Category: life

Hello! I’m typing this while waiting for my dental appointment at the polyclinic!

Cart and I have been here in Singapore for about 4 days now and we’ve been enjoying our stay so far, seeing different places eating different foods.

We came here with Air China by the way. It was my first time with this airline. Normally, we would usually travel via Emirates because of their competitive pricing and also because of the larger seats. Unfortunately when we were comparing for the best price for economy seats 6 months before our flight for this year, it turned out to be Air China this time round.

Among the people that I knew, Air China did not have such a fantastic brand name. In fact, the first time when a friend learnt that Cart came over to Singapore via Air China, she laughed out loud and thought that he was joking!

On the evening that we left Rome, it was my father in law who fetched and  sent us to the Fiumicino airport. It was really cold when we were reaching there. 2 degrees! It was probably the coldest that I felt in Rome for a while. My father in law mentioned that snow was expected the next day and I was shivering badly underneath despite wearing my winter jacket.

After checking in and going to our gate, there were already quite a number of Chinese people gathering around. There was also so many rosy-cheeked toddlers. One even wore a traditional chinese costume adding to their cuteness factor. He was so adorable.

In no time, we finally boarded the plane. It was an Airbus A330. The seats were a little smaller than the one in Emirates but thankfully, our row had two seats, followed by four in the middle and then two on the right. I had the window seat while Cart had the aisle and we could have our armrest lifted so it was a little more comfortable.

In each seat, there was an entertainment set for each traveller. The range of shows were limited though, and the programs did not start on demand. We had to wait till the show ends before it repeats to the beginning and the quality of the videos looked very VCD’ish. Nevertheless, I was laughing at My girlfriend is an agent, crying at the last scene from Shrek Forever After and falling asleep during Ironman 2.

Despite the smaller seats, I thought that the plane was pretty decent. My one small qualm with Air China though, is that I really didn’t like the food.

9 hours later, we were at the Beijing Airport for a stopover. It was a nice, modern looking airport. I liked how clean and new everything looked. Cart and I were fawning over the fever-detection infrared machines that was at the gantries as we walked along. This was most probably installed since the SARS pandamic some years back.

I noticed that since practically everyone here prefers to speak in Mandarin, it could be a little tough for travelers to ask for help. It could also be the additional cultural factor that the people were rather curt here. But luckily I picked up a little bit of mandarin while in kindergarden, from channel 8 chinese drama serials, and stuff I always hear my Chinese schoolmates tend to say. But I am extremely rusty though. So I was able understand and speak a little, albeit very badly.

By the way there are free wifi at the Beijing Airport. You could ask for access from any shops. Cart and I didn’t realise that till we reached the business counter which was a challenge to find. We walked round and round and I almost gave up.

But Cart persisted and at length we found it! The girl at the counter, while she could not speak English, she was very kind and patient and helped set us up for internet and we were off!

Thanks to the great firewall of China, we couldn’t access plurk. Nor twitter. Nor facebook while at the Beijing Airport. But we discovered something interesting. Cart was able to get through to wikipedia in Italian but when the language was changed to English, it was blocked!

In Italian

Same page in English

We did not get to surf for too long because not too long after that, we had to board the connecting flight to Singapore. But before that, we had to take a shuttle bus to take us there.

And at length, after 6 hours later, we reached Singapore! It was my entire family welcoming us at the Changi Airport.

This month was said to be cooler for Singaporeans and Kaosd was commenting on how cold it was. Nevertheless, after just a couple of days, I am sunburnt now. Red patches all over my arms -_-

Sidenote : Oh and thank you for the welcome be it via Plurk or Facebook or Twitter. That’s really sweet! By the way, there is an open house going on on the first of January. There will be some Italian food and Nasi Lemak for those who doesnt like Italian food. Oh, if you could bring some Wii games, it would be lovely too :-p

Since the beginning of last week, the air feels very festive here in Rome. On Friday as I head back home from Italian class, everywhere I go there was a group of people tidying up their lawn, trimming their trees and bushes, with the buzzing of their electric saws, and many has already put up their Santa figurines outside of their balcony.

I was remarking to Cart at how funny it looked. It didn’t looked like Santa was climbing up, it looked more like he was hanging on for dear life!

Anyway there were a few people who put up fairy lights all over their balcony. And seeing the lights flash like that, and the festive mood and their air reminds me so much of Hari Raya. What with the moon and the stars. I always see them around while going visiting my friends and relatives in Singapore.

