A Flea Market

Flea market is a common sight in Europe but even more so in Holland. It is quite popular here where anybody can set up a stall and sell anything, mostly old stuff. It is like a car boot sale but on a grander scale. The items sold are traditionally old rubbish but attract a large number of visitors. It was estimated the total market size in Holland last year alone was about 200 million euros. So old rubbish eh!

Today we passed through a flea market set up in a shopping area near our house. There must have been over a hundred stalls in all. There were all sorts of things on sale, things that you would have thrown but may be useful and of value to somebody else. There were also some speciality stalls selling old furniture, stamps, coin collections, paintings and all sorts of things at incredibly low prices. In a way it is a great way of recycling things.

Pedal Power

We went to buy another bike today for our eldest. It’s the one on the right. It looks big, in fact as big as mine. But one of the workers in the shop recommended that size. But most important of all Fiz feels comfortable riding it. So there we are - we now got 6 bikes.

Our youngest actually didn’t know how to cycle. There I was in the morning teaching him how to paddle, balance and so on.

Incredibly after an hour he was paddling along the street like an expert. So much so that later in the afternoon I brought all the kids for a long cycle ride around the neighbourhood. Our front neighbour who is a very friendly Dutch was quite enthusiastic to see us on our bikes and especially to see our youngest learning to cycle today that he gave him a skateboard!

Few Words of Wisdom

Today Friday’s sermon was excellent. I tried to write here as in previous posts so as to remind myself what it was. Otherwise ‘masuk telinga kanan keluar telinga kiri’. I learnt that the best way to learn is to teach. Otherwise the information that you received remains passive. So in order to make it active, one needs to reiterate, thus forces one to think about it again and cements the learning in the mind and at the same time able to share with others as well.

The sermon today was given by a Malaysian Imam. He touched on the fact that when we are not in dire strait, we tend to distance ourselves from God or tend to take our duties lightly. For when we are in comfortable living, good health, happy family surrounding us, great social circle, it seems a long distance away to worry about us crumbling down and start to seek help from our mighty God. In fact it is actually a harder test compare to those who have fallen victims to all sort of catastrophe or sickness where such helplessness normally makes one really closer to God.

The second part of the sermon was on how to make use of the Ulama or Imam around us. More often than not he said they were merely used for the service of doa, makan kenduri, funeral and so on. But hardly one seeks the service for learning and increasing own knowledge. Here in Holland it has always been a tradition amongst the Bruneians to invite the Imam from the mosque to come to our houses once a week and teach our kids Quran reading and basic religious education. That has now spread out and many of our Malaysian friends have followed suit.

We are all Green

Yesterday we went on our bike to buy some groceries at the supermarket. It’s really great.

Everyday now our two daughters are cycling to the train station before taking the train to school. From there it’s another 10 minutes walk to the school. They say it’s really fun. But they said it would be more fun if the bikes get upgraded!

Ok one of the bike is a mountain bike (from Brunei) so is not really is comfortable to ride. And they want to do a step further – to cycle all the way to school. Ok I need to accompany them one of these weekends just to show how far that really is.

At What Price?

Last week Indonesia hiked the cost of fuel by around 30 per cent in response to soaring global oil prices and a ballooning subsidy bill. It resulted in strong protest.

When one look at the graph for comparison (not all the countries are included there), it’s interesting to see the vast differences in the fuel price. The graph shows the latest gasoline (RON95) price per country. The cost of raw oil is put as a comparison. Because of a lag of 2 to 4 months between increase in oil price and the effect on the pump station, the current price should be compared with an oil price of US$80-100 per barrels. On top of that one have to add refining, transport, marketing, tax etc. So anything below the lines is heavily subsidized. Most of those countries that have low prices are the producing countries including Brunei. It imposes a heavy burden on the government. It also inadvertently led to wastage and in some cases ingenious cross border profiteering.

Kid's World

Talking of my daily bicycle rides, I have now cycled for the last 10 working days on the trot, sun and rain. And I have clocked 180 km and 15 hours of cycling. So that must be good for my heart and mind.

Even our eldest got into the mood and cycled to the train station before taking train to her school.

Today was sport day for our youngest. He seemed to be enjoying the full day of activities and having picnic afterward with his friends.

