Bringing Em to Ski

One of my French friend from school introduced to me a ski club that organises day trips – coach transfer and cheap ski pass included. As such, I decided to bring Em for a day ski trip just to let her experience a little.

Anyhow, the trip was very bad! Em (and also me!) could not do the green/blue slopes and so we end up playing the baby slope. In the end, our ski passes WERE NOT used at all and we had to pay extra for the baby lifts at the baby slopes! The take away point is that we need ski lessons and I think I am going to sign up for a 6 lessons course with the ski club soon…

I look pretty professional huh?

At Riva Del Garda

I took some time off (in Sg terms – “pon classes“) during the PhD meeting and took some pictures and footage of the surroundings of Riva Del Garda!

Please do vimeo a justice by clicking on the link http://www.vimeo.com/633420 and watch it at high definition!

Italian House Party

On the 2nd day of the PhD meeting, it was stated in the program that there will be a social dinner. I thought it was like a normal networking dinner but little did I know that social dinner meant house party! Anyhow, they played mainly dance songs from the 90s like “All that she wants” and “Be my lover”. Finally, the Italians dance pretty wild, no less than the Americans at Frat house party that I’ve been to.

Home alone for Em

I am now at Riva Del Garda for some PhD Meeting and Em is left alone at home for 3 days! The unfortunate thing for Em is that this place has everything she wants – hotel SPA facilities and in-room JACUZZI type bathtub.

Fog lights are so important

…in Italy that is. When we were driving back from our shopping trip, the fog was so bad that we could hardly see beyond say 1/2 km or so. The unfortunate thing is the car that we rented do not have any fog lights installed (only the rear one is available). To make matters a little worst, some cars in front of us do not even have the rear fog lights!

The interesting thing is that in Sg, where we do not have (and will never have) fog, people almost always want to zhng their car to have fog lights (sometimes even up to 2 sets perhaps!).

 

Shopping is expensive!

So yesterday, Em and I went outlet shopping with my 2 Italian lessons classmates (French and Iris). We went to this Mcarthurglen Designer Outlet 90km south of Milan and shopped non-stop for exactly 7.5 hrs! Em is a spender, she bought shoes, down jacket, fleece jacket, ski jacket and pants, school bag, and PRADA BAG! We are broke for the months of Jan and Feb liao…

If you are interested, the full set of pictures are here http://www.flickr.com/photos/39837807@N00/sets/72157603768431506/

Italians don’t like Durian Paste

Like I mentioned previously, after Bak Kwa will be Durian Paste. So today, after my lab meeting, I opened the Durian Paste and almost everyone flee away like it was some shit or something! The few brave ones tried a little and spit it out immediately and one gal even vomit out her lunch after trying (quite ke lian)! If only I could bring them the real fruit…

My HD camcorder is here!

After looking at the test footage, maybe I should have bought the Canon HG10 instead. Everything is too late, hopefully, PQ will be better in bright light conditions. Anyhow, I also found a site (vimeo) that host true 720p HD video online.

Vimeo does not allow embedding HD clips, to check out the HD version of the same footage, click on this link http://www.vimeo.com/605142

Italians don’t like Bak Kwa

Em brought over several packs of Bak Kwa for my labmates to try and none of them (except for 1) like it! They even say that it is smelly and looks dirty! Guess Italians are not into bbq-ed food. Next up for them is the “Durian Cake”, wonder what will be their reaction then.

Ikea again

Half a year ago, I went Ikea and I spent 23.56 Euros. Today, I went Ikea with Em and I spent 130.38 Euros.

So sometimes things (especially when gals are involved) are NOT a matter of simple multiplication…