Love and Marriage

FYI

2009-02-19T00:45:00.002+01:00

I'm considering stopping this blog for personal reasons. Have been actually considering it for some time already, but the new year started and I just kept it a bit longer.

It doesn't mean that I'm going to stop writing, though...since I do enjoy it. I'm just going to make it a more private blog for friends and family only, so that people can still follow my thoughts if they're interested. By doing it this way, I can also open up my comment box again and have it more easy for people I know to comment away without going through any moderation steps.

So yeah, that's one out of many reasons that I have not been updating so much lately. The main reasons...well, you can read about when I get around to opening up my new blog and if you're among those who are in the category of "friends and family". For those who are faithful readers but are not known to me in real life, thank you for your readership thus far.

This blog will however, remain open even if not updated anymore. Once the new blog is ready, I'll put the link up here and on Facebook, and those who want to keep reading can email/message me for a password.

If nobody is interested, I'll still keep writing...and writing...and writing...because the concept of having a diary still exists, whether it's in a physical book, or a virtual one.

Stay tuned!

To hell and back on Friday the 13th.

2009-02-13T22:51:00.006+01:00

I thought I would never step into a piercing studio again, not after my last experience there. However, approximately 6 months later, I'm back at it again! On Friday the 13th, to be exact. Have I become addicted to piercing? Like, those people who start out with one, and end up with a hundred... .

Well, not quite. Thing is, the 1st belly button piercing I had didn't turn out good in the end. Nothing was infected at all, so that was a relief for me. However, I was not happy about it because it turned out to be shorter than the standard length! The piercing was only 8mm long, while the standard was 11mm!

Did it matter? Yes, it did! Especially after I had spent X amount of money on loads of new belly button jewellery, and was eager to try them on, only to discover that they were too long for me. Believe me, it's quite a huge difference... .

New jewellery above and the one that was used for my piercing below.

So yeah...with 32 pieces of new jewellery already bought (online - cheap, cheap) that I couldn't use because my hole length was too short, I decided to do a re-piercing, even if I had to walk through hell and back again like the last time. Oh, and of course spend money on it again.

Just annoying that it wasn't done right the first time though. I mean sure, I was the one who chose the piece of 8mm jewellery while at the studio, but how was I to know that they come in different lengths, and that the standard was 11mm?!? the piercer could have at least told me about that....but no... . Looking back, I should not have done it with someone who didn't have any piercings on himself anyway. He had tattoos, but no piercings, so though he might be a good tattoo artist, he was definitely not a good piercer.

Anyway, here are pics from the 2nd time around. I was pierced by Muffe, the boss...and he is really quite a walking advertisement for his profession... .

Cleaning up with antiseptic.

Marking the spot for where the hole should be.

Making sure it's aligned properly.

Preparation - both him and me.

It was still quite nerve-wreaking even though I had done it before. I guess for me, it was also because of what had happened after the piercing that 1st time.

Done! It was surprising less painful this time! I'll go as far as to say barely any pain at all. No throbbing feeling like last time either, and I didn't feel faint in the least bit.

10/10 for Muffe! And yes, he does have those devil horns thingies in this forehead, if you wanna click on this pic for a closer look. His tongue is also slit into two like a snake... .

Standing up nice and steady after the piercing. Ok, I did have a bottle of coke with me as insurance in case I felt faint and needed to increase my sugar level, and I did lay still for about 5 mins after the piercing too.

Now you can really see the difference of the old and the new... .

The old again.

For those thinking of piercing, I don't recommend Tatto Liz for it. Go to Body Extremes instead, as I am now very satisfied with my re-piercing. Of course, it means that I'll have to take care of it again for the next 6 months, and that I can't change it to any of my new pieces either until then...but at least I'm more happy about it now :o).

So...what's next ;o)? No, this will really be the last piercing...I think ;o).

Update:
And isn't it funny that just after publishing this post, the visitor number to my blog looks like this:

Ambiguity screaming to be defined.

2009-01-29T11:34:00.007+01:00

Seems that Bil was still raving on to Martin at work day on day about how the wife in my fictional story so closely resembled his Yellow Goddess (yeah...one does not always need to go online to hear things from the grapevine). When Martin came home from work on Tuesday, he asked: "Hey, you might be happy to know who's still reading your blog!" "Who? Yellow Goddess :o)?" I asked.

I guess it's nice to know that she can't get enough of me... . I don't blame her though, because I do somehow seem to have that mesmerising effect on her, which can only be a good thing, right :o)?

Anyway, after hearing the good news that she's still my number 1 ~~fan~~ reader (sorry that I keep calling her my "fan". It's just that "fan" is from the word "fanatic", and "fanatic means "marked by excessive enthusiasm and often intense uncritical devotion", so it's really easy for me to keep accidentally using this term), I penned out this post.

The next day, Bil was still raving on and on to Martin about my post at their work place (was it really such a good post?). "There were no names mentioned in the post," said Martin. "Yeah, but EVERYONE can guess who the characters are!" said Bil.

Why, oh why do they keep thinking that they are famous celebraties on planet Earth? So far, up till this point at least, only they themselves saw any resemblance to themselves, plus maybe a couple of others who could take a wild guess but still not really know.

But ok, since they made such a big "Everybody ~~on planet Earth~~ is going to know it's Yellow Goddess and me" fuss "~~because we're so bloody famous~~", I've added this to that post:

Fiction disclaimer
(because such a story as above is of course too absurd to happen in real life):

The characters featured in this Post are completely fictional. Any resemblance to any person living or dead is purely coincidental. No similarity to any person either living or dead should be inferred.

So take note, my dear readers: even if you most likely didn't make any connections of the couple in the said post to Yellow Goddess or Bil to begin with, please know that they DO NOT, I repeat, DO NOT refer to either of them. However, if you now want to think that it was really them, then that's your prerogative and I can't stop you.

Speaking of which (and coincidentally enough), I had an sms from dear Alice yesterday (while I was having dinner with Shi Hua and 2 other former colleagues) as follows:

"(con't)...call you but no answer. Have a good night. Hugs"

Which...hmm....proves my point that the characters in that post were very ambiguous to the majority of my faithful readers?

Anyway, if any of you want to claim the "honour" of being the said persons in that fictional post, please send me a short description of why you think they are you. Better still, if you can provide some proof (photos, airline tickets, shopping receipts, eye witness accounts that you really ditched your husband at dinner time to shop ~~or hang out with your male friend privately in your hotel room~~ while your husband sat alone and upset that you were not there with him instead...etc). Serious applications only, please!

As for ~~beefsoup69/inthefaceofearth/inthemistofdk/Spanky~~, oh, let's just quit the BS and call my pet troll by her real pseudonym, "Yellow Goddess", shall we? I mean, it's not easy for me to keep track of all her mulitple split online personalities as it is, so let's just K.I.S.S.

Anyway, as I was saying, knowing now that Yellow Goddess was really my personal pet troll all this while who comes to my blog almost every day...sometimes even a couple of times a day, I guess I should feel very touched and honoured by her obession :o).

However, I'm a little concerned though :o(. Knowing now that she spends all day watching out for new posts from me, itching her fingers to comment (but can't anymore), probably hoping that I read her blog; the one that I couldn't care less about (yeah, I admit - I hate vomit and tend not to return to it - I'm no tding tding dong dong doggy fool), making extra effort to create split online personalities, and *gasp* even PRETENDING online to be me sometimes (obvious symptom of obession...but again, I don't blame her because the closest she can come to be me is to be me online, no matter how hard she tries), I just wonder...who is taking care of her little bao bei? One thing is to be obssessed about me and my blog, another thing is to be obssessed about me and my blog while neglecting little bao bei. I'm honoured, but as little bao bei's aunt, I'm also rather concerned :-/.

Oh well...whatever makes her happy, I guess. Friends, foes, fans, trolls - all are welcome here :o).

Snoop dog keeps coming back for more.

2009-01-27T12:37:00.003+01:00

It is quite amazing how, even though no names were mentioned (real or otherwise), one of my very faithful ~~fans~~ reader wanted to somehow identify herself with the character in this post. I could be refering to anyone, or I could be refering to no one in particular, or it could just be one of my very vivid imaginations for storytelling, yet this ~~fan~~ reader seemed to feel that she relates so directly to it.

I was merely sharing an absurd story, as I would any other absurd stories under the sun. Nothing personal, unless you make it so. In which case, it won't be my problem to deal with. I'll keep writing what I want to write about, and if you think that what I write is like vomit to you, then hey - stop being like a dog who keeps returning to this vomit ~~unless deep down inside you actually do like what I write about (and I don't blame you) but are just too afraid to admit it~~.

So yeah...I don't know...go play 'fetch the Gucci bag' or something if that upsets you less. I'll leave you now with a very wise quote from an old schoolmate:

"Splurging on experiences makes you an interesting person with stories to tell; splurging on things makes you bland, with only...well, things to show off."

Happy 牛 Year!!!

2009-01-26T00:00:00.004+01:00

To all my Chinese friends, 新年快乐!

This year will be the year of the cow/ox (牛/niu) - the 2nd animal in the Chinese calendar. If you were born in 1973 and 1985, then you're an ox.

Legend has it that the ox was actually supposed to be the 1st animal who responded to Buddha's call. However, the rat had asked it for a ride, and when they approached Buddha, the rat jumped off the back of the ox and hence, became the 1st animal to reach Buddha's feet.

It is also said that the rat had lied to the cat about the actual calling day, and that is why the cat didn't make it in time to Buddha to have a year named after it. Because of this, up till today, the cat is always chasing the rat. This rat seems to be a very mischievious animal, huh ;o)?

Anyway, here are some superstitions that one must NOT do on the 1st day of the new year:

Avoid housework (I had cleaned the apartment a couple of days ago after too long).
It is believed that you will "sweep the good luck away" if you do housework on the 1st day.

Avoid washing hair
Same reason as avoiding housework.

No splashing of water out the house
Water symbolises money, so you don't want to throw "money" out the house.

No handling of sharp objects
They represent conflicts or arguments...so not a good start of a new year.

No nail clipping or hair cutting
As hairs and nails are inherited from parents and the cutting of hair or nail during the first few days may shorten the parents life or cause ill-health.

No anger or sour faces
Be happy to ensure good fortune throughout the rest of the year. If you're a child/teenager, I guess you can get away with a lot of things on this day because your parents should not get angry at you ;o).

No negative words
Arguments must be avoided at all costs. Also words related to death and sickness.

Avoid breaking anything
Otherwise bad luck ahead will be inevitable.

Avoid wearing black and/or white clothes
These colours are associated with death. Red on the other hand, is most welcome as it represents luck.

These are just some of the superstitions surrounding Chinese New Year. There are also the superstitions about what food to eat on the eve of Chinese New Year when the family gathers together for the reunion dinner. Things like, prawns for happiness because prawns in Cantonese (I think) is pronounced "ha", so it sounds like laughter, eggs because they are round so good luck all year round. Noodles for longevity (and hence, they should not be cut). Fish, because the word for fish, "Yu," sounds like the words both for wish and abundance.

And of course, tangerines and oranges are passed out freely during Chinese New Year (in pairs) as the words for tangerine and orange sound like luck and wealth, respectively. The Chinese are very particular about giving things out in pairs as they represent togetherness, and "double" (eg. double happiness).

Married people also give out money in red packets with gold letterings to single people (usually to children/teenagers only, but some do give it also to single adults). It is believed that the more money you give out, the more you will usher in during the year ahead...so despite how generous it appears to be, there is a selfish intention. But traditions are traditions... .

Red packets

Anyway, there are so many other traditions during this festive period, and it also varies from region to region. The above are just some of the more commonly practiced beliefs.

I think what I'll be missing the most about not being able to celebrate Chinese New Year in Singapore is all the new year food goodies :o(. If any of my Singapore friends reading my blog is reading this, please be merciful and send me some pineapple tarts, ok ;o)?

"Straight from the mouth"

2009-01-25T01:56:00.003+01:00

I hope Allegra realised at some point that we were kidding about Copenhagen and Sweden... .

Being an organ donor

2009-01-16T01:27:00.006+01:00

Have you guys ever considered being an organ donor? Those who aren't one yet, that is. To be honest, although I wasn't totally against it, I had never wanted to be one myself. Martin on the other hand, was all for it, and it was almost as if it was his dream to be one... .

A few days ago, we received new social security cards from the commune because our previous doctor had passed away, so we needed a new doctor assigned to us. For those who do not live in Denmark, our doctor's name is shown on our social security cards, that's why a new one has to be sent when we change doctors.

Anyway, together with our new cards, there was also an organ donor card in the envelope. I didn't see it, but a couple of days later, I saw that Martin had filled it out for himself, giving permission to be cut up and have his organs taken away and re-used.

"You wanna be cut up and all that when you die?!?!" I asked him.
"Yeah, why not? I don't care when I'm dead anyway," he said
"But, but..."

Yeah, "But what" Sheila??? It's one thing to be cut up while still alive, and another to be cut up when dead, right? So why not??? If it means saving someone else's life? If we can't do this while still alive, at least do it when we're dead. So what was stopping ME?

Many irrational reasons, really.

Ethics? But there's nothing unethical about this.
Respect for my body when I'm dead? Why would I care about respect when I'm dead?
Going to heaven in 1 piece? But we'll get brand new bodies in heaven anyway, so why would I want the old, imperfect organs with me?
Leaving earth the way we came on it? Erhm...because why?

There are absolutely NO LOGICAL REASONS *not* to be an organ donor!!! None. Nada.

Martin then asked me this:

In case of emergencies, Would it be fair then to say that EVERY adult who are NOT registered donors either 1) doesn't get entitled to any organs themselves, or 2) gets put way down on the priority list?

My quick answer was of course "Yes, that's fair!" Like...DUH! Stupid question! And then right after answering it, my brain gave me the image of ME on that operating table and me NEEDING an organ to survive. If I'm not a donor myself, why SHOULD I be given one? It'll be very egoistic to expect an organ from someone else when I don't want to give my own away, no?

So yeah...that kinda nailed it hard for me. All my illogical reasons just vanished into thin air in a split second. Of course, the government has not come up with such a condition (yet?), but...I don't know...I guess when I face that life or death situation, I will FEEL better in receiving an organ knowing that I'll also give mine away in death. I will feel more human when the time comes for me to help other humans in such a way when I can.

After all, physically when we die, if we don't get cremated, we'll for sure be buried and DECOMPOSED anyway. But if my healthy organs can be used to SAVE someone else, then in some physical way, not only will they continue to live, but I will also still live on... . My heart will still be beating away... . That's kinda surreal, isn't it?

Anyway, it's a very personal decision... . Well, not 100% personal, since you can also let your next of kin decide for you to some extent when you die...but personal while you're still alive.

Some people say "YES!" without any hesitation whatsoever, most are in the middle saying "I don't know yet," and I believe only a few are those who say "NO WAY!" without any hesitation. I think it's good to at least be in the middle, rather than on the extreme "no" end. Shows you still have a heart to give to mankind...when you finally decide to do so. If in the end, you decide not to, just the fact that you had at least considered wouldn't make you totally heartless.

But yeah, when you're ready to make that step, then you'll have a peace in your heart when you fill out the form... . I registered online a couple of days ago, and will get a letter confirming my decision within 3 weeks. I'm just glad I won't be alive to feel anything when the time comes to cut me up. Easier to commit to it in this way, as I doubt I'll volunteer to donate a bone marrow or a kidney to strangers while I'm still alive... .

For those of you who are still considering, take your time to think. When you feel the peace in your heart upon reaching your decision, whether it's a yes or a no, that would be the right answer for YOU. It is after all, your body to do with as you please.

And to those in Denmark, if you want to register to be an organ donor, you can do so on the Sundhed website. Trust me - it takes less than 1 minute to do it! You can also change your mind later on too, so it's not binding...unless you die before you change your mind, of course.

If you already have a donor card in your wallet, I would recommend to register online anyway because even though the signed card in your wallet is valid enough, what if you were robbed of your wallet with your card in it, and stabbed to death? No record then of your wish to be an organ donor.

As an end note, I may be wrong, but I think that it should be WAY easier for people who are already parents to make the decision to be organ donors. I mean, they are the ones who should be able to understand the giving of life better than anyone else since they MADE life, and they are the ones who should know what giving and sacrifice is really about. Right?

Btw, try to watch Seven Pounds starring Will Smith in some relation to this topic.

Not a very Posh model in Versace.

2009-01-15T23:41:00.000+01:00

Looking at the photos below:

1) These models REALLY need to put some meat to their bones... . (click pic!)
2) Notice the funky shoes??? Not my style, but nevertheless, they're different.
3) The "dress" is by Versace. I don't get why branded clothes cost so much when they design garbs like that. Even if I were as rich as say...Victoria Beckham/Posh Spice, I will *not* waste my money on this crap of a dress.

