Ending of 2008

Five hours to go to midnight. It's already like war outside with people starting to play fireworks. Our neighbourhood seems to have lots of teenagers who couldn't wait for the midnight. But come midnight it will be crazy. Missus got our small stock today from the shop.

It is predicted that over 60 millions euros worth of fireworks will be set off tonight. That's crazy money.
But why not just for the fun of it.

There was hardly anybody in the office today. Only 10 people having lunch in what is usually up to 500 people sitting at the office canteen. On the way home, crowds of people were already seen skating on lakes and canals. It was an awesome sight. Tried learning skate before but is not an easy thing to pick up.

Back to Work

It's unusual to head for work during these festive days of the year. But that's exactly what I did. And with the temparature diving down last night and canals started to get frozen, cycling in this weather is obviously total madness. But that's exactly why I did, breezing through the -6 Deg. C weather outside in the early morning. In fact the weather stayed almost like that the rest of the day. We just hoped for a few more days of freezing weather to see people start to skate on the frozen canals. And that would be a great sight to see.

The office was quiet. Probably only 10% of staff worked today. But this is the perfect time to clear up a lot of things and probably get most things done twice faster. But the two weeks out of office have accumulated hundreds of office email that required to be cleared up. It's amazing that now we are a slave to computer and things can't be done without the help of emails. Only 15 years ago we hardly use emails at all. Wonder what the next 15 years will hold for us.

Crisscrossing 3 Countries

Yesterday we left Aachen. First stop was to the nearby 'Three-Country Point' where Germany, The Netherlands and Belgium meet. Our friendly Tom Tom or GPS navigator first brought us from the German sector but ended up in someones gate. We then re-programmed Tom Tom, and this time brought us into The Netherlands before going round into Belgium to bring us yet again to another dead-end. We then gave up. It's a shame not able to go to visit this place. A lesson for us, don't leave home without a map. With all the modern trappings we started to rely too much on machines and gadgets. In the past, a map is all you need, and in my profession that is my speciality anyway.

We then headed to this factory outlet in Belgium which is 30 minutes away. We have never been here but heard others saying that it is worthwhile a visit. So out of curiosity we went there. The Maasmechelen Factory Outlet was a bit disappointing. Although large, there was hardly any visitors, the brands were not well known and the discounts were far in-between. So we immediately headed to our favourite outlet in Roermond, a 30 minutes drive away. It's a world apart. The parking lot was jam-packed. There's a lot of shoppers and real frenzy atmosphere here. The sale were really crazy. One could get up to 70% discount. It is afterall post Christmas clearance.

Overnight in Aachen

Aachen is right by the German's border with Belgium and The Netherlands. There's not much to see here except that we are heading the next day across the border to visit a couple of factory outlets!

Even with the European economies merging into a single and more uniform economy, prices across borders still differ quite a lot. Everythings seems to be more expensive once you step outside Germany, especially in Holland. That is why we stayed at another Holiday Inn Express hotel in Germany instead of hoping across the border. A similar one in Holland would be twice more expensive.

The same with petrol. It's about 10% cheaper here in Germany compare to Holland, so it's wise to fill up before heading back to Holland. The fuel price is definitely less of a burden now, hovering around 1.05 Euros per litre compared to 1.66 Euros at its height during September.

In the evening we headed to the centre of town to have dinner at this kebab retaurant. Obviously the name 'Sultan' already suggested a Turkish connection. Unlike most kebab shop that you find in Europe, this one is a proper restaurant with modern and nice set-up inside.

Frozen Water Wheel

We left Winterberg in late afternoon after a light snack. On the way we saw this frozen water wheel - an amazing sight with the salactities and salagmites forming from top and bottom. The temperature here are always subzero and even below minus 10 Deg. C at night, so water gets easily frozen except the one flowing in the stream.

We headed southward to Aachen to stay overnight there. The traffic was quite bad. It took nearly 3 hours to reach our hotel. One thing that is good about Germany is the motorways or known as autobahns here. This is one of the legacies left by Hilter who came up with a big project to keep the people employed during the recession years in the 1930's. At that time the motorway was already designed to cater for up to a top speed of 160 km/h while the curves up to 150 km/h. The big project was also to improved the country's infrastructure to help with the economic recovery effort.

