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