my quaint world

I think I have gotten this question for a zillion times since I've been here.

Well, thinking back, this is also one of the question I used to ask any foreigner that I've met for the first time in my home country. (So, wei, let's quit asking this lame question!!!)

Because now I know the feeling.

Its damn irritating! Eheheeh...

But I've got a standard answer now. And even could anticipate the standard response!

Well well, what could one say when being asked of that by a homelander? Of course, one has to say with the glee of excitement that 'ooh, I love it here!'. And go on about the weather, the food and bla bla bla.

Well, well, I just wonder when will be the day I will never have that question anymore!

Pppfff...

But on the upside, it is, in fact nice that people try to talk to me. But well, conversation couldn't be carried out too far due to the barrier of languages.

I do miss a lot the lepak sessions late night at the mamak with ma buds :(

Well, an update on how am I getting on here.

Might seems to be all fun but well, there is also lotsa challenges and I foresee more to come. Of course, there were times of ups and downs.

My biggest challenge is the languages. Understanding people and forming bonds is almost impossible now, I guess due to the missing bridge of a common language. Therefore, the more I should push myself to learn, at least, flemish to start off. And I am determined to at least be able to understand what is spoken within 6 month! Too aggressive timeline, you think?

Next, the new job! Sales is entirely different and indeed challenging. So many news things to learn. Well, I took the decision for the move so I will do my best. And I want to be the best and I will be!!! :)

GOOD NEWS - after weeks of calling SGI Belgium, I finally managed to speak to someone. Seems like every Saturday morning there is daimokukai at the kaikan. And a meeting on every first Sunday of the month. I will go there this saturday! :) Strive for kosenrufu, yeay!

What else, err, started running in the evenings. Wanna do it every evenings but so far, its only 2 times in 3 weeks. Gee!

I've also been cleaning the house weekly. Its spotless and hairless.

Next on the list to do - to plant lavender in my lil garden :)


Oooh, how I miss my crazy friends in Asia, the karaoke-ing, the Zion char kuey teow, nights at mamak stalls and me little Nammie! :(

Well, well, gotta be happy - life is short, so live life!

We are indeed party people!

Thursday @ Carre - Very crowded huge dance club with loud music booming away, swirling colored lights, ultra-flexi dancers, fireworks, expensive drinks, beautiful people and even a violin player fiddling to the fast beats. Supposedly very poshy and only good looking ones gets to enter. The bouncers there are HUGE men! Also, I got in! :) But alas, in there was way tooo hothothot!

Friday @ crashed in bed.

Saturday @ Werchter Classic - There was Bryan Adams, Sting, Simply Red, Simple Mind... playing in this music festival. 80k people in the big field! Woa, the feeling was exhilarating. Lost in the sea of humans!



Sunday @ Brussels - Joined the crazy crowd in Brussels to watch the final match and cheering at La Bourse thereafter. There was police everywhere but yo, they do look lost in the mass of cheering happy dancing people with the italian flags, football horn, whistles and fireworks.

Still much lined up for the coming weeks - London to visit me lil sis, Antilliaanse Feesten, Pukkelpop and whole loads of other music fests, Ibiza, South of France, BBQs and Madonna concert!!! :D

Phew, I hope I will be able to keep with it but at the rate the beers are filling me, I think a potbelly will form soon! :S

** She makes a mental note to always have her camera next time round

I couldn't put a word to my feelings now.

The entire day was spent being in a deep daze. I couldn't do much work so I started cleaning my place. And cleaning and cleaning and cleaning. I guess the physical work helps to fill the emptiness.

My dearest friend who discovered that she had cancer when we were 25 and after 3 years of many many tears, joy and pain, she left this very day. We were close, very very closely bonded. Not closeness in an everyday way, but it was a real friendship we shared.

We met when we were 11 and went to the same school till we were 17. We lived in the same neighbourhood. Played the same games for our school - table tennis, badminton, volleyball. We were also in the perfectorial board (I was fired when I was 15 though)
We went on school trips, camping and also did all the girly teenage stuffs - yakkin on the phone, writing letters, giving presents, hanging out, going to "pasar malam", having lunches after school, secret meeting with boyfriends, watching our first adult movie...

In fact, there is 7 of us in the groupie. 7 wonderful friends that did all that together.

Then we all parted our ways for the different aspirations each one holds. Some studies medicine, some engineering, some media...

