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!
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.
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.
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!
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.
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.
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.
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.
While I was still living in Singapore, I used to believe that mozzarella is solid. And yellow. You know, something like this :
As you can see, Cart is very amused the first time he saw it in our trip to a supermarket in Singapore.
Reason being, you’d be hard pressed trying to find anything like that in a regular supermarket in Rome (and probably the rest of Italy) because mozzarella is soft and white and is always kept hydrated in a pool of brine to keep it fresh.
This particular brand comes swimming in their own paper sachets, but you could also find them without, or in individual plastic sachets filled with brine.
And when you press it, it is soft and malleable.
And when you cut it, you’d sometimes see liquidy goodness oozing out.
Sidenote : If you were wondering what the green veggie is on the side, it’s actually Broccoletti and it reminds me a lot of an Asian veggie called Cai Xin.
Anyway, as this is fresh cheese, it’s best to consume it within a week. You’d normally find them in two varieties – the ones made of cow milk or the more expensive water buffalo milk. They each taste slightly different, but both delicate and fresh.
And it’s great in Caprese, Pizza Margherita, Lasagna and the likes. By the way, have you seen my video on how to make veggie lasagna yet? Here you can see the mozzarella in action (around the 6:55 mark) and also hear how to pronounce it.
But to play the devil’s advocate, I think it’s not all that bad to have those solid blocks masquerading as Mozzarella. The real thing is quite pricey outside of Italy. I found a 100g one for 10SGD! One!
Even with the currency converted, for the same price you could get 4 of them in Rome. Thus, I’m kind of undecided if it is a good or bad thing. I wouldn’t really call it Mozzarella though. It’s not a snob thing. It’s just that when you’ve been around, you become more discerning. For example, I’ve been to some restaurants in Rome where they serve curry…but I wouldn’t call it curry.
(Fun fact! Did you know that Japan tried to patent Curry in 1999?)
Nevertheless, if you’re interested about this topic, there is an organization called Coldiretti and they represent Italian Agriculture. About once a year, they would put up a page revealing food which claims to be Italian, but is not. Here is the link – it is in Italian, but it’s mostly pictorial.
