Made in Italy? Are you sure?

Cart and I were in Monte Verde last Saturday, visiting our friend Lynn when I chanced upon a new clothes shop. It was the opening day, seeing the wreaths of flowers outside of the shop.

Being curious, I dragged Cart in with me into the shop to have a look see. There were a couple of people in there already, looking at the clothes and squealing out, “Che carina! How cute!”

I looked around, checking out the clothes. Because the style of the clothes and the make, looked so much like items made in China. And for the price sold, I would rather buy it from Singapore or straight from Shanghai or Hong Kong itself.

Examining closer at the label of one of the outfits, I was very surprised at what I saw.

“Made in Italy”
Huh? Are you sure?

In my opinion, Italians have their own sense of style. I see that they mostly wear solid colours, their outfits were simple but classic and usually decorated with bold accessories like boots or belts and accessories. With the exception of perhaps the style of Roberto Cavalli, but everyone knows that he is an eccentric.

Roberto Cavalli
The outfit in the shop front of me on the other hand, looked like it was imported from China instead which I’ve nothing against and wouldn’t mind wearing it myself. But shouldn’t a made in Italy item, at least look like it was made in Italy?

Italians have always prided themselves as having beautiful, well crafted and quality items that would justify the higher costs compared to their counterparts.

Made in Italy label
Thus seeing the label, forgive my dramatics, but it seems a quite a mockery to me.

I don’t want to pay money for something which claims to be something it is not.

Coincidentally not too long ago, I was watching this program on ‘Current._’ about an expose on luxury Italian brand names. These labels actually had uncompleted items, such as sleeves and parts of bags and shoes being made and imported from China. These items are then completed in Italy, like adding a bow to the shoes, and assembling the bag and clothes together and European laws deemed it was fit to have the Made in Italy label.

To top it off, there are several luxury brands, where to save money, used illegal immigrants, pay them low wages without benefits, to make these goods, all in the name of making profits.

That seems so wrong to me and makes me wary about labels.

Roman expressions for beginners

Some years back, I was demonstrating my IT class kids on how to add sounds to their Macromedia Flash files.

We had so much fun that I thought that I’d just update it with a couple of Italian expressions that could be good to know. Some are Roman slang though and could be a little rude


Yes, I teach all the bad things, I know

Sidenote :

Do you get nervous when meeting people?

Donkey years ago, while I was back in school doing my O levels, there was one part of the examinations where you were tested on your ability to speak. You were given a picture, describe it and then later you’ll be given a set of open questions where you are required to talk as fluidly as possible.

Class of 4E6, Bukit View Secondary

I still remember the advice that Ms Gopal, our english and literature teacher dispensed to us, the class of 4E6 :

Class! During your orals, talk as much as you can! Try not to let them prompt you because that means that you don’t have much to say!

And being the art class, as opposed to the pure science students, we were considered, and even expected to be talkative. Many of my classmates would be going about confidently. Talking? It will be easy! All you have to do is just to talk whatever bullshit that you want.

Unfortunately, I wasn’t one of these talkative people. Instead, I took a back seat and would just rather listen and process the information.

When the day of judgement arrived, I tried to find all the courage that I could.

O Level results

It didn’t start off well. The man who was invigilating me looked bored. He never smiled and looked stern. Already, I was feeling uncomfortable. I sat down and gave a nervous smile.

Please begin, he said listlessly.

I was freaking out. What am I supposed to say? Oh gosh, I feel so nervous! My mind is blank right now! I could not bear to look at his bored face, so I looked down in desperation.

And I saw that the invigilator had his shoe out and was dangling it around in boredom and that freaked me out even more. Am I so boring?!

When it all ended, I knew that I did extremely bad in my oral examination. A gargantuan feeling of upset was palpitating inside me and I rushed off to the empty guides room and cried my eyes out.

Now, donkey years later, I still get that feeling sometimes when I meet new people. Although of course, being much older, the years has made me grow better defences. Nevertheless, I still feel stunned when I meet people who gives that look. That is where I start to become mechanical.

I guess there are people who can’t help their body languages but I just don’t feel comfortable. I don’t feel like I can express myself well and give my opinion freely without feeling judged.

It makes me miss the chitchat sessions that I have with my good friends. Even if we have differing opinions, and not share the same thoughts, at the end of the day, we are still love each other.

Maybe I am thinking too deeply into this and I’ll just try to take each experience as a learning experience.

