In the middle there is Elio by the way, and coincidentally one of the judge for X-Factor Italia

I’ve been very amused by this particular song, “First me, Second me” for days to the point that I’m singing it out loud to Cart. It’s like a bad-direct-translation from Italian to English.

By the way, in Italian, Secondo me has a double meaning, it could either mean in my opinion or I’m second.

The kicker is, they got James Taylor as a guest singer for this song (just that it’s not him in this video) :

I love it because it’s such a beautiful song, but the lyrics is just nonsense! Hahaha! There’s a longer, more cruder version here – “In the light, I see the your true face. You are a toilet”

HUH?!

Now if someone will make a musical version of Tijah and her boifren mat saleh, my life will be complete!

Located in Via Ruggero di Lauria, it is within walking distance to the Vatican museum and also the Cipro metro station which is on my way home from work. So I could have this while driving home at the end of the day! Hehehe.

By the way, the name bavaglino means bib, like what kids use on their chest while eating. It sounds very cute. Nevertheless, its a classy and cosy looking restaurant. I really liked the beautiful tableware, and how every drinking glass was etched with the logo.

While I have to admit that while I do not have a very sophisticated palate, but my unrefined mouth could tell that food that we had was lovely. And here are what we had :

Antipasti :

Tonno scottato al finocchietto con riduzione di balsamico, fiore di zucca grigliato ripieno di spigola e zucchina romana con coulis di pomodoro

This is my tuna, lightly seared and it was so good paired up with the fennel and balsamic reduction. I would have never thought that the fresh fish and the cream would be so exquisite together.

There is also grilled zucchini flower stuffed with sea bass, which was a classy and upscale (and also healthier) version of my favourite “fior di zucca”

Cart, who is vegetarian, had cheese with vegetables inside, instead of tuna and there was ricotta cheese for the zucchini flower.

Primi :

Paccheri con seppie, fave e pecorino romano con mentuccia croccante

It’s typical to have pasta as a main course in Italy. And since it’s fava beans season, we had paccheri, which is a type of big and round pasta served with pecorino romano, a type of sharp cheese and cuttlefish with a touch of crunchy mint.

I almost expected the dish to be strong, but fortunately it wasn’t. The fava beans were small and sweet (older beans would taste more … grassy) and balanced the cheese well.

Trofie con vongole, asparagi e peperoni concasse al basilico

Trofie, one of my favourite kind of pasta (on account that it’s curly and cute) served with asparagus, peperoni and clams. It was so delicious! And I was sorry when it was all gone from my plate.

Secondi :

Calamaro ripieno con patate viola e fave, Raviolo di spada con caponatina

Second course would usually entail a meat based dish and we had squid stuffed with red potatoes and fava beans. For some reason, it reminds me kind of like eating sushi. The little package on the left is a sort of ravioli, but instead of pasta, it’s made of sword fish and stuffed with caponatina.

Cart’s vegetarian version was really good too.

Oh gosh, look at that parmigiana di melanzana! One of my favourite Italian things to eat! It looks so gorgeous and tasted so good, I was almost wishing that I had that instead. This was accompanied with a medley of seasonal vegetable tempura.

Dolci :

Gelato alla birra, carpaccio di ananas con gelato al riso venere

For desserts, we had gelato alla birra, which I could barely touch. While it didn’t contain any alcohol, I just don’t like strong, bitter tastes.

But I absolutely adore the black rice ice cream, which is amazingly not at all black in colour here. Served with a thin slice of pineapple, it was so light and delicately sweet, it was wonderful.

All in all, I had a very pleasant and lovely evening with good food, and good company in a beautiful place. It’s hard to ask for anything better :-)

Il Bavaglino
Via Ruggero di Lauria 26/A – Roma

Living overseas has been an enriching experience, but I’m sorry, it’s not all that bed of roses like what most people think!

But it’s really unevitable when you’re walking down central Termini (right in the area of the train station) and there are loads of affordable and pretty accessories.

Remember my butterfly charm bracelet? I had loads of nice comments about it when I wore it out. I think this was less than 15 euro, but it looks so much more expensive than that.

Leopard bow ring! It’s just a cheap little plastic ring, but it’s so eccentric and cute and it makes me feel so happy.

