Towards a Greener Way of Life

Brunei is gearing up to be “greener”. Quote “The current recycling system in Brunei is at its infancy and very much limited to recovery of metals for overseas recycling,” Unquote.

Here in Holland, almost everything is recycled. There are special large collection bins, usually located near to supermarkets, for bottles, glass, paper and textile. Others like metal, hazardous material such as batteries, old computer or electrical equipments can be sent to the main collection depot. Every household is provided with three bins. The big bin is for garden waste, second (dark green) is for non-organic and a small bin (not in photo) is for food waste. So not much space but forces the household to be non-wasteful. All are collected once a week. Paper is also collected once a month from home. Open burning is not allowed. Not even a small fire to burn away dead leaves or grass– a common sight in Brunei towards dusk. Here you get a hefty fine for that. Trees which reached a certain diameter cannot be cut down without permission from the Town Hall. They actually have a record and make regular check even if the trees are in your backyard. So Brunei lets start now and cultivate the green mindset.

Gong Xi Fa Cai!

This Thursday February 7th will be the Chinese New Year. It’s the year 4705 according to the Chinese calendar.

As the year of the rat begins, it's time to greet everyone with a warm Gong Xi Fa Cai and wish all our Chinese friends and family good luck in all that they do.

Enjoy your celebrations with family and friends.

From Us here.

Speed Camera

In Borneo Bull today, it is sad to read the high rate of road fatalities back home, some 54 were recorded last year, that’s 14 per 100,000 population. Compare this to 32 fatalities the year before.

In comparison, Holland is a country with one of the lowest traffic accident mortality. In 2004 it has the lowest number of death rate per capita population in the world, 5 per 100,000 population. I consider this amazing as it got the most confusing road rules – it is a country with millions of bicycles so bicycles rule, on a crossing in urban area the traffic coming from the right has the right of way and situation on roundabouts is quite often unclear. On the motorway everybody literally drives to the limit. So if its 120km/hr, every make of cars you can imagine be it a Mercs or a 30-year old Lada will go equally at 120.

But I suppose all these things make the drivers alert. On top of that there are some 1600 speed cameras to ensure that you abide by the speed limit. Germany which is 10 times bigger only got twice as many traffic cameras. There are also 45 highways, I mean proper highways, scattered across the breadth of the country to ensure smoother flow of traffics.
http://www.bruneiroadsafety.org.bn/index.htm

A Suffering Kopite

This is Faris Blog. http://www.nfgust.blogspot.com/

He is a Liverpool fan, a kopite wannabe, but suffering right now as Rafa the manager keep changing players and tactics after each game. Making the players forever confused and needing the first halfs to settle down and get used to each other's attics. By which time more often it was already too late and could only chase shadow of their great yesteryears. Making Hicks and the Gillett owners of the club wondering what is this genius from Valencia doing. And in the middle, the long suffering kopites could only bicker amongst themselves and dare not look up the table as Man U, Arsenal and Chelsea are doing business as usual.

SPA anyone?

An old photo from Brunei. This is a mud-flat, literally means somewhere alongside of a river mouth where finer sediments are deposited normally in sheltered or embayment area mainly affected by tidal infulence. If I remember it right we were in front of the Trusan River in Sarawak, which actually is not in Brunei. So if someone wants to catch us for illegally entering Malaysia, this photo is the proof.

This friend of mine who I reckon will become a professor in the future, studied this area for his PHD and brought us here for a bit of fun and learning. You don’t get medal for doing this. But it does help these geologists to help them in finding oil. Walking in the mud is not fun. You can see everyone look dejected and wondering what the heck were we doing.

Back to the Past

Looking at some old CD-rom, we found some photos of us here from 10 years ago. That was when the email and internet was only starting. Sending a photo to Brunei took ages. A 640KB jpeg took 5 minutes. I guess nothing much change now! Ok may be slightly faster now.

We were living in Holland for 3.5 years back then in 1996 to 1999. So this time around is our second time. Back then we were located in Assen, a small northern town (Dutch consider it as a village though), about 2 hours drive from Amsterdam. We remember the weather was a lot colder then, usually thick and prolonged snowing in the Winter- I guess thats a sign of global warming, whatever. The kids were small (of course) but we did manage to do quite a bit of traveling around.