Nowadays German's autobahns are a lot more modern and smoother to drive. It is probably the only country in the world that does not have speed limit on some of its motorways. We restraint ourselves with the speed with our rental car. Even cruising at 120km/hr, we were by far amongst the slowest on the road. Most people were crusing at much higher speed. No wonder the Germans are great car manufacturers, buying a beamer or a merc is only worthwhile if you can drive like those in these autobahns.

One thing about the German's motorways is the lack of street lightings. Unlike in Holland where virtually every motorways are lighted, the high amount of traffics in Germany seems to provide sufficient lightings from the cars and make additional street lightings redundant. It must have saved quite a lot in terms of cost and maintainance as well. Just imagine that there are over 12,000 km of motorways in total in Germany.

Steep Slope

The place was quite crowded. There were traffic jams most of the way, parking lots were full and cars could only be parked on the side of the roads. It's the long break between Christmas and New Year and everyone must have been heading this way. The queue to the ski lift was also quite long.

Sledging down the slope is always fun. It's much easier to do and everybody could do it unlike skiing. But this time around we found quite a lot of people were hanging around at the top of the slope before sledging down. We sense a bit of hesitation by the crowd. We only realised later when we sledged down.

This year the slope was quite steep and the slide was considerably faster and bumpier. It was too much of an exhiliration. We all tumbled down half way the slope. We only dared once! So we ended up doing the rest of the slides from half the slope from there on.

Fun in Winterberg

This year we went to the same place like last year. It took just over two hours from our hotel in Cologne to reach the place. For the most part, the drive was through the forested mountains in this part of Germany. The last hour of the drive was using small roads and steeper climbs. Everybody had to drive carefully for this leg of the journey as the roads could be slippery if not properly gritted. When we reached there the temperature was quite cold at -6 Deg. C. And the place was not disappointing as there were plently of snow.

Last year when we drove here, it was quite foggy and was difficult to find the place. This time around we have a clear sky and probably too sunny. We went to the same spot like last year, although literally there are up to a hundred of such ski parks to choose from.

Frozen Water in the Car

Last night we stayed at Holiday Inn Express in Troisdorf somewhere between Cologne and Bonn. The Holiday inn Express has become our favourite hotel chain when travelling in Germany. Relatively cheap and easily accessible, it caters for traveller who wants a quick getaway to the motorway.

It is a fresh and new brand, only ten years old now, with over 15 hotels across Germany and expanding. The price ranges from 50 to 100 euros per night for this 3 to 4 star rating hotel. This one was the cheapest, with breakfast inclusive costing only 51 euros!

The aternatives are Mercure and Ibis, but these more established chains have smaller rooms and are mostly a bit run-down.

Last night was very cold. When we boarded our car this morning, we found this bottle of water was completely frozen.

Lego Shop

One thing that could easily be found in Germany are the Lego speciality shops. The one in Cologne is quite big with a lot of specific items not on sale in Holland could be found easily here. Interestingly the buyers are not just children but grown up men who have a liking for Lego collections.

For Faris, he was really looking forward to buy some of those miniature characters for his collections.

Traditionally after Christmas and strating on Boxing day, shops start their end year clearance sale. It was quite crowded along the main shopping street in Cologne. However, it's not comparable to the frenzy and crazy sale one would used to see in UK. Retailers here are probably less desperate to clear their stocks. For Lego, they never seem to hold any sale at all even during this time of the year.

A Roman City in Germany

It's the start of our short break to Germany. We are heading to the ski slopes. On the way we decided this time to stop over in Cologne. Last year we did the stop-over in Dusseldorf. Cologne is also sometimes written as Koln. It's a 3 hours drive from home. Cologne's main landmark is the main cathedral which is located at the heart of the city. It can be seen from many miles away and can be used as a reference point when you want to head to the city. This is only one of the few buildings left standing during the World War II when the Allied Forces sent over a thousand fighter bombers to 'carpet bomb' the city which nearly wiped out the whole city.

