Category: life

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.

Much better!

By the way, here is a video on how to fold your plastic bags into triangles

And thus, here ends today’s blog post of the exciting life of me

I’ve always loved flowers. I’ve always dreamed about having a garden full of beautiful and colourful flowers. I was thrilled when my classmate gave me this as a house warming party

What a lovely little flower. So bright!

But after about a month, cobwebs started to form on the flowers. The flowers itself started to shrivel.

I thought it was best to chop the flowers off. The plant seems to be doing ok, but it looks so sad now!

And some while back, I bought for myself a nice pot of Begonias

It was so pretty. I loved looking at the yellows and greens. They were so cheerful looking.

But for some reason, its not doing too well either. Its starting to be brown and its wilting!

What am I doing wrong?!?!

Did I water too much? Did I water too little? Did I give it too much sun? Did I not give it enough sun? Its seems more complicated than taking care of kittens!

I seem to be an accidental plant killer!

So far in Italy, there are a couple of Asian foodstuff that I could get, such as Thai rice, star anise, coconut milk and others. These are sold in kiosks. There will always be one or two in each market.

Lemongrass and Pandan leaves are among the basic ingredients for Malay food. To me, Nasi Lemak and Ayam Masak Merah doesn’t taste complete without them. And as of now, I have yet to find them here in Rome.

Through friends, Cart found out that there could be a possibility of getting the stuff that we need from a place called Mercato Esquillino.

As Cart and I were a little concerned about searching for parking for the car, we decided to take the subway instead.

A couple of the subways here are interesting. They were painted with so much graffiti that it even looks like an artwork! We dropped down to the Termini station and had a walk.

Going down the street, it is an interesting looking, but rather rough looking area here. A couple of the buildings look dilapilated and just sad. It made me wonder why anyone would live there.

We also passed by quite a number of chinese owned shops selling bags, shoes and clothes.

At length we reached Mercato Esquillino. It was a large place. that was divided into two areas. One for foodstuff and the other was for apparels.

When we entered, I was really surprised at what was in front of me.

I didn’t feel like I was in Rome as I found so many different kiosks with owners of different nationalities selling various types of foodstuff – Items from Vietnam, Korea, Thailand, Africa and others.

I found an Indian man selling Indian spices. I could detect him talking in Tamil to his customers. There were a Chinese lady speaking Italian-accented Mandarin. This was a very interesting place indeed and it was almost ironic that there were only a handful of Caucasian sellers.

After going a few rounds the market, asking for Pandan Leaves and Lemongrass, we were faced with the unfortunate news that there were none. We were advised to try our luck the next time by going there again very early.

We then headed to the other part of the mercato where there were bales of bling cloths, waiting to be made. This reminded me of Geylang and Sultan Mosque Street. Back in Singapore, my seamstress Mum and I would be there every now and then to buy cloth to be made into Baju Kurong.

I felt sad as this will be the first year that I’d be celebrating Hari Raya without the family.

After exploring the market, walking out, one of the first thing that I spotted was this :

As I love Indian food, I nudged Cart to enter. We were both very hungry from our recce. We ordered a plate of rice each with gravy and a couple of fried snacks.

Granted that it was not really what you’d get in Little India in Singapore, it was still decent. It eased the feeling of homesickness a little bit.

Esquilino is an interesting place. Its a bit far for Cart and I to be doing our weekly grocery shopping, but I think that we’ll visit again.

For our quest in search of Lemongrass and Pandan Leaves.

For the first couple of months that I was in Rome, it felt as if I stepped back into time in Singapore. This was because of how old the houses here looked like. Cart tells me that, unlike in Singapore, very few houses, if any at all are demolished after 20 years.

Below is a picture of Viale Ignazio Silone, which is about 10 minutes drive from our home. The first time I was here, I was struck at how similar it reminded me of the places where I used to roam. To me, it really looked like Bukit Timah during the early 80’s.

Cart and I live in an apartment just off the fringes of the ring. It’s a typical neighbourhood. And just like my childhood house, it’s rare to see houses beyond 10 stories in Rome. Vehicles park right in front of the houses.

It’s an interesting neighbourhood. Beside our apartment is a church where every weekend, there will be bells ringing and a congregation will be during its mass. And a few minutes of walking, you’ll find yourself in a little park and a pond where ducks will be swimming. It’s relaxing to see them as well as families picnic-ing here.

One of the thing which I notice immediately is that unlike a Singaporean HDB flat, strangers would not be able to enter freely into the housing corridor. This is because of the gate below. Visitors need to press the buzzer to talk to the owner and the owner decides to let them in or not.

Walk up the stairs and this is our house!

