This is early April
The middle of April
And now
Spring is so interesting. I love looking at the colours of the leaves as it bursts out after it’s dormancy. It’s like a Rogaine commercial.
So I participated in a soup competition!
Last Sunday, I participated in a Soup Competition at La Citta Dell’Utopia. It’s something that I’ve always wanted to do ever since I first visited the place roughly two years ago, but I seemed to always had prior engagements until now. So this time round, I pounced at the opportunity!
By the way, La Citta Dell’Utopia is sort of community center, run by volunteers. And in my opinion, a good way to meet like minded people and pick up new skills like language, yoga, recycling, art and whatnots. I frequently go to another one called Insensinverso.
Anyway, I know I said preveiously that I wanted to make Soto Ayam, but considering that not a lot of Italians can take the spicyness that I am used to (moreoever, to find the right ingredients takes a quite a bit of money. I am cheapo frugal and don’t like to spend too much money on people I don’t know)
So a week before, I asked on facebook on what kind of Asian style soup that I could make. I got a lot of nice answers and I was really considering to make Jaz’s ABC soup. However, I found out that sweetcorn, one of the main ingredient wasn’t in season so I decided to make Chicken Soup instead. Sorry everyone! Please don’t think that I’ve taken you guys for granted.
And the day before was such a busy day, we were running around to get halal chicken and the rest of the ingredients, searching forever for parking just to make an appointment at the dentist and then rushing over to meet Alessandra and friends for the chocolate festival.
And then it was time to go home. As tired as I was, I went to prepare the soup straight away as I knew that it will take a much longer time than usual as it was a much larger batch compared to what I was used to. I think I went to bed at after midnight and I still have halfway to go before it’s finished.
But in the end, my beautiful soup! I was contemplating to not go and eat this all by myself, cause I liked it a lot! Hahaha!!!
By then, it was already past noon and Cart and I spent some time translating the recipe to Italian. Can you believe that it took half an hour! Phew!
Eventually we brought the big pot to La Citta and I met up with my friends at Insensinverso and we registered as a team. That’s Francesco registering for us.
I have to say that La Citta looks quite pretty now that it’s been restored. For the past two years, the top floor has been under renovation and now it’s used as a hostel and the entire building has been given a fresh coat of paint. The picture doesn’t do it justice. This place has to be seen in real life to see how charming it is.
They say that Garibaldi stayed in this building in some time in his life.
(You probably can’t read it in the picture above, but the team used a phrase from an annoyingly catchy song)
We had a bit of time to go before the soup event started, so Cart and I went to have a bit of lunch, then we lounged around, then we started to set up our tables and do some designs, and I popped over to see how the other tables were set up.
(By the way, Cart and I discovered a place nearby that sells super yummy fried pizza. It’s probably unhealthy, but they are so good …)
And here is my friend Giulia practising with her poi balls during her break. She looks so graceful.
Anyway, when the event started proper at 4pm, suddenly there was a whole swarm of people swooping in demanding to try the soups.
Oh gosh! It was so overwhelming!
It was hard to think straight, that I couldn’t have a proper chat with Anna, one of my friends who dropped by to give her support. All we managed to say to each other was, “Hi! How are you? Want to try some soup? Got to go, sorry!” Eek! Awkward! Haha!
Of course, we tried to cozy up with the judges so that we could get good scores! This was one of them by the way, look at how amused he looked due to the team’s antics! Hahaha!
(Hey, who’s that Cart talking to, looking so happy back there?)
I ladled up my last bit of soup in less than an hour and after that, I felt so exhausted that all I wanted to do was to just sit down. There was a lot of lively-live music going on, but “Non ce lo faccio” I really couldn’t make it and we waited for the results to be announced.
We didn’t win in the end. Shucks! I felt a little unsatisfied because of all the time that I spent and I am confident that it was tasty. Nevertheless I had a good experience anyway. If I were to do it again, I’d do a bit of changes though.
One of them being saving some soup for my team, I don’t think any one of them had a taste!
(I swear it wasn’t me that stuck the fork there in anger! My poor stickman!)
In any case, I’m glad that I finally participated in something that I’ve wanted to do for a long time. And now, that’s one thing to cross off my bucket list 🙂
I hate hard sellers
Many years ago, I used to go to a beauty salon in Singapore, where they did facial treatments like facial masks, steaming, ‘extracting’, massages and whatnots.
To make a long story short, I stopped going there eventually as they tend to always use pressure tactics and hard-selling so that you buy more services. And that’s very off putting. I don’t understand the lack of foresight, as it chases clients away rather than making them want to continue patronising.
—
So recently I got this in the mail :
(Sans the soft toy as it’s covering my home address and I’m too lazy to photochop it out)
Inside are photos of me running in the half-marathon last month, list of prices and a bill for payment.
I don’t know how you’d react to that, but immediately I was really pissed off.
- First of all, while the photos are quite well shot, I never asked for them
- The fact that this company is chasing me for payments for things that I never asked for, just leaves a bad taste in my mouth.
