Singapore Pavilion: July 2005

Sunday, July 31, 2005

and the heat wave continues

OGGI (pron. ORGY) - 31 Luglio 2005
min: 21 °C (so NOT true) max: 30 °C (more like 35 °C)

Nat and I finally moved from the cosy Hotel Giardinetto to the hot and stuff apartment OGGI. The air is stale there and we're waiting to get the fans. We can't open the windows too much cos the mosquitoes kept flying in and we will see JK swatting the mosquitoes with his mighty hands. Well, at least we are now closer to the pavilion and shuttling back and forth would be easier. Just cross two bridges and voila, we're home.

The pavilion has been receiving many interesting people so far. People were mainly amazed by the toilet and also after some assistance by us. Nat did most of the work with the Italian-speaking tourists and now she's speaking Czech! She's amazing. I would just stand back and stare with my smattering/smittering CMI French (despite 2 years learning it).

I've made a few contacts so far and probably, I smell a family homestay too (in no order of importance).
1) Funny crazy media students from Roma who stays in the Rainbow House

2) Fashion instructor from Montpellier, France who has links with La Salle Singapore
3) Italian scientists who used to work in KKH Singapore and is back in Milan, Italy
4) Film Maker Ralph from Wien, Austria
5) George (Pron. GAY-ORG), the German product designer working in Taipei

6) Dutch artist and writer who helped themselves to a TIGER

and more to come :) I can't wait to pay them a visit if time permits after the biennale.

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On another note, I am going to the other islands of Venice; Isola di Murano e Isola di Burano OGGI. The weather is hot for now, so I shall wait till the sun sets a bit. HOOOOOT!

Will share more of the islands when I'm back. Planning to do the fried rice today, after 3 days of mee goreng and maggi for the past few days. I've just mailed back home, asking mama how to make curry puffs. I think they'll be really HOT and will sell well. Let us all wait and see .... W A I T ...

My Singapore Mee Goreng on Day 1

The Rubber Nasi Goreng on Day 2
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Afternote:
The islands were kindda dead during the weekend and had nothing to offer. While Murano is known for their Murano glasses, Burano on the other hand are known for the fancy lacework and the colourful houses. It took me almost 2 hours to get to the islands from Venice and I was totally exhausted thereafter.

Houses on the island of Burano

The Lacy Shop in Burano

Murano glass beads

The island hopping boy

F. Venezia

Friday, July 29, 2005

the day we landed in Venice

We could be the next poster boy/girl for the Biennale

And so, JK (not Rowling) and Xing are going to leave the biennale next week. The two new interns - Nat and Fariz are here to save the day for the next two months before we will be rescued by the next group of interns.

Well, it has been good so far. We have been orientated around the Singapore pavilion, been given the lowdown on the special glitches of the place, also been given a special maze tours of the alleys and shortcuts (especially to BILLA), and soon, we'll have the housewarming party.

Daily shuttle from Lido to Arsenale
It has been a week since we last arrived in Venice. I flew from Singapore to Roma and spent 2 days there with the hot afternoon siestas and made arrangements with Nat to meet on the train in Firenze to Venezia.

1) Daily Schedule ...

Nat and I will meet for breakfast each day where we will have the usual stuff. It was great at first and very *wawa* with all the presentation and the variety. After 1 week of the same ol' stuff, it is a bit stale and instead, I smuggle the bread rolls and nutella for lunch and give the excess to JK and Xing.

Thereafter, we will head to the pavilion from Lido and make our presence felt. While Nat does some of the explaination in Italian, I do my bit in French. It has been fun in meeting all the people around and the visitors, on top of the arte communications.

2) Happenings so far ...

