Pasqua Bintan

What is me and being upgraded to villas? I just came back from an all-girl Easter holiday at Bintan Lagoon and as it was packed, they moved us to a four-bedroom Villa B-26 with our own buggy to boot. Cool bananas. The weather was bellissimo and the 6 of us quickly changed into our bikinis and plunged into mango daiquiris in the big-arsed pool. Life is a neverending vacanza - if you want it to be. Ahh...

Soon the beach was calling and we dived into the low-tided waves at late afternoon while perfecting our tans. Lazy holidays usually fall into these patterns - wondering if you can wake up for breakfast on time, finding fault with your tanline and wondering about the next meal. Hear hear.

P.S: Buon compleanno carissima Elena! Tanti auguri a te! *baci*

Old to new ufficio

Working at home seemed like a really cool idea at first - especially when I could enjoy a full Italian lunch with a glass of Sangria in my pjs but after just 5 days of rushing from meetings to meetings, I was hoping our new office would come soon. We had to move out mid-Feb just after I got back from Samui while Luigi continued to Bangkok and Hanoi. Our ex landlord was a tyrant, having raised our rent from S$2k to S$7k. Pure madness. Luckily we managed to find a bigger and more central shophouse office, complete with a loft at Circular Road behind Boat Quay. Now we could go and tell Mr Koh to go eat merda and eat.

On the day of the move-in, I threw some rice to rid of the evil forces and the 3 of us rolled a whole pineapple from the stairs all the way to our 3rd floor office unit for prosperity's sake (pineapple is "ong lai" = "fortuna arriva!"). It was truly hilarious as we took turns to roll the fruit like a rugby ball on an open pitch. I was just being kiasu lah, wanting the best for our company. We'd be here for the next 3 years so I didn't want to take any chances.

N was away in Australia and smsed us to say she has just walked into Bill's in Sydney and spotted Hugh Jackman who returned the gaze. *Swoon* I text her 'Please send some bacon to Wolverine on my behalf.' Next to George Clooney, Hugh is one of the hottest celebrities alive. We'd let him scratch our backs anytime. Anyway, boy are we glad to be reunited again in our new home! Our new intern would be here too and it'd be an exciting new stage.

Timber tumble

The weekend after I returned from Samui, my family and I were severely distressed to find some of the much beloved pine trees around our flat were chopped down. All that were left were their sad stumps. My brother and I marched up to question the contracted workers who were uprooting the trees but they said they were just ordered by the Town Council to do it. Che cazzo. Boiling mad, we decided to pen separate emails to the committee members - and I also cc-ed the major newspapers and TV news editors. Here's what I wrote which was carried in Today's forum page:

"Dear sir/ mdm,

I'm writing in to express my utmost shock and utter dismal at the felling of several mature handsome pine trees along Elias Road. We have been staying here for about 15 years and my family and neighbours take a lot of pride in these majestic willowy trees which add a lot of character to the quaint neighbourhood.

Even visiting friends, overseas guests and family members often comment on how beautiful they are. Very often we look out of the window and spot various breeds of exotic migratory birds resting and feeding on their pine fruits. It was such a pleasure to see them grow from 5-storey young trees to their current 14-storey height. They are one of the main reasons why we have chosen to stay here for many years. So you can imagine our horror this morning when we discovered that a team of workers have started chopping down a few trees and uprooted 2 of these gentle giants, leaving a huge gap in our landscape.

We do not see the reason why they should all be cut down as they are healthy and not causing any problems. When we approached the workers to find out why, the contractor asked us to refer to the Town Council (which is closed on weekend). They also informed us that they are going to chop down all these pine trees. We heard one of the possible reasons is a recent mosquito breeding problem but we don't see the relevance between the trees and mosquitoes breeding. In fact they are an important part of the eco-system and providing comforting shade and visual beauty for the residents here.

My family and neighbours are extremely upset that this has happened and hope to get a proper explanation for this insensitive action because there is no prior notice given to residents. Given we're a green Garden City, we should have more respect and consideration for these mature trees as well as our home setting. To quote MM's vision 'a City pleasant green and cool', we are seeking to advocate these trees to be heritage trees as part of the Heritage Trees Scheme in our Garden City. This is in line with promoting conservation of these mature trees to the community as they take decades to mature gracefully and beautify our landscape.

We hope through this urgent letter, we can prevent more of these irreplaceable trees from being chopped down because it takes decades for them to flourish but just minutes to cut them down. If there is a need, we will be happy to get a signed petition from the residents around the blocks at Elias Road.

