How much would you pay for an aspirin?

These days I get nervous when I watch TV and at each commercial break as there would be at least one advertisement promoting a cough syrup or something for il rafreddore (the flu)

That means that the sick season is here! Similar to the influx of deodorant commercials when Summer is approaching. After my experience with a long and severe cough bout last year, I’m a little paranoid about getting this seasonal sickness. I really don’t want to get ill, so I avoid people with the sniffles as soon as I see them!

I’m no doctor but I feel that prevention is always better than cure. So it’s good to take some steps to boost the immune system with a dose of multivitamins and drink loads of hot tea with honey when the throat starts to feel dry.

And to also nip the issue in the bud before the sickness gets stronger. Like not overworking the body when you feel lethargic, and self medicating with OTC medicine when you know you’re not feeling in tip top shape.

Just a teeny tiny issue. OTC medicines are so expensive!

Lets take for example, this popular brand of soluble aspirin that you take for when you feel feverish. This costs about 6 euro.

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While this below is a pack of medicated sweets for when you have a sore throat or cough. 7 euro. You could get an entire round pizza for the same price.

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I know I said that I don’t want to complain too much about money but these are shockingly expensive. I don’t think the same thing is that expensive outside of Italy as I don’t remember having to pay more than 3 SGD for a pack of paracetamol or more than 5 SGD for a bottle of cough syrup.

One could justify that we could get a non-branded one. But believe me, there isn’t that much difference.

The moral of the story is … Just don’t get sick.

Yikes!

We’re in the middle of January now and yikes! So far there’s only one entry for this month. I have to admit that I’m kind of missing my blogging routine.

I wouldn’t say that I’ve been extremely busy, and yet time seems to just flow by and before you know it, the day is over and then the week has already passed you by. Freaking heck. It’s like a scene from Click with Adam Sandler when he fast forwards his days away.

Anyway to bore you, let me tell you how my regular day is. In the mornings I’d do a bit of housework – like making coffee (which is VERY important to an Italian) washing the dishes, laundry, tidying … etc. I wouldn’t say that I’m a neat freak, but I do just enough so that my eyes don’t start to complain 😛

And then as it gets closer to noon and the temperature slightly warmer (as it is winter right now and lately it’s been less than 10 degrees) I’d go training for my half marathon. And I have to say that I’m quite proud of myself at how much I’ve progressed. Just last Saturday, I managed to run 16km which is the longest distance that I’ve ever gone. Which is crazy incredible! When I started running, I never thought that I’d ever go beyond 2.4km.

I wouldn’t lie, it was tiring and my legs felt like jelly and I feel crazy hungry at the end of the run. But one of the things that is motivating me right now is this woman in Denmark who is doing ONE Marathon A DAY FOR 365 days. Madness!

After that, I’d either go over to a friend’s house and hang out or I do groceries or I go to work and then head to Italian class after that.

And then by the time I reach home it would already be around 8.30pm and I’d cook dinner and by then, after that I’d be too tired to do anything more but to lie down and watch a good movie.

Normally I’d fall asleep while watching the movie and the day starts over – rinse and repeat.

And here I end this blog post abruptly.

If you can decipher this, you are probably a genius

I went a little overboard last weekend and bought a few sewing magazines.

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In Italy, there are a few popular riviste di cucito such as Burda and Modellina. MIL tells me that these are useful as apart from giving sewing ideas and tips, they also include cartamodelli (templates) that I could use for my projects.

Personally, I think that these are great and a little more convenient compared to buying the templates online, since there are a lot of newspaper kiosks in the neighbourhood.

Flipping through the magazines, there are a couple that I would love to start on.

Like this cute sun-dress. Reminds me quite a bit of the one that I have from Mango.

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This top I’d definitely wear as outfits such as these are very versatile and never go out of style. Quite perfect for the upcoming spring.

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I adore 60s fashion. It is one of the most fashionable decade in my opinion. So this dress really called out to me. Looks really classy doesn’t it?

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Sidenote : I just watched Down with love yesterday. And while the storyline was kind of meh, the outfits were just amazing! I love seeing colourful stuff.

But talking to my mum on the phone, she advised me to start with something simple, like a skirt. And so I saw this one which I quite liked. I can pair this with my nice green jacket and my nice boots and my nice bag and my nice blings.

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Looks simple enough to make. From what it looks like in the picture, it consists of 4×2 separate segments which I need to sew together. I can do that.

Looking at the instructions though, it starts to get a little challenging. What on earth are all these words? Since it’s in Italian, and I’m not that fluent …I’m a little overwhelmed but never-mind. Looking at this on the positive side, it can be a sort of language practise right?

