Friday 29 February 2008

My prayer tonight... .

Dear God,

Please let us be bumped up to business class on Singapore Airlines (SIA) tomorrow,
Pls let us be bumped up to business class on SIA tomorrow,
Pls let us be bumped up to business class on SIA tomorrow,
Pls let us be bumped up to business class on SIA tomorrow,
Pls let us be bumped up to business class on SIA tomorrow,
Pls let us be bumped up to business class on SIA tomorrow,
Pls let us be bumped up to business class on SIA tomorrow,
Pls let us be bumped up to business class on SIA tomorrow,
Pls let us be bumped up to business class on SIA tomorrow,
Pls let us be bumped up to business class on SIA tomorrow!!!

Amen!

Weather forecast

The weather we'll be leaving behind. Brrr... .


The weather we'll be flying to. Don't like that it's wet, but hey, it'll be WARM!


Ahh...MUCH better! Hope this good one continues on the days we're there!

Tuesday 26 February 2008

3 more days till summer!

Not summer in Denmark, but "summer" in tropical Singapore!!! 28 deg C every day there, as opposed to 5 deg C here :o)! Can't wait to put on my "summer" clothes, because I am SO bored with my winter wear!

Seriously, picking out what to wear every day before going to work is becoming more of a reflex now. I mean, I don't even need to think about it anymore (which is maybe a good thing in a way because it saves time). Basically, it goes like this:

Monday = jeans + red sweater.
Tuesday = jeans + brown sweater.
Wednesday = black pants + Monday's red sweater.
Thursday = black pants + gray sweater.
Friday = jeans + Thursday's gray sweater.

The week after, same thing; with a bit more rotation of who gets matched up with whom. 1 word x 3: BORING! BORING! BORING!

So in just a few days' time, NO MORE JEANS! NO MORE PANTS! NO MORE SWEATERS! NO MORE SOCKS! NO MORE WINTER JACKET! NO MORE GLOVES! NO MORE SCARVES! NO MORE UNDERWEAR!!! No, just kidding; I will still have underwear, of course. Hmm...actually, you shouldn't even need to know if I will still wear that or not. Maybe it'll get so hot that I'll decide not to...ok, ok - I think I had better change the subject now ;oP.

Anyway...have not started packing yet, but have done the main practical things like buying Singapore dollars (we're NOT going without cold hard cash this time), have bought gifts, have paid the bills, had cleaned up the apartment, etc, etc. So yeah, packing is the final step, and will do that Friday since there's not much to pack anyway. I mean, if I don't bring enough clothes and shoes, that would give me a valid reason to shop for new ones, right ;o)? So why pack so much ;o)?

But yeah, I'm looking forward to show my parents-in-law my homeland for the very 1st time, and I'm looking forward to see many friends whom I've not seen in years / decades (but because of Facebook...), and I'm looking forward to YUMMY Singaporean FOOD, and I'm looking forward to a GREAT experience in Australia! 1 month of pure vacation! Somebody please make time slow down... .

Oh, and for all you people stuck here in Denmark, here's my wish: please let there be SNOW, SNOW, SNOW and MORE SNOW every day in March!!! MUUUAHAHAHAHAHA!!! I mean seriously, what's the point for me to go to a warm country during winter season if it's not to escape a horrible winter, right ;oP?

Oki...gotta go to bed now. Am going to fetch Caryn and her family at the airport tomorrow morning (which also means no more car for me to drive around anymore...boo hoo), so yeah, have to get my beauty sleep now.

Friday 22 February 2008

VISA shock

Damn! I nearly died of a heart attack earlier! Martin and I are soon going to fly off to Singapore and Australia (Perth) in just a matter of days, so I was reading my Insight Guide Australia book to get more...well, insight of course. It was all good, until I got to this part:

-Visas and Passports-
All visitors require a passport and visa to enter Australia (the only exception to the visa rule is for New Zealanders, who require only a passport).

F#%=!!! I didn't know that!!! Had taken it for granted that Martin and I will NOT need a visa to enter the land Down Under, since 1) Singaporeans travel there so often anyway, 2) Danish passports are also accepted pretty much everywhere, and 3) the main countries whereby we need visas for are mainly (though not exclusively) communist and middle eastern countries.

