wonderfulest day every wednesday!

Its been a long Tuesday and sofar Wednesday as well.. Thought that by expecting the fast to end this week, the week would digress faster…lol. Oh well. A lot has been happening, many people were here on Tuesday, as there were new cruise ships docked. The visitors have been delighted with the freshly, energized and newly pleasant smelling Sonic dome. While many others have been treated to the presence of Da Wu. Many liked his works ad complimented on his ability to portray the Asian culture. An Asian couple from Shanghai was amazed at how Vincent’s works are portraying a sort of deity. And asked if many actually prayed to the figure. Its good that visitors are making the connections themselves, in the attempt to understand the artwork, but its also a pity that most of them might have misconceptions and disillusions.

A lady from Scotland engaged us in a very long conversation, how she visited Singapore and how she fell in love with the city. She ate, according to her ‘the forbidden fruit’ (durian I think…) and also bought an apron where it illustrated the many fines signs of Singapore. She went about how Singapore is much cleaner than China, and almost got caught in this debate with a Chinese Student from China. She was a bit biased, but I think that China, has its equal share of strengths, which she have overlooked. But she was very nice, Deb walked with her and introduced the artworks to her, and stayed in the dome for the entire duration of Zul’s piece. She’s very chatty. And when she left she gave Deb a pear which she got bought as a token of friendship. Also, she mentioned that next to the palazzo there is an Antonio Vivaldi orchestra she will be attending tonight. She said we must WATCH. In her own exact words, “its like you died and gone to heaven”. We made a trip down to check it out. Looks good. We book tickets for Friday’s performance. My very first ! I’m gleefully excited!

Theres also this guy who keeps coming to the palazzo and handing us pamphlets, of the New Religion. He a very religious guy who preaches about some new religion. Quite scary, but interesting at the same time. He’s pamphlets are amazingly vivid, full color and amazingly descriptive. Will take a pic when we have the time. According to him, he’ll come again someday to give us more pamphlets. Maybe this time we’ll take a pic with him and upload in the blog…lol.

On Tuesday we bought our shoes, and are well on way to keep fit… (we can only hope).
I bought an asics shoes, nice leather for only 39 Euros, but not really for running, but what the heck, it’s a NICE pair…lol. Deb bought herself a very nice Adidas pair, specially for running. So we will go for a run this weekend with Andrea and probably kick a few balls of soccer with his friends as well.. Time to stop eating and start exercising.

On the cooking side, we did some local delights, stir fried spinach, and also roti john… we know we know.. we have to indulge in the Venetian delights, but we are cooking mainly coz we want to save up for our trip to Rome. Besides, we have our basic intake of Calzone, Pizzas, wraps, Kebab, and many more… Maybe we are just typical Asians..haha. Oh well, whatever it is… FaStING will be over on Saturday, and we will be able to have lunch like everyone else. Rofan is coming this Thursday.

And the plan for our next day off? We are going to many places within Venice, churches and museums and bask in their magnificent glory. Will update when we get back,

In the meantime… enjoy the coming end of a working week! Wahoo…!

Love
.ryf / deb

The guilt trips

And so...Ryf and I haven't exactly been feeling too well. First it was me, came down with a horrible sore throat and cough, then had a runny nose. And just when I was getting slightly better, poor Ryf got ill. He looked so miserable and maintained a strict diet for himself. He excluded all sorts of dairy products and cold drinks (i bet it was the 2 slices of Nutella sandwich that he ate the night before that got him all sick). To make things "better" we had stayed up a little later at night watching TV with Andrea and slept late, as a result, Ryf and I weren't able to wake up at 4am to have our breakfast (We had to eat before 5am due to the fast). However, Ryf did manage to tolerate not eating at all and being sick at the same time, I take my hat off to him! We had kebabs the for dinner.

A day later, we're all feeling much better. It had to be the healing powers of the kebab! it was a darn awesome kebab wrap!! One day, when we get another one, we'll be sure to document that magic moment! Along with the wonderful tasting kebab, came the mighty guilt trip with the relisation that: WE HAVEN'T EXERCISED IN THE LONGEST TIME!!! So we started hunting for some running shoes. They're pretty pricey i must say, but as for me, it's a pretty good timing that my trusty little beagle had chewed a huge hole in my running shoes at home. So time to buy new ones! Ryf's been having a tough time in deciding which pair to buy. Seems to me he prefers the women selection. =) (and he glares at me as i type this) Me on the other hand, have been a little too fusy over my choice plus i refuse to spend anything more than 60 Euros.