She came living with me in Singapore in year 2000 for a year before she went to continue her studies in New Zealand. Boy, what a time we had! At first we rented a room together, but couple of months later, we found ourselves a nice terrace house. We cooked together, we had parties and we ate durian almost every night (courtesy of her beau then)

We kept in touch sporadically after she left for NZ. Nevertheless, every Chinese New Year, we will meet on the first day. It is already a tradition since we were 13.

In 2003, she discovered cancer. Then our friendship took to another level. We were all fighting her cancer together. But of course, we couldn't share the bout of physical pain she had. Thru the journey, we discovered each others, ourselves and the true meaning of being friends.

We encourage each other, we opened up our innerselves, we talked about our fears, we cried together, we laughed out loud. And we know and trust that each only has the best intention for another.

Last I met her was in end April. We spent many hours talking - Sze, Mei, Yen and me. April 30, that was the night of the last long warm hug of hers.

Now that she's gone, all I hold are the memories we shared.

She's a wonderful person - smart, capable, beautiful, warm, friendly, true and always ever ready with a smile.

It is indeed painful, a great lost and I still try to grasp the very fact - for I still see her name on my skype and just waiting for her to ping me, hoping that is this a bad dream afterall. Or scrolling to her name in my mobile, wanting to ring and to hear her again.

But the fact is, I will never see, hug or kiss her again in this lifetime of mine.

Our pathes once crossed but I know that it will never cross again,
But all memories made in this lifetime will stay forever in my mind,
I will miss you dearly, Pei Sze.



The signature smile!





And when we were still teenage girls.



Chinese New Year gathering that we never missed since we were 13 years old.



Steamboat dinner during Chinese New Year.



In Taipei.



Another Chinese New Year. See, always someone in RED!



Night before her wedding!



I had the honor to be her bridesmaid.



She's lovely, ain't she?



Perfect couple!







** She closes her eyes and she could see the 12 years old girls playing in the fields. Running thru the winds and laughing out so loud. Those were the days!

To create your own visited countries map

Quite cool he? Feel like a conquerer...

Well, there's lotsa more to see in the world and never it will be the same encounter on another trip even to the same place...

It's always different! Even on the same moment, its different through the eyes of another or just in a different second, everything changes. Don't you agree?

So let's really appreciate every moments of our lives!

Just remembered of some very nice pictures I took during the last trip here.

I figured I should show off some niceties of Brussels so that frens will be tempted to come visiting this beautiful country - and visiting me, thus I will have continuous supply of my Shin Ramen and Prima Taste packs... muahahahha...










Come! Come! Come! A warm welcome to cold cold Belgium!!!

Hey, ain't my skills improving slightly? (Minus the mis-focusing sometimes)

My first attempt to cook meself a dinner.

Cooked rice (leftover from sunday's dinner)
10 Long beans (cut into 1cm length)
1 Carrot (cut into tiny strips)
3 Dried mushroom (soaked in water and cut into tiny strips)
3 Cloves of garlic (chopped into tiny tiny pieces)
3 Shelled prawns (cut into 4 pieces each)
1 Ginger (just tiny piece)
1 Small onion (small slices)
1 Chili (chopped into tiny pieces)
1 Egg
Olive oil
Salt, pepper, thick soya sauce.

First, heat the pan. Throw in the garlic and onions. When it turns golden, add the prawns and ginger. Then the mushrooms. Afterthat, throw in all the long beans, carrots and chili. Add salt, pepper and water. Let it boil so that vege will be softened. Then the rice. Open a hole in the middle, break the egg. Mash it up. Then add soya sauce for the taste and colour.

Hokkien people like food in dark colours ;)

But well, as usual when I am cooking, something always goes wrong - when the fire started, wok get heated and I get panicky. So in fact, I toppled 1/2 bottle of the pepper into the wok :-/

So, it was a PEPPER fried rice I had instead with lotsa ketchup!

My god-daughter... oooh how adorable!!!

Doncha think the smile just bring sunshine to ma gloomy day!

Finally figured how to upload a pic of meself onto blogspot.

Wanted to put up an artistic and yet mysterious and yet beautiful picture of myself.

But after 30 mins of looking thru the thousands of pictures in my harddisk, I give up - there is nothing like how I imagine I'd like to look like.

Anyway, here it goes - enjoy those quirky chinese eyes.