You could justify that, Marina, it’s not a big deal – I could just send back the photos and problem’s solved. But why do /I/ have to take the time to get stamps, find a mail box (which is strangely difficult to find in Rome) and post it back? Why do /I/ have to take the effort for something that I never wanted or asked for in the first place?
Another thing that quite bothered me is the fact that my address was freely given to this company by the running organization. By right, in Italy, there is a privacy law where you’d have to put your signature to give your permission for advertisers to contact you.
You might think that it’s not a big deal, one gets flyers and spam mail all the time. But in this case, it is different a the package has your name and address on it! And someone out there has your personal details that you have no intention of sharing in the first place.
Speaking of which, some years back, we had so many telemarketing calls and it got so bad that we put our phone numbers in the ‘Registro delle opposizioni‘ which is a list where registrants are protected from marketing calls.
What do you think I should do with the photos? While I sympathise with the photo company for trying to make a living, hard-selling tactics are definitely not the way to go. Prior to this, I was contemplating on buying a photo, but after this incident … forget it!
Shame on you! I’m so turned off now like I’m turned off doing facials at beauty salons.
January to April
I’ve been taking a picture out of the window every month to track the differences visually month by month. I’ve been meaning to do this for a while, but I keep forgetting to. So this year, I hope to complete all twelve months so that I could share it with you.
There isn’t much difference at the moment, but in a few weeks to come, you’ll be sure to see the trees suddenly grow leaves again. Personally, I find the change of seasons quite beautiful. Even winter, because everything looks so clear and clean.
January :
February :
March :
April :
On a hindsight, perhaps I should have chosen a better location. Our windows are covered with a bug-screen which is why there’s a strange grill pattern on each picture! Haha!
I’ll update again in a few months time 🙂
Important update : rinaz.net has been acquired
Initially I thought that I’d do a sort of April fool joke. You know, like rinaz.net being acquired by another company and I’m being paid loads of money for the domain. But there are a lot of smart people out there, moreover, this domain is such a part of me, it’s so I change my mind.
If you believed that I would … April fool! I guess 😛
Nevertheless, it’ll be nice to have some extra money. Ah 46K. The things I would do with 46 thousand drool-ars. First thing I’d do is to get a new scooter to replace stupid Sam.
Anyway, yesterday was Easter and it’s a big holiday in Italy. We’d normally spend the day at Cart’s parents and joined with my sister in law and her kids, we’d eat and eat and eat.
And here are what we ate :
This is a crepe with tomato sauce and parmigiano.
Cappeletti in chicken broth. The dumplings are stuffed with meat though, so I didn’t eat that.
Nor did I eat this meat roll. Looks good though.
And instead, I had baked fish! Nom nom! The name of this fish is called dentice and I keep imagining that it had big teeth.
And here is the pastry that Cart made the evening beforehand. It is called Torta pasqualina and Cart was inspired to make it because of it’s namesake. It was interesting to me, because of the eggs inside. Initially looking at the recipe, I thought that boiled eggs were used. But it’s not.
Here is how it looks like before it’s covered with pastry and cooked. Cart made little holes in the ricotta cheese and bieta mix, for the eggs to rest in.
And this is how it looks like when it’s done and cut open! Yum!
After our lunch, it was time to open our chocolates with the little surprises inside. Everyone got a chocolate egg.
Here is a quick video on how to open them!
By the way, it seems that PowerDirector is starting to be bonkers for me. My last two videos are squashed, and I don’t think it’s coincidental anymore.
As for me, I prefer not to break them though. I donno. It seems like such a shame to break open such a beautifully packed chocolate egg and bunnies. I’d be like murdering it! So I’ll just pose with it (since no one is taking pictures of me) and eat it … in December.
Do you like my nails by the way?
After that, I was so stuffed that the only thing I wanted to do was to stone out on the couch and watch Tomb Raider. My goodness. Technology has advanced so much since the first Tomb Raider came out in 1997. Lara was blocky and so pixellated.
But I spent hours playing that game. I had lots of fun and it was exciting. Now Tomb Raider looks so realistic. It’s like watching a movie and looks so lush and realistic, I don’t know if I have the guts to play it for real. (This one is rated M by the way)
Anyway, the funny thing about having such a big meal, rather than feeling full, I feel HUNGRIER some hours later and now my itchy mouth wants to eat more.
Not good. Not good. Not good.
A devilishly handsome man
Oooh! Check out what we got in the mail recently …
Why it’s our devilishly handsome model looking all sexeh! Luckily for him, he looks less creepy than in the previous booklet. Nevertheless, I still get that “Hey baby!” vibe.
The gold satin sheets isn’t helping the situation either. Poor man! Someone in the publications team is probably trolling him! Hahaha!
Should the rich be entitled to subsidies?
During the first few years that I’ve been living in Rome, I went to a school near my home to learn Italian. This building is a functioning elementary school so, while our classes were held, the school children would be doing their classes ongoing.
Apart from Italian, there are also other courses that you could do here and they are all government subsidized. I remember having to pay less than 20 euros in total for lessons 2 hours a day, twice weekly lasting for about 6 months. Dirt cheap right?
