What does National Day means to me

On Monday, 23rd February 2009, will be our 25th national day. Brunei became independent in 1984.

Personally I believe an earlier event, 25 years before that is an equally significant event to remember. So much so that this year in a way is our '50th' national day. Back in 1959, the country first Constitution was adopted. Not many people realise that already at such an early stage, like all other young nations around the world after the World War II, our country already wanted to become an independent nation. From 1841 when Brunei ceded Sarawak to James Brooke, 5 years later ceding Labuan, 1847 signing a Trade Relations Treaty with Britain and in 1888 resigned to become a British-protected State, the brave step taken in 1959 was of greatest significance. During that year a Constitution was adopted paving the path for internal self-rule. It is Brunei first taste of independence.

The 1959 Constitution provides for The Sultan as the Head of State with full executive authority. The Sultan is assisted and advised by five councils - the Religious Council, the Privy Council, the Council of Ministers (the Cabinet), the Legislative Council and the Council of Succession. The Constitution established the Chief Minister as the highest official, with the British High Commissioner as adviser. Effectively, the country became self-governing. From where later in the early 60's the country decided not to join the Federation and stood on its own even when confronted by agressions from all corners. And with God's will, the country survived, prospered and remained peaceful. The 1959 Constitution was amended three times in 1971, 1984 and 2004; 1971 agreement ended Brunei's protectorate status; full independence in 1984. So this Monday is a meaningful day for what it was 50 years ago.

Rag to Riches

Last weekend in London, after texting our cousin in Brunei, we found the large Wing Yip store in Cricklewood along Edgware road close to Brent Cross. This is the closest you can find here in terms of what are available back home. The store is set up as a normal supermarket for one half of the building while the other half is a warehouse with long lines of tall shelves.

Apparently this Chinese store chain is the largest in UK and the owner Wong Wing Yip was the first Chinese to become a tycoon in UK. When he arrived in UK 50 years ago he only got 10 pounds.

The kids are now on a mid term break. During this time Faris is already on his third books while I could only managed half a book whilst in Syria. Reading my book related to Pakistan, it is very disheartening to know that some children living on the foot of the Himalayas have never had the chance to read books let alone go to school. Their life remains locked in century old tradition and cycle of hardship and poverty. So for us living in a privilege society when children do not cultivate a reading habit, that would be such a shame when you think about many poor children not born with the same circumstances as our children. They would have longed for books to read and education to change their life.

On a different subject, there weren't much news about the weather anymore nowadays. After weeks of flooding in the tropics, heavy snowing in UK and fires in Australia, the news now are more on entertainment albeit can't really get away from the current economic crisis. There seem to be calm in the air now, things seem to be turning around in the world market, some positive movements in politic such as in Zimbabwe and in the different foreign policy approach taken by the US administrations - there seems to be some good feelings all around. What ever it is, we hope it will last. Al least this Monday will be something special for our country.

Heading Home

Heading home today. This is the photo of Damascus International airport when the plane was doing a fly pass on the way in. The airport is being modernised with the help of a Malaysian contractor. We saw a lot of changes since the last trip back in December.

Has been a bilstering few days busy with work here in Damascus. At the end it was worthwhile that something really good came out of it, that real change has been made impacting the project. It was not all work and no play here. As always during this trip our group would head to the old city of Damascus to go for dinner. It's normally a long winding affair. Not to be dissappointed as in previous times, we remembered to book for our tables well beforehand. The foods here are excellent and relatively cheap.

On this trip what is quite visible to see are the many high powered foreign VIP delegates around, either in the hotel that we are staying or the restaurants we patroned. Syria seems to be quite aggressive in attracting foreign firms to do business here. Amongst the more willings are the Russians and Chinese who are snapping most of the contracts and offering good deals. Next week a high delegation from the States is coming. Hopefully something fruitful will come out of it. Romour circulating wild here is that the Obama administration is more open and willing to start a fresh dialogue with Syria. So much so that an American ambassador might be reinstated. If that is the case, that would be a good news as the current embargo imposed to this country really hurts her progress and development. And that would also be good for my project.

