Sunset on the Beach

Last Thursday, a farewell was organised down at the beach in Scheveningen in the evening. The eating places were really crowded due to the good weather. Being mid summer, the day lights are at their longest this week with sunset past 10 pm. But still warm enough to just wear T-shirt. Apparently there is currently a heat wave in UK. Hopefully nothing like that will hit us here. Most houses here unfortunately do not have air conditioning.

Now that we are about to move on, it has been a busy period lately hence not much time for blog. Organising a move is always a traumatic period. There are just too many things to do, long checklist to go through. But it is a clear reminder that we are going through another episodes of changes to our lives. Adjusting to a major change like this is always a big challenge, but it is something to look forward to. Otherwise life is too monotonous.

Karting on Ice

There are a couple of farewell events and dinners that I'm attending this week - but for a change they are for yours truly. Monday I took the whole team to a go-karting but with a completely different theme - go-karting on ice. Absolutely an amazing experience and very different to the more speed and thrill seeking normal karting. Go-karting on ice is gaining popularity and only happens in the summer when the large ice skating ring in town is closed from normal ice skating. The ring is turned into a go-karting circuit complete with chicanes and sharp corners. Controlling the kart on this ice is quite difficult. The kart would just goes out of control if you try to push the limit, and at the corner it is just chaos. I wonder how those rally drivers in the Swedish Rally could manage to drive over 100 km/hr over ice.

As the tradition here in the office, yours truly got a nice book reminding the land that has been our home for the last 3 years.

Any way, tomorrow will be another farewell do together with seven others - at the beach with over 150 people invited. It is promised to be a glorious day (as far as the temperature and sun is concern). Then still a few weeks in the office before a long long break.

Father's day

What a surprise! The kids were quite innovative. They made a big placard for me. I'm not really into this sort of celebratory day but why not for once if the kids had made an effort and wanted to write a few words to reflect about their father.

Amongst the many complimentary words that they wrote, they also wrote "42 the answer". I always told the kids I have solved the puzzle in the "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy". If you watch the movie shown several years ago, based on the book written by Douglas Adam, the end of the movie revealed the number 42 as the Answer to the ultimate question of life, the universe and everything. The answer was calculated by an enormous supercomputer over a period of 7.5 million years. Of course it was just a book and a movie. Nonetheless it made people thinking for many many years what 42 means. The author could not reveal what 42 meant to be as he had passed away many years ago. So what is 42?

May Peace Prevail on Earth

That's the sign in front of the Peace Palace here in The Hague.

This is the seat of international law because it houses one of the the most famous court in the world - the International Court of Justice of simply called ICJ. Its main functions are to settle disputes such as territorial disptres submitted to it by states. It is not to be confused with the International Criminal Court.

As far as I know, our country's territorial dispute has not reach ICJ. There might be good reasons for it. Nonetheless ther have been a lot of cases submitted to ICJ. Amongst the recent Territorial disputes submitted are :

2008 - Maritime Dispute (Peru v. Chile)
2005 - Dispute regarding Navigational and Related Rights (Costa Rica v. Nicaragua)
2004 - Maritime Delimitation in the Black Sea (Romania v. Ukraine)
2003 - Sovereignty over Pedra Branca/Pulau Batu Puteh, Middle Rocks and South Ledge (Malaysia/Singapore)
2002 - Land, Island and Maritime Frontier Dispute (El Salvador/Honduras: Nicaragua intervening) (El Salvador v. Honduras), Frontier Dispute (Benin/Niger)
2001 - Territorial and Maritime Dispute (Nicaragua v. Colombia)
1999 - Territorial and Maritime Dispute between Nicaragua and Honduras in the Caribbean Sea (Nicaragua v. Honduras)
1998 - Sovereignty over Pulau Ligitan and Pulau Sipadan (Indonesia/Malaysia), - Land and Maritime Boundary between Cameroon and Nigeria (Cameroon v. Nigeria), Preliminary Objections (Nigeria v. Cameroon)
1996 - Kasikili/Sedudu Island (Botswana/Namibia)
1994 - Land and Maritime Boundary between Cameroon and Nigeria (Cameroon v. Nigeria: Equatorial Guinea intervening)
1991 - Maritime Delimitation and Territorial Questions between Qatar and Bahrain (Qatar v. Bahrain) , Maritime Delimitation between Guinea-Bissau and Senegal (Guinea-Bissau v. Senegal), East Timor (Portugal v. Australia)
1988 - Maritime Delimitation in the Area between Greenland and Jan Mayen (Denmark v. Norway)
1986 - Land, Island and Maritime Frontier Dispute (El Salvador/Honduras: Nicaragua intervening), Border and Transborder Armed Actions (Nicaragua v. Honduras), Border and Transborder Armed Actions (Nicaragua v. Costa Rica)
1984 -Continental Shelf (Tunisia/Libyan Arab Jamahiriya) (Tunisia v. Libyan Arab Jamahiriya)
1983 - Frontier Dispute (Burkina Faso/Republic of Mali)
1982 - Continental Shelf (Libyan Arab Jamahiriya/Malta)
1981 - Delimitation of the Maritime Boundary in the Gulf of Maine Area (Canada/United States of America)
1978 - Continental Shelf (Tunisia/Libyan Arab Jamahiriya
1976 - Aegean Sea Continental Shelf (Greece v. Turkey)
1967 - North Sea Continental Shelf (Federal Republic of Germany/Netherlands)

Outing at the Museum Square

Museumplein or Museum Square is a part of Amsterdam where one could easily spend the whole day going into the various museums located there. This place is basically littered with thousand of tourists.

