Mid Summer

It's mid summer but does not feel like summer at all. Especially today the weather has been pretty cold at 16 Deg C at mid day and raining. In some of the introductory books about Holland, it is described as a country with low skies. Especially today when one could only see low and thick clouds hanging as far as the eyes could see the horizon. Nonetheless yours truly has been cycling to work regardless. But obviously with the full gear on when it rains! Today the ‘movable’ bridge along my route decided to operate to allow a barge to pass through. It’s a great sight but it wasted a good few minutes of my time to the office.

Back home it’s time of the year of opulence occasions. The time of the year where we want to forget and push issues aside and for the country to celebrate lavishly with all the pomp and ancient ceremonies. Time of the year where civil servants are rewarded with medals and honours, it’s one of the perks of being a civil servant. After all, Brunei has a high proportion of civil servants to the overall working population. May be at a level of 20 to 30%. Where else in most countries it is about 10 %. As for comparison we have about 23 Permanent Secretary as compare to 25 in UK government with the grade of Permanent Secretary.

The Gathering

Bruneians in Holland

There are not that many of us here, probably about 8 or 9 families altogether. It's not large but may be bigger than in other countries in Europe where Brunei either has an embassy or a representative office, apart from UK of course.

One would wonder why there is no Brunei Embassy in Holland yet there are offices in France, Belgium, Germany, Switzerland and Russia in mainland Europe. And yet every year there are lot of Bruneians who go to Holland on training as well as living here on work assignment.

It must have been because Brunei has little or no historical link with the Dutch. Where else countries like France, Germany and Russia are big countries and members of the G8 grouping which every country including Brunei could not afford to ignore. Belgium and Switzerland, being the seat of Europe and hosting the UN office respectively, are obvious to have a representative office there.

In any case Brunei interest in Holland is well served from the Brussel office. So there is no real need to have another one here. Running an overseas office is not cheap and if the government does not see the political, economic or social benefits, why do it.

BBQ on Sunday

Today we organised a farewell do at our house for Aidi and family leaving Holland end of this month for Shakalin. They have been here for nearly four years and now is time to move on.

It has also been quite a while that the Bruneian community here have been together in any form of gathering. So it was also good to catch up with what's each others have been up to. Luckily this time most could make it.

And also luckily the weather was permitting. After all it has been a week of real wet weather with instances of torrential downpours one normally associate to conditions back home. So obviously it was a real blessing and that we all could sit outside all afternoon.

It was also the first time we did a BBQ at our backyard. As I said almost all the Bruneian turned up. Children really enjoyed the day. They played badminton and football all afternoon, real pleasure to see them running around and full of energy.

Chocolate in Belgium

We set off early to Brussel today, a good two hours drive from home. In the Grote Markt or the Old Market at the heart of the city, one can find rows of chocolate shops lining up the market square. Indeed this is why we went here for.

There are many famous brands to satisfy everyone's taste so sometimes it is quite difficult to choose which one. It depends whether one prefers dark chocolate, brown chocolate, milk etc. But it is possible to ask for an assortment when ordering a box.

Apart from chocolate, there are also shops selling all sort of biscuits which are packed in nice and beautiful containers - perfect for gifts.

Time to Say Goodbye

Friday was the last day of school of the current academic year . It was also an emotional time for most as inevitably the day was also the last day for many close friends. The school, composed entirely of children of expatriates, normally see quite a significant turnover annually as families move when their assignments completed.

After El Nino, It's King Nadal

What an epic game. It was the longest Wimbledon final tennis match in history.

After nearly 5 hours of superb tennis, Nadal finally beaten Federer. All of us at home here were behind Nadal to win his first Wimbledon, but Federer seemed to come back at every match points for Nadal. The scores were 4-6, 4-6, 7-6, 7-6, 7-9.

Spain seems to be on a good run in sports right now. Spain is on winning streak on a few other sports.

The recent one obviously was the Euro 2008 where El Nino meaning 'the kid' in Spanish aka Fernando Torres scored the winner against Germany.

Tour de France Hopefuls?

The grueling bicycle race for the famous yellow jersey started on Saturday. Tour de France is cycling's most prestigious event. It is a 23-day, 21-stage race which this year runs over more than 3,500 km. During the course of the race the riders will be attempting some almost super human feats that will test their mental and physical toughness to the limit. A recent BBC documentary recently showed how grueling it is to race up the mountains while constantly faced with gusting winds and chilling rains.

The Tour de France race traverses across picturesque landscape of France and is going anticlockwise this year. It will go from the West, to the mountainous South before heading to the North and finishing off in Paris. On the way they will have climbed mountain passes of more than 2000 metres high.