Ardennes Trip

Last year Faris went on a 4-days school outing to the Ardennes in Belgium. Zim also went on a similar trip but in 2006. The main purpose is to teach the children to be more independent and perform team work activities.

Enjoy the song - A Dutch song which reached no. 1 in 2006 by Guus Meeuwis.
The name of the song is "Geef Mij Je Angst" which means "give me your fear".

Days at the Museum

Some photos taken during out trips to visit the many great museums in London and Paris. One can see many of the world's greatest historical collections, well laid out and arranged for all of us to learn and see.

Father and Son Bonding

Today while walking to catch a bus to watch a movie in town, Ish said he likes to think this outing as a 2-hour father-son bonding moment! Actually it is true and is something that we greatly cherish while living in Holland, that we do spend quality time together with our kids. May not be the case in Brunei when parents are forever busy with all sort of commitments whereas children don’t really know what common things to do worth going together with parents apart from going to family functions.

We watched Kite Runner – an excellent and brilliantly made movie. It has quite a moving storyline, will guarantee to shed a few tears along the way, giving a unique depiction of living in Afghanistan before and after the Russian war. The ending was quite poigant with the main actor starting to rediscover his faith. What were also amazing are a few verses of Koran beautifully read at some of the scenes. Most of the actors and actresses seemed to be Afghanis themselves.

Summer of 2007 - Part 2

Here's the second part. This is the return leg from Venice via Austria and Germany. In all we went through 7 countries.

Summer of 2007 - Part 1

Here's the first of two videos of our 10-days driving in the Summer of 2007 heading South to Belgium, France, Switzerland and Italy before turning back to Holland via Austria and Germany.

Thin Air in Mount Aconcagua

One of my staff is off for 3 weeks climbing Mount Aconcagua in Argentina. It is the highest mountain outside Asia, standing at 6,962m or 22,841 ft. He set off last week from Amsterdam via Madrid to Santiago in Chile before taking another flight to Mendoza in Argentina. From Mendoza its about 100km to the foot of the mountain.

The biggest problem with such an extremely high climb is attitude sickness for lack of oxygen. The air gets thinner and apparently the key thing for climbers is to get acclimatised quickly. The climber's motto is "climb high, sleep low", referring to climbing higher to acclimatise but returning to lower elevation to sleep. Climbers normally climb 300 metres in a day but come back down at 200 metres and sleep. Thus it can take up to 10 days to reach the summit from base camp.

Is GCSE A-Level Getting Easier?

Now is the time for A-level results to come out. Every year top grades have improved again on average. No doubt the standards in schools are rising and we are getting better at getting the best from our young people. It’s not uncommon to hear someone you are familiar with getting 3 or 4 straight A’s. There is a big but….. that the teaching is getting more "exam passing" focused more than anything, which is bettering the grades achieved by students. They are being trained, molded in extra tuition classes, specifically for the exams and the types of question normally set rather than gaining a general pool of knowledge that used to be tested years back.

Most top universities now require additional University entrance test as they cannot rely wholy on A-level results. Its their ways of better differentiating between candidates. Next year in UK an A* grade will be introduce at A level. See how that will turn out to be.

To Dare Is To Do!

That’s the motto of Tottenham Hotspurs Football Club, yours truly have been a loyal supporter for 29 years.

Last night we watch an exciting Carling Cup Semi-final on Sky - Spurs thrashed arch rival Arsenal "aka" The Gunners 5-1. It was a very remarkable win as it has been 9 years since Spurs beat them. And beat them well this time. The fans at the stadium were absolutely delirious and the atmosphere was buzzing and now we can look forward to a final. Wembley here we come…………..

Here’s a photo outside the stadium when we went to visit the ground last year.

The Making of an F1 Star

The kids are now crazy about go-karting. They have been racing almost every weekend now and breaking their own records. Ish always come first and now doing below 52 seconds per lap. That's just 10 seconds behind the fastest set on the track by an adult with a 270cc engine, much more powerful than the 160cc used by kids. And 7 seconds behind his dad!

