Southern Campania tour - Day 3

The last day of the tour brought us to a buffalo farm & the coast. It also spelled a day of shopping for me (not my original intention, really).

Tenuta Vannulo
This is 1 of the most important farmhouse producing buffalo dairy products. In fact, it was one of the founders of producing buffalo mozzarella. The farm is purely organic, so we had organic mozzarella, gelato, etc. Of course, there was the tasting of freshly-made mozzarella, which was delicious! When I popped it in my mouth, I could taste the rich & fresh milk and it slowly melted into what seemed like a really tender piece of beef. Of course, I ate the gelato made with buffalo's milk too. Mmm...

It is actually a high-tech farm. Each buffalo has a collar with a chip on them and when the time comes for milk to be squeezed (by machine) the chip is scanned & info about the buffalo's health is sent to the info centre as the milk is being squeezed. Even though each buffalo is numbered, they have their own names and the farmers could remember each by name! Can you imagine more than 300 buffaloes! And they said they were a small farm. Anyway, the buffaloes were not given human names, but names derived from something that happened the day they were born.

The dairy products sold here are only sold on site, so people who wanted the cheese would have to come here. Also, we were informed that mozzarella should never be stored in the fridge. They should be eaten on the day it was produced or the latest, the 2nd day. They were supposed to keep well in the water they come in (water extracted when the fat is separated from the milk). Putting it in the fridge turns the cheese hard.

And here sparked the 1st of my shopping spree! I bought a cute little leather bag which cost Euro 160. Yes, I forgot to convert when I bought it which made me realised I had actually spent S$300! Well...anyway, the farm had only just started producing leather goods and the owner had called in a designer from Florence to design the bags.

However, there is always a sad side to things. As this is a dairy farm, it does not need too many male buffaloes. Hence, male buffaloes would be sold to other farms, as food, etc. or killed.

Amalfi Coast
Next & last stop would be the Amalfi Coast before we went back to Naples. It was a long ride from the farm, but there was much scenery along the way.

We saw some terraces that were planted with lemon trees. In the past, people here were poor & this was 1 of the few things that could grow up in the mountains here. however, because of this, we could now have limoncello and various delicious lemon products. The lemons here are bigger than our fists!

Upon reaching Amalfi, we were given some free time for lunch before visiting the Cathedral of Saint Andrea. The guide recommended the lemon cream at 1 of the sweets shop, which I promptly visited. It was delicious, sponge cake with a custard filling, covered with lemon cream. Given the free time, this started me off with another round of shopping. 1 of my tour members told us about a paper shop and I went to visit it. Bought a journal and some mini-calendars. The funny thing was that after I left the shop, it closed for the day! I was joking with my colleague that maybe the amount of purchases made by our group (librarians) were enough takings for the day! :P After that, I bought some souvenirs (lemon stuff).

After that, we visited the cathedral. It is of Gothic-Baroque style. It is said that the remains of St. Andrea lies in the crypt. Also, some days of the year, there are special ceremonies held where the sweat of the saint (miraculously in liquid form) would be distributed using small pieces of cloth to believers. Other relics were also available on display. We were also told that some of the Greek/Roman columns (e.g. from Paestum) had been moved here for "recycling", i.e. "taken" here by people past to build the cathedral. It seems this practice was widespread for a while in the past.

Well, after the cathedral, it was back to Naples again. Along the way, we stopped at some ceramic shops (which was also a famous product of the Amalfi) and I bought some ceramic dishes. Anyway, we got our last view of the beautiful coastline.

Well, I guess that's all for the trip.

Southern Campania tour - Day 2

Grotte di Pertosa (Pertosa Caves)
The 1st stop of Day 2 was to the Pertosa Caves, situated in the green landscape of the Alburni mountain of the Cilento National Park. The caves were formed by many years of river flow & also beautiful stalactite & stalagmite conformation ("salt" columns). We started off on a boat and docked to carry on on foot. Beautiful, but a little dark with no flash allowed, so photos weren't good despite some artificial lighting placed at certain points. In the hot summer, it was a naturally cool place (all year round) with a temperature of about 18 degrees Celsius.