And also today, Hazimah came back home from a 5-days trip to Ameland. She said it was very tiring, lots of cycling around the island whilst studying geography, the environment, the tides and seeing migratory birds passing through.

The trip was well organised, took about 3 hours for the coaches to reach the harbour from where the kids took a ferry to the island. On the Island itself, the group stayed at a hostel for the whole duration. The island is unique, similar in a way to Pulau Muara Besar back in Brunei, formed by the longshore current carrying and dumping sands while slowly forming an island.

Mahkamah Keadilan Dunia

This is the International Criminal Court (ICC). I made a mistake when ZB in the chat box ask me if I work for ICJ which is the International Court of Justice. And I replied no but said I passed through it everyday. I was mistaken. I passed through the ICC rather than ICJ. The International Court of Justice building is actually at the Peace Palace which is also in The Hague but a bit further to the North.

Anyway back to ICJ, a big decision was announced today. Pulau Batu Puteh which is just an outcrop of rocks in the water between Singapore and Malaysia you would reckon would only interest geologists. But apparently lawyers and politicians also love them. So a bunch of top class lawyers and politicians fought for these rocks for a number of years.

But today the verdict was passed. ICJ decided that the main rocks called Pedra Branca or Pulau Batu Puteh belongs to Singapore while the other rocks called Middle Rocks belong to Malaysia - fair isn’t it! The third rock called South Ledge is subject for another round of lawyer get-together i.e. more trips, more limelight. Geologist only loves rocks. But lawyers and politicians more than love these rocks, they make a career out of them. But on the serious note, that island is actually quite far from Singapore - 54 km to be exact. How SIngapore manage to win it is beyond me. Everything is possible. So what's next?

http://www.icj-cij.org/homepage/index.php?lang=en

Spring Cleaning

The recent 'summer' was a shortlived one. The week long hot period turned into rainy days in the past two days - back to the typical cooler weather one would expect for spring. But today the sun is back. Great. Time for jogging and cycling.

Today we also sent our segregated rubbish to the collection bins nearby. That’s a year’s pile of bottles in one box. And two large bags of old clothing for the textile collection box.

However, we left a few boxes containing papers behind waiting for the monthly collection this Tuesday when the dump truck will make its round.

It's a lot more civilised at home now. School exams for the kids are now over. They are now scheduled to go for school trips in the next few weeks. Hazimah is going to Ameland Island tomorrow for 5 days. Hafizah is going to Switzerland for a week in June. And our youngest Faris is only going for few day trips here and there.

Hidden Treasures

With the dwindling world resources, there are continuous tensions between preserving parts of the earth that are still remained untouched and to exploit these areas for their rich resources. And rightly so, large parts of the Arctic, tropical forests and protected areas in the world are still off limit. Brunei now faces similar dilemma. There are big parts of Brunei in the pristine jungles of Belait and Tutong that has not been fully explored for oil, mining, forestry and other resources. It’s a fine balance.

But the decision has been made. A couple of oil consortiums consisting of foreign and local players are now embarking on an expensive programme to search for oil and gas in Belait and Tutong. These are big gambles. If all goes well, Brunei will have its own Mr. JR Ewing one day!

Looking at the satellite image over Ulu Belait, one could see a big contrast between green Brunei and near barren lands next door in our neighbouring country. If you double click the photo to see an enlarged version, you could see some logging tracks have actually infringed into Brunei territory. It’s not an easy task to patrol the border 24-7. But if kept unwatched, our forest will soon be devastated by the same hands from next door.

Humbling Forces of Mother Earth

The current disasters in Myanmar and Central China are quite tragic. Cyclone Nargis, a strong tropical cyclone, caused the deadliest natural disaster in the recorded history of Myanmar. The cyclone made landfall in the country on May 2, 2008, causing catastrophic destruction and more than 100,000 are dead or missing. The earthquake in Sichuan province of China occurred 10 days later with a magnitude 7.9 on the Richter scale and could also easily have killed more than 50,000 people.

