Sampdoria is back in Seria A!!!

On June 12, 2012 By mouseytongIn Celebrations, Italy, Misc..., MusingsLeave a comment

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If you followed my twitter or even my update on “Life in Photos”, you will see that I had a great Saturday. I am not an avid football fan but in a land of football (soccer for Americans) you get swept into the celebrations. What’s more if your in-laws are ALL Sampdoria fans. Except for my husband, they are all Sampdoria fans. The hardcore fans are my FIL, BIL and nephew. FIL NEVER misses a game at the stadium if it is played at home. Now, if you are a football fan, you might recognise this team. I am not a hardcore football fan so I didn’t till I came here but my brother did. He follows most of the leagues especially those teams that have been in the EUFA like the other more famous teams like Juvetus, Milan AC and Inter Milan. Some cities have 2 football teams much like Manchester City and Manchester United. Truthfully, I never knew there was a Manchester City till they got into the Premier League a few year back but Man U? It would be blasphemy if I didn’t! My brother is a great fan of Man U!! I had an ex who is an Arsenal fan so, Arsenal is also known to me. To really irritate him, I will cheer for Chelsea always, doing a little dance and singing “Chelsea, Chelsea!” LOL!! All in good fun! I also never miss the World Cup. I watch it whenever I can. Suffice to say, I know more about football than M and that is not a feat. M has no interest in football except to maybe watch Italy in the World Cup every 4 years.

As I was saying, Genoa like major cities here in Italy, has 2 football teams. It seems Genoa is the older and first football team, and supposedly in Italy too. I don’t know how true this is. Then there is Sampdoria. Easily identifiable bu their colours (duh!) and the emblems (double duh!). I know, I know…. Anyway, Genoa has the Gryphon and its colours are dark blue and red affectionally known as “Rosso Blu” (Red Blue) whereas Sampdoria has the eagle and red, white, blue and black also known as “Blue Cerchiati” (Blue circle?). All Sampdorianis do not like gryphons and I say this because when we started the vespa restoration company and designed a logo with a gryphon on it, my FIL was visibly upset. It was funny! 😀 We incorporated a gryphon because the original Piaggio (the company that makes vespas) has a gryphon on it. We changed it to a dragon.

Why the big celebration? Well, last year, Sampdoria played really badly and got relegated to Seria B. Something that was unfathomnable to most. In the last 6 years here and maybe more (since my brother has heard of Sampdoria means they were quite a team) they have always been near the top of the table. And for them to do so badly and get relegated was devastating. The constant playful taunting from the Genoanas was heartbreaking for my FIL. 🙂 Poor fella! It was worse because just 2 years ago, Genoa was in Seria B and when they got up to Seria A they blazed their way to the top of the table while Sampdoria slipped down the rankings and eventually fell off the table.

But within 1 season, they are back!!! This was what all the celebrations was about. Last Saturday was the determining game and we made it!!!!!!! Wohoo!!! I am not a true fan but a fan none the less. I went with M to the historic centre to celebrate with the family. Paid a little homage to Sampdoria and saw the crazy crowd in action. Celebrations went on till wee hours of the morning. At 5 am, the horns were still honking on the streets. Whoever who watched the game at home all come out in full force to celebrate. Streets were packed, there was traffic especially near the expo centre at Foce where they have set up a open air cinema-like area for the fans to watch the game. To give you an idea how big that area is, they usually have the travelling circus or theme parks set up there complete with the area for all their caravans and 18 wheeler trucks. That is how big that area is. There was fireworks, drinking, singing, horns and loads of flag wavings! It was fun!! Even the children were out with their parents. From babies to toddlers. Some were even fast asleep among all the ruckus! I don’t know how they could sleep through ALL that noise.

It was a fun Saturday night. A different twist to the usual Saturdays. 🙂

I will leave you with videos of that night’s madness.You can even see me in one of them giving my tribute. hahahaha! 😛

Toodeloos!