Of course, not to mention going through central Rome like Piazza Navona, there was such a bustling of activity there, with the huge rows of booth. Like pasar malam! There were a few booth with games and some selling seasonal sweets and foods. I was extremely drawn to the giant doughnuts kiosk.

Check out the size of the doughnuts compared the candied apples above it.

And there were some selling christmas decorations and also the epiphany items like this creepy laughing Befana dolls.

Of course, seeing all these made me feel the festive mood myself. I don’t celebrate Christmas though, so I guess I will hang my ketupat at the door.

I is kepokian

Sidenote : Can you make it?

I feel quite stressed out during Italian class nowadays. Level B1 is way more advanced compared to what I’m used to, so I’m struggling in class trying to catch up with the rest of my classmates who seem to be very fluent already.

But anyway! One of the things that I enjoy learning during these classes is the “Modo di dire” segments or the different ways of expressions, metaphors and proverbs used by Italians.

As a Malay, I appreciated a lot the use of Malay proverbs because to me, it is an intelligent and witty way to convey something. You see a picture in front of you and connect the phrase accordingly to the quality of the object.

Like for example one of my favourite peribahasa, “Sekeras kerak nasi, kena air lembut juga” when translated it means, as hard as burnt rice is, when soaked in water, it’ll become soft. Which figuratively speaking, as stubborn a person is, when you speak gently to him, he’ll eventually relent.

E.g. Lana, don’t lose hope, because, sekeras kerak nasi, kena air lembut juga and he’ll eventually buy for you that Dolce and Gabbana shoes. Hehehehe!

Beautiful huh?!

And Italians use a lot of these metaphors too. Although, probably because of the difference culturally and regionally, some of the objects that we experience would have a different quality and meaning in Italy. By the way, the yellow book in the picture above, Italiano per modo di dire by Gianluca Aprile, is actually quite fun to do, kind of like how some people like to do sudoko, or crossword puzzles. I enjoy bothering Cart and asking him about the connection.

Anyways! Lets take for example, “Un Pugno nell’occchio” which literally means, a punch to the eye. And the first thing that came to mind was that there must be something dangerous or painful. However, the meaning of the idiom is actually, an eyesore.

E.g. Urgh! I cant stand girls wearing tights! Its so ugly! È un pugno nell”occhio! Its not meant to replace pants!

And another example, “Fare come i gamberi” which directly translated means, to be like prawns. And to many English speakers, we always associate prawns with cowardice. But instead, in Italy this means not to have progress but instead become worse. I don’t really see the connection with the prawn though?

Wait! This is scampi! This isn’t gamberi!

Nevertheless, I’m appreciating all of these different ways of speaking. I think its beautiful, and a rather witty way to say something. Also, with these knowledge, I can be rude without being vulgar

And some of my favourites so far are :

• Non capire un’acca which is a classier way of saying that I dont understand a f-

• Fare una testa come pallone which when referring to a person it means that they talk so much useless things that my head is swollen and full of your hot air.

• Avere il cervello che fuma like what I’m experiencing right now, studying so much Italian that my brain is fried!

And yes, my brain IS fried from 5 classes of Italian a week! I need kopi nao.

Some while back, I noticed that I was subconciously doing an Italian gesture. This one in particular :

Basically it means, “What the heck do you want?” and give emphasis to sentences. It looks quite thuggish though and should be done moderately.

In any case, one of the things that I’ve noticed that a lot of Italians do is to make an inverse U with their mouths. Like a frown, except very exaggerated. Kind of like how beaker’s mouth is naturally

To shape your mouth this way is an easy way to convey that the person is deep in thought. Like, “Hmm … *frowns* Let me think” But it looks so unattractive! It makes a person look like a cow or something! And I vowed that I’d never do the same with my mouth.

Unfortunately, I guess after living here in Italy for close to two years, the inevitable has happened and subconciously, without realising it, I’m doing that super frowny face too

So I guess I’ll just might as well demo it here, the Italian gesture of “Let me think”

This also works for …

And it also works for …

And it also works for …

And now that you know them, you can use them too I guess. And we can all look like cows. Class dismissed.

There has always been a group of wild cats living around our area and they always run away when we approach them despite our cajoling, our coaxing, our persuasion. They are, after all wild and hence, not as docile as domestic cats are.