This bracelet below reminds me a little bit of a Tiffany bracelet. But it looks so much more exquisite and costs probably 500 times cheaper.

Yellow rose plastic ring! So vibrant and I don’t even need to water it … hehehe … I’ve been looking for this for a while! I think I’m subconsciously influenced by Kandee Johnson.

The flower below doubles as a brooch as well as a hair clip. Small flower hair clips seem to be a fashion nowadays in Rome. It would cost about 10 euro in a regular shop, but in Termini you could get it for only 3. The green pearl necklace I got from Porta Portese Sunday Flea market for the same price.

Angry bird necklace which I got more for laughs cause Cart is mad about this dumb game. I could always channel Naomi Campbell and throw it at him …

Zebra! I love animal pendants and I like to take him out for trot every now and then.

These are only two euro! So pretty! They are a little heavy though, these mini chandeliers.

And finally … this was attraction at first sight for me … Imagine cherries hanging on your ears … So cute!

Phew! I think I’m a little calmer for now, with the acessories craze. It should pass just like my mekap craze. But then again, at the back of my mind at this point of time, I’m wondering if I should try to be on a look out for a mustache necklace though, those are so funny!

In case you’re wondering where this picture originated from …

And here’s what I’ve been up to … *drum rolls* I’m now a nursery English Teacher.

Haha, what a choice huh?

To be honest, prior to living in Rome, I thought that it was kind of like a step down (if you know what I mean) having paper qualifications and years of teaching experience in a Secondary school and then now I teach mainly 3 – 5 year olds.

But then again, I do enjoy it for most part as I love kids. And how can you not just melt when you see cute and adorable children with those big eyes and thick lashes and those rosy cheeks, that you can’t help to pick them up to cuddle them. And they seem to have a sense of curiosity around them, chattering about in their little voices, “Teacher! Lo sai che bla bla bla?”

So sometimes I think I’m really lucky. I get to play with kids, masquerading as an English teacher.

Don’t get me wrong though, while it’s fun, it’s also hard work as keeping them focused is very challenging. And sometimes they tend to fight with each other and then obviously they cry. Can you imagine how chaotic a room of crying children is? More even so that, because I’m not that fluent in Italian, trying to explain certain things (like why you should be kind with others) is very challenging. I’ve learnt to be extremely patient and calm.

Sometimes I wish I could somehow reverse time back to when I first started teaching in Singapore, and changed my psychology. Rather than being easily annoyed, being patient would have rendered me a more effective educator.

So all in all, I’ve learnt not to look down or think that I’m downgrading myself. After all, if I enjoy what I’m doing, it’s not so bad isn’t it?

Moreover, it pays quite well enough for me to to buy nice crap for myself every now and then rather than having to depend on Cart all the time.

My nice new charm bracelet I bought with my own money!

And who knows in the future, I could even save up and afford to buy on my own, a new scooter or even a car!

And that made me realize quite recently on how autonomous that I finally am becoming – after living here in Rome for some years, I’ve gotten a driver’s license, my own vehicle, I can speak basic Italian, and now that I’ve finally have my own banking account I actually feel like I’m quite up to the same level as I was in Singapore. My independence.

Guess it’s just a matter of time that everything fits in.

Anyway, living in Rome for several years now, I found it interesting that there are recognizable fast food restaurants like Burger Kings and Subway and Macdougals here in Italy, but the strangest thing is that I’ve never seen a KFC branch in Rome before.

But discovered quite by chance by Claire, there is a new alternative in town though, called Kin’s Crunchy Chicken.

Founded by a Muslim man, there are branches in UK and Pakistan. And now most recently in Rome. Claire and I went to the branch in Via Carlo Alberto which is right next to the Vittorio Emanuele metro.

The place seemed so new that even the sign wasn’t revealed yet when we arrived there for the first time!

And look! Everything in there is halal food. Yay!

Coming in the place, there was a sense of familiarity. I have a lot of memories especially when growing in the old house in Singapore, Taman Jurong KFC was just 5 minutes walk from home so I spent quite a fair bit of time there.

Ehm, pardon the blurry picture, but I didn’t want the manager to scream at me …! But see, everything looks pretty much the same, down to the display.

