Being in a majority of Italians, you cant help but to be influenced by some of their quirks and mannerisms. One of the most fascinating habits that Italians have, are their hand gestures.
Anyway, Cart and I happened to be in a nice Thai restaurant the other evening. Every one of the crew were Thai and speaking in Thai but I saw Italian hand gestures. It was very fascinating to see.
It was later that I noticed that I am beginning to do this gesture subconsciously :
This is a gesture to emphasize sentences like “What the heck do you want?” “What the heck is this supposed to mean?”
I was waiting for the transfer bus. The next bus stop coincidentally stops near Cart’s workplace. And that was when I saw a man walking towards me who looked just like Cart. Same beard, same glasses, same head.
This is the real Cart 😛
So I flashed him a warm smile.
And he smiled the biggest smile back at me.
It was only when he started to walk past me that I realised that he was not Cart! Mistaken identity! But he had a lingering smile anyways. I guess I made the guy’s day
I told Cart about this but he did not sound very interested. Who knows if he was jealous! 😛
Me : I should have said “Penso che tu sei mio marito!”
Cart : Oh what a nice thing to say!
Me : What should I have said?
Cart : Credevo che fossi mio marito. It means I thought you were my husband.
Being Malay, it’s inevitable that I look close to my Asia Pacific counterparts. I could go to Indonesia and blend in as an Indonesian, the time when I was in Thailand with my girlfriends, the locals thought that we were Thai ourselves until we opened our mouths.
But in recent years, there has been countless the number of times that I’ve been approached and asked, “Are you Filipino?”
Even on youtube, there are people who think that I look like Happyslip, an insanely talented youtuber who has ancestry from the Philippines.
I’m not skinny enough to look like her
Don’t get me wrong though, Personally, there is nothing to feel offended about and I think that there is nothing wrong with looking like a Filipino. Besides there are so many attractive looking ones at that.
Like Lea Salonga.
Like Marian Riviera
Like Toni Gonzaga
But it’s just weird for me that everywhere I go, everyone would assume that I’m from the Philippines. Even in Singapore! And even by Filipinas!
Like the time while Cart and I were shopping at a Filipino Shop to see if we could get some Asian groceries, the clerk started to cheerfully talk to me in Tagalog.
It was later when she saw that I couldn’t respond to her, then she realised that I wasn’t a Filipino.
Maybe I should start to learn a little bit of Tagalog. But the only word I know is Mahal kita so I probably wouldn’t get very far with that.
But anyway, I just wish people in general would stop assuming things. And I’m not the only one. Even my Egyptian friends are commonly mistaken as Moroccan here.
Now if people went up to me and said, “Oh my gosh! You remind me of Ziana Zain!” That’ll be another thing altogether.
I hope that you and the entire family are doing fine in Singapore and are enjoying your holidays with the relatives
Cart and I are both fine. After a month of fasting, yesterday, Cart and I celebrated Eid.
Personally for me, I think that this year was one of the most challenging fast because unlike in Singapore where dawn and dusk are more or less the same, here in Italy, during the first day of ramadan, we started fasting from 4.40am all the way till 8pm.
Even though the timings got more tolerable towards the end of the holy month, Cart and I eventually fell ill.
But that did not keep me away from trying to have a little celebration of our own here.
The day before, Cart and I went to Piazza Vittorio to get some supplies. Its a very interesting place here. There is this wet market which is full of different type of nationalities that it doesn’t feel like Italy at all. I can hear all sorts of languages here. And here, you can find quite a number of goods all over the world. Its really cool. I’d like to show you this place when you come to Italy.
And if you walk a little bit more, suddenly you’ll find yourself in an interesting place full of Chinese people and plentiful of Chinese shops. I was so amazed by the density that it made me wonder how is it possible for any shopkeeper to make a profit there with all the competing stores.
Made in Singapore
Regardless, I found a shop here that sells lemongrass! Thats fantastic! Now I can make a proper Ayam Masak Merah! There is even instant prata! And durian!
Its frozen though. Maybe one of these days I’ll give that packet durian a try to see how it tastes. But for now, I think I prefer fresh durians. For sure, Cart wont even touch them
On Eid itself, I woke up early to cook. Cart wanted to eat Briyani. And I wanted to make Ayam Masak Merah, Sweet and Sour Fish and Satay Goreng. It was really tiring to make all that food. I dont think that it was very good, and hopefully I’ll do better the next time. But how on earth do you have the energy to cook 5 times the amount of what I did?
I wanted to go to the mosque for mass prayers in the morning. But I didnt manage to go since Cart wasn’t feeling very well. I felt a little regret when I read that there were about 30 000 attendees. It must have been very festive! I really wanted to be a part of that. Hopefully we manage to be there next Eid.
