Ehm. I don’t have a proper blog post for you, but in the meanwhile … Let’s play “Caption this!” in the comment box with this sexeh cat spotted at Largo di Torre Argentina!
Winners will get … oh I don’t know, an Italian postcard or something 
Cheaper version of the Vespa LX150
Even though I’ve already passed my driving licence and am starting to appreciate cars a lot, I’m still more of a two wheeler person. Owning a scooter or a motorcycle just makes more sense – it’s easier to find parking especially in a traffic congested place like Rome, the petrol intake is so much lower, and not to mention the cheaper upkeep costs.
Currently, I own a Kymco People 125. At first I didn’t like him so much. But he does have some advantages, such as its small size. It’s easy to manoeuvre it in between heavy traffic and I’ve appreciated him a lot for that. Problem is, he’s just not adequate enough for me to ride on the highway as European highways legally require for a two wheeler to be at least 150cc.
Since I’ve always loved riding my Vespa GT200 while I was in Singapore, I was seriously considering to upgrade to a Vespa LX 150 . Not another GT as I was used to, as I prefer it to be small enough to fly in the traffic. Moreover, it’s cheaper.
I was all set to head to the showroom when I stumbled upon a website where it compared the LX 150 with another scooter, the Kymco Like 200i and at first glance I was stunned to see how similar it looked. Even the font in front and on the sides look about the same!
Picture via Scooter Community
There are differences though, such as the bag hook below the seat of the LX150 while on the Like200 it’s on under the handlebars. But looks wise aside, the more I read about the comparisons, the more I got interested in purchasing the alternative.
By the way the Like200i is actually 163cc. Strange naming, I know
Firstly on account of how much cheaper it was. If I were to get the LX 150ie, it would cost me 3.6k euro while the Like 200i costs 2.2k, which is a good 1.5k cheaper and it already comes included with a box.
And it looks substantial enough for me to put my stuff and whatnots
Since using my current scooter for the past year and a half, and despite the fact that it is almost approaching 10 years old, incredibly, I’ve yet to have any issues or replace any parts which makes me trust this brand a lot. As much as I loved my Vespa, the upkeep costs were crazy. It didn’t bother me that much at the time as I had a regular job. But now that I’m mostly freelancing and money doesn’t flow regularly, I have to be frugal.
Thus it makes so much sense for me to get the Kymco Like 200i. I still love Vespa. But sometimes you can’t get a certain brand because of its high costs or because of it’s unavailability in your country, so you get a dupe which is just as good, instead.
Cart and I were at a nearest Kymco showroom and despite what a couple of reviews have mentioned, the Like 200i is not a small scooter. I am 1.61 m and when I sat on it, I only managed to tiptoe, very much like how I was on the GT200.
Even though in person, the body looks plasticy, I get the impression that the scooter is very solid and steady on the road. One thing that I didn’t really liked though, was that you needed to open the glove compartment and the underseat separately, as opposed to the GT 200 which opens with a push of a button. But this was a minor inconvenience.
Picture by Motorcycle.com
Nevertheless, there were small details which I was pleasantly surprised about, such as the plastic straps on the glove compartment which helps prevent items from spilling out.
And also that the pillion foot rest springs open when you press the button next to it. But I loved it more that it was positioned further away back – something that bothered me a lot when I was on the GT 200 – it hurt my legs a lot as I’d inadvertently scrape my feet on it each time I had a pillion. Bad design!
Nevertheless, the true test will be to ride it on the road of course. But I’m liking the specs that I’ve read so far. I’d like to order it, and hopefully, be riding it ASAP!
By the way, if you’re interested to read a more professional review, check this site out or read the spec comparisons.
How to sell and make anchovies sexy!
I spotted this in the supermarket yesterday and it was just too funny not to share as I’ve never seen anyone being so excited about anchovies (of all things) before.
Could you just imagine the conversation?
Man : Hey babe, check out what I have for you!
*whips out … an anchovy sandwich!*
Woman all dramatic like : Oooh! Yes! Fernando! You know what I like! Give it to me!
*poses all seductively almost eroticly*
Man : Hmm! Now after you eat this, go on and breathe on my face again. It’s sexeh!
