After a whirlwind 3 weeks of mostly stuffing my face with food as well as meeting friends and family, I’m back in Rome again.
Already missing Singapore. I’ll try to blog soon.
Back in Rome
January 9th, 2010A week passed by
December 25th, 2009Am in Singapore for about a week now.
It was a rather simple affair when we exited the customs with my family greeting an exhausted Cart and I at the airport.
Regardless, I was looking here and there on our journey to my parent’s house. There were so many changes! Empty areas had a buildings on them and some places with buildings which I remembered, were demolished.
All in one year?
When we reached my parent’s house, I was shocked that the house felt so unfamiliar. Strange because I spent years and had so many memories here before moving to Rome with Cart.
The first thing that I ate would be the rojak that my mum prepared. It felt really great having to eat hot and spicy food again, as opposed to the mild food that I have been consuming.
And then Cart and I fainted on the bed from our extreme jetlag.
But anyway after being here for a couple of days, the “unfamilliar” feeling was gone and everything seems normal again. Suddenly it felt as if Rome never happened.
Going about doing daily activities feels very natural to me. Finally I can understand what the people around me are saying and interact with them properly.
Spent the last few days catching up with friends and family. Its nice to be able to speak face to face in Malay again. Although I’m a little bit worried that my Malay is getting a little bit jumbled up with Italian and English at the same time.
And of course enjoying the food that is not so easy to get in Rome. And where best to enjoy them but in hawker centers! Today itself, I gourged on Ayam Penyet, Indian Rojak, Mee Siam …
I’m looking at a couple of the items that used to belong to me. Like the scooter.
Its been a long while since I’ve ride on my baby Vespa. I miss the feeling of zipping down the road with the wind in my face. I dont even mind getting sunburnt for it (and I did!)
Which reminds me that one of the fears that I had before coming here was not being accustomed to the heat. Some nights were uncomfortable. But so far, it hasn’t been too bad.
I’m in what used to be my room at the moment, looking at the things that I didn’t have time to pack and left temporarily. And I reminisce and feel nostalgia.
Its a good thing that this time I’d have a couple of weeks to pack them back for Rome as opposed to the hectic one day packing last year.
But yet, it makes me sad though because all this “normality” doesn’t last and eventually I’d have to go back.
One week has passed by. Only two more weeks to go.
Bah
This is the Stuck-in-Dubai-come-chat-with-me Post
December 18th, 2009Just reached Dubai airport and I feel groggy and looking totally unglamorous.
But Cart and I will be in Singapore soon!
I’m so looking forward to seeing my friends and family, eating good food and shopping! And I’m definitely most looking forward to meet you! Please don’t feel shy :-)
But before that, we’d be waiting at our stopover in Dubai Airport for about 8 hours before our next flight to Singapore. Oh my!
We’ve got quite a bit time to kill, thank goodness there is free internet here. So I hope that you come and keep us company and chat with us via the comment box below :-)
Live updates
11.00pm Dubai Time : Just landed in Dubai.
12:00 Dubai Time : Just finished eating this Steakhouse Burger from Burger King.
I don’t like it so much.
1.00am Dubai Time : Cart and I are bored.
2.15am Dubai Time : Cart is napping on the bench while I’m keeping watch. Internet here is wonky. I cant load plurk or twitter well. Why isnt anyone chatting with me on the comment box?
2.45am Dubai Time : If I didnt have to keep watch over the stuff, I would totally do like what these guys are doing
3.00am Dubai Time : Finally trying out the Starbucks Toffee Nut Frap. Its not bad.
3.10am Dubai Time : Whoops, battery running low. I better find a charging station.
4.16am Dubai Time : Feel stoned. Getting lesser people and is quieter now. Everyone looks so docile.
5.05am Dubai Time : Fell asleep on the Starbucks table. Lappy is about 70% charged now. Totally dishevelled. I look like a pontianak in ugg boots.
Woah! Arabic Google!
6.15am Dubai time : The place seems more lively now. Suddenly there are more people streaming in. Wanted to pray but the prayer room doesn’t seem to have any prayer outfits provided.
Check out these very skilled women!
The lady on the PA system has such a nice and comforting voice. Wahyu, wahyu, Isnain, Tsalasa.
6.20am : Alright time to head to the boarding gates. Thank you for your hospitality Dubai, see you soon, dear Singapore!
I has Italian mekap!
December 15th, 2009After living in Rome for almost a year now, I only realised about these made in Italy cosmetics only recently. So I dragged Cartcart to bring me to Castel Romano where I bought my first made in Italy cosmetics! Yay!
