For the first couple of months that I was in Rome, it feels as if I stepped back into time in Singapore. This is because of how old the houses here looked like. Cart tells me that, unlike in Singapore, very few houses, if any at all are demolished after 20 years.
Below is a picture of Viale Ignazio Silone, which is about 10 minutes drive from our home. The first time I was here, I was struck at how similar it reminded me of the places where I used to roam. Either I was delirious, or this really looked like Bukit Timah during the early 80’s.
Cart and I live in an apartment just off the fringes of the ring. Its a typical neighbourhood. And just like my childhood house, Its rare to see houses beyond 10 stories in Rome. Vehicles park right in front of the houses.
Its an intersting neighbourhood. Beside our apartment is a church where every weekend, there will be bells ringing and a congregation will be during its mass. And a few minutes of walking away, there is a little park and a pond where ducks will be swimming. Its relaxing to see them as well as families picnicing here.
One of the thing which I notice immediately is that unlike a Singaporean HDB flat, strangers would not be able to enter freely into the housing corridor. This is because of the gate below. Visitors need to press the buzzer to talk to the owner and the owner decides to let them in or not.
Hence this was one of the few features that dissipated my fear of being murdered in a foreign country where I could not speak the language. Just a bit
If you’ve always wondered why there are loud drummings going on outside your window, usually Sundays, chances are you are hearing a Malay Wedding precession.
This is when the groom is arriving to the bride’s place. He is accompanied by friends and relatives as well as a group of kompang drummers. Together they make their presence known by the loud drumming.
The groom tries to approach the bride, but the bride’s family doesn’t make it easy for the groom to pass though! Just take a look at this video :
Very noisy right?
What this post, this is the final instalment of the wedding series.
If anyone is interested, here are contacts for some of the people involved with the wedding. I’m not paid for plugging, but I think that they did a good job
To start off this post, I shall put up a picture of me looking coy and demure
Saturday, 20th December 2008
The day started with a buzz. Even though I spent most my time in my room, I could hear all the excitement going on. With the people helping out with the cooking and the setting up of the decor et al. I was fretting over everything - will everything be alright?
And not before too long, it was my turn to be busy with the arrival of Kak Lili, my new Mak Andam who was replacing the original make up artist.
Her arrival was exactly like how a royalty’s helper would arrive. She came in with her little assistant and was gentle, calm, friendly and she immediately put me at ease. Suddenly I felt like a permaisuri aided with my dayang. For some reason, I felt as if I was on television because it was so unreal to me.
And we started with my makeover. The style of make-up is thick and a tad dramatic but apparently, good for photography.
And all throughout, Kak Lili was generous with her beauty tips, such as dabbing iced water on your face prior to make up, reduces oil and shine.
We needed to start doing the makeover to fulfil the quota of 10 outfits over the two days. Its an overkill, I know, but it makes mum happy.
By this time, DK came over to help set up wireless connection.
I wanted to share the wedding with my friends all over and I was keen to do a livestreaming of the wedding. So time ago, while I was at a Tech65 recording, I casually asked if it were possible to do a wireless connection on the void deck. We had an interesting discussion over it but little did I know that DK would actually come and help out. I’m really really touched.
Can you see the cable?
DK took the initiative and bought a very long network cable and from my room on the 9th floor, he plugged one end in my cable and like Rapunzel’s hair, threw the other end to the ground floor.
The handsome and macho DK
And it actually worked! It was amazing. We had wifi! Thank you so much DK! You rock!
By late afternoon, I had a short break from all the makeover. Kak Lili took off all my make up and I headed downstairs for a meal and also to see how things were going on.
I really feel touched to see so many relatives and friends gotong-royong and helping out. A wedding is a lot of work and our family prefers to do most of the preparations ourselves, like the cooking. The groom himself was busy setting up the tables and chairs
In any case, the entire void deck looked transformed - before it looked like this :
And this was after :
The place was not completely ready but what a transformation!
Initially, I was supposed to be Izah’s photographer for her blog. Geri kept telling me of how tasty her cakes were and I was intrigued
But the cupcakes was such a last minute idea but the more I thought about it, the more I liked it and I thought that Izah would be perfect. I was lucky that she agreed to the project
Too bad that I did not have a chance to chat a while longer with Izah, but it was time for me to get ready for the dinner reception. Kak Lili was already ready upstairs with two pairs of white dresses.
Kak Lili : This one or that one?
Me : That one! And I want to wear a tiara! The bigger the better! And I will carry that bouquet!
Kak Lili : Ok, ok. Anything to make the queen happy :P
And then it was time for Cart and I to get down for our dinner reception. By then Cart was already dressed up and looking really smart in his outfit. Kak Lili just did a final touch and slipped a matching flower on his jacket pocket.
My gosh when we arrived, there were so many people downstairs already. I saw so many faces of friends, family and relatives. It was so happy-fying to see all of them together, you cant imagine.
There were so many things going on like loads of people wanting to wish their congratulations. There was even a queue for it! It made me extremely amused.
Juli : Hai!
Rinaz : OMAIGAWD HAI!!!!
Cart : (Arches eyebrows ala wolverine)
Here Nicole was holding on to the laptop that was used for the livestreaming.
And then it was time to change into another outfit. My Bollywood Princess Leia outfit. I love it!
Its just too bad that I did not get a chance to wear the outfits longer. It would be nice to pretend to be in a Bollywood movie and dance around the trees with a group of people suddenly dancing behind me.