Phew, I guess, after 4 weeks of a lot of foreign things finally took a toll on me.

I am washed out. And I feel lost.

I guess, in short - its homesickness?

Anyway, these 3 days, it will be just me, myself and Jaymy home alone. So I guess, its time to spend some quiet moments to look for the lost girl again.

Nothing too serious, but just feeling low and down. Perhaps the missing sun and the cloudy sky took me in.

Where is my blue blue sky?

Lovely Sunday spent at the beach in Oostende.

We drove 120km, just to lay for 2 hours sleeping under the sun, on the sandy beach with clear blue sky above us. Sometimes staring endlessly to the horizon or at the many people playing, relaxing on the very same beach.

Read 3 pages of The Republic (including introduction) and scribble some notes in my diary.

And boy, I do have a tan and a clear mind now.

That's living life he!

Just to tell the world that I completed my first 60km on bike :)

Muahahhaa - so now I really need to get a bike!

Lovely weather for biking! And yes, it sheds off the extraz off me ;) Hard work you know!

The dream is to have a killer long slinky legs in 3 months time.

I need a motivation, don't I?!!!

Even if it seems hard to reach... muahehahahah (I know who is laughing at me!)

BUT you can't stop one from dreaming the impossibles...
AND perhaps reaching the impossibles :)

Annual Bicycle Trip

Yippee, tomorrow I will go on a bicycle trip. 60km route. Organised by a group of my colleagues. Really looking forward to it.

It will be a nice sunny day of about 25 degrees :)

I just hope I won't pokkai - trip and fall over!!!

I am putting my bets on the following finals :

Winner : BRAZIL
Runner-up : ARGENTINA
3rd placin : SPAIN
4th placin : HOLLAND (I guess they have to make it somehow as they are the hosts!)

Update - Shit, I was blur... Had Mr Arnout laughing at me. I meant Germany!!! But anyhow, I have submitted my bets for Holland :( They better win man!!!

Woa, a punter I am becoming!

But soon there will be a night of me sitting on the couch at home with a beer and cheering like the mans. Hehehehe...

Win money can buy shoes leh!

Invited some colleagues and friends over for SOME drinks on June 2, one of the Fridays.



Mr D was amazed with the number of people that could fit our place - only 20 people. Wait till he see my parents apartment during CNY - record was 70 people eheheheh



The girls made themselves comfortable and warm on the sofa.



Smokers' corner @ our terrace. And they just flick their cigg butts over down to my little stone garden. Talk about conviniences :)



Well, after a hard night... what else. Cleaning!

Bizarre weather here!

When I arrived, it was super cold (at least for me!) and I had to don on my winter coat. Remember I was complaining about the cold toilet seat!

2 weeks with lotsa rain and wind and viola, suddenly last Friday, it was clear blue sky. Beautiful. The weekend was great. And then...

It become hotter and hottter and hottter.

And there is no air-con in the homes. Nor offices :S

So, one can imagine at 30 degree day in and out. Except, my new found joy is in the car... its air-con :)

Since yesterday, its back to gloomy, grey and wet days.

But I look to the weekend for the hope of the sun may return.

May 27 - 28, 2006



This is the Royal Palace at the famous Dam Square.



Canals winds around the entire city and this give Amsterdam its character.



Of course, Tulips = Holland.



Statue of the Great Master, Rembrandt @ The Rembrandtplein.



Spring is here. Flowers at every corner of the streets.









More flowers :)

Spent the weekend there with my colleagues from Singapore. Lotsa fun, laughter, jokes and hard walking :S

Oh yea, even hung out at the infamous coffeeshops of Amsterdam - had space cake with espresso and coupled with some puffs :)

Someone broke the window of the car and stole the GPS :(

What a luck!

So now I've officially adopted the role of a "live" GPS and I am proud to say that I am pretty good at it. Didnt yet lose our way :)

Anyway, Mr D say he now has a funny froggy croaking GPS who goes like this :

"Break break break"
"Stop stop stop"
"Slow down"
"Be careful"

It keeps repeating and occasionally with some hard pinches.

** Grinning

Look! Here comes the sun.

I love clear BLUEEE skies... :)

After 2 weeks of gloomy clouds and endless rain falls, everyone is estatic to see the sun.

Today we even went out to a restaurant during lunch. Sat by the terrace, letting the sun burn deep into our skins, enjoyin our salad and cup of steaming espresso.