The city has since moved on. It is now the fourth largest city in Germany. Although it could also claimed to be one of the oldest, founded by the Romans two thousands years ago. It is not surprising that the city has probably got the most number of museums (30!) as there are many Roman relics to be found. Apart from that the city is located on the bank of River Rhine and that makes the city quite special and beautiful.

Balik Haji

It's Friday and during the Friday mass prayer we met Ustaz who just came back from Haj. He arrived last Sunday and like every year, he brought as many pilgrims as he could. The cost of the package is comparable to what we pay back home, about 4 to 5 thousands Euros each, all inclusive. Normally Haj organisers in Holland and Germany make use of a well known European Turkish agent and this seems to be less of an issue as they are well organised and has good standing with the Saudi Haj organiser.

Today we are taking a rest back from the trip to Paris before continuing our drive tomorrow. It will be an early rise to head off to Germany. The weather has gone very cold. Hopefully it will still be managable.

The City of Light

Faris wanted to go the the Napolean Museum, but we didn't have time. The last time we went to the De Louvre, that took us a good 4 hours. We actually only had 2 full days to spend. There was also a lot of catching up to do in Paris with our host there.

One thing we learnt recently is that the Parisians are disliked by most French. We could see why. We thought the driving style in Cairo was bad enough, here it is worst. Particularly at round-about, it's everyone battleground. Their driving habit is quite bad. We were told to be extremely careful with those driving on our right - they are our 'enemies'. They would just shove you aside or cut in infront of you without any warning at all.

The country itself is trying its hard to be secular, banning all form of religious symbols and practice from school and government offices amongst others. So it's not surprising to see the Christmas atmosphere and decorations are quite subdued compare to other cities particularly in Germany and UK. Nonetheless, the decoration lightings along the Champs-Élysées, claimed to be 'the most beautiful avenue in the world', are quite impressive. A walk down the avenue, stopping by at its cafes or peeking around inside the luxury speciality shops, is a great way to spend the evening in this city.

Beware of Pick Pockets

Whilst in Paris, we brought our neice to Disney. This time around we let the kids on their own. Christmas eve was a quieter day to go. Last year we went on Christmas day, and gosh that was really crowded. This time around, we didn't have to wait long in the queue. On the way back it took us sometimes to search for our car. Its just a vast parking lot and we thought we remember the parking lot. In the end after spreading ourselves we managed to find it. On the way back to Paris, which was only 40 minutes drive from Disney, the road leading out of Paris was jam-packed for miles and miles. It's the Christmas eve and everybody were going home. Luckily we were heading to the opposite direction.

There have been too many incidents of pick pockets in Paris. So here we are trying to educate those who are planning to go to Paris. Pick pockets are quite rampant there, be it at the metro, at tourist attractions or at Disney. The victims are not just tourists but also Parisian themselves. The criminals may guise themselves smartly and minggle around in the crowd with their quick hands always on the prey. Some may just drop coins in front of you which prompted you to help the poor guy not knowing his partner is helping himself from the back. Some may just drop in front of you, touching your leg or shoe, which would mommentarily shock you while his accomplish is working on your wallet or handbag. Others may guise as a Muslim woman wearing head scarf while conducting their attics but actually are gypsies . So be warned. We have heard quite a lot of incidents affecting many tourists and our countrymen.

Romantic Paris

Just back from Paris. Drove all the way from Paris to Holland today, a distance of 475 km in 4.5 hours, including a short rest stop-over at the border between Belgium and Holland. The drive was quite good, being Christmas today the roads were very quiet. And so we managed to drive on cruise control most of the way.

We tried to do a few things different this time as this was probably our sixth time to Paris. We stayed quite close to the Arc de Triomphe, and for the first time went up the structure to see the sunset in Paris. The climb to the top was quite something though, a total of 284 steps in all. But at the top it was quiet a nice scenary to see as most of main streets were decorated with Christmas lightings. On one side one could see the Le Defence, the futuristic part of Paris at a distance. On the other side one could see the Ferris Wheel near the Museum De Louvre. With the sunset the temperature dropped very quickly and was quite unbearable to hang around too long.

