Ervan’s Weltanschauung

Yes, that’s where I was during the weekend. Amsterdam is just an hour away by train. I had only one mission for Amsterdam, and it does not involve getting high or checking out the red light district. The mission, which of course I choose to do, was to find and purchase a really nice overcoat for myself. And yes, I found a really nice overcoat, and am all set for the cold months ahead in The Hague.

I went to Amsterdam with Pat, hence, I could not do the fun things in Amsterdam with her around.  After all, Pat is really a very nice girl (ehem). As we were waiting for the tram at Circus Theatre, Pat asked me to check the map, and showed me where we were supposed to go. Considering the map was A3 size, and I thought it was really big, I asked Pat whether we are really going to walk that far. Until I realized that the map is on the scale of 100 metres. A lady next to me smiled, obviously overheard our conversation. I had to cover my embarrassment of being overheard by her by laughing.

Amsterdam, is Amsterdam, and after spending most of my time in The Hague, I liked The Hague better, as it is less crowded, and of course, less tourists running around. And in The Hague, people tend to speak in Dutch with me, until I answered back in English. Unlike in France or Germany, they willingly speak in English. But it’s not hard to figure out the words in Dutch. And with the English shows are subtitled instead of dubbed, I am slowly learning to speak in Dutch.

Anyway, back to The Hague, you can actually visit the whole of Netherlands in one hour (or more if you really really walk slow). There is this place called Madurodam which is a must visit if you are in The Hague. They got a miniature of Schiphol Airport complete with airplanes, miniatures of various buildings or places of interest in Netherlands. It is a definite must go, especially for the kids, including the young at heart.

And finally Scheveningen which is where I am staying. It is considered a suburb of The Hague, with a beach facing the North Sea. Right now, I know Nord is North and Zuid is South. Since Scheveningen is by the beach, it gets crowded whenever the sun, not matter how little is out. And with today being sunny, with a slightly warmer temperature (16 Celcius), people are out enjoying what’s left of the summer. Indeed, winter is fast approaching as the hours get shorter, and the temperature slowly drops.

I am addicted with the iced tea they have it here in The Hague, or I guess, Holland. It taste like iced lemon tea, with the addition of some gas, ala carbonated drink. It all started when I was having dinner with my colleagues at Garoeda at Centrum. I’ve been drinking the regular mineral water, and was contemplating having something sweet, and thinking the iced tea will be something like Indonesia’s the botol. When I got it, I was totally overwhelmed with the taste. The tea with a hint of lemon with the added taste of carbon dioxide, but not too much like what you get with coca-cola. Even my colleague who is a big fan of coca-cola loved the taste.

So, if you are in Holland, perhaps you should try the iced tea. If you are a tea fan, I am sure you will enjoy it.

After much project delays, I finally reached The Hague. The flight was pretty uneventful. It’s been a while since I took MAS, and happy to say, it has improved tremendously from the last time I took it in 2005. And now I remember why I prefer the Boeings to the Airbuses, the plane is much quieter. And with me being on the upper deck, you don’t hear a thing at all. All I need to do is relax, sit back, and enjoy the flight.

Being on the upper deck, it feels like you are in your own private cabin. And being together with other people from Shell, it became like a Shell only private flight. The service is better than expected, and MAS even catered for me who is of course, fasting. And the food is excellent, with four choices for my main course and breakfast. Yeaps, I was pampered….

The flight was smooth, until we reached the Andaman seas, where we hit some turbulence, and yes, it was that bad. Luckily there was no incident like what happened to my KL-Kuantan flight where the stewardess dropped a tray of drinks on the passengers as the plane went through an air pocket….

Anyway, I arrived at Amsterdam, on time at 6:30 am, and got myself out of immigration and customs in good time.  By 8:30, I was already at my hotel, and bumped to Pat who conveniently forgot that I was fasting. As I did not get enough sleep on the flight, I decided to take a nap, before venturing to the office.

