*Schize-ty* and Wet! (oh yah...Merry Christmas too!)

*Schize is a german word for shit...more about that below...*

I was thinking of a few titles for this post and here are some of them
1) Rainy day...and night
2) I love my office
3) A New Beginning
4) Lovely Brugge

In the end, i sticked with the above title, coz i think it kinda sum up my feeling for the day. The word Schize is a german word and it comes from a popular phrase here in Antwerp (at least, if not the entire Belgium) - Schize un-der clink! Pardon my spelling (it might not be correct), but generally the phrase means "Sh*t on the doorknot!". Frankly speaking, this is not a true phrase, meaning you can never find this phrase anywhere in the german dictionary or wherever. It is a phrase born from the creativity of the Belgium people. The words "un-der clink" is in fact Flemish (a variant of the Dutch language) and it means on the doorknot and the entire phrase is a mixture of german and dutch (german is the third spoken language here in Belgium). So imagine you just woke up from your bed one day, and when you tries to open the door and you find a whole pile of sh*t on your doorknot - you will be going "SCHIZE UN-DER CLINK!!!" as well...

Anyway I was just back from dinner at an italian restaurant (tot should pamper myself once in a while - and i suddenly have a craving for hot melted cheese), and it has just started to rain. Although hey, it should rain once in a while, there's nothing wrong with raining, but apparently it has being raining the whole day, AT the WRONG time. It rained in the morning when i was cycling to the office (more on that below), and rained in the afternoon when i just got my vietnamese nasi goreng at the flea market (the only place where i can find cheap -european terms- asian food) and was thinking of doing some shopping in the city, and finally when I had just finished my dinner and just stepped out of the restaurant. I mean, it rained exactly at the time I was about to do something outdoors. Maybe it's just me being cranky, but how about a bit of snow instead? It's always snowing in the television back in Singapore whenever there's news about Europe.

3 more weeks and I will be going back to the motherland - hey time to take things easy, relac and live life at a slower pace now. But no, you have to submit your test documents next week because there has being a change of plans and now we need those documents. Okayyy. So back to my 2nd home. You know how people used to say that the office is their 2nd home? I will second that here. The office IS my 2nd home...coz that is where i be leeching off the free internet and watching\downloading my videos and keeping in touch with friends and making a few free overseas phone calls and working out my documents in the midst of all that activity. It's sad but that's all about to change real soon.

Friday was a special day for the company and perhaps for some of the staff here. It's the first day of the Alcatel-Lucent merger, and to celebrate the first day, we have free fruit juices and sandwiches for everyone in the morning, and more sandwiches and champagne in the afternoon, following the President's speech! Wow...how much better can it get? The hard fact is by the time i reach office at 8 am (the earliest time for quite a while), there was already a crowd in the lobby area and strange enuf, I can't seem to find the fruit juice stand. By the time the guys came talking to me with a bottle in their hand, all the fruit juices have already being handed out. Even the coffee makers have run out of water for the coffee. And the sandwiches are really just bread with a piece of cheese in between. And if you really wanted the champagne, please be at the local Zoo at 3pm to 5pm, and we will have a toast to the new company. I think i'll skip that part, dun get me wrong, just too busy with work. A toast to the new company!

Oh yeah, need to post some nice pictures of Brugge, if you ever want to visit Belgium, go to Brugge, I think that is good enough. (Personal opinion.) Unless you want to see the magnificent National Bank of Belgium in Antwerp, the grand Grand Cathedral, the gigantic Atomium in Brussels and..and...


*The Grand Square of Brugge - click on the picture to see it in full size*

*The Tower of Brugge - it's built in the 1800s*

*The mini-Tower just outside the entrance - isn't it cute...*

*Venice!-close-the river canal of Brugge*

*Close encounter of the swan kind - those r swans there*

*Feel like singing Under the Bridge(RHCP) but...*

*In the horizon, another great cathedral of Brugge*

*Beautiful landscape*

*Gathering of the swans...and the geese...Swan Lake*

*The Grand Square of Brugge - Dazzling at Night! -click to see full size-*

MERRY CHRISTMAS, ALL! *ding ding ding*

Time for a break?

