Singapore is usually 100% humid with a temperature of about 28 degrees Celsius all year round. Its like being in a sauna. While it is actually good for skin, keeping it youthful looking, the downside is that it tends to bring the oil gland factories working at an overload.
Thus Facial blotters are something that is very commonly used in Singapore. These are small plastic like films that you dab on your face to soak up oil. It’s amazing to see how much the little film extracts oil.
So when I was in Rome for the first time, I was amazed that I did not need to use a facial blotter due to the temperature and low humidity. It was only when my face started to get a little flaky was when I finally realised that it was actually getting dry!
As I’ve been using skincare for oily skin for since my teenage years, it was something very new to me to finally be buying moisturiser for my face. But buying skincare in another country, where you don’t know the language well, is very daunting.
For example, the first week when I was in Rome and running out of hair conditioner, I was extremely confused. What is “Conditioner” in Italian? It was only after a long while that I found out that I needed a bottle of “Balsamo“.
But eventually, with the limited amount of Italian that I know, I’m actually having fun decoding the packaging. This one says :
New refreshing formula
Hydrating day cream
24 hour hydration and protection for fresh skin
With lotus extract and vitamins – SPF 8
For normal and combination skin
And it got simpler after that, so much so that I feel more confident of getting other nice stuff 🙂
The Rosa body cream was my favourite.
I think that this is a great way of immersing in Italian language at the same time too. Now you know what “No more tears” in Italian is 🙂
Nowadays I am a little hesitant when needing to trim my fingernails.
This is because I will have only a couple of weeks left before the henna dye on my fingernails will be completely gone. And that will end virtually the only physical mark of my wedding.
This is what my hands look like freshly painted on the wedding dinner
Its a Malay custom to have the hands and feet decorated with henna for their wedding. This is to symbolise the couple’s upcoming wedding occasion.
And these are the palms
There are basically two types of henna that you could use, either fresh ones from crushed henna leaves or the one prepackaged from most Indian Shops.
When I had my hand and feet to be decorated with henna, it took about 30 minutes to be drawn for each limb and I had to concentrate to keep still the entire duration so that the henna doesn’t smudge.
Here is a video I’ve recorded via Ustream of the henna drawing.
But it was the waiting for the henna to dry part. It would usually take at least 2 hours for the henna to dry before you peel it off. The longer the person lets it dry, the more vibrant the colour.
And there I was on the couch, with my hands stretched out on the sofa arms, motionless like a dynasty empress. Unable to even change the channel on the tv, and all the while worrying about the wedding preparations that is going on the void deck.
I really liked my henna. Days after the wedding, it was fun to show them and do ala magician’s flourishes.
Now my nails look like this
It feels like I’m losing the wedding radiance
Even Cart said so!
Me : I’m losing my radiance, the air here is making my skin dry, I’ll probably age faster.
Cart : When have you been radiant?
Ok, we have our language differences … but still …
Sidenote : Ridz sent me a postcard all the way from Singapore! I love it! How thoughtful 🙂
Last Saturday was actually the first time that I celebrated San Valentino with Cartcart due to the both of us being in a long distance relationship for the past four years. It was a simple date, just the two of us spending time together in Trastevere and then watching a movie.
Rinaz with the poet Giuseppe Gioacchino Belli
We watched the curious case of Benjamin Button. Granted that it was in Italian, nevertheless I still enjoyed the movie as well as Cart’s company for the entire day.
Il curioso caso di Benjamin Button
In any case, if you are in Italy around San Valentino, it would be hard not to notice Baci Chocolates for sale. There are so many of them in different sorts of packaging – some wrapped with flowers, some with bears, some are even in lock shapes.
Baci means Kisses in Italian
And this reminded me of the day when Cart and I visited Ponte Milvio a few years ago.
Ponte Milvio is an interesting place where you could see a plentiful of locks on each lamppost. And if you look carefully, on each lock will be the name of a pair of couple.