Thank you and best regards. Your sincerely..."

I guess we did have a valid cause because the major papers picked up on this story. Lianhe Zaobao (Chinese), Shin Min (Chinese), The New Paper, Ch5 and Ch8 News (I was interviewed and my mandarin sucked!) as well as STOMP (ST blog) ran it. Yay! Viva gli aberi! Some people said 'why you so free ah? They're just trees.' Well, I think it's so easy to turn a blind eye and sweep things under the carpet but it's so hard to fight for what you believe in. Si, we couldn't save the ones which were fallen but at least we tried our best and managed to put up a good fight. Hoepfully they will think it through more carefully in future.

Calma after the storm

Ok I know I was missing in action per tantoooo tempoooo! Sorry lah, so many things happened over the past month and I finally found some time to update my blog. After the surgery, Luigi arrived on 5 Feb in S'pore, in time for the CNY reunion night - his first culture shock in Asia. This was his virgin trip to his dreamland Asia and what a ride he got! Well, with me as his guida... it was like the F1 - full speed ahead!

He got his first taste of Chinese hospitality at my place when we all settled down for the reunion steamboat dinner where we all shared saliva by dipping our chopsticks in the pot. Yum. He loved it, esp my mamma's chilli dip and dad's freshly caught cuttlefish. Then we went to Chinatown and squeezed our way through the mad throngs of people (big mistake!) before sipping on martinis at A's Home club while the fireworks went off at midnight. The next 2 days were spent visiting relatives and friends, and the happy fellow bagged a lot of hongbaos, ate a few lo-heis and more steamboats to last him a lifetime.

He was also becoming an ace at using chopsticks and eating chilli like a pro. Bravissimo! I guessed CNY was the perfect time for any 'Chao.ang.moh' (one of the few Singlish words we taught him, besides 'C.Bye', 'Kay.poh' and 'Wah.lao.eh') to visit S'pore and get a true taste of local festivity. Luigi truly lived it up and sweated it out, especially lapping up the pool at Aquarius Park, my aunt's condo. As it is, he's saving up 350,000 euros to buy the smallest 2-bedroom unit as his Asian getaway.

After 5 days of sightseeing in S'pore, we flew to Koh Samui on Bangkok Airways and checked promptly into Thai House Beach Resort, a rather charming cosy thai-style haven, where we got upgraded to Villa N. Woo-hooo! The first night was a bit of a downer for us as Lamai turned into a whore-house in the evening, lined with bars, chao ang mohs and putane. E' un po depresso per noi. The second day was much better as we explored Lamai beach, our resort and ate very well at this no-fuss restaurant.

We drank our fill of Singha birra, green curry, and spicy tom yum (in that order) and had a running joke that I was the putana escort. Everywhere you go, you see an ancient chao ang moh and a Thai sweet young thing. I wasn't surprised anymore if a local spoke Thai to me. I get it ALL the time. The second night we took a cab from Lamai to Chaweng, the most developed and crowded part of Samui, for 300 baht (a tad steep). We walked the full length of Chaweng in about an hour and every 10 metres, L was ascotted by Indian tailors who called him his amico: "Suit for you, my friend?" He was amused and polite at first and soon became pissed off after fending off the 25th tailor either called Armani or Giorgio.

The next day we learnt that for 300 baht, we could rent a motorbike for 24hrs and so we did just that, riding carefree without helmets under the fierce glare of the sun. We explored various beaches of the island, saw the towering Big Buddha, hiked down steep hills to glimpse at waterfalls, and stopped for chilled coconuts and a dip after lunch. In the evening we went to find L's affable second cousin Tonino and his sweet Thai wife Bee at their two-storey house. Tonino was easy to like; a no-bullshit straight-talking New Yorker who has eased into a laidback lifestyle in Samui which suits him just fine.

They thought I was L's Asian girlfriend, in my mid 20s. Bee said, "Gino must learn to like spicy because he has Asian girlfriend." I replied Gino is very good at spicy now. Tonino happily showed us his garden, backyard of coconut trees, and shared his life history and insights on the Thai way of life without much prompting. His brushes with the special massages and putane were particularly funny; also how he met his wife and finally won her over. We promised to meet up again the next day and hurried back on our moto at sunset. It was Valentine's Day night - not that we cared - and were just planning to have a simple cena at our favourite Thai place whose waitress was starting to recognise us.