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But that was nothing compared to this below. What on earth is this?! How am I supposed to read this? Where am I even supposed to start? This diagram looks much more complicated than the Advanced Mathematics that I had to learn while in Pre-Uni.

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I think I need to lie down.

Adorable Italian New Years Eve customs

And here we are, the last post for 2012. Seems like the time passed by so quickly … or I’m just plain slow.

Anyway, here in Italy, especially in the South, there is this charming custom where you throw away your old things out of the window on New Year’s Eve to symbolize your readiness to accept the new year. Which is why it’s best not to walk, or park your vehicle too close under the window unless you want to be hit with random old things!

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Another custom is to eat lentils on New Year’s Eve :

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Usually, they are made into a type of soup. Eating lenticchie (lentils) is supposed to bring you fortune on account of its round shape which looks like coins. So it’s like filling yourself up with richness! I should eat a lot of these then :p

The next custom is to light up fireworks :

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These colourful and noisy things are fun to see and even more so to play with. Last New Years Eve, I was in Gianicolo and it was really exciting! You could smell, see, hear the fireworks … (and I think its really something to experience) Unfortunately, it is slowly becoming illegal due to the amount of accidents inflicted to fireworks.

Another custom is of wearing red underwear

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For luck … if you know what I mean 😉

In any case, I wish for all my dear bloggariffic family for all the prosperity, luck and happiness to us for the new year as we say goodbye to 2012. And thank you for sticking around all these years 🙂

Life has its strange ways

Something terrifying happened to me recently and I’m just starting to feel better.

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I’m extremely humbled by the kindness of the people around me and am glad that I’m still alive and healthy enough to see another sunset.

It’s funny how having to go through adversities tends to bring a new perspective. And then the problems that you have – like not having enough money, feeling inferior, feeling physically inadequate etc … doesn’t seem like such a big issue anymore.

I’ll try not going to worry so much and submit myself. There are always worse things that can happen.

Hohoho!

Even though I don’t really celebrate Xmas, I got this from my inlaws :

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A sewing machine!

It’s quite unexpected, as I don’t remember mentioning about this to my in laws. Moreover, it’s been a while since I’ve last sewed, but I really can’t wait to start on new projects – upcycling, making new dresses and crafts. I’ve seen quite a number of ideas online and I think it would be a lot of fun 🙂

After a year of getting my driver’s license

It’s been a year now that I’ve had my driver’s license.

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Since getting my car somewhere in June and driving it, sometimes I still feel that incredulous feeling of, “My goodness, I’m actually driving!” but lately, it feels quite second nature, I don’t even think about which pedals to push, changing of the gears … it just comes naturally. And I’m surprised at how relaxing it is, just to drive down the road, listening to music and to see the scenery pass you by.

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Not to say that I’m such a perfect driver – I still need to improve my parallel parking, have to calm down while going uphill in bad traffic and have the mental skills of not letting an Italian man distract my driving.

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Heck, there are people who refuse to take lifts from me anymore, but that is fine. Sometimes I get too carried away in wanting to share something that I enjoy or am excited about, that I forget that others might not feel the same, so I shouldn’t have insisted. Perhaps it’s a better idea to not offer anything unless it is asked for … although I still get clueless in deciphering what is in people’s minds when they don’t speak out.

(Seriously, I cannot tell. You’d have to tell me or else, I have no idea. Neither do I have a gaydar, so much so that unless he’s super flamboyant, every dude is the same to me. But that’s totally diverging away from the topic of the day)

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Which is why, I’m leaving my Principiante sticker up, possibly for another 6 months to make it a full year. Somehow it gives me a peace of mind that the other drivers see it and avoid being too close to me as I’m still a new driver. Nevertheless, there are still monsters that cut me off, and bumped into me but I imagine that there could be more instances like these without my sticker. I did good in getting a used car. What a heartache if I had damages on a new one!

Nevertheless, I’m kind of happy with my achievements so far (think of it as a game!) … I’ve unlocked

  1. Driving in Rome! (5 points)
  2. Driving in Rome … alone! (10 points)
  3. Driving my family around Rome … and they are still alive! (15 points)
  4. Driving on the highway in Rome alone! (10 points) (bonus points for doing it 3 times)
  5. Getting impatient with slow drivers (-5 points)

Here, I should do a self pat :

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Nevertheless, I still prefer taking my scooter as it’s a lot more economical – with the fuel consumption, the tune up costs, the insurance and whatnots. While having a car is freaking costly. Just last week, I had a flat, and decided to have all of them replaced as they were ancient. And for that, I had to spend 265 euro on new shoes for Ash.

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You could just imagine how dry I feel this week, that on top of having to pay for the Sports doctor.

