Trying out Spotify Running

Spotify came out with the Running segment recently.

While Spotify has always had a workout playlist segment, what’s interesting about this segment is that it could detect your pace and changes the songs accordingly.

This feature is also available for free subscribers (although the playlist is limited and you can’t skip songs), so I gave it a try last week.

Songs can be very motivational to a runner and the right type of songs can even help a runner to carry on and even move faster.

rinaz.net Spotify Running

I tried “Blissed out” and the  songs were quite organic in the sense that they were essentially the same songs, but the higher (or lower) the bpm are, the faster or slower the songs go.

All in alI, I found the experience interesting. While listening to the songs, some felt uplifting and some were epic which made my run a pleasure. But as much as I enjoyed them, I though they were limited and definitely not enough to carry me through a 5 km run.

I signed up for the Singapore city Run recently, and last weekend, I’ve completed my first week of training . While it went fine so far, I haven’t been running for a while and I’m feeling apprehensive this time round. I keep wondering if I could actually do this.

Even though I’ve completed a marathon last year, I don’t feel the same bravado I did in the beginning and I’m so scared of injuring myself. Urgh! What am I doing?

rinaz.net rinaz cry

The O Bag

Nowadays, I can’t go anywhere without seeing at least one of these bags.

rinaz.net O Bag

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.

rinaz.net O Bag

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.

rinaz.net Fresco Gelateria Artigianale Fai Da Te Roma

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.

rinaz.net Fresco Gelateria Artigianale Fai Da Te Roma

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.

rinaz.net Fresco Gelateria Artigianale Fai Da Te Roma

It’s such a cool idea. You could only imagine how excited I was being in there.

rinaz.net Fresco Gelateria Artigianale Fai Da Te Roma

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.

rinaz.net Fresco Gelateria Artigianale Fai Da Te Roma

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!

rinaz.net Fresco Gelateria Artigianale Fai Da Te Roma

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.

rinaz.net Tiny House

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?

rinaz.net Tiny House

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.

rinaz.net Tiny House

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.

rinaz.net Tiny House

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.

rinaz.net Tiny House

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.

rinaz.net La Romana Gelateria Porto Fluviale

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.

rinaz.net La Romana Gelateria Porto Fluviale

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.

rinaz.net La Romana Gelateria Porto Fluviale

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.

rinaz.net La Romana Gelateria Porto Fluviale

Once you’re done, you can choose from a lot of interesting flavours like :

rinaz.net La Romana Gelateria Porto Fluviale

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.

rinaz.net La Romana Gelateria Porto Fluviale

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!

First registered woman in Boston Marathon

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)

28 Neutral Eyeshadow Palette

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.

Maybelline The Nudes

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.

Physicians Formula Shimmer Strips Nude Palette

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.

Wycon 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.

Kiko Reckless Spirit Eyeshadow Palette

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 :

Kiko Infinity Eyeshadow 214 210 217

One for the brow-bone, one for the lid, one for the crease

Kiko Infinity Eyeshadow 214 210 217

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 🙂