Day out in Amsterdam

Fiz gave Noruen a tour of Amsterdam yesterday. They took a train and amongst the many exotic things that Amsterdam has to offer is this King Kong on the loose at Dam Square. Today I dropped them together with Zim at Alexandrium Shopping Centre just outside Rotterdam City Centre, a place I have never known before but the girls seemed to know places like this better. There is apparently a newly open Primark store there. This well-known UK chain is either you like it or loath it. For the kids, they really love it as prices are great.

Sharia Compliant

In the news this morning was this initiative to create a chain of Sharia compliant hotels by Al Mulla Group based in Dubai. In its website it says all its properties operating under its three brands will respect and abide by the principles of Sharia and will not sell alcohol and only serve Halal prepared food, as interpreted by the Sharia law and the Sharia supervisory board. There's a large market to be captured. It says "according to the World Tourism Organization, Saudi Arabia is one of the biggest outbound travel markets in terms of average spend with tourists from the Kingdom spending US$ 6.7 billion annually on overseas travel. The UAE travellers are close behind at more than US$ 4.9 million, an average of US$ 1,700 per trip, which is US$ 500 higher than the European average".

http://www.almullahotels.com/site/media.php

Back home most if not all our hotels are actually Sharia compliant. But they are currently not promoted along that line, may be not to create a negative signal or was not thought about at all. And also there are little voices in the community and in particular in the tourism industry who have been advocating for alcohol to be made exception in these establishments in order to make this industry back home to be more 'internationally' alligned. The fact that this Al Mulla Group made a bold initiative is a good lesson indeed. They are making a big statement. When things are seen to be prohibitive and a disadvantage to be competitive in this global industry, there are always ways to counter it. If only we are are more creative, there is always a large opportunity our there to be gained.

Be Thankful

The last Saturday before Christmas. Centre of town was busy, the queues at the tillers stretched so long that at one shop it winded up a long distance. So what's all this about the credit crunch? It's there for sure but people are more conscious on how they spend. The high value items are the ones that are much harder to sell nowadays. When the oil price went up beginning the year, we all thought that the most affected group of people would be the poor and the have-nots. Where would they be by year-end? Amazingly at this momment of time, the most affected are actually the richest amongst us when the stock market crumbled, banks and companies gone bankrupt and savings disappeared. It is just amazing how vulnerable humans are. For we thought the richs have their wealth secured and happily living their high life, came the fate to plunder the wealth. It is a small reminder that everything we have in this world is God's own what little or large we get. We should appreciate and be thankful to God for all the wealth and abundance bestowed on us.

I Believe

The week finally ended after finishing a series of meetings and work over three days in Syria. It was a good end to the year with all done and dusted. Now ready for a new phase in the project come the new year. On the last night in Damascus, we went on a 30 minute walk to the Old City to our favourite restaurant - however was full - we regretted for not making an advance booking. So off we went on a search for alternative and found this one. This restaurant has an amazing ambiance inside, well decorated, the main dining place is set in an old courtyard. The place was well patroned.

Eating out with families and friends is one of the main social acitivities for the locals here. We were told that normally people would go out for 3 hours in a restaurant for hokkah and dinner. Hokkah or water-pipe for smoking is everywhere to be seen, used by both men and women. My Syrian colleague told me that women only picked this habit recently. Five years ago there was hardly any women smoking hokkah. But now it's a common sight, though not as bad as smoking. Herbal fruits are used as flavours so the smoky air does smell quite sweet.

Then back to Holland yesterday, welcomed by cold and rainy weather. Now everybody at home are on a break. I am on leave through the Christmas period. Kids are on their school break into the first week of the new year. We got plans to travel on the road over the coming week. Hopefully the weather and the road conditions are on our side.

An Amazing Restaurant

Today was the second day of work here. In the evening we decided to go to this amazing restaurant called the "One Thousands and One Night" on the outskirt of Damascus. The place looks like Vegas. Set in a large compund, the place has an almost exact size replica of the leaning tower of Pisa, a large windmill, a viking boat, a large stage and a few others things.