In any case, I was debating with Cart, that it might be cheaper to get the wheels online. But if you do that, take note that there is an additional charge for delivery, the mechanic will charge you extra and did you know that one is supposed to pay a sum to have your expired wheels disposed? Oh Italy, you are such an expensive country to live in. In the end, it’s much more convenient to have the gommista handle everything.

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You know, if I didn’t have the car, I think I would have an additional more than 2 thousand euro in the bank (not including the amount I already spent for driving practicals and exams) To me, that’s a lot of money and stuff I could potentially invest on (like I really wanna learn how to sew and I really wanna travel around and explore Italy and eventually Europe on a train or even get a plane ticket back to Singapore … I really miss my folks and friends much too much)

Nevertheless, I think having the experience and skill overweights the odds, and is something that is quite priceless. Looking back, I don’t think I’d change a thing. Although I’m quite tempted to sell the car away somewhere in the middle of next year, once my insurance starts to expire :p

Just got my sports medical certificate

I’ll be doing a half marathon come February 24. I’ve never done anything like this before, so I am using this training schedule at the moment. Funny bit is that I thought that it used a metric convention and only realised recently that it was in miles.

So imagine my confusion when I first looked at it. Maximum training distance of 12 km? How will that prepare me for a 21 km race?

Luckily for me, I spotted it out quite early on before the training gap got too big. So I did some conversion and did some comparison.

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Yikes! The longest distance in the training is 19 km. I know that the ultimate goal is 21 km. Nevertheless, I don’t usually run more than 10 km, so I can’t even begin to fathom just where to start mapping my running course.

So I’ll just prefer not to think about it for the moment and when it comes, it comes. Seeing too much hurdles in front of me freaks me out.

Anyway, in Italy, I found out that to do a mezza maratona or a maratona, one needs to have an accredited sports medical certificate. I just got mine yesterday, and I have to say, that getting it is probably an annoying thing to do as you have to go through so many different places prior in order to get one.

  • First, you’d have to make an appointment with the sports doctor. The segreteria will ask you to bring along a urine sample analysis.
  • Next, you go to your family doctor to get a ricetta to have the referral to do the urine sample test.
  • After that, you make an appointment at a centro medico. The one that I went to had a machine where I slot in my tessera sanitaria to book an appointment.

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  • Then you go to a pharmacy to buy a urine sample container. It costs about a euro each, and should look like the one below instead of the cylindrical one.

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  • You are supposed to eat and drink normally the day before. Go to bed as normal, and then take the sample when you wake up without drinking or eating. This site could be useful in knowing more.
  • Then hand in your sample and get the data about a couple of days later. I paid about 16 euros for this, and had fun looking at the results (even though I couldn’t translate some of these technical terms in Italian)

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Sidenote : I’m an Italian resident and have a Carta D’Identita and a Tessera Sanitaria so I could go to public medical centers. I don’t know how the procedure goes for non residents.

For the appointment at the sports doctor itself was another thing.

  • First the doctor asks about your family and medical history. Like if there are anyone in the family that has diabetes and high blood pressure or if you’ve ever warded in the hospital.
  • And then he checks your weight and height. Which is quite standard.
  • After that he checks your blood pressure.
  • He then proceeds to take your ECG.

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Here he’ll stick several adhesives with a sort of round metal button in the middle. One on each calf, one on each wrist and several on your left chest so I had to undo my bra for this part. And then he hooks up several wires and takes note of the reading. You don’t feel a thing. It doesn’t hurt.

I find it interesting to observe that Europeans are quite open about nudity, while in Singapore, the presence of a female staff had to be around when a woman have to be in the state of undress in medical centers.

  • After that, he makes you do step ups following a rhythm for one minute. It wasn’t that easy. My step/stool was about half a meter high and that’s a lot higher than the ones I ever used in step aerobics! I was wheezing towards the end.

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  • He then takes your ECG again and compares the difference.
  • And then you do a lung capacity test.
  • Finally he evaluates if you are healthy, stamps an official chop and gives you your certificate.

And here is mine! Finally, after all that hassle!

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I’m a little disappointed that it looks so nondescript – just a photocopied piece of paper. Considering that I paid 40 euro for this, it looks so cheap and easily forge-able. The only thing that makes it valuable is the official timbrato/rubber stamp on it.

Funny bit is that, when I tried to ask the doctor if I could have the data results to keep, he kept repeating that my data will be stored with the clinic for the next 5 years. Maybe there was something lost in translation in my trying to express in Italian.

Anyway this certificate is valid and reusable for up to a year. Considering how much I’ve spent so far (25 euro registering for the half marathon + 16 euro for the urine analysis + 2 euro for the urine sample container + 40 euro for the sports checkup + 10 euro for runner’s association membership fees + transport fares + precious time which is invaluable … Possibly even more than 100 euro! Say what!)