In any case, back to when I was a teenager, months after the oral examination, the results were out in the notice board. I looked at it nervously, fearing for all the worst. And I tentatively looked at the grade beside my name.

A+

Huh? 

Its blooming springtime!

Its springtime!

After seeing trees looking rather bald during the winter, its lovely to see them start to bloom again. So very pretty!

Villa Pamphili

Cart and I were at Villa Pamphili to admire the beautiful surroundings here. I don’t think that Villa Pamphili is a touristy destination, compared to the Colosseo and the Pantheon and all but if you have the time, I feel that its a nice place to visit and spend time in anyway.

Initially I wanted to shoot a video for my next video blog, but upon seeing all the pretty growth and greenery, I actually forgotten all about it.

Villa Pamphili

Villa Pamphili started out as a housing area by a dude called Pamfilio Pamfili – a really really rich guy. Today, it is now a park which is free to be enjoyed by everyone.

Walking in Villa Pamphili is very relaxing. And it makes you forget that you are in Rome, with the traffic and the graffiti and everything because all that you can see in front of you, is the nature and greenery.

Villa Pamphili

Its such a lovely day. And the temperature is perfect for me! Not too freezing cold but comfortable enough to spend time out. I could change to my lighter coat and I even saw some people wearing short tees even. Sometimes I worry how I will react when going back to hot hot hot Singapore.

Anyway! I love seeing families having picnics together. And there were a group of juvenile delinquents friends playing football and frisbie. Its just idyllic seeing people just lying around on the grass, basking in the sun. See! Italians do it! Not just Singaporean foreign talents! 😛

Wah! I feel like I’m in Europe!

I even spotted out a couple of people studying and reading underneath a tree. To me, its a little clique-ish but I suppose that more inducing to study that way. Definitely way better than in a fast food restaurant! I don’t know about you, but during exam periods in Singapore, the libraries, fast food restaurants and even the airport would be packed with kids with books and notes. Mostly on account of the places being air conditioned and more comfortable to study.

But in any case, my mind started to wander and realise that there were heaps of wonderful spots here for photoshoots! My cousin, Fuzzy would have a blast doing a cosplay here. Like this spot here.

Villa Pamphili

I’m not fond of Star Wars, but I could totally see Anakin and Padme having a picnic here. Maybe a bridal shoot would be great too? Would it be too late for Cart and me to have another one?

And I stumbled upon this very cool looking tree.

Villa Pamphili

Check it out, a tree which has branches like an open palm. It’ll only be a short while till someone realises this and don a faerie outfit complete with wings and camwhore here.

It wont be me though

Review : Kiko Cosmetics

After the marathon two weeks ago, Cart and I were in this mall called the Parco Leonardo and we stumbled upon a shop full of women. Naturally, being curious, I went to explore inside And I realised that I was in a make-up shop. I was so excited like a kid in a candy store.

In any case, the shop was called Kiko cosmetics. Like Pupa cosmetics, this is another Italian brand. Kiko is popular for its affordable cosmetics range.

Kiko, in honestly is a strange name to me because the first thing when I think about Kiko is a little sea creature from Neopets.

Kiko Cosmetics

I wanted to purchase the hot pink couture eye shadow palette from the ‘Posh Couture collection’.

Isn’t this look totally darling? I love the gold and black eyeshadow look going on here.

Kiko Cosmetics

Unfortunately, I couldn’t find it anywhere! A quick check with the clerk, revealed that the collection was was over. Turned out that the posh couture collection was out for fall/winter 2009 and since it’s spring now, it was all gone.

Instead, there were currently the ‘Electric town collection’ going on. So I was contemplating on getting the Ropopongi Green eyeshadow palette instead as a replacement. But swatching it, the colours didn’t look very vibrant on my skin. It could probably be more colourful when applied wet or used with eyeshadow primer but I just wasn’t convinced.

Nevertheless I got for myself a couple of the other items in my list. First off, is the nail polishes.

Kiko Cosmetics

What I liked about Kiko is that, there is a wide range of variety in the colours that they had – up to 105 variations. Compared to the more traditional pinks and reds, Kiko had unusual colours, practically every shade of the rainbow.

So I got for myself the base in pastel pink and the unusual shades of Cerulean blue and Spring Green nail polish as well as the more classic Vermillion Red shade.