Ish is now handling the overtaking and cornering better, making a big difference in the timing compare to Zim who seems to be sliding all the time especially on tight corners. The kids now want to try out other tracks. There are nearly 50 karting tracks in whole of Holland. Pick your choice! Here's the video from today's race.

Halal Food Fair in Rotterdam

The estimate of the value of global Halal market range from US$500 billion to US$2 trillion. Staggering! The US$500 billion is based on an estimate per capita Muslim spending on such products of US$300 per year, the world Muslim population is about 1.6 billion people. Muslims are expected to account for 30% of the world's population by 2025. Currently the Halal food market accounts for only 12% of global trade in agro-food products, hence there are still major growth opportunities in this area.

Now many countries, including non-Muslim, such as Canada and Australia, are hot on heels on these. Europe was the first to venture back in the 70s, such as Denmark and the Netherlands, servicing the Middle-East and the Far-East needs. But the growth in the Muslim population, increasing concern on Halalness raised a new spectre of opportunities. Everyone has to be quick to set an early entry. This food fair is one of those small steps made by a distributor from Malaysia. It’s an open playing field. Siapa lambat nda dapat!

Windy Rotterdam

A nice walking area along River Rhine. Today we went to Rotterdam to see a Halal food fair organized by a Malaysian distributor. This is the view next to the food fair.

The port of Rotterdam is the largest in Europe. It’s not easy to appreciate the size of this ‘gate to Europe’ as the port facilities are stretched over a distance of 40 km. The whole port area itself is about 105 km2 or a fifth the size of Singapore. The other important statistic is the number of cranes – over 300 in all servicing the thousands of ships coming in and out every year.

An Exclusive Tour of Amsterdam & The Hague

Here's some photos from last week....Holland is an interesting place to visit. There are lots of small museums each worth spending a short hour or so.

20 years of finding oil…..

It is said – If you want one year of prosperity, grow grain. If you want 10 years, grow trees. If you want 100 years, grow people. A friend of mine just quit his job from this big company with a pecten sign. When we were both introduced to the oil scene back then, people said there's only 20 years of oil left. So there we were with many people quietly involved in the search. Alhamdulillah, all the rezeki are from God Almighty, the next generation of Bruneian will benefit from it. It is the time to pass on the baton. We have grown the people. Our younger explorers are there to take over.

The explorers’ playing field will get bigger soon. Iraq is opening up this year. Lots of companies will jump in, needing all the already scarce expertise worldwide. According to American Association of Petroleum Geologist – the best paid geologist is when you have 20-24 years experience. The average international salary for that group is now US$141K. But that’s nothing compare to young Lewis Hamilton whose new contract reportedly worth around £10m per year, or £200,000 per week. This guy does not need to find oil. He burns it big time.

This one is for Jordan

Egypt Holiday Photos

Here's some photos from our trip to Egypt last year. A bit late ..but we only found out just recently how to make a video clip!!! so sad......

Hijrah 1429 and Fiz's Birthday.

Two big things happened yesterday. First was the new Hijrah year. Its definitely not forgotten here. Everybody in the office were reminding and greeting each other.

The second was Fiz turning 15 (Yes FIFTEEN). No special celebration. Just a big card - well actully a very big card (see photo).

Our Earth and OJ287

Something for all of us to ponder deep in our mind. That's Earth. That's home. That's us. Looks massive. But the earth is a very small stage in a vast cosmic arena. On BBC news today, astronomers have weighed the biggest known black hole or super Sun in the Universe. The object, called OJ287, is 18 billion times more massive than our own Sun. That’s 6000 TRILLION times (6,000,000,000,000,000) more massive than our Earth.

And there are black holes and suns in every galaxies. Astronomers say that there are probably more than one hundred billion galaxies in the observable universe. So our Earth, on one of it, everyone you ever heard of, every human being who ever lived, is actually just like a dust, suspended in this massive Universe. Masha'Allah!

Winterberg Family Photos

Everyone having fun......

Girls on Film........

December Holiday Photos

Happy New Year 2008

Hi all. Since this blog was started in early 2007, we have managed to put 199 posts in all. The blog very much captures our activities and many trips during the year.