The square is called "Museum Square" because four famous museums are to be found around the square: the Rijks Museum, the Van Gogh Museum, the Stedelijk Museum and the Diamond Museum. We have visited the van Gogh Museum but not the main one yet- the Rijks Museum. The Rijks is the largest in Holland and would need a good many hours to do a visit, may be one of these days in the coming month will try to go there. This time around we went to the Diamond Museum. Here they also give a free tour of the diamond factory and a big welcoming arm to their shop!

I Amsterdam

This is one of the most photographed spot in Amsterdam. It's actually a very simple construction, spelled out the word Amsterdam in bright colours and bingo - it works wonder by making it one of the 'must take' photo spot here.

The weather when we reached the place was quite good - cool but sunny. This was quite a change considering the weather has been very unpredictable lately, sometimes sunny but can suddenly turn to rainy conditions. So it's not unusual that sometimes you can be fairly unprepared for the change in the weather.

Blogsphere

There are many blogs that I have been following that are now inactive. There seemed to be a loss of interest or energy or lack of time to continue with the 'hobby'. I could also imagine the frustration when one faces with slow connection back home. Hopefully this will change soon with the new fast link which is expected to be ready before end of the year. As for our blog, the end is also near.

Spaceship Landed

It does look like a space ship landing on top of a building. This is Zoetermeer, a small but modern town just East of The Hague, about 20 minutes drive from home. We have never been here but made a trip today out of curiosity. The best thing was the underground parking - it is free for the first three hours!

This was the first time we have ever encountered this anyway on this planet Earth. Normally in Holland one would have to pay a minimum of 1.90 euro to as much as 4.00 euros for the first hour especially in big cities like The Hague and Amsterdam. Apparently, to attract shoppers, the smaller towns like Zoetermeer had to be somewhat innovative to compete with those big cities.

A Big Painting

Today we went to visit Panorama Mesdag in the city.

The place contains the biggest painting in Holland, covering the entire wall of the building giving you a 360 degree view of a place nearby here. It depicts the Scheveningen beach.

The painting was drawn by somebody called Mesdag, hence the name, to show how the view looked like then, more than 100 years ago in 1881.

You simply stand in the middle of the painting as if you are on top a dune and experience the illusion of the surrounding view. Apart from the excellent painting, created by real sands, wreckage, anchors and others, the whole thing seems so real as if you standing on a real dune.

From Russia

We had a visit from a Bruneian family all the way from Russia, they used to be our neighbour here. The family is on holiday from Shakalin and could not resist to go back here to what used to be their 'kampung halaman' for 4 years.

Anyway, this month has been very quiet on the blogging front. Not that there were nothing to write but sometimes the mind is not in the right frame. I was perturbed reading a few tragic news lately that shows that the human mind is very fragile indeed.

A couple committed suicide in UK when their handicap child died due to meningitis. In another incident, a man wiped out his lovely young family and several relatives when he was blinded by rage over a fight with his brother-in-law. The human mind is probably the most powerful and precious thing that God created for human but it is also very fragile. In one instance it could simply closes itself in, became easily blinded and everything does not seem to have a solution, only a tragic end. It is for this that we need our Koran, to be read regularly, so that the heart and mind is soften and darkness does not influence our mind. May Allah protects us all. Amin.

Mid Summer

With the summer, comes the long day hours. The most daunting part of this period is the late prayer times. Maghrib is at 10 pm and Isya at 12 pm. When Ramadan falls during the middle of the summer in a not distant future in a few years time, that will be a time of real test. I remember back in the 80's doing that for four straight summers. I can't remember any of my friends uttering any complaint. Everybody just did it.

Lovely Neighbourhoud

It has been quiet on our blog. A week went by. Fizah still in the midst of her GSCE exam. The other kids doing their normal schooling, though they seemed to be doing all sort of after school activities with friends now as the term is ending and some of their friends are leaving. Missus meanwhile joined a small tea gathering amongst the ladies on our street hosted by the front neighbour. Yours truly been spending a lot of time outside taking care of our house compound, mowing the grass and trimming the hedges. Now that we are in the middle of the summer, with the endless rain and sunshine, everything seems to be growing very fast and if not regularly attended, the whole things look very untidy, resembling a small jungle!