Kiko Cosmetics

Application wise though, the polishes were rather runny and I needed at least two coats before the nail polish would look decent. But the worst part is, it took ages to dry! Even after 10 minutes after applying, I find myself having the nail polish smudging.

I’m not sure that I’d purchase more which is a pity because of the range of unusual colours.

The only thing I liked from the nail range is the polish remover. Your fingers smells like vanilla after using it.

The next item that I got for myself is the limited edition ‘Red emotion satin lipstick’ in Sensual Red.

Kiko Cosmetics

I really like this lipstick. It is very bright, bold and eye catching among all my other pink lipsticks. Wearing it, it felt rather comfortable and moisturizing despite of how matte it looked like on my lips. Moreover for 6.90 euro, I think that it was a very good buy and actually cheaper than most drug-store brands.

Its quite coincidental that Kiko came out with the red emotion line because it was most certainly awesome in my recreation of the 40’s look. What do you think?

Kiko Cosmetics

If you’re wondering how I did my bangs, I used this tutorial. Takes a bit of practise in rolling though.

Kiko Cosmetics

And you could put it up your back hair in a pony tail or style your hair any way you want to. Pretty cool huh?

Anyway, I find Kiko cosmetics pretty fun to use. I love the red emotion lipstick a lot. And while the nail polishes could do with a bit of improvement, kiko on the overall is good place to check out on account of the affordable prices.

Kiko Cosmetics

4 nail polishes, a polish remover and a lipstick for 27 euro. I don’t know of anywhere else in Italy where you could get cosmetics at this prices. At the moment, I’m not sure if Kiko will be expanding outside of Italy though.

Check out my other reviews of Italian cosmetics

What a rosetta on the door symbolises in Italy

My friend Lynn gave birth to two boys recently. So Cart and I paid a visit to see how she was doing.

When we reached the main entrance of where she lived, we spotted something interesting. Above the entrance was a rosetta.

Baby

There is an Italian custom to hang up a rosetta to symbolise that there is a newborn baby in the building. Blue for male babies while pink for girls.

I wonder if there are another more other Italian customs in regards to babies. Whereas for us Malays, we have the cukur jambul tradition where the baby gets their first haircut at the end of the new mother’s confinement period.

I’m a little worried for Lynn since she had a C section. Just the sound of that gives me feel queasy especially after watching a television programme about it.

Nevertheless, Lynn is doing fine and although she says that she feels some discomfort, she’s able to move around the house freely.

Anyway, I present to you, Sean and Erik!

Baby

I find it interesting that Lynn was able to already tell the personalities of her two boys. Sean, on the left was the more relaxed one while Erik was more active.

They are oh so very tiny.

Baby

Dealing with depressing things online

Truth be told, there are days when I feel a little upset reading some of the things online.

Like a couple of blogs when they write about the perfect lives they are having, attending glamorous events, flying off to different countries, buying expensive accessories for themselves. There was a blog which I stumbled upon where one particular woman wrote about how happy she was to receive a 10,000 dollar branded bag by her husband, that she’s been “eyeing for a long time”.

Personally for me, I wouldn’t want to blow $10,000 on a bag. I’d rather spend the money on perhaps improving the house or help ease  the mortgage. Anyhow, even if I did have a ten thousand dollar bag, I’d probably be too stressed to bring it out, afraid that I’d scratch it. Or even worse, get it stolen by a sharp eyed thief.

Carrie Bradshaw Manolo Sex and the City

Kind of like when Carrie from Sex and the City got her Manolos stolen

While I think that a person has the right to spend their money any way that they want, I wish that I could have a piece of that too. Back in Singapore I was working and earning comfortably enough to buy whatever frivolous things that I wanted. Here in Rome, I don’t feel confident enough to converse in Italian to start looking for a full time job.

While in forums, there are a couple of people who seem to be disgruntled towards me and Cart for some reason. They’d say things like our marriage will never make it past a month. And there was one forumer who said that Cart and I were ugly!?

Why so mean? I’ve no idea why there would be people saying things like that. Did we ever hurt you in any way?

In any case, at this point of time, Cart and I have been together for four years and celebrated our one year wedding anniversary last December. While its true that every marriage has its ups and downs but we still love and care about each other very much.

Besides, beauty is subjective.