And just for fun, quite like the virtual tour of our secondlife home, here is a quick tour of our real life home :

What do you think?

If you liked this post, you might enjoy :

• The priceless memories of living in Singapore
• Tour of our Secondlife home

To start off this post, I shall put up a picture of me looking coy and demure 😛

Saturday, 20th December 2008

The day started with a buzz. Even though I spent most my time in my room, I could hear all the excitement going on. With the people helping out with the cooking and the setting up of the décor, I was fretting over everything – will everything be al right?

And not before too long, it was my turn to be busy with the arrival of Kak Lili, my new Mak Andam who was replacing the original make up artist.

Her arrival was exactly like how a royalty’s helper would arrive. She came in with her little assistant and was gentle, calm, friendly and she immediately put me at ease. Suddenly I felt like a permaisuri aided with my dayang. For some reason, I felt as if I was on television because it was so unreal to me.

And we started with my makeover. The style of make-up is thick and a tad dramatic but apparently, good for photography.

And all throughout, Kak Lili was generous with her beauty tips, such as dabbing iced water on your face prior to make up, reduces oil and shine.

We needed to start doing the makeover to fulfil the quota of 10 outfits over the two days. Its an overkill, I know, but it made mum happy.

By this time, DK came over to help set up wireless connection.

I wanted to share the wedding with my friends all over and I was keen to do a livestreaming of the wedding. So time ago, while I was at a Tech65 recording, I casually asked if it were possible to do a wireless connection on the void deck. We had an interesting discussion over it but little did I know that DK would actually come and help out. I was really really touched.

Can you see the cable?

DK took the initiative and bought a very long network cable and from my room on the 9th floor, he plugged one end in my cable and like Rapunzel’s hair, threw the other end to the ground floor.

The handsome and macho DK

And it actually worked! It was amazing. We had wifi! Thank you so much DK! You rock!

By late afternoon, I had a short break from all the makeover. Kak Lili took off all my make up and I headed downstairs for a meal and also to see how things were going on.

I really feel touched to see so many relatives and friends gotong-royong and helping out. A wedding is a lot of work and our family prefers to do most of the preparations ourselves, like the cooking. The groom himself was busy setting up the tables and chairs.

The entire void deck looked transformed – before it looked like this :

And this was after :

The place was not completely ready but it was a big transformation for me nevertheless.

I saw Izah arranging the Cart and Rinaz cupcakes! Cute! Initially, I was supposed to be Izah’s photographer for her blog. Geri kept telling me of how tasty her cakes were and I was intrigued

But the cupcakes was such a last minute idea but the more I thought about it, the more I liked it and I thought that Izah would be perfect. I was lucky that she agreed to the project

Too bad that I did not have a chance to chat a while longer with Izah, but it was time for me to get ready for the dinner reception. Kak Lili was already ready upstairs with two pairs of white dresses.

Kak Lili : This one or that one?

Me : That one! And I want to wear a tiara! The bigger the better! And I will carry that bouquet!

Kak Lili : Ok, ok. Anything to make the queen happy 😛

And then it was time for Cart and I to get down for our dinner reception. By then Cart was already dressed up and looking really smart in his outfit. Kak Lili just did a final touch and slipped a matching flower on his jacket pocket.

When we arrived, there were so many people downstairs already. I saw so many faces of friends, family and relatives. It was so happy-fying to see all of them together, you cant imagine.

There were so many things going on like loads of people wanting to wish their congratulations. There was even a queue for it! It made me extremely amused.

Here Nicole was holding on to the laptop that was used for the livestreaming.

And then it was time to change into another outfit. My Bollywood Princess outfit. I love it! It was just too bad that I did not get a chance to wear this outfit a little longer. I thought that it was beautiful.

All of a sudden, someone took out a light sabre and asked Cart to hold it.

The evening ended with my close friends and relatives doing a blessing ceremony for Cart and me.

Here, my aunt, Mak Oteh is blessing Cart and I with some Beras Kunyit, Bertih, Tepung Tawar and a bit of henna.

Such a beautiful and exciting night. Of course, I did what every bride did at the end of a reception. Which was to pass out on the bed in exhaustion 😛

And I will end this post with a short video of one of the Dikir Barat performance during the wedding. See if you can spot any bloggers that you know in there.

Check out these links

• DK’s amazing wifi skills
• Feliza’s experience
• Krisandro’s experience
• Leshane’s experience
• Musxart’s extremely sweet post

The wedding series :

• Part 1 – The ROMM Interview
• Part 2 – The Marriage Guidance Course
• Part 3 – The Solemnization
• Part 4 – The Wedding Dinner
• Part 5 – The Bersanding