After the caves, we went for lunch at a farmhouse (Fattoria Alvaneta). It being a Sunday, the guide told us that on Sundays, the Italians would go to farmhouses for lunch. Here's a view from the farmhouse of the landscape & some of the food. If you check out the ravioli, it was the biggest ravioli I had ever eaten! 1 piece filled the plate! And the guide told us that she had requested that only 1 be given to each of us knowing we were small-eaters. My God! if you compare it to what we usually ate...
In any case, it was a really heavy lunch...

It so happened that there was a group of people celebrating the graduation of a friend who finished his law studies. My group (not sure if it was the wine or simply the natural mood of all) decided to sing him a congratulating song in Italian! The person was very happy and treated all present to champagne.


Carthusian Monastery, Padula
After a really long lunch (2.5 hours), we finally left the restaurant & proceeded to the monastery. Unfortunately, it started raining (the 1st rain I met since the start of of my trip). The monastery was situated near Salerno in Padula and dedicated to St. Lawrence. However, this monastery no longer had monks. It is a World Heritage site.

Well, what was funny was the giant omelette machine u see below in the atrium. It was built for a festival a couple of years back to replicate what the monks of long ago did to welcome the king when he visited...that was to create a giant omelette. However, this modern-day gadget was a disaster and failed to achieve the desired results. Hence, the machine has been placed here ever since.

Another thing observed were the many blank spaces seen on the walls. These used to hold paintings, but were taken down when the Baroque period came about (the plaster period).


The guide also told us about the different levels of monks. 1 level was those who had chosen to live a life of silence, only to pray. All they do was to stay up in the moutains to pray, alone & don't meet or talk to people. However, monks or not, they still needed to eat and maintain the monastery, so another group of monks would be the ones who were more "secular", i.e. they would meet people to buy stuff, etc. Hence, this became the splits in levels.


During the tour, we came to the confession room, which was where confessions were made in the presence of everyone (yup, not the booth kind). then someone asked what sins do the monks commit up here? Then the guide started to tell us the wine story. A long time ago, the monks in the monastery engaged in agriculture too, and 1 of the things they produced was wine for sale. However, there was a set rule that they were not allowed to drink wine. In any case, when they brought the wine to sell in the market, it was discovered that the volume of wine for sale did not tally with that produced. Guessing what happened, instead of punishing the monks, the rule was changed. Haha...

Southern Campania tour - Day 1

Over 3 days, we visited a number of places in Southern Campania as part of the post-conference tour. I'll just do a short recap.

Mount Vesuvius
The 1st stop was to climb Mount Vesuvius. Ok, we didn't exactly climb all the way up, but the tour bus brought us up to an altitude of 1,000 m and then we started our ascent to the summit/crater. It was tough-going, especially since I'm not well-exercised & this being the 1st place to go (no warm-up). But it was memorable simply because it's Mt. Vesuvius! I've never been up a volcano before. As we climbed, we got ourselves in the clouds. The view was really beautiful as we saw the panoramic view of surronding towns & cities. My photos don't do it justice as it was a little cloudy.

Interestingly, this summit is actually the "new" Vesuvius. The old one (now called Mount Somma), which was much taller, had the top blown off on that fateful day almost 2,000 years ago and the current one actually "sprouted" up from inside the old one. It has erupted a few times since those days (but not as serious as 79 A.D.) but is now dormant. But who knows when?

One precious moment I had when making my way down (I was walking alone then) was the sudden dawn of the peace & quiet around me. I could only hear my footsteps on the gravel and feel the air around me. It was a nice feeling.

Herculaneum
Next up was Herculaneum, the "resort town". Was really excited as like Pompeii, it was destroyed by the eruption, except it being nearer, not just ashes, but lava covered the whole town. However, because of this too, the town was more well-preserved than Pompeii & you could still see the food & wood still around! Though blackened already.

Herculaneum covered a smaller area and people went there more for recreation than anything else. It being smaller also meant we could cover almost the whole area as opposed to Pompeii.