And the funny part about this, the tagline reads, “When you start, you’ll never stop“. Never stop what? Convulsion for anchovies?
Sidenote : If you think this was strange, you should check this out too.
She flies on a broom but she’s not a witch
It was the eve of Epiphany so Cart took me to Piazza Navona last night. There were still lots of stalls where you could play carnival games, stalls selling candies, toys and Christmas decorations.
But what catches my eyes more are of these :
This is the Befana. She’s an old woman with a shawl, and goes down the chimney on the eve of Epiphany to fill the socks and deliver presents to good children and coal to the bad. Kind of like Santa Claus. She also flies around on a broom, but Cart is adamant in telling me that she’s not a witch.
I find her quite cute and I always get amused when I see Befana figurines for sale. Her laughter is infectious!
Well, Befana or not, we got for ourselves some chocolate and I’m gonna eat it now … OM NOM NOM NOM! 
How I spent my new year’s eve
Hi everyone! Hope that your first day of 2012 has been going great.
Normally I’d spend New Year’s eve sleeping in bed and then waking up to a new year. Yes, I’m very dull. But of course this time round , for the first time since we’re not in Singapore, we did things a little differently this year.
In the morning, we were in Circo Massimo to support my friend Claire who was doing the inaugural Nike We run Rome 10km run that day.
I’ve always wanted to run a 10k event but I was really worried that I couldn’t cope in the coldness of winter. The first time I tried to run back in January, I literally couldn’t breathe after 5 minutes which really frightened me. But I think I’ve acclimatised myself and on the day itself, while was still cold in the beginning, it turned out to actually be a lovely sunny day.
There were so many people crowing around the start point and the feeling was extremely festive. I was extremely jealous and wishing that I participated too! Claire on the other hand, was nervous for her first 10k run. Said that she didn’t sleep much the night before and before this, had to pee 8 times. Hahaha!
But I knew she’ll do fine. She’s been training for a while, so it’s going to be a piece of cake for her 
Anyway, while she’s running, Cart and I decided to go walk around the area. We remembered seeing a pastry shop while on our way to the farmer’s market (which was closed on that day) and thought of trying out some cakes.
The place is called Cristalli di Zucchero by the way, and oh gosh, all the cakes there looked so orgasmic. The pastries were divided into macaroons, cakes and mignons and I had a hard time trying to choose which one to try.
In the end, Cart chose Mont-Blanc for himself which is a type of cream cake that has chestnut purèe on top.
While I had Rosa Del Libano which is a sponge cake with almonds, raspberry, white chocolate and rose tea mousse. Cart’s not too fond of this because it reminds him of Bandung. But I love it!
Oh so good! A little expensive at 3.50 euro each, but it’s worth to try at least once.
Since we had a bit more time to kill after that, I suggested that we go to La Bocca della Verità. Which is basically a white circular marble with a hole where you could put your hand in and it was supposed to be a lie detector. You’d get your hand chopped off if you’re guilty.
But gosh, it was super crowded with lines and lines of tourists and we gave up. So we went exploring the Santa Marina in Cosmedin church instead. The church looks so antique … I could totally imagine Thief the dark project in here.
Something interesting we found there :
Believe it or not, on the white sign there, says “Relics of Saint Valentine” Woah, really? I bet this church will be filled with flowers on the 14th of February.
We then headed back slowly to the finish area and were in time to see Claire running past the finishing line. Bloody hell she’s fast! She ran in an hour, 13 minutes! Faster than my timing! Haha!
She looked tired but exhilarated and pumped up. See, all that feeling of nervousness was for nothing! And I’m sure it will not be her last long distance run! 
After we said our goodbyes, Cart and I headed to the supermarket to get some groceries as well as some food to prepare for the dinner later that night. We’ll be spending the evening with some friends.
Most importantly we grabbed loads of these :
In Italy there is a tradition of eating lenticchie (lentils) which is supposed to bring you fortune (on account of how it’s round and looks like coins) when you eat it during right during the new year’s day.
After the lentils are cooked, we then headed to Francesco’s house who was hosting tonight. And because it seemed like a special occasion to look hot, so I did just that
I’m absolutely hot right? *coughs* I’m shameless, I know
By the time we arrived, there were loads of food all ready on the table.
