The city buses in Italy have received my approval for the positioning of the entry/exit doors.

While the standard TransitLink and SBS buses in Singapore only have two doors, the standard buses in Italy have three doors – one each for the front, back and middle. The centre door is only for exit while the other two are strictly for entry. There is a ticket stamping machine each at the front and back doors.

With just this simple system, people move in from the front or back toward the centre of the bus, and end up spread out evenly throughout the length of the bus.

Further, the buses in Italy have less seating space than those in Singapore.

For a start, the area opposite the center door has not seats. It is reserved for people in wheelchairs and when it is not in use, serves as standing space for passengers.

An approximate estimation of the number of seats on the bus would be 20. Of course, the seats – either plastic or similar to those on the TransitLink buses – can comfortably seat the bigger frame of Europeans with sufficient leg room too.

This is unlike the small length of cushion on the Singapore buses that I used to have trouble perching on – I happen to have bigger hips than the average Asian – as well as being able to sit comfortable due to the cramped leg space.

At each bus stop, there is a daily time table of each bus’ arrival time as well as a rough route indicator. Unlike the bus stops in Singapore, most Italian bus stops consist of a few poles spaced along the road; it does not rain here as often as it does in Singapore.

Buses are usually crowded during the periods before and after office hours, where everyone just squeezes in and pushes against you. No one seems uncomfortable with this; it is now a way of life.

If I could, I would import these Italian buses in to Singapore. I think they work better in getting people to spread out inside the bus than other ways.

Have I mentioned yet that most buses do not have air conditioning? Granted Europe is as humid as Singapore only for three to four months a year, but this is wonderful in slightly reducing our dependency on air conditioning!

Update, July 2: We took a bus from Mestre to Mogliano on Sunday for dinner with another couple. In the bus there were curtains on the windows, providing some shade from the searing sun. Perhaps the Singapore bus companies could consider this minor addition to their buses?

Yes, we have gone through with the church wedding on June 24.

No, we are not having our honeymoon or busy making babies.

Rather, it is back to work while juggling handing out tokens to guests who turned up for the church ceremony but did not stay for lunch.

Apologies for the lack of posts for such a long period, and this short post. Will write once things are a little calmer and inspiration strikes.

For now, please visit cx-weds.com and follow the instructions in the entry titled ‘Vote for photo 39!’.

Exchanged last night between the S.O. and a PRC lady working at a bar when he went to pay for our late-night coffee:

PRC: So how come she is Chinese but cannot speak Mandarin?

S.O.: She is from Singapore and she speaks English.

PRC: So she is not Chinese?

S.O.: She is Chinese but in Singapore the main language is English.

PRC: Where is Singapore?

S.O.: It is the south of Malaysia.

PRC: So she is Malay?

S.O.: No, she is from Singapore.

PRC: There are Chinese in Singapore?

S.O.: The Chinese make up 80 per-cent of the population, then there is Malay, Indians and others.

PRC: So she is Malay and Indian?

S.O.: …

By this point, the S.O. has given up trying to explain that there are other Chinese in this world that do not come from China, and we do not necessarily speak Mandarin.

I explain to him again that it is not that I do not know how to speak Mandarin, but I refuse to speak it when my English is more proficient.

Wait until this lady meets a Chinese from Malaysia, she will be confused by how they can speak Mandarin, English AND Malay.

*cue evil cackle from me*

Have I mentioned the common fixture in all Italian bathrooms at home? It is this little contraption called the bidet.

Frequent customers at Strip would be familiar with the one that is attached to the toilet bowl. But the one found in the bathrooms of Italian homes are a separate item.

It functions in the same way as the water hose found in some public toilets, installed for the benefit of our Muslim friends.

However, I love the bidet more than the hose as the bidet allows you to adjust the water temperature for use. With one tap for cold water and another for water, you can have very hot, warm, room-temperature or cold water running from the tap. You can also adjust the nozzle of the bidet so that it shoots in your desired direction.

We have also been using the bidet to soak our feet after long walks in town. It has become as indispensable as the face basin and toilet bowl. I now wonder how I will adjust to the lack of a bidet in our home in Bali…

The last weekend was hectic: three friends from Chicago arrived late on Saturday night after a long drive from Florence to spend the rest of the weekend in Mestre/Venice.

Instead of resting after the long drive, they wanted to head out. We could not bring them to the clubs earmarked for partying, for they were about an hour’s drive away and entrance fees were ridiculously high.

We brought them instead to the Marghera Village Estate, an open-air village-gathering of eating options and live/DJ-spun music.

All of us were exhausted at 2am, but the S.O. had the brilliant idea of introducing us to Venice in the night. We walked for about 15 minutes before all our bodies and feet decided that, despite the magic of Venice in the dark, it was time to lay horizontal.

While the S.O. managed to wake by 8.30am on Sunday, the rest of us woke around 10am. After we tucked in to rissotto and spaghetti prepared by the S.O., followed by two-hours at a laundromat, we were finally ready to begin our tour of Venice!

This visit to Venice was memorable for various reasons, but the biggest was that everyone took their first ever gondola ride. Yes, even the native of Mestre, the S.O., had never taken a gondola ride in all the time he lived here.

The three friends did not want to miss out on ‘the essential tourist thing to do’ in Venice, so they decided to split the cost of 80 Euros for the 30- to 40- minute gondala ride. As each ride can accommodate up to six persons, the S.O. and I rode with them.

Seeing Venice from a gondola is immensely different from seeing it by foot. For one, the buildings look taller, more aged and less ‘hard’. It was also quite interesting to witness how the gondoliers interacted with each other as they passed in the canals.

One of our friends was so moved, her emotions overtook her. This almost caused the S.O. to join in. Luckily, he was distracted by cameraman duties and continued capturing the pretty, ugly and ordinary aspects of the city.

My pictorial imprint of the day can be viewed here, and that is about as best as one can describe such an experience.

If you are ever coming to Venice, make sure you set aside 80 Euros (approximately S$166/US$108) for a gondola ride: it is definitely a ride to remember.