What the HECK were you guys thinking? I may not be well versed in the arts of football, but even I could tell that yesterday’s match was horrigible (horrible + terrible).
I dont understand why head coach Marcello Lippi picked the better players only towards the end of the match. Why ah? Expensive is it? Indeed, the game only picked up at the point and the players fought with more soul then. But its just too late. All you Azzuri can pout and make that sad face for 100 years also wont change the results one.
And then the head coach says he’s is sorry and feels responsible and decides to resign.
Because its a shared monetary currency between several countries, while the front is standard, the back of the coins are printed with special symbols of the different presenting Euro countries.
These coins below, for example, represent the Netherlands, the middle, Germany and the last one is Greece if I’m not wrong.
Cart collects the interesting ones sometimes and there are so much that it could nicely fill a jar.
But the strange thing is how I’ve been using euro coins for a year and a half, I’ve noticed something interesting about the coins only now. If you looked at the side of the coins, you’ll see different type of marks on them
This is the two Euro coin. It has a white border. I don’t understand most of the words printed on them, but I do see words like “God” and “Und Recht”
This is the one Euro coin. Similar to the two Euro but it has a gold border and without the words.
This is the 50 cents Euro. Its the colour of brass and has many dimples.
While the 20 cents Euro has very little dimples.
This is the 10 cents Euro. It looks similar to the 50 cents, but its smaller in size.
And finally, these are the bronzed coins of the 5, 2 and 1 cents Euro. They don’t have any dimples at all and are attracted to magnets.
Interesting eh? I wonder what took me so long to notice this.
I watched in horror when I saw this video being posted in facebook.
In the video, children as young as and even younger than 14 are kidnapped or sold to become slaves for the harvesting of cocoa. They were forced to work from dawn to evening, working with machetes, which is extremely dangerous in a child’s hands and just as dangerous when not used with care by an adult. At the end of the day, they are then locked in a shed so that they could not escape. Those who try to, are beaten up severely.
None of these children are paid, nor given an education. Many of them are forced to work in the plantation for years. I cant imagine being deprived of my tween-teenage days like that, days when we would be complaining about homework, hanging out with friends and just having a carefree life.
You know, as much as I love chocolate, I don’t condone slavery in any part of the making of chocolate and I’m quite willing to give up eating chocolate by companies who are guilty of using non fair trade chocolates. There are quite a number of well known brands such as Hershey’s, Nestle and M&M’s.
I tried to find a listing of free trade chocolate online, but haven’t been too successful in finding a comprehensive one. This particular site seems revolved around the USA.
Regardless, I was pleasantly surprised when I spotted this out yesterday (Cart wanted to make a semifreddo) in the chocolate section in coop, a brand of cooperative hypermarket in Italy.
What this means is that, similar to the Body Shop, the company trades from countries to utilise their resources for the communities to meet their own needs.
I bought a box of these candied orange coated chocolates. Which, by the way, tastes quite as good as the ones that Jerrick and I bought at Valrhona some months back.
At the back of the package, printed in a maroon box on the right said, “Made without discrimination nor labour exploitation”
I’ve always liked the idea of a cooperative where everyone gets a fair share and profits be divided equally.
This isn’t a topic that I’d normally blog about but I was very intrigued by it.
Recently in the news, there is a case about a condemmed man in Utah who chose death by firing. This is unusual as this will be the first time in 14 years that a person in the USA will be executed that way.
And in all honesty before hearing about this, I wasn’t aware that the condemned could choose the way that they are executed. I’ve always assumed that it would be by injection since some archaic methods such as the electric chair was phased out. Personally I think that its a grotesque way to go anyway.
In any case, what’s also interesting that I’ve learnt recently is that there is no death penalty in Italy, as well as all of Europe despite the severity of the crime. That made me very surprised as growing up, I’ve always thought that it would be natural to have each crime have its punishment in accordance. Every action would have a reaction, right? And for every thing that you do, there will be consequences. Regardless of how big or how small the action is.
And thus, that is why we have rules to keep us in check. A form of prevention and deterrence as well as apt punishment. Such as fines for petty crimes and jail for frauds.