This is a lovely quiche like spinach and ricotta bundle.
And roasted prawns! So yummy! This was over in just a few minutes.
Squid ink pasta with mussels. This was nice, but by this time I was feeling very full.
And I could hardly take a bite out of the parmigiana melanzana which was just wonderful. Le sigh!
At about 11.30pm we walked to Gianicolo, to watch the fireworks.
To me, it really felt like the second world war was going on here. It was night time and there were so many people all walking briskly and rushing and the sounds of the crackling of fireworks which reminds of me gun shots and the smoke in the air.
It was a little bit alarming for me. But at the same time, there were loads of people, children and adults alike playing with fireworks and sparklers and those were lovely to see.
If I imagined it well enough, it even felt a little like Chinese New year during the early 80’s when fireworks were still not banned in Singapore yet. It was still a little dangerous nevertheless, because if you’re not careful you could step into a firework thrown by a someone. In fact, the next day, there were reports of an increase in accidents by fireworks this year.
Anyhow, it was getting close to midnight and by this time, the amount of fireworks increased and people started to get more energetic. I wasn’t wearing a watch, so I’ve no idea if the countdown was accurate, because there will be someone popping their bottle of wine and then a few minutes later, someone else will be counting down. Hahaha!
Nevertheless, when we thought it was right, Cart and I kissed 
We then headed back to Francesco’s house and we were feeling very lucky that we didn’t take the car because it was such a cacophony and confusion going on there with all the vehicles trying to escape the bottleneck. It’s kind of like a traffic jam times 10! So you could imagine all the horns blaring!
It was much faster to walk.
Anyway, when we reached his place, we ate our lentils! (among other desserts and sweet foods)
Here’s to love, peace, happiness and richness! Now that I’ve eaten my lentils. Gimme money
To end, here’s a video of our time in Gianicolo :
Why you should wear red underwear today
Here’s a fun fact for you! Apart from rituals such as eating lentils, wearing red underwear on new year’s eve is supposed to bring the wearer good luck.
(I see now how the term getting lucky for having sex started )
That’s why if you’re anywhere in Rome towards the end of the year, you’d see practically all lingerie shops selling red underwear.
And not only women’s underwear, men are not spared from it too!
In fact when Claire and I were going around on our weekly adventures, I saw men’s thong in the shape of a red elephant being sold at a bancarella. It was dangling around and so in your face! Double meaning much?!
I was so amused
Bye everyone! See you in the new year!
Lucy Minerals Neutral Brow Powder
There are days when I am not in the mood to put on a lot of mekap on my face. But no matter what, I tend to always put a bit of bb cream and fill up my eyebrows which are sadly, quite sparse.
I’ve been using various things like eye-liner pencils and eye-shadows, which does work. But because of it’s intensity, sometimes gives me a sort of Groucho Marx look if I’m not careful.
I’ve been using Lucy Minerals foundations for a while and I’m really happy about the quality. Not too long ago, they were having a free shipping promotion and I took advantage of that and decided to top up my foundation stock.
When it arrived, one of my gifts was the Neutral brow powder.
It comes in a 7 gram jar which would have cost me $7 USD (not including shipping) which in my opinion seems quite pricey on its own. Which is why I think it would be more economical to get things from Lucy Minerals as a kit.
It comes with its own plastic sifter and a clear sticker on top of it. I haven’t peeled it off so far because I’d rather pop the sifter out and dip my brow brush in the jar.
Like so.
Tap off the access because if there’s too much on the brush, it tends to lead to a fallout on your cheeks or under eyes which can get annoying. With the brush, softly press the colour on parts of the eyebrow that you want filled in.
Don’t let the colour fool you though. At first glance, I wondered how could this brown powder fit the colour of my eyebrow? It doesn’t seem to match!
But incredibly it does and manages to look natural too. With the same shade, I think that it will work for wonderfully for brunettes to black haired ravens like me!
Like the foundation, the brow powder is quite long lasting and stays put all day for regular wear. Just don’t go swimming with it and expect miracles, of course.
I quite love it. No more half eyebrows.