Oops... . But ok, it at least looks a little better on Posh Spice than it does on that sickly looking model.

Can't eat, must shop.

2009-01-09T23:47:00.006+01:00

Okay...let's say your husband's company throws a belated New Year's party in London, whereby staff are invited as well as partners of staff. They'll pay the air ticket, dinner, drinks and hotel stay for staff, and will do the same for partners except the air ticket.

Now, knowing that your husband's company is being the host, and knowing full well that they're paying for your dinner as part of the programme of the evening, what would a normal person do?

1. Be there for the dinner by your husband's side or
2. Decide to go shopping instead and skip the whole dinner event, while having your husband show up alone (even though you are on an extended weekend trip with the possibility to shop on another day).

I am willing to place my bet that a normal person will do option 1.

However, as I've found out today, there are...sadly enough, people who are materialistic enough to actually do option 2! Seriously...not only does it show what kind of a person you are, it also causes your husband to "lose face" in front of his bosses and colleagues when they see that the wife gives no respect to the company as the host.

Anyway...I guess this just shows me that being 30 and a mother does not necessarily make you a matured adult who can get obvious priorities right. One can only hope that during an emergency event when one has to decide whether ones son or ones Gucci bag should be saved, the human being will be the one chosen.

Fiction disclaimer

(because such a story as above is of course too absurd to happen in real life):

Flugten (The Escape)

2009-01-09T03:00:00.003+01:00

People in Denmark - please go and watch the new Danish movie "Flugten" that premieres today!!! Not only does it have a really good storyline, but my dear friend, Wagma, has some parts in it too!!! If I remember correctly, she plays the wife of the leading Afghanistan young man.

More information and trailer: here!

I can't wait to watch it myself...and put all my Danish understanding to the test :o). Well, there are some parts in the movie that have English dialogues too, so that's good.

Go watch!

Restaurant Bali

2009-01-08T11:49:00.004+01:00

There was a shootout at Restaurant Bali on Monday (the 5th) at around 19:00hrs at Kongens Nytorv. It was reported that 2 Asian men were injured, one of which was the owner. The gunman himself was Asian. We already had the news turned on at this time, so the incident was "breaking news" when it happened.

However, it was only yesterday that I found out that the 2 injured Asian men were Singaporeans! A friend from Singapore wrote on my Facebook wall with this link, asking if I heard about it. It apparently made it to the news in Singapore...of course. Pretty far out, huh?

There has been rumours that there are illegal activities going on in the restaurant, so let's see if the police manages to find out if this shootout was mob-related. Not sure if you guys in Denmark remember that incident with the Chinese boy who was kidnapped by some Asian dudes some time ago here in Copenhagen? Seems like the Asian community here is becoming rather dramatic...and with cases like these, it is not a good thing.

I mean, the Asian community has always been the most well-behaved lot of foreigners living in Denmark, but that image is slowly being tarnished with crimes like these. So far though, the victims have been just Asians (unlike those other immigrant crimes that involve Danish victims), but still, a crime is a crime, and especially as residents/guests in a foreign country, one should all the more behave.

Anyway...let's see what the police investigations reveal in relation to this case.

On a side note, I had eaten at Restaurant Bali with a couple of girlfriends several years ago, and the food + service there were rather bad. Now that I know the owner is from Singapore, I wonder if they were the same owners as Restaurant Singapore...which doesn't exist anymore, I think. Food and service there was rather bad too, and my former company used to have a contract with them but we only send very low budget groups there for meals.

Thing is, the (Sporean) wife of the owner of Restaurant Singapore is rather - how can I say it politely - female doggy-like...if you know what I mean. She always has this angry look on her face. She arrived at our office once, looking as if she was ready to have a showdown with our manager or something.

I mention her now because after all these years since eating at Restaurant Bali that first (and last) time, I've come to realise that she was most likely the one serving us that day! No wonder she seemed familiar then. And she didn't leave a good impression on us that day because even though the restaurant was pretty empty, it seemed like she wanted us to quickly eat our meal and leave. My 2 friends who were there first said they felt this already from the start when they arrived.

This attitude is so typically Chinese, I think. Had that same "service" once at a Chinese restaurant in London. Which of us like having a hawk watch over us when we eat? And though they won't tell you directly to leave already, all it takes is the hint from their body language to scream this out in a thousand words.

Anyway...I don't recommend going there for dinner...that's all I'm saying. Quite life threatening to do so now too, on top of the bad service and not very delicious food.

Entering 2009

2009-01-07T18:31:00.006+01:00

This post is slightly overdue, and I have yet to put pictures up on Facebook. We had a fantastic New Year's Eve party hosted by my friend, Bahati, at her apartment close by our place. There were around 30 people in all, and we had good food and free flow of drinks for 200kr (S$50) each.

It was the first time in 2 years that we ushered in the new year in a big party way. The last 2 NY eves were of a more cosy/family nature in Tune (Roskilde), so it was nice to have a change this time. We didn't go home until 6am...but like I said before, the party was close to home so it didn't take more than 15mins before we were in our domain again.

Well, there's not much more I can tell, so I'll let the pictures do the talking.

I normally edit red eyes in photos away, but I think Martin's red eyes in this pic fit his scary look.

A close up of Mr Punk. I did the makeup...but the idea of wanting makeup done in the first place was his, not mine.

I went for the more subtle makeup ;o).

Mmm....lots of delicious homemade food.

All gone in no time.

A South African dish called "Babooti" or something like that.

Just finishing my 1st round.

Anders going for his 10th round ;o).

Couple shot #01

Dancing time!

Everybody dance now!

Shake it, shake it, shake it!

Couple shot #02

The host!

What to drink...decisions, decisions.

More groovy time.

In Denmark, it is legal to shoot off your own fireworks. You can see one going off to the left of this picture. Personally, I don't like wasting money on these rockets, so I just let others buy the stuff and enjoy it at their expense ;o). It's not like I dare to shoot one off on my own either anyway. Therefore, no money wasted, no body parts wasted.

Beautiful.

Martin searching for food... ;o). Or not.

More dancing.

Putting on a show.

Group shot of the last party animals.

Happy New Year 2009!

2009-01-05T19:22:00.006+01:00

Happy New Year, everyone!!! Hope you all had a wonderful entry into the year 2009. I'm not big about making new year resolutions, but I have decided to make some fun ones as below:

1. Be #1 on the DK mahjong rating list.
2. Speak Danish better than the Queen of Denmark.
3. Find out who the Internet God is and ask for a SUPER FAST connection before I pull out all my hair in frustration.
4. Win the lottery.
5. Don't celebrate my birthday anymore so that I remain at my 2008's age.
6. Eat more desserts without putting on weight... .
7. Be nicer to Internet trolls.
8. Run after the bus less.
9. Find Nemo...and have delicious sushi as celebration.
10. Forgive myself if I don't manage to do #7.

New cat on the blog

2008-12-31T02:54:00.004+01:00

Just had to share my latest Photoshop piece of work :o). Rrrreeeuw!

The new Catwoman.

Versus the old.

Halle Berry, step aside ;o).

Merry Christmas!

2008-12-25T23:49:00.005+01:00

We spent Christmas this year at Martin's parents' home, and it is always a cosy time with lots of delicious Christmas food. Here in Denmark, there are traditional Christmas food, with the main dish being roast pork and/or roast duck.

There are other traditions too, such as celebrating on the 24th instead of the 25th. It's not that Danes are impatient people who cannot wait 1 day more to celebrate, eat and open their gifts...nor is it to get 1 more day off from work (25th and 26th are official public holidays, but companies tend to give the 24th free as well). The main reason is that Danes used to celebrate Yule - a pagan celebration. However, after Christianity came to the country, they decided to incorporated this into Christmas...and I as I understand, compromised to celebrate it on the 24th instead of the 25th.

Anyway, Christ wasn't born on 25th December, so whether Christmas is celebrated on 24th or 25th December doesn't really matter. The main thing is to remember what we're celebrating, enjoy being with friends and family, and keeping the spirit of giving.

Here are some traditional Danish Christmas food:

Æbleskriver - eaten with icing sugar and/or jam. Usually, you'd drink a warm wine drink called "glögg" as well, with raisins and chopped almonds in it.

Flæskesteg - roast pork with crispy crusts, eaten with brown sauce, red cabbage, and some berry thingy. The picture above shows the roasted pork in the background (with crispy crusts on top) and apple filled with berry thingy in the foreground.

Here's my plate of roasted duck, caramelised potatoes on the left (yummy!), a couple of prunes, and red cabbage at the very back.

And Christmas dessert! This is called ris alamand, and it is basically a cold and sweet rice pudding chopped almonds in it. Eaten with cherry sauce. There is usually a whole almond inside the big bowl of pudding, and if you're lucky enough to get a serving with this almond in your plate, then you get a gift. I didn't get the almond this year :o(.

The whole family at dinner :o). My mother-in-law at the left, followed by her mum, her sister, her brother, her man and me.

IQ puzzle thingy, where the aim is to get the red car out of the jam. Was quite fun actually, and I managed to solve all the challenges that were given to me :o).

Martin's gift to me - a B&O BeoCom 6000 phone :o). This is the one that is often seen in Hollywood movies.

Wishing everyone a Merry Christmas! Or, as you would say in Danish: God Jul!

Here's one of my favourite Christmas songs by some Danish artistes. The first 2 girls who you see in the music video are actually 2 sisters who are ½ Malaysians and ½ Danish, and were the singing duo called S.O.A.P

2 chapters in 1 day

2008-12-21T21:47:00.005+01:00

Many things are official now. For one, I will not be stepping into my current office anymore - last day of work was last Friday, and my desk has been cleared of all my personal belongings. It's going to be strange indeed not to have to go to that office again... .

Time to...say goodbye. *Sob* *Sob* There are actually 2 more who are not in the picture because they couldn't be at the office on Friday.

On another note, I am pleased to announce that I've signed my contract with my new company also on Friday :o)! Kinda symbolic that the ending of one chapter and the start of another happened on the same day. But yes, I will have a new job from February next year :o)! It's going to be in the travel industry still, and it's going to be more challenging for me. I'll be starting as a Project and Sales Manager there, so as you can imagine, I'm quite excited :o).

Anyway, I would like to thank all my colleagues for a wonderful professional relationship and friendship all these years - am gonna miss working with all of you indeed! And all the best in your future! Will make it a point to organise a reunion at least once a year, so that we can keep ourselves updated with each other, expecially with those who stubbornly refuse to join Facebook ;o).

I felt the Earth, move, under my bed...

2008-12-16T18:17:00.011+01:00

...and it was measured 4.7 on the Richter scale. Denmark experienced an earthquake this morning at 06:20hrs, and this is a flat country that does not have any natural disasters. Much like in Singapore.

I received an sms from a friend this morning at 08:35hrs, about shaking, earthquake, 4.7 level, scary, fragile and precious life, etc... . It was around 2hrs later that I read it, while still half-asleep. I was thinking "WTH is he babbling about?" Nothing in his message was making sense to me, and I did seriously think he was delusional or something.

I mean, hello? Earthquake? In DENMARK? Gotta be kidding, right? What drug was he on? Or maybe he had just snored so loudly that he thought it was an earthquake? Besides, if it was true, I would have heard something from Martin about it by then, but no... .

Then less than 5 mins after thinking this thought, Martin sent an sms asking if I felt an earthquake this morning. Now THAT finally got me wide awake. So there really WAS one? I was starting to feel disappointed that I had slept right through it! My mum used to say that even if an atomic bomb exploded, I would not wake up...and if I had slept right through an earthquake, then her words would certainly hold true... .

I laid in bed, soaking this all in. Looked around the bedroom...looked at the wardrobes...and then BAM! It suddenly hit me (a realisation, not the wardrobe), and my memory was jolted! I remembered waking up during the night to the sound of wardrobes that were violently shaking! Those few seconds became clear to me again, and things started to make sense at last.

I had woken up during the Danish royal rumble, heard my wardrobes banging each other (wardrobes need sexy time too, I guess), and the very first thought I had was "Wtf is Martin making so much noise for when he's preparing to go to work, and so exceptionally LOUD this time?" I was about to tell him to "SHUSH, lah!" until I saw that he was actually still innocently ~~snoring~~ sleeping away. My Martin(i) was shaken, not stirred... .

That really had me rather confused about the noisy wardrobes then, but it kinda ended almost as soon as it started (5 secs), so before I had more time to speculate what the din was all about, I fell right back into deep sleep. If there had been no news about this earthquake, I swear that I'd not have remembered this incident at all! Like a dream that you forget about as soon as you wake up.

But yay! I did experience this somewhat consciously, and it was kinda cool. Something to talk about indeed. If we ever have kids + grandkids, I can now say "You know...mummy/grandma experienced and survived an earthquake in 2008." ;o) Perhaps I should even get one of these t-shirts ;o).

Maybe I'll get them as Christmas gifts for all survivors I meet this Christmas! Hee...hee... .

Good there weren't any damages nor loss of lives though. Otherwise, the tone of this post will of course be much different. Earthquakes that can be measured but not felt are apprantly often registered in Denmark. This is the strongest one felt in Denmark since 23 years ago, where there was a similar sized one with the epicentre in the North Zealand part of Denmark.

The one this morning had its epicentre in South Sweden, and Copenhagen was around 65km away from it, as shown in the picture below:

The epicentre of the earthquake (Photo: USGS.com)

Seismic activity shown on DMI's magnetometre. Time shown is UTC time - 1hr earlier than Danish time. (Photo: dmi.dk)

Had sent an sms to my sister to ask if she felt anything, and no...she slept right through it too. I guess I'm not the one anymore who is capable of sleeping right through an atomic bomb explosion, huh? I also guess that I'll be the one who is going to be bringing Martin to safety instead of the other way around, should something disasterous happen during the night... ;o).

Btw, I'm wondering about this (as written in the article): "...concerned members of the public across the country telephoning police... ." Seriously? The police? For a crime the Earth committed? Or do they really have a "Stop Earthquake" button somewhere that they can push?

I don't trust big banks

2008-12-14T22:23:00.008+01:00

Anyone familiar with the energy company, Enron, scandal in the US in 2001? Despite being named by Fortune magazine as "America's Most Innovative Company" for six consecutive years, it was later revealed that its reported financial condition was sustained substantially by institutionalized, systematic, and creatively planned accounting fraud.

Denmark is now having an Enron scandal of its own, in the name of a company called IT-Factory. Although the scale of the fraud is much lower than that of Enron, the similarities are quite similar. For one thing, IT-Factory was awarded "Denmark's Best IT-company" in September last year, and CEO Stein Bagger had himself recently been named Danish Entrepreneur of the Year by Ernst & Young, after seemingly miraculously rescuing the company from crumbling.

Read the story here.

What I want to talk about though, is the way the banks involved handled giving out loans to IT-Factory. Danske Bank (Denmarks biggest) is expected to have lost 350 million DKK (S$100 million) because of this fraud. Other banks like Nordea Bank and Jyske Bank had also lost some money, but not on such a large scale (10 million DKK - 25 million DKK).

I'm no expert in finance and the like, but it does make me (and many others) wonder how banks can agree to loan out huge amounts of money to companies just like that without doing thorough checks. When we requested for a loan of around 1 million DKK for our apartment, they required several papers from us such as our pay slips for the last 3 months, and our tax papers from the previous year.

When my VISA card from Jyske Bank was eaten up by the ATM in Rome last year, and I wanted to re-apply a new one, Jyske Bank didn't want to send me the same type of card with the same credit terms because I was not having much savings in my account there anymore. They can only offer something else that was worse than what I had. I had decided to just close my account there in the end, because it would be their loss anyway for losing a customer.

So yeah, one would expect more stringent and scrutinizing checks on companies who want to borrow hundreds of millions of kroners, right? Apparantly, fake contracts, invoices, statements of accounts, etc seem to be accepted too. Note to self on that... .

There should be a law that banks can only use money that they have for investments and loans. This applies on a private and personal scale too - never spend more than you have, and if you do, make sure you can afford to pay back.

Anyway, we received a mail from Danske Bank 3 days ago, inviting us for a meeting with them for a couple of hours where they can give us suggestions on making our private finances better, easier or cheaper, in the areas of our daily finances, investing and pension.

First line says: "We are happy to have you as a customer of Danske Bank." I don't seriously believe that. Not when we have peanuts in our Danske Bank account amounting to no more than 100kr a month, because all our savings after paying off the monthly loan payments to them are transferred over to another non-Danske Bank account.

1st paragraph says: At Danske Bank, we work with advise teams that are made up of advisers with competence within daily economy, investing, pension and housing economy. That means, you can get light on your private economy from several angles and improve your total economic situation.