Back at Villa N when I switched on the lights in the dark, I found a big bouquet of red roses on the bed. I gasped in genuine shock, glanced at L and said "Err, who are these roses from? Did someone make a mistake?" He shrugged and said "They are for you." I was still doubtful but figured it couldn't be wrong. He's so sweet lah. What's more, there were 27 roses - because I told him I always feel 26 years old and he added 1 more to make it an odd number for good luck (Italians). Such a clever boy. I'm always outwardly embarrassed but secretly glad to receive flowers.

After another aroy-mak-mak (molto delizioso) Thai dinner, we retreated to our favourite spot at our villa's balcone. It had become our routine and our piece of paradiso. We'd settle in with a bottiglia di vino and sigarette, and talk about everything under the twinkling stars. The sea breeze blew gently and the palms swayed in the dark. On 2 nights in a row, fireworks crackled and lit up the starry skies.

The next day, we lazed around a lot and met up with Tonino and Bee for a late lunch at their casa. The 4 of us then rode around the island to visit this secluded seafront temple and hiked nearly 40min into the forest to locate this gentle waterfall. It was good exercise; L was drenched in sweat while I was half eaten alive by the zanzare. We laid on the rocks and stared at the many dragonflies dotting the blue skies. E' veramente un paradiso.

Survivor of giggliest

I survived the operazione. Grazie Dio. I thought I'd never make it. But as Ming put it in perspective, 'aiya, it's just a lump of fats you're removing - nothing compared to open heart surgery.' Ok still, you know what a dramatica mamma I can be. On the treno this morning, I nearly teared after talking to my nonna and mamma, and receiving a timely sms from Luigi in Napoli - all telling me to be a brava cat. Last night I had a nightmare again and this time, I dreamt that I had woken up at 3pm for the 11am appointment and had a laugh with the doc on the phone.

When I got to the Day Surgery, the nurse was surprised I came alone becos everyone was accompanied by a relative and instructed me to get into a really glamourous patient gown complete with matching white hair net and disposable granny panties. At least the gown was my colour - a pinkish viola. I waited a good 2 hours and went through an agonising mind-f%ck session, swinging from its-not-too-late-to-back-out-now to oh-shut-up-you-wanker state of mind. When I get extremely nervous, I get the bowels (done that at 9am), as well as feel ticklish and giggle like mad. I pretended to be amused at something and giggled to myself, me and Lipoma. I was losing it.

Finally at 1.15pm, the operating theatre nurse apologised for the delay and rolled my bed in for the motherly anaesthetist to do her job. A few nurses came by - their smiling eyes peeping from their masks - to reassure me it's gonna be fine when I told them it's my first time. They probably asked me 5 times for my name, age, IC no, any drug allergies/ medication prescribed, metal implants or dentures, where is my lump -- short of asking why I'm not married with kids yet.

She injected my left hand with some local anesthesia before poking in the drip needle. One down. Next up, they rolled me into the brightly-lit theatre where I slided onto the narrow bed. I spotted Dr Teo and was going to ask him about his holiday when the anaesthetist announced she was going to inject the painkiller now, followed by the anesthesia drugs. I still remembered her kind words 'ok now, take 3 deep breaths for me' as another smiling nurse held the oxygen mask over my nose. She whispered 'you smell so nice' and had this kind knowing smile. Forse lei e' l'angelo custode. I felt a cushy groggy slumber kicking in. And then I passed out. It was the best short-lived high ever.

The next moment I was rousing from my sleep in the recovery ward and I touched my left shoulder to find a bandage instead of Lipoma. The chubby girl's gone. Dr Teo came by to say it went well blah brraah baah but I couldn't register, drifting in and out slightly. Fortunatamente non c'e nausea. Within an hour or so, I could sip on some yummy Milo and nibble on wholemeal crackers, while waiting for my brother to pick me up. It felt good to be alive *kiss the ground* - and I thank everyone for their prayers. Cristian, xie xie per le belissime tulips!

Addios my bebe

I had an anxiety nightmare about my surgery. I dreamt I took some water and food before my surgery (which was restricted) and was wondering if I should inform the nurse. I jolted awake thinking it was so real and touched my left shoulder. Lipoma was still there, snugly under my skin. Tomorrow she'd be gone. Mmm, I'm having second thoughts and cold feet. Gulp. Banished all negativity!

