Long Weekend

It's a public holiday today. It's called the Ascension Day, 40 days after Easter. In Christian this is the day when Jesus ascended to Heaven. Almost the whole of Europe is closed but not UK.

It is also the start of a 4-day weekend as Friday is declared as a bridge day, meaning an extra day given off work to make an extended weekend break for workers.

We headed for a day trip to Roermond in the southernmost tip end of Holland. But the traffic jam was quite bad. Took us an extra hour to what was supposed to be a 2-hour drive. It seemed everybody want to go somewhere, with their bikes hanging from behind their cars, to probably the forested part of Belgium or France. The place we went to was crowded. With cars haphazardly parked everywhere, it's definitely not a bad day to do business.

One of the reason for the huge traffic jam is the ongoing construction on the motorways. Along the route nearly a hundred kilometres of the motorways was being upgraded and reconfigured. Most of them are being expanded to 3 or 4 lanes motorway, new and smoother interchanges and endless number of flyovers. The work along a stretch around the city of Eindhoven has been going on for a couple of years now but once finished will be a huge relief to road users.

It is not hard to imagine the impact of these investments on the economy. By allowing even better flow of goods and business and smoother flow of people, the country is keeping herself ahead of the competitions. The work no doubt cost billions, especially more costly here as the motorways have to be built on elevated ground because of the lowland and delta landscape of Holland. On top of that are the stringent ruling on noise polution which require sound barriers to be installed when close to settlement areas.

A book done

On my part, I just finished this book - Rigged written by Ben Mezrich. Its a true story that recounts the trial and tribulation in the formation of an oil trading centre in Dubai. Rigged recounts the formation of the Dubai Mercantile Exchange by two young visionaries, one in the New York Mercantile Exchange and the other in the Dubai Ministry of Finance.

Nowadays in 2009 the Dubai oil exchange has already started its business. It is thought that by establishing such trading centre in the Middle east, rather than far away in Europe and New York, it would change the way the most sought commodity of the world being traded especially Middle east being the source of most of world's oil. It would also elevate Dubai status as a world trading centre to compete with the like of other well established centres particularly New York and London. So not only those guys in Dubai are thinking about building hotels and real estates, but they are also building and growing 'soul' to make the city vibrant and a real magnate for world trading.

In the cover of the book is the Burj Al Arab. As a part of the Jumeirah group the hotel has a sister hotel called Jumeirah Emirates Towers which I stayed during my work trip. In the book, the story also revolved around this hotel where main character from the New York Mercantile Exchange first landed in Dubai. I have never been to the more famous Burj Al Arab but this hotel is to me is the best I have stayed. It is refuted to be still the highest hotel and voted as the best business hotel in the Middle east for several times over. Located at the heart of the Dubai business centre, it really stands out because of its unique shape.

Readers

The kids are on half term holiday. We thought it was just a couple of weeks ago that they had their Easter break, and now yet another holiday! They seem to have a lot of jolly times. But then they said it will be a solid seven and half weeks of schooling from next week onwards until the academic year finishes.

So today after work I was checking out what have they been up to during the break. I was pleasantly surprised to know that they were keeping themselves busy reading books.

Our second was really into it that she is now into her third novels in as many days. That's about 500 pages a day. She is reading Stephene Meyer's books. Stephenie is the writer of the "Twilight" novel, currently showing in cinemas as "Twilight" the movie. Apparently that novel sold over 40 millions copies worldwide and she was named USA Today's "Author of the Year" last year. She has written three other books that form a series after the Twilight - New Moon, Eclipse and Breaking Dawn. Zim is now into the 3rd.

Our youngest is also trying to compete the reading marathon during the term break. Since starting on Sunday he is now into his fifth books of the Erin Hunter's Warrior series - this is a much lighter reading.

A Sinbad

One thing that we always remember about our old place of Assen is the incredibly delicious grilled spare-ribs offered by one Egyptian restaurant. After all these years, the restaurant has survived the test of time and is still there. Of the many places that we have tried, nothing can match this one. Apparently it is down to the sauce and the best spare-ribs comes from young calves. When we dropped by the pace was quite busy, so is doing well.

The restaurant's name is Sinbad, owned by an Egyptian family. The other Halal restaurant that we know of in Assen is called Holyland. It is still there when we checked it out today. The owner however has changed hand, but they still retain the same menu and cooking style. The food here is quite good as well.