Friday the 13th?

Last Friday was an eventful day. First, one of my staff completely lost his document after spending 3 days working on his computer preparing for the meeting this week. Somehow the computer automatically backed up an older version and overwrote the latest version. It felt like a real disaster as we were about to finalised it before the weekend. The fate of the meeting hinged on this document. Luckily with modern technology nowadays, there is always ways to recover an old file. But this required a script that took an overnight process to recover the lost file.

My other staff who flew to London on the same day was involved in a small air crash. The BA flight lost its front wheels on landing at London City airport. Luckily no one was seriously injured. One of the learning is to always remember your nearest escape route. We normally ignore or pay little attention when the flight attendant gives instruction on safety but that one moment of attention could actually save your life. So next time when you fly, always to check your nearest exit. Some of the injuries on the BA crash were due to injuries when going down the emergency chutes down the tarmac. With smoke filling in the plane, the passengers suddenly panicked and this caused a sudden rush to exit the plane. Remaining calm is paramount in momment like this.

Back from London and straight away I flew to Syria again yesterday. It will be another week of work here and the great chance to enjoy the Syrian dishes.

A Place to Stay

We always thought that it would be difficult to find a good hotel in London without forking a fortune. Try this Holiday Express hotel at Acton North. This is our second time here and best thing is that there is a secure car park provided by the hotel. The hotel is reasonable, spacious and allows up to 2 adults and 2 children per room and only cost 51 pounds. And that’s inclusive of breakfast. In fact this time around the hotel, which got 110 rooms, was full.

So if anyone were planning to stay long in London, this would be a recommended place to stay. The rooms are clean with new furniture and friendly staff. The place is not far from Paddington and took us less than 15 minutes drive. By tube, there is a nearby station. This would be a much better place to stay compare to the more expensive and poor conditions of some of the hotels around Paddington and nearby.

London Calling

We were just back from a short drive weekend to London. Set off early yesterday just before 4 am. The drive was easy using auto cruise control all the way and took less than 3 hours to reach Calais. By the time we reached London, altogether it took just 6 hours.

The kids are now on mid team break so took this opportunity to go away for the weekend.

There was a lot of roadwork going on the streets in London. Apparently the recent severe cold spell had caused a lot of problems with the water pipes resulting in burst pipes. Definitely not a nice sight at all when it seems that every street appears to be dug and roads get congested. Don’t really want to mention it again how the whole infrastructure here has been neglected and that a large part of the city seems to be in dire strait.

One of the worst route to enter London is from the Southeast. Literally one has to drive along small road through congested residential areas to enter Central London. This goes to individuals as well as businesses whose trucks also ply through the same road. Whereas in Europe such a city would have a proper purpose built dual lane or even a motorway going straight from outside to the centre of the city.

During this recession time, there are actually a lot of goods that you can buy at real bargain. The winter sales seem to run forever and discounts are offered at ridiculous level. So this is actually a great time for bargain hunters – one of the plus sides of the current recession. Shops though are definitely quieter.

One shop that is really roaring in business is the AberCrombie & Fitch at Burlington Gardens. The shop was packed when we went there and the queues to the till took easily half an hour to an hour! But frankly this is probably the most ridiculous shop that we ever came across. The shop is literally full of young shop assistants; the blokes seem to be equipped with masculine arms, and mostly not doing anything at all and just standing and smiling. A really strange shop.
Back to the real world, it’s good to savor the Malaysian food again at the Bonda restaurant. Had a chat with the cook Ayub and he was saying business has been pretty good and at times hardy any seats left for customers.

No Budget

Yesterday I attended my office town hall meeting. The news is that recessionary measures are being taken to counter the current economic crisis. All sort of costs including travel and trainings will be cut. As suspected there will be job reduction. Although not at the same scale like other industries, even successful and profitable companies are not immune to the current global situation.

