Category: life

Ramadan is here again! This is the month where Muslims abstain from consuming food and drink as well as bad thoughts, from dawn to dusk.

I’ve been practising this since I was a child, starting to fast half a day and moving on to full day. It was a proud moment for me, seeing that I was able to do it, like the “Big People” did. Hence after that, its rather second nature for me. And personally for me, I like this month as it heightens my mental clarity, and I can focus better on doing more activities without the distractions of the need to feed.

And as much as I thought in the beginning that Cart would have a difficult time, I’m very proud to see that he’s able to adjust and make it though the entire day. In fact, without realising it, he’s been doing it for the past 4 years now. For him, his biggest motivator is to feel how the poor are experiencing. Quite noble of him.

In any case, fasting in Italy is a lot different compared to fasting in Singapore with my family. Firstly, its a little more challenging because being summer, the days are longer compared to in Singapore. For this year, in Italy we have to fast about 16 hours while in Singapore it is about 14 hours. And it will be longer the next year and the year after that because the Islamic calendar is 10 days shorter than the Gregorian calendar.

Too sleepy to eat at 4am

The other difference is that since I’ve been living in Rome, my diet has changed. So I’m fasting with Italian food such as Pasta, Piadina, Farro and such instead of my regular rice or noodles. It took a while to adjust, but in the end, food is food.

But the biggest difference is in the exuberance. Its a lot more livelier when I was in Singapore. I’d rush back back home from work to help out with my mum preparing food for breaking fast and all the while listening to the sermon on the radio warna 94.2 fm and then listening to the very famous and evergreen Arabic song, indicating that it was sunset and that we are able to break fast. By then my family members would already be seated and all six of us would enjoy our meal together, chattering to each other.

[audio:arabicsong.mp3]

It was lively!

Its a lot more quiet and nondescript here. With it being only the two of us fasting, no radio station that I know of broadcasting breaking fast times, even going to the mosque in Rome for the final 10 days last year, I could count with one hand the amount of people doing tarawih. There doesn’t seem to be any vibrancy for me like it was back in Singapore. Oh well.

In any case, I would like to wish everyone a beautiful month of Ramadan. Isn’t it amusing by the way, that this month, where all the evil beings are chained up, coincides with the Hungry ghost festival?

Sidenote : I was wondering, if there are anyone in Singapore would be kind enough to help me? I’d like a daily recording in mp3 format from 7pm – 7.30pm on Warna 94.2 Fm. You could send it to my email, makawaru[at]gmail.com and I’ll put it up on my blog for all to share and give credit to you for helping, of course

Updated : Hey, online streaming is back! I can try to use Audacity to record it!

Went to the polizia last night with Cart to give a statement from yesterday’s drama. I don’t think these two juvenile delinquents will be hitting the area any time soon. Unless they are really dumb.

Anyway! On to something happier.

It was my birthday on the 1st of August! So it was a good reason to dress up and look pretty! I put on my nice dress that I bought from Mango, fussed around with my hair, and put on some new mekap that I got from Pupa. Initially I wanted to wear my sexeh high heel shoes that made me as tall as Cartcart when I put it on. But then I got sick of walking so slowly like a geisha so I put on my lower heels.

My main aim was to make every person that I pass by faint with my sheer brilliance and beauty.

This post is not sponsored by Canon

As much as I would LOVE to have a birthday where I am a lead singer/dancer with a group of bollywood backup dancers, singing on top of a train, like this. I’m clueless on how to make this happen. So instead of that, we were out most of the day and had a lovely dinner at one of our favourite restaurant.

It was a lovely day, even if it wasn’t really anything out of the ordinary. And I’d like to thank everyone who took the time to wish me happy birthday! A very important announcement is made at the end of the bideo, so do watch it!

Sidenote :

Woah! Lisa Simpson was supposed to be married on my birthday!

Oh gosh! I’m still feeling a little stunned and in shock.

I was in the kitchen, starting to cook lunch when I heard some noise at the door. Thinking that it was the cleaner lady doing her weekly floor cleaning, I didn’t think much of it. Till I heard the door open. What? This is not right. So I went out of the kitchen and I saw two young men in their early 20’s with dirty blonde hair and light coloured eyes starting to come in. I was surprised. They were stunned too as they stared at me. I said, “Who are you?” And it was only a few seconds later that I realised that they were burglars!