Trip to Memory Lane

After Batavia, we continued with another hour drive to a place which was our home for over three years back in the late 1990's. It is actually a small town of about 50 thousands, quite a contrast to city of The Hague where we are living now.

Back then there was a close-knit community of about 10 Bruneian and Malaysian families here. There seemed to be a lot of things to do then, albeit the place is quite laid back, reminding me of back home.

Nowadays, the place is less busy, with only one Bruneian family living here and probably just a handful of Malaysians. We didn't want to check out the family as we were already quite late and only wanting to see to see how the town looks like.

Surprisingly we found the place seems exactly the same as ten years ago. It is as if places that are far away from the country's political or commercial centres, progress and resources on new developments are less felt and emphasised. The shops and looks of the streets are more or less the same. The place looks a bit neglected though. May be the overall economy in this place is not doing as well as before.

So walking along the street, we kept on reminding ourselves the shops and the places that we used to go or hang out. It was quite a nostalgic walk across the town. Back then the kids were small. Our eldest was only four when we arrived here then. Now she is 16.

Batavia and a Shipwreck

Sunday. A day after the Eurovision song contest. A day after a premier league Saturday where some results didn't go my way. After all it is Sunday and ought to do something. But nowadays it's quite difficult to drag our kids to follow us where ever we wanted to go. Not one of them wants to come along. They all have their excuses. Understandably for our eldest who is in the middle of her GCSE, she needs to stay at home, and definitely we are not disturbing her. She got her first serious paper tomorrow - Maths. Her exam started last week - Dutch oral and listening. So without the kids, me and missus went on our way.

We went to Lelystad to check out this factory outlet, the last time we were there was over 2 years ago. It has expanded and almost changed completely. The outlet is known as Batavia Stad, By late afternoon, the place was quite full, the rainy weather didn't perturb people from crowding the place.

The name Batavia reminded me of the old name of Jakarta. Looking at Wiki the Dutch built a fort in the year 1619 at where Jakarta is now and called it Batavia. This fort was the headquarter of the Dutch East India Company and became a colony of the Netherlands. The fort was built to repulse firstly the English who are also busy trying to expand their own colonies, and secondly the natives who wanted to oust the foreign powers. I find it really incredible to know that Jakarta as it is now a big city was founded by European only 400 years ago and yet many European and Arab cities are more than a thousand or two thousands years old. It shows how our Nusantara is such a young civilisation and was really way behind compare to the rest of the world then.

Back to subject Batavia, the word Batavia is said to come from an ancient name of a region in Holland. I was half guessing may be this is the region and that's why they called it Batavia Stad. May be.... But then close by next to the outlet there stands a replica ship called Batavia. Batavia was a ship of the Dutch East India Company and was built in Amsterdam in 1628. The ship however was shipwrecked on her maiden voyage (sounds like Titanic! but no Leonardo de Caprio and Kate Winslet equivalent though). The ship looks quite huge and beautifully crafted. I was imagining what would it be like in the 17th Century when the Europeans in such ships came along to our coast, it must have been a very intimidating experience for our people then, this kind of ship carries 24 cast-iron cannons. No wonder it was so easy for our land to be lost or colonised.

Smoshed

This is what happened to Fiz's bike - the rear wheel was vandalised when she left it overnight outside a supermarket. The repair, to work on the rear wheel which got the gears attached, is quite costly so wasn't worth it. So this morning had to get a new bike for her to get her moving around to town and school.

Fiz has been scouting around the last two days and finally decided to go to the shop at the Central Station. Not known to me, there is a small bike shop there apart from being a storage facility for some 3500 bikes! The one Fiz selected is a typical Dutch bike. She even put a basket in front of it.

The Dutch call them omafiets, which means . . . grandma's bicycle. They are solid, well made and last a lifetime. They are the most popular form of bicycle used here. Their wheels are quite large (28 inches) and are painted black, and have a backpedalling brake system and just one gear.

Pitting my bike next to hers, her bike looks enormous and quite tall. Sounds jolly uncomfortable. On the contrary, once you get going, the "towering" position of the saddle and the sheer momentum give a very smooth ride.