I might be chattering a pointless subject for some here about current global doom and gloom. I am definitely affected. The whole situation in the office is changing drastically. If people feel they are immune, I wonder if they have really opened up their eyes. Now people here are wondering whether to take a proper holiday or not in the summer. Let alone buy big items such as car. All of this will have a domino effect on others. Only recently Toyota reported that they made a loss last year, the first time in their 75 years history! Or may be we are still beseiged with local problems, let alone have the time to think about the bigger and pressing problems all around us.

This brought me on the subject of fat cat bonus and high maintainance cost of civil servants. In UK, big bonus systems in banks are being scrutinised, banks' bosses were grilled in front of the Tresuary Select Committee yesterday. The plan by the banks to still award big bonuses at this particular time is inappropriate and morally insensitive. The same questions are being raised reagrding high pay and previliges given to civil servants, where the ever increasing perks are really draining the countries budget and not sustainable leaving behind very little to spend on projects. Does that sound too familiar.

True Colours

The news from back home is still the same that it has been very very wet and floods every where. Just as everyones are struggling with that, a new problem surfaced - landslides. A number of houses, into the hundreds, have to be abandoned due to the floods and landslides. These photos taken by missus at the back of one of our family's house show the force of a landslide, smashing through a concrete fence. Driving also became very hazardous especially with stagnant water everywhere.

The post mortem of the current disaster is still ongoing. Amongst the blames pointed to are high tide, non-sustainable urban development, clog-up drains etc. The irony is that we will end up asking external consultants (already a few lining up and knocking the doors) to solve the problems. Funny - we should by now benefitted from the decades of human resource investment to be able to solve such basic problems ourself. There goes the ranting again.

This brings out the subject of the current division in Europe between giving more money and higher pay to the people or government spending the money instead to build infrastructures and assets. PM brown of reducing VAT (hence more money to the people) has been condemned by many European politicians as irresponsible. By reducing tax and giving more money to people PM Brown hopes that people will spend more and consequently stimulate the economy. But people like Sarkozy thinks otherwise. Fighting constantly against his strike-prone French countrymen, he believes the government should keep the money and spends more on infrastructure and build assets benefitting everybody. One could see the difference in the infrastructure between Europe and Britain. Europe has a much better overall infrastructure such as transport, motorways and airports compare to the dilapidating situations in UK. Perhaps this is something that our country can take a leaf out of this European Vs. Britain experience.

Transiting in Singapore

So Missus back and things are now back to normal here. Missus took this photo of Singapore Terminal 3, a nice and modern building. The flight to Amsterdam was full. Nowadays competition between airlines are quite fierce, each offering their own loyalty cards, we got six of those, where you could earn points each time you fly. On top of that there are always the regular discount offers. Some national airlines also line up with their own local authority to ensure that civil servants and key companies in the country use their national carriers. This is a common practice in neighboring countries. Perhaps we should impose similar alliance for our national carrier. That arrangement may already been in place. But looking at the high number of official trips still using other carriers to destinations where our national carrier is servicing, apparently that has not been imposed more often. Free market is good. But if we cannot compete out there, why not do it. That's my two cents worth of idea. RBA will be 35 years old this year - a remarkable milestone. It tried for a major expansion at one time but failed. It's struggling and need every little help.

Across the Pond

Many of my evenings this week has been occupied with driving the kids to school. Last night our eldest attended a career briefing, where nearly 30 speakers from different professional backgrounds gave talks to give a better picture of what career choices are out there. This to help the students make an informed decision when picking up their 'A' level or 'IB' subject choices. Fiz is now inclined to do IB. Selecting the subject combination for IB turned out to be quite difficult. Those taking IB are supposed to take 3 subjects at high level and 3 at standard level. The main thing about IB is if you are good at language subject, this is for you. Fiz also wanted to take a broad choice of subjects and not bogged down to science or art subjects only, which is again another feature of IB.

At one corner, there was a briefing on studying opportunities in the US. Was quite interesting.