But a visa to AUSTRALIA?!? Can you imagine my SHOCK at finding that out less than 1 week before we leave Denmark? Do we have to go down to the Australian Embassy? How long time can they process the application? We'll need our passports back within 5 days in order to travel out of Denmark! If we don't manage to get the visa here, then can we do it in Singapore instead? Can that be done within 2 weeks then? If not, do we have to cancel our 12 day trip to Australia...even after pre-paying almost 15,000 DKK (S$4000) already on air tickets, hotels, outback tour and excursion?!?

I was kinda paniking inside...but I didn't scream. Am not the type who buckles easily under pressure, so I was very calm on the outside, even if my heart was beating so hard it could almost pop out of my chest. I went online right away to find the website of the Australian Embassy in Denmark to find out the details of visa requirements / application, found it, read it...heart still pounding and flashes of worse case scenerios kept flashing across my mind.

Martin came into the living room (he was cooking), and I asked him very calmly, "Did you know that we have to apply for visa to enter Australia?" It was actually a rhetorical question, since of course he didn't know so I didn't really need him to answer that. Good thing Martin's a calm person under pressure too, so I didn't get household items flying towards my direction.

Anyway...after reading the visa requirements and procedure on the website, my heart started to slowly go back to it's normal rhythm again. Apparently, the kind of "visa" that is needed is NOT the usual stick on crap that they put on a page in your passport. It's instead a kind of electronic visa, or better known as an Electronic Travel Authority (ETA).

These words on the website were almost like words in a love letter to my eyes (the "love" in bold):

An ETA is equivalent to a visa, but there is no stamp or label in your passport and there is no need for you to visit an Australian diplomatic office to submit an application. Applications for ETAs can be submitted through travel agents or airlines.

Now, you can also submit applications directly through this web site by clicking on the Apply for ETA button and, in most cases, we will be able to approve your ETA in less than 30 seconds. You can also check your ETA status, if you applied through this site, by clicking on the Check your ETA button.

Oh! The RELIEF!!! The ESTACY!!! It was almost like rising back from the dead! Man, we were back in business ;o)! So yeah, applied for it right away...it was "free", but the adminstration fee for doing it ourselves online costed around 100 DKK each (A$20) - oh the irony - but hey, at that point in time, I didn't care if it would cost 5 times that amount each!

Phew! Good thing I read the very insightful guide book today! Imagine if I didn't, and we're at the airport checking in to go to Perth, and they tell us, "Sorry, no visa, no koala!" That, I can tell you, will be WAAAAY worse than ANYTHING we had experienced in our disastrous Rome trip 10 times over! I'd rather have no visa card than no tourist visa approval! Hmm...I'm starting not to like the word "visa" anymore.

Anyway...we can sleep well tonight then... . At least me more than Martin, since I'm the one in charge of our travelling plans. I won't blame Martin if he decides to fire me as his personal travel agent if I had screwed this one up.

Wanna know what else I learnt in my insightful Australian guide book? Some very interesting Australian slang, one of which is this:

"Your blood's good enough to bottle."


If an Aussie says that to you, it means this: "I like you." Don't ask me who came up with that. Probably Count Dracula...but I thought he was Romanian, not Australian... . Oh well, I'm a level 6 Black Widow Vampire on Facebook, so blood doesn't scare me anymore. Am just 1 level away from being the Vampire Goddess...so when I get there, I can say that ALL you people's blood is good enough to bottle...hahaha!!!

Gonna retire into my coffin now before I get too carried away.

Monday 18 February 2008

The car, the car, the car is on fire!

Last week had been quite eventful in Denmark. There had been groups of ethnic youths going around Copenhagen and other parts of the country burning cars, schools and garbage containers. Though the real reason for what sparked the protest is not known, many believe that 2 of the main reasons are because of an incident earlier this month in Copenhagen in which a police officer allegedly assaulted an elderly Palestinian immigrant, as well as with the republishing of the Muhammed caricatures in the major Danish newspapers.

The Danish secret police force had uncovered a plan to kill one of the Danish caricature drawers. 3 men were arrested in connection to this, even though the whole saga of the initial printing of these caricatures started in 2005 and ended a few months later in 2006.