Mini Survivor 2009

He survived. Faris and 139 from his year group just got back from the island trip. During the trip, the group were given a dosage of works around the island related to geography, biology and history. To get around each were provided with a bike, by the end of the week they have cycled over a hundred kilometres.

I asked him what was his highlight during the trip, he said it was shopping around the small village centre! Apparently he heard the teachers saying it was a holiday for them because they kept drinking tea and coffee when ever they had the chance.

Open Mind

Our kids introduced us to this website - the Uncyclopedia - a website that imitate and make mockery of the Wikipedia. Here's what's written about Bruneian....many are true actually but not too bad compare to what's written about other countries. The Americans has more than a hundred nasty descriptions of them. Anyway this is just for fun....

- Known for the phrase "Bulih Kali Ahh".
- Lousy and wreckless drivers.
- Worships Friendster.
- Always complain about the government.
- Acts to be rich while in Malaysia.
- Weird fetish for expensive Nokia phones.
- Xenophobia.
- Where's Brunei again?.
- 'Ambuyat' distributor.
- Known for 'poklan' farming.
- Budi.

- Teh Tarik Asli.

- Banar.
- Very slow at getting their jobs done(Especially in Toll Booths).
- Better than [Filipinos]

Eye of the Beholder

An old subject that I don't like to dwell. In the news today, found out that 13th of May is the deadline for coastal states to submit declarations on where they see their boundaries to the UN Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf. So far a total of 48 nations have made full claims, and dozens more have made preliminary submissions.

Obviously there are many overlapping submissions. But perhaps one of the most complicated areas to resolve is who owns what in the South China Sea, with many countries having competing claims. China claims the Spartly island chains amongst others are part of its sovereign territory - and so is claiming almost the whole of the South China Sea barring the sand beaches of the other states!

Adventure Island

It's a bit quiet in the house tonight as our youngest is off on a 5 day residential field course on the island of Ameland which is located in the northern part of Holland. It takes about 4 to 5 hours to reach there from school by bus and ferry.

The island faces the North Sea on one side and the so called "Wadden Sea" on the south side. The Google Earth photo shows the "Wadden Sea" which at low tides it is dry or very shallow , while with hightide it is a real sea.

There are lots of things that the kids will be doing. During the day students will be required to complete a number of activities covering a wide range of subject areas, and in the evenings there will be chance to follow up the work in groups and some social events. There will be various opportunities during the 5 days to compete for the prized team sport and “best team” trophies. Travel around the island will be by bicycle.

My Long March

It's been a year now and 4000 km and still marching on. It was early May last year that I started cycling to work and time has really gone fast.

http://paulaland-paulaland.blogspot.com/2008/05/reducing-my-carbon-footprints.html

Coffee Lover

A few more of those 'antique' stuffs that we came across in the market. These are coffee grinders, hardly to be seen anymore in these days of instant coffee and pressurised coffee machines.

Now that we are well into Spring, there are more bicycles and traffics on the road. Cafes and coffee shops are now invading the pavements and any open spaces with their chairs and tables. And the places are always full and that when it comes to killing the time the people here also knows how to 'lepak'.

Yesterday was the last day of school for Fizah, the next 30 days will be crunch time attending GCSE exams. I remember that major exams in past were held over a shorter period, mostly within a week or two at most. Nowadays not only courseworks are taken into account but the exams are well spread out over a month. It all seems much easier these days.

Yesterday I only knew that Zimah and Faris have finished their exams. Didn't realise that all these days between their revision and playing badminton, they were actually having exams! It's no big deal though. We are not the regimented type, much prefer kids to have their own ways to prepare for their exam.

On the same subject, there was a study done by UNICEF which found that Dutch children are the happiest children in the industrialized world. Here's the article - Holland beats out the competition in a study that took account of material well-being, health and safety, education, family and peer relationships, behaviors and risks, and their own perceptions of their well-being. So, what's the secret of Dutch happiness? . "Holland is a livable, rich, free, well-governed country. People are happy in those conditions." And their positive Dutch outlook is fostered in the education system. "I think in Holland, we are very open with our children," says Esther van der Zaag,, a primary school teacher. "There are rules, but not too many... Play is the most important thing to learn. We teach them through play, not through rules." Play gives way, further up the education ladder, to learning based on conversation and consensus: "Sometimes the Dutch are criticized for too much negotiation, for not being strict enough or not having rules," says Tom van Veen, a father, teacher and co-principal. He says Dutch children are encouraged to form and express their own opinions. "They're used to negotiating at home. In school, too, it's not just, "Here are the rules, follow them.' It's a good thing, but it is tiring." The same model of consensus decision-making pervades the highest levels of Dutch politics and corporate culture.