Looking at our photo archieve, saw this one taken at the twin towers back in 1998, when the kids were still small. The tower has long gone by a regrettable tragic event and replaced by Ground Zero. Studying in the US definitely has a great appeal. But going for holiday over there is even better. But flights crossing the pond are still not cheap even though oil price has gone rock bottom. Some Airlines apparently do future buying of fuel. This was a prevalent practice when there was fear of oil supply when the oil price was high last year. So they are now stuck paying higher oil price even though the current price is cheaper. And so they are not able to pass any savings to customers.

Atomic Era

We visited the Atomium in December last year. Built in 1958, for the Brussels World Fair or better known as the Expos '58, that was the same year as the Sultan Omar Ali Saifuddin Mosque was built. It's now more that 50 years old and standing proudly as a clear landmark to visit in Brussels.

The Atomium was built as a monument to depict an atomic structure which would be more symbolic of the era when a lot of progress was made by then in atomic and molecular science. The structure itself is quite massive, with nine steel spheres connected so that the whole forms the shape of a unit cell of an iron crystal magnified 165 billion times!

Looking For Aspirations

If I was born in early 1984, I would by now have spent almost all my entire life going to schools and colleges. If I have done well I would have gained my undergraduate degree or even completed a masters degree programme. I would have amassed a lot of knowledge, gained a lot of skills, seen/heard/learnt a lot of things. But most important of all I would be a lot wiser, learning from the mistakes made in life and learning from others as well. So as a 25 years old now the world would be my oyster.

Brunei will be celebrating its 25th National day this month. It is a major milestone. I am as much guilty as everyone to always reflect our proud past. Like the pictures shown here, sometimes in the 60's when the old airpot was there and our SOAS mosque was already standing proudly in the capital. It's always nostalgic to reflect our great past. One I would wish more nowadays is to show what would be the future - it is a good reflection of our aspirations and motivations.

Wonder what were the aspirations of the people back then in 1984 when the country reached her independence. What would be the expectation of that baby born during those early formative years. I wonder.

Couch Potatoes

Nowadays I don't get too excited when watching football. My team which I supported since 1981 is not doing well. Those were then the times, when people supported many different teams like Leeds, Ipswich Town, Newcastle, Forest, Sunderland and of course, Spurs. Liverpool and Arsenal got the main followers then.

Today our son asked me about the difference between AM and FM which, eventually led me telling him that I used to listen to football on SW frequency when I was just beyond his age. One could listen to live football on the BBC world radio on a certain short wave frequency starting at 10 pm on Saturday night or 6.45 am early on Sunday morning for the results. Sometimes it took a long time just to tune in to the right frequency. Soon there was the match of the day shown on Sunday. We remembered the names of every players and a few of those magical moments and matches - I suppose that was a rarity to see them on action then.

Nowadays we are just awashed with live football. The current players just don't seem to have the same aura as players of yesteryears. As time moved on and Man U picked up, came along the birth of glory supporters. Nowadays if you asked most people which club they support, it's most likely one of the big four. Nobody supports the other teams anymore. Except those coming from the 70's and 80's. Mine is still glory glory Spurs! Anyway, watched the match today between Liverpool and Chelsea. Our boy was happy that Liverpool won. Coincidentally he shares the same birthday as the double scorer.

The Inevitable

The big flood a week ago back home still haunts a lot of people. Everybody are still edgy if the same thing would strike again. Our friends and relatives in Ban Mulaut are too familiar with this. The water has not completely receeded even after a week as the rain keep on coming down now and then. It has been an interesting time reading all the comments made in the opinion box.

On the home front here, with missus still away back home for another week, and me left with three really grown-up babies, it has been relentless time trying to cater for their needs. Luckily our eldest has came off her age and been doing most of the cooking. Her recent stint in France as part of her F.T. also came in handy. Nonetheless I still ended up spending a lot of time driving around to send them to all sort of things. These two weeks I am completely abandoning my bike. The morning routine is now dropping the kids at the train station and then driving through the maze of traffic, cutting through three of the busiest motorways here, on the way to the office. Riding on the bike seems less arduous and more civilised, at least away from the over motorised world out there.