Wow... time passes so quickly, it's already approaching the 6th week here in Antwerp. To think we are half way thru the mark now... People in Plano and Antwerp! We are HALF WAY thru the mark! I can see the light at the end of the tunnel! YES! I can see the mee rebus! the Hei Tao Lou (Fish head soup)! The weekly teh tarik with banana and tissue pratas, topped with delicious mouthwatering ayam curry! OF coz you can always have fish curry instead, which gives a pretty different taste with the prata, slightly spicier on the tongue but down it with a mouthful of teh tarik or foaming teh cino, and with your eyes closed, you will find urself briefly in Prata Heaven.

In case you tink i am hallucinating, it is actually lunchtime now and i have not taken my lunch yet. Well, you cannot blame me for not taking lunch because...
1) I am now in my office, leeching off the free internet. Hence I cannot go back to my apartment to cook which is about 10 mins walk away.
2) There are no coffee shops or food courts around, and since it is a public holiday today, I wun even expect to find a pita shop selling turkish kebabs.
3) I have enough of turkish kebabs.

Yes, we are halfway through. It helps that Cary and Sam are helping with the countdown as well on MSN everyday (49 days left...). This leaves me with a lingering thought, how did we survive leaving our family and friends and warm cosy country to another place where you might not survive one night in the open without freezing your nose and your ears off? (Btw, we had an interesting expedition last night in Antwerp, each of us got a bike from the hotel and went cycling for an hour in the night, where it's about 5 degree celsius, and it helps that the wind keeps blowing in your face. We came back with red noses and ears, and felt like insects crawling inside my face.) Desperate situation requires desperate measures. Probably we just feel like doing something life threatening to get rid of the numbness and remind ourselves that we are still alive.

*The above passage is strictly my own opinion and I do not have the authority nor the rights to speak for anyone else.*

So hey! I for one, am very glad that people invented Youtube. Coz I managed to find my favourite shows posted on it, and thank you Jerry for teaching me how to download the videos! So everyday after work, I will spend one hour in the free wireless zone in our lab on the first floor, leeching off the videos into my notebook so I can watch them at home.



This is one of my favourite comedians and he is Ah Ken from Taiwan. One of the up and coming stars in fact, and probably will become the next Stephen Chow!

You can find more of his clips here...
http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=%E9%98%BFKen

Laughter is the best medicine, especially for emotional illnesses like home sickness, love sickness or sexual harassment sickness etc etc. Better than an apple a day, which costs 1 bloody euro and you dun get the supermart cashier to put it into your plastic bag for you. (Belgium cashiers have the best job in the world, just learn how to flash tags and distribute plastic bags.)

Paris!

Bonjour!

It's being a while and no, I did not see Paris Hilton over the weekend *a gust of cold wind*, sorry for that, but we have being to the most Romantic city in the world and back, and I think I dun have to tell you that it is not in Belgium *sorry*. So we are back and I am back to the blogging board to share the story of my saga.

[a list of romantic things that came to my mind now, you can skip this paragraph if u want]
1. Romancing the stones - a cheesy TV drama series
2. Luv in Paris - korean drama
3. 101 marriage proposals - famous jap series
4. Legend of the falls - Anthony hopkins, Brad Pitt and Mr X
5. Forrest Gump - despite public opinion, i think it is a very romantic show, made my macho friends cry *hahaha*
6. Farewel my Concubine - just wanna say chinese can be romantic too
7. ???
[pls help me add on this list by posting in tagboard, the most submissions get win a trip to paris online]

Anyway, I gonna break this into 3 parts due to the fact that it was a long trip (hey, it's Paris!) Also, personally I did not take a lot of pictures, so I gonna "stunt" some of the pics from my friends, Marcus & Faizal. Great photos, but due to royalty rights, I wun be able to show all. Check out the links yah?

First stop - the little french town of Lille!