But recently, Cart and I noticed a kitten as we were going home. And instead of running away, it approached us hesitantly at first, but then started to get playful. It was probably due to Cart bringing some pizza back or that I was carrying some fish keropok (a gift from Eu Chai). Nevertheless, the kitten looked so tiny and adorable.

And instantaneously, my heart warmed up and I really wanted to take her home out of the cold. And for a wild moment, when she followed us all the way to the front gate, I thought that it would be a chance to cat-nap it.

I wan ket

Look at her long tail swishing! So cute! Cart didn’t think that it was a good idea to bring the kitten home though so I got a little heartbroken

The next day, I was at the balcony watering the plants and I peeked below and saw the little kitten sitting in the grass, as if waiting for something. And when I came back from my morning Italian class and seeing it waiting there, I couldn’t take it anymore and despite what Cart said, I decided to take the kitten home.

It was quite a feat to do. Calming her down and then carrying her and then she was struggling to be released. And then when we entered the house, she ran and hid underneath the sofa. But slowly she explored the house and sniffed around curiously. And finally seemed to felt comfortable and rested on the sofa and I was just content to hear her purr and slowly fall asleep.

So there I was, playing with the kitten and I told Cartcart who was at work and online at the time that I’ve cat-napped the kitten and then he started to ask me, “Is the cat happy?” And then slowly I realised that I probably couldn’t take care of this animal. She had a tendency to dig in the indoor plants, and claw at the furniture which is not bad, because while I was there, I could relocate the plant and distract her away from the furniture. But I wouldn’t home all the time to keep an eye on it.

Its not like when I was living with my parent’s in Singapore where with the 6 of us, there will be at least one person home to supervise. Moreoever, come mid December when Cart and I go to Singapore, who’s going to take care of her for 3 weeks? So with a heavy heart after home hours later, I opened the door to release the kitten while I was on my way to my evening Italian class.

At least she seemed quite excited to be out again and she practically swished down the stairs. And when I got back from Italian class, I saw her hanging out with her cat friends so I guess she’s quite happy to be that way. So I had a little solace in knowing that she’s a wild animal that would probably be more at home outside. How could I drag you out of your element?

I love you. But I don’t think that its going to work out between us.

The end

Not too long ago, Cart and I bought some pizza al taglio.

For visual illustration purposes only. Not related to the story I am about to tell you

Pizza al taglio is a type of pizzeria that sells different variety of pizza in a display case. You can choose as much as you want and you’ll be charged accordingly to how much the pizza weighs. Usually, this was an economical way of trying out many different types of pizza at one time.

Anyway, we were at a pizza al taglio and I saw one of my favourite type – the potato pizza. It’s probably uncommon outside of Italy, but the combination of potato and rosemary on pizza is actually rather delightful.

We stopped to sit down and I took a bite of the pizza. It was a creamy, savoury taste. I savoured each mouthful. But then … at the corner of my eye, I saw a small bit of hair.

At this point of time I was feeling flashes of shock. What can it be? Is it an eyelash? Full of curiosity, I tore the pizza bit by bit till I found this :

Completely alarmed, the first thing that came to mind was “WTF? Did the dude who made my pizza scratch his balls while making the dough or something?!” As you can tell, I was totally grossed out.

Cart, who was sitting next to me tried to console me, “That can’t be. That’s probably just his chest hair that fell down while making the pizza”

“That’s not making me feel any better! This is the equivalent of me LICKING a strange man’s chest!” For the next hour, I just sat there completely stunned. Visions of hairy men running through my mind. Just too traumatised to say anything.

The end

By the time you read this, Cart and I are getting ready to go on a road trip to Milan! Looking forward to meeting dear Jerrick and exploring around la capitale fasione! (ok I made that word up)

We are not travelling in a porche like in this picture, unfortunately but nevertheless I thought that I’d do a quick linkup with a few of the interesting blogposts in my rss reader

• The non Italian on an Italian diet
• Anyone who grew up in Singapore would find this nostalgic
• CSI experience in Singapore

If you have more links, do share them in the comment box below and see you on Monday! 

We are already a couple of weeks into autumn and the trees are starting to change into beautiful shades reds and golds and browns. Temperatures are already dropping in Rome and I’m already moaning about summer being over. At this point of time in writing, its about 3 degrees celcius. Brr …

It might not be such a big deal to people living in the temperate zones. Cart himself prefers the cooler temperatures, but having lived in sunny, equatorial Singapore for most of my life, I’m still trying to get used to this. And in temperatures colder than 25 degrees, I start to shiver, and hide underneath the comforter, the flannel blanket … anywhere warmer!