Life In Photos – Day 6

On June 11, 2012 By mouseytongIn Life in Photos, Misc...Leave a comment

I don’t know why I do this to myself ALL the time. I downloaded the photos and videos from last Saturday and while waiting, I was on the net catching up with emails, facebook…etc. As usual, I got carried away and just when I want to start blogging, I have to go. I need to go run before it gets too late and there goes another blogpost. 😦 Wait patiently…thank you!

By they way, I have always wanted Hydrangeas on my balcony and I finally got them! My overly windy balcony might just be killing them though. Lets see if they survive.

Life in Photos – Day 5

On June 10, 2012 By mouseytongIn Celebrations, Italy, Misc...Leave a comment

Sampdoria is back in Seria A! Blogpost coming up soon!

Life in Photos – Day 4

On June 8, 2012 By mouseytongIn Celebrations, Misc...Leave a comment

IMAG0217 — Celebrating Giorgia’s baptism

Who in the world is Sandokan?

On June 8, 2012 By mouseytongIn Malaysia, Misc..., Musings, wonderings...4 Comments

sandokan_fondo-magazine — Sandokan – Pic taken from the net

As the title says, who in the world is Sandokan? I know Sandakan the city/town but Sandokan? It seems that he is a famous pirate known as the “Tiger of Malaysia”. Excerpt from Wikipedia says “Sandokan is a fictional pirate of the late 19th century, who first appeared in publication in 1883, created by Italian author Emilio Salgari. He is the protagonist of eleven adventure novels and is known throughout the South China Sea as “The Tiger of Malaysia“.

What is interesting is that this author has never stepped foot in Malaysia nor ventured further than the Adriatic sea! Yet he managed to make Malaysia popular way back in the early 20th century. How cool is that?! Click on his name to know about him.

My point is, whenever someone asks me where I am from and I reply Malaysia, the immediate and standard response is “Sandokan! You know Sandokan? The Tiger of Malaysia?”. Always. Without fail.

The blank and puzzled look I gave them said it all. I didn’t know who he was when I first came here. If you check out the Wikipedia pages, you will notice that the TV series and films were made in the 60s! Wayyyyy…before my time. And the series was remade in the 90s and broadcasted in Europe. I don’t think they showed it in Malaysia. I could be wrong here, but I don’t remember watching ANY cartoons on Sandokan. Did you?

I have yet to read any of Salgari’s works on Sandokan or watch any of the series or films or even the cartoons. So I can’t really tell you much about this man but this much I can say. This fictional character is so popular, it does an even better job than our Malaysian government in introducing and promoting Malaysia to the world. Nothing jumps to mind of any Italian when you say Malaysia more than Sandokan. And all this is thanks to an Italian who has never stepped foot in Malaysia, who wrote about a country he has never seen in an era that Malaysia has yet to exist.

I shall leave you with a tribute to Sandokan which M stumbled upon. To all Malaysians, something to ponder on?

Time flies…

On June 4, 2012June 4, 2012 By mouseytongIn France, Misc..., Mousey's TravelLeave a comment

Where has time gone? Just last week it was May and now it is June! Seems like last month I could only manage 6 posts. 😦

The up side of that is that it was an amazing 2 weeks! My brother was in town with his wife my SIL for their honeymoon! It was fun showing them around. This time, I managed to see much more. Things I have never noticed or places I have never been to and even seeing the same things differently.

We managed to do a tour of Genova’s historic centre on foot and for the first time a bus tour if the city. It wasn’t expensive only about Euro 10 per person which I found really interesting. Since I was at an elevated and open top 360˚ view, I could see things I have never noticed, though I might pass through that area almost every other day. In my defense, when you are driving, You should be attentive on the road and not so much the surroundings, right? 😛

The next day we did Camogli and Recco. It was a free and easy, relaxing holiday for my brother so we didn’t try to fit in too much. Sunned ourselves with the very little sun available after a downpour during lunch. After that, on that Sunday, we went to Portofino after Sunday lunch at my in laws. Lazy Sunday.

