The O Bag
Nowadays, I can’t go anywhere without seeing at least one of these bags.
This is called an O Bag – easily recognized by it’s foam rubber body and its bucket shape, it’s said to be designed and made in Italy. I find it a bit interesting, in the sense that you could customize it how you like it to be :
First you choose the body from a range of colors, then you choose the handle and then add trimmings if you like, and an inner canvas.
I guess it looks cute, and in a way, this could be a practical bag since the body seems to be easy to clean.
What do you think of it? Would you get one for yourself?
DIY Ice Cream Parlour at Fresco Gelateria
While I was on my way back home, I stumbled upon a gelateria.
Curious, I went in and it’s not like anything that I’ve seen so far. At first glance, it looks it looks quite minimalistic with it’s white and silver apparatus. It reminds me a bit of a science lab.
I soon found out that it was a DIY type of ice cream parlour, which is something new which I haven’t come across before in Rome.
If you chose a cone, you could put anything your heart desires in your ice cream for a fixed price. And if you chose to have a cup, it’ll be charged accordingly by weight.
It’s such a cool idea. You could only imagine how excited I was being in there.
First I chose a cone and lined it white chocolate, and then stuffed it with hazelnut and vanilla ice cream and when I was done, topped it with caramel syrup.
There wasn’t that many varieties of gelato flavours, but the ones that I tasted, was flavourful.
I could of course cover it with chocolate syrup which would make a nice shell and then sprinkle it with even more toppings but I should be good – my teeth wouldn’t be too happy!
Fresco – Gelateria Artigenale Fai Da Te
Via Oderisi da Gubbio 250, Roma
I’d love to live in a Tiny House
Tiny houses is a movement which advocates simple living, in small homes. These homes are usually about the size of a caravan. Most of the ones that I’ve seen are on wheels so that one could travel with them although it’s not always the case.
I absolutely adore the idea of Tiny Houses.
I love the philosophy of it because having a small home forces you to think of the things which are important in your life. Do you really need that extra pan when you already have 5? A new bag when the other ones you didn’t touch for over a year?
I don’t know about you, while having a lot of things is nice, trying to find the space to store these things makes me stressed and seeing a lot of clutter makes me anxious and makes me embarrassed at how much I’ve let go. I really don’t want to be like one of those people on the TV show, Hoarders.
Ideally you survive with the basics and get creative with where to store your items. The staircase could double up as a drawer, or you could put the power battery under the sofa.
More over, I’m happy with just a place with wifi and a bit of space where I can roll out my exercise mat.
If I had the chance to live in one, I really wouldn’t mind. The biggest advantage that I see about it is that it’s much cheaper to upkeep. A smaller house means that it uses lesser electricity and water – which saves you on utility bills.
It’s not something for everyone though, as some may think that they need the space for comfort. Cart is adamant that you can’t invite people over for dinner as there will be no place for them to sit comfortably.
While I really would like to have my own tiny house, I don’t think that it’s feasible for me and a lot of people living out of the United States any time soon, unless we have our own land (which I don’t see happening) and due to housing standards and construction laws.
One can still admire and dream.
Here is a video of a tiny house made by a single mother :
La Romana Gelateria in Porto Fluviale
While not exactly a touristy place, Porto Fluviale is an interesting place to see, and take pictures at – with the numerous colourful murals decorating the area.
Once youre done, you could stop to take an ice cream break here at Gelateria La Romana.
It appears to be a very popular place. Even though I’ve been living in Rome for a while, I’ve never thought to stop by because there is always a long queue whenever I pass by. But when my friend Alessandro recommended it, I finally gave it a try.
Luckily it didn’t take too long for us to wait, as I admired the interior. It’s a charming place. I like the vintage and yet clean look, with it’s white wooden furnishings.
You queue up, make your choice between a cone or a cup and its size and then pay at the counter.
While normally I prefer cups, I found out quite incidentally that if you choose a cone, you could have the choice of lining it with white or milk chocolate from the fountain. Just the smell of liquid chocolate flowing down was so deliciously tempting.