Getting around The Hague seems easy enough. Public transport is good and the trams are available nearly every minute. The strip tickets they used were kinda confusing, but luckily the tram driver is helpful and ensured that I validated at the right strip. And finding my office is easy, just stop at this hard to pronounce street name, and walk about 5 minutes, and voila, you are in the office. However, being very near to the North Sea, it gets very windy, and the weather is not unlike London, only probably worse…

I got to meet my PM, Skander, and of course my colleagues, Jeroen, Alex, Gregory and Leo. Skander is Tunisian who has lived most of his life in Netherlands. Jeroen and Leo are Dutch, while Alex and Gregory are Belgian. And yes, there are some friendly banters going on about the Dutch and Belgian, and soon, Malaysian. I met up with Jauharina, and left for the town right after that. 

The town is an interesting blend of architecture. The way it is built, is not unlike the Brits, but more organized. Shopping is rather limited, and it closes early by 6:30 pm. And true what the wikipedia says about The Hague, they do hold a sizeable population of Indonesians as I get to hear people speaking in Indonesian everywhere I go. By the time I was done, I rushed back to my hotel as I got to break my fast with my colleagues.

First day in The Hague, and I am loving it….

I met with two police officers today. Long story, had to sort out a few things today that I had to take the day off…

Lance Corporal Siti of the Sungai Way Police Station and Sergeant Jamil Ali of the Petaling Jaya District Police HQ. The way they handle my case, in a polite and courteous manner, and professionally, restored my faith with the Malaysian Police Force.

And with the Most Influential Blogger kept on blogging with bad news on the Malaysian Police Force, one should be reminded with the song from Cat Stevens..

"
I hope you have a lot of nice things to wear
But then a lot of nice things turn bad out there"

There are the good and the bad, but for most of us, we tend to highlight the bad in people, instead of praising the good. Hence, I am doing this, cause frankly, good deeds are never praised enough….

For all the birthday wishes, birthday sms, birthday calls, birthday food, and should i also add the hoax bomb threat call the people in SH & WCP got yesterday on Sept 11? It’s not funny when you have a conference call and we were forced to get out. And I actually protested to my boss as I walked out,

"I know lah today is Sept 11, but surely they got the date wrong for the fire drill?"

30 mins later, I found out that there was a bomb threat. *sigh*

And no thanks to these idiots, I had a really packed birthday today *double sigh*

With work *more sigh*

At least the sushi lunch made up for it…..and the pre-Ramadhan food binge.

But please do spare some thoughts and offer some prayers  for the people at Sumsel (Sumatera Selatan) and Sumbar (Sumatera Barat). Heard a 8.2 earthquake hit Sumsel, and a 5.9 earthquake hit Sumbar within hours of each other…

Or in Malaysia’s case, even their guests.

I found out recently from a chat with my friend who is currently studying in Indonesia. A karatedo official from Indonesia were beaten up by the Malaysian police force. And that happened after he was beaten up by some hooligans. He tried to get some help from the police, and instead of helping, our police force beat him up!

A google search came up with a number of things. An Indonesian couple who were staying at Nikko Hotel, decided to take a walk in the KLCC park were approached by plain clothed policemen. The policemen thought they were up to no good. Suffice to say, they cut their holiday short and left Malaysia in a hurry. Heck, even a friendster friend of mine from Indonesia mentioned that Malaysians are rude to Indonesians.

But if the person is Mat Salleh, man, how we treat them nice. Funny.
Not good for Visit Malaysia Year 2007 eh?

We Malaysians do have a problem in how we treat our weakest member, and sadly, we are still doing it, intentionally or otherwise. How are we going to address this problem? What can we do apart from education?  If only we could put ourselves on their shoes, then we would know how painful it could be…and then only we’ll make the effort to address this issue.

One week on, and I am still missing Perth.

Looking at the skyline from Kings Park, it is a beautiful sight indeed. Don’t you wanna go there and just enjoy the view again?

Ok, back to work..
more pixs at my Flickr