St. Peter's Basilica

This place is gorgeous. The structures are massive but layered with so many details. I was wandering about in awe.

The Vatican

The Vatican is grand. There is this whole feeling of wealth and power in the atmosphere. Though I thought it was ironic to find a vendor selling Playboy magazines not a hundred metres away from the entrance of St Peter's basilica. Satire?

Anyway the past week was a blur. How does one end up having so many things to do? Thursday was a tough one. I was up at eight in the morning and had things on the entire day, finally crashing into bed at three in the morning after work. This weekend the Malaysian Society is running a cultural fair and we'll be cooking lots of yummy local food. I'm really looking forward to this and will be helping out with some cooking. The best part about cooking is that you get to 'taste' food throughout the day. I could use some proper food. All I had over the past week was cereal and takeaway. Then there are projects to finish writing up, work to catch up on and half marathon preparations which I am seriously falling behind. 

Oh Stan, SORT YOUR LIFE OUT.

L' Antica Pizzeria da Michele, Naples

I remember having an extensive debate with my flatmate Max on the origins of pizza. We never really came to a conclusion but to me the Margherita Pizza will always come from Naples, Italy. Visiting this shop was surreal. It was the same one that Julia Roberts went to in Eat, Pray, Love. Service was brisk. Looking around I spotted a good mix of both locals and tourists. The pizza were priced decently so I wasn't surprised. I liked how they didn't jump on the whole fame bandwagon and rip tourists off. 

The Italians have always given me a very good impression of their work ethic. They put a lot of passion into what they do and are proud of the quality they produce. Yes, I came to this conclusion after having that pizza. It was that good.

Kodaline @ Cabaret Voltaire, Edinburgh

Kodaline was in town for a gig two week ago. It was nice catching them live at Cabaret Voltaire, small venue which meant that we got to stand really close to them. That did not sound creepy at all. They are relatively new and getting lots of buzz after one of their songs was featured on a very emotional episode of Grey's Anatomy. I didn't get to move around the venue much so am pretty much stuck with shots from the same position.

Edinburgh does the Harlem Shake

Three nights ago, one of my best friends showed me a Harlem Shake video and talked about the possibilities of making one! Our little team of three (Noel, Rui, me) then made an event on Facebook and started inviting people. Yesterday 120+ people turned up at Bristo Square in the afternoon, braving the snow/rain.  Later that afternoon we were interviewed on Fresh Air. I have never been on a radio show before. It was unreal.

The video is now online and you can check it out below. The response have been really encouraging so far. I have no idea if it will take off. At this point I'm just happy to be a part of something like this. If you like it, share!

Sorrento: Barbeque Feast

Sorrento will always have a special place in my heart. It will forever be my favourite European city with the general Tuscany region coming in a close second. Us boys were in Sorrento for a few days, the second stop on our tour around Europe last summer. We stayed on a campsite located on the top of the Amalfi Coast, just a 20 minute walk away from the town centre. The camp has it's own beach down the hill. We usually go there in the scorching afternoons to cool off as the cabins tend to get a little stuffy then.

While exploring the town on day I noticed a few shops selling fresh seafood products. They were closed at the time and using the very limited amount of Italian I knew, found out from the locals that I would have to come early in the morning. My friends would know how much I struggle with mornings. But wake up I did. It was our final night in Sorrento and we agreed to split the cost with two other friendly travellers we met, Ana and Matthew. 

I dragged myself down to the market that morning begrudgingly. There was this truck outside the shop unloading the seafood caught by fisherman early that morning. I started becoming really excited and made my way around the shop pointing at things. Luckily they use the same measuring system so it made it easier to tell them how much I want. A good 45 minutes later I exited the shop triumphantly with three bags of fresh seafood filled to the brim with mussels, prawns, two fishes. Got them for such good value. I think I got 2kg of mussels for about 5 euros. Everything came to about thirty-ish.

Sun is up

Hey there, it has definitely been a while since I've posted up here. The main reason will be that I'm generally put off by the new storage limit imposed by Blogger. This means that I have to upload the images to a third party server and copy it code by code here. That takes way too much time. Also processing photos now take considerably much more time. The file size of the pictures taken with the new camera are humongous and takes ages to run to photoshop. I will need to sort these things out if regular posting are to resume. 

This space has been around for the past five years and I would definitely like to keep it alive despite having other life commitments which require much more attention. It's nice looking at the site stats and seeing that they are still constant, which mean you guys are still checking back to see how I am getting on with life. Thanks for the support, it is something I really appreciate and I don't think I've thanked you enough for it! On a completely unrelated note, it is a beautiful day in Edinburgh today. The sun is up. Everything looks yellow and cheerful.