Sidenote : I think the colder weather is doing my skin a lot of good. No pimples! It’s killing my nails though, they get so fragile and break so easily!
My first xmas in Rome
Seeing all the fairy lights and decorations being hanged around buildings reminds me a lot of Hari Raya.
For the first time I’m celebrating Christmas in Rome when normally around this time, we’d be back in Singapore. It feels a little strange for me to celebrate it as a non Catholic/Christian and at the back of my mind, it’s not the same thing as Hari Raya but nevertheless, I don’t see anything wrong with sharing happiness together.
Anyway, we spent Christmas eve at Cart’s sister, Paola’s house. Entering the house, the tree was the most eye catching item in the room with the presents at the bottom. The dining table was already set with cutleries and appetizers.
By the way, the tradition here in Italy is to eat fish which is a “non rich food” instead of meat on this day so you’ll see loads of families cooking fish related items. And since I love eating seafood, I had a lot of fun, because there were so many wonderful things for me to eat!
We started off with L’insalata russa which is basically a potato salad.
And then little mozzarella balls. Not the type that is yellow and solid and comes in rectangle shapes by the way.
And then mixed Seafood salad.
And then I had smoked salmon slices with tuna salad at the side. The green vegetable that you see in the picture is called valeriana and it’s interesting to me as it tastes a little bit like mint.
And then there are baked crochette of potatoes and olives. Cart and I prefer them fried though *coughs* Perangai budak gemok *coughs*
And then these are ravioli stuffed with crab and served with creamy crab sauce. Oh gosh, these was such a dream. It was so delicious! I normally don’t like creamy based pasta, but these were so light and yummy!
So good that I ate them all up. I need to ask Paola how she made it!
And here is Cart manually grating parmigiano on his pasta. If you’re wondering what we were watching on the telley, it was a show which was rather inappropriate for christmas
And this my linguini with a sort of arabbiata sauce with tuna.
My niece and nephew are very picky eaters though. They won’t touch anything if they think that it contains things that they don’t like. And to my horror, I saw that my nephew is eating pasta. Plain. Not even with a hint of oil nor cheese.
Anyway, after that we had a sort of quiche with the puff pastry and zucchini and cheese inside. This thing is awesome! But we still had more to go!
These are roasted fish called pesce persico but by this time, I was feeling so stuffed. Even though I was really greedy and I wanted to eat them, I could only pick at them and not finish. Sheepishly asked to have them put in a container so I could eat them later.
And then these are mussels cooked in tomato sauce which was supposed to be used for pasta. But Paola seeing how stuffed we all were, just served them as it is. I could only manage to eat one!
And these are artichokes. But at this point of time, I was already too stuffed to take another bite. Le sigh! How sad! I wanted to try everything!
I felt so full that I had to waddle to the sofa for a bit and soon after I felt sleepy and decided to take a snooze on Cart’s belly while watching the kids getting ready, stacking their presents to unwrap them. Eating is tiring work!
And when I woke up from my power nap, I found these ready for me. More food! Pandoro with lemon and strawberry ice cream!
I was so stuffed! This is probably what it feels like for a goose being fed for foie gras. And I didn’t even get to try everything!
Nevertheless, it was approaching midnight and we started unwrapping our presents.
Here is Cart opening his present.
Here is Paola inspecting the present that we got for her. It’s a hi-George teddy bear! With inbuilt speakers on it’s little feet.
Here are my in laws inspecting the olive oil bottle stand that we got for them.
Nephew has an Angry bird action set! Now you don’t even need to switch on the computer or phone. I couldn’t believe that it exists! And I blame it on Cart for introducing this horrible game.
Here’s the niece playing a Play doh Smashed Potato game. I couldn’t play this one though. The poor potatoes keep getting smashed and cut and diced …
And after playing for a little while with them and opening our presents, soonafter it was time to go home. It was a lovely gathering. And while I do miss my family and friends in Singapore, it’s nice to be with my other family too.
But it wasn’t over yet, because the next day, there was a xmas lunch! More food! I could hardly even eat breakfast. I was that full. And instead we waited for lunch and had Pasta with funghi.