So I screamed! “Rubare!” “Rubare!” I didn’t care if it was the right word for thief or not. All I cared was to scream. And I screamed very loudly. They quickly scampered away. I was tempted to run after them, but I felt more obliged to defend the house.

I should have at least thrown the egg that I was holding while I was making my lasagna. I feel a bit unsatisfied that I didn’t do more. But luckily I was home and stopped them before they started to steal anything!

Anyway I called Cart who was working and he called the polizia and both the police and Cart arrived shortly. They took our statements and we’ll be heading to the police headquarters later in the evening to give them more details.

Isn’t this bottle adorably retro?

Spuma Bionda, or translated as Blonde Foam has a special meaning to Cart. As a kid, he and his childhood friend would buy these as it was more economical than say, Coca cola at the time. I looked at him amusedly as he would describe how he and Fabrizio would drink this by the litres.

It tastes pretty nice too, as it reminds me a lot of Schweppes Cream Soda which I gulped a lot as a kid myself. Unfortunately, the Spuma Bionda is increasingly difficult to find – I’ve never seen it at all in the supermarkets that I’ve been to. Instead, Fabrizio found it by chance by going to a bar (In Italy, bars doesn’t mean that they sold only alcoholic drinks, you could get coffee, aperitivo, snacks, sandwiches and the likes here)

Somehow this reminds me of a few other drinks that I consumed in my childhood but is increasingly rarer to come across in Singapore.

Been a while since I’ve seen sinalco

Inside is a red bubbly fizzy drink which up to now, I’ve no idea what it was supposed to be. Cherry? Strawberry? But it sure was strangely addictive. Up to the point that my siblings and I would gulp it all down before my mum even had a chance to drink some. I felt so bad when I saw her crestfallen face when she opened the fridge. We were such monsters

And its been a while since I’ve seen Kickapoo

Despite its strange name, as well as the cannibalistic looking cover of the bottle, I love drinking this a lot. It tastes like a combination of lime, lemon and others, but it was sweet and not too gassy. If I had my way, I’d drink this by the bottles.

And for sure, I’ve yet to any ICEE since secondary school.

While I’ve seen these slushies a lot during my childhood days, but somewhere towards my tween years, it was gone.

All those memories.

When its summer in Rome, its normal for the temperature to be at 35 and even to 40 degrees Celsius. There is a tradition here for many Romans to head to the beach in different parts of Italy. And some find this the perfect time to cool off in swimming pools.

The prices for the public swimming pools in Rome are unfortunately expensive though. Here are a few of the cheaper ones that I’ve found :

• Aquafelix – 20 Euro
• Hydromania – 18 Euro – Read my review here
• Circolo Valentini – 13 Euro
• Piscina delle Rose – 16 Euro

I also found these which are said to be low cost, however they do not list their pricing :

• Nettuno Club
• La Piscina Crawl 2000
• Piscina Isola Verde
• Accademia del nuoto 
• Sporting Club Nuovo Laurentino
• Octopus
• Centro Sportivo Peter Pan
• Augustea Sporting Club
• Fluvio Benardini Sporting Club

It’s probably cheaper if you could get a package or if you could find concurrent offers. There used to be a discount when you showed your ATAC ticket with hydromania but it might change depending on the year.

Cart and I have been hosting the lovely Sweska and hensem Ntt and showing them around Rome since last Thursday. And just a few moments ago, we waved our goodbyes as they left for Venezia.

I could probably blog about the awesome food that we ate, like the orgasmic tiramisu that we had in Genzano.

Or blog about the interesting places and monuments that we’ve seen while in and outside of Rome like when we were on the open bus.

Or I could be cheeky and make a post about how the three of us had fun in bed with Cart taking footage of the whole act

Or how hopelessly addicted ALL of us were to the internet

But because I am still very sore and upset that no one cared to leave a comment on my spectacularly awesome video blog post about Bevagna, that I used brain cells, hours and creativity to edit.

So hard to give comment is it? Will die one is it? Humph!