Although now as an adult, some of these punishment seems overly excessive. For example, the death penalty for possession of 15 grammes of marijuana, which by the way, has scientific evidences that it is helpful in medicinal uses. And recently, the news in regards to a Swiss national charged over graffiti in a Singapore train. While I don’t condone what he did, I don’t believe that what he did justifies an arrest. That sort of thing seems trivial to me and needs to be dealt with nothing more than a slap on the wrist.
But to me, I’m willing to go ahead with the punishment. Seems a fair deal, don’t you think? Since in the end, all these severe rules leads to Singapore having the lowest crime rate in the world. And personally, I believe in the effectiveness of corporal punishment.
Hence for the longest time, I grew up believing that death penalty was natural. And in a way, I still do. If you murder someone, you pay for it. You know, an eye for an eye. Seems fair. Thus, I was very surprised when Cart explained to me that there are no such thing as a death penalty in Italy. Even if a person has committed the highest crime, he will not be condemned to death and instead be jailed, possibly for life.
Cart does not believe in the eye for an eye analogy. Instead, he believes that a human does not have the right over the life of another human. He thinks that death is not a solution and there are better ways in dealing in this situation such as rehabilitation. This is probably one big topic in regards to parenting that we should discuss too, since I am for corporal punishment for our future kid while he is against the idea.
Suddenly this comes to mind, a little out of topic though.
If you refrain someone from something, and have a rule of abstinence, though it might be effective for a percentage, there is a big possibility that the act will be done. Many religious countries having high cases of sex related crimes, even with the high amount of taxes for cigarettes, there are still a large demand for it, and despite the tough punishment, there are several countries with crime rate highest among the world.
Its a food for thought.
Sidenote : Doing a bit of changes to the blog. Will probably reinstall wordpress over the weekend. Hopefully I don’t do anything to break this blog -_-
Growing up in humid Singapore, the males in my family (like my dad, or my uncles when we come visiting) would always roam around the house sometimes topless, wearing nothing but a sarong tied around his waist.
That’s not my dad by the way :p
And they always had hairless chest. So apart from the Indian men and a few Malays, its not usual for me to see any hairy men. Hence, I used to think of them with disdain. But I sympathised with them though. It probably wouldn’t be too comfortable being in humid Singapore like that. I imagine that its like me keeping my hair super long and letting it down while I walk in the afternoon sun.
Like cousin itt
But Italians, as you know, majority of the men (some of the women too) suddenly turn hairy once they hit 30. I’m a little bit stunned the first time when I was with Cart’s male friends. Hypothetically, if I shaved all their body hair, combined it would be enough to make a nice toupee.
Interestingly, when I would ask Cart if he would consider shaving off his body hair, he’d look incredulous and ask me, “Why would I want to do that? It shows how masculine I am. I’m proud of my body hair”
After a while, I think that its not so bad, in fact, its actually rather nice to cuddle with a hairy man. Its like a huge teddy bear that you could hug and stroke.
Eventually I saw this and I thought to myself, hey! Hairy men aren’t so bad!
In fact, they look quite sexeh!
(sudden realisation)
Oh gosh, I am doomed. And my future hairy sons. And their sons. And their sons.
Last Friday was my last Italian lesson. Since I was attending classes in a public school, coincidentally, it was also the last day of school for the kids. And you could sense the festive mood in the air with the kids cheering and screaming happily while throwing water bombs and flour and whatnots at each other. That reminds me of my orientation days back in Secondary and Pre-University days.
But in any case, I’m grateful for how far I’ve been in learning the language. Here in Italy, there are subsidized Italian language lessons for foreigners with Permesso di soggiorno (permit to stay) where you attend about 40 hours of lessons, from November to June, usually in a public school. It costs very little, so far I’ve only paid 10 euro per term.
It might not be as professional as say, the Dante Alighieri language school, but lets face it, being on a single income, with the mortgage eating up most of Cart’s income, we cannot afford it for now. And I’m looking forward to getting a job here. Seems tough though, the certifications that I’ve attained are not recognized here and I’ve got a sense that jobs requiring English speakers seem to favour those from UK, USA, Canada and Australia only.
Seriously, doesn’t anyone in Rome want a hot and sexeh blogger who is teh awesum at photography and video editing?
But getting back to the point! Compared to last year, when I just started my lessons, it was so awkward! I couldn’t even ask the teacher anything. Since I didn’t know much Italian and she couldn’t speak English herself, I was stressed out because even asking required a basic level of Italian like, “I don’t understand what you are talking about”, or “Can you please explain again, slowly?”