I had the 2 piece chicken and 3 spicy wings combo set with drink and fries. (You could change it to rice if you wanted) I don’t remember how much this costs. I think it was under 6 euro.

I quite liked the chicken. Like the namesake, it was crispy and hot. And it was fast to get. I got it immediately after ordering.  On the other hand, while the Spicy wings were yummy, they weren’t spicy enough for me. But then again, being in Italy, the level of spicyness is seems to always be toned down.

Don’t let the size fool you though, although the portion looked tiny, it was very filling! I could hardly move after I had my meal.

Claire on the other hand, had a chicken fillet burger. This took a while to be cooked as burgers are prepared on order.

This was pretty intriguing to me as it had … a hashbrown in it! Does the combination taste really good this way? Claire seems to think so!

I’ll try to remember to do this the next time I make a bur-gher!

The second time that we went there, Claire tried the combo meal that I had the first time while I decided to go for the grilled chicken burger. This one I liked a lot! I think that they put in black pepper sauce inside and with the mayo and the grilled chicken combination, it was oh so good! Fattening, but I really didn’t care.

Next time, I want to get the double grilled chicken burger! Twice the happiness!

Oh, another thing I wanted to mention before I forget, Claire and I were playing the “Count how many Italians are in this restaurant” game while we were there. Not surprisingly, there weren’t that much Italian (or Italian looking people) there. Also the fact that the restaurant was situated in Vittorio Emanuele / Termini, where there are a lot of foreigners.

Nevertheless, to me, eating there was a good experience and we’d definitely go there again when we are hankering for fried chicken!

Oh! But just one thing … though the restaurant is clean …  be careful of their toilet.

Monsters seem to lurk there …

The story goes like this :

Wednesday evening at my workplace, Sam the scooter decided to just stop working. When I pressed the ignition, nothing happened. Not even the lights switched on. Which led me to believe that it was a battery failure. So I called Cart up for help and he arrived later in the evening to attach his cable from his battery to mine to temporarily give life to Sam and accompanied me in his car as I rode to my regular mechanic.

The only issue was that because it was late in the evening, and the mechanic needed time to diagnose the issue. I still needed to go to work the next day. No problem … I’ll just take the public transportation. I can deal with this. I’ll just have to get out of the house earlier.

Just to let you know, to get to my workplace, I’d have to take the bus and travel about 3km. Then take the subway, change to a connecting line, and then take a train. After that, walk another 3km from the train station to my workplace. If all goes well, I could reach my workplace in about an hour and a half.

But unbeknownst to me, as I took the bus, I realised that there was a transport strike going on. The bus and subway started their strike at 8.30am so I (along with a whole mass of people) had to rush. But growing up in a cosmopolitan country like Singapore, the crowd wasn’t such a big deal. The train left a few minutes after I boarded, and I ended reaching work rather early.

By the way, transport strikes are pretty frequent in Italy. Sometimes even twice a month. But it’s normally held on Fridays.

But it was after work when the nightmare really started.

As I had to cover another teacher during the weekend, I decided to carry some substantial amount of children books and materials. It was probably about 10kg or so. And I tell you, lugging that amount on a 3km distance (there were no bus services) nearly made me cry. On top of that, I had to rush over as the train strike starts at 2pm. I was half dead when I finally reached the train station.

The train didn’t arrive on time. In fact, it was an hour late. And when it finally arrived, the entire situation was chaotic. There were so many people and I felt like a sardine.

It felt kind of like this :

Being poked and hit (accidentally or not) was no fun. And then I still had to take the subway. By the time I reached my neighbourhood, it was already time to head to where I teach private tuition. Not even time for a proper lunch.

And when that was over, I walked another 3km all the way home.

As you can imagine, by the time I reached home, I was so exhausted, I slept as soon as my head hit the sofa. Completely dressed and all. I was that tired. Even if I were in my teens or early twenties, my body probably cannot take this physical punishment.

I don’t think anyone should experience what I experienced. Ever.

Which makes me wonder, maybe getting a foldable bicycle could be a good investment. As a back up plan in case these sort of things happen again.

Or even better … When will teleportation be invented already?!