What a lovely little flower. So bright!

But after about a month, cobwebs started to form on the flowers. The flowers itself started to shrivel.

I thought it was best to chop the flowers off. The plant seems to be doing ok, but it looks so sad now!

And some while back, I bought for myself a nice pot of Begonias

It was so pretty. I loved looking at the yellows and greens. They were so cheerful looking.

But for some reason, its not doing too well either. Its starting to be brown and its wilting!

What am I doing wrong?!?!

Did I water too much? Did I water too little? Did I give it too much sun? Did I not give it enough sun? Its seems more complicated than taking care of kittens!

I seem to be an accidental plant killer!

While many of us would be more familliar with the old analog receiver, I still remember the dish shaped receiver that my family used. Here in Italy, the television stations here are slowly phasing out their analog television and changing it to digital broadcasting. Because Mr Bananas wants to own even more tv stations. Cart got this little black device for the tv in the kitchen.

This is a digital tv decoder. Using new fangled technology, it allows users to have a clear reception. The instant that Cart installed it, I was rather surprised. The quality of the image was almost like HD quality while previously it was a tad snowy. The quality of the show on the other hand … I keed! I keed!

And previously, while we used to have about 7 stations, now we have about 25 free to air stations! Several of them are not Italian channels even. There was this one time when I caught an eccentric looking French chef completely in black outfit and black hat showing viewers on how to make a crepe. (No its not Emmanuel Stroobant but the chef took so much time in making one freaking crepe that makes me feel that I’d die from hunger if I were in France)

Anyway, so far there are a couple of interesting interesting Italian shows that I’ve watched. One of them is ‘X Factor Italia‘

X-factor is basically a singing competition rather similar to American Idol. Though I still dont understand much as I still am not so fluent in Italian, its still enjoyable to me. But what is strange about the show is that new contestants come to compete every two weeks instead of a cap at the very beginning. Also what is even stranger to me is that the champion of X Factor Italia has not had a CD out yet while all the runner ups already had theirs released.

Even Morgan, one of the judges in X Factor Italia is confuzzled.

Also, what is interesting about Italian television is that tv stations allows the broadcast of topless women after 10pm and later. Being in Singapore where a plentiful of things are censored, you could imagine my surprise when I saw advertisments of topless women promoting sun tan lotion, slimming creams et al.

Even youtube does censorship too!

But truth be told, now that I’m more used to it, there isn’t anything so special about seeing topless women on local television. Its not like suddenly I’m turning into a hard case molester or pervert. Its not like its so strange. Its just women’s body. Which makes it a tad hypocritical for the above picture, but nevertheless

In any case, another interesting thing about Italian tv here is that many (if not all) of the imported programmes here are dubbed.

• True Blood in Italian? Checked
• Simpsons in Italian? Checked
• Xena the warrior princess in Italian? Checked

Even Nobita from Doraemon can speak Italian! Look! Just ignore the background spoon and bowl sound. We were having breakfast while recording this

I never realised that Nobita could be so clever

But one question remains. How the heck do I set up digital tv on my HP Touchsmart?

You might also be interested :

• My visit to HBO
• Mr Malique and Rinaz Remix
• Rinaz Music tv
• I almost had breast cancer

Sidenote : Yesterday I made Ayam Masak Merah and it tastes very close to the real thing! I was so happy! Gave some for my mother in law to try. But I think I almost killed her because it was very hot.

To put it simply, Maria Hertogh was a Dutch girl who was adopted and brought up by a Malay lady, Che Aminah for several years in the 1940s. By then, she grew up to be like a Malay Muslim girl.

It was only some years later that her natural parents, who were catholics, asked the courts to get their daughter back. The judge ruled in favour of the natural parents.

Maria wept and clung to her foster mother.

She was then placed in a convent home before being sent back to Netherlands. It was there when the news about her being surrounded by Catholic symbols were sensationalised. This deeply offended the Muslim faith that a riot broke out. 18 people killed and 179 injured.

