School Concert

Everynow and then there is a 'casual shirt' day at school. This is always something the kids looking forward to, able to wear something other than the school uniform. Today was such that day, also coinciding with an outdoor concert held in the school compund. The acts were all provided by the students. Luckily today was a sunny and lovely day compare to the cold and rainy days during the last few days.

As this is also the kids' last week at school, they are starting to clear up their lockers. Apparently they have piling up lots of things mainly through their school project work. Sometimes we don't know what to do with all those tihings, but the kids definitely wanted to keep them. So there goes another junk that we will be keeping knowing too well that they are actually not going to be looked at in the foreseeable future.

Bowling in Scheveningen

The weekend was all about shuttling the kids to all sort of farewell parties. Faris had his. Zimah went out with most of her classmates watching 'Transformer' and then eating out at McDonald on saturday. On sunday she went to a farewell party of one of her closest friend. The plan was for an outdoor tampoline outing at Scheveningen but we ended sitting in the car for some time staring at the pouring rain which clearly would not stop at any time soon.

So a last minute change of plan. They went for bowling instead. And Zimah didn't mind as she did well in the end.

Now with the ending of school year, apparently a lot of the families here are also moving out of Holland. This seems to be the best time as it coincides with the end of schooling term and summer being generally a quiter period in the office.

The Masks

Back home, the face masks have been selling like hot cakes. Even some shops are selling them at $5 a piece!

The current swine flu is probably in much the same way that regular seasonal influenza viruses spread and apparently has been around since 1918. However the current outbreak was widely reported as a Mexican pandemic until probably someone complained that it should be called its proper virus name. It has been a trend by the media to name (may be shame) a place for the outbreak. Remember ‘Spanish” flu, the “Asian” flu and the “Hong Kong” flu.

In Europe, the regular flu season normally occurs during the winter. This is the period when there is prevalence of outbreaks of influenza during the cold months. It is quite common to take a flu jab before the period to minimise illness. We do take that every year during October or November. Some people refused to take that and allow their natural immunity to fight against any flu. However every year influenza viruses mutate and our body need to be well prepared for that. Hence the flu jabs. Nonetheless during the period it’s quite common to see many people off work for many days because of flu. In fact the flu season can be quite expensive to the business as too many people take sick notes hence some companies provide free flu jabs. Also in terms of human lives lost, that comes into thousands as it affects the olds and the vulnerable.

Cycling in the Pyrenees

Until now I am still waiting for my Bianchi bike. The bike shop said it could be end of this week but at the back of mind I thought more likely it would take a week or so at the earliest. So I'll just have to wait.

The Tour de France is into the end of its first week. It has been an exciting event so far this year with many surprising moments unfolded. The front runners are still very close with Contador, Armstrong and Wiggins amongst the contenders.

The mountain stages have been the ones to watch as always. These are the gruelling and physical stages. The one that top them all so far was the 7th stage from Barcelona to Andorra going up the Pyrenees. I spent a week in these part of the Pyrenees mountain many years ago. I remember the bus ride from Barcelona up to the mountains got some amazing views of the mountains and valleys. So watching the race yesterday, with the back drop that I am familiar with, I could felt the punishing and difficulty these guys felt. Yesterday's race length was over 200km long and they completed that in 6 hours. The last 80 or so kilometers was going uphill all the way and reaching elevation of over 2000 metres. These guys are real super humans.

Laser Game

It's Faris's turn to have his own farewell do today. He brought ten of his closest friends to a laser game party in Zoetermeer. They had real fun. Amongst those ten, apparently two of his friends were born in Brunei! How ironic.

The kids will have another 3 days of schooling before the school year ends. Then it is also a long summer break for them.

Switching the Light off

Yesterday was the final working day in the office before my seven weeks of leave and preparing for the move. When I finally switched off the light in the office, there goes another chapter in my work life.

Yesterday was also the last time I cycled to work. It has been great doing that continuously over the last 14 months since picking up the habit. Over the period I have covered over 5000 km, through the summer, winter, rain, sunshine, hot, cold, wind and snow. Cycling to work is definitely something that I will miss dearly. It completely changed my attitude, that life can be made simple and humbling. It is also a great way of seeing and understanding the locals here.

Now that the long leave is starting, few things are in the pipeline. Hopefully the current pandemic will die down and things are back to normal.

Another Goodbye

It was a two-in-one farewell amongst the ladies today. It was for missus and a Malaysian lady, organised by the Asean ladies.

Now with the school ending next wednesday and everyone disappearing soon, time seems to be a great essence as all sort of things are happening during this week. The children are all having their leaving parties, many other children who are leaving are also organising their own parties as well and inviting same, and we the parents ended up spending our entire weekends shuttling the children back and forth to places. So that leaves only the weekdays free to do any thing sensible.

Been watching the MJ 'goodbye' live on tele tonight. It was running from 6pm and lasted for 4 hours. A few of his songs were belted out by many prominent singers. He was an incredible and gifted person who gave many beautiful music and songs to the world. He is trully a great entertainer. A big loss indeed.

The Inevitable

The pandemic is really gripping the nation. Reading the news back home, it seems that all the pandemonium was about the flu.