They have got to be kidding, right? These are the guys who just lost 350 million DKK on one really bad investment. These are the same guys who advised Danish entertainer, Finn Nørbygård, to invest in IT-Factory, so he borrowed some millions from them to invest in this company's stocks, only to end up losing up to 700 million DKK on this bad advice.

It would have been more appropriate for them to send out this invitation on 01 April, so that if anyone questions them, they could just turn around and say it was an April Fool's joke... .

But yeah, since when did the big banks care about their customers' interests anyway? I've given up on these big guys a long time ago. We did manage to get a good loan agreement out of them for our apartment (20 years with 4% fixed interest), but that's it. The smaller banks are the ones with better interest rates on the savings account, and they provide better service too.

The bank I use now for my salary/savings account gives an interest of 4.5% on the very first kroner you put in. Interests earned this year alone from this account will amount to around 5800 DKK (S$1660). This is money "earned" simply by saving up. Sure, it's not giving any high returns compared to if we invest our savings in stocks, etc...but then again, the saying "easy come, easy go" still holds true till today. I'd rather sleep well at night.

The big banks though, they don't give you back a single kroner. Even if you, as an average customer, have a LOT of savings, you'll earn at most 2.75% interest. While of course, they make millions in profits.

So to Danske Bank, I say: Thanks, guys...but no thanks. I know you need money now, but you ain't gettin' it out of me.

My piano debut - Apologize by One Republic

2008-12-13T00:48:00.012+01:00

I'm almost done learning this song. Still some mistakes here and there, but well...you can watch this video on my progress first. Practice makes perfect anyway...and since I've never had any real piano lessons before, I think I've accomplished quite a lot already... .

So...what do you think? All this learnt from a tutorial online by David Sides :o). Btw, I think my fingers look like crazy spider legs jumping around ;o).

Lazy me

2008-12-12T16:12:00.005+01:00

I should be a bear. One who hibernates throughout the winter season. I've been clearing my vacation days before my company closes our Copenhagen office, which means that I've been off pretty much for 1½ months in Nov + Dec, and it's wonderful not to have to get out into the cold to go to work during these months.

The problem is, it makes it so much easier to just waste the "day" away (I say "day" because right now, the "day" seems like "night" anyway since there is no sun shining in the morning/afternoon - just gray clouds). When I say "waste", I mean "sleep". I'm a night person, so I tend to be more active and awake at night, but very lazy in the day if I don't have any activity to get me out of the house.

Good that I've started Danish lessons then. Gives me reason to pull myself out of Dreamland. Gosh! I miss the sun! Who stole it?!?! I get up when it's dark, and I go to bed when it's dark. See, told you I should just be a bear and sleep for 4 months a year... .

I would make a good bum, if that was a "job". Just exist in the world. What a waste, huh? But ok, I've been working hard for 11 years, so I guess deserve a couple of relaxing months before I start a new job again.

There's a guy who lives at the ground floor of one of the apartments in our estate. I walk pass his window pretty much every day, to and from work. He would be sitting by his kitchen window when I pass him in the morning, and again when I pass him in the evening. It doesn't matter what time of the day it is, he'll be there. Also weekends.

We've been living here for 4½ years already. That's at least how long he's been wasting his life away staring out his window! I don't dare to know how long exactly he's been doing that. Our estate was built in 1991, so I don't hope it's been almost 2 decades that he's been doing this.

A neighbour who has been living here since almost the beginning told us that this guy broke down after his wife died. Ever since then, he's just been existing, not living. It's really sad, because he's probably in his early or mid-50's, so he still has many years left of his life. Too many to waste away like that. Hmm...well, he's a heavy smoker so maybe he won't have that many in the end. You can smell the thick smoke whenever you walk pass his open window, and the one side of his kitchen walls is literally yellow from his heavy smoking.

Anyway...what do you do really, if you don't have friends, family...even a purpose in life? What can you do? Well, this guy...despite being the unofficial neighbourhood watchdog, has shown me what I never want to be for as long as I am still alive as a human being.

Now, if I evolve into a vampire after my tendency to be more awake and active at night than during the day during these couple of months, then that's a different story. I'll just be living/existing then to hunt, drink blood and sleep. Oh, and make vampire armies ;o).

Big love!

2008-12-07T23:16:00.002+01:00

This video clip (true story, by the way) never fails to bring tears to my eyes every time I watch it... . Well ok, maybe not by the 10th time in a row...but you know what I mean... .

I'm more of a dog person than a cat person, but there's something about big cats that really makes me like them...especially tigers. Nice that I'm a Leo ;o).

Anyway, get some Kleenex ready! True friendship knows no boundaries... .

Mit første post på dansk

2008-12-03T22:10:00.004+01:00

Ja, jeg starter intensive dansk undervisning i morgen, så skal jeg begynde at skrive lidt mere dansk her, ikke ;o)? Jeg synes at det er nu på tide at jeg forbedre både mit talt og skrevet dansk, især når jeg har boet her i næsten 12 år allerede... . Og nu har jeg også masser af tid til at lære rigtigt dansk, før jeg starter på arbejder igen.

Men hvorfor taler jeg ikke flydende dansk efter så mange år her, spørger du. Det er en godt spørgsmål, og jeg har nogle grunde...ok, ok...undskyldninger for det. Først og fremmest, lad mig siger at jeg kan godt forstår og læser dansk. Måske ikke 100% (80%), men jeg kan godt klar det. Det er bare sværere for mig til at tale og skrive på dansk, og det er derfor at jeg vil gerne have undervisning til det nu.

Sagen er, at jeg arbejder i et firma som bruger engelsk som arbejssporg i næsten 11 år. Der er kun 2 ud af 10 kolleger som er dansk, og 2 mere som er dansk talere. Derfor, taler vi mest på engelsk i kontoret. De fleste af mine venner er internationale mennesker, eller er danskere, som taler godt engelsk. Så er det bare nemmere for os til at taler på engelsk, og mine dansk venner vil også gerner forbedre deres engelsk. Martin hjælper ikke så meget i den her afdeling også. Vi taler dansk til hindanden for ca. 10-15min om dagen, og så skifter vi ubevidst tilbage til engelsk. Det er bare nemmere, og der er ingen grunde til stor misforståelse, da engelsk er mit første sporg alligevel.

Jeg ved godt, at mit skrevet dansk i denne post er ikke 100% korrect dansk, men jeg håber at du, som en dansker eller en som kan forstår dansk, kan godt forstår hvad jeg skrive nu. Det er et svært sprog, men jeg er tillid at jeg vil blive godt nok til det en dag, for at arbejder i et firma som kræver flydende talt og skrevet dansk.

Ønske mig held og lykke til det!

United Nations of friends

2008-12-02T23:01:00.007+01:00

Anyway...moving on from Trollie news (it was fun to poke it for a while, but now that it's sitting under the bridge licking its wounds, it would be human for me to ignore its existance).

I was just looking at my "Friend's List" on Facebook, and it's amazing to see how many people I know from around the world! Of course, we have different degrees of friendship, but I'll just use this term loosely for now to simply mean "people I know".

If I do an alphabetical list of countries of where my friends come from, it would look something like this (numbers indicate how many from each country):

Australia, Austria = 5, 1
Belerus, Belgium, Brazil = 1, 1, 5
Cambodia, Canada, China, Croatia = 1, 3, 7, 1
Denmark = 88
England, Estonia = 10, 1
Finland, France = 6, 4
Germany, Ghana = 2, 3
H = Hmm...no, no one from Hungary.
India, Indonesia, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Ivory Coast = 3, 6, 1, 2, 3, 1
Japan = 5
Kenya, Korea (South) = 2, 4
Latvia = 1
Malaysia, Morocco = 5, 1
The Netherlands, Nigeria, Norway = 3, 3, 3
O = Nope, don't know anyone from Oman... .
The Philippines, Poland, Portugal = 9, 2, 2
Q = Don't know anyone from Qatar either.
R = Nor Russia.
Singapore, South Africa, Spain, Sweden = 77, 2, 1, 6
Thailand = 5
Uganda, USA = 1, 13
V = 0 from Venezuela, nor am I friends with the Pope from the Vatican.
W = 0 from West Virginia
X = I challenge anyone to find a country starting with X.
Y =0 from Yemen nor Yugoslavia.
Z = 0 from Zimbabwe nor Zaire. Well, I know 1 from Zaire, but he's not on Facebook.

A whole United Nations of friends :o). Well, at least every continent except the North and South Poles is represented... .

Why do trolls do this?

2008-12-01T01:17:00.010+01:00

Interesting...

In profiling my personal pet troll, beefsoup69 and all his/her other split personalities, I'm starting to see a more clear picture of him/her:

Some lead boring lives.

Some suffer from severe depression or other conditions, and have a need to cause trouble to make themselves feel better.

Low self-esteem causes many people to hate their lives or feel they are not exciting enough to be liked or loved...

Some trolls are deeply disturbed, filled with hate and resentment.

Some feel they have no control over their own lives, and it gives them pleasure to feel they have control over others.

Conclusion: such people really have no life, and do suffer from a mental disorder called "Internet Troll Personality Disorder". I wasn't wrong in my previous assessment of him/her at all! Damn...I should be a psychologist or something! Call me Doctor.

Anyway, I have sent Trollie crying back under its bridge where it belongs, and where it won't be bothering me anymore. Let's see it itch to comment more on my blog when it can't find the comment button anymore. Let's see it read all my posts...and do nothing more than just read. Let's see if it will still come back for more...and if it does, I'll be very honoured because it means that it actually LIKES what I write. As one blogger said, "You're doing something right if trolls think you're important enough to annoy."

And as Robbie Williams sings: Let meeeee...ENTERTAIN you!!!

Infinity points to Sheila, minus infinity points to Trollie.

Btw, Trollie boy, here are some dating tips for you, as it would appear that you're lacking a lot of love, either from someone from the female species (probably never kissed one before), or from your mama (probably never got kissed yourself):

1. STOP SITTING BEHIND YOUR COMPUTER ALREADY!

2. Look into the mirror and say: "I'm good enough, I like myself, I'm smart enough, I look good, I'm not going to be a coward anymore, and I'm going to give people a chance to like me!" I recommend chanting this at least 10 times a day.

3. Now, go take a shower, put on some clean clothes...yes, that includes clean underwear, put on some deodorant, shave...under your armpits too if you have to, and put on a smile!

4. You're now set and ready to meet a girl and go on your very first date! If you keep good behaviour, you might get lucky and get your very first kiss!

5. Seriously...didn't I already tell you to get that trunk of yours off that chair? NOW, boy NOW!

Good luck!

Aww...look - aren't they sweet??? Trollie success.

"I am self centered and envy fat people"

2008-11-30T20:28:00.016+01:00

Damn...some people (Beefsoup69, I'm talking to you!) really can't handle losing a discussion, that they have to take time to create an account somewhere, use proxy servers and fake identities, just so that they can malign me. Tsk, tsk... .

I am self centered and envy fat people indeed.

The "man" himself.

My GOODNESS! Get a bloody LIFE, won't you? Mr Germania Scientisimo (germanscientist) who joined Digg on November 30th 2008 (today) just to post a "news" story link to my blog at around 11:15hrs in the morning, with my profile picture and all.

You do know what a LIFE is, right? L...I...F....E....life?

Oh, don't tell me it wasn't you, Beefy... . I can see activity on my blog MORE than you think, and I can see that you've been coming to it via German proxies like:

Host Name rbi0332.giga-dns.com
IP Address 193.37.152.232
ISP GIGA-HOSTING.BIZ GBR
Domain GIGA-DNS.COM
City MUNICH
Region BAYERN
Country GERMANY

and the one you used around the time of posting "news" at Digg:

Host Name www.websnapr.com
IP Address 88.80.205.219
ISP CONSTRUKTIV GMBH
Domain -
City BREMEN
Region BREMEN
CountryGERMANY

Wouldn't surprise me at all if you are Spanky the troll... .

You're becoming a sadder and sadder human being the more I get to "know" you...and I am starting to feel more pity for you than I do for a starving dog down the streets.

But whatever makes your sorry life happier, I am glad I can be of therapeutic help. Now I can understand why you say that "mental problems" is the cause of obesity. Mental problems indeed, especially when speaking from personal experience.

Oh, and thanks for some extra traffic to my blog :o). The more the merrier!

Update! 01 Dec 2008

Justice is served. That "news" link has been removed by Digg after report of abuse had been sent as it was in violation of their terms of use. Mr Germania Scientisimo's (aka Beefsoup69) profile has been removed as well. Not that he would be needing it anyway since the only reason why he made it was to show what a sore loser he was.

The icing on the cake

2008-11-29T19:42:00.031+01:00

This topic is getting more and more obese, so I'll feed it one more time with dessert, and then call a close to it because it needs to go on a diet.

Beefsoup69 has responded to my previous post, so I'll give him/her one final airtime here in relation to this topic.

"Most obese are obese not because of physical problems, but because of mental problems."

I'll have to disagree with that. Most obese people have mental (and physical) problems BECAUSE of their obseity. They're not obese BECAUSE of mental problems. Don't put the cart before the horse...or you'll not go anywhere... .

Unhealthy eating + lack of exercise ---> Obesity ---> physical problems ---> mental problems

NOT

Mental problems ---> physical problems ---> Unhealthy eating + lack of exercise ---> Obesity

Once you can see the pattern for what it really is, then you can solve the problem...or better still, prevent it. And once again, I'm talking about the norm, not the exceptions... .

"Just because things are easy for you, it doesn't mean they are easy for others, no matter how stupid that seems to you (lack of empathy)."

Yes, things are somewhat easy for me, yet I still don't just sit around doing nothing. I make it a point to play tennis two to three times a week in the summer, and this does require some effort on my side, especially when I have to get up early in the morning to do so before starting work.

I can EASILY eat burgers and fries at McDonald's 3 times a week without putting on weight so quickly due to my high metabolic rate, but the last time I ate a meal at McDonald's was in March this year...in Australia. I have chosen not to eat McJunk, but opt for more home-cooked food even though my household is a double-income one with both me and my husband working full-time.

Like I said before, if you really want something badly (to stay healthy in this case), there is ALWAYS a call for effort involved no matter who you are. The key words here are RESPONSIBILITY and SELF-CONTROL, and it's about time people start taking responsibility for themselves.

Therefore, I acknowledge that it's not easy for some as it is for others, but I do think it's "stupid" when people shirk responsibility and not exercise (excuse the pun) self-control.

"Look up the meaning empathy. You have it confused with sympathy."

Not quite. I know fully well what empathy means. Sympathy is feeling sorry for someone as an external viewer. Empathy is putting yourself in that person's shoe even if you have not experienced before what he/she is going through.

When I put myself in an obese person's shoe, I am unable to empathise anymore because all I will think about is WHY DID YOU NOT TAKE THE RESPONSIBILITY TO CHANGE YOUR DIET AND START EXERCISING WHEN YOU WERE MANY KGS LIGHTER SOME YEARS AGO?!?

"They are often raised into that state of mind, often lower class on low income (if any), which only makes it so much harder to get out of their "condition"."

Raised into that state of mind = VERY bad parenting. You can still be a single parent and raise your kid well with a healthy lifestyle. I know several who were able to do this. My good friend, Sandra, is one of them. Parents who think it's cute to have a Happy Buddha deity-like child, or who are too lazy to properly take care of them, should be reported to child protective services.

Lower class on low income (if any) = not good reason for opting fast food instead of healthier food. Beans and rice with fruits & veggies on the side can make a healthy diet, along with tortillas or bread, store-brand cheese, and healthy (small) servings of meat. It's not rocket science.

And then there are those families in Africa with absolutely no income...but don't have obese kids. The point of mentioning this is to show that "low class" or "low income" should not be used as an excuse as to why people are obese. They are not correlated, even though statistics wants you to think they are. There are obese middle+upper-class people too. What's their excuse then?

Also, exercise does not need to cost anything, so again, having low income is not a good reason not to do push ups/sit ups at home, or jog in the park. It boils down to taking responsibility for your own body.

As for time to prepare a home-cooked meal rather than just buying fast food, again, there is no excuse. No one is asking you to make a sumptous Michelin meal that takes hours to prepare. A simple meal takes not more than an hour to prepare and cook, and with some help from your kids (if any), it'll take less time PLUS you spend quality time with them. And it would mean 1hr less watching TV or surfing the net, which is actually a good thing.

makes it so much harder to get out of their "condition" = harder, yes (to some extent). Impossible, no - so "giving up" on trying is not an option.

Let me add my own personal story. For 10 years of my childhood life, my family didn't have it easy. We were considered a low income (if any) family. My dad was in and out of jobs, usually out. My mum did not have a good education, so she couldn't get a job in the early years. She started working with low pay only much later, when she realised that my dad had "given up" looking for work.

They had 2 children to take care of - me and my brother. Borrowing money from friends and family was sometimes a temporary solution, but such favours eventually ran out.

