When in Rome.

Am a HUGE fan of Spartacus: Blood & Sand, even though the title reminds me of when i saw a sanitary pad on Sentosa.

A drama series on slavery, gladiators, brotherhood, greed, sex and violence. I am sure i've learnt alot about history from this banned show.

Like:

1) Servants are at the beck and call of their owner. They wear metal collars like dogs, a permanent fixture. The servants even help with the foreplay, eliminating the efforts of the husband/ wife.

2) Gladiators are often prisoners of war, slaves bought for that purpose or criminals sentenced to a Ludas (gladiator school). Even as a gladiator, full of pride and glory on the battleground, they can still be treated and degraded as gigolos by the very rich and powerful wives of the Romans.

3) Some movies depict the King giving a thumbs up or thumbs down in deciding a gladiator's death. However, that is historically inaccurate as the industry was merely dramatizing the hand signals. Thumbs up do not signify life and thumbs down do not signify death. Instead, if death is ordered, the thumb will be stuck out to the side in the manner of a drawn sword, fist closed.

If death is spared, the thumb is is tucked away inside the closed fist, signaling the winner to sheathe his sword.

4) The Romans do not wear toga all the time. Toga is formal wear, thinking that they wear toga always is like us wearing tuxedos and bow ties always.

5) The Romans often throw lavish parties to show power and weight, instead of decorating their premises with balloons and streamers, they like works of great art. However, at such short notice, sculptors cannot complete decoration in time. As an efficient alternative, they will order their slaves to paint their entire bodies grey and stand very still while holding large fishes.

Lived the Spartacus dream on the weekend at a friend's birthday. Zsofi Tapas Bar in Dunlop Street gave us a very spartan rooftop. An unlikely venue in Little India, it serves the best Sangria (white wine with apple and strawberry bits) i've tasted! With a rooftop where a DJ spins, it is certainly a undiscovered gem.

Got the new haircut and curls from Phyto!