Happening 1: Nothing much happened so far. There was my day out to Lido beach during the off day -Tuesday. It was just HOT everywhere. Not just temperature HOT but the sun was just scorching. I guess I was still jet lagged from all the travelling that I woke up just for breakfast and then continued sleeping again till about 5. Grabbed the Banana Boat Tanning Oil SPF 4, the hotel towel, my tote bag and some cash and to the beach I went. The people were rather shameless and flaunt their assets away, I would say. Guys were flashing their hot red trunks and their super short shorts when I expected them to be clad in their boardshorts like those in Australia and America. *dang* to think I shoved aside my acid green trunks for the plain black ones. Grr ... It wasn't a nice beach anyway and from the stuff I heard, there's quite a huge spillover from Marghera.
Outcome: Spilly Pollution and an almost happy tanned boy

Shots from Lido

Happening 2: Nat and I went to Marghera and Mestre. At first I was a bit excited, especially so when Nat mentions that Marghera has a hypermarket and loads of shopping. Hypermarket? Isn't Billa already an excitable market? Billa is the answer for local grocery shopping and NTUC or Shop 'n' Save but a bigger hypermarket? In the end, Marghera and Mestre turned out to be a damper and the heat wave added on to the stress of travelling out of Venice. Grrr ...
Outcome: Disappointment and thank god for the hotel air-conditioner

Nat almost lost in Marghera after a day of police station-ing

Happening 3: I was googling on the night life here in Venice and it turned out that there was nothing within the island but instead, on the mainland of Marghera, Mestre and Padova. Feeling a bit excited since the entrance for under 26 y/o will be free, I geared myself for the Gay Club in Marghera to catch a bit of drag queen show. They're always hilarious and after exploring the drag scene in South East Asia for my thesis paper, I wonder what to expect in this almost barren performance space. Of which, it was a sheer disappointment and a waste of time, other than seeing the pathetic male stripper playing with his red cloth and trying really hard to eroticise the performance with a combination of bad/almost unheard music.
Outcome: Tired and sick with bad sorethroat and unbearable headache

Oh well, I think that covers almost a lot for the happenings of the week. More to come, albeit the heatwave here. That should be a great subject to post about. Despite the unbearable lightness of being = the SUN, tourists still swarm this island of Venice, yearning for more and spending the touristico dollars or I should say Euros.

F.Venezia

Xing

I wish I understood those old women of the streets. Where do they disappear to, when gondoliers and crowds ease into the night? Under bridges? Around the station? Do they have a house somewhere? Seems impossible, unless it’s on the mainland, and that would mean money for public transport. So much of the time, there we go, the edges of our shoes grazing the riff-raff of the street. Bits of us flaking off, tags from new clothes, maybe, ice cream sticks, pushing up against the fringe on a mat. Do they have bent backs because they beg, or the other way round? If I knelt everyday that would happen to me. It’s too jarring to think about the younger ones who look about thirty. It’s nothing like LA- not the numbers or the intensity of it. But that’s partly because in Venice it isn’t an almost-culture, with areas practically designated for uneasy projections of confidence. Here the tourists blaze the trails, even street cleaners, toilet cleaners, are alive, and pulsate knowingly, ‘Ciao, come stai, va bene!’ We don’t see, there are pick-pockets to guard against and merchants fobbing off factory-made Leprechaun gold, making us pay more euros for their pizza. Where do curved sticks go, we don’t know, tourists never know. But take Mother Theresa and come up with a dirt-stained version, a bad odour, put her in a corner, bend her back more, even more, to 90 degrees. Not at the waist, but at her backbone, at mid-back. Little gaudy cards, the Virgin Mary. I have to say, passing by makes me stand straighter, like a proper old stick-in-the-mud, I’m sure. And think about it, if you’re staring at the ground, how do you move? How do you look up?

__l
I

And I buy tubes of sun block, and fuss over them. Almost makes me laugh.

Something awful happened, when I was walking down a long, very narrow alleyway, the fondamenta just a strip, way off, in the distance before me, between two jumbly houses. Daytime, cool and dark in the alley but at the opening far ahead, the light emptily happy, like a day in childhood watching an old show on the tv, and beyond, invisible but shining, the sea. Then, something appeared from one side of it, at that place way off, like a screen, a character in slow motion, at mid-level too low and short for a normal person, and not a child, because it was bent horizontally, and the horizontal part moved onto the screen first. And this is why I could hardly feel sad- because it was just like a cartoon.

I could never say I understand. Could feel, but never say, but feel. Aren’t I an old woman too? Will I be the same person when I’m earning, or rich? Will I do the right thing, contribute in waves that look correct to experienced philanthropists, channel my sources all to the ‘right’ causes?

That said, I don’t want to leave Venice- yet. I love this place too much, and other parts, too. One day I’ll come back.