Playing the piano

N now helps himself to the digital piano :S he knows exactly which button is the on/off button and he also knows the button to which the collection of pre-recorded songs are located. His absolute favourite is Twinkle Twinkle Little Star. I think we never go past song no. 3. he immediately plays Twinkle Twinkle again. *argh (pulling hair out)

above is an old video taken in May.

biatch!!

I was dressing N on Sunday morning for church.

N: Biatch, papa Biatch!

Me and Jake looked at each other. Our face tried to contain the laughter and at the same time horrified at where he's picked up this colourful word. As far as we are concerned, we don't even use this term.

I picked up his belt to use on his jeans and he got even more excited.
Biatch!!! he exclaimed.

SO........BIATCH is BELT~!
*PHEW!!!!!

To confirm, I asked him, what's this (showing the belt)

N: Biatch, Noel Biatch.

So I quickly correct him "B-ELT".

Drumming

This must be my 10th attempt uploading this drumming video. I had to change to another clip as the previous ones was slightly bigger. *Annoyed.

Here's N with his 'real' drum. He has drummed on biscuit tins, on books, on dvd boxes, anything.

17.05.08 to 18.05.08

Back in action now with my travelogue. Feel a bit ashamed that I might not finish this on time for A.
From Florence, we continued our journey to Rome via Vatican City. I am excited to visit the Vatican Museum and Sistine Chapel. Our tour guide told us of long queues to the Vatican museum and we were truly blessed as there was hardly any queues when we went. The vatican museum is vast and extended ..it went from marble statutes to ornate paintings, sculptures and even the ceilings were beautifully painted. I wish I had a tour guide that could bring me through the museum.



We took so many photos and it's been incredibly hard to trim down to just a few to put on a blog. The collage consisted of my favourites:The painting of "the Creation" by Michaelangelo in the Sistine Chapel. Jake got told off by the security guard for taking the picture. The corridor of the museum and another tapestry of the resurrection of Jesus taken in the hall of Tapestries. Below is the Spiral staircase in the museum.

Soonafter, we grabbed a quick pizza from a trattoria outside Vatican City before walking to St Peter's Basilica.What can I say...the whole complex is ginormous, and I keep watch for the Swiss Guard. I read about them in Dan Brown's novel and make a mental note to look for one when I am in Vatican City.

There were masses held in the Basilica and it was THE biggest Cathedral in the whole world. Dress code was very stringent and we had to pass through security before being allowed inside the Cathedral. We also visit the tomb for the popes within the complex. The cathedral is just awe-inspiring.

After St Peter's Basilica, we met up with the rest of the group and had a walkabout tours for the attractions in Rome. We had a quick walk to the Pantheon, the ancient Roman temple before it was converted to a Roman Catholic Church. As it was nearing dusk, the church was closed. The special feature of the Pantheon was the dome with a opening or oculus (aka a hole) so all year round, the church can be filled with puddle of rain water and shine. I also inserted picture of the 'opening' and the altar of the church which we took the next day. We then walked to the famous Trevi Fountain and finally at Piazza Navona. We then walk into the alleys along the piazza to find our dinner.

As we were in Rome, of course we wanted to have PIZZA and PASTA:P We had sausage pizza (the most unappetizing pic in the collage but still tastes good). Jake went for the seafood rigatoni and I went for the vongolle spaghetti. The servings were pretty big but we were hungry , we finished the pasta and pizza and went for gelato at the gelattria.

We headed back to the campground after that.

18.05.08
Below is some random pic I took of the campground. The Laundry facility and bar/internet cafe were situated very far away from our cabin. By that, I meant they were situated on top of a hill and we were downhill, so it's quite a bit of a distance to walk there. Ditto with the toilet/bathroom.

The next day, we took the train to the city of Rome. Apparently Rome's really notorious for pick pocket. One of our groupmate was pick pocked in the daylight by a small kid. He brushed her off and she attempted to steal his wallet the 2nd time in bright daylight.

Today it's a real rainy day. We had to buy umbrella from street hawker since our previous ones were mutilated by the torrential rain in Barcelona. The places we went today were the Spanish steps. Then it was pretty much free day and we have to catch the train at a certain time so that the coach can send us back to the campground. We were given a list of attraction. We decided to visit the Capuchin Church of the Immaculate Conception (1645), located on Via Veneto, near Barbarini Square. The church has a crypt with bones decorated in all sorts of ways and the bones belonged non other to the monks from the Capuchin order. I have attached the link to the photographs of the crypt.

Rome also has many 'water' fountains and we were told they have existed since the ancient roman civilisation day and it is okay to drink from it. The dark church pic belongs to the Capuchin church.

We went back to the Trevi fountain and threw more coins to ensure our returns to Rome someday in the future before going to the Colloseum. We had a guided tour by a very knowledgeable lady today. Before the tour started I grabbed a takeaway pizza from the train station. It was a ham and mozzarella pizza. It's probably about 6inch wide and the shopkeeper just fold them in halves before wrapping them up for you.

Our tour started at Roman Forum. The rain has since stopped and now the sun is scorching hot. I remembered using my umbrella to stay away from the heat. One of the fact that I remembered was the Roman Forum was at its prime around AD 50 and by AD 500 it was abandoned, plundered, in ruins and forgotten. It was amazing to see many centuries later, excavation and restoration work was done and the place reemerged.

Then we went to the famous colleoseum. It's another gigantic roman attraction. It is also the place the gladiators fought. You could see where the gladiators (slaves before they became gladiators) and animals were kept on the bottom level. The spectators can sit as high up to near the roof.

After the colloseum, we caught the train and shuttle back to the campground. According to my diary, we missed our tour coach so had to use the paid shuttle to head back to the campground.

Dinner that night was very nice. However, I stopped my practice of taking pictures of my meals on campgrounds. We had roast chicken with pasta, salad and icecream for desserts.