The people then had thought Vesuvius was just a normal mountain as in those days, the old Vesuvius had a peak rather than the rather obvious crater now. So when it happened, the people thought it was just an earthquake. In fact, the ash & rain actually went on for some time before the lava came.

Here, the skeletons found had no plaster injected around them but was in their original form, huddled together.

Paestum
The last stop for the 1st day was Paestum, where we could visit the ruins of a Greek settlement (yes! Greek!). So what we saw were the famous architecture of the Greek temples (everything else was removed by the Romans who usually respected only the places of worship & tombs). These were the Temple of Athena, and 2 Temples of Hera (adjacent to each other). All temples were built with the front facing East (rising of sun) and back facing West.

The temples were in the Greek Doric style (see the columns - as opposed to the Corinthian style) and in fact, there were 2 types of Doric styles present, the classical Doric style & the archaic Doric style.

Although Paestum was not in a volcanic zone, it was susceptible to earthquakes. So how did these temples survive the earthquakes for more than 2,500 years? 1 reason was the way the columns were put together. They were not of whole big blocks of stone/rock. They were in segments with a hole in the centre where a bronze rod would be placed and each blocked stacked above. This allowed the columns to move a little during earthquakes such that the shock would be absorbed/distributed.

In the centre of the town, there lies a tomb, buried with only a roof showing. The Romans didn't want to remove it, but had instead, when they conquered the land, took care to mount a hill over it and thus the tomb was preserved till now. The amazing thing was that 2,000-year-old honey (well-preserved) was found in the tomb! The guide explained that it was likely to be a memorial tomb as there were no remains inside. Also, it probably was for a hero because honey was believed to be immortal food as pure honey did not decay, and thus offered to heroes.

Another insight was that this whole area was originally marshes. But when the Greeks came, they managed to drain the whole area to build the settlement. When the Romans came, they too were able to keep the place drained. However, after the Romans, those who settled here were not able to maintain it & the place slowly became marshes again and was not liveable (they shifted up to the mountains). Hence, it was not discovered until later, by a buffalo farmer who used the temple (which was hidden) as stables for his buffaloes. However, a historian(?) soon realised that it was a temple and the full glory was slowly revealed. In fact, Mussolini was the one who ordered the draining of the whole area in this region eventually(which left behind fertile land & of course more land for him). Thus, we can see the ruins now.

Hee...my camera went out of battery at Paestum and needed to use my handphone for some.

Conference Days 3-5

I had initially intended to document each day, but looks like I've failed! Haha...

Just a quick sum-up of the remaining days. As the days went on, I had a better feeling of the conference & more interesting & relevant sessions were available (we could select sessions to go for due to concurrent sessions). More on digitisation projects, online music collections, etc. What really caught my attention were the digital libraries of music instruments. It's something new to me rather than just book collections and some of these were really nice, even including the sound of the instruments! I started envisioning something for the music ensembles of our region, like the Javanese gamelan, Thai pi phaat, etc.

We also visited the National Library of Naples. It was really old & some interesting finds were the Herculaneum papyri, which were preserved in carbonised form...looked a bit like charcoal though.

But by special method, they could be unrolled & viewed under microscope for the inscription. Seems like they were about music!
Also, their collection are so old (in a good way)! I mean the ones that are being used on open shelves are like centuries old! And many are actually older than our oldest book in the National Library! Haha...the differences in definition of "rare".

After the National Libray, we visited the San Carlo Theatre. It was about to be renovated so many of the furnishings had been removed, including mirrors inside each box. The mirrors in the boxes were for 2 reasons: 1) To give more light in the theatre (reflection), and 2) such that everyone would be able to see the royal family from their seats at anytime.

Hmm...think that's about what I have or recall. Now for the post-conference tour!

Conference Day 2 (22/07/08)

Found some of the sessions more useful today. Maybe I'm starting to adapt to the conference already.

Had lunch at a place that had some seafood available. More for the benefit of my colleague who wasn't used to Italian food. It's fine with me coz the place sold pasta & pizza too, which was too huge to order on my own! Looks like we'll be having lunch here besides the option of fast food. We also decided that we would probably skip dinners since we have heavy breakfasts, tea breaks & lunch. Saves money too! :P Can also go back to hotel to rest earlier.

