Florence Travelogue

Duomo in Florence. I climbed over 400+ steps to get to the top of the tower for a sweeping view of the city. C challenged me, and so I did, in less than 30 mins too. 

Church near Florence train station....and eh? There's a BATA store in Italy?! Wah.

C's one desperate WANT - a big fat florentine steak. Serious.

To market to market to find us some fat cheese! and oils, and supplies, and all goodness of beautiful condiments for cooking.

The main biggest reason to go to Florence was to find the Tod's outlet of course. And of course some damage was done.... even the SAs looked at us with mirth and laughter and the other locals thought we were good and truly mad.

Of course a visit to the H store in florence, and then find us some lovely seafood dinner. Above is the giant fisherman's soup.

If tired of walking in the heat, rent a Segeway, like what we did in Lucca, a small town off Florence. Lucca is a lovely town, my favourite scene in whole of italy. First time on a Segeway, it's a little scary but fantastic fun!

C's lunch of roast baby goat at a Frommer's recommended restaurant in Lucca. The stunning view of Uffizi galleria in the evening. And some new found friends with their OES at Vivoli gelataria in Florence. Italy is an extremely dog friendly country.

Chocolate souffle at Taverna di Martin's back in Rome, our last dinner before heading home to Singapore. Absolutely the best and most memorable meal of the whole trip.

Rome Travelogue

My first trip to Italy. Sure is hot out there, Rome was 37 deg on average during our days there.Of course I hit the H store at Spagna, the Orchard Rd equivalent of Rome.

C says, that'da way! And to the Trevi fountain we went. Boyo it sure is hot. We dug into some Gelato at Saint Crispins, a highly recommended Gelataria.

At the Colosseum.

 

of course I did want to visit the fabulous Bulgari Exhibition. It was Magnificent.

 

A look inside the Pantheon, and then off to S' Angelo's Castle, and the bridge nearby.

 

More excellent Gelato at Frididarium, because it's just so hot. 

The Piazza Navonne. A Beautiful square where artists and performers show their skills.

We made our way to the Vatican at last! and look whose ancestors we found inside the Vatican. Looks like Bis' forefather suffered a similar fate to Bis, oh agony by Holly's ancestor.

Stunning ceilings of the Vatican corridoors. And the Swiss guards.

St. Peter's Basilica and it's magnificence.

Hot! More Gelato this time at Giolitti.

It's supposed to be Idiot Proof

When I asked Uncle for some recommendation, i.e idiot proof (aka Holly-can-even-use-it), Uncle says THIS is it.

Wah the price. I had to think about it awhile.

So I finally got something new. With much trepidation. And of course I probably paid waay to much - but damn when service is that good, it makes a difference. So at the shop looking quite lost, kind female associate takes pity on me and asks nicely if she could assist me.

Me: How much that one?
She: I can give it to you for $xxx (cheaper than RRP)
Me: Oh how about that other one.
She: Yep that one on sale. [Shows me, and a few others]
She: I'll throw in an extra 'xzy' as well.
Me: [hmm. Ooohhh].

We chat a bit. Told her I need to think, chew my lips over the prices. Called a few other places to check. Seems like a nice deal. I circle around the store a bit, finally back to the counter and beckons her. She smiles.

Me: I can download to my mac?
She: Sure. I can give you a abc for free too.
Me: Got a screen protector?
She: Yup, I'll give you that too.

Ok wow. By then I'm sold. We chit chat a bit and I happily signed a fair bit of moolahs away.

Cross my fingers now it's really Idiot proof, else I gotta complain to Uncle.

First snapshot from my new toy.

H1n...what?

So Veron is down with apparently H1N1. Bugger me, I caught the flu bug too. Don't know if it was H1N1, and frankly bless the doctor who told me to fight it off without tamiflu. All I got were clarinaise and panadol. 39 deg fever is no joke, but here's where western medicines no help, traditional chinese cures are best. Lots of chicken soup with ginger, and of course the infallible Ling Yang as well as traditional cough remedy. Handy to have TCM halls near the house (privileges of HDB living, woohoo).

The thing about being sick, is one has no energy for anything. Even surfing TPF (not for Veron though).

So flu is gone, and as Veron staunchly believes, we cannot move on to afterlife until we get the BLACK BOX (or rather she does). So there's a strong reason to live. Meanwhile this haze is making my head pound.

Maybe I should start teaching my dogs to fetch me remedies from the TCM hall downstairs. Hmm.

Love

Love is when one is alerted to one's dog behaving oddly in the wee hours of the night, walking around like a drunkard.
Love is when you give your beloved pet some privacy as he retches his dinner onto his bed and continues to the floor.
Love is when you understandingly and patiently wash the soiled items and mop the floor at 1am in the morning.
Love is when you realise either one or both dogs also peed on the rug (one takes a close sniff of the rug to verify. The familiar pong of stale pee. Euuwww).
Love is when you lovingly pet and soothe your pet as he hangs his head in shame and embarressment, his shoulders hunched and tears streaming from his eyes.
Love is when you reassuring tell your dog it's ok to retch in your room even as he struggles hard not to make a mess.

and meanwhile the bimbo is behaving like a bimbo as usual. Clueless and totally insensitive.

The Bis is getting old. And it's times like this it dawns that he has reached his senior years. Can't help wondering how much more we have left together.

Chubby Hubby's Spam Fries

Man. SPAM has never looked this good. Well, when it comes to Chubby Hubby, anything is possible. Dang it I'm vegetarian.

A Martian: Lazy vs Stupid

So Men from Mars and women are venusians. I think my Martian is from some part of a Mars village called "Don't move your ass". C lives in a nice row of terrace houses just 100 metres from all the glory of Katong food (chicken rice, laksa etc). So when one is hungry, I assume he could walk out and buy all sorts of good yummy food.

No. When C is hungry, he raids his fridge. What does he find? An old, unrefridgerated easter egg chocolate. A carton of milk of unknown origins. Orange juice of unknown expiry date. A packet of curry made from godknowswhen. And then he eats them all. Because he's hungry. Why can't he walk out to food places? It's too far away. Drive then I say, it's just round the corner. He says it's too much work.

The result? Massive tummy ache. The thing is, a sensible person would know not to ingest food when the combination will give a tummy ache. For C, when the choice is either go hungry 5 mins more drive out for food vs eat expired food now and get massive tummy ache. His choice is always the latter.

Go figure. Martians are dumb methinks.

Unless one has an iron stomach like Holly.