Needless to say, I was feeling so unmotivated that I felt ill when it was time to go to Italian classes.
But in due time, its getting better. Apart from my lessons, I try to do revisions on my own, supplement with Italian podcasts, and force myself to watch shows in Italian every now and then. Its so easy to slip when watching cable tv that allows you to switch languages.
And so far, I can read simple books now and could make out newspaper headers if the words are not too bombastic. And I could chit chat with my classmates comfortably. I feel pleasantly surprised that now I could make out words of some of the photos that I took last year which used to be meaningless to me.
Of course, I still have got a long way to go to speaking confidently with an Italian. Just last week I was in my exercise class, and they started to ask about something and it frustrated me because I could have explained to them but it was hard for me to explain in Italian. And just recently I’m starting to take motorcycle lessons at the driving center. Half of the time, I don’t see the big picture even if I could make out bits and pieces of the jigsaw puzzle.
After one and a half year, I’m still not all that great in speaking Italian. But in the end, I think its just a matter of time. But still, if only I could magically snap my fingers or install italian.exe directly into my brain. That would be cool
Surpassing my initial apprehension, with all of them having an Italian heritage, some of them having ancestors from Sicilia, Sardegna and others, they were genuinely interested in learning and sharing. So there were many questions that I would have liked to ask them. But its just too bad that I feel rather shy when meeting new people.
I is cheeken. A dead cheeken
Anyway! Bevagna is a very charming little town in Umbria which is about 2 hours drive from Rome. And much like our trip to Terminillo, the roads were filled with interesting roadsigns as well as vineyards and olive plantations. Umbria, by the way is a famous for its greenery and also their quality of wines and olive oil.
Hm, suddenly that reminds me of my trip to Malacca with my Vespa Club friends where I saw acres and acres of Palm trees and Rubber plantations. Alright, so its not the same, but it still feels similar
Another thing about it that reminds me of Malaysia is that to pass through different regions, we need go through a toll gate, and just in case you were curious to know what an Italian toll ticket looks like, here is one.
And just in case you were curious, it costs 3.40 euro which is enough to buy me a nice pack of patatine.
And right after going through the toll station, I saw a sign called Bastardo. I kid you not!
I’ve no idea why any village would want to call their town Bastard. This town could probably be friends with this little town in Austria. Hopefully Cart and I could stop there one day to see how the scene there is like
At long length, we reached Bevagna.
At first look, it was such a charming little town! It looked very similar to Leonessa, with the rows and rows of charming little buildings along a narrow stretch of road. There were quite a fair bit to see along these little shophouses and I was sorely tempted to get this adorable broom made of straw (Not the drinking straw :p)
I love every little detail that they put in every nook and cranny. These Bevagnans seem to take pride in what they do. Like flowers in vases on almost every table I see.
I find it very charming … as if I’m in Europe
We had a quick meet with the mayor who welcomed us, and off we headed to see the different sights of Bevagna.
One of the first places that we visited was an old church which was built at the end of the 12th century. Woah, that’s really old. Its amazing that something so historical could last and still be standing till today. Something interesting that I noticed was that there was a metal beam across the church.
If you look carefully in the picture, you’ll see Assasin’s Creed getting ready to swing.
Ok, I’m kidding! The truth is, there was a strong earthquake some years back and the beams were constructed to strengthen the build. I hope that it’ll hold. Its a shame that a number of historical buildings did not make it during the earthquake of Abruzzo last year.
Like all prayer houses, its very peaceful inside.
But what lies beneath could have a more sinister meaning … as this looks just like a scene from Phantasmagoria. You cant even escape from the window above it. I tried. Its really tiny.
We then headed to the Francesco Torti Theater who is a scholar by the way, not to be confused by the well loved Roma Soccer player Francesco Totti. This theater was opened in 1886. That makes it over a century old. Woah.
It might not be a huge theatre as it only holds 251 people, but my gosh, how beautiful it looks like. The seats are so plush, and the bannisters were golden.
And oh my, even the ceiling were beautifully painted. The artist responsible for this was Mariano Piervvittori. And he envisioned the arts as dancing muses.
We were so inspired that even the students felt moved enough to do an impromptu performance. One was reciting some verses from Shakespeare, one was playing the piano and another even sang opera.