Some countries instantly sent their rescue and aid teams to these disaster zones. Without these helps, many of the victims would be left on their own to pick up the pieces and more likely would not survive long. For these rescue teams it’s their way to practice, sharpen their skill and experience a real situation which would help them better prepare when a disaster strike in their own countries. It calls for rapid deployment and massive co-ordinations, another aspect of the operation that the team would have learnt and benefited.

Recently in Brunei, we have a string of strong winds and disasters like flooding and fire victims. More often than not, we stand as curious bystanders watching the news and soon participate in another round of fund raising. It would be good when our own national service has been introduced that a fixed disaster team is set-up, that these disaster ‘opportunities’ are taken up by our own beloved country so that we could extend help immediately and perform a meaningful role in the international community. It might be the case that such a setup is already in existence. I remember we did send a small group to Aceh during the Tsunami. But it was a small army/medical/logistic group sent weeks after the disaster. In fact we sent more visitors and observers from our side to Aceh than providing additional helping hands. The khutbah on Friday was a good one, saying that one of the best things a person should do is to enrich himself with world goodness but not for the benefit on oneself but to enable one to benefit others.

Reducing my Carbon Footprints

Today, after nearly two years here, I finally cycle to work. The good weather was one of the reasons. But it was also because most of my office colleagues are doing it, and for me I really need to do some form of exercise. It took about 45 minutes, comparable to the usual bus/tram ride. Although it was still slow ride by any standard (don’t want to sweat) but I have been cycling all weekend just to build my leg power. The distance from home to the office is about 9 km, using the shortest route possible, with proper cycle lanes and minimum number traffic lights to cross. Now is a nice time to do it because of the dry and warm weather. Not sure whether I could do it when the weather becomes a bit unpredictable and too cold. In a way it’s also good way to enjoy being outside in the open.

I bought a basic Dutch bike. Bikes are quite expensive here. The reason is that they are well built and renowned brands. I bought this bike on Saturday in one of the largest bike shop in The Hague. A normal bike would cost about 500 to 700 Euros. Second hand bikes are 150 to 200 Euros but they are not many choices. Mine is amongst the cheapest at 300 Euros (that’s B$600). My daughter’s bike was even more expensive when we bought it last year. I thought of starting on a cheaper one first. If I carry on like this I would recoup the investment within 5 months as I normally pay 60 Euro per months on the bus/tram bus. And then may be I could try a more expensive one. With me in the shop was a gentleman who was testing this bike which cost 1300 Euros. It’s not even a racing bike – those are in the range of 2000 to 9000 Euros.

Straight after work I brought my staff for a team dinner at an Indian restaurant. Off I went, picked the bike from the bike shed (see photo) and off to town. After dinner, it was quite nice to cycle home especially when the stomach is full. During the ride, I realize that after all these years, always in the comfort of cars and modern living, here I was cycling home. I was actually reducing my carbon footprints. It’s my small contribution to save fuel energy and helping in reducing pollution and carbon emission. I am not alone. Millions of people around the world are doing their bits. What about you?

Canals in Leiden

This is a nice sight of Leiden, a beautiful and historic Dutch town crisscrossed with canals that are lined up by many 17th-century houses. We went here today to a fast food restaurant for lunch. Today is a public holiday but our eldest had to go to school in the morning to sit for her IGSCE Malay exam. She is still in year 10 but she is taking the exam a year earlier. She has been practicing a lot with us the parents with her ‘karangan’ and overall Malay vocabularies. Finding a Malay teacher here is difficult, although there is an Indonesian Languages and Cultures faculty in Leiden University, but the lecturers seems to be reluctant to be involved too much with outside teaching. So we opted not to then and hoping that our eldest daughter takes the initiative herself to learn Malay online or through what ever means. It all boils down to the requirement for scholarship in the future which needs minimum Malay pass. But then it is becoming difficult to get a scholarship nowadays. Even though there are all sort of scholarship schemes being introduced recently, they seems to cater for certain groups and ranks (ranting again!).

About Leiden University itself, it is the oldest university in Holland, founded in 1575. It is probably the most internationally renowned of all the Universities here. It got about 18,000 students, nine faculties, over 50 departments and more than 150 undergraduate programmes.