Monday was a more interesting, action packed day. We drove all the way to Cannes and made our way back the coastal road till Monte Carlo. My brother and SIL was really lucky as both the Cannes Film festival AND the Monte Carlo F1 finished on that Sunday! So we had lunch in Cannes, walked the red carpet, did some shopping (something a friend ordered) and moved on to Nice via Cagnes sur Mer and Antibes. I have been to Antibes but Cagnes sur Mer was really an eye opener. It was so beautiful! It had a great pathway/ walkway along the beach dotted with amazing works of art. Because of bad traffic we got to Nice only 2 hours later. Wasting a lot of time. I don’t have much photos either cause I was driving and again, I should be concentrating on the road rather than surroundings, right? Safety first. 🙂

When we finally arrived in Nice it was already 6. We missed the last tour train by seconds. In the end, we just dipped our feet into the Riviera, had a drink and something light to eat and we were on our way. My SIL didn’t want to do any more walking. So we made our way again on the coastal road (again!, I tried to get to the highway, so many times to no avail because I kept changing my mind…) but it was a really so picturesque and something I have never done and never would have if I didn’t take my brother on that road trip or if the French government was better at their road signs. LOL!! We managed to see Eze and….hmm….ok, I can’ remember.

Then, we got into Monte Carlo. Because of Formula 1, the roads were a little changed which threw me off guard a little.. I did this whole trip without a navigator. These few places were familiar to me as I am there a few times a year, a few weeks at a time for work. It took me longer than normal to find my way out and I though I wasn’t going to make it for dinner with M at 9pm, I thought I could possibly manage 10pm. After 2 rounds on the F1 track, I finally got out. The curveball came when I was about 10 mins from Genova and they CLOSED part of the road. I had to be diverted toward Alessandria and get off at Masone. Then since the road was closed, I decided to use the local roads which added 45mins. In the end we arrived home close to 11pm. The interesting part was that I could show my brother where I was once left behind by M with only a map and no idea where on the map I was. I just followed the road till the nearest town to figure out where I was. It was dark and deep in the mountains and the road was filled with pin hair turns that I can’t see in the dark which made it even harder.

M was a darling and bought pizza for us for dinner. I was too tired to eat pizza and I was craving comfort food. Guess what I had? ……. Maggi Mee!!! My bro brought some for me!! 🙂 🙂 🙂

The next day, we did a whole day of shopping at Serravalle!! 6 full hours and we didn’t even do all the shops! But it was fun!! Wednesday was a low key day. Lazed at home, had lunch and went shopping for groceries. My bro and SIL were cooking for my in laws to thank them for their hospitality. I got some home cooked food too! Claypot chicken rice, fried bee hoon, pak choy, green beans with pork and my contribution which is sweet and sour pork! yums!!!!! Before that, my SIL also made soup. salted veg soup with tofu and fishballs with chicken. Later she added tom yam paste and it became soooo good!!! I was in heaven!

That was the end of my eventful week. All this excitement made me fall sick. I got sore throat and the a full blown flu and fever just as they left. It was a happy kind of sick!!! if there is such a thing?

To cap things, we ended the weekend with a wedding and a baptism.

It is already 4 am. I should be in bed. But I am now hungry. 😦 Something to eat first?

Nighty night!

Mousey’s memory is…….

On May 18, 2012 By mouseytongIn Misc..., Musings4 Comments

Where have all my inspirations gone? Almost every night I compose such great entries in my head before I sleep and then when I wake up…it is all GONE! Poof!! I remember almost next to nothing. So, it is not entirely gone. Just next to nothing. Make sense?

I work better at night. Something I have known since childhood. All my studying, or pretend studying was done at night. All my papers are written at night. Especially in the deep depths on the night. Since I have been going to bed early (gasp! I know, right? me, going to be early), I haven’t been able to fit in my creative writings in. I also used to do my crochet at night in front of the TV. Even that has taken a back seat. Either I have so much more going on in the day, that I tire out by the time evening rolls by or…I am just getting older and I hate to admit it.

