Marina's Bloggariffic

Its quite a flurry of activities this week.

On thursday, my inlaws arrived in Singapore. I met them for a short while at their hotel and took them around Orchard Road for a bit. They were as nice and warm as ever. But then I remembered that my Italian sucked, thus our conversation was a little awkward. Regardless, I was very happy to see them again.

They left for Malaysia in the morning and will be back in time before the solemnization.

Friday was my last day of work. I’m definitely going to miss this place and remember it fondly. After all, I’ve been here for the past 3 and a half years. Naturally, one would feel a bond after being in a place for a while.

And yesterday, despite the fact that I thought that it was rather unnecessary to get new furniture, Juli and I were scouring around for furniture in my room to make it more “bridal” like, heeding mum’s advice.

And when I reached home, I spent about 5 hours non stop, making phone calls to friends, inviting them to the wedding. Although facebook has been very useful so far, sometimes its good to just have that human touch.

Some of these calls, are calls which has been more than its due. I guess that the internet makes me take for granted as its more convenient to use internet applications.

And Cart will be arriving today! I’m so excited. I miss him so much. And in less than a week will be our solemnization. I cant wait 🙂

With that, Marina’s Bloggariffic will go into a semi hiatus. However, I hope to have a live streaming of the solemnization this coming Thursday and the reception on the following Saturday.

Not sure how to go about doing that, although the guys of tech65 might have something up their sleeves. Oh, and if there is anyone know where I could rent a projector, I’d appreciate it a lot 🙂

Sidenote : Friends, please let me know your mailing address so that I can send you an invitation 🙂

P.S. I’m in love all over again … 🙂

I was hankering of some lamb chops and Vandalin recommended me to go to Nasrin. At first look, I thought that I was in the wrong place. Nasrin’s doesn’t look like a restaurant. At the time I was there, there were only people smoking Shisha. The place looks very spartan and there is no decoration whatsoever.

I was rather perplexed that in the end, I decided to give Deli Moroccan a second chance and I was glad to find the food standard there much better than when I first visited there.

Picture snapped using the Samsung Innov8

Regardless, Vandalin insisted that Nasrin did serve food and I went there again, together with Nadnut, Xizor and Chillycraps.

Xizor and Rinaz

Chillycraps and Nadnut

We ordered the shawarna as the appetizer.

This picture really doesn’t do it justice. The shawarna plate is delightful! I’m not so big on fries but I find myself enjoying them a lot, it was crispy and sprinkled generously with paprika, making it savoury.

The chicken bits were tender and the hummus below it was fantastic! In just a few minutes the plate was completely clean!

And I completely love my lamb chops. This is probably one of the best lamb chops that I’ve had. I liked the grilled smoky taste. The meat was tender and juicy with just the right amount of fat.

Again the picture doesn’t do it justice, but my lamb chops were yum!

But apart from lamb chops, Nasrin was known to be a great chilling place with with friends just hanging out with shisha.

Shisha has been something that I was curious with for the longest time. Thus at the end of our meal, we decided to give it a go.

Here is a quick montage of our shisha session :

Smoking Shisha from rinaz on Vimeo

It was an interesting first time experience for me. Don`t think that I’d be doing it again though. Remember kids, its not that great for the lungs!

I was at the Geek Terminal this week to give my support to the Malaysia and Singapore Bloggers in the first ever Mental Challenge hosted by Brands.

There was a sense of excitement in the air. By the time I reached there, the competition was already undergoing halfway and the audience were enraptured at the action in front of them. I found an empty seat and looked around.

At that point of time, the scores were 9 to Malaysia and 4 to Singapore.

That was where I noticed Eastcoastlife, Endoh and Sheylara and two other guys whom I later came to know as Wilfrid and Aaron.

Here they were doing a word challenge in which they were to create as many words as possible from the following letters.

The Malaysian Team who consisted of Red Diva, Sultan Mufazzar, KY, Suanie and Babe in the City were hard at work, scribbling as many word combinations as possible.

9 to 4 was such a large gap. I felt nervous for the competitors and can only imagine how it would be for the contestants themselves.

But it was when the results from the word challenge was announced, was when the marks were turned around with Malaysia having 40 and Singapore 44. There was hope! And it was so exciting!

With the proceeding rounds, I sat at the edge of the chair rather nervewrecked as the competitors trudged on. There were a number of very interesting questions such as memory recall questions, word association questions as well as the popular ball in a cup question.

Below is a short montage of the event :

Brands Singapore Vs Malaysia Mental Challenge 2008 from rinaz on Vimeo

I had to chuckle out loud when Endoh and Red Diva had to answer which cup the chick was under – the cup was spinning so fast!

Slowly Singapore collected the points and emerged victorious with the final score of 54 to 47. Woah!

But of course, it was all in good spirits with the Malaysian team being a very good sport out of it as it all boils down to having fun.

I had a short chat with the competitors and was really happy to find that the Malaysian team to be very friendly, witty and down to earth. It was refreshing to hear them talk of the things that interests them without any airs at all despite the fact that they had a very high following on their respective blogs.

Thank you Selena and Matthew and Brands for having me as a guest. I had a very lovely time and though I still am not confident in participating, hopefully there would be something like this again next year! 🙂

Sidenote :If you are a photographer enthusiast, you should check out the $1 Image Stabilizer. It really works!

This is before :

And this is after :

Oh so very cool. Many thanks to Preetam for the neat link 🙂

Personally for me, I’ve always been interested in how the brain functions.

I find it fascinating at how some people have such great memory that they were able to recollect a list without hesitation. Thus that is why one of the person that I look up to is Tony Buzan – a person who is well known for his Mind Mapping Techniques and Memory Skills.

In fact when I have a child, I’m contemplating on using the Glenn Doman or even the Suchida method of growing up my baby. I think that it would be very beneficial.

Regardless, I still do not feel confident of my memory skills. There are days when I just blank out completely.

So when Burson-Marsteller contacted me into participating in the Brand’s Singapore-Malaysia Blogger’s mental challenge, while other bloggers were excited about it, I just freaked out.

What if they asked really difficult IQ questions with difficult mathematical calculations that only a rocket scientist could answer? I’d be such a disgrace to all of the Singapore blogger community.

Recently, I received a pack containing two weeks worth of Brands Chicken Essence which was very thoughtful, as it was one of the things that I consumed especially during my school examination period.

But my palpitations started again when I opened the ‘Brain Training Kit’

These are two of the 9 practice cards. I don’t even know where to start. Can I really do this? Just looking at the cards is stressful.

Thank goodness the organizers told me later that due to overwhelming popularity, I was exempted from the challenge. I took a deep breath of gratitude. Phew!

Regardless, I would love to come down to support the event. If you are interested in it too, it will be held on the 3rd of December from 11am – 1pm at Geek Terminal 🙂

For a very long time, my room was a shade of pink.

But after numerous constructive criticisms by my mum to spruce it up in time for the wedding, I finally picked up the paintbrush and started painting my room.

I’ve never painted before. After several advices from my friend on painting techniques, I bought some paint, a roller brush and a paint tray. After some trepidation, I dipped the brush in the paint and drew the brush up and down.

It was surprisingly therapeutic, like doing a giant pedicure.

And after 2 days of musty clothes, splattered slacks and several cold drinks …

My new wall! I know this is probably very mundane but I’m so proud of myself. I think it looks pretty good for someone who’s never painted before.