Anyway, I guess the revelation of the murder plot kinda pissed off the Danish media, so this time, a few of the major publications had decided to republish the drawings to show that Denmark still believes in free speech and will not bow down to the fear of murder / terrorist threats.

So yeah, it could be that both of these reasons combined, plus that schools were closed last week for winter vacations, caused bored ethnic youths to rampage the country with arson and vandalism. The area where Martin and I live in was one of the area hit many times by these youths. On our street alone, I had seen the police and fire trucks 4 days last week.

In fact, last Friday, I actually witnessed a group of these youngsters burning up a van! Well, Martin had actually noticed them from our kitchen window hanging around suspiciously on our street, and at some point, he said "I'm going to call the police." I was busy getting ready to go out and meet a Singaporean friend of mine who currently lives in Denmark (but whom I had not seen in around 10 years...so thanks to Facebook, we're reconnected again), so I wasn't really joining Martin in his little "Neighourhood Spy" game.

However, when Martin said he was going to call the cops, I was like "Is it really that bad?", so I went to check it out from our window. That was when I saw the group setting a van on fire, and I called out to Martin that they did it! Luckily, there was a police van already patroling the area, so a fire truck also came within 5mins and shortly after, the fire was put out.

My 3rd time seeing the fire truck on our street in 1 week; on Valentine's Day.


4th time that week, on the very next day. This was the one I had witnessed; circled car = Caryn's car, and circled van = the one on fire (you might have to click on the picture to see better).


I had decided there and then that I was definitely going to drive Caryn's car into the centre (I have her car while she and her family is on vacation). I mean, the van that was set on fire was just parked a few metres away from where I had parked her car! The probably of her car being targetted was pretty high! Anyway, I was also lazy to take public transportation on that very freezing night, so I was prepared not to drink too much on that night out. Not that I'm a heavy drinker anyway... .

So yeah, that was quite an eventful week...and it seems to have died down already, although the police and fire brigade are still being on standby. These youths ought to be punished severely if caught. I mean what kind of sick people go around destroying the private and public properties of innocent people?! Not only did they burn up around 108 cars, they had also burnt down around 11 schools! Plus a couple hundreds of garbage containers.

If they're so bored and want to protest or whatever, then I have a suggestion for them: GO BURN UP YOUR OWN FREAKIN' HOMES!!! Just please leave other people out of your stupid childish games.

I blame their parents. Or sadly, perhaps their lack of parents. It's a big responsibility indeed to be a good parent and bring up your kids well with discipline and respect for others, and not many are able to handle that responsibility to their kids. But yeah, no matter what, I feel that as long as parents are still legally responsible for their kid, whatever crime or pranks that they do, parents are the ones to be blamed. That may be harsh, but hey, disciplining your child with love and teaching them right from wrong should have started from when they're at a very young age. If they have the right teachings instilled into them from the start, they would know what's right and wrong, and not go around making trouble.

Anyway...when I see things like these, it makes me even more reluctant to have kids of my own. It's not that I don't think I can discipline my child. Quite the contrary actually; I feel that I'll be a very strict parent...but the thing is, I'd just hate being that strict parent. I don't want to have to teach someone what's right and what's wrong, to reward, to punish... . There may be a lot of joys of being a parent...but can anyone guarantee that?

I know there are many parents who will tell me that being a parent is the BEST thing that's ever happened to them...and I'm glad for that on their behalf. On the other hand, society has just as many parents who are fighting with their kids and having problems with them day in and day out. So yeah...joy or sorrow? I'd say it's 50-50, depending on who you're asking.

Oh well...I still have 4½ years to decide if I want to be a parent or not. Right now, it's 100% not...so let's see if time will change my mind...or Martin's ;o).

Thursday 14 February 2008

Happy Valentine's Day!


Martin's little Valentine card thingy to me :o). How sweet... . I of course left Martin immediately to go be with that cute, irresistable duck and make it lucky ;o).


Just kidding, just kidding! Anyway, Happy Valentine's Day to all of you, whether you are single or not. Who said Valentine's Day is only for couples, right? Love comes in many forms, and all of these forms should be celebrated!