There were several occasions when I remember having dinner by candlelight. Not because it was "Romantic Night", but because we did not pay the electricity bill over the last few months so the electric company cut off our supply after several warnings.

During really hard times, we had plain rice, fried eggs and baked beans for dinner. And plain water to drink. My grandmother (mum's mum) came by once or twice a month bringing fish, vegetables, fruits and some meat fresh from the market to ensure that we had something nutritious to eat now and then.

McDonald's, Burger King, KFC and other junk food was a "treat" for us, never part of our daily/regular diet. You can also forget about soft drinks or sugary juices - costs more than plain water.

When my brother and I were home alone, we had no access to junk like crisps, candy, chocolate, etc. Such things were not even locked behind a closet - they just weren't there.

We didn't sit in front of the TV all day - we played with each other! We had some toys, we had our bikes that we could bike up and down our street on, sometimes with the neighbour's kids. We were running around the house, inventing games in order not to get bored. We also had compulsory physical ed. twice a week in school, totalling 2hrs per week.

Despite living at such a low income level, my brother and I were NEVER obese. Heck, my PARENTS were never obese! Not even close to being overweight. In fact, we were underweight...but healthily underweight. We didn't have any health problems apart from the occasional flu.

So please...don't come and tell me that it's hard for people in the low income bracket to get out of their "condition", when it is actually VERY EASY for them not to get into that "condition" in the first place. Again, responsibility and self-control.

Making contrived excuses for people does not help them. At all.

"I actually can't say that I have much sympathy for a lot of them, but I am not going whine about some people having a hard enough time already, getting a chance to travel. Even if it should end up costing me a tiny bit, if I chose to travel with that airline."

If you don't mind getting squashed up between 2 obese people on a long haul flight, that's your sainthood call. However, I do mind, and I'm sure MOST people mind...and have good reason for that. We have the right to comfort too, and I don't want a "hard time" travelling either. Better still, I don't want OTHERS to have a hard time travelling/losing their comfort because of me, and that is why I take the responsibility to keep myself fit instead of making things inconvenient and more expensive for them.

" "if you weigh less than 45kg, you cannot do a worthy cause like donate blood." "
What is wrong with it, is that you are using it to say that skinny people are discriminated against. It's a matter of health and safety, not discrimination.

Again, you missed the sarcasm in its context... . Let me bring you back to my original text and "spell it out":

This is not discrimination at all - no, not at all. (in making an obese person pay for 2 seats when necessary)
......
The same way that smokers make their choice to smoke, and now have to smoke outside a restaurant or bar here in Copenhagen. Not discrimination at all.

Otherwise, we can say that really skinny people are discriminated against too. For example, if you weigh less than 45kg, you cannot ~~do a worthy cause like~~ donate blood... .

And then, my text again in the next post...this time more crystal clear:

But I can't call that "discrimination against skinny people", can I?

So...tell me again what I'm using it for??? That's right - to show that we can't go around pulling out the discrimination card every time there's an issue with weight - whether obese or skinny. Bravo! You get it now :o).

"Airlines can always give extra seats up with no cost, even when they are overbooked (In fact they overbook in an attempt to avoid this). Airlines already charge different amounts for each seat, even if it's the exact same class, location and service.

If half the people were obese enough to get 2 seats, you would see it on the prices. With the amount that currently travels, you won't."

*Sigh*...why do I always have to go back to my original post to spell things out yet again... . Didn't I write: "On a pretty full flight, at least, since it goes without saying that there can be more flexibility on more empty flights."

Let me go back and check...(pauses to check). Oh, yes - I DID write that! I'd be damned!

I'm sure you know...as well as I know...that when you book a flight, you're not asked about your weight. The airline carrier cannot tell how obese you are until you're CHECKING in.

In the same way, they cannot tell how much overweight luggage (I'm talking about literal luggages now, not fats. Just so we're clear, since they can be inter-changeable if you think about it) you are going to put on their flight until the point of CHECK-IN.

Now, we agree that especially on a fully booked flight, they make you pay a LOT of money for your overweight luggage. If the flight is empty, they're more lenient about it. Nobody WANTS to pay for overweight luggage, but we do know that the limit in general is 20kg in economy class. Isn't it fair then that if we go much over that limit, we just have to pay for it? I think it's very fair. I may not agree with the cost/kg, but it's still fair for them to charge.

So, in the same way, when the flight is fully booked, it can happen that people are asked if they can take another flight with some compensation given. I don't know how often you travel, but I've travelled enough to know that overbooking DOES come at a risk, because on a "good" day, EVERYONE shows up to take that flight, so even after bumping people up to business class, it still won't be enough to take in everyone. I've personally experienced 2 such incidents already.

In these cases, SEATS ARE VALUABLE. An obese person who is going to take up 2 seats would be stealing that extra seat from another person who had paid for it and needs it. If the airline gives 2 seats to the obese passenger for the price of 1, it has to compensate the other passenger for not being able to put him on that flight.

I think it's very fair therefore, that the obese person pays for 2 seats then instead of 1, instead of getting it "for free". The limit is afterall, ONE seat PER PASSENGER, just like the limit is 20kg luggage weight per passenger. Anything EXTRA, you pay for - obese or otherwise.

"You're going to charge me extra because I'm fat?!"
"No, madam. We're going to charge you extra because you're going to be using 2 seats instead of 1 on this very fully booked flight. Would you prefer another flight instead?"

And that is how it should be.

"Above average IQ (wow),"

Yup, you should indeed go "wow" (again).

"...does not negate stupidity."

Stupid is as stupid does. You do realise that people who call others "stupid" usually do so so that they can feel better about themselves by making others feel worse? In other words, such people have very low self-esteem. Hmm...obese people usually have low self-esteem. Not that I'm implying you could be obese, but since you still won't say who you are, I can only try to put the pieces of the puzzle together with whatever information I can get... .

Fortunately for me though, I know my worth, and it's not built upon other people's opinions of me...and especially not a "stranger's" opinion like yours.

I can only feel sorry for (I believe "sympathise" is the word here) people who call others "ignorant" or "stupid" or "selfish" while cowardly hiding behind their computer screens.

Despite the lack of courtesy from you, it has nevertheless been an interesting discussion...and I do enjoy engaging in discussions, if we can agree to be civil about it, while we agree to disagree.

"Let me just make a comment on Sheila's blog and call her 'shallow', 'airhead', 'bimbo' and 'heartless'. She'll never know who I am anyway, so I can apply the 'Coward's Code of Conduct.'" - S.I.S.I (Some Incredibly Scared Internet-user).

To fatten up my previous post...

2008-11-28T20:33:00.012+01:00

Someone called "beefsoup69" (who has also been known as "inthefaceofearth" and "inthemistofdk" of IP 130.225.165.18 - Danish network for research and education) had several statements in a comment made to my previous post that I'd like to address here, point by point:

"You really think that people who are that obese just chose their lifestyle. Wow."

Yes, to a large and general extent, I do. Nobody is born obese, and nobody wakes up overnight to suddenly find him/herself obese. If that was the case, then that's when you should really go "Wow". And if one has been obese since childhood, then I blame it hugely on bad parenting.

Causes of Obesity
Weight gain and obesity are caused by consuming more calories than the body needs – most commonly by eating a diet high in fat and calories, being sedentary (not physically active) or both.

"You wanna be obese to get two seats!"

No...you obviously don't read what I write very well...even when words are highlighted. It's not that I want to be obese to get two seats, but rather, to get two seats for the price of one. Value for money, right? And in pretty much the same breath, I did also write (in reference to the court ruling) "Talk about sending out the wrong message"...so perhaps there was a hint of sacarsm that you missed when I wrote that "I wanna be obese too!!!"?

"You think that you might pay part of their ticket."

Hmm...not sure what you're trying to say, but if I take your words as they are, then no, I don't think that I might (be) pay(ing) part of their ticket. In fact, if they take up ½ of my seat/personal space, then I think that they're stealing from me. There's a difference.

If I pay for something, I do it willingly or consciously. If someone steals from me, it's taking something from me forcefully against my will/permission.

In a simple equation:
Stealing
I pays $X.
U pays $X.
If U takes ½ of I's seat, then U is stealing from I the amount of $½X.

Paying
I pays $X.
U pays $X.
If I pays ½ of U's ticket so that U can use ½ of I's seat, then I is payng $X + $½X = $1½X.
(this is so illogical because in reality, I will only pay $X not $1½X when the price for a seat is only $X...therefore, you can see why I don't understand your statement as it is written).

"You compare it to a restaurant giving double portion."

Yes. The point being the "right" of an obese person to have "2 for the price of 1" to either take more space than what he/she paid for, or to satisfy his/her ~~gluttony~~ extraordinary hunger.

" "More often than not, it's a conscious bunch of wrong choices " "

This is your quote of a sentence I had written on the previous post, for the purpose of pointing out my "ignorance" and "stupidity". Please refer to my response to statement 1 in this post, because I am standing by what I wrote, despite how "ignorant" or "stupid" it may sound to you.

Further, I'd like to display the "ignorance" and "stupidity" of medical experts in the area of making conscious right/wrong choices (key words emphasized by me):

PREVENTION
The best way to prevent obesity is to avoid a high intake of fats. The National Cholesterol Education Program suggests that no more than 30 percent of the calories people eat should come from fats. A good way to monitor one's diet is to keep a detailed food diary. That way, one will know exactly how many calories are consumed in a day and where those calories come from.

A program of vigorous exercise is also very important. Activity is the only way that calories are used up. The more active a person is, the less likely that calories will be converted into fat.

Finally, children should learn early in their lives the value of a healthful diet and exercise. By controlling their intake of calories and planning activities that will burn them up, the problems of obesity can usually be avoided.
--------------

So yes, for those who are prone to gain weight quickly, the main reason (not the only reason, but the main reason) for their obsesity is because they consciously (as opposed to accidentally) do the opposite of all the abovementioned right choices...and as we know, the opposite of "right" is not just "left", but also "wrong".

I can't say that I know of any obese people personally, but I do know of some who are overweight. If I think of 4 off the top of my head, I can say that all 4 know that they are overweight. However, despite knowing this, I've noticed them still doing as below:

Person A (who is also a vegetarian): had a HUGE bowl of chocolates on her living room table (easy access) and was able to almost empty it in a couple of hours. Was also known to empty bags of crisps in no time. Not known to be active in any forms of exercise.

Conscious bunch of wrong choices? Oh yes. Over a period of time, it will lead to obesity if not corrected. In fact, she actually wanted to remain fat because she liked the big boobs that (sometimes) come with being overweight. If she chooses to be fat, that's her prerogative...but don't come stealing my already limited airplane seat in economy.

Person B: had been seen often eating burgers and fries during lunch time over several years. Was not involved in any form of exercise. However, she eventually started eating more healthily and in smaller portions, but still could not lose weight. She found out that she had a disease that didn't break down her food intake (so choosing to eat burgers and fries while already overweight was quite a bad choice), got some prescribed pills, and has now visibly lost weight.

I don't see her as often now, but if she's still choosing to eat more healthily and avoiding too many burgers and fries compared to before, I'm sure she'll be able to maintain her healthier body. Not sure though, if she has also become more active.

So in her case, her conscious bunch of wrong choices before have become more right ones. If she didn't start making these better choices earlier on, she might never have found out about her disease and in turn, start losing weight. However, if she had had a healthy diet and lifestyle from the beginning, I'm sure her weight would not have been a problem anyway because even if your body chemicals can't break down your (healthy) food as normal, exercise can.

Person C: was able to give ~~excuses~~ reasons for not exercising while eating a big plate of tiramisu with an added scope of ice-cream to it.

Conscious bunch of wrong choices? Oh yes. Over a period of time, it will lead to obesity if not corrected. She did start making an effort to exercise, so I hope it continues, coupled with a healthier diet.

Person D: loves big, fat, juicy steaks, usually eaten with starchy potatoes. Has been active a handful of times a year in certain sports, but not regularly. It got to a point where his unhealthy wrong choices caused his doctor to get very worried for him, and he wasn't even obese (yet)!

Had to then consciously make right choices in relation to his diet, and I hope he's still consciously doing that.

" "if you weigh less than 45kg, you cannot do a worthy cause like donate blood." "

This is your quote of another sentence I had written on the previous post, for the purpose of pointing out my "ignorance" and "stupidity". I'm going to take it that you don't believe me about the min. weight requirement for donating blood, since you didn't really say what you thought was wrong about that statement (of fact).

But hey, don't take the words of ignorant and stupid person like me... . Take the words of the ignorant and stupid experts instead:

BASIC REQUIREMENTS

Be in generally good health and feeling well.
Be at least 17 years of age; upper age 60 (420d*).
Weigh at least 110 pounds (45 kg).
Pulse: 80 to 100 beats/min and regular.
Temperature: Should not exceed 99.5 (37.5c).
Blood Pressure: acceptable range is 160/90 to 110/60.
Skin: the venipuncture site should be free of any lesion or scar of needle pricks indicative of addiction to narcotics or frequent Blood donation (as in the case of professional Blood donors).

How do I know if I am eligible to donate blood?
You must be in good health, be at least 17 years old, and weigh at least 110 pounds.

Donor requirements - Weigh at least 45kg.

In some countries (like Denmark), the min weight is 50kg! That means, because of my less than 50kg weight...I *gasp* can't do a worthy cause like donate blood here! But I can't call that "discrimination against skinny people", can I?

Vægt
Man skal veje over 50 kg. Det skyldes, at man maksimalt må tappe 13% af den samlede blodvolumen i kroppen. Da man tapper 450 ml +/- 10%, er den nedre grænse sat til 50 kg.

(You have to weigh over 50 kg. It is because one may donate 13% of the total blood volume in the body as a maximum. Since one donates 450 ml + / - 10%, the lower limit set is 50 kg.)

And finally, your ending comment:

"Wow, the display of ignorance, stupidity, selfishness and total lack of empathy is scary."

Wow indeed... .
Ignorance: I am ignorant of the fact that...most obese people were really born obese? Or the fact that...most obese people really do wake up one bright and sunny day from a weight of say, 50kg to a weight of say, 100kg? And this is perhaps even when they eat really healthy food and exercise on a regular basis?

Stupidity: Quite a strong word to use, don't you think? Especially when you say that to someone who has an above average IQ. But oh...it is of course very easy to constructively call others "stupid" while you're cowardly hiding behind a pseudonym. *Applause*

Selfishness: Really? Because...I don't want to share ½ of my seat with someone who thinks he/she is entitled to it because he/she is not considerate enough to him/herself and society by eating healthily, exercising regularly and going for regular medical checkups if he/she knows that he/she has a weight problem? I guess next time I should just ask if he/she would like to sit on my lap then, huh? I would rather there be a law that all traffic should stop to allow a blind man to cross the road wherever he wants to since he can't see (and can't help it), than that obese people be allowed to have 2 seats for the price of 1 even though most of them can help it. I'd rather be a selfish skinny b*tch who is contented with what she has paid for, than a selfish obese b*tch who thinks she's entitled to more that what she has paid for.

Total lack of empathy: this is the only part in your comment that is the closest to being even partly true. I have very little empathy to give to the majority of obese people, and I don't apologise for that. At all. Whatever empathy that I had for you when you were overweight is gone the day you cross the line from being overweight to being obese, especially when you had all the time in the world to do something about it but was too unwilling to do so.

Only those who really do have a disease that causes obesity get my empathy, but sadly, if you take a group sample of obese people, only a minority are disease-related obesed. For these exceptional people, then yes, upon a production of a medical certificate to eg. an airline, I don't see any reason why they shouldn't be allowed to have "2 seats for the price of 1".

My previous post is more about those who have choices, but make the wrong ones despite knowing what's better for them.

It takes a LOT of effort for most people to eat healthily and exercise regularly because unhealthy food is usually the most tasty (and we all love tasty food), and it's easier to be lazy than to exercise. However, as I said before, nobody wakes up obese overnight, so I'm sure at some point along your widening road towards obesity, you will think to yourself "Damn! I think I'm putting on weight!"

Once you think that, then you have two choices: do something about it, or don't. Question is, how badly do you want to lose the extra luggage? As with most things in life, you have to make an effort to get what you want because things are not going to happen just by wishing upon a star.

Therefore, it is correct that I really don't have any empathy for those who just keep sitting on their trunk and say "I'm fat! I'm fat! I'm know I'm fat!" while having his/her hand still digging into the cookie jar.

Finally, to end this morbidly obese post, I've noticed how the one behind the Beefsoup69 (and other) pseudonym seems to like coming to my blog usually with a purpose of leaving behind a harsh comment (except when it was about toilet paper). As I've said in my blog before, if you want to attack me personally by calling me things like "ignorant", "stupid" or "selfish", then be man (or woman) enough to tell me who you really are. After all, you know who I am.