*word of caution - the reader is advised to use his\her imagination in the following paragraphs*

So it began. The Fellowship embarked on the journey on the E'Space, a mythical creature of great speed and stamina. Holding onto its reins, the Fellowship ventured thru mountains and highways, to reach the nightly city of the Supermart elves, Buchan.

Caryli, the dwarf, showed the elven king the Symbol of Brotherhood.

The elves, with their rows and columns of wheats, wine and mp3 players, are well prepared for the harsh winter. The King of the elves invited the Fellowship to the royal store and graciously presented the "bottle of neverending wine" and the "champagne of forever youth" to the Fellowship.



With thankful hearts, the Fellowship bid the King and the elven city farewell. Pressing on thru mountains and highways, the Fellowship finally reached the town of Lille, known for playful fairies lighting up the town walls.



The town human mayor, invited the Fellowship to his abode, Le Barbue, for a sumptuous feast.


Vincegorn - stands proudly in front of the Le Barbue.

Entering the mayor's abode.

The sumptuous meal - Crepes with seafood!

The famous flaming Grand Marnier Crepes!
The sweet Crepes of Le Barbue!

The party stayed for the night in the tavern, Ibis Hotel, thankful that they have not seen the trolls along the way. Morning. The first rays of daylight shone thru the windows. The party gathered up and decided to visit the elven princes of the Honey Inn, Prince Florian and his younger brother Prince Jerome, who know the secret way to the mythical city of Paris, where Mount Eiffel resides.


The elven princes agreed to join the Fellowship after Vincegorn showed them the proof of his royal descendancy.

The princes suggested the Fellowship to visit the Meert, to taste the fabled sugared Chestnut of Prophecy, in order to see into his own destiny.



Vincegorn, upon tasting the Chestnut, saw his destined future as King of all Humans, after he reached the top of Mount Eiffel.


The Meert, fabled candy store of Lille, 130 years old and counting.


Vincegorn, shouting the password to enter the Meert.

The treasures in the Meert, beyond one's wildest dreams. Hansel and Gretel will be pleased.

The device they call, the Phone. Able to alert the various outposts in the event of a troll invasion.


The sweet, Beltises de Cambro, a mistake made by a sugar gnome when he was concocting the ingredients. The elves of Lille loved its taste and embraced it as their own sweet.

Having seen his destiny, Vincegorn pressed on together with the help of the princes and the Fellowship, on the journey to...the mythical city of PARIS and Mount Eiffel!

*part 2 coming up...*

20th October 2006 - Thoughts

Well, it's the 4th day of the 2nd week here in Antwerp,Belgium. I have been thinking a lot these few days, and thought maybe I just post an entry of the erratic things that went in and out of my mind, before i cannot recall any of them anymore. Possibly i can look back at some of them in the future and have a good laugh, possibly i can reflect on some of them and maybe will give me a good idea on how to solve a problem, you can never know.

*Warning - in case you see a lot of complaints here and think i am just whining, pls pardon me coz i will just be downloading anything in my mind at this instant and will not be reviewing what i have written down.

1) It's not too cold here now, but the food is boring.
2) We (belgiums and me) are from different planets.
3) What can we cook for tonight's dinner? Broccolis perhaps?
4) I might go crazy in another 2 weeks, but i will try meditation.
5) Europeans do their own stuff their own way. Wonder if they go for lunch together?
6) The TV is boring here, where's the adult channel?
7) A pair of scissors for triming nose hair costs $6 euro dollars=$13 singapore dollars and that is the cheapest. An average pair costs $15 euro dollars = $30 singapore dollars and I would have shouted "Why not go rob a bank?". But the cashier looks like a nice old gentleman so i just skipped this part.
8) Some of the older generation can be quite nice, there's this old Jewish gentleman who helped me tear a portion of the sticky tape using his teeth when i failed to tear it using my hands when I was in the post office. Despite the hygiene, i am still quite grateful.
9) A bloody air mail to Singapore costs $5 euro dollars = $10 singapore dollars.
10) I can only go to gym after work? No other entertainment? I will try meditation.
11) I can only surf the internet in the office and download videos and play online games in the office during weekends because the internet costs $130 euro dollars per month in my apartment. I wanted to shout "Why not go rob a bank?" to the counterperson, but she looks like a nice lady who is just there to work (she is not from Antwerp) so I just skip that.
12) A guy friend tease me about the food in Singapore over the internet and i actually salivate in office. I am only here for the 2nd week.
13) Europeans are proud of their diversity. Or so I am told.
14) An old guy in the office actually travelled by sailing boat alone across the ocean to the Americas and back. He said when winter comes and the northern part is having hurricane season, he will travel from the south part of the ocean and when it is summer and more turbulent in the southen part, he will travel by the northern part. There was a blue whale that was swimming side by side his boat during part of his travel. I am still stunned even now. Took him 1 year to plan the trip and think will take me 10 years instead.
15) I thought of using yahoo voice instead of M1 Smartroam to call back to Singapore. Yahoo voice costs 1.something cents per minute and Smartroam costs 45 cents or 90 cents per minute.