Last night was crazy night in Holland. Its end of the year firework night where you literally burn money to make a loud bang. All the neighbours have their own stocks and would be ashamed if you don't join in as well and show your own fireworks. Its estimated the Dutch spent about 50 million Euros on the night alone on firework, its like war, very noisy and smoky. The whole country turns alive at the turn of the clock.

Happy New Year to all. Hope you all have good health, all the success and received plenty of blessings from God AlMighty. Amen.
Here's a video from home.

Another one is a youtube of Amsterdam same night - much similar to what we experience at home - like war.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qjzB6HVgYmw
This one is from the Hague last year
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9wHtD1YAxTg

Vollendam

The next must stop for any visitor to Holland is Vollendam. Located about 30 minutes drive from Amsterdam, this fishing village is famous for offering your photo taken in traditional Dutch costumes. There are now quiet a number of these photo shops offering similar services. The cost is quite reasonable starting from 17 Euros. The photos are ready within 30 minutes. There are also a number of souveniers shops that you can go to while waiting for the photos to be developed.

First Albert Heijn Store

The first Albert Heijn store is apparently located in the De Zaanse Schans. The building is still preserved (for tourism and historical purposes of course).

From this small beginning, the brand has grown and is currently the largest supermarket chain in the Netherlands. There are now about 700 regular Albert Heijn stores, ranging in categories 1 (small) to 5 (very large).

Windmill Country

If one want to see traditional wind mills which are still working, the best place to go is a place called De Zaanse Schans in Zaandam. Its just North of Amsterdam about 45 minutes drive from the Hague.

Apparently there used to be a thousand windmills in this place but now has reduced to about 50. A walk around the river bank with row of windmills lining it is recommended. One could also go up to one of the windmill for a small fee and see the mechanical aspect of this big machine.

Gokarting in Uithof

We went to a place called Uithof about 20 minutes drive from our home for Go-karting. This place offers a number of sporting activities such as skiing, ice skating, rock climbing, go karting and so on. For go karting it costs 12.50 Euro per race which is about 12 minutes long.

The children had a go as well and were quite excited that they also ended up racing twice. Initially they looked tense when they stepped in to the kart in their full uniform and helmet but soon they were at ease and driving like Lewis Hamilton! Here's Ish ready for his first drive.

http://www.deuithof.nl/

Chocolate City of Brussel

We headed back from Paris to Holland on the 27th December. We stopped along the way in Brussel which is about 3 hours drive from Paris. We had a walk around the historical part of the City where one could see many beautiful buildings especially in the City Square that have been standing for at least 400 years. One of the building is curently undergoing restoration (see photo).

Brussel offers a number of famous chocolate brands such as Galler, Godiva and Leonidas. There are also a number of shops selling the famous Belgium waffles which are irrestible to eat especially when walking in this cold weather.

Eiffel Tower Glittering

In Paris, we went to a few places for the usual photo snaps. This must be our fifth time to Paris. First we went to Place de Clichy for food, a place where one can find many halal restaurants.

Later we went to the Arc de Triomphe which forms an impressive backdrop for any photo. Napoleon conceived of the idea to dedicate to the glory of his imperial armies. The structure was completed in 1836 and still standing proud. Next we went to Le Defence before sight seeing around the Eiffel Tour.

In the evening we were treated to a great dinner by our uncle and aunty who are currently on posting there.

Christmas in Disney

We drove for two hours heading South and stayed overnight at Aachen, a German city close to the border with Holland and Belgium. The roads were quiet as most people have already headed home for the Christmas break. So driving was easy and smooth. From Aachen we set off early in the morning and took us another 4 hours a distance of 424 km to reach our hotel (Hotel Mercure) in Marne La Vallee, located on the outskirt of Paris near to Disney Park.

The next day was Christmas. We went to Disney Park and joined by our relatives in Paris. It was really crowded as many Parisians decided to spend their Christmas in the park as well!

Sledge down the Slope

Because of the time, we didn't go for skiing. Instead we went for the much simpler snow sledge so the kids can have fun as well. Like skiing, one can go up the slope using a ski lift. From there it was quite fun going down slope on the sledge with the kids. The speed was quite exhilarating. We did it quite a number of times until it was getting late and time to move on.