Anyway, back to reality, brought the kids on a 1 hour cycle ride this aftrenoon. Great fun.

12 hours to Engelberg

The school year is ending this coming week and it's the start of the 7 weeks summer holiday. The kids have been doing all sort of activities and trips these past weeks. Our eldest just returned from Engelberg in Central Switzerland for her Geography and Biology trip. We sent her off last Sunday and the students set off on a number of coaches at around 6.30 am from school. The bus trip took 12 hours to reach Engelberg. Obviously the physical geography in Switzerland is much more interesting to study than flattish Holland. They went up to one of the snow-capped mountains, studied the river and so on. Emm......interesting.

http://www.engelberg.ch/en/Sommer/index.php

Talking about holiday, the Dutch schools in the South have started their Summer holiday. The start of the school break is staggered by a week between the South and the Middle part of Holland and a further week for the North; this is to reduce traffic congestions as people are driving South. In fact the whole Holland by then will feel like being emptied. People take their holidays seriously - a holiday is after all a much needed break and time to be under the sun. After the break, everyone will ask where have you been? Oh...I went to so and so beach in this great part of Southern France!

Well, holiday doesn't need to be expensive. In fact a lot of people here hire caravan (last photo) which can be pulled behind car and forms their home during the holiday. And off course not to leave their bikes behind. One could checked in into the many caravan camps dotted all around Europe, normally around nature parks which are great places for outdoor activities.

Driving South either to France or Italy during this time can be much longer than normal. Motorways are really clogged up. We found this experience quite awful when we drove to Italy last year.

http://paulaland-paulaland.blogspot.com/2007/08/covered-4000-km-in-10-days.html

Liverpool Forever

Now you can buy Liverpool football jersey without the Carlsberg logo on. It’s a good step forward by the club to let their fans to don the club’s colour without the need to also advertise an alcoholic drink.

It costs 30 pounds online from LFC online. http://store.liverpoolfc.tv/
It costs another 12 pounds with names at the back. Another 8 pounds to send by DHL We just recently ordered one for Faris who is a Liverpool fan in the house.

The Euro 2008 is nearly done. Tomorrow will be a good match to watch, the under-achiever Spain against the traditional winner - Germany. I do hope, Spain who plays better football, wins. Shame that Turkey was unlucky against Germany in the semi. What an embarrassment to Vienna for losing the live transmission twice because of massive electrical thunderstorms. Now we don’t have to feel too guilty that there were always power cuts back home whenever there was thunderstorm!

Summer Fair

As I took 2 days off for my eye surgery, I took turn from my missus to accompany Faris on his bike to school. Faris enjoys cycling and it really makes a difference as it gives him a good start to the day. For us, it also took out the headache to find a parking space when dropping and picking him up from school. In fact I read that 1 in 4 people here go to work either by bike or walking. A higher portion is true for kids going to school.

On Friday Faris’s school held their annual Y5/6 summer fair. It’s when the children in Y5 and 6 go in groups and make games and build structures to raise money for orphans in Romania. This year’s theme is the Olympics. Each game was 10-20 cents. Some pupils from the nearby German school also came down to support the event. Last year the school raised about €4000. Faris group constructed an obstacle course. He said they received lots of visitors.

Vision for Others

What do I do with my specs. I got 4 pairs which I regularly wear but are now redundant. There are a few known organisations in UK collecting old specs for the developing countries but I still need to find one here in Holland.

One thing I can’t stand after the laser ops is the sunlight. Everything seems to be bright. Sunglass is a must when outside. It does not help being summer right now that it is still bright outside till 10 pm at night. Driving is definitely difficult for me right now. This will take sometimes till the epithelium completely grows to its normal thickness.

To Lasik or not to Lasik

On Thursday, I did it. I had a laser treatment on my eyes. After checking around and getting advice, I decided to do it. There are over 70 laser clinics in Holland, the one I went to is one of only 14 that got the latest equipment called Allegretto™ Eye-Q Laser 400 from WaveLight Laser Technologie AG. WaveLight's laser is the most precision laser on the market today. This clinic is also ranked as amongst the top 7 here.

I had an initial extensive eye examination. This is to check my cornea, thickness and shape amongst others. One thing that came out was that the glass lens for my right eye was over prescribed. It should be -3.25 rather than -4! So beware, the equipments used by high street opticians are not that accurate.