Beauty Ratio

While scientists believe that the beautiful form has a symmetry and the mathematical ratio of 1 : 1.618 like this model here, but if you are not attracted to a person, be it because of their personality or their level of conversation, even if he or she looks like a supermodel, it will be hard to connect to them.

People can think what they want to think. And while I don’t look like a supermodel, I don’t think I’m ugly.  And to me, Cart will always look cute.

Cart and Rinaz

Sure, he’s a little older than me. But when I look at him doing daily things like sleeping, working at the computer, I see that he still has his boyish looks.

Most importantly, he treats me with love, care and respect and we are mostly drama free. I feel very blessed to have met a man who wants to travel with me in my journeys instead of a man who just wants in for the ride.

And even in my own blog and in emails, once in a blue moon there would be someone who’d want to cut me down.

Idiot

I really don’t know how to respond to that because honestly, its a lot of hot air. Honestly, I don’t mind constructive criticisms. You could either take it negatively or positively and when you think about it, it can be a good way to improve oneself.

I do admit that there are other bloggers who are better and more successful than I am, and sometimes my posts can sometimes be bimbotty, as seen in my female vanities categories but in my defence, I do honestly believe that I try to share information with others in my own way. It might not be textbook perfect, but I write in my own point of view from my personal experiences. “Write what you know“, my mantra, inspired by the talented, late, director, Yasmin Ahmad.

A number of people seem to forget that a personal blog is well … a personal blog and the blogger has the freedom to express and write whatever they wish to write about, as long as it doesn’t go against seditious law. If they want to be bimbottic, or if they want to make their make their blogs with hundreds of camwhoring pictures of them making duckfaces, that’s their prerogative. I’m not fond of it either, but there is always the x button on the top right.

But I try not to let these things get me. A fellow blogger friend mentioned to me, these people are just trolls.

Troll
Picture by DavidKing

Trolls are basically people who antagonise others online. And usually they are not as cute as the one above. But what I find interesting is that for what these trolls are commenting, they don’t have anything to back them up.

For the trolls who says that I am ugly or that my teeth need fixing, a big probability that they would have no real pictures of themselves up. And for trolls who say that I have a horrible voice would have a big chance of not having uploaded even a single video of themselves.

If you keep yourself hidden, then how am I to worship and learn from your divine beauty and wit and grace?!

In any case, I’ve been living an online life for about 10 years now since I first had my first computer. Technology has evolved a lot since then, from newsgroups, to IRC, to Virtual Worlds and it will continue to change, and each change would have its own anti social people.

But the good thing out of this is that it made me grow a thicker skin and not be too bothered because in the end, the point of having an online life, blogging, traversing virtual worlds, gaming in MMORPG and such is to have fun.

Have fun

What’s the point of being sensitive and angry all the time? It’ll only make you lose the joy and shorten your life and in the end wont do anything good because you can’t really do anything about trolls. It is hard to change the mind of someone who has already made their mind up.

So lets just try to see the good things in life, and surround ourselves with the people that we love.  There are so much more fulfilling things to do than to focus on the negatives 🙂

Engrish in Rome

Its not only in Japan that you have Engrish, here in Rome, there are some too

Here are some of the few that caught my eye.

Engrish in Rome

Cart and I were walking in Parco Leonardo and looking at the directory when we saw this! What’s a steack house? 😛

Engrish in Rome

And this was at a snack bar near Castel Sant Angelo. Hamb! For those days when you cant decide between ham and lamb 😛

Engrish in Rome

I think this was in Pizzeria Ai Marmi. Cool! Smocked provola! Would you like a beautifully embroided pizza? 😀

Just to be clear, I’m not making fun of anyone, but all these mistakes are rather amusing to me … I wonder what I’ll stumble upon next

Roman skies look fake

There is a scene in the Truman Show where Truman sails away in a boat. I noticed how pretty the sky looked like. Eventually the bow of the boat hits a dome and broke the painted sky. It was a fake sky! And Truman spent a moment, looking amazed.

Living in Rome gives me feel like Truman sometimes. Because the skies here look fake. Like a painting.

Roman Skies

This was taken a few weeks ago while Cart and I were out looking for new furnitures for the house. The sky was so vivid that we spent at least 10 minutes taking pictures of the sunset.

Roman Skies

And this is in Gianicolo. If you are ever in Rome, Gianicolo hill is a pretty place to be as it overlooks many of the monuments in Rome.

I keep telling Cart that I find that Roman skies look unreal. Growing up in Singapore, we’ve never seen anything like this before. Our sunsets are more orange.