Like this nice and thick comforter that stick rinaz is on, which she tries to run me over while I’m asleep. Its thick enough to probably make one layer for the princess and the pea

I guess, on the other hand, one of the nice perks about living in colder regions is the ability to wear nice coats and jackets and boots, which would just be unrealistic, as well as a little insane to be wearing in tropical Singapore.

Nevertheless, the house was starting to get unbearably cold. And while the comforter, my flannel pyjamas and my favourite hippo slippers were helping, it’s still quite cold!

Yeah, I look unglamorous in this bideo, but as friends you wont be judgemental

Anyway! It got to the point that it got uncomfortably cold that we called up the boiler man to have the riscaldamento start again.

I’m not sure if its the same for other parts of Italy, but here in Rome, if you own a personal boiler, you’d need to have it checked by a qualified employee before restarting it. Cart told me that one risks to have a fine or worse, have an accident if there is something defective in it after being unused for some months.

This is what a boiler looks like. I left the bottles there so you could compare the size of the thing. Basically it works by having water flowing into a valve and the boiler heats up the water. And this heated water flows around the house through radiators which in turn warms the surrounding air.

And this is one of the radiators that saved my life during cold winters. On the side there is this little ceramic container that you’re supposed to pour water in because air gets drier as the riscaldamento works.

In any case, like I mentioned, not all houses have their own personal boilers. My friend Lynn was mentioning that for her condominium, its a shared boiler and to save money, the majority of her neighbours only wanted it turned on in November!

Till then, poor Lynn would have to bear with the cold!

I wanted to take a picture while the boiler-men were working but I chickened out in the end :p

In any case, I was being a busybody and was looking at the boiler-men as they checked the pressure, the heat, the flow and others to make sure that it fits to the European standards and in about 15 minutes or so, if it passes the test, the thermostat will be started and in a while, the house will be comfortable again.

And when that’s done,then another 15 minutes for doing the paperwork. What’s quite incredulous to me was how much bureaucracy that went into this, asking me about codice fiscale, needing an official libretto thingmajig that Cart had to buy himself in a separate location (how come these boiler-men don’t sell it directly?)

Thank goodness, Cart managed to get home from work in time and rescued me from having to go all Indiana Jones and the temple of doom-like trying to find something that’s close to impossible to find

In any case, the house is nice and warm again! My feet doesn’t feel ridiculously cold now! And I feel comfy! Whee! Hug radiator!

Toon-rinaz herself is crying tears of joy

Its the start of a new term for my Italian class.

Here in Italy, there are subsidized Italian lessons organized in various regions and comunale, for residents as well as foreigners who carry a permesso di soggiorno (permit to stay). And it costs very little, ranging from 10 – 20 euro for about 40 hours of lessons, usually in a public school.

In any case, when I reached the classroom, it was an extremely chaotic encounter, with the new students of all the various levels of fluency all clumped up together. There were some who didn’t understood any Italian at all, and there were some conversing seriously with the teachers. And the teachers where looking quite stressed out, trying to get a sense of semblance of order.

But it was nice to meet familiar faces again, those whom I’ve been with in the same class last year. And as I walked in to sit down, all the faces lighted up in recognition, “Hey! Come stai? Stai bene?” And I cant help but to think, why do you people ask me only now when you ignore all my emails and messages

And then we were given a test. Before this, I was feeling quite nervous, thinking that it would be very difficult, testing us on topics such as passato prossimo, pronomi diretti and condizionale, that I even had a dream about taking a test the night before. But when I got the actual sheet of paper.

Freaking heck, its just a “What is your name?” “How old are you?” “Where do you come from?” Man, what an anti-climax!

But in anycase, while sitting in the class, I noticed something on the wall on every classroom that I’ve been in.

The first time I saw it to be honest, I didn’t care. A symbol is a symbol. Although admittedly it does make me feel very aware that I am a minority. Although these days, I don’t even see the symbol. Kind of like non-seeing ads in a website.

While I think that we should respect other cultures and leave it be, Cart thinks that there should be other symbols of faith along with it. What do you think?

Sidenote : Urgh, feeling sickish with flu, fever, sorethroat