One can rent all the equipment on site for a reasonable price. Its advisable to buy proper water-proof snow jacket and trouser as well as proper snow shoes. They only rent out ski shoes which are quite stiff for walking if you are not using it for skiing. Here's the website of the ski park that we went to.
http://www.sahnehang.de/Galerie.29.0.html

Fun in Sauerland

Second day, we went early and drove into the hilly ground of Sauerland, a rural and heavily forested area spreading across most of the eastern part of German's North Rhine-Westphalia province. This is also where the F1 BMW Sauber name come from and the F1 Nurburgring is quite closeby. This area is famous for winter sports and skiing, a much nearer option for Germans and Dutch alike. However the high grounds are not as high as the Alps. There are up to a hundred ski parks scattered all over the area, in most cases heavily relying on snow making machines to ensure the slopes are covered with snow. We finally settled on in a park in Altastenberg which is 5 km away from Winterberg town itself.
http://www.skiinfo.com/Big-Skimap/Altastenberg-EDEALTASTEN-930-en.jhtml

To reach Altastenberg, we had to drive slowly as the roads were slippery and quite foggy. One should also check this website before going.
http://www.checkcams.com/sauercams/

Christmas Market in Dussedorf

We set off on our short European tour on Saturday 22nd. First stop was the German City of Dusseldorf, a 2 hours drive from the Hague. We checked in at a hotel on the city outskirt and drove to the city for a tour of the famous Christmas market.

The city walk was pretty cold (-5 Deg C) but we managed to cover quite a bit of ground, weaving pass through the over-crowded market. The market atmosphere was definitely quite unique. Many stalls were set up and lined up the many shopping lanes in the City selling toys, seasonal items, food and so on.

Cold Winter in Holland

What a great sight! This is the Parliment House with the frozen lake at the front. The temperature has plunged to minus 5 Deg C. Walking in town in this cold weather is not really comfortable unless you wear layers upon layers of clothing to keep you warm.

During this end year holiday, we have been traveling quite a bit. We went off in two cars and headed to Dusseldorf and Winterberg in Germany and later to Paris, before heading back via Brussel. Driving on the motorway is a lot less busy compare to the Summer period but road conditions are a bit more challenging as there are more slippery and daylight hours shorter.

White Hari Raya

Its now a beautiful sight outside with every trees looking gloriously white. The temperature has been sub-zero for nearly a week now. And lakes are slowly beginning to freeze. Hope it will stay on so that the lakes and the canals are completely frozen. One can already see people skating on them.

Last night we celebrated Hari Raya Haji at our house with takbir. Our house in the meantime is pretty full with our family from Brunei spending their holiday here. Last day of school is today so the holiday season is just around the corner. We already got plan for the next ten days!

Watching Movies

Last Saturday whole family was watching movie at Pathe in the City Centre. Me and Ish watched 'The Golden Compass' based on the book entitled the Northern Light by Phillip Pullman. This is the sort of mythical child adventure similar to Harry Potter. But after watching Lord of the Ring and Harry Potter, another dose of similar epic is I am afraid one too many.

The girls watched 'Enchanted' and came out more entertained.

Wind Power

UK is planning to build around 7,000 wind turbines offshore by 2020. The offshore wind farms would generate enough electricity for every home in the UK. Currently offshore wind farms already produce two gigawatts - enough for 1.5 million homes. European Union is targetting of generating 20 per cent of energy by renewable sources by 2020.

Back home, there were studies done by ITB and some UBD students in the past on feasibility of wind as source of energy. Some said its not suitable for Brunei. What a load of rubbish. In Holland it is seldom windy and yet the place is littered with wind turbines everyway.

De-icing the Plane

Off again to Syria but not on a jolly this time. During transit in Vienna, my connecting Austrian Air plane was stopped for a good spraying before take off. The weather was very cold so there must be some ice build-up on the aircraft's wings and that warrant some de-icing work to be done. First time ever I saw this.

Back to the trip itself, had a 4-hour meeting with some officials. The meeting was tense, the air was choky with a few smokers in the room but at the end ended in a successful outcome. Good end to the year!

The Pilgrimige Season

The Hajj season is starting. In Brunei the first flight to the Holy Land is on Sunday. Our sisters, brother-in-laws, sister-in-laws, an uncle and aunty are performing their Hajj this year. Our prayers to them for safe and blessful journey to perfoming the 5th pillar of Islam.