By the way, aren’t the candles lovely? I bought 6 and lugged them all the way back as hand carry. I love the details on them. The candles are all handmade in that shop!

Now, I will just have to pray that the candles that I bought in California last year will illuminate my mind and bring forth all the inspirations that I know are resting deep in me!

Maybe I just need gingko biloba…what do you think?

Learning about techie stuff…

On May 15, 2012 By mouseytongIn Misc..., Musings, wonderings...Leave a comment

I am suddenly soooooooooo sleepy, I can’t keep my eyes open. I blame it on the pasta I had about 30 mins ago. I was just browsing the computer to get myself acquainted with “cloud” technology. If there is such a thing. Trying to keep myself abreast with the changes in the tech world. I have been a Mac user for quite a while now and I am an all round Apple user except for the Iphone or the Ipad. I can’t bring myself to use them. I had an Iphone for a while though not because I wanted one but because M was so taken in by it that he got one as a spare phone with only internet enabled sim on it. In the end, I carried it around and used it to go on the net whenever we needed to. Other than that, it stayed in my bag. I even forget to charge it all the time. 😛 When I got the HTC, everything changed. I signed up for twitter, check my Facebook, use the GPS satellite… things I never did with the Iphone. I was adverse it. I refuse to use it for anything if I could help it. M got an Ipad too which now he uses at home to surf the net and not hogging my laptop anymore! But I don’t use his iPad at all. Though I have to teach him how to use it sometimes. Managed to convert him to using Mac too! He has a MacBook Air! *proud*

Just to show you how much of an Apple fan I am besides the tow items mentioned above, I have a iMac in the office, MacBook Pro at home and iPod Touch. I used to own a clam shell mac, the colourful desktop Mac, the swivelling screen Mac, iBook and MacBook. Only time I didn’t use a Mac was when I first came to Italy and the office server at that time didn’t support Macs. I was crushed! Got myself a Sony, in fact, I went through 2 Sonys and the last one was an Acer. My first Sony got the blue screen of death and I sold my other Sony to get my Macbook! The Acer remains in the office and is now passed on to another colleague. 🙂 I just traded in my old MacBook Pro and got the latest one last month! Happy! Happy! I want to get the MacBook Air but since I use My MacBook to edit photos and store all my music, I can’t get the Air. 😦

Anyway, I was trawling the net for more info on how to sync all of them. I know of iCloud but have read its not so stellar performance reviews on the net. Then I got directed to DropBox and Ubuntu One. Then there is also Google Cloud. All I want is to be able to access my photos on all my devices. Well, I actually want to know how to link my desktop to my MacBook Pro. Everything I have read so far is really disappointing. For someone who is so technically challenged like myself it is even more disheartening. 😦 I now use an external harddisk where I store my photos and bring it with me everywhere. I also back up this external hard disk with another which I keep at home. Paranoid that way…lost all my data once in another external hard disk that just decided to die on me suddenly. I find this a lot of work. And I am forever in fear that before I could back up my stuff, this one dies on me first! @_@

DropBox has 2GB free and Ubuntu One gives 5GB free. Has anyone ever used them? My brother uses both and he finds them ok. He says he has not fully tested out their full potential, so he can’t really comment on it.

Among all the clouds (hence the cloud photo which I took in Elba) out there, is there one that suits my needs? Any tips and suggestions? Anyone?

Not wanting to fork out a fortune for Aperture yet, is there any other programmes out there which I can use to put watermarks on my photos? I downloaded iWatermark but I find that I absolutely hate the quality of the processed photo. Destroys all my photos and leaves them grainy. Back on the prowl for another before I succumb to Aperture. I have been looking at Aperture for a reeeeeaaaallllllllllyyyyyyyy long time.