Also, we finally found a supermart today! Actually, I found it earlier coz on our way back to the hotel on Saturday evening, I saw someone carrying a bag of groceries walking out of the street. Unfortunately, it was closed on Sunday (most shops don't open on Sat & Sun there) and we didn't visit it yesterday. But today, we went & yes! confirmed it was a supermart! Bought water at Euro 36 cents (about S$0.70) for a 2-litre bottle! This was so much cheaper then what we bought at a snack bar - Euro 1.50 (S$3) for 1.5 litres! We also bought some peaches going at a rate of Euro 1.50 per kg. We only bought 4 peaches, which came up to only Euro 88 cents (S$1.60). Saved money & no need to "smuggle" fruits from the breakfast bar already. :P Haha...that's what we call cheap thrill.

IAML Annual Conference 2008 - Day 1 (21/07/08)

We started the conference proper at the Expo Centro Congressi Terminal Napoli, Molo Angioino, Stazione Marittima. There was a short welcome session for new delegates before the opening address.

For the most part, most of the speakers spoke either in a foreign language or English in a heavy European accent, which was sometimes not decipherable. Fortunately, for some, the slides were in English.

There were only a few Asian delegates which basically consisted of a few from Japan, 1 from Taiwan, 1 from Hong Kong (the latter 2 presenting papers) and my colleague & me. So just imagine how out-of-place I felt. Well, maybe it was also partly due to the cost of coming to Europe, even though the conference fee wasn't that much.

Well, I admit that I felt a slight tinge of alienation/biasness from other participants. Maybe it's just the language barrier and not to mention wondering if most of them knew where Singapore is located.

I formed in my mind that we should have a similar conference for the Asian region, not to mention a similar association, especially since Asian music & its culture is very different and thus problems different. Got to research if 1 already exists though.

After the sessions, I felt like it's going to be a long week... 4 days more?!

Pre-Conference Day (20/07/08)

Visited Pompeii
My colleague & me signed up for a 3-hour tour to Pompeii, which was a 20 min drive from Naples. The guide was really amazing! She knew so many languages including Mandarin & Japanese!
Bustling under the Roman empire rule (it used to be a port), the whole city is now in ruins, thanks to the eruption of Mt Vesuvius back in 79 A.D. which covered the city with ash that suffocated those who didn't escape. The guide showed us "highlights" - places like a bakery, brothel, the forum, residences. There were still some wall murals, mosaic & decorations still visible.

Of course, going to Pompeii means going to look at the corpses. There were only 2 we saw on display, and contrary to what I had perceived previously, they were in a "whole" form not because the ashes had hardened on them (what was I thinking!), but because archaelogists, in an attempt to safely remove the skeletons in 1 piece, injected a special liquid plaster to fix the form. And thus, we see the form of the last moments of the dead persons' lives. Most died of asphyxiation due to the ashes.

I found out too from the guide that the "caves" of refugees with bodies huddled together were actually not at Pompeii but at Herculaneum. Good thing we're visiting there in the post-conference tour.

Well, at least 1 of my "must-see" places in the world is now fulfilled.

After the tour, we went for lunch at a place recommended by the bus guide. It was supposed to be good for buffalo meat. However, my colleague doesn't eat beef and Italian food's not her cup of tea, not to mention I couldn't read the menu & the staff wasn't well-versed in English. But she did try when I ordered a pizza which was huge! It's like our medium-large pizza but for 1 person! Some more only Euro 4.50.

Opening ceremony & registration for conference
It was held at a cathedral, Chiesa San Pietro a Maiella, Naples. An introduction of the conference was given and mainly emphasized the importance of holding the conference in Naples.

Off to Napoli!

Im flying off to Naples, Italy for an overseas conference in about 12 hours and strangely, I don't really feel like I'm actually taking an overseas trip. Maybe because it's for work. Being someone who's a little afraid of flying, I don't even feel the jitters that I normally do!