The cheapo side of me is thinking I should just make full use of this and participate in a marathon some time towards the middle of the year and just get it over and done with. Just to say that, hey I participated in a marathon.

Or I could probably regret it. 42km is like running from home to the Vatican city then run back home again … TWICE!

Baby steps … baby steps …

Happy anniversary!

Can’t really believe that it was 4 years ago when we were in the mosque in Singapore, with Jules and Hema and my close relatives for our solemnization. To be honest, it’s all a blur to me then, and even more a distant memory now. Which is why keeping a journal is important to me, to look back at the past and remember.

Nevertheless, I feel quite blessed that Cart and I met each other. We both are imperfect, but we both have our strengths and what we are strong at, we help each other in our weakness. One of the most wonderful quality about Cartcart is how I can talk to him about anything and everything, and and he’d listen … and still be impartial.

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Of course, every relationship has its weak moments, and there are times when we get upset with each other or be unhappy. But that’s normal, and will make the relationship stronger as you understand each other better. I don’t believe in a relationship where they never quarrel or don’t debate at all, just to keep the peace because underneath, there will always be underlying problems and eventually be an exhausting symbiosis (on the other hand, quarrelling too much is not good either)

ANYWAY! Because we are such unromantic people, we didn’t plan much for our anniversary, and decided to just have dinner together.

Initially, I suggested that we head and try something new, like eating at Corno d’Africa, but it was madness looking for parking in the area, coupled with the insane amount of traffic on the roads – blame it on the fact that there are another 2 excellent restaurants in the vicinity (but who goes out on a Tuesday evening anyway?) gave me such an insane level of stress. I’ve been driving for roughly 6 months now, and am very comfortable at driving but yesterday was a different ballgame altogether.

We changed our minds and went to this restaurant called Il Cortile, which is a charming little restaurant a short distance away. I’ve been here once while we were dating, but like I mentioned, everything more than a few weeks is becoming a distant memory. I’m growing old for sure.

Anyway, what I do remember is that when you enter, there will be a table all full of wonderful antipasti that will just draw you in (This picture is taken towards the end of the evening, so it doesn’t do it justice)

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There’s always a dessert table, which was so lovely. Next time, I’d eat just these, without going for the main course.

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But we did … and Cart had a plate of ravioli con ricotta e spinaci with tomato sauce, which was really really good.

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While I had Coda di rospo alla cacciatora. It’s a type of deep sea fish. It was tasty, but whenever I hear alla cacciatora, it makes me think that the dish has a hint of tomato, so I was surprised to see this white sauce. Actually, I preferred Cart’s ravioli after tasting it.

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By this time, I was starting to feel full, so I skipped the contorno, while Cart had Carciofi alla giudia (this is a dish made of deep fried artichokes and was created in Rome, and is a very popular seasonal dish here)

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I wasn’t too full to have dessert though, and I was looking so forward to having my chocolate mousse. Have you ever had one before? It’s one of the most decadent, delightful, sensual, sexy thing that you could ever have. Of course, I had to savour it slowly.

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While Cart had a slice of chocolate cake, but the amount of cream on top, so sinful! Nevertheless, I don’t think that it could top mine though :p

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In the end, I was bursting! It was tough driving us back home with my tummy expanding like a basketball. But we managed somehow and we both had to take some brioschi.

Such a simple evening. There wasn’t any grand romantic gestures of affections, neither did we regaled expensive gifts to each other. Regardless, it was a pleasant evening, just the two of us being comfortable and happy with each other’s company.

Meet the makeup artist for the walking dead

Alessandra asked me to join her for the Idea Makeup 2012 event in Eur yesterday, and I had a pleasant time. It was a sort of showcase with students from different makeup schools in Rome.

Being here, reminds me quite a bit of when Hema and I were attending Jule’s final practical from Cosmoprof makeup school. There were quite a bit of similar elements here and there – such as the fantasy makeup …

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The classic and formal makeup …

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As well as the special effects …

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It was quite interesting to hear about of how the rotten flesh were created – it was basically a mix of?silicone?and rubber with loads of red paint.

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The cat below was interesting as it was an animatronic cat. Would have been interesting to see it work in real life.

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But I think that the highlight of the show was when Oscar winning makeup artist, Vittorio Sodano was up on the stage. One of his most noted work was in Apocalypto and he’s currently working on the walking dead.

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I enjoyed listening to him as he was retelling his experiences and how excited he was working on something that he’s passionate about, telling us to never give up on our dreams (clique as it sounds) It was quite inspirational.

And here is the demo for his work :

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The picture really doesn’t do it justice, you really had to see it in real life. It was really scary as there were blood flowing out from the mouth and the face really looked nasty. If I didn’t know that this was a make-up show, I’d run far far away!