All wrapped up...

It's the time for no more fooling around.. (yeah right..) Exam time and I am wrapped up with 4 reports to be handed in with due dates soooooo close to the exams. Though I have only two paper to sit for, the rest of the subjects really do depends solely on reports and presentations. Imagine the stress of writing up 3000 words per report in a go.. however, 3 accomplished 1 to go.. And when can I then focus on my TWO papers? Time is precious but look at me now, can't resist the tempatation of wanting blog and blog.. I promise myself to make it short and simple, so I crammed every thoughts that I have gathered this past week into one posting. (Been collecting the ideas and views to write on this postings, but the longer I keep it, the less I tend to publish it.)

The UK General Election 050505...

Nice selection of date.. As been well publicized in the UK, the Prime Minister's Office in London, the 10, Downing Street have declared that the Parliament was dissolved on April 11th. Anyone up to general elections? Real interesting to see the setting of UK's political scene. The day where everyone is said to wanting to topple down Tony Blair (just in words, but not doing so.. haha).. The Labour and Conservative are competiting head to head now, with each party delivering their own "TV campaign", you can see how well the politicians actually act in front of the camera. Judge it yourself, looking at Tony Blair's and Gordon Brown's tactics of attacking Micheal Howard's Conservative party... they really hit the point aint it? (pronouce it the British way).. More research about the political scene is coming from me, after the 29th of April (Wastewater Engineering Exam). As I am attaching the links to these website, I remembered the issue told by one of the someone from BBC that, the internet being the easiest most powerful links to General Elections information. Too easy for access.. Here's a list of the competiting political parties. Make notes about what are their manisfestos.. and why were they established.

Labour Tony Blair
Conservative Micheal Howard
Liberal Democrat Charles Kennedy
Veritas new RobertKilroy-Silk ?
UK Independence Party

Bringing the Chemical Engineers in you...

I attended the IChemE AGM (North West Branch) last Monday, just to have an insight what the fuss of IChemE is all about. Since I have already registered with them (and paid a certain amount of pound sterling), I might as well make an effort to join them.. Berdiri sama tinggi, duduk sama rendah.. terasa sekali dalam majlis macam ni.. Oh yeah, (to En Razak, my ex-boss.. ) I've had the pleasure of learning a new perspective of Chemical Engineering.. It's history!.. A long time ago, I was questioned about whether I really do know the history of my profession.. errr.... of course not at that time NO.. and since Prof John Perkins, former President of IChemE delivered a presentation on this, I figured I should not miss these very important facts(so that I can tell my ex-boss now I knew it all, from the original speaker!). The names Davis, Lavoisier, Dupont, etc.. now I know who they were'. Manchester, the setting where it took place, the heart of Industrial Revolution in the UK.

Manchester Malaysian Night.

Grandest event of the year (for us lah.. whom trapped in this place called kampung Manchestee). The 'gian' side of me showed off when I appeared to be sibuk-menyibuk (kepochi) with the performance that I used to get involved with, semasa muda-muda dulu.. Tarianlah, Dikir Baratlah.. and Silat!!! (Kembara aje tak masuk list sini).. its ok.. I enjoyed some good dose of kompang playing, Kurik Kundi and Nirmala dance.. yang silat ni aliran lain (the one with Kulop & Jack's) , as I figured it should be. PEJA is going to "levitate" himself in this performance which I know he may well be capable of doing.. Menarik bukan? So, friends from all over UK, let's join us this Saturday.. Grandest event for Kampung Manchestee..

Sneek peek into Holland..

For sometime, Holland lies only in my dreams, the nicest place on earth, prettiest flowers and great landmarks such as the windmills. Now that I was there, I feel glad and thankful (to Allah) to make my dreams came true.

When I was drafting up the itineries for Holland, I simply have the idea (with Aidie) that these are the places I need to step foot to. Cheese place, Windmill place, tulip place. We then worked our way there, and found ourselves at the grandest place for cheese, grandest place for windmill, grandest place for tulips. Perhaps I put too much expectation that I feel these figures looked much nicer in pictures than in real life. Well, that being my personal opinion..

Tulips for example are nice for its vibrant colours, strikingly beautiful under the sun. The bulb fields stretched along the countryside of Amsterdam and we can observe whole field of tulip...but still not in full bloom. Nevertheless, the garden Keukenhof was not a dissappointment actually. It displayed the most prettiest flowers: daffodils, tulips, and many more I can't even recall their names, and here, they made it somehow to display full bloomed tulips. They're gorgeous with the right blend of colours, the garden was breathtakingly beautiful (I am running out of vocab here).. But, that's it, for tulips, nothing more than that. I would vote for roses on top of tulip, at least roses can looked pretty and smell nice at the same time.

The windmills are magnificient.. the ambiance surrounding it was very serene and calm. Even the ducks are really friendly too.. Haha.. I really like it there.

Friendly neighbourhood of Kinderdijk

A real Dutch Lady in Alkmaar!

The cheese market at Alkmaar was the place to go if you want to see the locals, what's up in their calender for Spring/Summer. Really an experience to be there.

Their port city, Rotterdam was also a place to be, it is here where many famous sailors, shipping company originate. Located at southern Holland, Rotterdam lies at muara sungai facing the open sea.

On board the ship that Aidie is navigating ..
almost crashing into those other boats behind us (hehe.. berlakon jek).