Then I had a long discussion with the doctor. After all I always thought Lasik is the way to go. Lasik or Laser Assisted In-Situ Keratomileusis is also normally referred to as a flap procedure or better known as ‘deep cut’ procedure. The surgeon cut a very thin flap of the corneal tissue. The flap is lifted like a hinged door, revealing the stroma, the middle section of the cornea. Then a laser procedure is used to remodel the corneal stroma by vaporising some tissue. After the laser procedure, the flap is carefully repositioned, remains in position by natural adhesion until healing is completed. The patient doesn’t feel any pain and can go home or work straight away. This is what majority of people are doing right now.

But my doctor didn’t recommend it. He convinced me that PRK which is a more traditional method is the best one for the longer term. It is painful, but safer and better for the eye. He said people are just engrossed with Lasik here Lasik there because of the sale pitch and big publicity, but if given the choice many doctor would recommend PRK.

PRK or Photorefractive keratectomy is better known as 'surface' procedure. The difference from Lasik is that the top layer of the epithelium is removed, so no flap is created. The laser is then used to reshape the front portion of the cornea. So in layman’s term, Lasik creates a flap and trims the inner portion of the cornea, PRK only involes the outer cornea; hence there is less overall change to the eye with PRK. Military pilots cannot get Lasik, they have to get PRK. There have been some studies that say pressure changes could possibly cause the flap to pop off again. The only negative about PRK is healing time and pain. It takes longer. This is because the outermost surface of the eye, the epithelium, has to heal and grow back which normally takes a few days.

So on Thursday I went for the PRK. I was laid down on this laser bed (see photos). The epithelium layer was first scratched off. Then a cool laser was fired to shape the front of my cornea (last photo). After that a temporary bondage contact lens was laid on the eyes for protection, to be worn for a few days. The whole operation took about 10 minutes. The laser treatment itself was about 5 seconds for each eye. I didn’t feel any pain at all because of the drips provided to numb the eye. I immediately could see the effect. For the first time I could see clearly without wearing glass.

But as I said the PRK is a more painful method. Lots of drips and medications were provided. It really felt sting in my eyes on the first night. I needed to put all sort of drips. My eyes were literally watery and flowing. The best way to get through the day was by sleeping. I had to wear protective goggles for sleeping to prevent rubbing my eyes. The next day I went for the normal follow up. My doctor said the tears were very good to the eyes as it helped the healing process. Looking at my eyes, the doctor said the healing was really going well and the epithelium has nearly grown back completely. The pain was because the epithelium layer scratched off before the laser operation is like an open wound. Once it grown back the pain would then be gone.

You can see the video made for Dutch TV about the PRK procedure in the link below made by the clinic that I went to. It's in Dutch though but you should get the gist of it.
http://player.omroep.nl/?aflID=4083476
The room in the video is where I had the operation and the same doctor did the operation on me. You can see the eye check up procedure around the 6th minute in the video, the PRK procedure starts in the 11th minute. Worth watching. The prices here range from €1000 to €1800 per eye. The clinic I went to is more in the upper range. I know it is a lot cheaper to do it elsewhere especially in the Middle East, Singapore or Bangkok. But it is own individual choice. One has to look at what machine and experience the doctors had. They may have done a thousand operations but quality what really counts. After all it is your eyes. My eyes are still not 100% perfect yet but the vision will slowly improve as PRK takes time for the vision to be perfect. So if you want a less painful procedure go for Lasik. I decided on PRK. This is the traditional and most proven method without permanently cutting the inner cornea of the eyes.

Sunday at the Beach

Today, just past 8 am, Faris and I went on an early cycle ride to the beach in Scheveningen. As it was relatively early, the beach was still quiet except for some joggers and people strolling on the beach. People here must have been very downbeaten today after last night exit of Euro 2008.

Scheveningen is the premier beach here. This long and sandy beach is normally swollen with people when there is a slightest sign of hot weather. Last May when the temperature did hit 29 Deg. C, police had to literally stop people from going here. Otherwise it's just too crowded and unsafe.

Afterwards, after late breakfast, we all went to town. All , except for our two daughters, were on our bikes again. Fizah and Zimah took the bus instead. On the way back home, it became very windy. Things were flying around and tree branches falling down. Luckily the wind was on our back. Apparently in some places in Holland there were hails with hail stones as big as ping pong balls. In the Dutch News it was reported up to 2000 people made insurance claim for the hail storm damage. What a wierd weather!

The Future is not Orange

The long awaited quarter final between Holland and Russia was finally on tonight. The game was dubbed Holland versus Holland as Russia is coached by Gus Hiddink, the former Dutch coach.

Holland was in devastating form in the initial round games, crushing Italy and France, whilst even fielding a second team to beat Romania. Tonight however Holland was really out of sort. They were well below par and out-played by the Russian. So the dream is now over.

