It’s just another day of life in Rome.
Last post for 2013
Goodbye 2013, it has been a memorable year and lets hope for good things to happen for us in 2014. May we have peace, happiness and loads of money! 😛
November Rain
…
…
…
To me, sleeping is a more productive way to spend time rather than being upset about the weather 😛
Speaking of being productive, I tried to start on designing some postcards. Kicked by this guilty feeling that I’ve received so many postcards from friends all around the world. I should have sent them some a long time ago. I’m so ashamed of myself. It’s just that Italian postal offices are so daunting …
Anyway! I have loads of photography paper I got bundled when I buy my ink cartridges, so I decided to experiment to see how it looked like printed out.
The first one looks good, the second one too. But by the time the third one came out, it looked really bad. I think I like green too much :p
I’m tempted to just have it printed in bulk, but the company I found allows you to print a minimum amount of 500. Not sure if I want to do that, especially if it’s just for one design. Wouldn’t be so bad if I could have 100 x 5 different designs.
By the way, while the weather in Rome is being bad these days, it’s not as bad as what happened in Sardegna (and of course what happened in the Philippines) 🙁
This is married life #7
I think one of the hardest thing about being in a relationship is when your partner feels sad but you are helpless to do anything to improve the situation.
The only thing that can be done is to empathise, be there for him and to love him as always.
Hypnotised by peppa pig
Peppa Pig is a cartoon series that runs for about 5 minutes each episode, starring a pig called Peppa, her little brother George and their mum and dad. In Italy you could watch it on Sky Disney Channel Junior or Rai Yoyo. Although it originated from UK, it’s very popular in Italy – where ever you go, you can’t escape them – you could find them in supermarkets, toy shops, bookshops – EVERYWHERE!
I didn’t get the hype until I finally caught a couple of episodes … and now I’m a little embarrassed to say that I’m quite hypnotised by Peppa Pig. Let me explain to to you why :
1. The catchy opening music
The “Doot! Doot doot doot doot!” is extremely catchy and repeated so much that I could memorize by heart “Io sono Peppa Pig (oink) e questo e’ mio fratellino George (oink) Lei e’ Mamma Pig (oink) e lui e’ Papa’ Pig (OINK!)
(Kind of reminds of me when I was younger and my siblings would drag me to watch The Teletubbies and I can recognize all the freaking characters)
I have to say though, that the repetitive music is quite hypnotic. It’s understandable how easily people could get brainwashed by something.
2. Charming artwork
Although to some, the drawings look simplistic, I love how clean the artwork looks like and especially the choice of colours used in the animation. They are so cheery and bright. I love looking at them.
Although I have to mention about how the characters are drawn. You notice that all their faces are drawn sideways but their eyes are always two.
Perhaps I might be a little perverse, but the lead characters, especially Daddy Pig’s head look like uh … man bits. I have a theory about that making them more memorable and leaving a psychological imprint.
3. It’s relaxing
I like hearing the voice of the narrator, and of the characters talking and when they giggle. I even find it amusing when George cries (and he cries often). I find it really tranquil and relaxing and I forget to be angry :p
4. Hearing Italian grammar and vocabulary
Impressively for a kid’s show, there are a number of words that I’ve never heard before like – scorciatoia (shortcut) and pozzanghera (puddle) and I am amazed at the level of grammar that they include like congiuntivo which can be challenging to learn even for Native Italians.
Peppa Pig does have her own controversies, such as it reportedly making it children behave worse or it being a bad influence. Personally, I think that all kids are naturally kids and how they behave is largely due to their environment.
Nevertheless, watching Peppa Pig, makes me wish sometimes that I could have the same level of popularity with my own toons. I enjoy drawing and I’d like to start with merchandising at least but the trouble is, I just have no idea where to start!
The thing about daylight savings I don’t like
6pm on Saturday, 26th October 2013.
6pm on Sunday, 27th October 2013.
I don’t like all this fuss about changing our clocks and watches. Perhaps useful for farmers, but I don’t see the point of it all in modern times.
Easiest way to do tilt shift pictures
Not sure if you’ve heard of the app called snapseed before, but I just recently discovered it and I loved using it especially for making tilt shift pictures.
By the way, tilt shift is basically a term used when you make a picture look as if it was a miniature. An example would be, from it looking like this scene from Tarquinia.
To this :
To me, I think this feature makes a regular picture looks really cute and it makes me excited to snap more pretty sceneries.
Here are a few other pictures that I played around with. Starting with Gianicolo 🙂
This was near a winery inTuscany :
This was taken at the Grande Moschea di Roma during Eid :
And this was taken just last week at Laghetto dell’Eur
Isn’t it adorable? I used to do them using photoshop, but it can get quite time consuming. Thus, I was pleasantly surprised at how easy it was to do using snapseed. By the way, it works for both android and iphones and it is free!
Below is a video I did with a quick demo on how to do tilt shift on snapseed.
I hope you give it a try and have fun as much as I did 🙂
This is married life #6
Featuring stickrinaz! As compy is still bonkers :p
6am. I wake up to do my daily morning walk. Cart is still soundly asleep.
I love seeing how peaceful and still it is in the neighbourhood.
Save for the few people roaming around, like commuters waiting sleepily for their transport.
Or the produce sellers. Ah! If only you could smell the intoxicating, sweet perfume of the peaches which are in season right now.
A group of dog walkers and their adorable mutts.
And of course, the morning joggers as they zoom past me.
I enjoy my long morning walks. It’s interesting to see life at the start of a new day.
After close to an hour, I come back home ….
And Cart is still asleep and continues to sleep for the next couple of hours!
Such is the life of a morning person married to a night owl :p
If you liked this post you might enjoy :
This is married life #5
Hi everyone!
My best friend Hema was in Rome for the past week and a half and we had such a lovely time together beautiful places in Rome as well as Tuscany and Florence. There are so many gorgeous places in Italy and I sorely wish that I could visit every region before it is too late.
I may blog about it soon, but in the meanwhile here is a toon to tide us by 🙂
Rinaz : This Italian exercise is too difficult for me
Rinaz : Would you help me, please?
Cart : Ok. Let me see it.
Cart : Come on! It’s simple! Bla bla bla. Have you understood?
Moral of the story : Teaching others is a noble thing to do. But explaining too much at one go can be very confusing 😛
This is married life #4
Dear men,
A word of advice to you. If your wife is in a bad mood, it would be wise not to provoke her further :
Instead, acknowledge the issue and render assistance. The word “sorry” helps tremendously as it has an instantaneous cooling effect.
Observe :
Was that so hard?