The display of cowardliness by this particular blog reader is staggeringly scary. Especially when he/she can start showing it already as early as 07:13hrs in the morning. Oh well...the more cowardliness that is displayed, the more it'll prove my assessment on this reader's character in this area, so just keep them cowardy comments coming because if you write something laughable enough, it could become a post "in honour" of you :o).

To be obese or not to be obese: that is the question.

2008-11-24T22:49:00.009+01:00

Ok, what's up with this:

"Obese people have the right to two seats for the price of one on flights within Canada, the Supreme Court of Canada ruled on Thursday."

Full article here.

What the?!?! I wanna be obese too!!! Talk about sending out the wrong message. Seriously, wouldn't it be fair that if an obese person is so obese that he/she takes up 1½ - 2 economy seats in an airplane, he/she should pay for 2? On a pretty full flight, at least, since it goes without saying that there can be more flexibility on more empty flights.

Why should I have to share "my" seat/personal space with someone who chooses a lifestyle of overeating and under-exercising? I pay full price too, right? If an obese person needs more room, there are bigger seats they can order instead - in business class.

Would a restaurant agree to give double portions to an obese person for the same price? No! Or what? Do they now have a right to that too?

This is not discrimination at all - no, not at all. It cannot be called "discrimination" when you're so-called "discriminated" against a choice you can make. It's not like being discriminated against because of your race or sex or age since these are categories you cannot choose. No doubt, there are some diseases that can cause you to be obese, but obsesity itself is not a disease. More often than not, it's a conscious bunch of wrong choices that people make over a period of time.

The same way that smokers make their choice to smoke, and now have to smoke outside a restaurant or bar here in Copenhagen. Not discrimination at all.

Otherwise, we can say that really skinny people are discriminated against too. For example, if you weigh less than 45kg, you cannot ~~do a worthy cause like~~ donate blood... .

I'd like to see 2 obese people sit next to each other in economy and see them blame each other for the lack of space. Anyway, I think the judge at that Supreme Court of Canada who made this ruling was probably obese himself... .

I now leave you with an excerpt from a song by Lazyboy called "Underwear goes inside the pants":

Lyrics
Americans, let's face it:
We've been a spoiled country for a long time.
Do you know what the number one health risk in America is?
Obesity. They say we're in the middle of an obesity epidemic.
An epidemic like it is polio.

Like we'll be telling our grand kids about it one day.
The Great Obesity Epidemic of 2004.
"How'd you get through it grandpa?"
"Oh, it was horrible Johnny, there was cheesecake and pork chops everywhere."

I love bargains

2008-11-23T18:37:00.004+01:00

Guess how much I paid for all this?

7 bags, 4 belts, 2 scarves, 1 pair of "leather" gloves, 1 leg warmer, 1 arm warmer, 1 hat, 1 necklace and 1 bracelet.

Arm warmer. I thought it was a leg warmer when I bought it, until I looked at it closer when I got home.

Anyway, total for all this = 375 DKK (S$107)! There was a warehouse sale in my office building that started on Friday, so I bought some stuff already then, but decided to take my sister there today so that she can find some bargains too. I ended up buying more myself.

The white bag in the middle (not the transparent one) would cost already 199 DKK (S$57) in the shop at normal price (price tag's still on it), so you can imagine what a bargain it is now.

Deck the halls with boughs of holly, fa la la la la, la la la la. 'Tis the season to be jolly, fa la la la la, la la la la... .

My new baby!

2008-11-23T16:14:00.006+01:00

I have adopted a new baby for our House of Love! It starts with "P", but it's not a puppy, it's not a Pleo, it's not any pet at all. It's a piano!!! A digital one... .

When I was around 4 years old, I had organ lessons at Yamaha in Singapore. If I remember correctly, it was probably for a year or so. After that was sort of over, my parents sent me for piano lessons. We had even bought a piano so that I could practice on at home. However, before I had even completed piano Grade 1, I had to stop due to the financial situation at home. I was probably relieved to stop anyway, at that time (now I wish I know more). We had to sell the piano too, since there wasn't any point to keep it at home when I couldn't play it.

So apart from the very basic notes and knowing where do, re, mi, fa, so, la and ti are on the piano, I know absolutely nothing about playing the piano. However, I'm a fast learner, I have a good memory, and I can hear a tune and usually be able to play out the the basic melody on the piano. Therefore, after being inspired by some people on Youtube, and seeing that people do put up tutorials for certain songs there too, I decided that I wanted a piano and learn how to play some songs "on my own" :o).

I found a great shop who allows you to rent a brand new piano for a minimum of 6 months before you buy it. You're not even obligated to buy it if you decide after 6 months that it's "not you". The best part is that the shop is close by to our home! A sign indeed ;o). The customer service there was also rather impressive.

Basically, I was inspired last Sunday, I got my piano on Monday, and I've been "addicted" to it since (hence, the lack of my online presence). I had the whole week off from work anyway (and many more off weeks to come), so with so much time on my hands, it was perfect timing to learn something new.

Meet Kawai!

All brand new.

Cords and stuff.

The owner's manual...that I've used so far only for assembling instructions.

3 pedals. I only know what the right pedal is for, and never use the other 2 pedals, so I decided not to remove the plastic cover on those 2 pedals.

More parts of Kawai.

Me putting the parts together.

Almost done!

Tada! Behold, a "child" is born!

And the first song that I am learning on Kawai is Rihanna's "Take A Bow". I've pretty much learnt all of it already, but just missing the bridge and the ending because I haven't found a tutorial on Youtube that really teaches that yet.

You'll get to hear the original song first. Maybe if I get better at playing it, then I would put up my version for you to hear ;o). I'm a bit of a perfectionist, so it'll take a bit of time before I am satisfied with my playing.

Rihanna - Take A Bow

Cute puppies!!!

2008-11-16T17:12:00.007+01:00

Aren't they like the CUTEST?!?! And yes, you are watching them live on webcam :o). So yeah, if webcam's offline, then you won't see any action, unfortunately. Or if they are sleeping soundly (and yes, puppies do sleep a lot...like human babies).

You can also toggle to fullscreen by clicking on the bottom right icon next to "Menu".

Havanese Harbour Puppies

Webcam chat at Ustream

Shiba Inu Puppies

Online video chat by Ustream

Makes me want a puppy too... .

Working in Denmark

2008-11-13T00:30:00.001+01:00

I'm sure many of my Singaporean friends, and some friends in Denmark, are wondering if I have considered returning to Singapore to start a new chapter there. Martin would definitely pack up immediately if I just say the word. In fact, that was pretty much his first question when I told him the news of our Copenhagen office. "So we can move to Singapore now???" he asked enthusiastically.

Unfortunately, it's not quite an option for me. Ok, to be fair, I won't rule it out totally, but will only consider it as the really really last resort, as in, only after trying my luck at the casinos in Las Vegas, I still return home with empty pockets. Or, after robbing a bank here, I need a country to flee to ;o).

No, seriously - I will not consider returning to Spore for several reasons. Would you like a list ;o)? The essence of it is mainly job related.

1) Balanced life
The average work week in Denmark is 37 hrs, Mondays-Fridays, excluding the ½hr lunch per day. It's one of the lowest in the world, I'm sure.

2) Work politics
In Denmark, when you start at 9, you leave at 5. No one expects you to stay on 1 or 2 hrs more "just because" it'll make you seem more hardworking. In Spore, this is expected, otherwise your boss or colleagues will think that you don't have "enough" to do. Whoever said that staying extra hours at work = hardworking should get their brains examined. To me, staying extra works at work unnecessarily = being inefficient or total waste of time. Time that can be better spent with friends or family.

Also, in some companies in Spore, it will not look good if you leave the office before your boss. What kind of crap is that? I mean, the work of the boss is at a different level than yours, and should involve more necessary time put into it, so why should you have to stay back in the office just because he/she's not done with what he/she's been paid to do?

3) Vacation days
In Denmark, every salaried employee is entitled to 25 paid vacation days a year (5 x Mon-Fri weeks). We are also entitled to use 3 weeks in a row, as long as it fits the company's operations. Some people in other industries have 30 vacation days a year! That's a lot, if you ask me.

What is it in Spore? I don't know exactly, but I'm pretty sure it's less. 2 weeks (14 days)? If someone can write me a comment to tell me, I'd love to hear.

4) Sick days
We can be sick up to 14 days in a row without needing to show any medical certificates here in Denmark. Usually, people are sick for just 1-3 days in a row, and companies trust their employees enough not to ask for medical proof. Of course, it can be abused, but then it'll be in your conscience...and sometimes, you can be proven guilty so unless you really think you can get away with it, then it's better to be honest. Or unless you're already being terminated and are calling in sick while working your notice. I mean, what are they going to do to you anyway? Fire you? ;o)

5) Maternity/paternity leave
The mother is entitled to 1 year paid maternity leave in Denmark. Depending on how long you've been working at the company, you get paid accordingly. In my case, I would have 6 months of fully paid maternity leave by the company, and the other 6 months paid 75% by the government. It's really not bad at all.

The father gets 2 weeks fully paid paternity leave by law. He can use them whenever he wants, but within the year, I think. Also, if the mother doesn't want to take the full 1 year maternity leave, she may share it with the father, so she may eg. use 6 months, while daddy use the other 6 months (paid). I know fathers who take 3 months paternity leave, and they really get to build a closer relationship with their child during that time.

The company may also not terminate you unless they can prove that it has nothing to do with your pregnancy. That means, if you go on maternity leave for 1 year, come back to work for 1 month, then go on your 2nd maternity leave for another year, the company cannot fire you despite you not being at work for pretty much 2 years in a row.

I had 3 colleagues who did this, and there's absolutely nothing that the company can do, really. All 3 of them resigned on their own, eventually. Both of them resigned just before their 2nd maternity leave in a row ended.

6) Termination / resignation notices
By Danish law, if you're still under the 3 months probation period, you get 2 weeks notice if fired.

If you've been working up to 6 months in the company, you get 1 month notice if you're fired. After 6 months of work, you get 3 months notice if fired. The period of notice increases by 1 month for every 3 years of service after that, up to a maximum of 6 months notice.

If you've been working 12 years, 15 year or 18 years in a row, you get an extra 1 month, 2 months or 3 months respectively.

In my case, I get 6 months notice, plus my company will give an additional month, so 7 months full pay, so for me, it's actually almost as good as going on a maternity leave...without a lifetime of commitment to a child.

There are of course some exceptions to the rule, such as the nature of your termination. If you've been terminated on the grounds of theft, drugs, violence, etc, then don't expect to get your legal termination notice period.

On the other hand, if you're resigning, you just need to give 1 month's notice to your employer, no matter how many years you've been working there.

Again, I'm not sure how it is like in Spore, so if anyone knows, please do comment. I'm just pretty sure it's not as good as the Danish laws, to the benefit of the employees.

7) Change in contract terms
In Denmark, if there is a drastic change in your contract such as getting a pay cut, being demoted, being given a brand new area of responsibility, or even if the company moves to an address that is much further away, they will have to inform this to you in advance. Legally, they'll have to inform you about it in the same number of months as your termination notice.

If we say for example in my case, if I was told that I will now have to work from home instead of a physical office, my company will have to give me 6 months notice about it. If we come to a mutual agreement, this notice may be shortened.

However, if I disagree with it, then I will be able to work as usual for 6 months, and then resign at the end of my notice but giving my employer the legal 1 month notice entitled to them.

8) Union membership
At least 80% of the Danish workforce is a member of a union. That is the highest number anywhere in the world, I believe. Unions in Denmark are strong. If you have any disputes at work, you don't tell your employer "I'll speak to my lawyer." Instead, if you tell them "I'll speak to my union," that will make them shake more (presuming that you feel your rights have been breached, of course). That's how strong the union is here. The unions here are anyway able to provide members with free lawyers to fight their case if there is a case.

I was not a union member, but have been a part of the A-kasse since I started working. A-kasse is when you pay a certain amount to a union every month, so that in case you get unemployed, you get unemployment benefits paid to you, and they will also help you to find a new job, and you don't have to be a union member to be part of the A-kasse.

I have however, now joined as a union member after a recent situation at work in relation to my termination notice. They wanted me to work (from home) 1 month more than my other terminated colleagues, and that I didn't agree to. Legally, they do have the right to make me work more than my terminated colleagues in accordance to the company's business needs, but legally, in referance to point 7 above, they cannot make me work this extra month from home (the physical office closes after 24 DEC) because I'll then need 6 months notice for it. Therefore, my right overrules their right.

I told them that I'll have to check it with my union to see if what they ask of me is acceptable before I will sign anything. I wasn't a union member yet, actually...but that they didn't know, of course. Anyway, shortly after, I got a mail back saying that I won't have to work this extra month after all, and I will be released from my notice on 24 DEC like everybody else.

So you see, union power works in Denmark! Unions in Spore are not strong enough to fight for their members...if you're even allowed to be a union member. All employees here have that right.

I guess those are all the main points I can think of right now, in regards to why I'd rather stay and work in Denmark than in Spore. No doubt, I'll have a LOT more options and opportunities in Spore, but I don't want my life to just be all about work. I want to play too, I want to have time for myself, my friends, my family. That's what life is really about, isn't it? We should work to live, not live to work.

The only things that I'll miss out in Spore are food, shopping, Spore friends/family...and more food. Variety of activities too. But then again, if I have to slog at work all day, I won't have much time for many of these other non-work related aspects, right? So what's the point? I might as well just enjoy all these while on a real 2 weeks (or more) vacation there :o).

So no...I don't see myself returning to Spore for good anytime soon. Home for me right now is here in Denmark, and it's here where I'll take on all the challenges that come my way. Only if EVERYTHING fails, will I turn back towards the door that my Spore passport is key to. And that I think, is a BIG "if".

New poll!

2008-11-12T23:38:00.002+01:00

Don't be shy to vote on whether or not I should take a 3 month vacation trip (on full salary) before I start searching for a new job.

Keep in mind, that if I embark on such a trip starting in January for 3 months, I'll still have 2 months of full pay when I get back... .

Martin could join for 1 month, but then he'll have to return to work after that.

Only serious votes accepted! The last poll on Obama vs McCain had 1 person voting McCain several times. Not that it matters in the end, since Obama won anyway :o).

Official end of a long history.

2008-11-12T18:13:00.005+01:00

So, it is kinda official now that I am not going to continue working in the company that I have been working in for almost 11 years.

If you've been following my blog, you would know that sometime in late September, my company was contemplating the closing down of our Copenhagen office. At that time, it was 99% certain. Fast forward 1 month, and the decision has now been made, with 100% certainty of the closure.

I also informed that I had the choice of choosing whether or not to stay on in my position, but working from home. Or, if I want to be terminated like the rest of my colleagues. I did apply for the position, went for the interview for it (even though it went without saying that I'd be given the job anyway, so the interview was just for formality's sake), and was successful in getting the position.

However, when I went for the interview two Wednesdays ago with 2 of my Frankfurt office managers, I was already 80% certain that I didn't want the job. I wanted to hear more about it though, because it could be that I change my mind after the interview, so was being open to hear.

After the interview, I was 100% certain that I didn't want it. I have several reasons that I had informed my European manager about, and that I will now share with you:

1. Time already used:
- I have been in this position long enough, so it’s time for me to move on (while I’m still young).

2. Nature of the offered position:
- After the interview, it seems more of a Destination Service (DS) position than a ship position, and working in DS is not something I am at all interested in. I had been at DS for a short period of time many years ago before ship department and didn’t like it much. I had also helped out DS during last winter, and I still didn’t like it. Therefore, I can safely conclude that it is not something for me at all, even with a ship aspect to it.

3. Future growth and development:
- I don’t see any big future growth and development for myself in this position, both personally and career-wise. Though I’m still young, I am unfortunately also getting older, so I don’t want to waste precious years of my youth being stuck in the same position.

4. Leadership style in Frankfurt office:
- I won’t fit into the kind of “top-down” leadership style of Frankfurt office. When Frankfurt office manager told me during the interview that “How we work in Frankfurt is that when your manager tells you to do something, you just do it,” I felt right away that I would be treated like a blue collar factory worker at an assembly line whose opinions, ideas and feedback will not matter.

- Maybe I’m just spoilt by the flat structure in Scandinavia. I do fully understand that in big companies, there has to be some form of structure and organization, but within the department itself, I prefer working under a manager who values my opinions and ideas, who gives me some form of freedom and independence, and who trusts me in my work. As I said earlier, I had helped out DS with some tasks last winter, and therefore had a taste of the leadership there. Sadly, I can’t say many good things about it.

5. Homeworking:
- It has its pros and cons, but despite its pros, I really can’t see myself doing it for more than a year without going crazy. Once or twice a week is great, but five days a week for a long-term period would be too much for me.