I invited Cart’s family for lunch and Cart asked his best friend over.
I had a very lovely time.
I still don’t understand what most of what they were saying though since my Italian is still not very fluent. But it was still a nice day just to get together to talk and bond over a meal. Cart’s mum brought over 3 different types of vegetables by the way. There was so much food, I think that I probably not have to cook the next 3 days. Hehehe
Guess what mak, Cart wore his baju kurong!
Cantik tak?
Later on in the evening, my Singaporean friends came over.
We had a new addition to the Singaporeans in Rome gang. Her name is Lajay and she’s been living in Rome for about a year now. And I was very happy to see that all of us got together very well.
And Lynn is going to be a mother! I was stunned when she told me that she was going to have twins!
Its really nice to see our group getting bigger! And its pretty cool to have a Chinese, Malay and Indian in the group. Very multi-racial!
We had so much fun and chatted all the way that we did not realise the time was past midnight. Cart probably went to work groggy this morning and I had a nice pile of dishes that I had to wash
But its times like these, I feel more like I have a part here, now that I have good friends and family here. Every day I feel more grown up and adult.
But I still miss you heaps though. I miss being with you. I miss being your daughter.
Marina rindu sangat dengan Mak
Selamat Hari Raya Mak. Maaf zahir dan batin. Tak sabar menanti bulan Disember.
Also it is the first time that I’m not breaking fast with my family.
While it used to be that I’d try my best to get home, help my mum in the kitchen, listening to the sermon on the radio followed by this Arabic Songs while waiting for sunset and then have a meal together with the family. It feels festive and lively with the six of us at the table.
[audio:arabicsong.mp3]
The dynamics is different this time since its only Cart and me. The radio is quiet since there isnt anything remotely resembling the program that I used to listen to. And since radio online streaming has been suspended, there really is no hope for Singaporeans overseas like me to hear it anymore.
Also we are breaking fast with Italian food! This is very strange for me.
Anyway, a few blog updates in the following weeks – here is small sneak peek on whats to come
Sidenote : Since so many are asking, yes Cart and I are coming back to Singapore in December
It was probably my first time spending National Day out of Singapore.
What I thought was going to be a solo camwhoring session with a homemade flag at Gianicolo, turned out to be a mini Singaporeans meet in Rome!
A few days ago, I received an email from a Singaporean lady. She said that she was going to spend some time in Rome with her girlfriend and she invited for us to meet. It was a very curious email. I hesitated for a while but in the end, what harm would it do?
I invited Lynn, the other Singaporean besides me to join us and we decided to take them around the interesting sights of Trastevere and settled for a pizza dinner at a place called Pizzeria Ai Marmi in Trastevere.
Although initially we were apprehensive, when we finally chatted with Rahimah and Eng Nai, any feelings of unease dissolved immediately. They were both so jovial and funny! They loved to joke around and we both relaxed immediately.
This is Eng Nai and Lynn. I quite like how Lynn looks like in this picture.
And this is me and Rahimah. The both of us even wear glasses! For some reason, she reminds me of my aunt, Mak Busu.
Don’t you think that its very coincidental that Rahimah and Eng Nai were Malay and Chinese? Suddenly they claim that Lynn and I were going to be their foster daughters. Personally for me, Rahimah looks too young for that role though
We found out that both Rahimah and Eng Nai have been living in Hamburg, Germany for many years. They were both married to Germans and have migrated there since then.
We chatted over a lot of different things – like how it was trying to integrate into the different culture, growing curry plants and lemongrass during the winter. Rahimah tells me that, unlike in Rome, there was a large network of Singaporeans in Hamburg and they would meet regularly for mahjong!
We also talked about smocked provola – knitted cheese
Rahimah also told me of this amusing story of how her German husband used to be so shy when he first donned the sarong, but is now so comfortable wearing it that he wears it practically all the time.
It was fascinating to listen to their point of views about having a large support of friends. But it wasn’t like that when they were first in Germany some 15 – 30 years ago. Social networking is so much easier with the internet. Speaking to them though, makes me feel more motivated to try to explore more places. If two aunties could do it, so can I!
We had such a lovely time that the next day on National day itself, we decided to meet again. This time around, we met and showed them around beautiful Gianicolo – you could see heaps of monuments from up here.
Singaporean meet in Rome with my *ahem* homemade Singapore flag
We then headed to the city centre. There were plentiful of interesting sights to see along the way. Like buskers.