After admiring the lush theatre, we then then headed to an ancient Roman thermal buildings. It was built towards the 2nd century AD, so its pretty old! The mosaics were interesting to see, but pictures aren’t allowed here. Nevertheless, I’m sure there could be something that could be found through google.
Actually, I’m looking forward to experience and enjoy a genuine working Roman thermal bath. I’m not sure where I could find it though. Hopefully we could find one in time 🙂
After seeing the thermal bath mosaics, we had a lunch break. And by this time, I was so famished! Walking does bring the appetite!
We stopped by a museum where there were a feast waiting for us on the table, lovingly home cooked by a group of Italian aunties.
All of the food were prepared using ingredients that are found in the region. I especially liked their sweet and sour onion, their parmiggiano cheese which tastes uniquely sweet as well as their Farro.
Farro is a type of wheat that remains crunchy even after boiling. And you could prepare them in many ways, like a sort of salad.
I was so enamoured by my farro that I had to say something to the Italian aunties. Even with my lousy Italian. She was happy anyway and began to teach us the recipe.
Cart was so inspired that he made a whole bowl the next day. Its easy! Maybe I’ll show you in a future blog post 🙂
After our lovely lunch, we were raring to continue exploring. And then we were informed that we will be seeing a feature 3 traditional artisan jobs were featured.
Turns out that once a year in Bevagna, starting from the 17th of June, there will be a medieval fair that the entire town will participate in. For the next 10 days, the entire town will recreate how it was like during the dark ages. So anything modern like lights and roads will be covered or removed.
Would be interesting to have a look see during these times. Its like a giant medieval cosplay! And I’ll go in my sarong since thats what Malays probably wear during those times :p
In any case, the first artisan job that we saw was how paper was made in the dark ages.
Life of a paper starts from cloth and fabrics being donated by the town’s people. Its put into sacks and then weighed.
Following which, it will be cut into small pieces with a sharp machete looking device. I was amused when one of the students were remarking about how dangerously fast the man was going. For sure its something that takes practise like a chef chopping skills.
But for some reason, it reminds me of the days when my grandparents were still living in Pulau Tekong – which was an Island in Singapore before it was taken over by the military. I remember how my uncles would get rid of the coconut husk with a device that looked something like that. But now that I think about it, what a dangerous chore it was if they weren’t careful!
Anyway, the chopped up cloth are then placed into boxes where they will be smashed to a pulp with this wooden device. Traditionally it was generated by the river current. But as there was no river to generate it, electricity is used instead. The device is still the same since the dark ages though.
And its pretty hypnotising to watch.
After that, the pulp will be mixed with a mixture of water and salt to be softened even more. And when its ready, it will be shaped with specific moulds as seen right next to the guy here.
And then finally be air dried and probably squashed even more for a thinner paper. The paper is then given its final touches to neaten them and then finally decorated if needed.
The whole process for traditional paper making takes about a month. And even longer for this lovely Mona Lisa watermark paper. If it took a month for paper to be made, would their newspaper be oldpaper since they don’t carry new news?
Then we headed to see how candles are made in the dark ages.
The first thing that I detected while going near the candle maker was how the area smelled so much like honey. And indeed, the candle maker explained how they collected honeycombs to extract paraffin wax for the making of the candles.
What’s interesting to me was that there were different shades of yellow for the candle since the colour is affected by the types of flowers being extracted due to the seasons. Dark yellow for winter and lighter yellow for summer. And the way that he twists the candles is pretty interesting too. Kind of like making epok-epok.
Check out the clip below.
And we had a bit of time to see a traditional herbalist
This is I guess is a apothecary during the dark ages.
And there were a plentiful of dried flowers and herbs, giving the shop a lovely fragrant smell.
That and the glass jars and all, doesnt it totally look like a scene out of Harry Potter? I’d like a be rich spell please
And finally we saw how silk threads are made traditionally. Unfortunately for Cart and me, we stayed a while to buy the candles and when we popped out of the shop, the group was gone. It took a while for us to find them again. So we missed a good 15 minutes of ‘how silk is made’ explanation.