Both our parents have been really helpful (thanks to skype), they deliver useful recipes to us, in the fear that their poor chilren might starve. Ryf's mum taught him how to cook this absolutly delicious dish, Kentang Dadu Dadu, which is potatoes with minced meat. My mum gave me the recipe for doing up our own pancake mix (pancake mix very rare here, we found one that was 4 euros though). So off went to Billa again, with a list of things to get. We had checked some words up in a translation tool thing to make sure we knew what stuff was called in italian.

Last night, we were all set to prepare the pancake mix, with our consultant chef, Andrea. Until, he spoke.........instead of getting baking soda, we had bought YEAST instead. Anyway, we went ahead with it, and had pancakes this morning. How was it you ask? it was good....only a little hard, and tasted a little more like bread. oops.

OKay, leaving the food out, and talking more bout the important stuff, such as the Singapore Pavilion.... Da Wu was around yesterday (7th Oct, Sunday) and he did a performance. Many people were present for it. There was even this one lady who has been coming down here enquiring bout Da Wu's next performance. She was present for the performance. There was also another lady who told Da wu that his performance was in conjunction with her birthday and that she feels the people gathering for the performance, in a way was celebraing her birthday. Great response, many enjoyed having rice on the banana leaf. We bought a can of odour eliminator for Zul's dome. It smells a lot better now, no more smelly feet.

For this coming week some things that we are excited about. Rofan, our friend from ICA is coming on Thursday, shes bringing us more sardines and more instant curry powder....oh yea and also ryf's mum packed some kuih goodies coz he'll be spending hari raya here...Sadly... lol. Another thing is that fasting will be over this coming friday... so we can have lunch like normal people here do.

Ok, closing time...
debs / ryf

The pavillion drunk is BACK

The pavilion drunk made his appearance at approx : 1310hrs. We are just observing his actions in the plazzo. Hes grinning to many people and looks very tipsy. We are just waiting for him to get in the dome and start drinking. then we call the security. Will update soon!

The moment we've been waiting for...



The pavilion drunk left at exactly : 1329hrs. He was asking us if he can charge his music at our desk. We told him to ask the security guard. He made his way to the guest book, and start to leave his comment. He spent 10mins doodling in the guest book. What a masterpiece it turned out. Someday it might be a valued drawing...u never know.

Anyhow, he was bobbing his head up and down while drawing in the book. Deb caught it on video but its too bad that we cant post a video on the blog. But we have a pic of the artwork.
Enjoy...

Lace it Up

Friday. Workday
We have settled in for work today. Yesterday was a terrific day off with great weather and a fantastic trip away from bustling Venice….And yes, a wonderful late morning…lol.

Da Wu came by the apartment to collect the banana plants. He’s doing a performance on Sunday and he’s using the closing day to prep his works. His plants are mighty heavy carrying it from one point to another. Soon after we left for the Mexican Pavilion and Bill Viola’s Ocean Without a Shore, before heading out to Burano, Murano and Torcello. Our day plan is Packed!!. Ocean Without a shore is very arresting. True to Viola’s style, he uses the gaze to engage audience, this time in the theme of Death. 3 screens portraying different people each time emerging behind a water screen in synchronization, one after the other. Amazing, disturbing, arresting. The Mexican Pavilion was good as well. Very interactive, Favorites were the light-bulbs on the ceilings that pulse according to the visitor’s heartbeat. There were about 100+ bulbs recording about 100 visitor’s heart pulse. Another was using shadows to tune in frequency of the airwaves. So its like yr shadows generate the volume and amplitude and strength of the signal. Pretty cool.

We thought of making a 4 island hop. The Cemetery (we heard good things about the view in the cemetery ), Murano, Burano and Torcello. But we started out late, so we only managed to get to Burano, Murano and Torcello. Murano was ok… we visited a glass workshop were they were creating art sculptures. But the prices there were pretty steep for my Singaporean wallet, lol.. so we didn’t get anything at Murano. Steep prices manz! And we cant afford to pack them in our backpack, and lugg it all down to Berlin and Rome. We went Burano, and was greeted with many colorful houses. Seemed like a coloring book gone wrong, but the colors made the whole place more vibrant and exhilarating. We walked about for a bit and realized that most shops are the same. But most laces are handmade as illustrated by their grandmothers and mothers that they display prominently knitting those intricate laces. Quite a sight. We bought a few souvenir lace coasters (although it’s a lil redundant as lace absorbs moisture and lets it seep to the table.. but oh well…) Deb bought a glass pendant from Murano for her aunt. Very nice and outstanding colors, and best of all, hand made from Murano. We headed back to the vap for our next stop Torcello. We reached Torcello at around 6ish, and we walked in a bit and decided to head back. The journey to central Torcello is at least 15mins, plus all attractions. Museums and all probably close around 7 – 7.30. We decided to headback to Venezia, Didn’t go to the cemetery though as it was going to be quite dark for us to see anything.