The workers, from the doorman to the waitress, were all fully dressed up in Persian custome and that provided a bit of different atmosphere. The place is normally packed in the summer when people could sit outside.

Tonight though with temperature at 13 Deg. C, it was a bit cold to eat in the open. The Syrian food at the place was great and quite cheap as well.

Going East

Back on the road again. Back to Syria for another trip with my team. It wasn't a good start. Taxi came 30 minutes late. Only just managed to catch the flight. Then off to Vienna before flying to Damascus. There the plane had to follow a holding pattern before being allowed to land. The irony is that the plane was 30 minutes late leaving Vienna but managed to claw back the lost time, only to be asked to fly around for 30 minutes before being let to land!

Anyway while flying aimlessly over the Syrian airspace, I went looking for obvious landmarks. Saw this one which looks like a power station. Because Syria is quite barren and cloudless most of the time, it is easy to spot any standing structure on the ground. Not long ago a neighbour made an intrusion into the country and bombed a facility that they claimed to be a nuclear facility. Don't know who is right. But it is difficult to hide anything here from being seen by spy planes or sattelites.

Seasonal Tree

It's time of the year when people here start to think about buying their Christmas tree. When we went to look for our supply of fireworks, the busiest spot at the plant and garden shop was the Christmas tree corner. Basically there were stacks and stacks of these items being readied and to be sold. And looking at the crowd, it must have been very good business today. The cheapest tree was around 7-10 euro, rising to 30 euros and over 100 for the really good ones. Imagine every household here buying one, that must be over 4 millions trees being sold before Christmas!

On our home front though, it is still the Hari Raya Adha period. Pretty quiet though. Our Ustaz or the kids' teacher is on Haj and he is supposed to be back this week already. Time really flies. It was not long ago that we saw pilgrims leaving for Haj and are now already back or on the way home.

On BBC we saw the news on the gathering at Mina last week. One thing that was really visible to all was the amount of rubbish scattered on the road. Amazing. Here people are supposed to be on a spiritual voyage and yet has a totally different attitude when it comes to throwing rubbish. I won't say more.

Our eldest is curently on food technology school trip to France. Not so long ago she went to Switzerland. I must say kids nowadays are so lucky. In our old school days in Brunei, one could only hope for a rare school trip to the Kota Batu Museum...

If You Got Nothing To Do

We thought the chaos on the streets of many Greek cities are a distance away and nothing to be interested about. But today we saw a group of people in the small town of Leiden doing their bits to ensure even in this far and small place that people here are aware of what's going on in Greece. They made a small demonstration and later walked through town handing out pamplets. Presumably these group, like those on the streets in Greek, are just looking for any reasons to flaunt their anti-establishment stance. And yet most are probably receiving social benefit of some sort especially those who are still unemployed. Afterall this government like others in Europe can afford the hand-outs as the running income tax is around 45%.

Ready for New Year's Firework

It's the weekend. Faris went to a birthday invite - this time it's two rounds of gokarting. I asked him if he is going to be competitive. He said he will try. At the end he gave his best shot and got third twice. Most of all he enjoyed the outing and has been awhile since we (father and son) went on go-karting.

Today we went around looking for our supply of fireworks for the new year tradition here. On the eve of new year at 12pm, the whole country basically will go crazy and will play fireworks. Normally one had to order the fireworks beforehand and only collect them a few days before the new year's eve. This is to prevent people from playing too early. All sort of fireworks are sold here. It's amazing to see the wide variety of fireworks being sold as these are basically banned back home. Some costing even over 100 euros. These fireworks have been tested by the authority here, those that were deemed unsafe are not allowed to be sold. Here's the video of us last year.

http://paulaland-paulaland.blogspot.com/2008/01/happy-new-year-2008.html

What Happened?

Last year, there were strong hints that RBA would start to run a service from Brunei to Amsterdam via Jakarta using Garuda alocation. Garuda has been banned from Europe due to the poor safety record of Indonesian airlines. It was said that RBA was only waiting for delivery of a new plane to serve the route. But 2008 is nearly gone and no sight of RBA landing at Schipol as yet.