There is a custom here where you write your name as well as your partner’s name on the lock. Secure the lock on the lamppost and throw the key away in the Tiber River below so that your relationship can never be broken.
I’m still a little cynical about the whole thing, but ah, its for the charm of it all. For those who are not too near to Rome, you might want to do it online! Try to spot my lock near the yellow lights.
So, how did you spend your Valentine’s day?
Sidenote : I think I’m getting used to learning Italian now. Previously I felt like vomitting when I went for class, today I just feel ill
In January last year, I was very impressed with the EEE PC. It was revolutionary – an affordable, portable mini laptop that allows you to do things that you regularly do on a normal laptop.
But there were a few snags about it. Though the keyboard was small, I was still able to adjust. It was the tiny 800 by 480 screen resolution, making it uncomfortable – I had to scroll numerous times in many larger sized resolution websites.
As much as I love the entire philosophy of Linux, Xandros in the EEE PC gave me issues such as not allowing me to do live streaming on ustream.tv and it was extremely hard for me to install additional software. This was a big deal for me. When I finally am able to install the program, I could not even see some programs as a whole due to the resolution.
Nevertheless, EEE PC was very popular and still useful for many people. And since then, it was the start for the churning of more improved netbooks like the HP Mininote, the Acer Aspire, the MSI Wind – It was interesting to note that the specs and the cost rivals each other.
It was confusing at which netbook to choose. (By the way, isn’t it annoying to want to have a hands on try at computer shops only to see that its all password protected?) Fortunately for me, I was given a chance to purchase the Lenovo S10 at a discounted price.
I was very excited to finally have it in my hands in mid December.
Since then, the S10 has been a very trusty and useful companion.
At first glance
The S10 is slightly heavier and bigger than the EEE PC. However, amazingly it could still fit in my handbag ensuring portability.
On the sides of the S10, it is pretty standard – two usb slots, one SD card reader, a slot for network cable, a PCI express slot, a jack for audio and microphone as well as VGA port to connect to the monitor.
Left hand side of the Lenovo S10
Right hand side of the Lenovo S10
Although the keyboard is not as large as a regular laptop, it allows me to touch type comfortably. The only issue that I had is that there are certain oddities when trying to reach certain keys such as the tab key as well as the right shift key.
One feature that I think that Lenovo is famous for, is the red trackpad in the middle of the keyboard. However, there is none in the S10, which could be a big issue that many Lenovo fans would not like. That is not a big deal to me, but on the other hand I am not fond of how very loud the left and right click buttons are.
The Lenovo S10 next to a X41 ThinkPad
Using the S10
At first boot up, I did a quick configuration for Win XP before going to the all familliar desktop and then I was good to go with my daily rituals of gmail, twitter, plurk, facebook and other social networking sites. Speedwise, it was the same as using a regular laptop, however, it slows down when using more graphics intensive websites such as Pet Society or Volvo Ocean Race.
EHEHEHE!
The webcam that comes on the S10 might not be as fantastic as say, the Logitech Quickcam Fusion, but it is still pretty decent in taking pictures, and most importantly, it is able to do live streaming on ustream.tv when I am in the mood to do a broadcast on a whim. Still, I would have liked a program where I could do silly things like in the image below.
But what I am very excited about is the bluetooth function in the S10. I could transfer pictures from my Samsung Innov8 straight into the S10 without the need for cables, use Cart’s Motorola bluetooth headset – it was just fantastic to multi-task, being able to walk around while talking to my mum back in Singapore or listening to youtube videos.
Installing programmes in the S10
Me, being myself, I would not be satisfied without a few core programs that I need. So far, I have installed CoreFTP, Chrome, VLC media player, Windows Live Messenger as well as Skype – which functions beautifully.
I enjoy image editing and although I am more used to Photoshop, I doubt that it would be compatible with the S10 as it is resource intensive, thus I’ve given GIMP a try instead. But I am having issues with GIMP crashing when I try to update the font list, however, I think that its due to it being beta rather than the S10 itself.