Okay, i think that's enough for today, phew...

Qiang Bian Wen Da Ti of the day:
What is the surname of pencil?

Fleeee...the Flea Market

Tot i post this clip of the infamous Antwerp Flea market. We went on a Saturday, and it was good, but not as good as Sunday's market (Just so crowded that i gave up walking to the city square). You can find very cheap (european standards) bags, all sorts of veges (they have a lot of olive stuff), cheap clothing for winter, meaty stuff (the sausages are hugeee..), pets (live ones, not like those in China, no offense here Chairman Mao), and of coz, CHOCOLATES.

If there is one thing Belgians are good at, it is making Chocolates...amazing variety and deliciously decorated..I am sorry I didn't film much on the chocolates there, but there is a short segment of a beautiful chocolate candy store that I captured on film here.

Enjoy!

The Saturday Flea Market (Prelude: beautiful little chocolate candy store)
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Do u like pets? To be concise, do u like dogs and puppies?

Pet Shop in Antwerp
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OH! Btw, did i mention Beer? They have beers that I neber seen before, and definitely cannot find in our part of the world. Dun tell anyone, but i intend to smuggle some back home when it's time to come back...(dun tink the Immigration dept will be surfing this site.) Have u heard of fruity beer?

Beers galore!
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Video Gallery Open!

Halo! Finally manage to upload my videos to Youtube, so the museum is officially now opened. I still discussing with my board what kind of pricing policy to implement for the museum but Google just sent a courier to us indicating that it is illegal for us to charge the public while we are using their service for free. Either we embark on a profits sharing program with them (Google 80% and VTArt 20%(that's our company name)) or the fee quoted for us to use Youtube for business usage is exorbitantly high (somewhere in the range of 6 to 7 zeros)...

Did i mention that VTArt is a non-profits organization as well? All our earnings will be collated and arranged to be donated to various welfare organisations throughout the world! How dare they charge us for trying to bring welfare and care to the poor and helpless!

Anyway, since we are at a deadlock here, we have no choice but to allow free viewing at the moment.

(Suddenly the sky cleared and I am back to reality.) Enough daydreaming, okay here is a video of the Grand Cathedral in Antwerp, Belgium. Hope you enjoy this. For more videos, pls go to youtube and search for videos posted by mdookie4.

The Grand Cathedral
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Photobucket

Nope i not trying to advertise for photobucket here, but i tink it is a very good site to share your photos (tink got 1GB storage space...humongous...or is it hugemogous)...nevermind...

Belgium-Antwerp-Day1 Photo Album
Belgium-Antwerp-Day2 Photo Album
Belgium-Antwerp-Day3 Photo Album

Added some comments in the photos, best is click on slideshow immediately in the album and hope you enjoy the show. It is taken using my mobile phone so no promises on the quality...it's the quantity that matters here haha...

Check out the Grand Cathedral and the Antwerp city area...

Oh yah, be posting some video clips real soon after this morning tour in the city area (again, but this time it is a morning tour)... (highlight: big flea market)

Qiang Bian Wen Da Ti of the Day: What killed Mr Bao?