- It’s not because I would lack the discipline, but because I’ll miss having people around me, and by that, I mean more people than the other 2 homeworkers whom I can maybe see once in a while. I had a personality test done during a recent interview I was at the previous week, and one of the things it showed was that I’m an outgoing person who feels energised when I have people around me. I think that reflects a lot in my apprehension towards the whole “homeworking” concept.

6. Job security:
- After all that has been happening over the years in CPH office, with departments slowly moving down to Frankfurt office, and now the whole CPH office being closed/decentralised to Frankfurt, it is very difficult for me to trust my company that I’ll still have my job in this position after 6 months or 1 year or 2 years. We had been promised before that there was no plan to close CPH office, but within a short time, that promise was broken.

- I understand that it’s not possible to predict the future of not just my company, but other companies as well. I can’t say much about other companies without being there, so I can only say what I feel about my future with my company itself, and what I feel is that if I continue in this position, I’ll just be putting my immediate future into an upturned hourglass with the sand slowly but surely running through to the other side and leaving me behind in an empty half. I could very well be deemed “useless” in just a matter of time, despite my good performance.

7. Luxury of time:
- Thanks to the Danish law protecting me with a good legal compensation for my many years of service in my company, I’ll be able to use the time I have to explore other opportunities outside of it. I may not get a stress free chance like this again (unless my company makes me redundant in the future before I decide to hand in my own resignation), so now is a good time for me to keep my door open to something better someplace else.

- It’s a big risk for me to take, I know. Especially in hard times like what we’re going through now globally. However, last time I checked, there are still companies out there who need people, and I could be one of them if I open my door, step out and knock on theirs. High risks usually mean high returns, and from where I am now, I have nothing to lose anyway. Not in the next few months, at least.

So yeah, these are the reasons why I have decided not to take the position offered in the end. I was actually asked if I would consider doing hotel contracting instead (another position). It seemed that my European manager really wanted to keep me, so if I didn't want the offered "ship" position, he'd be willing to check if another position can be "created" for me, if I'm interested.

It did get me thinking. I was not expecting it at all, but I guess it was also because they really thought I would continue with the offered "ship" position, so it took them by surprise that I rejected it in the end. I know that I'm a good performer at work, and I know that my European manager knows that and appreciates it, but somehow I still feel that the main reason why they really want me to stay is because I'm the only one who knows the inside-out of the ship department. I'm sitting on a pot of gold.

I feel that once they get all the knowledge from me, I'll be given so much crap work that could force me to resign on my own. After all, if I have to just do what my manager tells me to do, then when can I say "No! Enough!"? Therefore, now that I have a great opportunity to find a new job while still getting fully paid for several months, I'd be stupid not to do so.

Now back to the hotel contracting offer. Like I told said before, it had me thinking. It is indeed a new and exciting challenge for me, and that’s really what I’m looking for right now.

I had over the weekend also talked to former colleagues who had been in that position before to hear more firsthand what the job was like within my company, how they felt about it, and what I can expect from it. With their valued feedback and advises, I am now able to make yet another educated decision.

The job itself sounds fantastic and I’d love that challenge, but in the end, to accept it and do it within my company, it boils down to 2 things: how things are generally done/managed “my company's way”, and the overall job security feeling (or lack of it) that I’ll have by staying within my company based here in CPH.

My final decision:
After much thoughts, sadness and reluctance, I have decided to choose the termination notice over the offer letter. It is not an easy decision for me to make at all, but my journey onboard my company's ship has ended, and it has brought me to my destination. Where I want to go next, is not a destination where my company's ship can safely take me to, so I’ll have to disembark here and find a new ship.

Thus ends the chapter of a very long history at my company. I expect the new chapter to be challenging and exciting...and it is tempting to start that chapter with 3 months of vacation in Singapore while still getting my full salary ;o). Maybe I'll make a new poll on that, so you can vote for whether I should or not ;o).

Fury of a Little Dragon

2008-11-11T21:11:00.004+01:00

Date: 11 Nov 2008
Time: Afternoon-ish
Place: Café Fata Morgana
Players: Shi Hua, Sylvia, Sheila, Muyten
Combination: Little Dragon (64), All Pungs (6), Half Flush (6), 1 Kong (1), Pung in Honours (1), Single Wait (1), Self-draw (1), 3 Flowers (3)
Total points: 83 + 8 = 91 x 3 players = 273
Memorable moments: My very first big hand!

I wonder if I can put this down in my CV for job applications... .

The new Mr President

2008-11-05T23:27:00.007+01:00

Congratulations to America!!! You have renewed hope in the rest of the world, and we're glad to see you've made the better choice. Whether he's the right choice or not (I think he is), time will tell. History has now been made, and I'm glad to see it getting written down.

I am also pleased to announce that because Barack Obama is the elected President, I will therefore continue to stay on Planet Earth. I'm sure all my friends and family are delighted, but my enemies are...well...who cares - they're probably all McCain supporters anyway ;o).

I guess the days of laughing at President George W. Bush are soon coming to an end. He was one of the worst Presidents ever, but we gotta admit that he was good entertainment (when serious issues were not involved), and he was one President who did make all of us "ordinary" people feel really smart, didn't he? Well, all of us except Sarah Palin, that is. Good riddence to her.

God bless America! God bless the world!

Ivy's 5+4+1+6+8+3+2+1 birthday

2008-11-01T14:18:00.022+01:00

This is an overdue post, since Ivy's birthday was a couple of weeks ago. I also had a visitor in that weekend - a colleague of mine from our Seoul office who was undergoing some training in London office. Since Lucia was close to CPH, she thought it would be a good opportunity to make a short weekend trip here. Good thing she chose the right date to visit, as it was indeed an event-filled weekend. Also of the fact that the airline carrier I had suggested her to book with went bankrupt just a few days ago as they were owned by Icelandic investors who are suffering huge financial problems.

Speaking of Iceland, isn't it amazing how a whole COUNTRY can be on the brink of bankruptcy? It's really sad, but on the other hand, you reap what you sow. No doubt there are many innocent people affected, but the government had a responsibility to ensure that things don't get out of hand. They had been warned, but they didn't seem to care, and it's only a matter of time when your spending spree on borrowed money will come to an ugly end.

Seriously, this can be applied on a micro level too. Personally, I own 3 credit cards: Diner's Club, Mastercard with a Danish bank (supplementary), Mastercard with a Singapore bank (also supplementary), 1 debit card (Visa/Dankort) and 1 ATM card. I'd say that I'm the credit card companies worst customer. If they had a long list, I'll be at the very bottom, simply because I hardly ever use them.

Why do I have them then? It's the "just-in-case" mentality, and I had actually been many years ago in a situation where I was lucky to have my credit cards to unexpectedly pay for 3 air tickets out of Beijing, China. Long story. Good thing these situations don't happen often, but "just-in-case" something happens, I'll have my credit cards to fall back on.

Hmm...I remember now that it was good Martin and I had our Diners Club cards while in Rome almost 1 year ago... . Without them, we'd not have been able to get out any cash at all due to a situation with our Visa cards! So you see, "just-in-case". On a regular basis however, I dislike spending beyond my means.

I would go as far as to say that I never spend beyond my means. Apart from the mortgages on the apartments that we have, we don't owe the bank anything else. My belief is that if you can't afford something, you either work hard and save up for it, or you just don't get it at all. Most of the things that we "need" are material/luxury things anyway. For example, I love travelling, and I was planning on a big long trip to either Peru or Costa Rica next March. But now that my job situation is uncertain, I'll have to ~~rob a bank~~ forgo the plan and wait till our home economic situation is more certain.

Of course, I can just take the risk and go anyway, since I would be paid full salary for several months if I choose not to continue working for my current company... . I just don't think I'll enjoy myself much with the uncertainty hanging in the air at home.

Anyway, bottomline is: never spend beyond your means! If you take the risk to do so, then make sure you can afford the losses after enjoying the gains. I'm one person you'll never find playing the stock market. Can be tempting sometimes (high risk, high returns/high losses), but I'd rather sleep well at night knowing that the savings in my bank is what I worked hard for and therefore truly mine.

Now to Ivy's party pictures:

Lucia and I

Party people

I love big, fat, juicy prawns.

Also steamed fish, but unfortunately, we don't eat much fish in Denmark.

Yummy crab, but I prefer Singapore's chili crab.

I only eat cooked veggies.

Birthday cheesecake lovingly baked by moi.

If you were to lazy to calculate Ivy's age from the subject title above, then you can see what it is now.

Firming lotion - if it works.

Maternity dress. Yes, Ivy's pregnant, and she was "Jane" in this post.

More maternity clothes, but I'm sure this can be worn by a non-preggy person like me.

Birthday girl is happy with her gifts.

"Wow, will I really get big enough to fit these pants?"

Supermodel mum-to-be.

See, told you that can be worn by a non-preggy person too!

Two pregnant women with a healthy glow.

The next American pop idol!

Ginger Spice, Baby Spice and Sporty Spice.

Posh Spice and Scary Spice.

Don't be shy to sing!

My turn! My turn!

"Hmm...something's wrong with the lyrics. 'Oceans are far, day after day'?"

And if you dare to hear me sing, then click away!

Technology can help a lot.

Examination subject: ME!

2008-10-27T21:14:00.005+01:00

Sorry everyone, for my silence. There has just been several things going on that I need to prioritise first, so I haven't had too much time to log in and make a new post. I still have to make a post on Ivy's 30th birthday bash from two Saturdays ago, so I know I am quite behind... .

I've been busy sending out job applications, had an interview last Monday, have another BIG and intense one on Wednesday that I really want/need to prepare hard for, then one with my company on Thursday in relation to the new home-working position...so my hands are quite full.

It's amazing how it feels like I'm preparing for an examination when I prepare answers to highly potential interview questions. The examination subject: ME!

Come to think of it, it was actually quite good practise for talking about me and my achievements during our company's performance appraisal sessions that started 3 years ago. I had to put down in words and numbers my achievements for the year, the goals I had reached, provide concrete examples and proof, talk about my strengths, my weaknesses (or "opportunities", as they call it), etc, etc.

I don't usually like preparing for and going through these appraisals...and especially when I have to talk about myself, it feels like bragging. "I did this and I did that, I'm good at this and I'm good at that, I am this and I am that." It's great to hear people praise us, especially our managers, but it's quite difficult to praise yourself without sounding like you're full of it, isn't it? But well, now I can be glad to have gone through it twice a year for 3 years so that it can now be a sort of foundation in my interview preparations.

Anyway, for the record, I had exceeded my performance 3 years in a row, ever since we started doing performance appraisals at my current company. And hey, I'm not bragging here; I'm just preparing myself for my interviews on Wednesday and Thursday by being a bit "full of it" now ;o).

New job possibility!!!

2008-10-15T15:48:00.003+02:00

I have a new job possibility!!! But there's a catch: I NEED YOUR SUPPORT IN ORDER TO GET IT!!!

It'll be perfect for me because if I get it, then I'll start only after December, so that means I will still be able to work here at my current company during November and December like they want me to, and in order to get my full compensation plus bonus for the year 2008.

Please therefore watch this clip in order to make your decision whether to support me or not. Every one of your support counts!

And for those who question my roots, I might as well tell now the secret that I've kept deeply buried for almost all of my life: my birth name was "Pocahontas", and I am more native American (read Red Indian) than the majority of people in America who call themselves Americans, so yes, I am by birth right, qualified for this new job.

Anyway, it's a really different "industry" than the tourism one that I've been in for more than 10 years now, but the key word is *CHANGE*, isn't it? So yeah, that's why I've decided to give this a shot :o).

Thanks in advance for all those who will support me! I love you all! Muuack!

Tallin, Estonia

2008-10-12T21:46:00.012+02:00

Am now back from my business trip. It went very well indeed, and it was great fun to have gone on it with my colleague, friend and mahjong buddy, Shi Hua :o). Well, I'll just put up pictures from Tallin in this post because I didn't take anything in Helsinki and Stockholm. Didn't do any sightseeing in either capitals, but I've been there many times before already anyway so it didn't matter to me.

But Tallin - now that was a new place for me to "check out". I had been to Riga before, and Tallin feels quite similar to Riga with the buildings, streets, people and all. And believe it or not, Estonia used to belong to Denmark! Vikings were all over, that's for sure... . Not sure what happened afterwards though, since they're now one of the smallest countries in Europe now, and even though Greenland still belongs to Denmark, it's not quite habitable, is it? Eskimos...or Greenlanders look more Asian anyway... .

We only had a few hours in Tallin, so we walked around only in the Old Town. Had taken a 2hr ferry across from Helsinki to Tallin in the morning, spent the afternoon walking around, then took an overnight cruise from Tallin to Stockholm. Both ferries were operated by one of our major cruise suppliers at work, Tallink Silja.

Here are pictures from Tallin then. Quite a lot, so be prepared.

The ferry from Helsinki to Tallin.

We had the very comfortable business lounge.

Tallin's old town from afar.

Cosy streets

Cobbled and narrow.

A new-ish-looking building in the old town.

This is the close up of St. Olav's church that you see in the earlier picture of Tallin from afar.

City Hall in the town square.

The buildings around.

Some restaurants too.

Up some steps to find a Russian Orthodox cathedral.

Walking towards the light.

Found it! Alexander Nevsky Cathedral.

Russian cathedrals are easily distinguishable by their onion shaped tops.

Inside the cathedral.

There was a wedding going on. What a beautiful couple.

Don't wear high heals to walk in this old town! You'll not get very far walking on these cobbled streets.

Interesting clock in the wall.

At a restaurant's entrance.

One of the many colourful doors in Tallin.

Another one here - Shi's size.

Found another one. So pretty! But wonder why they're all Asian-sized. Did Estonia maybe belong to China at some point in history ;o)?

Ok...here's an interesting street name, because in Danish, "pik" is a slang for the male anatomy that females don't have, and this one is size 50(cm?). Does size matter ;o)?

And here's another interesting street name. "Piss copy"?

Cute plant holding thingy at a pork restaurant.

Who said I can't drink?

Took M/S Romantika (the white ship) to Stockholm.

Yeah, size really DOES matter!

Our buffet dinner onboard.

Yummy... .

Dessert - the best part!

Cheese should not be under the umbrella of "dessert"!

A more professional entertainment show that we watched for ½hr after listening to young, drunk Estonians singing karaoke in another bar area.

Not Jack Sparrow!

That's all folks! It's good to be back! Btw, Denmark won Malta 3-0 in yesterday's group qualifying match for the World Cup! Woohoo! They're top in their group still. On a sadder note, Portugal didn't beat Sweden :o(. Score was 0-0, so they're 3rd in the group. Don't like that because I want Denmark and Portugal to be the top 2 and qualify. Anyway, there are still many games to go, so things can still change.

Need sleep... .

2008-10-08T23:21:00.002+02:00

I have to get up at 06:15 tomorrow to catch my flight to Helsinki, yet I am here blogging at 23:22. My body refuses to accept that tonight should be different from any other night, but it is going to regret being so stubborn when the alarm rings tomorrow at the ungodly hour of 06:00.

Anyway, will be in Helsinki tomorrow for a meeting with a supplier, spend the night there, then take a fast boat (2hrs) over to Tallin, Estonia, spend a day there, then take the overnight ship from Tallin to Stockholm, then straight to the airport to fly back to Copenhagen on Saturday.

And back to Copenhagen on Saturday I must, because Denmark is going to play against Malta in their next World Cup qualifying match, and I have an invitation to that game at the stadium :o).

Well, it's 23:40 now, so whether my body likes it or not, I'm dragging it to bed. It'll thank me for it tomorrow.

New Presidential Poll

2008-10-05T22:19:00.002+02:00

It won't make any difference to the real voting in America come 04 November 2008, but I'm curious to see who my blog readers will choose between the 2 candidates if they could. There is no option called "neither of the above" in my poll because it's kinda understood that if you won't vote for either of them, then there's no need to make a vote ;oP.

I don't normally make a vote on polls that I create, but I'll make an exception on this one and be the first to vote OBAMA!

I'm late, I'm late, I'm late!

2008-10-02T17:07:00.006+02:00

I overslept a whole freakin' hour today!!! And I didn't even know it until after my shower! I almost couldn't believe it, but after checking with other clocks in the apartment, they seemed to be agreeing with each other so I had to accept the reality.

But seriously, I still don't remember snoozing the alarm clock that many times. The bedside clock is 15mins ahead of time, and it always rings (or to be more precise, plays a radio channel) at 08:15hrs "Sheila time". I usually snooze it, then it "rings" again 10mins later (08:25hrs), so I snooze it a 2nd time, then it "rings" again at 08:35hrs, then I give it a 3rd snooze, and at 08:45hrs, that's my real "wake-up" time. Sometimes 09:00hrs. That's the typical weekday morning routine.