Cart explained to me that the colours of the sunset was because of the atmosphere and the altitude that we have here in Rome. While Singapore is closer to the equator.

But its not only the sunsets here which was beautiful. Even the clouds seemed unnatural to me.

Roman Skies

I dont think that I’ve ever seen this Cirrocumulus formation before. Its quite interesting.

Even when the weather is bad, sometimes you see sights like this.

Roman Skies

A really big rainbow. Not that there isn’t any rainbows in Singapore, but with our tall buildings, its not that often that we spot them.

Thus, that’s why I feel that Roman skies look fake, like a painting. After a year of living in Rome, I still marvel when I look at the sky.

Review : Remington Sleek & Curl Flat Iron

I had my eye on the Remington Sleek and Curl flat iron for a long time since early December last year. I think it was the cover that did it for me. There were women with 6 various different hairstyles that I was hypnotised and stared at the box for like 10 minutes, examining every corners of the box till Cart dragged me away.

Anyway, I did a quick research online for review, and seeing how every user loved it, I finally decided to get it. Unfortunately, by the time that we went there next, it was no where to be seen!

So back in January, while I was in another mall, I noticed the last set of Sleek & Curl hair hot iron and I quickly pounced on it before anyone else could get it.

This is what was in the box.

Rinaz remington sleek & curl

The flat iron, and a book manual, and a dvd that shows you the different ways on how to style your hair. It was actually very interesting watching the stylist do all those hairstyles on the model. Although I’m not sure if I had the deftness and dexterity to do them all.

Rinaz remington sleek & curl

Just on thing to note about the flat iron is that it uses this European pin. I can’t plug it directly to the Italian power source. But all we had to do was to get the correct attachment plug for it and it works just fine. I bet that it’ll be fine for travelling too as long as there is the right attachment.

Rinaz remington sleek & curl

It takes about 30 seconds to heat up.

Though the maximum temperature of the flat iron is 230 degrees C, I haven’t really experimented it at that heat. By right, I shouldn’t really worry since the flat iron is supposed to be made of ceramic, tourmaline and coated with teflon so its not supposed to be damaging for hair.

But I’ll stick with 180 degrees for the moment. It’s hot enough for me. After all, that’s almost twice the heat needed to boil water!

Anyway, this is my hair in all its natural glory one day after shampooing.

Rinaz remington sleek & curl

It’s naturally wavy, shaggy and thick.

Truth be told, I’m not all that good with hair styling. But I’m keen to try different hairstyles. Especially now, its so easy to access tutorials from youtube and blogs.

There was one time that I was so excited to try making victory rolls, so on impulse, I bought for myself, a pair of curling iron. I don’t remember which brand it was though, but it was so challenging to use that I hardly touched it after one use and it pretty much broke down by itself.

What a waste of money.

Fortunately, this time round with my flat iron, my first time was fantastic and it was surprisingly so easy to use.

Rinaz remington sleek & curl

I’m not sure why I’m doing a Mariah Carey hand gesture here but you take a small segment of your hair. Put it as close to the roots, squeeze and slowly pull it down.

One of the thing that initially put me off flat iron is because of the tangles I get from using them. I tried my little sis’s flat iron but it was so tangle-o-rama. And my hair felt so dry afterwards. It worked fine for her though. Maybe its because of our different hair textures.

But the teflon works here since its actually very smooth and I don’t get that draggy and tangly feeling.

Rinaz remington sleek & curl

For the back of the head, it would be easier to pin with a hair clasp. And you repeat the steps till every bit of hair is straightened.

Rinaz remington sleek & curl

Tada! Straight hair!

And if you want to curl your hair, you take the small segment of hair again, put it close to the scalp, squeeze the flat iron and turn it in and drag it down slowly.

Be careful with your fingers though, its quite hot!

Rinaz remington sleek & curl

I’m not sure if you could see it in the picture, but there are guide lines which is supposed to guide you in controlling the type of your curls.

Yes, my curls look very messy. I’m still quite new at this, but for a newbie, my curls look pretty impressive, yes? 🙂

Rinaz remington sleek & curl

Anyway, tadah! Curly hair! I like! Abit of hair spray and it’ll stay sexeh for the entire day.

Hopefully my skills get better in time but I’m quite liking my toy for now. I’m glad I bought it 🙂