Anyway, I realised I had not really read up on what Naples is famous for (besides Pompeii), so, I went to Wikipedia to read more. Ok ok, I was looking more at the food section coz anyway, I'm at a conference, and secondly, post-conference tour is already set, so no need to read too much on sights right?

And guess what! It seems pizza started from there! It also seems that Neapolitan cuisine is well known for its rich savoury dishes & it's famous for pizza, pasta & seafood (it's a coastal area). Hmm...desserts include (what else!) gelato and some pastry kind like zeppole, baba, sfogiatelle & pastiera. They are also the producer of limoncello (a lemon liquer)! Haha! oh no, writing this is already making me hungry. Yummy!

Ok, hope I'll enjoy my stay there. Till then!

1st Garageband Meetup

We had our 1st GarageBand (GB) meetup last night at SUNTEC's McCafe.

At first, we didn't know who or if anyone would turn up, but in all, 6 of us did.

It was a fruitful session to me, seeing that I'm still very "blur" about the features & functionality of GB. Learnt some new stuff...hope I remember them by the time I return from my work trip! Haha...it felt like Ivan was giving 1 of his workshop lectures. But there were some exchanges of tips, which was good.

The only problem was that McCafe was very noisy so it was a bit hard to hear the tracks & samples clearly. Probably next time we can book a venue somewhere (library?) or go to a quieter cafe to have our meetup.

Will You Sing Again?

I had recently written a new song.
Since I won't be able to present at the upcoming Songcraft session on 18 July, so am posting it here first.

Here are the lyrics:

Is it solitude you seek?
Is it comfort to be?
Why the darkness
In the voiceless pit?

Is that silence I hear,
A grief stifled
Echoing the vacuum
Of a broken heart.

Chorus (x2):
Never the joy again
Never the song again
Only enclosed by dim grey,
Forever dumb and weighed.

Closing:
Will you sing again?

© 2000, 2008

Background:
I actually wrote the lyrics as a poem for a poetry workshop I did as an elective in my Uni days. So recently, while trying to get some inspiration, went to dig up the folio and this was a poem I could put a tune to.

It's about someone who has lost a loved one and is grieving over it. The “voiceless pit” is the heart. It is silent in emptiness, in a world of its own. The pain it feels can’t be expressed. Will the heart ever be alive and sing again?

If I recalled correctly, I actually wrote this like God was actually counselling this person and closes with asking the person's heart to sing again.

PS: With the recent events, I wish to dedicate this song to my friend who's heartbroken.

A Wolf In Sheep's Clothing

My friend recently broke up with her boyfriend of about a year. They were even planning to get married!

The man is a total creep. I can only describe him with 1 word - "gigolo".

You see, he had been cheating her all this time. Can you believe it? He was actually living in with another girlfriend for 5 years whom he claimed was his sister. My friend didn't find out till last weekend, on the day she was supposedly to go for a trip with him, coz that girlfriend called her up. Fortunately, she found out before going on the trip...or else I don't know what would have happened. Heard that he also has various other girlfriends (e.g. in China?!) and guess what? They are all supposedly richer than him. So he sponges off them.

I think the worst part of it all, is that he uses his religion to hook gals. He even uses the different schedules of masses & the ability of attending different churches to plan his schedule. He professes he's a Catholic but he does this type of thing. You see, my friend gave him the benefit of the doubt because he's a Catholic (you know the "sister" claim - she had her suspicions earlier). How can someone who claims to be a devout believer of God do something like that? He has brought shame to the family of God and God himself.

The Kin and Jason Mraz

I've been really hooked on music by The Kin and Jason Mraz lately and I can't help it!

The Kin

I discovered this duo when they added me as a friend on myspace. I became a fan instantly. The duo is made up of a pair of brothers, Isaac & Thorry Koren from Australia, but now based in US. Initially, I found their songs familiar and realised that they had songs featured on Army Wives and also Moonlight. Currently, some of my faves are "Together", "See", "Great Divide" and "Nowhere to Now-here".

Unfortunately, I went to Gramophone yesterday and they didn't have their album...hopefully HMV will.