So this morning, I only remember snoozing it 3 times as usual, not more. I turned the alarm off at 08:47hrs (or rather, I only saw the "47" part of the time, but then again, without my glasses or contacts on in the morning, a digital "9" could very well look like a digital "8"). I took my shower, came out at the "usual" 09:05, looked at my wristwatch on my dresser (with contacts on by now) to see how much time I've got, saw that the minute hand was showing "05", then had a rude awakening when I saw that the hour hand was pointing at "10"!

Stared at it a couple of seconds more to be sure I wasn't imagining things, checked the alarm clock, and it was also showing "10"! Checked the time that was set for the alarm, and it was correctly showing "08:15" (so it wasn't that it was set wrongly). Woke Martin up yelling "IT'S TEN O'CLOCK!!! I OVERSLEPT!!!" Called in at the office to inform that I'll be very delayed (yes, I told them the truth - that I overslept).

So yeah...I got ready for work at my usual pace, made it to the bus at the "usual time plus 1 hour", and made it to work by 11am. If we could just set our clocks back 1 hour to winter time today, I would've been right back schedule ;o).

It did also cross my mind that if I was already working from home (based on the new contract at work, if I accept it), then hey, I could have just started working while still wrapped up in my bath towel and not panic about being "late" for work. That's something to consider, ain't it ;o)?

Anyway, I still have a few overtime hours to clear at work before the end of this year, so I'll just deduct my 1hr late start from that.

And I still remember only snoozing 3 times instead of 9 or 10 times... . This is too spooky.

Sarah who?

2008-09-30T22:42:00.011+02:00

"Do you know what they say the difference is between a hockey mum and a pit bull? Lipstick!"
- Sarah Palin, Republican VP candidate -

However, after watching her very embarrassing/bimbotic/incoherent interview with Katie Couric, the answer to Palin's above question would be more like this:

"Do you know what they say the difference is between a hockey mum and a pit bull? The pit bull has a brain!"

And here we are just 35 or so days away from finding out if America will be electing her to be the highly possible next new President of the US of A...should John McCain die in office. This is a woman who gives answers during interviews as the below:

Couric (interviewer): "If it (the $700 billion financial bailout) doesn't pass, what are the alternatives?"
Palin (Miss South Carolina): "The....the alt.....uh.....as I say, inaction is not an option....we have got to shore up our economy...this is crisis moment for America."

Anyway, I just found these spoofs online that are quite funny. Go check them out ;o).

Palin/Clinton
Interview with Couric

And this just takes the cake. She can't even answer the specific question specifically! Come on, if you read a "vast variety", surely you can name just one? Times? Economist? Newsweek? Harry Potter? Is she listening at all? Can she understand English? And take note of Couric's expression at 00:39 - it's *priceless* (like she's thinking "What did I do to deserve this assignment?").

RepubliCAIN or DemOBAMAcrat?

2008-09-29T23:09:00.007+02:00

I don't normally follow much on what goes on during the Presidential election in the US, but somehow the progress of this year's elections interests me quite a bit. Probably because there is FINALLY a candiate who seems interesting and fit to be the next US President, and that would be without a doubt:

John Mc~~Bush~~Cain!!!

Yeah, right. Seriously, if he becomes the next US President with his joke-of-the-year Sarah Palin as his running mate, then there is something really wrong with America. NO MORE ~~REPUBLICAIN~~ REPUBLICAN RULE PLEASE! George Bush's 2nd term as President was already 1 term too many - we don't need another 4 years of Republican rule.

Let's go back to the good ol' days of Bill Clinton (minus the scandal). Let's have a CHANGE, a FRESH mind, a NEW PERSPECTIVE! Yes, I know that Obama has age and his lack of experience against him, BUT HE HAS THE BRAINS! HE HAS THE RIGHT ISSUES PRIORITISED! And he has the personality! And he is at least having the support of an experienced Joe Biden as his 2nd hand man to make up for his own lack of experience.

So what if McCain has had more experience? It doesn't mean he's better. He could just be having more experience in making wrong decisions. If "experience" is so important, then why is his running mate the inexperienced, scandalous SARAH PALIN? So what if he is a war "hero"? That doesn't mean he'll make a good leader. In fact, it could bring more questions to his state of mind because all who had been through war do suffer the effects of it in their mind.

Anyway, I don't want to make this a very political post, but after watching the Presidential debate, I am more convinced that Obama's the man I want to be the next President of the United States, and I really do hope that Americans will not make this election superficially based on RACE or SEX.

I am pretty sure that if the rest of the world could take part in this election, Obama would have already won by a HUGE margin never seen before. Somehow though, for a country who had elected Bush twice, I fear that McPain's going to win. I really hope I'm proven wrong.

OBAMA FOR PRESIDENT!!!

The end is a new beginning

2008-09-25T23:57:00.003+02:00

Oops...I almost forgot that I have a blog ;o). Well, this week has been pretty eventful in a bittersweet way, so I haven't been able to make a new post until now.

Anyway, NEWSFLASH - my company is 99% certain of closing down our Copenhagen office by the end of 2008. This is not an "April's Fool's Joke"; it's for real this time (which reminds me that I should ALWAYS be careful about what I say because they seem to come true).

What does this mean? It means that our office will cease to exist, so all 10 of us who are currently employed in the office will be laid off. Well, almost. That's the bitter part.

Now the sweet part: 3 positions will remain, and 1 of them is the position that I'm in right now; a position I've been having for many years. That means technically, I'll still have a job after this year. I'll have to apply for it though (after receiving my termination notice) as it'll be under a new contract, but it's pretty much a given that I'll get it...if I want it.

And that's where I have to decide. Do I want it? You see, there are many factors to consider as these 3 positions will very likely be based on a "work from home" contract. Working from home is great because of the flexibility, but there are of course cons too, like I might go TOTALLY INSANE if I have only me, myself and I as colleagues 5 days a week for a whole year! Of course, I could as well just work ~~on my tan~~ at the beach in the summer and have people around me... . For crying out loud, I could even be at a beach in SPAIN if I wanted to! Or in my apartment in Sunny Beach, Bulgaria... . Provided I have online access, of course.

But yeah, I also need to think about the compensation. By law, I'll have SIX months of full pay if I'm laid off, and the company will give an extra month plus the year's bonus on top if we fulfil certain conditions, so that means SEVEN months++ for me. You gotta admit that that's a LOT. Especially if I can manage to get another job such that I can enjoy double pay... .

I can definitely use this opportunity to find something else, because sometimes a kick in the @$$ like this is what is needed to search for something new. I mean, I've been working in this same company for almost 11 years now. ELEVEN! That's more than a DECADE! I started when I was 19, stayed throughout my 20's, and am now in my 30's! It's therefore GOOD that I'm getting a good kick now because before I know it, I'll be close to retirement there!

Anyway, my near future's going to be exciting. I'm looking at this from a positive perspective, so if you're a friend reading my blog, please don't worry about me because I at least still have the luxury of a choice here: to stay, or to go, so I'm not in such a bad situation.

Do you want to know what I believe regarding why I'm the only "lucky one" in the office out of 10 (including my office manager) who knows for sure that she can stay if she wants to? It's not so much "luck" really. Nor has it got anything to do with my work performance. You'll have to hear the story of how I got my job in the first place, and I'm not going to tell the full story in this post because it's quite a long one, but I can put it in a short summary:

I had prayed for a job 11 years ago (desparately. You have no idea how desparate until you hear the history of my job applications then). God answered within 2-3 days. Therefore, since I strongly believe that this job was given to me by God from the very beginning, I also strongly believe that He honours His gift by keeping it for me till the very end. What God gives, He never takes away, and this is a big proof of it for me in my life.

You can say it's just a coincidence if you want to - that's your prerogative. For me though, I'm believing it was God from the beginning, and very clearly God at the end. I'll give credit where credit is due. If this plan goes ahead, our office will close on 24 December. That's the day Danes celebrate Christmas, otherwise known as the "celebration of the birth of Christ" (in case you've forgotten). Is it me, or does God really have a sense of humour? Well, it's pretty symbolic for me anyway - like He's just putting His signature everywhere on this part of my life.

Anyway, a toast to a new beginning to come!!! Oh, and btw - if any of you hear of a job opening somewhere, please do think about me :o). I'm open to anything except prostitution... ;o). Well, it should be a job in Denmark too, at least. Preferably in the tourism industry, but I'm willing to venture out of it if the job description is good :o).

And yes, I will have another conversation with God about my new situation, so if you're sarcastically thinking "Why don't you just pray and wait for another gift from God?", I can assure you that I will :o). Except of course, that it's not just about praying and doing nothing, but rather, being active in the search, and praying that things will wonderfully fall into place with His help.

Video from the German Mahjong Open

2008-09-18T15:50:00.002+02:00

I don't really like being on videos, but since there's not much of me in this one, it'll be allowed on my blog ;o).

5:23 - 5:32 and 6:32 - 6:45 are showing my hand (as in, my mahjong hand, not my hand hand...even though that is also true).

German Mahjong Open 2008 in Hamburg

2008-09-16T23:27:00.005+02:00

I was in Hamburg last weekend for the German Mahjong Open 2008. It was a real tournament, much like poker tournament, just with mahjong instead of poker. There was no gambling involved though, so you can't get rich (or poor) from this. Everything is counted in points, so the only thing you "fight" for is your honour.

I had never been to Hamburg before, unless you count connecting trains at the central station to continue further to other parts of Germany. However, I can't say that I saw much of Hamburg during this trip since most of my time there was spent either in the Museum of Ethnology playing hours of mahjong for the 2 days I was there, or home at my friend's apartment sleeping for the 2 nights I was there.

The other places in Hamburg we had spent time at were Chinese restaurants and the underground (U-bahn). So much for checking out the city.

Anyway, part of the reason why I went to Hamburg was also to visit my friend, Christophe, who had moved there. He used to be a former colleague, but we still keep in touch even after he left, so it was wonderful to see him again, even if for just a short time.

As for the mahjong tournment itself, I had a lot of fun experiencing it indeed. We were 2 teams from Denmark - the Flower Power girl's team, and the Danish Red Dragons boy's team. I went there with the goal of not being in the last position out of 32 participants, and I'm glad to say that my goal was achieved; I was in 30th place ;o).

I'm not that lucky in mahjong yet as I'm still learning, but I am proud to say that out of the 5 rounds in the tournament, I was actually the winner at my table in round 3. Not only that, I was also playing against the #1 and #2 ranked players at that point in time during that round, so by being the winner at that table, it meant also that I had beaten the top 2 ranked players!!! Woohoo!!! That was the best and LUCKIEST round I've EVER had since starting to play mahjong 3 months ago.

I have to confess though, that I was not so popular after my very last game of the tournament. It was quite an interesting round, because I was playing against the #3 and #4 ranked players at that time, and though I welcomed the pressure after a successful round against the previous #1 and #2 before, that round didn't go too well for me. It started well 'cos I won a hand at the start, but then I made some stupid mistakes, the worst one being that I didn't call "HU!" when I self-drew a winning tile because I wasn't sure if I met the minimum 8 points needed to call for a win. So I threw out a tile instead to continue the game, and the realised that I shouldn't have thrown out that particular tile (5 bamboo) as it was better than another tile (7 bamboo) that I opted to keep!

Anyway, in our last hand, the game was almost going to end as a "dead hand" since nobody called a win yet and there was just 1 tile left on the wall. I was the "lucky" one to pick that last tile, and it was a green dragon tile. It wasn't a winning tile for me, so I could either discard it, or find a safer tile from my hand to discard.

I wasn't thinking about risks. I thought instead "Well, chances of anyone winning on the last tile is very slim, so nobody's going to need this green dragon anyway," so I threw it out.

"HU!" cried Morten (#4) and Joe (#3) together when they saw the last green dragon tile!!! They were BOTH needing that tile to win! But Joe was after me, and Morten was after Joe, so the tile belonged to Joe, and I had lots of points deducted because the winning tile came from me.

Before the appearance of that green dragon, Morten actually had more points than Joe, so he could be in top 3, but because Joe now won that hand and there was not enough time to play another, it meant that Joe overtook Morten by...get this...ONE point!

So yeah, Morten...who was part of the Danish Red Dragons team (in other words, one of our guys), ended up in 5th place...all because I unnecessarily threw out that 1 deciding tile. Now he never wants to play with me again :o(. I'm sorry, Morten!!! Please forgive me ;o)! Thing is though, if Joe didn't need that tile to win, then Morten would have gotten it, get lots of points, and possibly become either 1st place or 2nd place in the tournament! So if his luck was better, I could have played a big part in helping him get that spot... .

Anyway...here are some pics from the event.

Constructively spending the time away on a 4½hr long train ride from Copenhagen to Hamburg.

Museum of Ethnology

Flower Power girls!

Check out his heavy headgear!

Preparing for Round#1

My 1st round was at Table A.

Everyone getting into position.

And so begins the tournament!

Concentrating hard.

Here's happy Morten...while he was still in 4th position and enjoying it while it lasted for the next 2hrs until the nasty Green Dragon flew out of my hands and took it all away from the defenseless Kung Fu Panda... .

Flower Power girls again! 7th position out of 8 in total combined mahjong table points, but definitely 1st position in total combined beauty points ;o).

Danish Red Dragons. Well, I see 2 Red Dragons, 1 Flower Power wannabe, and 1 sad panda... .

The whole "Danish" team who made up 1/4 of the total participants.

The Lamborghini I drove around in while in Hamburg. I would have driven it all the way back to Copenhagen, but didn't want to seem anti-social so I joined the rest in the train instead.

My 3 daily "S'es" in reverse

2008-09-10T15:00:00.007+02:00

I've been meaning to blog about this for some time but have been pushing it, yet every time it happens, I keep telling myself "It'll be blogged about today!"

So yes, today's the day!

Do you know how annoying it is when, after a nice refreshing shower, especially in the morning, and you're feeling clean and ready to take on the world, when within minutes of stepping out, the guys in your rectum go:

"BREACH ALERT! BREACH ALERT! People, listen up! Our outer walls have been breached - it seems like our dear Anus here has been scrubbed cleaned...AGAIN!"

"Oh no!!!" chorus every filthy one. "Why does this keep happening?!? When will it STOP?!"

"We'll discuss the details of a real Republican plan later, but right now, we've just got to unload the bio-chemical S.H.I.T. of the day and see what happens."

So starts the rumble of an internal earthquake measured to an equivalent of between 4-8 on the Richter Scale, and then the power struggle between Anus and The Mind to see who will give in. More often than not, Anus wins, so the download goes ahead as launched...and Anus gets soiled despite being clean just minutes ago. And this usually means that I end up in the shower a 2nd freakin' time! Good that the Rectum Department tends to be out of ammo by then.

I really hate it when literal shit happens like that after being scrubbed clean. I mean, if it happens after a few hours of my shower, then fine. But out of every 10 times I shower, 8 times I end up sitting over the "~~Black~~ White Hole" within just 10 mins of pure santizied bliss. What is wrong here?!?!

And it's not like I can help it much because:

1. I'm usually fine before I step into the shower (so why waste a good precious 10 mins sitting over the "White Hole" hoping for a download before I get wet).

2. It's not just in the weekday mornings that the launches happen after a shower. It can also be during a weekend afternoon or weekend evening, so it's not that there's a fixed morning timetable that I can prepare precisely for.

Or what? Am I really doing it all wrong? Is there some kind of Special High Intensity Training (S.H.I.T) that all humans go through at age 3 to teach about following the correct sequence of events: Shit-Shave-Shower? I've heard Martin saying this phrase several times before as if he had graduated with top honours from this training. Is this true? Since I seem to be doing the exact opposite all the time (Shower-Shave-Shit)!

Oh well...I think I'll need to have a one-on-one with my body soon because enough is enough!

George Michael - The Final One!

2008-09-06T00:59:00.005+02:00

This post is quite overdue, but George Michael was performing his final tour concert in Copenhagen last Saturday (30 Aug), and I went to see him!!! Yes, I'm talking about the George Michael - the guy who gave us "Faith", "Freedom", "Careless Whisper"...and "Last Christmas".

Btw, did you realise that he made a grammatical error in his "Careless Whisper" song? The part where he sings "Guilty feet have got no rhythm". Notice? It should be "Guilty feet has got no rhythm". Oh well, he's British so English is of course not his 1st language... .

Anyway, it was a GREAT concert! One of the best concerts I've ever been too! A couple of people from my group were slightly disappointed that he didn't sing "Last Christmas" though. Nevermind that he was performing in August, and Christmas isn't until...well, December.

Speaking of "Last Christmas", George said that he is going to release a new Christmas single this year. Not sure how that's going to compete against "Last Christmas", but we'll find out soon enough. I mean, do you remember any Christmases in your life when you didn't hear "Last Christmas"? I'm pretty sure that even if you are on the moon, you'll be hearing "Last Christmas" in your space shuttle.