TKIF

Thanks God Its Friday! Juggling between running the office and busy with house chores, I was really looking forward to the weekend.

This week most major world companies announced their last year's performance. I attended mine, joined by a crowd numbering in thousands dialing in to the meeting from over 50 offices worldwide. Inspite of best ever performance, the industry I am in is really going through a challenging time. At the current price of the commodity, it is basically not even at break-even level. There are now even more emphasis on gettings more efficiency, more focus on cost, prudence spending and there are already hint of having a leaner organisation. So being busy and saddled with endless amount of work one should not be perturbed at all in this puzzling time.

The current recession is starting to affect everyone here one way or the other. Today our 11 year old was saying that one of the student in his year had to leave. Words circulating around blame it on the recession. Supposely the dad lost his job and had to get his kid out.

Shame on BBC

BBC has now received more than 20,000 complaints for not showing the DEC Gaza appeal. The appeal is from the British Disasters Emergency Committee - made up of the 13 biggest aid charities, including the British Red Cross, Save the Children and Oxfam - which said that "the devastation wrought in the Gazan territory was so huge that British aid agencies were compelled to act." More than 100 British MPs from all parties have signed a motion criticising the BBC and Sky News for refusing to show the appeal.

To make a complaint to BBC is easy. Just log on to the BBC complaint website. BBC's reason was on impartiality grounds not to risk giving the public the impression that the BBC was taking sides in an ongoing conflict. But people are suffering terribly in Gaza and need help. More than 1,300 Palestinians killed. More than 4,000 buildings destroyed in Gaza, more than 20,000 severely damaged. Tens of thousands of Gazans homeless.

The Sky News is owned by media mogul Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation (no second guess of his background).

Money raised by DEC are usually huge. Here are previous DEC Appeals :
South Asia Quake Appeal (£59m), Niger Crisis Appeal (£32m), Tsunami Appeal (£372m), Sudan Crisis Appeal (£35m), Liberia Appeal (£2.5m), Southern Africa Crisis (£16m)and Goma Crisis Appeal (£4.65m).

Books to Read

What did we get from Ahoy. I piled up the books and the real culprit was Fiz. She just finished her Mock Exam so she wanted to go back to her normal routine - reading anything especially not related to school work!

Time really has gone very fast. Now were are into the third week of the year. Things are really picking up in the office. The kids are also now back to their normal routine with homeworks. Although admittedly the amount of homeworks here is nothing compared to what their friend and cousins back home have to do. We are not sure whether that is good or not. But looking at exam results back home, they are quite a lot of students getting really good results. And parents are also becoming very competitive - sending their kids to extra classes and so on. We don't have the option here. We have to provide guidance and spend a large amount of our time to help with their work. But it's also refreshing to be really involved in the kid's education and development rather than wholly leaving it to teachers and tutors.

One thing that we found is quite pleasing is the increasing number of people that we know pursuing further education onto MBA and PhD. We really praise them for having such amazing drive.

Book Fair in Ahoy

Today we went to Ahoy, an event centre in Rotterdam currently holding a book fair. We have never been to Ahoy before and only knew about the book fair from my office colleague.

Ahoy is a big complex, where concerts and various exibitions are regularly held through the year. The book fair has been going on for three days where up to a millions books were on sale at incredibly cheap prices.

We saw everybody were with their trolleys, filling them up as they troll along. With all those books on display it's difficult not to be tempted. It's definitely quite a sight to see the large crowd amidst the thousands of books laid across the large hall. Also to see these people really enjoying themselves browsing through endless rows of books to eventually filling up their trolleys.

In the end we also ended up spending a good couple of hours before heading home. The long lines at the cashiers tell their own story - it must have been a very good business for the organiser.