So I protest. I wont blog about our expeditions. At all!

(pauses and thinks)

Uh … eh?

Last saturday was Cart’s birthday so we decided to try to explore a little and try out a restaurant that we’ve never been to before.

Somehow we ended up in Testaccio which was not too far away from an old fireman station which I think is still functioning by the way. We weren’t very familiar with the place, but I was game to explore. Surely there must be a restaurant within walking distance.

And thus, our traverse begins. We walked past a multitude of shops, some of them common, some interesting. We walked past a couple of people quarrelling dramatically and past some tourists who wanted to head to Circo Massimo.

But after an hour and still no proper eating place, I was starting to feel hungry. And everyone knows that a hungry woman is an angry woman.

At length, we both raised our arms in the air in defeat and decided to go back to the car and make our way to a restaurant that we were familiar with. Like L’insalata Ricca or something. I was just about to open the door of the car when I noticed something.

What’s that? Is that a restaurant?

Curiosity got the better of me and we walked closer and saw a menu and a large conglomeration of people sitting down, having a meal. So it IS a restaurant! We walked for about an hour fruitlessly finding a restaurant and turns out we parked RIGHT in front of one!

In any case, the name La Fraschetta di Mastro Giorgio and it’s actually a trattoria by the way. A trattoria is less formal than a restaurant and the service casual. Nevertheless, it was a really lovely place. I admired the lovely courtyard outside all covered with grapevines. It was such a lovely shade of green, so relaxing to see. I could look out of the window all day.

And in the inside, it was not too shabby either, everything looked very rustic, from the wooden furnishings and the barrels and such. With the grapevines, country style furnishings and all, I feel as if I’m really in the countryside, even when I’m in the middle of Rome city centre.

If you were wondering why it looks quite empty inside, I suppose everyone prefers to dine in the courtyard. But its just as comfortable inside as it was air conditioned, what with having walked for an hour.

And since it was a trattoria, service was a little slow but its worth the wait as we found out, the food was as lovely as the place itself. While it’s non traditional, the pasta was really al dente and very tasty. Like my tonarelli with cozze.

There was pecorino cheese sprinkled lightly on it and I was a little surprised. There is an unwritten rule in Italy that you never add cheese to seafood pasta. But the salty pecorino cheese accompanied my tonarelli well.

While Cart had fettucine alla sorrentina.

While most places would be gentle with the basil, the sauce was generous here and I can totally detect and I love it tastes like. I love fresh pasta! And its wonderful when its freshly cooked.

For dessert I had the mint semifreddo with chocolate sauce. Semifreddo is something that I just discovered recently and I love it so much. Translated, it means half cold and it is usually made of whipped cream and you can use a variety of flavours like white chocolate, raspberries.

I had to savour this one slowly so that it doesn’t disappear before I knew it.

While Cart had a crostata with ricotta e visciole which is a type of cherry. Cart loved it. He said that it tasted very home made and was really pleased that the waiter gave him a large piece.

All of a sudden, Cart started to stare outside of the window, into the courtyard transfixed on something. And he asked me :

Cart : Hey! Look at that lady behind you. Doesn’t she look like someone you know?

I noticed a young woman in a blue dress winding and tying the straps of her purse on the chair.

Me : Who? She?

Cart : Now imagine her with two guns

Me : Two guns? She looks nothing like Lady Gaga

Cart : Oh come on, you know, the comedian playing Lara Croft

Me : Oh! Sabrina Impacciatore! Dont say guns! Say pistols! You made me imagine an Uzi Bra. But anyway no, I don’t think it looks like her.

Cart starts to whip out his phone and search on google mobile

Cart : See! Her nose is the same shape and the hairstyle is exactly the same.

The woman enters and we both hear her ask the waiter audibly where the bathroom was.

Me : It sounds like her. But I’m doubtful. Why would a celebrity eat here? It’s weird to have them to go to places that we regular people do.

Cart : Why cant they? You like this place right? So they come here to enjoy because they like it here too

Me : Since you’re so adamant about it, I challenge you to go up to her and say hi and ask if it IS her. And take a picture or something.

Cart : Ok. I will.

*snaps a picture*

Doh!