Oh well. Serves us right -_-
But in any case, we did get to see how the threads are traditionally spun in the original machine using human power. According to the lady, it takes about 9 hour to completely fill the spools. Hm. I think I wouldn’t mind it if I had cable tv in front of me or maybe an internet ready netbook. Of course people in the dark ages dont have that
Here’s a short clip of the machine in motion.
It looks interesting. And you know what? Even spiders are motivated enough to make their own spindle. Check out this intricate spiderweb I noticed this just at the door.
Pretteh!
We enjoyed ourselves so much that without us realising it, we’ve come to the end of the tour and we said our goodbyes.
As we were both old fogies, Cart and I ended feeling quite tired.
Nevertheless, it was such a nice day. And we look forward to visiting Bevagna again during their Medieval Gaite Market. Anyone wants to come with us?
Oh. And do wear sunscreen.
Sidenote :
I spotted this out at the bus where the students were taking
Italians sure do love their coffee don’t they? They even have a coffee maker installed in the bus!
While I was still living in Singapore, the choice of breakfast that I preferred was filling food such as Lontong, Nasi Lemak, Epok-epok and the likes. Thus I was stunned for the longest time when I had to make do with food like cereal and a couple of toasts with jam and juice for breakfast. And that’s pretty much it.
While the typical Italian breakfast is quite simple and is supposed to keep you just full enough to tide over to your next meal.
Meals
For lunch and dinner, Italians have this set of dishes called the primo piatto, secondo piatto, and the contorno. Which simplified means, after they’ve eaten their appetizer, they eat a pasta dish, then a meat dish, and then a vegetable dish. The was quite odd for me, since we Asians lay every dish on the table to be eaten together.
Italians are very particular about food times and would drop everything that they do for their meals. Lunch is always from 12.30 – 3.30 and dinner is always at 8.30 – 1030 pm. In the less touristy areas, you can forget about being served in a shop or in an office since everything will be closed.
That took a lot of adjusting to as I didn’t have a definite time to eat. I’ll just eat when I’m hungry.
Food portions
While my American counterparts would think that their food portion is smaller in Italy, personally for me I think it’s huge! Have you seen the size of a personal pizza for example?
Back in Singapore, a pizza this size would be shared by 2 people. While here in Italy, I’d be struggling just to try to finish one and I’d look in amazement at Italian kids smaller than me who are able to finish one by themselves.
Food acessibility
When back in Singapore, it was easy to take for granted at how accessible eating was for me. You could walk practically anywhere, and a huge chance that there will be at least one Halal eatery in front of you.
Not so much in Italy.
Apart from several kebab shops, practically almost every Italian restaurants serves non Halal foods so we have to be very careful in what we order and be very vigilant in asking what every single ingredient in the food had. Forget about halal certification here. So normally when we eat out, I’d just have seafood or go vegetarian. For those who are still doubtful, it’s not difficult to buy your own meat to cook at home.
Halal Meat
The first few months in Italy was agony for me. I craved for a lot of comfort food like burgers and I got all emotional when I spotted out a McDonald or a Burger King in the vicinity but they were unfortunately not Halal.
After several months, I learnt about the location of halal butcheries where I could buy my chicken and beef among others to make my own food. Like Pollo alla Cacciatora and Polpette Al Sugo which are divine by the way.
And the irony is, when Cart and I was on our way back to Singapore, I ordered a burger and instantly felt repulsed. Maybe my taste buds has changed since it detected the processed meat taste.
Coffee
Prior to coming to Italy, I’m not so into coffee mainly because I keep getting bouts of migraines when I drank those instant coffee that my dad buys.
Hence, I was a little apprehensive when Cart offered me some freshly brewed moka. But since it was just a tiny little cup, I gave it a try. Some hours later and still no dizziness, made me more confident enough to try other types of coffee like Marocchino, Macchiato, Cappuccino, Espresso and others.
I’m still not that big with coffee though. But I can appreciate it more now.
Snacking
I love to snack. Its somewhat therapeutic for me when watching TV, when in the office, when waiting for the bus, or when in the bus. The amazing thing though, is that I’ve never seen any of my Italian friends snack in between meals. Ever!
But I still like to munch on stuff anyway every now and then. And while I don’t have my vegetable keropok, now I’m crazy about patatine!
This was the happiest day of my life, the day when I got this giant pack of potato chips in Bomarzo.