Jason Mraz

Actually, I didn't really take notice of his songs until I went to an open mic session some weeks back and a couple of people presented his songs. Then I discovered his songs were quite nice and there was a tinge of "African" beat in it, if you know what I mean. So recently, I've been digging his songs and really love them...I find that his songs actually makes one feel happy!

Found 1 album on emusic, so will download that soon once my next month's downloads are activated. Hmm...wondering if I should go buy his latest album or wait & see if emusic will have it later.

And what's more! He's coming to Singapore in August for Singfest! Hmm...should I go? But the tic is $150 leh. Quite pricey, especially when it's at Fort Canning.

Some other artistes that I'm a big fan of:

Sufjan Stevens

Fauxliage

James McAvoy

OMG! I think I'm going gaga over James McAvoy all over again.

The 1st time I saw him was in Frank Herbert's Children of Dune a couple of years back, which was a miniseries shown on Hallmark channel where he starred as Leto Atreides II, the heir to the throne, who "sacrificed" himself at the end. I think this was the role that made me have the deepest impression of him.

At that time, I must say I was "smitten", especially with his eyes of blue. Following that, I didn't really follow much, but I did catch him as Macbeth in the BBC's modern day version of Macbeth set in a kitchen. Then also, there's him in The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe as Mr. Tumnus, Robbie Turner in Atonement and now Wesley Gibson in Wanted (which I just watched & enjoyed it tonight).

And guess what? He does fencing (me too!)! And is musically-inclined!

Aahhh.....

Alternative path?

This question recently popped into my mind (I think it did before, but guess I didn't really answer it): what would happen if I were to leave my current job. No, I'm not considering leaving lah, just a thought. I mean, what if 1 day God decides to take me away from it? Probably prompted by my recent promotion.

What can I do after this job? Somehow, I see no other alternative than to serve in full time ministry. No, it's not like ministry is like a "backup" plan, but I think if that really happens (i.e. leave my current career), it is God who is calling me to do so. In the first place, He put me in this current career! So when it's time, He will start closing the doors on me in this area just like when He opened all the doors for me to step into my current job.

The question is, will I recognise it. And secondly, will I obey. I hope that I won't be too wishy washy about it when the time comes.

IAML conference 2008

End next week, I'll be flying off to Naples, Italy for the International Association of Music Libraries, Archives & Documentation (IAML) Annual Conference.

So excited and nervous. Many firsts for me:
1) 1st time visiting Naples - and it is where 1 of my most wanted places to visit is...Pompeii!
2) 1st time going for an overseas conference sponsored by my company
3) 1st time I am travelling alone...well, a colleague is going too, but I only got to know her because she's going for the conference. So it's almost like "on my own". Previously, I had only travelled with family & friends (only twice!)
4) 1st time travelling in summer. Most trips I'd ever taken were in winter & in the past 2 vacations, spring.

Well, the conference lasts from 20-25 July, but have signed up for the post-conference tour which is 3 days, 2 nights. I guess you can consider it a short vacation...I've not had a holiday since last April!

Promotion

Yeah! Got promoted. Still a "librarian", but it's good that I can move on to the next reference level/grade, which means up my salary scale too. So yes! Got an increment too!

Haha...based on my calculations, think the 1st payout of the increment would be fully utilised with giving treats to family & friends.

Just want to thank God for it. I believe He's the one that's blessed me with this chance to even work here and for favour with bosses.

Hmm...maybe I should go & get my XBox now & Guitar Hero.

National Day Parade 2008

Happened to catch some shots while there were rehearsals.
These 2 shots were a little blue coz I forgot to turn off my incandescent white balance.

Loops:

Heart:

And finally, the flag!

Isetan Hokkaido Fair - Hinoki-ya, the travelling band

It's been a while since I last updated and realised that I had forgotten to put this up!

I took half-day off about 2-3 weeks back and it so happened that Isetan was having a Hokkaido fair and a Hokkaido band, Hinoki-ya, was invited to perform. I was just in time to catch their gig, by chance. Here are some pics from it.

It was interesting as the lead (the centre guy with the flowery shirt) had a wide array of instruments and some I've never seen before! Then, this was the first time I see taiko drums used as like the regular band drum set.