The Dutchs are always famous for their beautiful football. But they never win any tournament apart probably for one. Their supporters, always in Orange attire, are a great sight to watch in any stadium Holland plays. The supporters do look like a sea of orange.

Nearby our house, the local florist put a row of orange shirts in front of his shop today, to live up the atmosphere before the evening game. After the defeat tonight, it's time to pull these down very quickly now.

So who is going to win the Euro2008? Germany, Italy, Spain, Russia or Turkey? May be in that order.

Longest Day

21st of June is officially the longest day of the year and the start of the Summer season in the Northern Hemisphere. Sunrise is at 5.17 am while sunset at 10.10 pm. From now on the sun will start to reverse and heads to the South.

Today we made a trip to CentrO in Oberhausen in Germany, a 2-hour drive from our home in Holland. CentrO is a sprawling shopping complex with 14,000 car park spaces. It claims to be still the largest shopping mall in mainland Europe, apparently the one in Sheffield is the largest in Europe!

http://www.centro.de/englisch/index.htm

Football Mania

While on transit in Vienna, I saw this mural on the side of this Austria airplane trying to live up the spirit of the Euro 2008 that is gripping Austria and Switzerland. The host countries however are already out as expected. Tonight is the turn for the Group of Death where Italy and France could be out. In the end even the second string Dutch team was too strong for Romania. And that opened the door for Italy to go to the quarter-final.

Holland has been the surprise package so far beating France and Italy by big margins. Everyone here are really ecstatic with their national team's performance. Many streets in Holland are now colourfully decorated with many small orange flags which is the team's colour. It does give a great atmosphere here. Cars, bicycles and shops are also displaying the same.

Time flies very quickly. Its already mid June and soon the kids will finish their last term before the long summer break. So it's not too long now when we all are going home for the summer holiday!

A View Outside

This is what it looks from the hotel window. There are mosques everywhere, sometimes just about 100 metres apart. Even I saw one tucked at the middle of a shopping centre. The one directly outside looks like a typical Ottomon or Turkish design. And yet Syria is a real melting pot with a large christian population living alongside the Shi'ite and Sunni Muslims.

Arabian Souk

The Middle East is famous for its souks. Each countries have their own trademark souks and obviously claim theirs are the best. In Damascus, the main souk is called the Al Hamidiyah souk located in the Old City. It's quite a busy souk connecting to other smaller souks, each one specialising in something different such as ladies souk, spice souk and so on. While here I met a Syrian who has been to Brunei many times mainly selling table cloths. He still could speak a bit of Malay! He said normally he attended the annual international fairs being held there but lately has not done so but rather concentrates his effort in Malaysia.

In general, goods are quite cheap in Damascus, up to 50% off from what one could get in the Gulf states. This is because the standard of living is lower and salaries are in general below US$300 a month in the private sectors. Recently the Government increased the fuel price - the biggest increase was on diesel which went up by 350%. Although it is still relatively cheap, but everyone are feeling the pinch. At the same time the Government also increased the salaries of the civil servants by 25% and the private sectors are expected to follow as well. The main reason for the increase is to reduce smuggling of fuel to Iraq but also to lessen government subsidy on fuel which amounted to about a billion dollars annually.

Mesjid Umayyad

There was some time to spend in the late Sunday afternoon so I went on foot to the Umayyad Mosque, a 20 minutes walk from the Four Season Hotel. It is one of the largest and oldest mosque in the world located in the old city of Damascus.

After a short prayer in the mosque; I went around to see a few interesting things about the mosque itself. It was built by Khalifa Al-Walid ibn Abd al-Malik in 705 AD, about 70 years after the Wafat of our prophet Nabi Muhammad. During his reign, this powerful Khalifa continued the expansion of the Umayyad Islamic empire; in fact he took the early Islamic empire to its farthest extents.

He reconquered parts of Egypt and moved across to the west of North Africa before crossing the Strait of Gibraltar and began to conquer Spain. This would be the farthest extent of Islamic control of Europe. In the East, his armies made it as far as the Indus River, the empire thus stretched from Spain to India.

Inside the Umayyad mosque, one can find the relic of Nabi Yahya, also known as john the Baptist to the Christian (3rd photo). In fact in 2001 Pope John Paul II visited the mosque, primarily to visit the relics. It was the first time a pope paid a visit to a mosque.

The other important site in the mosque is the burial site of Saidina Hussein, the prophet’s grandson (last photo). This is an important Shi'ite shrine and well visited by the Shi’ite pilgrims. Today there were quite a large group of shi'ite, I was told they were Iraqis.