Kenangan di Iberia

FishEYE View

On our last trip to London, we again dropped by at the Photographers' Gallery. Fizah is now into this 'fisheye' camera or better known as lomography. The gallery is one of only few places where one could buy this type of camera.

The camera uses normal 135 film but captures images that are colourful, though often blurry. She now got two lomos and 2 other polaroids. When asked why take those pictures where most of them are blurry anyway, she said this is for her art and as a hobby where she can express herself! LOL!

The lomo camera actually looks very primitive. The body is mostly plastics and looks cheap.

Listen

Listen
To the song here in my heart
A melody I start but can't complete
Listen
To the sound from deep within
It's only beginning to find release
Oh the time has come for my dreams to be heard
They will not be pushed aside and turned
Into your own all 'cause you won't listen
Listen
I am alone at a crossroads
I'm not at home in my own home
And I've tried and tried to say what's on my mind
You should have known -
Oh
Now I'm done believing you
You don't know what I'm feeling
I'm more than what you made of me
I followed the voice you gave to me
But now I've gotta find my own
You should have listened
There is someone here inside
Someone I thought had died so long ago
Oh, I'm screaming out and my dreams will be heard
They will not be pushed aside or worse
Into your own all 'cause you won't listen
Listen
I am alone at a crossroads
I'm not at home in my own home
And I've tried and tried to say what's on my mind
You should have know
Oh, now I'm done believing you
You don't know what I'm feeling
I'm more than what you made of me
I followed the voice you gave to me
But now I've gotta find my own
I don't know where I belong
But I'll be moving on
If you don't, if you won't
Listen
To the song here in my heart
A melody I start
But I will complete -
Oh
Now I'm done believing you
You dont know what I'm feeling
I'm more than what you made of me
I followed the voice you think you gave to me
But now I gotta find my own

If I Were A Boy

Video taken by an excited photographer - Zimah!

And this one posted on Youtube by someone seated facing the stage

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LSvotLi5jHg&feature=related

Beyoncé in Holland

Treasure Trove

Looking for antiques? A couple of photos showing what are on display in the flea market. There are plenty to see. These items which all seem to be junk could be worthy to others as collectibles. Old irons, telephone sets and even an old microscope. These place is like a treasure trove.

Amazing Flea Market

This is what the town of Delft is also popular with - it offers one of the most outlandish flea market we have ever encountered.

On every Saturdays between April and September, the flea market appears to create a festive atmosphere in this town. Crowds of people throng the market to see what are on offer. If you are into antiques and ornaments, this is the place to go.

The flea market is basically a thin, winding market that uses many alleys, roads along canals, courtyards and small squares. It is well spreads out, disappearing down narrow alleys, then re-emerging into the courtyards and the squares.


One can stroll along the canals and narrow alleys to view a fabulous range of antiques, flowers, books and various household and collective ornaments - items that seem to be useless but amazingly are being sold. Apart from that one could also find elaborately decorated teacups, small vases, glass wares, old maps, painted miniatures, photographs and so on. Then there are the old tables, chairs and cabinets, boxes of old china, pictures of saints, and so on.

We are not really sure how the system work, but seems that anybody could just set up a stall and sell anything. The items are either displayed on a long table under a small canvas tent or simply arranged on a polystyrene sheet laid on the floor of the alleys.

Basically one could delved endlessly looking at the items on display and to see if anything interesting to buy. We were today just looking around and enjoying the company of the crowd.

Walking in Delft

There are so many things to see during this time of the year. There are all sort of festivals or shows going on. One of the thing that we inadvertently missed was the Dutch flower festival which is like the Pasadena flower parade in the States. With the sunny weather today we decided to go to the town of Delft to experience its lively Saturday atmosphere. We have been to this place before but mainly to buy the Delft ceramics but had never been to the centre of the town on Saturday.

The town itself is just a 20 minutes drive from home. The town could be described as a very typical old Dutch town with lots of canals, narrow alleys and traditional houses. But Delft is more than that.