I remember my lessons to be enjoyable (but it really depends on how lucky you are in getting a good teacher) as well as beneficial as a stepping stone in communicating with Italians. While I did take lessons before migrating here, being completely immersed is a different ballgame altogether.
I’ve stopped taking lessons there since last year as the lessons covered up to levels A2/B1 and was getting a little easy for me (Did I just say that? WOW! Haha!) moreover, the timings clashed with my then working stint.
In any case, recently, I was walking to a pharmacy and to get there, you’d have to pass by the school. By chance, I noticed my former Italian teacher having a break and we had a quick chat.
Anyway, after we said our goodbyes, I passed by the parking area of the school and I noticed an Asian lady coming out of a huge-ass-expensive-looking car. She was dressed nicely – ankle boots, trim tailored trousers, well fitting, possibly designer jacket and she was wearing sunnies and swishing her meticulously wavy hair.
Two thoughts came into my mind :
- She must be going for Italian classes
- Why is a rich woman going for subsidized classes?
I understand that everyone – be they rich or poor has the right to education. I just find it odd how anyone would flaunt (accidental or not) their monetary status in a public aided place.
One week before Easter
With about a week to go before Easter and if you are anywhere near any of the numerous churches in Rome, you could see that they are bustling with activity. The one near my home for example, had a sort of group singing going on.
I’m not sure if you could see it in the picture below (thanks to the tree blocking my way so I couldn’t take a better shot … haha) but all the people below are carrying an olive branch.
These olive branches are blessed by the priest and will be brought home, I suppose for bringing blessings. Cart was telling me the story of the week before Jesus died, he’d be riding a donkey and there was a crowd of people waving palm leaves.
Since palm trees didn’t used to be readily available, it has since been exchanged with olive branches instead, as Italy has an abundance of olive trees.
Cart and I were having a walk around the Santi Pietro e Paolo yesterday. We saw tables with loads of olive branches and there was a monk next to it, that was handing them out to visitors.
I’m not Catholic, so I didn’t feel comfortable at taking one directly from the monk.
Interestingly enough, a friend gave me this earlier :
And I looked at her and gasped and in mock horror, I jokingly asked :?”Why are you giving me this? This is haram!”
She : HARAM?!?!?!
You should have seen her look of shock and surprise and flabbergast. It was so funny to see.
In the end, I did take the package home. It didn’t any symbolism to me so I don’t see it wrong to carry it. I’m not sure what to do with it though.
Crazy March
There is a saying in Italian – Marzo e’ pazzo. Which literally means, “March is crazy” on account on the weather doesn’t seem to make up her mind.
She could be sunny one moment, and then rainy all of a sudden. You’d feel a comfortable temperature one moment … and then a chilly gust of wind pops out of nowhere. She can be such a troll.
It’s been raining a lot in Rome since the beginning of March.
Which can be annoying when you want to go out especially when you’d have to hit the roads.
You can’t use the scooter as it’s much more dangerous for a two wheeler to be under wet conditions but when you take the car, you’d be slowed down in traffic significantly and after that, you’d still need to search for parking …which is such a nightmare that it’s much better to just stay at home.
(If you’re wondering why I didn’t add public transportation, honestly, who likes waiting 30 minutes in the rain and then be poked by other people with wet umbrellas, that is if the mezzi don’t have their monthly strike)
Nevertheless, now that we are about to reach Spring, flowers have started to bloom on trees and little daisies have sprung out of the ground and they are so pretty to see.
Seems kind of philosophical somehow. Despite all the rubbish that we go through, there is always something to look forward to.
Am I delirious?
Last evening was my FIL (father in law)’s 80th birthday. To celebrate, a surprise birthday party was organized for him in the same restaurant that Cart and I went to, to celebrate our wedding anniversary some years back. Without him knowing, his friends were all there. There were about 20 of us altogether.
Celebrating birthdays the Italian way can be quite dramatic – it’s perfectly normal to have your birthday cake brought to you, with fireworks.
I had a lovely evening, eating loads of good food and here are some pictures of them so that you could be jealous :
This was our appetizer with mixed seafood.
Pasta with clams (there was another type of pasta with fish, but I didn’t manage to try it … aww!!!)
Risotto con crema di scampi which was absolutely delish.
Baked Mediterranean Seabass with zucchini and potato … mmmmm.
And we ended our meal with some macedonia
And the birthday cake! My nephew’s sharp eyes immediately spotted out that this isn’t FIL’s name. Oooh … Someone at the bakery did a typo 😛
But as the evening went on, I started to feel sleepy and I was fighting to keep myself awake. Suddenly I realised that all of the ladies in our group looked like makciks (makcik is the affectionate term that Malays call an aunt be it if they were related or not)
The only thing missing is the headgear. But it was nor hard for me to imagine them with. Even the way that they chatted with each other reminds me of a typical scene when a makcik meets another.
Am I delirious?! Or am I subconsciously trying to find things to connect about things that I grew up with so that I don’t feel homesick? I don’t think that feeling will ever go away. There are people who live overseas for more than 10 years, acclimatized themselves and yet still miss their place of origin.