In Leiden today, we saw people going on canal cruise and just enjoying the weather. Its strange how people really appreciate such things which back home we too often take it for granted – sunshine and the good weather. Coffeehouses are now putting their chairs and tables outside where people sit down and enjoy their coffee. It’s incredible to imagine where all these chairs have been hidden all this time...

Orang Besi

Today, my youngest and I hopped onto a bus and headed to town to watch the new movie ‘Iron Man’. It was also our first time inside the new multiplex which has 9 screens. Our show was right at the top of the building with 5 flights of escalators and stairs to climb.

Buying the tickets was easy. There are numerous touch screen machines that allow you to select and buy the tickets without queuing. It took less than 30 seconds. The movie was shown in the biggest cinema which had about 500 seats. Today the cinema was quite empty. This was apparently because of the good weather so people have gone and crowded to the beach.

The movie itself is another bunch of expensive and ridiculous movie of yet another superhero. It’s ridiculous when somebody falls from the sky and only gets injured with some slight bruises.

Poffertjes Lekker

This is yet another long weekend. The Dutch celebrates two days (on Sunday and the subsequent Monday) of what they called Pinksteren day, a Christian feast, which falls 49 days or 7 weeks after Easter Sunday or the tenth day after Ascension. In UK it is called Whit Sunday. In any case for most people it’s an excellent excuse to have an early break when the weather is always great in mid spring. The next public holiday is a long way to go – Christmas.

Yesterday we went to town. What we like about the city centre, for a city with half a million people, is there are not that many cars on the road and to reach the city centre is like a breeze. The reason is most people come on their bike. It only takes a maximum of 30 minutes from any part of The Hague to cycle to the city. And there in the city centre you can see the evidence – thousands of bikes parked everywhere and at any available poles that people could secure their bikes.

We took the time to rest at a coffee shop and eat poffertjes. It’s a traditional Dutch treat that looks like tiny pancakes. They are served with powdered sugar and butter to make them tasty. Lekker! which is a Dutch word for nyaman. This plate costs 8 Euros.

On a different subject, it’s the wedding season back home. While here we have missed out on a number our relatives’ and cousins’ weddings. Looking at the photos (there so many wedding blogs nowadays), their weddings looked quite grand. Gone are the weddings that used to have invitations of up to 2000 people. Nowadays weddings are more for close relatives and friends. Attentions to details, comfort, entertainments, significant of the day are more the order of the day. Gone are the weddings where people just come to eat, shake hand, give the white envelope and gone without even seeing the bersanding ceremony (or to know who is actually marrying). So places like JP and Rizqun seems to be popular and fits the occasion, otherwise specialized large tents are being used if the wedding is held at home. We wish all the newly weds everlasting happiness – Adey+hubby, Saiful+Abby, Khairul+Liza.

Middle of Spring

A month could make a big difference. The first photo is at the end of March near the bus stop to our house. A month later the gloomy and deadly surrounding now turns green and lively. This is something that we love here – the 4 seasons. The day hours are much longer now. Sunrise is at 6 am but sunset is at 9 pm.

Its T-shirt friendly temperature now. Gone are those thick winter coats and jumpers. People are going to the office in short sleeve although it could still be about 12 Degrees. C in the morning.

The buses and trams seem to be emptier (if that’s the right word). More people are cycling. Today my office mate cycle from Wassenaar to the office. It’s a distance of 16 km and took him 55 minutes. And he is not any fitter than me. And he has to cycle back after work. Wassenaar is kind of the ‘Beverly Hill’ area. It’s a nice and wooded residential area. So even people from Beverly Hill cycle to work!

Heading for $200?

This week oil reached US$120 per barrels. It leaves big smiling faces to the money men of the oil producing nations. Who would imagine even during last year that oil would break the $100 dollar barrier? Who would imagine during the oil crisis 10 years ago when lots of people were laid off and oil was selling at just over $10. Indeed the world has changed. There are more demands for raw materials and energy now specially as the 1 billion Chinese and 1 billion Indians suddenly woken up and are now chasing the American dream.

Yet in this current increasing cost of living, people need to adjust their living style. The big movement now in Western world is to go green. It calls for a whole different way of conducting your life and how you can make a difference. For example there are few simple things that you can do that leads to less wastage. Like switching off lights when leaving a toilet or a room. Like using less air-conditioning. Like having less cars – Bruneian has to really kick the habit of having 3 to 10 cars in the garage!