Today I made another painful decision - I bid farewell to my bebe bolster, it was not as difficile as I imagined. She had served me well for 17 years and I needed to move on. My parents helped me to pick out her replacement last night at the megamall. I introduced the new bebe to the old and there were no hard feelings. At least not on my part. Old bebe looked terribly haggard - much like someone who had snorted too much coke and went crazy after gotten beaten up in a fight. After taking her mugshots, she was disposed of - as charged for unhygiene, misbehaviour and unorderly form. La vita continua. Addios, bebe! Ti amo tanto!

Vomitare girl

I puked my guts out last night. And it wasn't even my birthday. We were out celebrating A and P's belated ones at this ristorante S at Robertson. The food was so-so (disappointing appetisers) but we lapped up the rose' and pinot noir on the rather limited wine list - followed by my choice of Italian sparkling vino and moscato d'Asti at a nearby wine bar. We were having such a great time untill someone mentioned The word Tequila. Out came shots for everyone to toast the birthday boy - for old times' sake.

Then evil b-boy insisted on another shot for me and him. I swallowed. Then spat it out into the shot glass. Then swallowed it again at their insistent boo-ing. My head was spinning and I remembered saying I want to vomitare before passing out. The surge of puke crept up slowly but surely. I jumped up and rushed to the toilet. It had been a long time since my face was so upclose to a public bowl. Molto disgusto. I love you guys so much. Thanks for the memories.

To make things worse, I got a morning wake-up call from the Ikea delivery man on sabato with a mother of a hangover. He was early; I wasn't expecting him till late afternoon. Mastering all my sober strength to deal with my mom's relentless demands to do 1 million at a time, I gutted my room to make space for the new bed and furniture. Gone with the junk to welcome a new beginning in 2008. No more excess baggage.

Sari princess

Finalmente I could wear my expensive hot pink-green sari again at the hindu wedding ceremony of P. The first time was at F's wedding and it was a hoot. I feel so girly like a princess everytime I wear it. And si, I'd much rather don it than a tight-fitting cheongsam for the simple reason I'd not be able to pig out. On Sunday, I had to stifle a giggle as I stepped out of the lift and an auntie stared at me as if I had 4 legs. I smiled at the taxi driver who didn't smile back - bo, no sense of humour or curiosity.

At the temple, there were a million pairs of shoes but luckily we didn't have to remove ours for the ceremonial hall upstairs. P and his italian wife Ila looked like a royal couple resting on the dais while guests went up to congrat them. A few Indian guests came up and complimented me on my choice of sari, yipeee. Again it was a worthy investment - I figured I'd break even at the 10th Indian wedding or Bollywood themed party. Dammit, I should have come earlier to impress President N and the other VIPs. We then proceeded downstairs to lunch on vegetarian food with lime juice (si, there's no alcohol, rather bizarre considering we were surrounded by a horde with a penchant for birra and whisky).

I hurried home to change and went to Ikea and bought a new bed frame and mattress. I figured I needed a new prop to kickstart my love/sex life - it's a fengshui thing lah. And I'm trying to persuade myself to rid of my most treasured 17-year-old smelly bolster. It's really disgusting (trust me, you should see the saliva marks lol) and I was really surprised at how some exs had not commented on it. Although having said that, an ex was jealous of it and asked me to keep it in the wardrobe everytime he slept over - I reluctantly relented and felt so bad. I was so devoted to it and it was to me. To prove my point, the ex is gone but it remains a bolster of strength and affection for me. I think I'd keep it longer at least untill after next week when I'm done with my lipoma surgery. I'd need its comforting hold.

When there's a will

My gran had a minor stroke last week and it scared the shit out of us. No doubt it was a mini one, it was still a stroke. She was so weak when we rushed her to the A&E room at TTS and the damned doc wanted to discharge her despite her high blood pressure (218!) and signs of numbness. Luckily we insisted on admitting her and they found out after doing scans. She's fortunate to recover so fast but I think it was a 'warning' to her and us to pay attention to her health. We all love her so much that it was heartening to see the family rally around her. We couldn't imagine losing her - this bright spark of a ballbreaker - in our life.

La vita e' molto preziosa. You gotta treaure every fleeting moment. Sometimes I lie in bed and wonder about death, living and legacy. Just last month, I got this mother-of-a-claustrophobic momento when I thought about 'me' being trapped in my body. Who is 'me'? What am I doing in 'me'? Where am I going? Who are 'you'? Why are you in you if you know what I'm talking about? What is your mission in life? Truly bizarre. With that, I decided to add another resolution -- to make a will. It's about bloody time; I had been procastinating it for too long. Everything will naturally go to my parents if I expire before them. I even told my amiche Ferne and Fiona that I'm setting aside S$10,000 for each of them (and my sis too) to make a trip to Sicily to scatter my ashes at the volcanic Eolie islands.