We headed back for some food. We walked past the first shop and bought our Kebabs. It was Halal. Yea for that. We were near the Rialto, so we thought we stopped at Billa to get some groceries. Time check 7.55. We ate outside Billa, to avoid the closing time at 8.30. At about 8pm, we threw away the kebab wrappers and walked towards Billa. The staff there was infront of the entrance and prevented anyone from entering. BILLA IS CLOSED. Damnit… and here we were just outside eating our food… Bad luck.

Because of that we decided to make ourselves feel better and treat ourselves to some gelatos. Yummy. We then head down to Rialto where we decided to make full use of our half day ticket, and take the ferry down the canal. Quite a nice boat ride home.. Quite a nice day I might say…

But today, im coming down with slight flu. Must be the Gelatos! Lol. Been sniffling constantly till Deb calls me sniffles. Nothing much happened today. Theres this sweet old Italian lady that commented that the exhibits should have Italian explanations instead of the English ones, as the biennale is held in Venice, Italy, we should accommodate their local language. Good point I think…

Otherwise, its off to an early bed for me, and hopefully tomorrow is a better day.

Ciao Bella…
.ryf / debs


1. Goofing around while waiting for the ever so long VAP at Torcello
2. A night / grand canal view of the Plazzo where The Singapore Pavilion is Held. Plus the Acadamia bridge.
3. Colorful Houses in Burano.
4. Mexican Exhibit, each bulb resonates to each visitor's pulse
5. Mexican Exhibit, Shadows corrosponds to the selection and strength of radiowave freuqencies.
6. Our very own chocolate + banana crepe. (Made with tortilla wraps... and chocolate)

Currrrrryyyyy !!

Blueuah….

We have Curry!!! Da Wu just arrived yesterday, with a couple of his friends, two from Germany and another from Singapore. He was so kind to have brought us curry powders and also some other spices… We can finally cook CURRY. That’s if I manage to get the ingredients right to cook a kickass curry. Da Wu arrived to install his works. Will update on that when its installed, but hearing from what he mentioned, it sounds pretty interesting.

Weekend swept by pretty fast, as there was a record high in the number of visitors on Sunday, a total of 654 people. Aside from that, it went quite fast because we met a fellow Singaporean, Andrea. He’s a 19 year old cook from Hotel Baur, and apprentice undergoing a course. He stays really close to us, 2mins away. Surprisingly he came to the Singapore Pavilion to meet fellow Singaporeans, so he looked us up, and chatted with us. He had weekends off, so he spent the Sunday with us at the booth. He’s good as he speaks Italian, and can understands questions and respond to them in Italian. On Saturday, he brought us to an Indian restaurant…. Real nice TANDOORI, and also Beryani. Quite a walk away, Ganish is located across the canal near the train station. The price is quite reasonable and the servings are reasonably large. We ordered quite a bit. Debs had a tandoori mix, I had the tandoori chicken, while Andrea had mutton beryani , samosas (which was gooooood) and also stuffed prata. How perfect can it be when our table overlooked the canal, so it’s a nice, warm and cosy setting. The meal was scrumptious, and for the first time since we came to Venice, we were FULL and satisfied, we can’t eat anymore. Very Good meal indeed. When we got up, we thought we were going to the counter to pay, but instead the owner bid farewell and goodbye to us Apparently, Andrea paid for dinner, and persisted that he didn’t want us to pay him back, but we passed him some money afterwards.

On Sunday, we decided to stay home and cook for dinner, so we invited Andrea for dinner. Pretty intimidating tho as we will be serving a cook, who is more proficient In his craft than both of us put together…lol. We made chicken, potato porcini pasta. And since we didn’t buy any pastas, we took the leftover pastas, that the previous interns had left and made a ROJAK chicken, potato, porcini pasta. Tasted awesome to me, and he said it was nice as well. He brought PSP, so we just basically hung out in the apartment.