First Time Skating

Nowadays children are likely be molded to their parent's wishes than given their own choice. However much we try to give them freedom and initiative more often than not we as parents are their barrier. Sometimes parents use their past experiences as a gauge to how far the children could push themselves. So when Faris wanted to join the skating birthday party, we were hesistant to let him go. As it would be his first time, it would be difficult to pick the skill. But Faris was quite insistent and so at the end we let him try it. But what a surprise. After half an hour of getting his balance right and learning the technique he was at ease with skating. Now he wants to go another time again. So there we were, proven wrong again. The outdoor ice rink is 5 minutes from our house, set up on a temporary platform in the middle of a small lake.

Busy Times

Will be interesting weeks ahead. It was an early trip to the airport this morning. Missus off to Brunei for a couple of weeks while the kids are left with yours trully to manage and feed! Today was already a busy day to start off with - going to the supermarket and kids going their separate ways. Fiz off to school as she was doing volunteer work cooking for the elderly, our youngest off to a skating birthday party and Zimah to the shop. Anyway, days ahead should be okay as the kids are more than willing to do their duties.

It has been a while since I got myself proper books to read. The former President Bush read 40 to 95 books a year. Even if you don’t like this guy, reading upto 95 books in a single year is pretty impressive. Most people don’t ever come close to that in a year. The average American adult reads 5-7 books per year. And one in four adult do not even read a single book in a year. So this is one of my quiter resolution for the year, to read even more books this year than before.

Saw a couple of those at the airport and they seem to be good reading for the next few days. The Penguin publication on the 'history of the Middle East' would be an awesome read. The other one is 'three cups of tea', should be a lighter reading, a true and uplifting story on a person's geneoristy and humanitarian spirit. The last one is an overdue book for reading - another of those booker prize award book.

Rainy Times

The flooding back home was really bad. Normally its the Western end of the country that suffer the constant flooding. Now it was the turn for the BSB'ian. The one and only underpass got most people's attention - it was like a canal. Here it has also been wet in the last few days. Add that with the gusting wind and cold weather, indeed quite a trying time for cycling. Yesterday even in full gear I was soaking wet when I reached home. This morning I dared again on my two wheels to the office. I was really soaky by the time I reached there. My office colleagues were amazed. Even my Dutch colleague ducked out and went on the tram.

Today while cycling home in the wet, by the side of one of the main canals, I was wondering how come the Dutch managed to cope with the danger of flooding. In fact a quarter of the surface area of the country is below sea level, hence highly flood prone areas. That's equivalent to an area of more than ten thousands square km, twice the size of Brunei. Yet with all the daily rains that this country face and the danger of the North Sea becoming violent, the country hardly suffer any flood catastrophe. The devastating floods in 1953 which killed nearly 2000 people provided a wake-up call to the government.

Bendera Negaraku Berkibar

Today I had to break my normal routine. After cycling for 10 months today was the first time I took the public transport. The reason was I got an invite for lunch. Today there was a Bruneian delegation in town. The lunch was for the delegation.

But looking outside the office, I saw our flag proudly standing there. This is the first time I see our national flag flying on Dutch soil.

Circle of Life

The current recession has cost the oil producing countries 2.5 trillions dollars. That's more or less equivalent to 40% of the stock market value wiped out. Staggering.

All those money from oil have gone just like that. For all the riches that have been given, not much was spent except to build Dubai, buy weapons from Uncle Sam, and build extravagent palaces and buildings. At one time the best policy was to save and build as much foreign reserves as possible. This is in contrast with most Western countries who just spend, tax the people, spend more, borrow, spend even more until they are deep in debts. But at least the countries have the infrastructure and fast developing. Whereas when the oil producing countries build something, the governments called it developing but in fact they are really doing a catch up.

In a Giant's footstep

One of the great things that the kids like about the schooling here is the food technology. They really enjoy it and even our 11 years boy is proud of what he can cook. They are also quite keen to hone their skill (i.e. make a mess) at home. But for the parents it is a real headache to get all those ingredients from the supermarket to prepare for the cooking at school. The other thing that they do a lot here is sports. Our youngest now enjoys rugby.