While in the Netherlands, Maria was extremely unhappy. Many times she expressed her desire to return back to Singapore but could not due to financial difficulties. She has said that her happiest times were her childhood in Singapore.

Her foster mother, Che Amina died in 1976.

Tragic

Was it a matter of pride that the natural parents wanting their daughter back knowing very well that she was much happier to be with her foster mother?

Regardless, I just feel very bad for Maria Hertogh.

Read more about her life

• Wikipedia
• NST Online
• Gerald Giam

Lemongrass and Pandan leaves are among the basic ingredients for Malay food. To me, Nasi Lemak and Ayam Masak Merah doesn’t taste complete without them. And as of now, I have yet to find them here in Rome.

Through friends, Cart found out that there could be a possibility of getting the stuff that we need from a place called Mercato Esquillino.

As Cart and I were a little concerned about searching for parking for the car, we decided to take the subway instead.

A couple of the subways here are interesting. They are painted with so much graffiti that it even looks like an artwork! We dropped down to the Termini station and had a walk.

Going down the street, it is an interesting looking, but rather rough looking area here. A couple of the buildings look dilapilated and just sad. It made me wonder why anyone would live there.

We also passed by quite a number of chinese owned shops selling bags, shoes and clothes. I was intruiged. Was there a factory nearby?

At length we reached Mercato Esquillino. It was a large place. that was divided into two areas. One for foodstuff and the other was for apparels.

When we entered, I was really surprised at what was in front of me.

Was I really in Rome?

Because there I found so many different kioks with owners of different nationalities selling various types of foodstuff – Items from Vietnam, Korea, Thailand, Africa … all sorts!

I found an Indian man selling Indian spices. And I could detect him talking in Tamil to his customers. There were a Chinese lady speaking Italian-accented Mandarin. This was a very interesting place indeed!

It was almost ironic that there were only a handful of caucasian sellers.

After going a few rounds the market, asking for Pandan Leaves and Lemongrass, we were faced with the unfortunate news that there were none. We were adviced to try our luck the next time by going there again very early.

We then headed to the other part of the mercato where there were heaps of bales of bling cloths, waiting to be made. Do you know what this reminds me of? Totally Geylang and Sultan Mosque Street. Back in Singapore, my seamstress Mum and I would be there every now and then to buy cloth to be made into Baju Kurong.

This will be the first year that I’d be celebrating Hari Raya without the family

After exploring the market, walking out, one of the first thing that I spotted was this!

I love Indian food! And I nudged Cart to enter. We were both very hungry from our recce.

Cart and I ordered a plate of rice each with gravy and a couple of fried snacks.

Granted that its not really what you’d get in Little India in Singapore, it was still decent. It eased the feeling of homesickness a little bit.

Esquilino is an interesting place. Its a tad bit far for Cart and I to be doing our weekly grocery shopping, but I think that we’ll visit again.

For our quest in search of Lemongrass and Pandan Leaves

I was just surfing through Promod one fine day and seriously contemplating to buy some. The only thing that I feared was the infamous Italian Postal delivery being late and asking for more service charge on top of the taxes. My computer took more than 4 months to be delivered.

Imagine my pleasant surprise when I saw that there was a branch at a mall near us. And even more surprising is that Cart wanted us to go out to shopping! I found a pair of Enrico Coveri shoes that I liked and I rummaged through the Promod store for a couple of threads.

I love my new clothes! But … I can has moar?

Having missed my comfort food, I tried my best to find most of the ingredients and attempted to make it myself. One of the ingredients is this concentrated tomato paste.

Refrain yourself from trying to brush your teeth with this

However, there are some key ingredients that I cant get here in Rome. One of them being lemongrass and I dont even see it for sale in the Asian kiosk that I patronise.

Anyways, I still have a few ingredients at hand. First, I marinated the chicken with salt and tumeric powder

And while waiting for the chicken to be marinated, I sliced and fried some potatoes because mum always did it like that

I used the same oil to fry the chicken. And I loved how the fried chicken looks. The tumeric powder really adds to the colour! In another pan, I fried some ground ginger, garlic, onion and chilli. Then added some tomatoes and stirred till they were a little more cooked.