Today he starts work again, and his schedule clashes with ours, so we can only meet him weekends. We’re glad, we met up with him, as its nice to meet fellow Singaporeans here in Venice. ITS VERY RARE…

…Today we will attempt to cook curry. …ATTEMPT ! (lol)

ryf / debs

1. Our friend, Andrea.

Smacked by an Italian

Helohh…

All refreshed from our day off, a lil tired from the lack of sleep, but we made it to work on a wet Friday morning. We headed off to Verona yesterday, on a 2hour train ride there. Passed by many interesting landmarks. Overall, we had a blast away from Venice and work altogether. Time to stretch our legs and do some walking.

We dozed off couple of times in the train tho, bobbing our heads (sorry ryf…not deb) frantically sideways on other passengers. But train ride was rather comfortable and exciting. One mistake that we think every tourist makes is stopping at Verona Porta Vescovo, a stop just before Verona Porta Nuvo. We got out and made or way to the train station, wanting to buy a ticket when we observed, where are all the tourists?!! We checked our train tickets and it said Porta Nuvo. So we waited for the next train, Toilet at the stop was good tho! So it was kind worth it…I think. Lol.

We reached Verona, and decided to walk down to the Arena. We could recognize the place, as it was swarming with tourists. We were drawn to the Arena instantly. Also because, there was this dude dressed in Roman Uniform and ushering the people in. We took a video and a photograph of him and he came up to us and smack our bottoms. Deb thought it was cool that a Roman / Italian hottie smacked our butts…lol. The arena was “ok” lah… nothing spectacular as we expected it to be. There was a concert being held there at night, so they were testing the sound system there…Sound system was excellent. We climbed into the arena and there were loads of people inside. Mostly all tourists. And then it started to rain… it was freezing cold, and the wind kept blowing our umbrella shut.

Then we made our way down to Casa de’ Giulette, where the story of Romeo and Juliet unfolded. We sought to see the famous balcony where Romeo and Juliet meet. Again, we were welcomed with hordes of people. Think he school let the kids out early today. There was this broze sculpture of Juliet and people were taking pictures of her while touching her boobs. It was elieved to give those that touch them, good luck in their love life. Other than that, nothing spectacular with the balcony, I believe they have capitalized on the Juliet story to a point where it becomes very overrated. Although there were nice fridge magnets there…lol. Anyways, we made our way to Castelvecchio bridge, where this massive bridge spans across the Verona river. It looks amazing, like in a fairytale where castles and knights rule. Deb met with a puppy there which she found totally adorable.

We then started to head down to the train station, not wanting to miss the 6pm train. As we head back, we passed by this toy store selling Trudi stuffed toys. You see… I have this bunny toy foofoo, and hes a Trudi toy. And we decided when we embark on this journey in Italy to find a replica of foofoo, as Trudi toys are made in Italy. We wanted to get foof a female partner… yes..WE ARE CRAZY….In any case, we went In the store to find if theres anymore foofoos, but there was none. Although, the owner of the store informed us that there was another Trudi store back at the Arena, so guess what we went on a hunt for foofoos the remaining of the day. Haha. But sadly, even that store did not have foof’s model (.. foofs quite old actually…shh). So we headed off our 2hr journey back home…

Splendid day out of Venice, I might say. Its very refreshing actually … oh wells, here we are at our desk again. 2weeks have passed, and how fast time flies when ur having fun!

Ciao!
-ryfus / dubbs

1. Italian dude that smacked our butts
2. Introducing Foofoo.
3. Picture taken with Castelvecchio bridge at the background.
4. The famous balcony of Juliet
5. The Arena in Verona.

Scissors-Paper-Stoned !!??

Heloooooo…

Its been a bad day sofar… been raining like crazy. And we started out our day storming the heavy rain to get to work. Darn Venetian buildings that have no sheltered walkways…lol. We got to work today soaking wet, and with wet shoes and socks!! And now all our toes feel like icicles..Brrr.. Also the morning was pretty slow, as there weren’t much people due to the rain.

Last night, after work, the both of us took a walk down to the Billa near to Rialto to stock up on our food supplies. It was a pretty nice stroll back, discovering new things each time. This time, we discovered the Venetian version of Daiso (the 1 Euro shop, though some stuff were 2 Euros). On the way back, we (although Ryf claims it was juz Deb) couldn’t resist the incredibly seducing Chocolate & Banana Crepes. We also made a quick stop by the café/bar near our apartment to grab a hot slice of mozzarella pizza (according to Ryf’s words, it was “ DAMN SHIOK”). However, when we got back to the apartment, Ryf seemed somewhat full. So we debated over who should eat the last bite of the ever so fattening pizza, and figured after awhile, arguing didn’t work. We decided to resort to the most civilized manner in solving disputes, (one of which I feel most countries should adopt to stop wars)……We “scissored-papered-stoned”. That, my friends, is how our day pretty much ended. (Ryf lost)

Nevertheless, it is after all a Wednesday, and tomorrow comes our day off! We shall again attempt our escape to Verona.