I added some chili flakes because I like hot food. I’m still Malay after all.
And then baked potatoes with rosemary and roasted lamb. Not only for xmas, but they eat lamb during easter too. I suppose it’s a tradition to eat lamb here on accordance that there are a lot of lambs in Italy and also of it’s religious significance.
MIL asked me if we Malays eat lambs but in all honesty, beef and chicken are more popular meats to eat even though there are loads of ducks and goats around. Not sure what happened to make those meats less popular.
And to end it, a slice of pandoro, a popular xmas and new year sweetcake.
So good! But oh boy, I’m so stuffed! How does one even lose weight this way?!
Whee! I passed my driving exam!
Check out what I just got yesterday …
I passed my driving exam! And now I can legally drive (and also ride of any class motorcycle) anywhere in Europe! Woohoo!
I have to say though, that I was feeling rather nervous. Seeing how the two candidates before me were crying and looking sad when they were done didn’t give me much positive feelings. Nevertheless, I trudged ahead and tried to do the best I could.
How the driving exam goes is that your driving instructor will be sitting next to you, and the esaminatore (invigilator) will be sitting behind to observe how you drive. The entire session lasts for about 10 minutes and you’ll be judged accordingly on 4 main tasks.
1. How you drive
The fluidity of how you drive and change gears, looking out for incoming traffic. Slowing down when turning and respecting traffic signs. There are chances that the invigilator tries to trick you and tell you things like turning to the opposite direction on a one-way road (which is an instant failure) Thank goodness I didn’t had a jerk of an invigilator.
2. Repartenza in salita
You’ll be lead to a slope and then stopped. While on the slope, signal left, blind spot check and depart without falling back.
3. Inversione in 3 tempi
Manoeuvre and reverse the car in 3 moves to get to the opposite direction.
4. Parcheggio
And finally parallel parking. The invigilator asked me to park two times in different areas just to see if I’m fine for both. I used to have issues with this because sometimes I’d have the car jut out about halfway. But it’s a matter of practice.
The good thing about learning to drive in Italy is that as long as you have a foglio rosa, a P sign and a suitable car (as well as a person who has 10 years driving experience accompanying you) you can practice driving in the neighbourhood, and spend less at the driving school.
And that’s about it.
I thought that I failed for sure when departing from the slope, I forgot to signal to the left. And my instructor starting complaining loudly, “PERCHÉ! PERCHÉ! Tre volte ti ho detto a lezione!”
And by that time, I’ve lost my mood already and just carried on like I’d normally do during regular lessons. Heck care it all. So at the end of the exam, when my instructor said, “Grazie eh!” I was very surprised. Why is he thanking me? Being sarcastic or what? I looked behind me to the invigilator who was fiddling with the patente and I knew that I passed and I gave out a yelp and ran all the way to Cart’s office to tell him the good news in person.
Finally I’ve got a driving license. And now that I’m done with that, I can just move forward. One step closer to getting my dream car!
So I can do this!
Sexeh!
Bird attack!
If you were here during the colder months in Rome towards sunset, you’d see something resembling a cloud of dust in the sky.
These are a group of birds called Starlings and as a flock, they can be interesting to see … FROM FAR AWAY. In close range, they are a menace bombing innocent victims who were just happened to be in the area.
I was walking in Eur when I happened to see this poor scooter. I bet that the owner didn’t even leave it out for a day. Imagine coming back from work to be greeted with this!
And then the same thing happened to Cart’s car …
What a casualty! It looked so horrible! Our jaws just dropped to an O when we saw the state of the car and Cart was adamant that he left the car out for just the afternoon. Not even an entire day.
Bleargh. But even worse is when you get hit directly by bird shit. Oh gosh, the colour and the texture is so sticky and gross and if it gets on your outfit, wiping it with a wet tissue is not enough.
Lately, there’s a group of people resembling like white Easter bunnies (without the ears) going around with a loudspeaker to scare the birds away.
Not sure if it really works though.
Anyway, check out the video that I took of these birds in action :
The thing that went in my mind at that time was Alfred Hitchcock, “The birds“. We’re so under attack.
Sidenote : Since when was getting bombed by bird shit is a lucky thing to be?