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?

Touchdown!

In Belgium.

Took a lot of pics from the moment i alight from the plane. Tink develop an itchy-finger syndrome, which involves my trusty (but very temperamental) Sony K700i phone (i know, k700i? wtf? now pple using Carl L lenses! but too bad N93 was not out when I left Singapore). In case u see some pics and wonder why the hell i took those, lemme know in the comments...and...


Looking out at Frankfurt airport (travelling from term1 to term2, or was it termA to termB?)


Is that a shooting star??? Actually got a lot of such displays in the sky, think they r airplanes (duh?)


Antwerp central train station, there's an amazing clock structure at the entrance, maybe cannot see clearly from here.

Hey, guess wat, i tink i will just upload the rest of the photos to a free photo site, and maybe share that out. I realise it's pretty hard work trying to upload photos on a blog and easier to just use a shared photos website.

Anyway, will update again the next post..

In the beginning...

Wat the hell...finally i have taken the step forward to create...

MY FIRST BLOG


wat the hell...who really cares really...i just wanted a free storage place on the internet to store my pictures and videos so i can share with friends and family, and possibly to start a low-rental service so pple can rent my videos and pictures for an exhibition or something.. ORchard road is not a bad location, i would suggest placing them along the roadside so the passengers and the pple driving can enjoy as they walk\drive along...maybe if there is a traffic jam or something, pple can still look outside their windows and voila! my pictures will be there. Look to ur right (imagine you are in a car along the road between Wheellock place and Shaw Lido towers now and caught in a traffic jam), and my videos will be shown on that giant screen, entertaining the masses...maybe i can then add advertising messages on the bottom of my videos or pictures and start charging the companies for advertising fees....

Wat the hell...(can i use the f word here? pls enlighten me...), enjoy the stuff here and if anything, just post a bloody comment and see if i niao you at all..(alias niao=give a damn)

PEACE TO THE WORLD! (tot shld leave a good note...)