Heroes Finale

I watched the first season finale a couple of days back. All along it has been a rather interesting series. The last episode, however, I think was rather disappointing.

- The battle between Sylar and Peter could have be better. Peter didn't use any special abilities then. I would rather expect telekinetic battle. Otherwise why would Peter be the only one who can stop Sylar?

- The way Sylar got stabbed was too easy. He should have been able to avoid that as Hiro didn't appear close enough. I rather expect that Hiro could use more teleportation ability to confuse Sylar.

Overall, I think the battle scene five year in the future was more interesting.

Barber Business

Labor cost has been always more expensive here in Italy. And so it affects the services sector. It is also true for haircut. It took me some time to adjust with the price of S$8-10 for haircut in Singapore. And now it is 13 euros at the lowest.

In December, I got scissors and with a friend cut each other hair. Didn't work so well. That makes me appreciate that hair pruning business is not so easy afterall. Now in May, I went to a proper Italian barber.

Went in Monday afternoon. The barber was closed. No sign whatsoever.

Went again Friday morning. It was open. As I approached the counter, the guy (who does not speak much English) start opening the appointment list. Not bad, so here people make appointments for haircut. I got to go back after 3 hours.

I only know the word 'taglio' to cut in Italian. So he showed me a photo album letting me choose the hairstyle I like. After half an hour, we were done. And now as summer approaches, my head sure feels less bulky.

Cooking Chronicles 6: Rendang

For this I don't really know how to make the spices. What we did was we order some Indonesian food stuff from www.tokoindonesia.de and have them sent to Italy. Thus we share the shipping cost.

With readymade spice, it is really easy. Just dump everything they prescribe and boil. It takes a long time though waiting for the water to dry under small fire.

Tried twice, one with beef and another with pork. The beef version tastes better because pork did not absorb the spices as much as beef.

Paris Trip (1): Disaster

It's already quite outdated as the journey was last month. I was busy (and lazy) to write anything till now. The plan has started as long back as December for the trip and waited with expectation.

All the energy seems to fade away even before we reached Paris. The reason being the six hours flight delay which made us depart at 12 midnight instead of the scheduled 6pm. And they delayed the flight in block size, every one hour. Enough of flying with myAir.

So we reached Paris Orly at 2-3 in the morning The hostels were already closed. Metro closed. Few night bus in operation. And we dropped somewhere in the city with our luggage.

And then we walked around Champs Elysses at 4 am while waiting for the morning sun. And by the time we reached our hostels, we need to wait(or sleep) for some time before we can actually check in. So much for a budget travelling.

Italian Beuraucracy

Before coming to Europe, I thought that the more advanced the country is, things can be done faster.
Not here in Italy it seems.
Just went today for the police to do formalities for Italian permit of stay. It was quite a long wait.
I arrived in September, submitted the application. In December they told that there were processing changes and we need to submit to Rome instead. Some 60 euros extra were taken in the process. So I submitted the application to Rome and getting back an appointment in May.
In July, I will (hopefully) be able to get the permit of stay.
This is not of much use then as I will be leaving after two months. Had I not have the Schengen visa, I may be locked inside Italy.

Back to blogging

It's been a while, last month many things happened. Went to Paris for vacation. Had some first and really bad experience with budget carriers. Got feet blisters which turned into infection. Stayed at home for a week. Catching up with work. And courses. Yeah a fine month it was.