OH OH OH!!! Mr. Phils Skyped us today! We miss prata plaster! And laksa, and nasi lemak, and nasi padang, AND BBQ STINGRAY!!!…..the list could go on forever.


CHAO CHAO. =)
US.

PICK-ME-UP n MAKE-ME-HAPPY!!

Hello!

Its been a hectic Sunday. Apparently, news ships have taken dock and there have been a swarm of people coming into the exhibit. Counted altogether 587 (refer to count sheet…haha). Many interesting people we have to say, theres one in particular, an art praticioner from Cyprus, Patricia Pitts. Born in the US, she chatted with us quite a bit. Being retired, she and her husband Bob, took a long cruise down various places, including Greece and Venice. She mentioned how she feels that artists are a lil more sensitive to the surroundings and materials and how they’re (artist) are always a step ahead. She told us about how she does ceramic paintings, and that she has two children whom she’s proud of, practicing art. She sounds so excited to have seen works form the Singapore Pavillion. She mentioned also that she would be stopping in Singapore sometime in January.

Other interesting happenings during work included our separate count sheet to count the number of people who trips as they enter the exhibition. Believe me, many people do not read notices. Although its quite an amusing sight, but we sympathize on those elderly ones. For Dawu’s works, several gave good feedbacks about how it reflects strongly the Asian culture, although but his banana leaves on the table are drying up. He’s coming down on 29th of September, to install more things I believe…oh yea and bringing us curry powder (I hope)….yey! Zul’s dome, is ever so meditative, many people were snoozing and rolling about in the dome. There was someone who even thought that the people rolling about were robots, which are part of the artwork, lol. Its very amusing, but the smell of the dome is getting a bit more unbearable, somehow it smells of bad fish, maybe it’s the smell of people’s feet..haha. But we aired the space when we close for the day, so its getting better… hopefully. There was also one occasion that the window to the balcony was opened, think someone actually opened it to take photos. It actually intrudes the artwork, so we are doing more frequent rounds around the space.

We have been busy cooking and conjuring up new recipes, although its been rather painful swallowing some of our experimental works. EXCRUCIATING… Lately we made Tiramisu, recipe from Aaron which is rum-free. Incredibly delicious, and FATTENING as well. Lol. While we were eating, Deb made a comment, which is shockingly true, since we didn’t bake the Tiramisu, it means we are actually eating RAW eggs. Ewww…. Well, on the brighter side, it didn’t taste of the raw eggs at all. (just FYI, we tried the Tiramisu about 4.30am this morning, when Ryf had to have his breakfast as he’s fasting).

We have discovered a cheaper way of indulging in gelato, Ryf made a trip down to Billa Supermarket and bought back this sinful tub of cacao gelato which was on a special offer 1.99 Euros!! But of course, the gelato at the Gelateria shops is nicer.

With the ice cream treats and sometimes a little chocolate chip cookie or two, we can now enjoy a nice little supper, sitting by the television watching cable TV. However, everything we watch is either news, weird bollywood stuff, occasionally happen to flip by what seems to be a low class sleazy channel…but among all, I must say that the only entertaining channel seems to be the cartoon channel….in GERMAN. We watched a Tim Allen movie, and they had dubbed his voice in German, it sounded sooooooo weird. Ryf fell asleep watching it. I decided to watch Pooh & Friends instead (it was still in German). So on the overall, We’ve both been watching a lot of German channels, cooking almost everyday and meeting all sorts of people and answer occasion weird questions.

Ciao!
Ryfus n Dubbus.

1. Tiramisu for Dummies. Instructional images
2. Count Sheet. (587 visitors on Sunday). record high!
3. The bridge of Sighs, reputedly named after the sighs of condemned prisoners
4. Statue of some dood on a horse at piazzetta St Marco (will get back to u on that..lol)1329
5. Very nice cosy, romantika Ristorante at St Marco Pier.

