Marina's Bloggariffic

I’ve been taking a picture out of the window every month to track the differences visually month by month. I’ve been meaning to do this for a while, but I keep forgetting to. So this year, I hope to complete all twelve months so that I could share it with you.

There isn’t much difference at the moment, but in a few weeks to come, you’ll be sure to see the trees suddenly grow leaves again. Personally, I find the change of seasons quite beautiful. Even winter, because everything looks so clear and clean.

January :

February :

March :

April :

On a hindsight, perhaps I should have chosen a better location. Our windows are covered with a bug-screen which is why there’s a strange grill pattern on each picture! Haha!

I’ll update again in a few months time 🙂

Initially I thought that I’d do a sort of April fool joke. You know, like rinaz.net being acquired by another company and I’m being paid loads of money for the domain. But there are a lot of smart people out there, moreover, this domain is such a part of me, it’s so I change my mind.

If you believed that I would … April fool! I guess 😛

Nevertheless, it’ll be nice to have some extra money. Ah 46K. The things I would do with 46 thousand drool-ars. First thing I’d do is to get a new scooter to replace stupid Sam.

Anyway, yesterday was Easter and it’s a big holiday in Italy. We’d normally spend the day at Cart’s parents and joined with my sister in law and her kids, we’d eat and eat and eat.

And here are what we ate :

This is a crepe with tomato sauce and parmigiano.

L’insalata russa.

Cappeletti in chicken broth. The dumplings are stuffed with meat though, so I didn’t eat that.

Nor did I eat this meat roll. Looks good though.

And instead, I had baked fish! Nom nom! The name of this fish is called dentice and I keep imagining that it had big teeth.

And here is the pastry that Cart made the evening beforehand. It is called Torta pasqualina and Cart was inspired to make it because of it’s namesake. It was interesting to me, because of the eggs inside. Initially looking at the recipe, I thought that boiled eggs were used. But it’s not.

Here is how it looks like before it’s covered with pastry and cooked. Cart made little holes in the ricotta cheese and bieta mix, for the eggs to rest in.

And this is how it looks like when it’s done and cut open! Yum!

After our lunch, it was time to open our chocolates with the little surprises inside. Everyone got a chocolate egg.

Here is a quick video on how to open them!

By the way, it seems that PowerDirector is starting to be bonkers for me. My last two videos are squashed, and I don’t think it’s coincidental anymore.

As for me, I prefer not to break them though. I donno. It seems like such a shame to break open such a beautifully packed chocolate egg and bunnies. I’d be like murdering it! So I’ll just pose with it (since no one is taking pictures of me) and eat it … in December.

Do you like my nails by the way?

After that, I was so stuffed that the only thing I wanted to do was to stone out on the couch and watch Tomb Raider. My goodness. Technology has advanced so much since the first Tomb Raider came out in 1997. Lara was blocky and so pixellated.

But I spent hours playing that game. I had lots of fun and it was exciting. Now Tomb Raider looks so realistic. It’s like watching a movie and looks so lush and realistic, I don’t know if I have the guts to play it for real. (This one is rated M by the way)

Anyway, the funny thing about having such a big meal, rather than feeling full, I feel HUNGRIER some hours later and now my itchy mouth wants to eat more.

Not good. Not good. Not good.

Oooh! Check out what we got in the mail recently …

Why it’s our devilishly handsome model looking all sexeh! Luckily for him, he looks less creepy than in the previous booklet. Nevertheless, I still get that “Hey baby!” vibe.

The gold satin sheets isn’t helping the situation either. Poor man! Someone in the publications team is probably trolling him! Hahaha!

With about a week to go before Easter and if you are anywhere near any of the numerous churches in Rome, you could see that they are bustling with activity. The one near my home for example, had a sort of group singing going on.

I’m not sure if you could see it in the picture below (thanks to the tree blocking my way so I couldn’t take a better shot … haha) but all the people below are carrying an olive branch.

These olive branches are blessed by the priest and will be brought home, I suppose for bringing blessings. Cart was telling me the story of the week before Jesus died, he’d be riding a donkey and there was a crowd of people waving palm leaves.

Since palm trees didn’t used to be readily available, it has since been exchanged with olive branches instead, as Italy has an abundance of olive trees.

Cart and I were having a walk around the Santi Pietro e Paolo yesterday. We saw tables with loads of olive branches and there was a monk next to it, that was handing them out to visitors.

I’m not Catholic, so I didn’t feel comfortable at taking one directly from the monk.

Interestingly enough, a friend gave me this earlier :

And I looked at her and gasped and in mock horror, I jokingly asked :?”Why are you giving me this? This is haram!”

She : HARAM?!?!?!

You should have seen her look of shock and surprise and flabbergast. It was so funny to see.

In the end, I did take the package home. It didn’t any symbolism to me so I don’t see it wrong to carry it. I’m not sure what to do with it though.

There is a saying in Italian – Marzo e’ pazzo. Which literally means, “March is crazy” on account on the weather doesn’t seem to make up her mind.

She could be sunny one moment, and then rainy all of a sudden. You’d feel a comfortable temperature one moment … and then a chilly gust of wind pops out of nowhere. She can be such a troll.

It’s been raining a lot in Rome since the beginning of March.

Which can be annoying when you want to go out especially when you’d have to hit the roads.

You can’t use the scooter as it’s much more dangerous for a two wheeler to be under wet conditions but when you take the car, you’d be slowed down in traffic significantly and after that, you’d still need to search for parking …which is such a nightmare that it’s much better to just stay at home.

(If you’re wondering why I didn’t add public transportation, honestly, who likes waiting 30 minutes in the rain and then be poked by other people with wet umbrellas, that is if the mezzi don’t have their monthly strike)

Nevertheless, now that we are about to reach Spring, flowers have started to bloom on trees and little daisies have sprung out of the ground and they are so pretty to see.

Seems kind of philosophical somehow. Despite all the rubbish that we go through, there is always something to look forward to.