On another news, Amsterdam Schiphol airport has suffered quite a bit since it introduced flight tax recently. The airport which won more than 120 prizes over the years, voted the best airport in the world 7 times in the last 2 decades and honoured with the title of "Best European Airport" for 15 consecutive years (1988-2003), however is not immuned to the ever budget conscious travellers.

The airport saw a decrease of a half million passengers in the last 5 months since the introduction of an 'environmental' tax on flying . The flight tax has added €11.25 to flights up to 2,500 km and €45 for longer journeys. As a result, nearby airports in Germany and Belgium saw a sharp increase, even up 300%. We also did the same recently when we opted for Brussels airport for our trip to Spain rather than Schipol. Time will tell if this amazing airport will revert back and reduce or even abolish the tax. It still serves 50 million passengers a year!

Patron Service

It was an early rise today. Left for Schipol Airport to pick up our niece who is spending 3 weeks here. Since this is her first time to Europe and travelling on her own, we asked for patron service or assistance service for travelling minors from Singapore Airlines. One could request that when booking ticket. You have to provide copy of your identification paper, address and contact number. The service turned out to be quite useful and easy. From the moment of checking in, assisting during transit in Singapore and at arrival, the whole thing went like clockwork. With the service, our niece received priority during the long queue at the immigration/custom - which is always useful. When we met her at the gate, we have to show our ID and signed a few things. She is fast acclimitising to the weather here - now round 3 Deg.C.

Busy busy

Just back from a dinner do hosted by a Singaporean family here. It's a small gathering but we got the chance to savour the Singapura specialities - the lodeh etc. In all 5 families but many nationalities - Brunei, Singapore, American, Dutch, French and Thailand! What a mix.

The week went like a breeze. Been busy in the office and the evenings finishing my report. It's a mega one. I must have been stuck in my seat for hour and hours, consuming doses of cappuccinos (I am luckily or .....maybe not) that the machine is directly outside my office). It's only the daily reminder from our son just before 6 pm...”bah... pukol berapa balik” that I started packing and cycled home. By end of the week I have finished 5 out of the 9 volumes, with about 500 figures in them done so far, and already with printing company. Four volumes to go....err. Yesterday was quite eerie, apparently everybody along my corridor has gone home because of the Sinterklaas celebration and switched off their office light. There I was alone in my brightly lit office along a dark corridor.

In the Right Path

Here's the photo of the biggest Mesjid in our city here. In all, one can find over 20 mesjids in The Hague.

Hari Raya will fall on Monday as announced. Today we took a train from the office for Friday prayer as nobody was driving. The Nusantara gangs obviously went to the Indonesian one, the Arabs to their Moroccan Mesjid.

Today's khutbah was interesting. The Imam started by mentioning about the recent statement from MUI (Majlis Ulama Indonesia) that the death of the 3 Bali bombers can not be declared as martys. These people and the recent attackers in Mumbai were on the wrong path. Rather than talking about these people who obviously made a big mistake in their life, the Imam quickly focused the khutbah to the Jemaah - asking whether we ourselves are leading and living in the right path. Rightly so. We seem to be preoccupied in our life in quickly judging other people but are less critical of ourselves.

The actual mass prayer was quite solemn, the Iman read the Surah Al-Rahman, half in tears.

Deco Lights on the Streets

It's now into the last month of the year. Daylight is getting shorter. Nevertheless, the holiday atmosphere is everywhere to be seen, to lend a bit of a cheer in these cold and dark days. As always the first half of December is when people are in frenzies trying to clear their work before heading off for the traditional end of the year break. That's when the office will be completely deserted. The kids will also have a 3-week break come mid December. We still need to plan where to go....umm

This is also my ninth month cycling to the office. I didn't even envisage that I would have the guts to cycle in this weather. Even with gloves, the fingers still feel quite numb because of the cold. However the daily 20 km cycle ride is becoming a normal routine now.

For What Cause?