Wobbles Gobbles

Hey Guys,

It’s the start of a new working day after our first official day off. (not that we do take unofficial day offs …but u know what I mean.lol ). Aaron, was leaving for London on Thursday morning, so we bid him farewell, and thanked him for his great hospitality and his cooking recipes, ESPECIALLY the tiramisu ! And also his excellent recommendations on the places he found interesting. Yesterday, we attempted to take a trip out to Verona and Padua, but we missed the 10:51 train and we had to wait for another hr to take the next 1. We decided that we rather spend that time, exploring Venice, as our 1st expedition. We went around ala’ Amazing race with our backpacks, tripods and cameras, and went on a hunt for all the other exhibitions / pavilions.

We came to the Thailand exhibition, and was kinda disappointed as it was closed at 11.30am. So we took a peek at the key holes in an attempt to see a brief view of the works. We then moved on to Slovenia, Estonia, FYR Macedonia, Australia, Luxemburg, Moldova, Iceland. We were impressed with the artworks from Patrick Mimran, from NY, with his giant sized images of parking spaces in NY. Its amazing to see that there are a lot of text there that serve to assist you, but it seems to confuse you more. When asked if the images are ‘Photoshopd’, the gallery sitter, said the artist claimed that its an original photograph, not retouched at all. The colors are brilliant. There was also this artist Susan from Australia, who did a video piece of the East Java (Havoc), and addresses the issues that they are facing with the mudslide. I did not realize the issue, until it was showcased. Its very sad to know that your neighboring country is in this dilemma, and also realize how fortunate we are to be living in a place such as Singapore.

We went walking and walking and walking, and we went took the time to shop around and marvel and drool at their amazing chocolate selection, as well as their giant pizzas, which are about 2euros/slice. There’s also this artist we discovered, a local delight from Venice himself, Livio De Marchi. He does remarkable works of everyday objects, from JUST wood!!! Works ranging from raincoats, underwear, dirty socks!!! Its simply breathtaking. We went to his workshop, but he was not working today. Deb would’ve loved to meet and probably learn a thing or two from the great artist.

Past few days working has been good, we met with many people, as usual, but one I particular surprised us. LITERALLY !! Theres these 2 arab looking guys, who came up to us to enquire bout the price / rates of the artworks, if say he was interested in buying the artwork. We told him we didn’t have the list of prices and that he could contact NAC or the artist directly to enquire in purchasing the artworks. So we were curious and asked him which piece he liked, and thought of buying. He flipped through the catalogue, macam (IKEA catalogue like tat ) and opened up to Zul’s page. He pointed out and said he wanted to buy the Sonic Dome. When asked if he’s for real, he said casually, yea… why not… (at this moment we were flabbergasted). The Dude is only in his early twenties, and he has the cash to buy a Sonic DOME…..!!!... Must be an oil tycoons son. Lol…

So its back to work for us. Enjoy the images…
-ryf / debs

images

1. Livio De Marchi' jacket
2. A bar, with BRAs as their ornamental decorations.
3. Home-made Ciabatta loaded with Turkey ham, chicken, egg, lettuce, tomatoes, cheese. A mouthful, even to describe…lol
4. Debb, immersed in a garden of GIANT FRUITS.
5. Panoramic picture of the sunset at Fondementa Zattere Ponte’ pier

A wet weather program

Hey guys,

It’s been a wonderful almost 6 days in Venice. The weather is getting colder as the day pass. It has rained the past 3days. And you can see people running about seeking shelter, as there aren’t any covered walkways. Kind of an exciting sight to see people scampering around Campo Santo Stefano. We took our 1st walk in the rain yesterday, on the way to the supermacato. REALLY REALLY cold… brrrr… And all our clothes that we have put up 2 dry, needs yet another day, as the weather keeps pouring.

We have been having hot meals at home, cooking pastas, grilled fish, omelets with mushrooms, onions and potatoes, not forgetting OUR local delicacies which we miss so much, such as fried rice (thanks to mum for packing those instant sambals….lol). The dreadful thing is that, this is the month of rahmadan, and im fasting, so im waking up like 4am in the morning just to eat, and deb has graciously accompanied me in all of my meals and cooking them with me. It was pretty hard to get used to, but I think now we are slightly better at waking up. And the plus point is that we save money. Lol. We took some excellent pictures, and specially love the night shots, lugging around to different bridges and alleys with our tripod, camera and remote.