The tomb of Saladin, the great Islamic warrior who fought against the crusaders, is also located within the compund of the mosque. Saladin is famous for his conquer of Jerussalem and his amazing compassion to his enemies and achieved a great reputation in Europe despite the long and fierce struggle against the crusades. There are many books written about him and even a number of films made. The most recent one was the Kingdon of Heaven.

In Wiki it was stated that despite the Crusaders' slaughter when they originally conquered Jerusalem in 1099, Saladin granted amnesty and free passage to all and even to the defeated Christian army. Notwithstanding the differences in beliefs, Saladin was respected by Christian lords. King Richard I of England once praised Saladin as a great prince, saying that he was without doubt the greatest and most powerful leader in the Islamic world.

Indeed Damascus is a worthwhile place to visit and learn about the Islamic history.

Mesjid Kecil

Today on Sunday we drove back to Damascus as I have finished my short stint in the desert. I was there to see the overall operation and to do some scouting trips here and there. The drive back to Damascus again took 6.5 hours. We stopped over twice - one near to this small mosque by the road and the other at the famous Baghdad Café for some tea.

The road was quiet busy today with many trucks plying through the highway bringing goods to the East as well as to Iraq. One could see every now and then local militias or armies with mounted machine guns at the back of their pick-up vehicles patrolling the highway.

At one spot, there was a military exercise near the road with lots of tanks which looked like the Russians T72 make - very impressive indeed.

The roads are quite straight and scenic, mostly with high mountains in the backdrop. Judging from the bad driving style of the truckers, I am glad to arrive in Damascus safe and sound.

Life in a Base Camp

Compare to 20 years ago where facilities were pretty basic, nowadays life in a base camp is relatively comfortable. Staffs are accommodated in aircon cabin, the standard of catering are quite high, but most important of all is accessibility to internet and satellite TV. The desert area I am working on is quite a large area, in fact three times the size of Brunei! So driving around in this vast and empty land can be quite daunting and long.

But for most part, the landscapes are quite drivable on the 4WD. The temperature in the last two days was quite pleasant at around 32 Deg. C though a bit windy with dust all around. A few weeks ago the temperature hit 50 Deg. C – that’s hot!

In this operation, we have some weird machines that looks like vehicles one associates with in the movie Space 1999. These are very expensive kits costing about US$250K each. They seemed to roam around the desert plain without any purpose but infact their paths have been well and trully meticulously planned.

Empty Desert

Just came back to Damascus today after spending a few days out in a camp. It started last Friday when I set off on a 378 km drive due East of Damascus passing through the ancient city of Palmyra, a journey that took 6.5 hours.

The final location is a base camp in the desert which was to be my home for two nights. I won’t specify what it is exactly but sufficient to say that it is to do with helping to find raw resources for this hungry world.

Life in the camp is real hard work. Everyone was already up at 5 am. A work and safety talk took place at 5.45 am with some 200 workers before they disappeared into the empty desert in some 40 vehicles.

I later followed to see the operation and headed South as far as about 90km to the Iraqi border. The terrain is quite rough with many jabals or high grounds to navigate through to reach the other wadis. At one instance we were circling on top of a jabal trying to find our way down. Eventually we found a tricky spot to drive our 4WD vehicle down the steep slope. Toyota Land Cruisers is no doubt the most reliable vehicle to work with in this kind of rough and hot terrain. The fact that the talibans in Afghanistan are also mostly using Toyota Land Cruisers are exactly for this reason.

The Old City

Today is yet another of those hard and tiring working day. After work, it was time to watch Euro Football again at the hotel balcony. My wishes didn’t come through, the ‘diving specialist’ team a.k.a Portugal won by 3-1. Anyway, after that disappointment we headed to the Old City of Damascus for dinner. There are a few recommended restaurants but this one is amongst the best, once considered the best restaurant in Damascus. Anyway foods here are very cheap even in this posh restaurant. A 3-course meal for 4 including the mezzee as starter only cost 60 Euros! The setting is quite nice, where they transformed an old courtyard into an open-air restaurant.

The Old City of Damascus is like a labyrinth, once you are inside, you would feel like being trapped inside a maze network of narrow streets and busy souks. In my previous trips I did walk on my own around the Old City to try learn and familiarise with the different Quarters. But I must admit I’m still not confident to navigate around the place apart from the areas around the Ummayad Mosque.

Back in Holland, our son has now been cycling for two days to school. It's now complete. The whole family is now using bicycles either to work or school. Although occasionally they may use train or car if they have late lessons or sports activities at school, at least the positive transformation has been made.