The town of Delft is more associated with the Royal family and its blue 'Delft' ceramics is famous all over the world. The ceramics are of various designs of which two brands are known to still retain the true original authentic design and are allowed to use the royal seal on the ceramics. One of them has a factory attached to its shop and one could follow a free guided tour to how the ceramics are made. Typically these authentic ones are quite expensive, costing hundred or even thousand of euros each. Of course one could buy the cheaper ones which are sold in most souvenir shops. Most overseas tourists would drop by to the town of Delft apart from the more popular tourist's trapping of Amsterdam.

The town of Delft itself is quite lovely and full of culture and history. The main landmark is the main market place and the tall old Gothic church tower which dominates the skyline. One could climb the tower to the top to see the nice view of the town, but we didn't have the energy and time to climb up! On the West side of the market place stands the Stadhuis which is now already nearly 400 years old. This is also quite a majestic building, bearing in mind how amazing it must have been back then when it was completed during the early 17th century.

Orange Shirt Day

Here the royal brithday or the Queen's day is symbolically celebrated on the 30th April every year. Statistically it is supposed to be one of the best time of the year when the weather is mild and sunshine is more or less guranteed. Typically the celebration is started when the royal family go to a designated town or village to celebrate with crowds of well wishers. This year the town of Apeldoorn was chosen. Elsewhere, the rest of the nation especially in the big cities, the day is celebrated with street parades and open air concerts. For the populace it is a good enough reason to go out and dressed in orange to live up the ocassion. The biggest party is naturally in Amsterdam where milions would flock to the canals.

This year however was marred by an incident when a car tried to crash into the open-top bus carrying the Royal family. Five poople were killed by the crash. Immediately all major music and parade celebrations throughout the country were cancelled. Today we went to the centre of The Hague to see what left is going on a day after. There were still a few rides and stalls still operating. Loads of people were still out, enjoying the good weather.

A Grain of Hope

Back home at last last night. The airport was amazingly quiet. It was probably because it was a public holiday in Holland for the Queen's day. Or could it be because of the Swine Flu that people start to limit their travelling. People here though are still not panicking for that. The number of deads seems be blown out of proportion.

Reading through a backlog of local news I learnt about the new rice coming out of Brunei. It was last monday that HM attended the official kick start of Brunei's drive to secure future food supply. For that HM went out to the field to plant the first seedlings of the newly-renamed local rice variety - 'Laila'. It is expected that this will be harvested in 3 months time when HM will come again for the harvest.

Looking at the scale, speed and planning put to implement the rice supply strategy, indeed it was very impressive for what have been done . For the first time there is a real encouragement that we are turning towards the right direction.

The given name to the rice however is not that unique. Browsing through the net, apparently there is already similar name used for a basmati from Pakistan.

Day out in the Museum

Today had a chance to wander around before flying back home in the afternoon. Not to lose time went to the National Museum just as it was opening at 9 am. But alas yours truly was not the first one as there were already hordes of tourists shuttled to the place in coaches waiting at the gate! Mostly were Italians and Chinese.

The museum has two major exhibition wings - the Roman and the Islamic. However, the Roman Wing is better curated as the museum recently received a massive funding of 6 million euros from the Italian government. Obviously with the rich Roman history, the Italian would favour more to curate that part of the history. In the Roman era, two great cities were formed in Syria - Palmyra and Apamea.

The Islamic exhibits nevertheless are quite interesting. Now with a better sense of the Syrian history, it was quite interesting to see the relics from the great Umayyad to subsequent dynasties in this great land.

Ironically the Ottoman Empire which ruled the land from Istanbul for more than 400 years does not really feature much in this museum. There is probably still deep resentment for those era when the Ottoman being non-Arab were the ruler of the Arab and Islamic world at that time.

Sejuk Subuh di Mesjid Umayyad

Hopefully I will be able to come to this place again. The great Mesjid built in the beginning of the 8th century is a real icon for the Islamic world. It is one of the most beautiful mosque, built at the height of the Umayyad Dynasty when Damascus was the centre of the great empire which stretched from Spain to the border of India.

The compound was quiet but once inside there was already a good crowd of the faithfuls waiting for the prayer to start.