I have never really gotten a reply on any of my questions before..I guess I am on my own. 😦 T_T

wokay! Back to trawling the net and hopefully not get distracted along the way.

Toodeloos!!

Mousey is a mozzie!

On May 10, 2012 By mouseytongIn Misc..., MusingsLeave a comment

Mozzie is a slang for mosquitoes. In Malaysia we call the motorcyclists mosquitoes, because they weave in and out of traffic at will. Since I am a motorcyclist therefore I am a mozzie!! Hehehehe!!!

This thought just popped into my head the other day. Connecting all the dots while on my vespa weaving through traffic to the city centre. How ironic. 🙂 I was thinking of the difference between riding in Asia (wherever I have a license to ride) and riding here in Europe, especially in Italy. Italy is a motorcycle or rather a scooter country. Of course there are accidents here as there in any other part of the world but the people here are more considerate of motorcyclists on the road. Heck, they are even aware and tolerant of cyclists on the road. No one actually honks, ok..not never but they seldom do, at a cyclist sharing their lane. They slow down and when they can, the overtake them and pretty much leave them be. Though I salute these cyclist here. With all the mountainous roads everywhere, they really DO love cycling. I don’t know how they do it. 😛

Mine is on the left. On an airstrip in Calabria

Why is that so? I have come to the conclusion that because at any one time in their lives here in Italy, they would have either rode a scooter or motorcycle or was a pillion rider. So they are aware of them when on the road. Also, if they have never been on one, they grew up around one. Whereas, this is totally the opposite in Malaysia or Singapore. A huge percentage of them will have never been on a motorcycle or scooter of any kind in their lives and may never get on one, ever! There is also a very small number of motorcyclist on the road as compared to Italy.

If you grew up here or are motorcyclist here, there are some unwritten rules that you learn along the way. I never knew of them till I came here. My most vivid reminder was once when I was stuck in traffic on the outskirts of Paris, motorcyclists honked at me and asked me to “move in!” complete with hand gestures and all. That was when I realised, I was the ONLY ONE out of line. Everyone else, dutifully left the centre divider line clear for the motorcyclist who could weave their way out of major traffic. Everyone moved closer to their sides respectively. I then realised, this happens in Italy too and in Greece and in the UK and so forth.

Also, they are very helpful should you fall or slip. The road to my home is winding and when it rains it is like a river which makes it really dangerous for me on the vespa (small wheels, which is why I prefer my Enfield sometimes) to navigate the roads. Winding roads with loads of blind spots. Once I slowed down near a blind spot bend and because it was wet,the rain has stopped, my vespa slid right across to the other lane into an oncoming car. He stopped in time and so did the car behind me on my lane and they both came down to help me up. I got back on and off I went after thanking them, of course. I had other encounters but I am not going to go into them. I might scare my mum.

L1030369 — On our road trip from Genova to Sicily with many stops along the way…

I LOVE motorcycles!! I like the panoramic, uninterrupted views, wind in my hair and the ability to park almost anywhere and not get stuck in traffic!! I got my motorcycle license here in Italy about a year before I got my driver’s license. I didn’t need it. I went everywhere in Genova on my scooter. Even in winter. I have actually learnt how to ride the old Honda cup bikes when I was 13. My dad taught me. I just never got a license till I was in Singapore. I find myself defending the mozzies in Malaysia when someone is grumbling about them on the roads. hehehehe! Do you know that they are technically treated like a car? They are supposed to occupy the road like a car and not like how everyone thinks that they should scoot off to the side of the road and let the cars pass? Well, at least in Malaysia and Singapore. In Italy we are told to keep to the right of the lane. Roads are tight here. 😛

I ❤ bikes! It is official, I am a mozzie!

discovering Siderno on the best scooter ever!!

hmm…..I didn’t quite think the photo positions through, did I? Thought of punctuating my post with photos. I am just going to leave it like this. Got to run. Hungry! 😛

Toodeloos!!