We are however, not going to contribute to the commercialisation of this day. As in, we're skipping the gift giving and the dinner out. It's actually not so common yet to celebrate Valentine's Day in Denmark, but it is becoming more and more so amongst the younger people.


In any case, the gift of love is not shown via material things anyway...and who wants to share a romantic night with a bunch of other people in a full restaurant? I guess as one gets older (read, more mature), one gets over the hype of commercial love.


Don't get me wrong; I'm not saying it's a bad idea to set aside a day to celebrate love. I am all for it, because in our busy lives, we sometimes just forget to do so. Therefore, Martin and I are celebrating this day....but as I wrote earlier, it will not be in a commercial way.


So what are we going to do? Well, my honey bunny is making me a wonderful dinner PLUS dessert! He'll be using his time, his effort, and most importantly, his love :o). I love to be pampered by my man, so this gift from him is PERFECT for me :o). No doubt, he does this "act of service" on normal days too....but the difference today is the dessert that comes with the main course ;o). I loooooove desserts, and he makes good apple pies ;o).


And to strengthen our belief that Valentine's Day is not just for couples, we've also invited a good friend of ours, Morten (who is single), to join us today :o). Morten's a really good guy...so if there're any single girls out there, let me know and I'll hook you up with him ;o).


As for my gift to Martin...well, let's just say it's something that will be between me and him only, and given only after our guest is gone ;o). It might involve aroma candles, music in the background, definitely a bed....oh, am I giving too much information already? Will stop here then ;o).


To end, here is a list of the 5 languages of love which everyone should know about, because if you know each other's primary love language, you can avoid a lot of misunderstandings :o).


In no particular order (ok, it's actually in alphabetical order):

1. Acts of service
2. Gift-giving
3. Physical touch
4. Quality time
5. Words of affirmation

My primary to secondary love language would be: acts of service, words of affirmation, quality time, physical touch and gift-giving.


If I know Martin well enough, I'd say that his is: physical touch, words of affirmation, quality time, acts of service and gift-giving....right honey bunny? (he reads my blog, so he can reconfirm if I'm right or wrong)


So you see, our Valentine's Day gift to each other is lovingly...PUUUURFECT ;o)! Riaaaow!


And to end, here's a good, to the point description of what love really is, and it applies to ALL kinds of love:


"Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always preserves."---- 1 Corinthians 13:4-7

Monday 11 February 2008

A bit belated...

...but here's a little birthday post to my dear friend Bahati who had her birthday last Wednesday, the 6th.

We had a lovely Mexican dinner (girls only) in downtown Copenhagen, but since it was a weekday, we could not party till we drop. However, a handful of us did manage to hit the bar for a couple of drinks before heading home.

Anyway, I had already written some personal words to the birthday girl in a card, so I'll just welcome the birthday girl once again to the most exciting club at last ;o). She'll know what club I'm talking about; the club for mature, sophisticated, independent women (well, it's also a club for men, but they're another story).

Here's the beautiful woman and I

Oh, and guess who we walked past on the way to the bar after dinner? Lene Nyström, the lead singer of the band Aqua (famous for their "Barbie Girl" song)! She and a small group of guys were standing outside another restaurant on the same street having a smoke. Funny thing was though, it wasn't her face that caught our attention at first, but her SHOES! They were really high-healed, and summer-ish...actually, more "porno-ish". But yeah, it was her alright, being a real Barbie Girl.

Thursday 7 February 2008

Gong Xi Fa Cai!


To all my Chinese readers:

新年快乐,万事如意!对不起,我没有红包给你们。 如果你们要红包的话,那你们就来丹麦排放我吧!希望你们身体健康! 我的意思是, 不吃许多好吃的新年东西! ;o)

Monday 4 February 2008

Capoeira

Strange word on the title, huh? I had some troubles spelling and pronouncing it in the beginning myself. So what is it? Well, it's the Portugeuse name of a well-known Brazilian martial arts, and its history goes back to the period of slavery, where slaves diguised this martial arts in the form of dance.