Once you’re done, you can choose from a lot of interesting flavours like :
And once you’re done, you could have it’s topped up with a choice of 3 types of whipped cream – classic, eggnog and cocoa. The entire combination made me so childishly happy when I finally got my gelato.
Considering that I have sensitive teeth, the combination was probably a bit too sweet for me. Nevertheless, it was really nice being in there. I wouldn’t mind going queuing up again if I’m in the area 🙂
Gelateria La Romana
Via Ostiense, 48, Roma
They say that Marathons are too fragile for a woman
The Boston Marathon is probably one of the most prestigious marathons in the world to participate in. Not everyone could participate as you’ll need fit certain criteria – such as having participated in an official marathon, and depending on your age and gender, completed it in around 3 hours.
Marathons in general, has always always been for exclusively for men as it was widely believed that women did not have the physical capability to run 42 kilometres. Even if there are records that indicate that a woman completed a marathon all the way back in 1896.
I got to know recently the story about the first registered woman to participate in the Boston Marathon.
Determined to prove her coach that running a marathon was not too far for a ‘fragile woman’, and also inspired by the first female finisher, Bobbi Gibb who ran unregistered a year earlier.
While running the actual marathon, she was accosted by the race official who tried to physically remove her from the race, and I bet that it would have been rather scary to be in the same position as her at that point of time!
It took another 5 years before women are finally allowed to compete in the Boston marathon. For sure, I don’t think that I’d be able to do it any time soon as I’m not fast enough, but I find the story quite inspirational.
p.s. Cart and I are probably going to go back in Singapore in late December. While I really would like to participate in the Standard Charted Marathon, it’s not within our timeline. But Singapore City Race sounds interesting. I’d join that!
Nude attack!
I don’t usually put make-up on. Nevertheless, I’m still fascinated by it and one of the things that I’ve always loved is the natural eye-shadow palettes.
Probably one of the most talked about palette on-line would definitely be the Naked Palette Series by Urban Decay. They are undeniably gorgeous and may be worth getting for many, but at 48 euro each, I don’t even hesitate to put it out of my option list, especially when I don’t keep eyeshadows for more than two years.
(At most, I might consider the Naked Basics)
A long time ago, I used to own a neutral palette. It had 28 different shades which was fun to play with. But in the end I realised that I used just a few because some of the colours looked pretty much the same when I used them on my skin.
I didn’t give much thought about it since then, but it’s only recently that I started to see quite a number of dupes on the high streets in Rome.
Aqua Sapone is a place where I normally get my toiletries as they have a bigger range and better deal for skin care. One day at the cosmetics section, I noticed the Maybelline The Nudes Palette.
It was so pretty that I just had to stop, to play with it – it had a good mix of shimmery and matt shades and swatching it, I thought that the texture was good too. It was on offer for about 15 euro, so I thought that it was a good deal. I was about to get one for myself, but found out that it was sold out. I felt a little sad, but I got over it.
Then I was at a department store called Upim and at the cosmetics section, I was pleasantly surprised to see that they sold Physician’s Formula. This was a brand which I loved when I was living in Singapore and was flabbergasted when they removed themselves from the market.
Anyway, I noticed the shimmer strips eye palette. I really liked the packaging. The small size makes it travel friendly and it looked so cute with its black lace design.
The only thing is that all of the shades where shiny (hence the name) which wasn’t what I was looking for, also because I still have my old Revlon Colorstay eyeshadow quad.
Very recently, I found out that newcomer Wycon Cosmetics has their Nude’N’Wild Eyepalette.
This palette looks extremely similar to the one of Urban Decay, down to the long applicator. I don’t know how dupe-able it is, but for about 20 euro (on sale) it doesn’t seem like a bad deal.
I didn’t get this palette though as I got to know about it too late and I went to Kiko in the end. It was the one in the Via Europa branch as there was a sale going on and it’s usually less crowded there. Kiko stores are known to be notoriously crowded so it was nice to be able to have a breather here.
Here, I saw their latest Reckless Spirit eyeshadow palette under their Rebel Romantic collection.
At first glance, it doesn’t seem to be anything special, but the more you observe it, the more you find it charming. The colours look extremely wearable and swatching it on my skin, I thought that the texture was creamy and the hue was vivid.