For the Love of a Child

It’s a busy time for our kids now. They are having exams and studying hard. Our eldest also had her Malay oral exam for the GCSE….the conversation was taped and supposed to be sent to an external examiner. She should be ok. For the rest she is doing well so far. We received her first term result yesterday; all were ok except for Dutch which she got a B. Who cares about Dutch anyway!

Our second is quite an artistic and creative person. She is also doing ok in study but seems to be quite lively when it comes to drama and art. Our youngest seems to have the best time of his life. He hardly has any homework! His world seems to revolve around football. He reads only about football, play football, watch football, even dream about football. Although his team didn’t get to the EUFA final!

One way to cherish a child is to give them a great present like PS3, Wii etc. In a way it’s also to ensure your child is busy and don’t bother you! We had that conversation when we were in London. For us we made a conscious decision that this is something that our children will not be privileged to have. Our house has never had any PS2, PS3, Wii, and Xbox. The only thing our boy has is a small PSP. Looking at kids especially boys nowadays, they seem to be struggling in their studies because they are spending too much time playing games. Lately there is a sad trend in the rich world of Bruneian families. Kids are sent to study ‘A’ level in foreign countries be it under government scholarship or own money. Some of these kids struggle in their study and moral standing, let alone to appreciate what all the parental sacrifices meant for them.

A Book to Read

Nowadays I don’t have much time to read. Every time I go on my daily tram ride, I always bump onto my office colleagues and there goes my reading time. On the recent trip to Jordan I did made some mileage on my reading though. From Amman to Amsterdam flight, I spent the entire 5 hours reading this book! The story is so gripping that it was worth it. This is Khaled’s second book and he has already reached a fame status.
http://khaledhosseini.com/

Who else can tell a story about Afghanistan than Khaled who is himself an Afghan. Although he only lived in Afghanistan for only 8 years of his entire life, he is 43 now, people like him seems to thrive when living outside their own country. His first book which almost everybody have seen the film ‘The Kite Runner’ was published 5 years ago. This second one was finished last year. So he is not a prolific writer. But when he does produce one it is a master piece.

Night out at Kilburn

On Friday night, we went with the cousins living in Willesden to eat at Nandos in Kilburn. This one serves halal, to cater for the location's multi-racial populace. The place was lively and well patroned.

On the same night, results of the local council election was announced. London now got a new Mayor by the name of Boris Johnson who had beaten the incumbent mayor of the last 8 years -Ken Livingstone. The new mayor sound like somebody who originated from Russia. Looking at Wiki, it was quite surpring to learn that Boris Johnson is only 43 years old and is a great-grandson of Ali Kemal Bey, the Turkish interior minister in the Ottoman Empire around the First World War.

Going South

On Friday, we set off from Blackpool to London on the M6 via Birmingham before joining up with M1. It was quite a smooth ride - we were even on cruise mode without any interruption for more than an hour.

In all it took exactly 4 hours including a stopover for fuel. Luckily England is not suffering the fuel shortage as in Scotland where long queues were forming due to panic buying. This is due to the current strike in some of the major refineries resulting in the shutting down of the North Sea oil export line. The petrol price at the same time climbed up to £1.10 per litre! Imagine if you need to fill up your tank - cost us £56.

On the other side of the M6 motorway heading North, we saw a roadwork where the motorway was reduced to only one lane. We saw the queue forming behind, must have been 20 km long! We also set off early as up to 18 million people are expected to be on the road later on the day for the start of the long Bank Holiday weekend.

Beached in Blackpool

From Lake District, it was one hour drive to Blackpool and passed through the Yorkshire Dale Country. I spent 6 weeks some years ago (1986!) somewhere closeby here to do my summer mapping in a place called Ingleton, this place is famous for its Carboniferous limestone rocks. This is also where the famous White Scar Cave, Britain's longest cave, is located. A tour inside the cave bring you to hidden underground river system. The other spectacular sight is the walks around the many waterfalls (photo) and peaks.