This for that
Of course, the biggest change I suppose is that instead of rice being my staple diet, it is now pasta. I love eating pasta be it the egg pasta or the wheat ones. And being married to an Italian, has made me more competent in the sensitivities of cooking Italian pasta.
But sometimes there are days when I get tired of eating pasta and cook some rice and ayam masak merah or daging masak kicap. It’s my comfort food and it reminds me of home.
Apart from pasta, I got to experience different vegetables that I’ve never encountered before in while in Singapore like Radicchio, Carciofi and cool looking Cauliflowers.
And last but not least is cheese. While there are some types of cheeses that I really can’t stand, like Gorgonzola and will absolutely not kiss Cart after he consumes it. But there are some cheeses which I found out that I like, like Maarsdammer, Mozarella and stracchino.
By the way stracchino is a slang for tired and the cheese is said to be made from the milk of tired cows.
I think that’s all for now, there could possibly be more, but I can’t think of any at the moment so maybe I’ll update again later. For now, Cart made some Lenticchie for dinner and I’m going to give it a try 🙂
2nd June is Festa Della Repubblica here in Italy and it is a national holiday.
A week before, Cart and I noticed some temporary seating being constructed near the Colosseo and he deduced that there will be a parade going on on the day itself. We didn’t have any intention of going to see the parade though as we were not looking forward to be crunched by the huge amount of people that will be expected there. But this lady was there though and lived to blog about it.
Cart and I were having lunch at L’Insalata Ricca when I suddenly remembered that I was watching the Amazing race season 1 where one of the legs was in Italy. There was a detour challenge where contestants have to head to the Vittorio Emanuele Monument or to go to the giant foot.
Excitedly, I asked Cartcart, “Lets go see the giant foot!”
The only thing is, being totally unplanned, Cart started to ask me which giant foot I was talking about, which made me a little stunned since I assumed that all Italians would have known where it was. But we did a quick online search on the dinky little screen of my Nokia E72.
After we’ve finished our lunch, we were off.
It was extremely crowded with tourists when we reached the Piazza Navona area. The pantheon itself was crawling with people from all over the world as if there was a congress going on. Such a contrast compared to just a few months ago. The touristy season has already started.
We did the touristy thing to do – snapping pictures, looking at interesting buildings, walking around and appreciating where we were.
We walked to places where were lesser known to tourists. Like this elephant statue and the church next to it. Cart, being the proud Roman man, explained to me every detail that he knew about the place.
Like the name of the road where these men were playing checkers, had an actual fig tree like its name sake.
Eventually we reached a corner of a road where we found a giant foot.
This wasn’t what I had in mind. The shape of the foot was different. It wasn’t smooth and it was wearing a sandal. We must be in the wrong place. But it was interesting to see anyway.
I looked at the statue and wondered if it could be part of a larger statue while Cart was postulating that this statue could be a sign from a shoemaker, telling that his shop was nearby.
I found out later that the giant foot from the Amazing race was actually located in the Capitoline Museum. So that’s something for us to discover for another day 🙂
I’ve put up a post on Engrish in Rome some time back. Today, I thought I’d share with you a few interesting and somewhat disturbing things that I noticed in the supermarkets of Rome.
First off, is the iBulli.
Maybe its made to replicate the success of the iMac, the iPod, the iPhone, and the iPad. Or maybe it is for Steve Jobs to announces that he will serve this when suing his competitors with a patent infringement. Nevertheless, I am curious to know what the freaking heck the company was thinking when creating this snack.
This isn’t disturbing but it was amusing anyway. In Malay, Malu means embarrassed or shy.
Thus this is the shyest chocolate in Italy! And it will make you feel embarrassed to eat it! In all honesty, I was actually keen to try it out but it contained gelatin 🙁
Know someone unattractive?
For an even less tactful manner, we suggest that you serve them Hag coffee! Gingerbread house not included.
And maybe it could just me but …
There is something disconcerting when I’m all alone in the toilet, with cramps and bleeding out of my ladybits and there are eyes staring right back at me!
And last but not least, I dont understand why anyone thought that it would be a good idea to put a picture of the animals smiling on the label of a bottle of their puréed selves.
I’m not a vegetarian but I think its disturbing! That soft, gentle smile beckoning you to be their friend. And you step closer to say hello.
And then you find out that your new friend is lifeless, chopped up and puréed in a bottle.