Below is a quick show and tell video of the two cosmetics that I bought – The Pupa Lip Perfection Splendor and the Eye Designer.
WANT MOAR!
Sidenote : If you’re free on the 27th December, join me for a high tea session! 
This is how Ubuntu Netbook Remix Looks like
December 13th, 2009I was really sad that my S10 wasn’t functioning but my brother advised me to take out the motherboard and plug it back in again. And lo and behold, my netbook works again!
So today, I’ll give you an overview of Ubuntu Karmic Koala – the operating system that I’m currently using on my netbook.
I sound like a freaking teacher 
Related Links :
Sidenote 1 : If you’re free on the 27th December, I’ll be having a fan signing high tea session. Come and join me! I would love to meet you
Sidenote 2 : The good news is that I turn out to be one of the winners for the Win 7 contest. Although to be honest, I’m not impressed by how it is being organized.
Subconscious hand gestures
December 9th, 2009Being in a majority of Italians, you cant help but to be influenced by some of their quirks and mannerisms. One of the most fascinating habits that Italians have, are their hand gestures.
Anyway, Cart and I happened to be in a nice Thai restaurant the other evening. Every one of the crew were Thai and speaking in Thai but I saw Italian hand gestures. It was very fascinating to see.
It was later that I noticed that I am beginning to do this gesture subconsciously :
This is a gesture to emphasize sentences like “What the heck do you want?” “What the heck is this supposed to mean?”
But oh dear, it looks so thuggish … that even Ridz wants me to be his adviser to his mafia
Magic The Gathering World Tournament in Rome
December 3rd, 2009A couple of weeks back, Cart stumbled upon a Magic the Gathering tournament and asked me a long to take have a look. Cart used to play MTG card games, I didn’t. But I thought that it would be interesting just to see what was going on, like a typical busybody.
Here we are at the Palazzo Dei Congressi where major exhibitions and conferences are held. The moment we reached there, I felt as if I was not in Rome anymore. Because as soon as we went up the staircase, I heard two Americans having a conversation with each other. And as soon as we entered the tournament hall, practically everyone was speaking in English.
The judges, the tech supporters, the emcees, the players. Woah. Am I really in Rome? Doesn’t feel like it.
Anyway, we decided to just barge in to take a look at the contestants at work. Cart was hesitating because he feared that we’d be in the way, but worst comes to worst, the assistants will ask us to go away, right? So we’ll go when we’re chased away
I’m not too sure how the game goes, but I noticed that as they were playing, they’d scribble in a little notepad to tally up their scores.
There were SO many people playing. It was impressive. The hall, which was very large by itself was full of contestants. And yet, there were other halls and levels that we did not explore into. So many contestants! A rough estimate would be about 4 thousand contestants in all.
But what is interesting is that I also noticed that there were hardly any girls playing. Hmm …
As you see, contestants come from all over the world. Which makes me wonder. Considering that many of the contestants are in their teens, and live overseas, how on earth do they earn the money to come to Rome and stay here for about 4 days or so. According to Oharlie, one could earn a lot of money from these tournaments but I’m still very sceptical about it.
Exploring a little bit more, we came across a section where you could play Magic the Gathering Online. I’m sure its very interesting to play but I’m more of a kill and slash person when it comes to MMORPG games
Walking a little bit more, I saw this very nice conference hall. Cart postulated that this was the area where the winners will be announced. I really liked the place. It reminded me of the past conferences that I’ve attended like Interesthink and Nexus. I thought that it would be the perfect place to go to for a blog conference.
I just wish I was more fluent in Italian! I’m learning from here but I need more practise though. By the way, I have an Italian blog. If you like, feel free to see it but it sucks
Not too far from the conference hall, we came across a long queue of people wanting to get their items signed by two of MTG’s artists – Jeremy Jarvis and Aleksi Briclot. Looking through some of their illustration online, freaking heck, its gorgeous and totally something to be appreciated.
Breathtaking!
Towards the end of our exploration, Cart and I came across a small area where contestants could challenge the head honcho, the creator of MTG, Richard Garfield himself.
Personally, I think that Richard Garfield is a genius to have created a game out of something that he enjoys doing and make a lot of money at the same time. Its hard to ignore the presence of MTG. Its been around since I was in school and even during my stint as an educator the past years, you’d see kids playing it.
I wonder if he is married
Anyway, if you’re interested, here is a video about the event :
Err .. I don’t understand what they are talking about.
To end this post, I will put up something completely irrelevant.
How come Italy don’t have gold can red bull? I don’t like the blue one.