It's beautiful, it's graceful, it's rhythmic to the music...and it kicks ass when you master it. I went for a free test hour at a capoeira club today close to home, and though it was intense, it was also GREAT FUN! I'm definitely going back there again!

I'm not looking forward to an aching body in the next couple of days, but it would be worth it. I don't know how much I will learn, especially all the cartwheels and flipping moves etc, since I'm not that flexible...but capoeira is not really about "breakdancing" anyway.

It's about listening and following the music, and about keeping eye contact with your partner...according to the Mestre today. Well, I can certainly do those... .

Anyway, here's a bit more history about capoeira. And in case you're wondering why my sudden interest in this, there are actually many reasons, but the main ones are:

1. Martin started watching the movie "Only the Strong".
2. My swimming membership expired last week, so I was open for something new.
3. I love music and dancing...so adding a fluid full body martial arts to it is a very, VERY nice bonus.

I leave you now with an idea of how capoeira is done:



Now tell me if that's not the one of the most graceful martial arts you have ever seen? I guess I have to work hard on it if I want to be a capoeirista like her... . Well, as with all things you want to be good at, time and practice is the key.

Saturday 2 February 2008

Television / media licence

According to this list in Wikipedia, Denmark is the country with the 3rd highest tv licence fee in the world per year (€288), after Iceland (€347) and Switzerland (€290)! Actually, from 2008, the fee in Denmark has increased to 2190 DKK (€294 / S$576), so if the fee in Switzerland has not changed, that would make the fee in Denmark the 2nd highest in the world! And it'll get higher each year (2260 DKK in the year 2010).

It is no wonder that we complain so much about this here, especially since they now call it "media licence" instead of "tv licence", which covers appliances such as TV sets, radios, video or DVD recorders, computers with internet access, and mobile phones and similar electronic devices, that also work as a television or radio receiver.

In other words: you have no excuse anymore not to pay.

Oh, and it doesn't matter if you don't use their service; you'll still have to pay. You just need to pay because it is possible to use their service, intentionally or accidentally.

If the licence fee was much lower (eg. 418 DKK / S$110 like in Singapore), I, and I'm sure every one else, will not have many complaints about it. I can understand the need for some form of "public service", but when "public service" costs a bomb at 2190 DKK, then I start to question if it's really "public service". I don't care how good this "public service" can be, that kind of price for it will still not be justified.

In that case, I'd rather that it becomes a "private service" where people can choose whether or not they want it. Pay-per-view, if you must. Or if they claim that people can easily watch some of their programmes online via their website (hence the need for a "media licence"), then I would suggest that they provide logins and passwords only to people who want to pay for their services so that non-payers have no access to these programmes online.

But no...even if we should never go to http://www.dr.dk/ ever, we will still need to pay for a media licence, simply because you have the possibility of going there... .

All you non-residents of Denmark - don't be surprised if you one day get a bill from Danmarks Radio demanding some kind of payment. After all, it's not just residents of Denmark who can go on their website, right? So it's not fair to charge only the residents here. The whole WORLD should be charged. Well, at least those households with Internet access... . Nevermind that you may not even know the existence of their website, because the fact is that you still have a possibility of chancing upon it.

Hmm...maybe I should start collecting money from every one too... . For entertaining current readers, future readers, potential readers, and non-readers with my blog.

Anyway...I better go to bed now. Martin's going to kick me out of bed early tomorrow (even though it's a Sunday) because we are going to visit his parents out in the countryside... . I hope there won't be a storm on the way back at night, because if there's 1 thing I don't like, it's driving when it's dark+wet+slippery.

Friday 1 February 2008

Hamburger

Martin made yummy hamburger for dinner today. Bigger and better than McDonald's! Didn't take a picture of it, and I'm sure you don't want to see how it looks after it's been through the process in my stomach...if you know what I mean.

Anyway, isn't it interesting that a hamburger is called a "hamburger", even though it has no ham in it? A chicken burger has chicken, a fish burger has fish, a cheeseburger has cheese, and a ham sandwich has ham... .

But a hamburger??? No ham!!! What went wrong here? I would imagine, that if a hamburger was called a "beefburger" (as it should be), then we would have a whole new market for this product...that is, the muslims.

McDonald's might want to consider this... .