But looking at the bigger scale, our part of the world is much quieter compare to the Americas. On the H1N1 endemic map (albeit two weeks old already), the flu was already quite rampant in the Americas. And yet we hardly hear anything mentioned in the main newstream or for that matter in the CNN. We have not heard of any big events being cancelled.

May be it's time to put things into proper perspective. Yes. There is currently a worldwide pandemic. It is inevitable that sooner or later all the countries in the world will be affected as we live in a world where millions of people travel across countries and continents everyday. In the midst of current recession, the last thing we want is another barrier being put to limit our normal activities. There must be better ways and means to handle the situation.

Cycling Season

Today I dropped by at a bike shop to place an order for a race bike. This has been something that I have considering for some time and the current Tour de France excitement and our homecoming necessitated the urgent case of action.

The guy at the bike shop was quite knowledgable, somebody who is really passionate about cycling and clearly knows what he is talking about. He spent an hour with me just talking about what make a good race bike. He showed me what Conatador one of the Tour de France contender is using. It's a Trek Madone model and cost about 3000 euros. Next to it is another Trek model that Lance Amstrong is currently using, costing nearly 5000 euros. Trek, an American brand, seems to be a favourite brand amongst the leading teams in the current tour.

I opted for Bianchi, an established Italian make. It's a C2C Vianirone 7 Alu. Bianchi is claimed to be more comfortable to ride due to its carbon frame. The frame itself only weight 1.5 kg! It is big in America compare to Trek simply because it is a European brand. It takes a couple of days for the order to arrive and another couple of days for the shop to assemble. Then it will be a momment of truth to see if my choice has been the right one!

Thanks a Million

Since some of the guys couldn't make it to the farewell last Friday, and as suggested by some to post it on the blog, here is the nice souvenir that we got from the Bruneian families living in Holland.

It's a Royal Delft tray, a truly dutch thing to give as a parting present. Thanks guys.

Just to say briefly about the small community of Bruneian here, almost all the families are residing in The Hague apart from two families. That two families live two hours further to the North in a place called Assen. Assen is a place that we used to live for some 3 years back in late 1990s.

One might find it strange that there is no Brunei embassy here even though there is a long economic link between Holland and Brunei through the presence of a well known Anglo-Dutch oil company in Brunei. Nonetheless, all is not lost, we have all been well served out of the embassy office in Brussels.

Now with the ending of school term and start of holiday season, most of the Bruneian here will be heading home for a good break in time for HM birthday celebration. Alas, it might be a quieter affair this time around as the celebration events are being postponed due to the Swine Flu pandemic. Hopefully the whole flu thing will die down quickly so everyone can enjoy the unique celebratory atmosphere.

Arhweiler Trip

Our second was back late yesterday from a week school trip to Germany. She was completely exhausted by the time she reached home and was already dozing off early in the evening.

She said the trip was quite fun, seeing lots of things, measuring distances as one of the exercises, learning about history as well as the environment. The trip brought then to the cities of Bonn and Cologne, cruising on the river Rhine as well as going uphill to see nice scenery's and learn about war histories. The highlight for the student was a visit to the Lindt chocolate factory!

Hot Day

Today was quite hot. Temperature was reaching 30 degrees C so we ended up eating ice cream and drinking soft drink endlessly during the day. We made a lunch trip to Beverwijk and also to look around for anything worth a bargain.

The place was quite crowded although noticeably quite a number of stores were closed because the owners were away on vacation. So surprisingly, even during one of the busiest time of year for business at Beverwijk, some people could not be too bothered about reaping extra profit and prefer to enjoy themselves for a good break somewhere.

In general things are much cheaper here compare to those found in big chain stores. But there are also things that you would not find at normal stores. We saw this one - a pile of plastic clogs, each selling at one euro! They seem to be popular and comfortable to wear. But like all other cheap things one could already guess where they came from - PRC! Literally it seems the whole world is full of goods coming from China and yet they are still well behind other major economies. I can't imagine what it would look like when they reached the same economic level as the developed countries - we would most likely be completed awashed with China's products.

Let The Tour starts

Here we are again. The greatest cycling race event in the world has started again yesterday. It's time of the year when football pro-players are to be seen fooling around from Vegas to Bahamas, Wimbledon done and only other things to watch are cricket and what turn out to be boring F1 races this season. So running from Saturday July 4^th to Sunday July 26^th 2009 is the 96^th edition of the Tour de France, made up of 21 stages and will cover a total distance of 3,500 kilometres. It is always shown live here but during working hours, although millions of die-hard fans have already made the pilgrimage down to France to line up the hundreds of kilometres of road to follow the tour.

This year's Tour de France is shaping up to be one of the most exciting races in recent years. Yesterday the opening race was won by Fabian Cancellara. He is just ahead of Alberto Contador, one of the favourites.

Three names stand out as possible tour winner - Alberto Cantador, Carlos Sastre and Cadel Evans. Carlos is the defending tour winner, Alberto is the 2007 winner and Cadel has always been a runner-up. Mix with that is the coming back of 7 times winner after an absence of 4 years - Lance Armstrong. The other guy to watch is the outstanding sprint specialist - Mark Chavendish. He won the second stage today after cycling for 4 hours and 30 minutes.

19 stages left and looking forward to the mountain stages where the winner will be decided.

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)