So what are the causes of Islamic militancy. A lot have been written. Many think that these militant groups are products of envy and resentment of Western capitalism and frustration over weakening of Islamic nations. Some resent the economic systems in their own countries which benefit a small minority while keeping the majority of the population mired in poverty. Often the route to success is to have political connections. Officials use their office to enrich themselves. They are increasingly passing on their privileged political and economic positions to their sons and daughters. Corruption is endemic. For many, who deserve a particular place in life, watching as corruption eats away at their social status and their standard of living, they revolt against these in various ways....

These may be some of the roots of the problems. What probably drives these people to be extremists is their recent leaning back towards religion in the midst of their frustrations. Many, although highly educated, even doctors and lawyers, lack true and coherent understanding of the religion. Their empty mind is like a vacuum, absorbing and exploiting what ever they could find to use as legitimate reasons. In many cases, these people are easily molded. And so there they are -they closed their minds completely to the victims of their acts. The thought hasn't occurred to them that God might not like what they are about to do. Inside, their brains are fired up with zeal, their soul transfixed. Many innocent lives lost. Inadvertently Muslims and Islam as a whole came under the wrong spotlight.　

Heart of Borneo

Was wondering what's it about, came across this map which shows the areas that encompass the Heart of Borneo initiative. The main feature of this initiative is to have a continuous area of protected forests but on a grand scale. It involves a number of large tract of highland forests in the deep interior or 'heart' of Borneo, spanning along the mountainous spine of this large island. The diversity in this forest would be lost if the forests are fragmented. Successful rainforest conservation requires inter-connected forests. This is particularly critical as mass deforestations for palm oil plantations and other human activities are creeping in from all sides into this heartland.

Busiest Saturday

Yesterday was no doubt the busiest shopping day of the year here. Like back home when it comes to preparing for Hari Raya, yesterday was the last Saturday before the Dutch celebrate a very Dutch tradition - Sinterklaas. This is time of year when they buy presents, quite different to the normal Christmas celebration. In deed we thought our Hari Raya preparations are over the top and for some buying beyond their means, here it is quite similar. The main difference is that most of the buys are for presents. The rests are mainly towards decorations - which can be quite outlandish as well. We don't know whether here the sale has gone down compare to previous years becasue of the current recession. In UK and the States, the sales have definitely gone down and amazing bargains are on offer to kick-start people to start shopping again. Our son asked if back home is also affected by the current global recession. I didn't answer. Life is probably like normal back home, people are more likely oblivious of the real situation.

Captain Jack Sparrow

With the current pirate incidents in Somalia waters, my boy asked me if we are decendants of pirates as he seemed to remember someone saying that. Well it was a long time ago I suppose..who want to claim they are decendants of pirates. The water of Broneo in the past were littered with pirates. Most people were then fishermen. The more powerful and influencial ones, even though they might not be strictly called pirates, but were more likely to act like a pirate, rampaging and colonising territories.

One from the Past

Our boy is doing a project of family history and describing the timeline of someone - his victim unfortunately is me. So there he was jotting down all the interesting facts.....

Loking at old photos, we found this one taken ten years ago when we were here. We lived in a small town (the Dutch consider it as Kampung) called Assen about 2 hours drive North of Amsterdam. The winters were colder with thick snows everywhere. During one winter the temperature was as low as -17 Deg. C.

70 Years

Alhamdulillah. Whilst here we missed the 70th birthday kesyukuran for dad/grandpa. Looking at the photos in PHS blog, it was quite an event with speeches and so on. Born in 1938, in an era when boys became men early, dad/grandpa became a teacher after just a few years of schooling. Then off to Semenanjong but didn't finish his teachers training because of the consternation when Brunei didn't join Malaysia at that time. From then on he has been a teacher ever since, specialising in Malay sastera, before finally lecturing at the teachers training college until retirement.

Other than that that he has a real passion for travelling, something that definitely has rubbed on us. But his biggest contribution is to the community in his former village in Tutong where he spent endless amount of energy and time involved in probably the most successful village organisation in the country for many years. The organisation is called "Pertama".