In the past two months I’ve been using the S10, all that I have to say is that I love my S10! Though it might not be as powerful as a regular desktop or laptop it has been such a lifesaver for me. I would probably not be able to keep in touch with the people back in Singapore, would probably not be able to do social networking, would probably not be blogging this entry even.
Do you like my laptop skin by the way? I got it from Sim Lim. I think its quite expensive though.
Which is probably a good excuse for me to start blogging more.
P.S Oh, and I heard news from Sylvia that the price for S10 has dropped from $799 to $650!
Updated August 2009 : I decided to install Ubuntu Netbook Remix on the S10 today. Applications work well and seem to run faster on it as compared to the XP Operating system. I quite like it. But the only issue with it is that linux does not seem to support video broadcasting, hence streaming on ustream.tv is not possible.
The inbuilt microphone doesn’t work either. So, skype is useless to me. Meh!
Also, when you do any changes to the partition on your drive, the One Key Recovery button (the orange curved arrow button) will not work. And since Lenovo does not include a recovery cd, nor does it provide it online, trying to get it back to factory settings would be very difficult.
I guess I am stuck with Ubuntu
Sidenote : I’m waiting for my main computer, the HP Touchsmart to arrive here from Singapore. I just hope that it arrives in one piece.
When I was a very young girl, while the old Geylang Serai was around, my dad would always buy a packet of steamed turtle eggs. For me, it was something very interesting to see. The seller would open a case and I could peer in something that looked like ping pong balls with sliced pandan leaves scattered around it.
But unlike ping pong balls, the shell was soft and it tore off easily. Inside was a perfectly round yolk surrounded by viscous transparent liquid. Unlike chicken egg, turtle eggs was a new experience for me. It was acidic and it smelled rather caustic.
I didn’t fancied it. But apparently, it was a delicacy as I noticed plentiful of sellers selling them.
However, some years later, I did not see them being sold anymore. I suppose that with turtles being a protected species, there would be a law being implemented to against the trading of eggs.
Haven’t been feeling all that great due to my extreme homesickness and then all of a sudden, I had a sore throat and then fever after that and this morning I see that Rome temperature is down to 3 degrees with thick fog. Oh boy! Better bundle up with warm clothes!
In any case, I’m slowly getting used to the life here. It’s a whole lot different compared to Singapore definitely, starting from the weather, as well as the culture here.
Like registering for my stay in Italy at the Central Police for example, took us 3 days to get it right – the first two tries we were told that they did not function on that particular day.
This made me thoughtful as practically majority of government issues can be done online in Singapore.
And things here are pretty expensive in Italy, besides the currency exchange itself. Where I used to be able to enjoy government subsidized courses at community and sports centres. I find, to my horror that it was multiples of times more expensive.
Before migrating, it was part of my plan to take intensive Italian for the first month. But I guess that I would need to rethink my strategy to integrate myself. For me, one of my biggest fear in migrating is not being able to integrate into society.
Fortunately for me, thanks to Cart, his family and his friends, they have been making me feel very welcome and try to make me at ease, for that I feel very grateful.
Oh well, slowly does it. In the meanwhile, I’m enjoying my faux taitaihood, lounging about at home and playing pretend domestic goddess 😀
Cart and I just arrived in Italy safely yesterday afternoon. Its winter here in Italy at the moment. Its so cold that I could see fog coming out of my mouth when I breathe. Heck, its already night time at 5pm!? Such a drastic change for me, having lived near the equator for all my life.
But I suppose one of the nice things about winter is the <shameless>winter clothes that makes me look extremely cute</shameless>
But in any case, I am missing Singapore tremendously for so many things.
One of them is the yummy food that we could get conveniently. Roti Prata, Nasi Lemak, Pisang Goreng, Satay and loads of other foods that I love, isn’t that easily attainable here.
