook with leftover pasta.

I hear a bagpipe player outside the window, which is strange to me. I updated Marina’s Bloggariffic to wordpress 3.8.

I shared my experience on using minimalist shoes and was just flabbergasted at someone trying to cheat at the marathon.

This month marks our five year anniversary. Unfortunately, I got sick and am still recuperating. And just a few days ago, I spent Christmas in Rome with my extended family!

And thus concludes the year passed in a blog post 🙂