This is a photo inside Masjidil Haram taken in 2003 when we performed the Hajj back then. Don't ask how this was taken, it was not easy to pass through the tight security. The Hajj journey for us was quite an experience itself. First and foremost was of being patience in the midst of some 3 million humanities who were also making the pilgrimige.

University Ranking - A Guide for Nerds

Ever wonder where all the Nerds around you have gone? There is an annual publication of university rankings around the world, published by these two organisations- The Times Higher Education Supplement (THES) and Quacquarelli Symonds (QS).

1) Harvard University (USA)
2= Yale University (USA)

2= University of Oxford (UK)
4) University of Cambridge (UK)
5) Imperial College London (UK)
6) Princeton University (USA)
7= University of Chicago (USA)
7= California Institute of Technology (USA)
9) UCL University College London (UK)
10) Massachusetts Institute of Technology (USA)

The School

With its large expatriate population, at least some 20000 in all, there are a number of schooling choices. The more popular ones are the International School of the Hague, the American School of the Netherlands and the British School in the Netherlands.

Our kids attend the British School. Ish is at Year 6 in the Junior School located in Vlaskamp while Zim and Fiz are in the Secondary school in Voorschoten in Year 7 and Year 10 respectively.

http://www.britishschool.nl

The Real Thing

Which one is it? - The Mint Tea. For us Restaurant Makkah in Beverwijk make the best mint tea. The tea powder is actually strong green tea from China but the fresh mint leaves makes all the difference.

Here's how to prepare:

1) The tea is first put in the teapot and "cleaned" by adding a small quantity of boiling water, that is poured out after one minute (this operation lessens the bitterness of the tea).

2) Mint and sugar are added, and water at the boiling point is then poured in the pot.

3) After three to five minutes, a glass is served and poured back in the pot two to three times, in order to mix the tea.

4) Tea is then tasted (sugar if needed may be added) until the infusion is fully developed.

5) Tea is poured into glasses from height in order to form a froth.

Saturday at Rotterdam

After a year here, we finally set foot to the nearest city which is only a 20 minutes drive away that is Rotterdam. It is a port city, in fact the largest in Europe and was the world's busiest port from 1962 to 2004, when it was overtaken by Singapore and later by Shanghai.

The Christmas shopping season is on now. There are ample seasonal decorations around the shops and along the street to cheer up the shoppers - shop more, shop more, till you drop! Also this is the time to see a very Dutch tradition on the street - Sinterklaas, a Dutch version of Santa Claus - a man with a long white beard wearing a red bishop's dress and hat together with his mischievous helpers with black faces and colourful outfits called Black Petes or Zwarte Pieten in Dutch.

Winter is finally here

This is probably the worst time to be in Holland. Its cold, rainy and shorter day-hours. In fact it is still dark by the time I reach office and again dark when going home. Sunrise is at about 8.00am in the morning while sunset at about 4.50pm.

This is also when the public transports are crowded and got really stretched and unreliable. The reasons - Dutch starts to abandoned their bikes. Who wants to cycle in this cold wet weather? It is said that in Amsterdam alone 500,000 people use their bikes daily. Imagine all these people are now using the public transport.

Open House in Oldenzaal

Yesterday we headed 200km East in the direction of a small town of Oldenzaal close to the German border. Its the house of Mohd BJ, a native Dutch married to a Bruneian. We were treated to a sumptous amount of food including some very traditional Bruneian cooking.

Also BJ showed how an IPhone looks like - fabulous - I want one! This is definitely what every teenager and also older ones really really one.

The trip back was quicker, took 1 hr 50 mins in the driving rains and that's included a fuel stop.

Back to Cold Europe

Now back to Europe. Took a 25 minute flight from Damascus to Amman to get a connecting flight to Vienna.

The Damascus-Amman-Vienna was operated by Royal Jordanian Airlines with proper business class seat configuration unlike if you fly on Air France or Austrian Airlines.

In Vienna, we boarded a Fokker100 to go to Amsterdam, was absolutely freezing on the tarmac. Back to cold Europe!