I miss zipping through the roads on my scooter, looking at the sights in front of me, feeling a sense of freedom with the wind caressing my face.
But most of all, I miss the people here, my family and friends. These are the people that I’ve grown up with, they are part of me.
It really feels wierd for me not to see my mum, the first thing in the morning as we do our morning prayers. Or to bug my siblings, teasing the cat and gossiping with my best friends. Those little small, mundane nuances.
p.s : I want my computer shipped NAO! This Italian keyboard and the interface is confusing me! And Cart has no Photoshop! Nor Premiere elements! Sacrilege!
Wow, life has been crazy for the past three weeks that I’ve hardly had time to just sit down and think. Just a quick summary about the 3 weeks so far.
When Cart arrived in Singapore, 4 days before our wedding, we’ve been running around trying to complete things like the marriage guidance course, buying gifts for each other for the hantaran, the Registry of Marriage interview, the choosing of the wedding ring.
It was completely crazy! Not to mention stressful. Every few minutes there would always be issues that needed to be tended to. It was overwhelming! Things like these should have been done in a longer span. But what can we do as Cart and I are in a long distance relationship.
Then was the craziness of the wedding itself. To me I felt as if time has just sped up. The three days has passed by so quickly, that I didnt manage to enjoy the beautiful .reception set up under the void deck, there were so many faces that friends and relatives looked like a blur. It was seriously overwhelming.
This was a new level of stress for me. And I really am grateful to everyone who have helped out in the wedding preparations, from my relatives who helped out in cooking and the food, my blogger friends in helping out in the tech side of things as well as everyone who have attended.
And yet there were things that added to my stress. Such as the bridal package issue. I found their work ethics extremely unprofessional and it affected me tremendously that a week after the wedding, I was in a complete emotional wreck.
But I’ll blog about that in another post.
Even after the wedding, life was very hectic. It was a Malay custom to bersembah. Almost everyday, Cart and I had to visit my relatives to ask for blessings for our marriage.
We were finally done with visiting friday night with the Malaysian relatives. And I’m really desperate for time now to meet my own friends.
Upcoming video livestream at 7.30pm, Singapore time 🙂
Update : The wedding dinner is over. I hope that you’ve enjoyed yourselves. With apologies to friends, due to some unforseen circumstance, I don’t see the stream being saved so I cant see and replay the event. I quite heartbroken about that.
On thursday, my inlaws arrived in Singapore. I met them for a short while at their hotel and took them around Orchard Road for a bit. They were as nice and warm as ever. But then I remembered that my Italian sucked, thus our conversation was a little awkward. Regardless, I was very happy to see them again.
They left for Malaysia in the morning and will be back in time before the solemnization.
Friday was my last day of work. I’m definitely going to miss this place and remember it fondly. After all, I’ve been here for the past 3 and a half years. Naturally, one would feel a bond after being in a place for a while.
And yesterday, despite the fact that I thought that it was rather unnecessary to get new furniture, Juli and I were scouring around for furniture in my room to make it more “bridal” like, heeding mum’s advice.
And when I reached home, I spent about 5 hours non stop, making phone calls to friends, inviting them to the wedding. Although facebook has been very useful so far, sometimes its good to just have that human touch.
Some of these calls, are calls which has been more than its due. I guess that the internet makes me take for granted as its more convenient to use internet applications.
And Cart will be arriving today! I’m so excited. I miss him so much. And in less than a week will be our solemnization. I cant wait 🙂
With that, Marina’s Bloggariffic will go into a semi hiatus. However, I hope to have a live streaming of the solemnization this coming Thursday and the reception on the following Saturday.
Not sure how to go about doing that, although the guys of tech65 might have something up their sleeves. Oh, and if there is anyone know where I could rent a projector, I’d appreciate it a lot 🙂
Sidenote : Friends, please let me know your mailing address so that I can send you an invitation 🙂