In Blackpool, we stayed over at the Northern end of the Promenade. Being a weekday, the place was a bit quiet. This place will be crowded this weekend as weather predicted to be hot and coinciding with a Bank Holiday on Monday. But nowaday with the advents of cheap flights and holidays abroad, Blackpool has passed its heydays with hotels changing hands quite regularly. The amusement parks are still lively though. The Pleasure Beach park seems to have many more new rides now adays. We had a try with the fish and chips - but its no longer authentic as before when it used to be served and wrapped in old newspaper.

Wonderful Lake District

On Thursday, 1st may, we drove from Liverpool heading North to Cumbria where the famous Lake District is located. We went to the largest lake, Windermere, 1.5 hours drive from Liverpool.

Lake District is famous for its unspoilt nature, beautiful lakes and great places for hiking, mountain walks and adventure. We didn’t have time for that sort of adventure though. Our only adventure was to see the lakes and the scenery, feeding the ducks (at the same time being chased by them).

The lakes and the mountains were formed by glaciers. This resulted in some peculiar look to the landscape. The rivers and lakes tend to be straight; the high grounds such as the hills are smooth and rounded.

City of The Beatles

From Hull, we drove Westwards on M62 towards Liverpool. We passed through Leeds, Bradford, and Manchester before reaching Liverpool 2 hours later.

We checked in into Premier Apartment, a walking distance away from the City. The apartment cost us 129 pounds and has 2 bedrooms, a living room and a kitchen. It’s quite a nice apartment with an underground car park. We were only staying here for one night though.
http://www.premierapartmentsliverpool.com/

In Liverpool, we first went to Anfield, the home of the Kop. There was lots of talk during the day as Liverpool was playing against Chelsea in the Evening. During the evening we tried to watch the game, but the few pubs that have Sky sports showing the game live were full. So we just went back to our apartment and just listened and followed the drama unfolded.

It wasn’t to be the third time lucky for Liverpool. Faris was quite disappointed. He blamed the referee. The super rich of Chelsea are going to Moscow.

Admittedly Liverpool were just short of the quality that Chelsea had, only Gerrard and Torres really stood out. I think they should take this Dubai billionaire to fund for new and better players rather than relying on the current American owners.

Later we walked to the famous Albert Dock where the Maritime and the Beatle Story Museums are located. Next to it is a newly completed large convention centre, currently being used as Liverpool is the European City of culture this year. We only went to visit the Beatles Story Museum, a worthwhile place to go.

It displayed the life of the Liverpool fab four – Paul, John, Ringgo and George, from performing in the famous local Cavern Club to the world stage and the start of Beatlemania. It's an eye opener for the kids who hardly been exposed to the 60's music.

From the museum, we walked to Renshaw Street to eat at Master Chef Restaurant, a well known Indian restaurant. The food was good and affordable but the service was quite slow.
http://www.masterchefrestaurant.co.uk/

Landing at Hull

We were only let out an hour after the ferry arrived. In Hull, we picked Dillah, our niece, who is studying at the Hull University. She is currently sitting for a degree in psychology and staying at the self catering accommodation at the University (see photo).

She brought us along to see the city – surprisingly quite a modern city. There are not many Bruneian studying here though. We only spent a couple of hours in Hull and probably have seen most of it.

On the Big Boat

We left home on Tuesday late afternoon for ‘Europoort’ at Rotterdam to catch a ferry to UK. The ‘Pride of Rotterdam’, once the largest ferry in the world, left at 9 pm to start the overnight trip across the English Channel. It took about 11 hours to reach the other side, at Hull, enough time to have a good sleep in the cabins. It costs us 367 Euros for the one way trip which included charges for our car and two cabins.

The ferry itself has 12 levels, level 3 to 4 for trailers and trucks, level 5 for cars, level 6 to 9 for cabins and 9 to 12 for shops, restaurants and entertainments. Inside you don’t feel that you are actually in a ship. The bar was crowded though as Man U vs. Barcelona game was on. To kill off the time went to watch the movie ’Jumper’ in one of the cinemas, Zim and Fiz watched ‘Charlie Wilson’s War’ in the other one. This is a bit of a change from our normal trip via the tunnel as we wanted to explore a bit of the Northeastern part of England – the quickest route is via Hull on this ferry.