Brazilian Beans

After much scouting around for weeks, we finally purchased a proper coffee making machine. There are so many brands and makes to choose but we finally decided for the Italian DeLonghi EAM 4500 where it can also brew lattes or cappuccinos with just the touch of one button.

But that is only half the battle. The next thing is to find the best coffee beans. We are currently trying a few, amongst the many hundreds of choices, hopefully we can make a decision on one or two to stick to.

The coffee preparation is quite simple with the machine, coffee beans which are already roasted when purchased are grounded by the machine. Then brewed with hot water separating the liquid coffee and the unwanted grounds from the beans. All is done with push of a button.

A Gathering

We are into our 6th farewell already! Last night was at Theo and Saliha's place. Almost all the Bruneians were there plus a few of the Asean families.....thanks guys.

We started off outside in the back garden where the temperature was quite bearable compare to the past few days when it hit the 30 Deg. C mark, fairly hot considering there's no air-conditioning in most homes and the office.

Everybody now seems to be talking about the weather, mostly complaining. But then this has been one of the best summer for years. The past two years saw mixed weather whereas in 2006 was one of the hottest ever recorded.

Apart from that were talks about re-organisation in the office, a worldwide trend nowadays where most companies are re-structuring to combat the impact of current recession and low market confidence.

Then back inside to end off with the farewell speeches. Indeed time really flies, we came and now we are leaving.

Theo gave the parting speech. He was my mentor when I was a student 25 years ago. We only met again when we landed here three years ago.

Apart from that we have also reconnected with many old faces from the yesteryear, our kids also met their old friends from previous schools here, and we also make many new friends. So there is always a mix of joy and sadness when it comes to a farewell party.

Summer Festival

Last week was the Glastonbury festival in UK, held annually in Somerset in South West. It's one of the largest outdoor music festival, famous for its muddy ground and camping sites. The recent festival attracted nearly 180,000 music lovers, watching hundred of acts played on over 80 stages.

The small equivalent in Holland is the park pop festival in our city here. It is free though, grown over the years to become one of the largest free pop festival of Europe. As dictated by tradition, it is held on the last Sunday of June and this year is its 29th edition.

What is unique for this festival is the non-sale of alcohol and the family atmosphere. It has also become a festival with an international presence with thousands of visitors, And a junior edition is even held the day before: called the Kinder or children Parkpop!

Ladies BBQ

End of June to beginning of July period is when a lot of things seems to be happening at the same time. There are lots of public events, school ending activities but most of all the smell of BBQ smoke everywhere.

Was tracking the development of the Swine flu endemic back home, we were quite surprise on the sudden rise in the reported cases. Here there is hardly any thing reported in the news
at all. Even though being one of the focal points for international tourists and transit, the whole thing about the Swine flu endemic seems to be handled quite differently here. Life goes as normal.

School Summer Fair and Trip

This is it.......that’s what the king of Pop said O2 arena just a few months ago. What was it? The fans were looking forward to the upcoming concerts but looking at his frail condition, I have real doubt that would take place.

My recollection of him was the concert back in Jerudong Park in the mid 90s. Not amongst in the privilege circle, we were watching outside the amphitheatre seeing something unreal. All we could see him were from the video screens and hearing rumbling music. That was it then!

Now the summer school term is finishing, there are lots of school trip being organised by the school. Our second is off on a school field trip to a place called Ahrweiler in Germany for a week. There were lots of preparation for the trip, but Zimah is really looking forward to it. The bus will take about 3 hour to reach their base camp. From there promised to be some exciting activities for the kids.

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)