On completely different subject, on Tuesday Obama is becoming a president. And, as if coincidentally, Uncle Sam's naughty boy called a unilateral truce to go home after wrecking Gaza. Otherwise it does not look good for Uncle Sam at a time when it is honouring a new president. Whatever it is it will still be a giant footstep for America when President Barrack is finally inaugurated on Tuesday.

Fantastic Bloggers

Saw this one - they are professional bloggers - they are the ones filling us with most of the events and news from back home. Some of them even have more than half a million hits! Then there is another group - photo bloggers - posting lots of fantastic shots.

Our blog is pretty simple, trying to capture our experiences whilst here. Though our kids think our layout is lame (they are more into facebook).

Student's View of the World

It's GCSE mock exam time. I always refer it to 'O' level but that is not correct anymore. I took the 'O' level back in 1981, then was called the Singapore-Cambridge General Certificate of Education (Ordinary Level). But apparently, except for Singapore, the GCE O-Levels have been phased out in favour of the General Certificate of Secondary Education (GCSE) starting in 1988.

One of the differences between the two is the grading. GCE 'O' level has grading from A to F for examinations. GCSE has tiers format: higher (grades A–C), intermediate (B–E) and basic (D–G). By introducing the lower grade allows less-perfoming student to pursue aternatives to A level. Another change was the introduction of A* grade in the GCSE to distinguish the very top end of achievement. This is what students are aiming for. So weary eyes for Fizah these days.

Cupcakes

Where to find the best cupcakes in London? - that's a really hot contention amongst cupcakes lovers. The ones in Selfridges seem to be a favourite amongst our countrymen. Now with the English Pounds sliding against the Euros and other currencies, stuff in UK are relatively cheaper than in Europe. Sometimes as much as half price.

Last night a police officer came to our house. She was informing us of the recent thefts in the neighbourhood, and advised us what to do in terms of securing the house, looking after the neighbours and raising the alarm if any suspicious person is seen. It's quite good that the police here are quite proactive and really make an attempt to visit everyone in the neighbourhood. What is also facinating about living here is that English is well spoken by everyone including this police officer. Holland is probably the only country in Europe outside the British Isles where almost the entire population can speak English very well. You would not find that in France, Spain, Italy or Germany.

Skating on Ice

With the cold weather during the last few weeks, frozen lakes and canals have been crowded with skaters. It was said about a million pairs of skates were sold during the period. With it saw an increase in number of hospital cases for broken arms, bruises and so on. In the office, at least two of our colleagues were strapped up for bruises suffered from fall during skating.

But now the cold spell is ending up. Ice in lakes and canals starts to melt and becoming increasing thin and too dangerous for skating. Hopefully we will have another cold spell. Would be nice to see the crowd again on ice.

Amal Soleh

We always hear that word mentioned every now and then, saying that we must aim to become a person who is "beriman dan beramal soleh". The first is quite clear - faith. The second one is not so. What is it exactly? It's probably one of the most used word but not many people really understand what it means.

Last friday the Khutbah was delivered by Sofyan Djalil , an Acehnese, now an Indonesian cabinet minister resposible for government's corporations such Pertamina. He didn't have a previlige background but managed to progress in his studies until obtaining PhD in the States. He delivered an excellent sermon. He compared the advanced nations and the poor state of Islamic nations overall.

He explained that 'beramal soleh' is doing good deeds but in the broadest sense. It is both rituals such as prayer, fasting, donating and reciting the holy Quran which are individualistic acts, but also advancing our knowledge and developing value-added innovations, which are for the benefit of others, taking care of the world and respecting the environment we live in. Thus Islam is not a religion which is merely based on rituals alone. Most Islamic nations lack learners, innovators and real developers. More often than not the state of the nations are quite harrowing. The economies are stagnant with mostly oil being their saviour (but for how long?). Roads and public infrastructure hardly being built and people still live in conditions as if the world has not moved on except for the big mansions and luxurious cars for a select few.