Seems that we are nearing to a week of our internship, and we have not gotten bored of it yet, seems that its going well… and work-wise, we try to occupy our time, doing rounds, and chatting up with interesting people. Its an excellent experience, interacting with an international audience. They have many things to say, view or even witness that we cannot even do in our lifetime. We met Josephine, a musician that frequents his trips from Venice to the greek islands via a cruise ships, enlightening audiences music from his saxophone. This Russian guy, whos visiting Venice, and insists that we visit Pardua, since its such a lovely place. And Erica Tan, who was from Singapore and now based in London, that thinks that the exhibition is a wonderful display of local talent. She came here 2x, one with her dad and showed him around.

There were also feedbacks from people, one about Jason’s chandelier’s 2000 lotuses. Hisayuki Amae, a graphic designer from Japan, commented that the lotuses that Jason is selling would probably be more effective if he created 2000 lotuses and crash them and another 2000 for sale, to emphasize the death and rebirth, if the work revolves around Buddhism. And few also loved the sonic dome where they feel the tremors and the bass of the sound that they are experiencing. Many have dozed off to its meditative sounds, and many couples were caught coupling under those romantic lights. Haha.

It’s a worthwhile experience and we both are enjoyn ourselves so far.
Tomorrow: day off, we’ll be heading to Verona and Pardua for a day out of the city and probably island hop around Murano, Burano.

Catch u soon!
Ciao!
-ryf n debs

The new interns signing in!

Hey guys, its ryf and deb here.

Its our first solo working day, totally independent and on our OWN.

Its been great to be immersed in the gorgeous scenic and densely tourist-populated St Marco. It seems that people of all cultures emerge and share with one another, creating a whole unique experience, you’ll never know what language the next person u meet, might speak. It’s a whole different atmosphere, where streets are indulged with cafes that patrons are enjoying and savoring their meals while basking in the company of people they love. Alleys that u’ll never know where it will lead you, drawn by the flicker of lights to the beautiful but melancholic sounds of buskers playing the violin. The lovely and obedient dogs that Deb absolutely loves. Oh… and not forgetting the abundant gelatos available…and what a wonderful selection too! And what wonderful picturesque scenes unraveling that aptly suits the romantic ambience.

Having settled here for 3 days, we quickly got adjusted to the environment, and the food. Basically we would make frequent trips to the supermarket to buy groceries and cook them ourselves. Pretty good stuff. We went out for our first dining with previous interns, Aparna and Arron. Food was great, although, needs a lil adjusting to. A bit of a drawback is that we do not drink, so we are missing out on the finer side of being in Italy. Oh well, theres always the gelatos!!

Working wise, its pretty straightforward, but its been a blast meeting new people from all around the world. Its amazing how sign language is an internationally recognized language. Haha. Lots of feedback, and many bravos were given for the exhibited works. Its so good to have this response from an international audience, resonating encouraging feedbacks. Truly amazing.

Well done artists.

usurpation

on wednesday the new interns, ryf and deb, arrived.
we've been overthrown!!

gracefully though...

today was their first day of work...
we showed them the ropes.
... and the view from the palazzo.

planning a big feast tonight.......siccilian sword fish with rigatoni.
...aaron is cooking.
i'm gonna bev it up...

and have crowned myself now the new pavilion drunk.

ciao venezia, till carnevale!

xxx

how sweet it is to be loved by you

yah it worked!
so this was the opening boat event...
i wanted to put a pic of aaron up watching from our balcony in the palazzo but he said he'll just take it down...
he's a little shy.

there have been some pretty big names in the pav...
likke the director of the Ufuim Museum in Japan...
and someone wrote in the guestbook that she's a princess...
>translated< (she wrote in italian)
"i am a princess of the city castelo.
very beautiful.
a kiss for everyone.
helena the princess"

... not so sure about the authenticity of this one..

there's quite an intense influx right now of french students i think....
will be back shortly.

xxx

frozen fruit danger

... that was aaron's last search on google.
he's a little ridic.

we are in our last week of working here in the pav!
... the time has gone by ridiculously quickly..

last sunday was the regatt a storica!
it was just spitting images of how one would cariciture Venice....
the colours, sounds, an d throngs of people just added such grandeur to the whole experience!
becuase we had to close early,
aaron, Dawu, and I managed to have the balcony to ourselves!
...looking out onto the grande canal... quite spectacular...
aaron and I like to call ourselves the king and queen of the palazzo.
... we are quite appalled we are going to be overthrown soon.