This mesjid also shares great importance to the Shiites and the Christians. At one corner is the tomb of Iman Hussein, the grandson of our Prophet, which is a pilgrimage site for the Shi'a or Shiites. In the middle of the mosque is the relic of Nabi Yahya or to the Christian John the Baptist. At the back of the mosque is located the tomb of the great and most respectable warrior Saladin.

The Syrians in general are fiercely Sunnis, but the ruling family are from the Alawis, a Shi'a sect that originates from the northwest part of the country. The Alawis dominate the government. There are many religious literature one could read both in Malay and English about Shi'a and Alawis. The Alawis does not have their own mosque. Most of the mosques in Damascus are Sunni with a very few being Shi'a. If one is familiar with the Druze of Lebanon, historically both the Druze and the Alawis are similar. They were both formed from an earlier split from the Shiʿa. Just as a snapshot, I cut and paste from wiki the following paragraph that describes the Alawis.

"The doctrines date from the ninth century A.D. and derive from the Twelver or Imami branch of Shi'a Islam (the sect that predominates in Iran). In about A.D. 859, one Ibn Nusayr declared himself the bab ("gateway to truth"), a key figure in Shi'a theology. On the basis of this authority, Ibn Nusayr proclaimed a host of new doctrines which, to make a long story short, make Alawism into a separate religion. According to Ibn Kathir, where Muslims proclaim their faith with the phrase "There is no deity but God and Muhammad is His prophet," Alawis assert "There is no deity but 'Ali, no veil but Muhammad, and no bab but Salman." According to Twelver Shi'as Muhammad al-Mahdi is the final Imam of the Twelve Imams and the Mahdi, the ultimate savior of humankind. Other Shi'a schools, along with Sunnis, do not consider ibn-al-Hasan as the Mahdi. Twelver Shias believe that al-Mahdi was born in 869 and has been hidden by God to later emerge with Jesus (Nabi Isa) in order to fulfill their mission of bringing peace and justice to the world."

Ok enough of that. Moving around in Damascus is quite easy. The place is safe and taxis are dirt cheap. A typical metered ride normally cost between 20 to 50 syps or Syrian pounds which is equivalent to 30 to 80 euro cents or $B0.70 to 1.70. But normaly we just pay them 100 to 200 syps. Taxis are a plenty, the streets literaly awash with yellow cabs, but can come in various conditions. There are plenty of good ones to choose.

Dining in Bekaa Valley

On Monday night, we went out from Damascus in the direction of Lebanon. It was a farewell do for us in yet another one of those amazing restaurants one could find in Damascus.

The place is at the edge of the well known Bekaa Valley, a fertile land located between Damascus and Beirut, though we were still on the Syrian side. Beirut was just 30 km further on. The Bekaa Valley is in-between the two famous mountain ranges in the region known as the Mount Lebanon to the West and the Anti-Lebanon mountains to the east in Syria. We were smacked on the foot of the Anti-Lebanon mountains.

Just South we could see Mount Hermon or known as Jabal Haramon. It is prominent for its snowy top on the border between Syria and Lebanon. It also overlooks the Golan Height where a small contingent of Austrian army is posted there to oversea that nothing is happening in this most sensitive real estate. The place was annexed by Israel during the war with Syria.

Back to this amazing restaurant, it has an Egyptian theme. The front of the restaurant is lined up with pharaonic sculptures, the inside equally has lots of Egyptian artifacts. Simply amazing to dine here knowing that I was quite close to one of the world's hot spots.

A Journey to the past

On the road again. Been in Syria for 4 days now since Sunday but only got the time now to log in. This is a special trip as it is likely to be my last trip to this place.

Over the last three years I have made eight trips to Damascus and my part of the project has almost finished. Hopefully something fruitful will come out of it that will benefit the people in this beautiful country. Apart from the city, I had the privilege to visit the northwest and central part of the country. It is a country full of rich history. Combine that with the food, which the Syrian cuisines are world renown, Syria is definitely a worthwhile place to visit.

From the plane the scenery outside passing through mainland Europe is beautiful. The whole landscape is of endless farmlands. With the industrialisation and massive agricultural drive over the 19th and 20th centuries, there are hardly any forested areas left. Ironically the aspirations of the developing countries to follow that path are being challenged for reason that it would result in negative impact on environment. It does seem unfair - they did but we couldn't.