All of a sudden, someone took out a light sabre and asked Cart to hold it
Such a beautiful and exciting night. Of course, I did what every bride did at the end of a reception.
Pass out on the bed in exhaustion :P
And I will end this post with a short video of one of the Dikir Barat performance during the wedding. See if you can spot any bloggers that you know in there
The next day, Cart and I headed to Apkim for our Marriage Guidance Course.
In Singapore, it was compulsory for a Muslim couple to undertake the marriage guidance course before marriage, so as to prepare the couple of life after matrimony. Although I’ve already attended in April, Cart hasn’t.
Might as well go again, together this time, for the extra knowledge.
It was a full day course. We were ushered in an office and found that we were the only couple there. I presumed that we would be in a group. There was no where to hide. And I started to feel nervous again.
We were introduced to the marriage councillor and soon after we started our session.
It was a lot different compared to the Marriage Guidance Course at the Assyakirin Mosque. At the mosque, the lessons followed its various modules, while at Apkim, it was more personalized.
Most of the morning was discussed about Cart’s personality and mine. With that, we were adviced on how we would be able to get along with each other in time of conflict.
And later after lunch, we were asked about some basic questions about each other that made me more aware of each other. As well as advices on finance which was a big reason as to why divorces happen as well as the journey that was ahead of us.
At the end of the day, Cart wrote a sort of love letter to me, about how he was looking forward to our life together.
In Singapore, before a Muslim couple could get married, among other things, it is compulsory for the couple to complete the Marriage Preparatory Course and the other is to have an interview with the Registry of Muslim Marriages.
To what I know of, the interview was to check that the couple were both sound of mind for marriage as well as to check that the marriage was consensual.
Cart and I were at the Registry of Muslim Marriages, on Monday morning, together with my family.
After registering at the counter, we were all asked to wait outside the office upstairs. This was a very familiar place to me, having gone there a couple of times for a relative’s wedding.
That’s my dad there peeking inside the solemnization room. Inside the room is a raised platform with a dais and about 100 seats facing the dais, for the guests.
I was feeling a little bit nervous. I wondered what the kadi would be asking me. Is this an examination? And if I did not answer him correctly, does that mean that I would not be able to get married?
It didn’t take too long till it was my turn.
Gingerly, I knocked on the door and entered. The air felt serious. Throughout the entire duration, the kadi didnt smile, and was sombre.
He looked at the piece of paper in front of him, asked me to confirm my name was, my dad’s name as well as my future husband’s name was. And he made me raise up my right hand and solemnly swear that all the details that I had written down was true. At that point, I thought it was a strange ritual. Nevertheless, I did as he asked and the interview was over.
That’s it?
Then it was Cart’s turn and like me, his interview went on smoothly too.
Kucing means cat and Joo Chiat is a shopping center in Geylang
With time to spare, I decided to spend the day buying wedding exchange gifts. We headed to Geylang, which had plenty of good foods as well as nice shopping.
Cart and I spent time in Everest, a jewellery shop that my mum liked and where our eyes were like saucers looks at the jewellery. Mum splurged on a beautiful bracelet and ring and I bought one of my hantaran set and splurged on a heart charm bracelet. Till now, I cant believe at how impulsive I was.
Regardless, after spending time with Cart over their rings, this is now my wedding ring
It costs 230 euros as taxes to retrieve the computer. Ironic when its a gift
After all the hassle with the delivery service, he took the time during his lunchtime to drive all the way to the delivery headquarters to retrieve back my computer and my boots. Twice! On two separate days.
I was so excited that I leaped at the box and pulled the computer out. How long I’ve waited!
As you can see from my huge grin, I’m really happy to have finally have my computer with me. Can you believe that it took over 4 months to have it shipped here from Singapore? I still remember the HP Touchsmart unboxing livestreaming that I did with my brother in August 2008. This makes me feel rather unconfident of having anything delivered overseas to Rome.
But regardless, I’m relieved that the computer arrived in one piece. And now its sitting pretty in the study room right next to Cart’s compy! We would probably evolve into a non verbal relationship where we communicate solely by plurk and msn even when sitting next to each other, but no matter!
Doesnt it look good? Took some time to re-explore the interface all over again as it had a MS Vista OS instead of XP which was something that I was used to. Moreoever there were a number of installed programs that was very amusing to me.
There are also other games that are distracting me like Diner Dash. And very soon I’d like to install Premiere Elements! Its been a while and I’m looking forward to do some video editing. I’ve missed that :)
And I finally got my Ugg Boots!
Razorburn = bad
I’ve been jonesing it for the longest time after the first time I laid my eyes on them. After fruitlessly searching for them in Rome, I bought them online. Its a little daunting when there were so many fraud websites that was really hard to tell if the website is offering genuine merchandise or not.
I saw a number of websites selling branded shoes, bags and designer jewellery. While some was easy to tell that it was fake, there are others which are not so easy due to the pricing. Fakes should not be so expensive right?
So I choose a respectable looking website and when it arrived, thank goodness it was a perfect fit. There are furry insoles which are rather nice to touch. But putting on the ugg boots feels strange, though comfortable, it doesnt feel as if there is support at the base. When I walk, it feels as if I’m walking with flip flops rathter than sturdy boots.
With how rough I am with shoes, I’m not sure how long these will last