But because the lightest colour didn’t didn’t seem to fit my skin tone, so I opted to get their Infinity Eyeshadows instead – here you could customise your own palette and choose the colours you want.
After swatching for the umpteenth time, I got these for myself :
One for the brow-bone, one for the lid, one for the crease
The texture is smooth and there is no fallout when I apply it on my eyelids. So far, it seems to be long lasting and the colours stay put even hours after an evening out – which is quite impressive considering that I got each colour for only 2.40 euro (on discount)
On the other hand, the palette case was all sold out when I was there, rendering my use of the colours quite awkward. I even managed to break one of the plastic lids in my hurry to get ready to go out. (Make a guess of which one?)
At the moment, my obsession on getting a palette seems to be waning away, but I still wonder if there are other nude eyeshadow palettes out there in Italy 🙂
Come and talk to me
A midsummer’s night dream
Why Telegram is better than Whatsapp
Some while back, I was so in love with Whatsapp to the point that I created a video exalting it, and it remains one of my more popular video on youtube.
I still use Whatsapp since a lot of my contacts still use it, but I feel that once you’ve start using Telegram, you’ll never look back.
Initially, I used Telegram mainly to communicate with my faction members since you could have up to 200 contacts in a group. But it’s fast becoming something that I use with my friends and family members – it’s a lot more convenient.
Search function
Once you’ve downloaded the app, you could start searching for your friends. Friends already on your SIM card who are using Telegram would automatically added to your list, but on top of that, there is a global search function on Telegram. You search for a name or a username and start chatting with them. There is no need to have their phone numbers. You could also block people that you’re not familiar with, if needed.
At first glance, the interface looks very similar to WhatsApp, but you’ll soon see subtle differences :
You can use it on various platforms
Android? iPhone? Windows Phones? No problem. It could also be installed in PCs Macs and Linux and even a web browser for when you’re using a guest computer.
Having Telegram on the PC is great for me since I type a lot faster on the computer than on the phone.
You can send voice notes, photos, videos, and files of all types
If it can be digitised, it can be sent through Telegram. I’ve sent various types of files including pdf, and it’s not a big issue as the file is stored on the cloud and can be opened at any time, when I’m at the computer.
You can have secure conversations
For privacy reasons, you can have a secret chat with another person. This conversation can only be sent and read on your smartphone. There, none of the messages you send will be stored on the server and none of them can be forwarded to another party.
At any time you wish, the messages can be destroyed at any time. And you’ll know if the other party makes a screenshot of the conversation.
You could tag people
This is a function where you could tag someone via replies, mentions and hashtags in a conversation.
The person will see a notification on their phone. I find this useful when I’m in a large group where I might miss seeing an important message without this function.
You could share location
On top of telling your friends where you are, you could up the ante and share your position with your friends. Here, they could open the link to see a map of where you are and how far away they are. On the PC, it opens up to Google Maps. For me this is handy when you want to meet a friend in a place where you’re not familiar with.
On top of that, you could also share the position of a facility of up to 500 metres away from where you are – a pizzeria, a pharmacy, or any notable spots.
Everything is stored in the cloud.
Which means that you have access to chat history and whatever media in the group that you’re in. Regardless if you changed phones or computers, the data stays with you and you can look back and read the happy memories whenever you like.
And it’s all free!
No need to pay a dollar a year, there isn’t even any ads. Telegram is a breath of fresh air and is open source app funded by a generous Pavel Durov.
This is the founder for Telegram and he is 30 years old. Oh my.
Last thoughts
At this point of time, it seems that WhatsApp is playing catch up with Telegram and updated themselves to also include position as well as to have a web version.
But I personally think that Telegram is a dynamic team and are able to think up of new ideas on updating and improving their app. At the moment for example, they’ve included “sticker packs” as well as bots. I find them cute when used in moderation.
Since I’ve used Telegram, I’ve enjoyed it so much that when I’m forced to used other chat programs, I keep wondering to myself, “Why do I have to go back to using that again?”
I look forward to seeing what new things Telegram will bring 🙂