Those 2 bitches complained I should give them more money to rent a villa and italian giggolos. I think I'd ask Luigi to go and make sure they don't have too much fun. He'd smack their arses. Speaking of the devil, he'd be coming to visit me in February - yay, finalmente - another overseas amico (after Cristian)! We can't wait for his first trip to his dreamland - Asia - where he'd be spending CNY with my famiglia and amici. Poi we're heading to Koh Samui for 5 days as lazy sunbathers with a Singha in hand. Make that many Singhas. L owes me una fabbrica. Anyway I'm so happy he finally took the leap. Bravissimo!

Chinese New Year is creeping up soon and I have 1) springcleaned room 2) gotten a new red top 3) cut and coloured my hair at my mom's salon. I usually don't share the same stylist with my mamma - I never forgave the last one who schemed with her and permed my hair into a Ronald Macdonald hair-do when I was just an innocent 10 year-old. Si, era bruttissima. Anyway the pretty salon-owner today offered me 10% discount saying 'Oh we only give to university students'. I stifled a giggle and declined the kind offer, confessing I'm 33 this year (dammit!). She said 'Oh I thought you're in early 20s. You have a baby face.' Woo-peeee!

Starting afresh ancora

Christmas came and went away in a blink. It was a low key affair - quiet dinner at J's - compared to how we used to celebrate it in the good ole days. As I was spring-cleaning my wardrobe today, I pulled out our old photo albums and was grinning like a monkey at snapshots of the wild party days in our carefree 20s. The best parties were at Mohamed Sultan; B and I were always up to mischief making others drunk and twirling each other in madness. My favourite scene was that of the pub filled with fake foamy snow bits and we'd bump into the big twinkling xmas tree in our drunken state of dance. It was a bourbon-long-island-tequila-kinda blur which led naughty me to kissing a few guys that night!

Si, blame it on the alcohol. It does foolish things to you, like daring one another to down 11 tequila shots in a row or puke your dinner remains into a party hat at the bar counter. Or having your face in the gutters, waiting for the next wave of nausea. Or sticking your head out of a moving cab in case there's more vomit left while the taxi uncle searched desperately for another plastic bag. Ahh, how I missed those days, but surely not the hangovers. I could safely say I now know my limits. I stopped at kissing strangers too. In fact I haven't kissed anyone in the past 2 years (my cats don't count). I wondered if I'd still know how to pucker my lips.

With the new year looming ahead, it's time again to reflect on my previous resolutions and draw up new ones. Let's see, in 2007 I had set out to:
- To quit smoking (quasi accomplished - I smoked only a pack this year, haha)
- To improve my italiano (checked - ho completato progressivo livello!)
- To hold an exhibition (checked - Gattidelmondo was a success!)
- To be kinder to parents & relatives (checked - domestic relations have improved)
- To travel to new exotic places (si, went to Philippines, Hoi An, Arezzo, Assisi, Cortona, Perugia)
- To get a bike licence (not after what happened to R who's now paralysed)
- To achieve a lean, mean body thro' healthy living (err, it's in the progress)
- To start praying for il mio grande amore (ok I've started praying quite hard)

I guessed the highlights of 2007 were winning the Italian scholarship, the one-month long return trip to Italia and also the sense of accomplishment of organising a fun cat photo exhibition which hopefully will be an annual affair. Capping the year was finally whipping our arses into gear and finalising the launch of our 2nd business DMAF! It's been extra hard on top of our busy agenda but I'm proud to say we did it!

For 2008, my priorities are:
- To find il mio grande amore (si, I'm naive this way but I know The Secret now!)
- To perfect my italiano in italia (Yay, can't wait for my scholarship trip!)
- To hold 2nd Gattidelmondo photo exhibition (in talks with new bigger venue!)
- To achieve sane, healthy living through regular exercise (bought new Nikes! And not to take health for granted esp after Lipoma's surgery on 28 Jan)
- To roll out business expansion plans and launch 2nd venture DMAF (fingers crossed! Plus have to look for new office, rent went up 4times, porca putana)
- To be thankful, positive, have courage and faith - Felice nuovo anno, tutti!