Being modernize now, Amsterdam is becoming the city of heaven. I am talking about its redlight district.. phew.. we stayed there, and we saw it all (wink^ wink^).... this is the city where it proudly annouces that Marijuanna is legal to be sold and smoke here..

Oh ya, there are so many (too much) canals in Holland and Amsterdam itself than there are streets for other motor vehicles. I even make a remark, the difference between Malaysian's address for home is we use Jalan (street) names, Hollanders uses Canal names (joke joke..) Canals are like the main transportation for them, seems every house will have their own boat parking.

Yes, their transport system are excellent... they have trams and busses to transport you withing the city, just buy a strippenkart for a cheaper rate rather than buying from the counter inside the tram... only thing you need to be familiar to get these cards/tickets stamped. BUT.. the infamous transport system is alway the traditional bicycle. I can confirm with my own judgement that there are many more bicycles in Holland than cars. Pity, we didn't have the pleasure of using one during our stay. Millions and billions of bikes were parked in front of the train station, Rotterdam.. just amazing to see it that amount.. All are not racing bikes, just normal basikal tua type..

~Cheers~

Brussels in the menu

Honestly, I never have had any dreams about belgium, just that I know its somewhere nearby Holland and France. But the short visit to this friendly city changed my perspective. The city treated us good.. with most fascinating people I have met.

The locals are simply saying Salam to us everytime we passed them, we get at least 10 salams when we are passing over the famous street for locals to dine (don't remember the RUE name). Another interesting fact is, these people seemed to know that we are Asians and that we are from Malaysia.. or the least inaccurately guessing we are Indonesians. (Even the people in the UK got so confused when I mentioned Malaysia). But Belgians KNOW.. Some of them even talked about our Primers.. Pak Lah, Mahathir.. and (almost) always famous Anwar Ibrahim. But most interesting thing I found out from them is they are very keen of us being Muslim that they really give us advise and “tarbiyah”..what not to eat, what not to buy, where not to go etc etc.. I mean, I really found these kind of people in Brussels?? wow, ibarat jauh panggang dari api. dekat Malaysia pun tak macam ni. Here I got the chance to practice lousy French (Bonjour.. mainly.. haha…) because Belgians speak French. Compared to Dutch, where Indonesian influence can be seen everywhere (nasi goreng and sate in their main menu!), here Morrocan dominate the small shops and other food business. So, you can guess why we are being treated nice, these Morrocans are mostly Muslims. Talk about food, we did savoured their local cuisine, like Aidie love to say it.. let's try their local cuisine, don't need to bring too much Maggie Mee (hahaha..because I insist we eat Maggie Mee). Famous for their mussel dishes, I ordered Mussel in cream and garlic (dulu dekat kampung taknak makan kupang, jauh-jauh kat sini nak pulak makan) . Like what we did in Amsterdam, trying out Dutch Pancakes. The fact that shouldn't be forgotten is the world famous Belgian Chocolate.. name it Godiva, Newhouse, Leonidas, Guylian.. this is the place where it originates. Try it, it tastes like you never tasted chocolate before.. The REAL trademark of Belgium.. (no relevant pictures to show here..)

Many people told us that there is nothing much to see in Brussels. Well, we proved them wrong. Even for this one day touring of Brussel, we found many historical places in town, the last point of tram stop in town (because we missed the Centraal stop) and we have already seen all of Europe, but with a smaller scale. Nearby Hazel tram stop, there are at least 3 places to visit, which are Little Europe (have to pay 11.80 euros to enter) , Bruparck (water theme park like Sunway Lagoon type) and Atomic Garden . With limited time, we still enjoyed Little Europe.

Feast for the eyes...

Blend of colours


Purple has got its class


One in a a million..



Outstanding yellow


Good shot.. nice angle..


Spoiled white


Sneeking amongst tulips


Pink Sundal Malam


Purple Sundal Malam


Simply outstanding

Not a tulip, but still as pretty


Gentle


Tulips in deep red



Pure white..


Bunch of them, pink shades..


Tak tau nak tulis apa nih..


Not a daffodils

For all my friends,

Cukuplah ni sebagai buah tangan from Holland... it lifted my mood just looking at it. Copyright reserved. Masterpieces of me and Aidie.. hehe..

From Gooddermorgen.. to Bonjour...

Amsterdam was buzzing (proudly stating: this is the only place where smoking Marijuanna is legal), Rotterdam was breezily friendly, Alkmaar was cheesily welcoming, Volendam was lovely a village, Keukenhoff........ was breathtakingly beautiful. Hollanders were kind, they speak Dutch..

Sneek Peek into Holland, Kinderdijk

The Cheesy part of Holland, Alkmaar


Beds of flowers, Keukenhoff

Parking for boats and cars (famous Holland canals), (lupa nama kampung ni)


The city where famous sailors came from, Rotterdam

Belgium was very historic. Minneken Piss (history where a small kid saved the city by pissing on the fuse of a bomb meant for Brussels) were displayed everywhere in their souvenir shop in all types and sizes.. Not being a low land area, many of the sights were very picturesques. Mini Europe is among the latest place to go to. Belgian chocolates just simply cannot be resist. Most distinctively I can say is Belgians were very very charming, they speak mostly French..

This duo backpacking trip was only accompanied with a single digicam which is not mine (since memory is not as big as Aidie's). Will update on the digi format of Brussels pic when I have them with me. (We initially have disposable camera for Brussels). Hope Aidie's camera will be good as new after repair.