Since it was summer, there were a number of buskers around. And remind me to make an image stabilizer because night shots are pretty bad for me … I wish I had more stable hands
I’ve always been curious to know what was on top of the Spanish Steps. And I finally knew. It was the Trinità dei Monti. It was interesting to me as it had a sundial on the right hand side to tell the time. But since it was night time, a regular clock will have to do for now
For some reason, this reminds me of the Rockefeller Center Ice Rink. People just glided by
Eventually we reached a little restaurant near Piazza Navona where we had a good conversation over dinner.
Gnocchi! One of my favourite things to eat!
Creme Caramel! I loves!
Suddenly I heard Francesco trying to teach Eng Nai on how to make pasta.
Turns out that Eng Nai was a cooking teacher. And she knows her stuff! And being Chinese gives her precedence since noodles are created in China. I was extremely amused by the entire conversation.
But one characteristics of Italians that I admire is how passionate they are and gracious they are at sharing their knowledge.
Unfortunately, the evening ended too soon and we had to say our good nights.
Regardless, I really enjoyed the company. I am really glad that we said yes to the meet! Thank you for the every lovely company ladies. I really enjoyed our time together and I hope that we will meet again, be it in Rome or in Hamburg
Its hard for me to express how extremely devastated I am to know of Yasmin Ahmad’s passing. When I heard the news of her collapsing and being rushed to the hospital, I honestly thought that she will be well again. My dad had a stroke too and he got better afterwards.
But when I checked my twitter timeline to see friends tweeting about her passing, at first I was in denial. And then it sinked in and I felt so emotional, that the tears just flowed.
She was one of my role models. I first got to know her work while watching The Love Story of Tan Hong Ming. And the first thing that I thought was what an adorable story it was, but it had an under-lying message of being race-blind. Being in an interracial relationship myself, it just touched me.
I was such a sap that got emotional and cried at each and every one of them. They all touched me.
That made me extremely excited and I was fortunate enough to meet her last year during the launch of one of her campaigns. She was regal, she was witty and she was charming. It was hard not to fall in love with her. She had an elegance about her.
She shared with us on how she overcame adversities being a woman and a Malay by quoting this simple sentence : The thicker and deeper the mud, the more beautiful the lotus grows and that really stuck to me.
And she also shared with us that to be a good storyteller, be it a writer or a director, is not to control too much and just go ahead and share what you know. Many a times I don’t think that I’m such a fantastic writer, compared to others, but what she said gave motivation for me to continue writing for this blog. So I write through my own eyes. No pretences. No bullshit.
I could have listened to her for hours.
Later through the year, I managed to catch Gubra with my family and then Muallaf with Daphne. It was unconventional, and as it touched many sensitive topics, it was probably not a film that everyone would appreciate but I loved it. Yasmin had the balls to stand up for herself. And I was looking forward to see more of her genius-ity.
But she’s gone too soon. We’ve just lost the storyteller. And I’m devastated.
Cart and I were hosting my friends Lynn and Francesco for dinner last night. We were showing them around the house – the bedroom, the study room, the balcony et al.
I forgot to take a picture of Lynn and Francesco, so I’ll put this pic of me instead 😛
It was when we were in the kitchen that they were curious to see the laundry room. Francesco almost opened the door before Cart stopped him.
I was horrified. Because beyond the door was of unspeakable nature. It was something that must never be seen by a mortal.
It was the clutter monster lurking.
It so cluttered with newspapers, empty bottles and plastic bags that I was so embarassed. Fortunately, they did not go on further.
The next day, I could not hold my procrastination to tidy the laundry room any longer. I decided to face the clutter monster.
It daunting. It was a long and tedious battle – Clearing and folding all those plastic bags. But several hours later, the clutter monster left and all was relatively peaceful in the kingdom of Laundria again.
But that really made me wonder. How was it that we had so many plastic bags in the first place?
Cart and I, as with most people, have develop the habit of saving the plastic bags, mostly to use it to throw rubbish in before sending it to the main bins outside the house.
Here in Italy, rubbish bins are colour coded according to the type of material.
It seems like for every time that we used one to throw rubbish in, 4 new plastic bags comes in.
If P is for incoming plastic bag and p is for outgoing plastic bags, then P = 4p hence P/p = 4 meaning they are directly proportional. And eventually we will be chased out of our home.
What is interesting in Italy is that, shoppers would have to pay for their plastic bags. Whereas in Singapore, you could get it for free normally or 5 cents each bag once a month when Fairprice does their Bring-your-own-bag scheme.
In any case, you could choose between a regular plastic bag or the more expensive biodegradable one.
Cart and I found out that the biodegradable one isn’t very strong though. We put a couple of bottles in it and the bag broke. So, ironically, people would buy the cheaper and stronger plastic anyway.
But what is stranger to me is how we are so willing to pay for plastic bags. I think I’d rather carry a large shopping bag. More for controlling the clutter monster rather than anything else.