... anyway, back to the regatta,

there was a private party downstairs int he garden of the palazzo...
where during quiet moments of the race.. aaron and i would casually stroll downstairs,
and schmoooze our way towards the drinks... juice.
we waited for about an hour for the canapes...
they finally arrrived with prosseco and rossinis (like a bellini but with strawberries... i love them)
it was the grandest entrance made in that party.
people ruuushed towards them.
aaron and i may have over done it a bit... we ate about 50 canapes each.
you knnow how one gets carreied away with things....

so the regatta lasted about 4 hours.
first was the big procession
with all these amazing ornate gondalaz with teams of people in matching outfits rowing down the grand canal in unison,
other gondolas had the gondoleer and then a couple dressed in victorian dresses waving to the crowds like the queen of england. ..
and then there was the odd regualar gondola with overwieght toursits.

it was really quite a sight...

something is up witht he websuite and i cant' upload a picture!
will do i t as soon as poss.

xxx

Da Wu's Performance 03.09.07

Portrait of a pizza, Da wu's arrival, Regata Storica and Film Festival

This is what a bored intern does when confronted by the remnants of what was lunch a minute ago - tape it onto the glass window overlooking the courtyard of the palazzo and admire how the afternoon light filters through the patches of grease.

Yum.

Speaking of culinary pursuits, a recent discovery of soya-based gelato at Il Doge(modest selection inside the shop at Campo Santa Margherita) has got my asian lactose-intolerent bowels all revvvvved up with creamy delights of
Cioccolato al peperoncino, pistachio, and vanilla-riso... Rumour has it that an amazing gelateria has opened up at Mestre(mainland) and locals have proclaimed it the best ever. Address/Review to be confirmed upon pilgrimage.

Da Wu popped in yesterday after our initial surprise upon opening shop and discovering to our delight that a new performance in Little India has been added to the video loop, and other additions to the setup like banana trees arranged askew and an animation projection across the section of the floor where the steel cutout lies. It was great to finally meet the man behind the seminal 1980s artistic initiative The Artists Village, whose unassuming joviality belies his stature as a founding figure in Singaporean contemporary art practice. We had a discussion about his alma mater Goldsmiths College, where he had a classmate called Mark Wallinger, and critical dialogues/forums were recorded on tape and marked by tutors (instead of the now requisite essays/thesis). The same school today is plagued by encroaching institutionalisation and increasing student-teacher ratio, and it is hard not to romanticised its past glory.

Regata Storica, which is the annual gondolier race across the grand canal is on this sunday(first sunday of september). We are all psyched because
1)We get to close shop early (a cautionary measure by the Institute to prevent tourists from pilling into the balconies of the palazzo for a magnificent view of the race.
2)We get that magnificent view to ourselves! Some prosecco and good company... Perfecto!

Also, the end of the August heralds the start of the Venice Film Festival, where we, lowly interns, will attempt to wiggle our way into parties and openings in a bid to catch a glimpse of Woody's bald patch or Keira Knightley's bag of chicken bones. Wes Anderson is showing, and Taratino curating a Spaghetti Western retrospective... woohoo!

*Aparna is currently being interrogated by a flashy Dior-wrapped Argentinian who thinks this is the reception desk for palazzos in venezia 101, and that this little Indian girl is actually in the guise of a venetian real estate agent who can give house tours to other similar palazzos (in the same baroque interior style) at a very goot price! I have to rescue her.

très chic

so the pavilion drunk has taken his place again...
well... maybe he's redeemning himslef this time...
he;s brought a friend!
but his friend seemed pretty normal...
talking straight, walking straight...
the drunkard seemed to be.... giving him a tour i think??!
so wierd.

anyway.. THAT'S HIM!!
first time i saw him was outside hte palazzo.. thsi was the first time he was here with me.
he was fairly well behaved.. just drunken...
ubut not sleepiong everywherea dn bumping into things..
it was a bit tense when je wa s insde because i was expecting something to happen.. but it was all good.
and aaron i s off delivering the posters to the main land so it is just me!!
... am just a littttle sleepy so not much motr to comment on.,.
although the reason i'm so tired is becuase there's a communist party on now in venice...its wierd that they are coomunist!?!

anyway... will elaborate when i can open my eyes.xxx

House of Horrors

best guests ever.

PORCELAIN RESTORERS!

they walked into the first room, Jason's DHARMA...
and i think both went white.


they proposed restoring the piece... said it would take them just over 2 years. Maybe Jason would be piqued into bringing the project to its next conceptual phase?

Photos from the last week

Scene from San Zaccaria: big ass cruise ship blocking out the entire isola di san giorgio maggiore

Happy Campers