Back Home

We reached home at 10.30 pm last night. It was a short and worthwhile trip. Love to do it again. This must have been our 7th trip to London since we have been here. Before heading home we had a hearty meal at Bonda Cafe again. Apparently the Mawar restaurant nearby is back on business again. And we were also recommended to try another Malaysian outlet at Bayswater. May be next time. The nice thing with Bonda Cafe is that it has a small prayer room upstairs (in the Mara building). Which is good and becoming a trend nowadays as Muslim restaurant owners across Europe are more conscious to provide such thing.

We left London at 2.30 pm but got stuck in a huge traffic jam near Hyde Park because of the Gaza protest. So a bit of improverisation, taking a diferent route via Kensington and southwards before cutting back Eastwards to our normal route. The protests on Gaza across Europe are becoming louder and louder nowadays. The obvious missing persons in actions are Mr Blair and Mr Barrack. The former, who was appointed as UN special envoy to the MiddleEast, is not to be seen at all. The later is amazingly muted.

New Obsession

Our youngest is on a new obsession. He is into Top Gear territory - loving Jeremy Clarkson, Richard Hammond and James May to bits. He just loves to watch the antics of these three wierdos - testing and speeding expensive and fancy cars like cheap toys, smashing a manufacturer's reputation infront of millions of viewers, crashing caravans and competing with the Stig. The Stig is Top Gears tamed racing driver nobody really knows who he is. One thing our youngest would really wish to do is attend a live Top Gear show - but apparently there's a 3-year waiting list for that! So for time being a few books will keep him busy.

At Westfield Centre

With our cousin at Titchbourne Row had long gone home for good last month, we were wondering where would be the best place to stay whilst in London which has easy access, got car park facility, nice neighbourhood and well connected for going anywhere. We opted for this Holiday Inn Express hotel in Acton near to Shepperds Bush. The North Acton tube Station is just next to the hotel which is on the Central Line. Although driving our car is by far more convenient, taking about 15 minutes to reach Paddington. The room only costs 50 pounds inclusive of breakfast. The new shopping mall, Westfield Shopping Centre, said to be the largest now in Europe, is less than 10 minutes drive. The shopping centre is really huge. The post Christmas sale is still on till end of January, so this is the best time to go.

When we had dinner last night, we met a nice Bruneian family who just settled down in London. And sure enough, Brunei being small, we quickly knew their families and sibblings. Such a small world. We learnt that during December, there were lots of Bruneian nowadays spending their end-year holiday in UK. So long gone the usual Singapore or KL trip. Although pre Christmas would not be the best time to go for shopping. It was funny for instance when lining up at Selfridges or Mark & Spencer to see a few of our countrymen queueing up for the cashier, a scene more reminiscent back home.

16 Years Old Yesterday

It was a spontaneous idea on Friday night - why don't we go for an overnight to London during the weekend.

So, early yesterday morning (at 3 am!) we set off to Calais for the EuroTunnel. Being early, everybody fast asleep in the car, and the road very quiet, it was an easy drive taking 3 hours to cover about 340 km of road from Holland to the France side of the Eurotunnel. The only hitch was the light fog which covered most of Belgium and forced us to drive around 90 to 100 km/hr.

Apparently for the EuroTunnel, if one were to go overnight, the one way ticket price for the car and whole passengers is only 30 Euros, far cheaper than the 180 to 240 we normally paid for a couple of days or for a week stay. The return leg is 37 Euros. But these apply only for an overnight trip. We were wondering why such a vast difference in cost.

We had a stopover at Maidstone Service station at around 8 am UK time, just as it was sunrising, to see our car really blackened by thick grime of salt and dirts during the drive. It was quite cold as well, up to minus 12 Deg. C in Belgium with flurry of snow now and then. At 9 am we were already at Paddington, just in time for breakfast at Bonda Cafe. Surprisingly London was also cold, at minus 3 Deg. C.

Yesterday, our 'little' cherish one turned 16. So the trip to London. Teens nowadays are into this AberCrombie & Fitch line which is catching up fast with teenagers. The only shop in UK is at Burlington Gardens along Regent Street. From outside the building looks like an office, but once you walk inside it has 3 floors of shops, enough to make teenagers smile.

Snichzel Country