Finally I added in the tomato concentrate and waited for it to be a little “crispier” before adding the chicken and the potato and of course added a bit of salt for seasoning.

I waited for it to cool down before having it with rice. At the first bite, its not bad, but the taste is off.

What did I do wrong? I want my cheeken

Updated : I see where I went wrong. Redid it again and it tastes extremely close! Thanks for the tip everyone! :-)

Here is what I did to the gravy:

• Coat and soak some dried chillies
• Blend it with an onion, some ginger, garlic and lemongrass (if you have it)
• Fry it till crispy, stir in the tomato concentrate, add the fried chicken and add a bit of sugar
• Most importantly add santan (coconut milk) to give it that lemak flavour!

Woo I am so happy that I ate two platefuls of it and promptly fell asleep on the sofa

Somewhere in the corner, my eyes were drawn to a large lake on the left. Not too far away from Rome.

View Larger Map

As the trip to Capri took us about 5 hours, I asked Cart how long it would take to go to Lake Bracciano. Little did I expect that Cart actually suggest that we would go there! Hence, last monday, being a holiday in Rome due to the Patrons Santi Pietro e Paolo, Cart and I went to lake Bracciano.

It took about less than an hour to reach there. And already I was amazed to see this in front of me!

A castle?! Truth be told, I didnt google or did any research about Bracciano, hence my surprise. Cart didnt seem very surprised that I was surprised though. He told me that in every region in Italy, there were sure to be a castle. For me, I was already starting to see Cave of the Golden Rose in front of me.

We took a short walk towards the castle. The housing area looked quite charming with the slopes making the staircases look uneven. I quite like the old look and feel of the area.

We stopped by this small family run restaurant to have a quick lunch where I had a nice plate of Pasta alla Pescatora which is made up of various type of seafood in tomato sauce. I quite liked it.

I’m not going to put Cart’s Pasta with Truffles cos I don’t fancy how it tastes

At length, we headed to Castle Odeschalchi which was just a few minutes away by foot. The gates were closed and we realised that we needed to have a ticket to have a guided tour inside the castle.

It was such a beautiful place. Can you imagine the kings and queens walking up and down this path? And the view of the lake was fantastic! Cart was marvelling at how the rich always knew where to pick a good spot.

Postcard and picnic perfect

It was interesting going through the castle, totally feeling the medieval vibe of the place. I liked looking at the furnitures on display that were actually used during those times. The only thing is that guests were not allowed to take pictures inside the castle which quite disappointed me. What’s wrong with taking pictures? Even the Sistine Chapel lets you take pictures inside, even if its not all of the places.

Anyirritatedhow, the guide was retelling about the history of the castle, and there was one that was extremely memorable to me.

She showed us a bedroom where Lady Isabella slept. It was said that she had many lovers. And after a night of passion, she would lead them to a room nearby and then push him down a well, full of spikes and blades.

Yikes!

And not before too long, the tour was over and we were lead out and the door promptly shut.

I wish the tour wasnt so rushed

In any case, Cart and I went back to the car and headed to the lake next. It was just a few minutes drive away. If it looked quite lovely in the map, it looks even lovelier seen in real life.

There were a number of people suntanning and taking a dip in the water. A number were boating and playing with water rides. It kind of reminded me when I was a kid when I lived in Jurong. Lakeside was full of water rides. Whatever happened to them?

Its so peaceful. Even with the amount of people there, it was very tranquil just to have the wind in my face and looking at the smooth waves on the water, which by the way, is interestingly clear!

I wonder what makes it that way and hugged Cartcart since Braccia means hug in Italian. (By the way, out of context, this is a nice site to make Abbracci cookies)

After the walk along the promenade, Cart and I decided to stop by for a gelato and that’s when I spotted this

Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes got married here?! I was in the castle where Tomkat got married? Freaking heck, why didn’t the guide tell me this?!

Bleargh!