He won't be retiring yet though, so no worries to George's fans. He's just not going to do a world tour again (or so he says), but he'll still write songs and perform. I mean, he's only 45 years old, so why would he stop "working"?

Oh well, just in case he doesn't make a comeback tour in the future, I'm glad to have heard the man live at last. My expensive ticket was very much worth it :o).

Careless Whisper - he really does say "feet have".

My dreams can come true...

2008-08-31T23:02:00.001+02:00

...and when they do, it can be quite spooky sometimes.

This was a text message I had sent to a dear friend approximately 2 weeks ago (names changed to keep the couple anonymous):

Recipient: +45XXXXXXXX
Time: Saturday, 16-08-2008 14:46
Text: Jane! Are you pregnant??? I dreamt last night tht u were around 6 months pregnant when we went to visit u and Jack! Maybe it's a sign ;-).

Sender: +45XXXXXXXX
Time: Saturday, 16-08-2008 15:35
Text: Ha :-) i don't think your dream is true:-) in 2 yrs we are not planning to have the ''3th'' one to disturbing our 2 world:-).....Hug/jane

Well, I decided to keep the message I had sent her for at least 3 to 4 months because I had a strong feeling my dream would come true in due time. The reason for this strong feeling was because one such dream I had did come to pass.

You see, back in around October 2005, I dreamt that a colleague of mine was pregnant. I told her my dream, and she said no, she wasn't pregnant, but she'd like to be. I was in Brazil in Dec 2005/Jan 2006 for 3 weeks, and when I came back to work, I noticed that her belly looked bigger than usual.

As I didn't want to risk offending her about her big belly in case she still wasn't pregnant, I asked another colleague of mine, who confirmed that she was pregnant with her 1st child! "Damn!" I thought, "My dream did come true!" She was 4 months pregnant by that time, which meant that I dreamt about her pregnancy just before she knew it herself or just before she actually conceived!

Spooky, huh? But that could just as well be a one-off coincidence. Nevertheless, it was a "dream record" for me to remember, so when I vividly dreamt of Jane's pregnancy 2 weeks ago, I woke up thinking "Another pregnancy dream! Let's see if this one comes true too!"

So you can see why I decided to keep the message I had sent to Jane as a record of the date I dreamt this, and then wait to see if it really will come true within 3-4 months as I believed it would.

Guess what? I didn't need to wait that long to get the confirmation ;o). When I checked my email yesterday, I received a mail from Jane with the subject: "Your dream is true....:-)" It made my heart beat fast.

Here's an extract of the mail:

From: Jane
Sent: Saturday, August 30, 2008 9:39:58 AM

I was sick since last 3 dags...but I did not think about it was this happened :-) I could not do anything. at beginning I thought stay home for relaxing then I will be better. but until yesterday still I did not feel better. so Jack took me to see the doctor. and I was told that I am PREGNANT. I was surprised. then I back the day Sheila sent the message and asked me if I am pregnant. and I told you (Sheila) no...hahahahaah. I can't belive. it effectived by your dream..:-)

Spooky, huh? 2 pregnancy dreams involving 2 specific people and both came to pass just before the soon-to-be 1st time mums knew it themselves. Coincidence again? Probably, but you'd have to agree that the odds against this are very high. If it happens a 3rd time, you can be sure I will strike "coincidence" off the list and call it...hmm, what should I call it? A gift in pregnancy predictions ;o)?

Anyway, it's good to have nice dreams coming true. Dreams of life! I wouldn't want to be dreaming of deaths and having those dreams come true. Imagine dreaming vividly that a friend or relative is going to die, and it comes true. Would you actually be the messenger of death and tell this person your dream to prepare him/her for it? In Chinese superstition, you should always tell someone (not the subject, though - too sensitive) about such dreams to prevent it from happening. But what if you tell someone and it still comes true? Would you be blamed for that death despite how bizzare that sounds?

Hmm...I guess if I ever dream of such dreams, I'll just keep my mouth shut and pray on behalf of that person that it doesn't come true. I've dreamt of my own near-death before - being chased by ailens who were having a war against the human race ;o). I still remember it quite clearly, also the part when I had time to make just one phone call to say goodbye to a loved one, and I was deciding between Martin and someone else - my mum, probably. I called Martin. Good thing though, I managed to escape death in that dream, so it ended well after all.

Well, so far it's just my pregnancy dreams coming true, so I look forward to see who I'm going to dream about being pregnant next. Hopefully *not* myself ;o). And no, please don't come to me and beg me to dream about you being pregnant if that's what you want to be because I can't decide who I dream about ;oP. But if I do dream such of you, I will be sure to pass on the good news ;o).

"Straight from the mouth"

2008-08-28T16:05:00.006+02:00

During dinner yesterday with my dear colleagues...

Sabrina: "So are you both going to George Michael's concert together?"
Rune: "Well...not really. I'm VIP so I have seating tickets."
Sheila: "Yeah, yeah, Rune - whatever. I'm one of the dancing party people, hence my standing ticket."
Sabrina (with the killer punchline): "Ah, so seating tickets are for OLD people."

You nailed it, girl! *High 5*

Harems on Facebook

2008-08-25T00:40:00.006+02:00

Right...what should I do when some stranger (in this case, "Marc Leong") wants to add me as a friend on Facebook, and the kind of "friends" on his "friend's list" are like the below:

Click to enlarge. Last names erased to somewhat protect their identities.

Option 1: Join his harem.
Option 2: Make my own male version of a harem and invite him to join it (and I accept only profile pics where men are stripped down to their underwear OR have 6-packs to show off).
Option 3: Click "Ignore" and prays he gets a life.

Decisions, decisions... . Well, I think I'll do option 3 for now. Unfortunately, a secondary school classmate of mine had decided to join his harem, and this is the 2nd time that some stranger like him requests for my "friendship" and has her as a "mutual friend". Might be the same guy, can't remember. But if she's just going to add perverts like him to her currently 403 "friends", it's no wonder I keep getting such unwanted requests now and then. Grr... .

Seriously though, I don't understand why some women want to "sell themselves" cheap with the kind of profile pics that they have. Do men really dig that? The line between "sexy" and "slutty" is very thin, but sometimes you just need to open your eyes a little bigger and you'll be able to see that fine line.

As for men out there who have Facebook harems, please don't think that I'll be flattered when you try to add me to it. Arrogant as it may sound, I am in a class of my own, and unfortunately for you, I value myself far too much to want to be seen as one of your "female trophies".

Size and age are proportional

2008-08-23T19:01:00.003+02:00

One thing about watching kids grow, is that it makes you feel so old. Especially if these kids are your own, or part of your family. It's hard to accept that my sister, Claudia, is now 18 years old and is legally an adult (in Denmark, at least). I want my kid sister back!!! The one who used to obey my every command... ;o).

The scary thing now is that although my youngest sister is still "only" 14, she's getting physically bigger and taller than me!!! I kid you not (pun not intended)! Check it out:

Have any of you actually seen my youngest sister when she was a toddler? Well, fast forward 12 years and this is what you get.

And here's Claudia, who is now way bigger than me.

But I actually don't mind at all that they are both getting bigger and taller than me. After all, being the smallest means being the youngest, so since I'm the smallest sister, it means I'm the youngest sister! I like the way I rationalise things.

Samba!

2008-08-20T20:18:00.002+02:00

Isabel from my mahjong club invited all of us to her 35th birthday party last Saturday. She's from Brazil, and yes, she plays mahjong ;o). Had learnt it when she was living in Malaysia.

It was indeed an active party. Eating, drinking, samba dancing, karaoke singing, ~~lap dances~~, limbo rocking and socialising. She really wanted to end the night with a mahjong session, but unfortunately, no one brought their mahjong sets along.

Here are some crazy pictures from that night:

Mix of Brazilians, Danes, and 3 Asians.

Our sexy star entertainer.

Don't walk away!

Oooh la la!

We want to learn to samba too!

Yay! Now I'm ready!

Doing the limbo rock.

Believe it or not, this one's PREGNANT!

Always nice with a little help when you're so tall.

3 Brazilian girls. Well, almost ;o).

Lap dance, courtesy of the birthday girl's hubby.

Lap dance, courtesy of the birthday girl's guest (it's a guy btw, despite the very long blond hair).

Karaoke time! Singing Lionel Richtie's "Hello".

She was singing "Maneater", but they're trying to be "Womaneaters".

I believe he was singing "The Final Countdown".

They were singing Britney Spear's "Hit Me Baby One More Time". Morten (left) is really putting his emotions into this song.

Obrigada Isabel, for a very fun party! Feliz aniversario mais uma vez!

Cheesecake Round 2

2008-08-17T18:50:00.004+02:00

It is traditional at our office for the birthday boy/girl to treat his/her beloved colleagues to either cake or ice-cream (although not limited to these). I was planning to make tiramisu this year, but a couple of colleagues requested cheesecake instead, so I had to make it a 2nd time around after the one I made for my party. Felt like déjà vu, but I at least I know the receipe by heart now.

STOP SHI HUA!!!

Oh my! Look how much Shi Hua bit off :o(.

Anyway...it was a success, and it was just enough for everyone in the office to have 1 slice each :o).

SIA - simply the best!

2008-08-16T01:48:00.003+02:00

Singapore Airlines (SIA) has been named "Best airline in the world" for 2008 by Skytrax. Actually, 2008's not over yet, so how come they can conclude this already? It is still Aug 2008 now, right? I just turned 25 18, so please don't tell me 2008 is over already.

Anyway, where was I? Ah yes, for the 3rd time in 10 years, SIA is on top. Actually, I thought we've won a lot more than 3 times...but well, it's still cool. We always take SIA whenever we travel back to Singapore. Ok, we haven't always done that...but will be doing so from 2007 onwards. Sure, we'll have to pay a ~~bit~~ lot more, but besides the comfort and inflight entertainment, it's also nice to just fly direct for the 12 hours that it takes from CPH-SIN. Besides, there's a lower chance of your luggage getting lost since it's not getting transferred from one plane to another.

I wonder if Singapore Airlines won because of the possibility of having "Sex In Air" (SIA)... ;o). Oops, did I just say that? Sorry, I Apologise! But seriously, it has to be.

I mean, compared to say:

Scandinavian Airline System - SAS - Slow And Sloppy
Air Portugal - TAP - Take Another Plane
Alitalia - Always Late In Taking off, Always Late In Arrivals
(none of these made the list)

Funny enough (or coincidently enough), the best European airlines is:
Lufthansa! (Let Us F*ck THem And Not Say Anything).

There's something about sex that sells, it seems.

:-D...entist

2008-08-14T21:21:00.003+02:00

Was at the dentist today for my ½ yearly visit. Actually, I should have gone many months ago, but I had either kept pushing it, or conveniently forgetting about it.

However, since Toey, my summer helper at work, is going to stop next Tuesday, I thought I had better make that dental appointment so that I can leave the office for X amount of time during office hours to clean them. The time taken is included in our working hours anyway, but better if Toey can be there to handle things while I'm gone.

So today was D-day! I figured it would not take more than 1 hour, and I was right! It didn't. It took a record time of 20 mins! Woohoo! It was the fastest, cheapest, most painless visit to the dentist I've ever had! Mr Dentist was very pleased with my clean and hole-less pearlies, so he didn't need to spend much time doing extensive work :-D. And he thought it would now be enough if I visit him just once a year instead of twice a year. Double :-D!

However, there was a piece of bad news (yeah, otherwise it would've been too good to be true, right?). My wisdom tooth on my lower right jaw was starting to show. Actually, I'm not sure when it started popping its head out since I can't feel it nor see it if I don't look all the way in with lights and mirrors. And I had the same dentist "doing me" today as I had last September, but since he didn't point out my rearing wisdom tooth then, it must therefore mean that it had only started popping out between Sept 2007 and now.

It's only partially showing, but it's already growing in a weird position. Anyway, as long as I can remember to clean it to prevent holes from coming, then it should be ok. I hope. I mean, I'm not sure if it'll continue to grow (hopefully not), so there could still be problems later on anyway if the space in my mouth is not enough to accommodate it.

Oh well...I guess I am becoming wiser as I grow older. That's what the wisdom tooth is for, right? To help us get wiser? Otherwise, what's the point?

My presents

2008-08-10T20:00:00.004+02:00

Just for those who are curious:

The overview.

In more detail. 100 points if you can guess who the bra and undies are from ;o). The set was VERY expensive though (bought at Wolford), so I would either return them or exchange them for something more reasonably priced (sorry bunny!). Thing is, I did try on the bra, and damn...it was fitting so well and very comfortable too! But still...not for the price.

Evening shimmering dress from mum and sisters.

Sexy leopard print nightie with matching undies from dear Ivy. Bought in China, and sent by post from Jutland when she returned to Denmark.

Georg Jensen key chain from Morten and Karin, leopard mirror key chain from Shi Hua (on top of an evening sequined bag she gave).

Delicious hand-made chocolates from the chocolate shop where Wagma works in.

And this is specially for Ivy, so that she can see that her gift fits ;o).

080808 - my day

2008-08-08T18:32:00.006+02:00

As mentioned in a couple of posts below, I had decided to have a birthday party after all this year, since it was a good date and on a Friday. I didn't take the day off from work though, so I had to rush home after work to prepare for the arrival of my guests.

Big thanks to hubby and dear sister, Claudia, who were able to be home earlier to help get the last things (drinks, snacks, etc). Love you both!

And special thanks to all my dear guests who took the time to come celebrate my day with me, as well as those who were not able to be with me in body due to circumstances, but who were nevertheless with me in spirit :o). Also, special honour to Wagma who was the guest who arrived at precisely 08:08pm - you go, girl ;o)!

Anyways, pictures below from the celebration:

Opening presents.

My dear guests.

That's right, Hannah...put it back ;o).

Don't be sad, Claudia...soon it'll be your birthday too :o).

So many lovely gifts!

Chocolate muffins were home-made by sis Claudia. She made 31 (don't ask me why - I'm wondering it myself), but at the end of the night, there were only 19 left. That must be my age then.

Some guests were enjoying smoking the waterpipe earlier. Well, not sure about the "enjoyment" part really, since I heard that the tobacco flavour that they mixed tasted horrible.

"Happy birthday to me!"

Making the cheesecake

2008-08-08T11:15:00.001+02:00

Here's the cheesecake I made for my birthday:

The crust.

The cheese part.

Proof that I'm making it.

Ready for the oven.

Decorating part.

Ta-da! The complete cake. Well, almost - it still needs to set, but you get the idea.

My horrific lunch experience

2008-08-07T22:34:00.004+02:00

Aw...isn't he cute? He was at the back of today's newspaper.

But oh...look who Tiggy killed! 1 whack of the newspaper (the one with Tiggy's pic on it) on this annoying fly was all it took to end its sorry life. It's HUGE (see my index finger next to it)! There are 2 more, so if they bug me while I eat my lunch like Mr R.I.P did, they'll feel Tiggy's wrath too. ROAR!

Oh, oh...Tiggy killed #2, and this one required more than a few whacks, but look what came out of its body! Moving maggots!!! Lots of them!!! GROSS! Was probably a pregnant fly. Think it's best I just finish my lunch and leave this fly infested kitchen.

1 more day!

2008-08-07T00:02:00.004+02:00

No, no, not to the Olympics. Well, yes it is, but that's not as important MY BIRTHDAY!!! The date of the year, or rather, of the DECADE (and decades to come) is...

08/08/08!

Just look at all the circles, the curves - simply beautiful ;o). And not to mention, that "8" is a lucky number in Chinese, so "luck, luck and luck"! Well ok, I guess you could also say "zero luck/zero luck/zero luck"... . Whatever ;oP.

Anyways...I have decided to throw a small party this year after all. Heck, why not, right? It's a good date and it's on a Friday. I will never have a nice date like this to celebrate on again, since the next one would be 8/8/88...and although I'd still be *ahem* 25 18, I might not be an "alive" 25 18. Hey, jokes aside, I'd actually be 111 years old if I get that far, so it would be a cool date to celebrate on for that reason too ;o).

So yeah - a party on 08/08/08 at 08:08:08pm! Stay tuned for updates!

I'm not a loanshark!

2008-08-02T23:31:00.004+02:00

I don't like borrowing money from others. In the rare times when I owe someone money (eg. when going out for dinner with friends and I only have my debit card while they have enough cash to foot the bill first, or when we share a cab home and they pay the total fare because they get dropped home last), I always make it a point to pay my share of the money back before they ask me for it. In these cases, though the amount tends to be small, it's still in my conscience to settle the "debt".

I've always believed that if you want to buy something, either make sure it's attainable within your budget, or work hard to save up for it. I know it can be a struggle for some people, but if we look closely into our spending habits, we can usually find things in our lives that we can live without.

On the other side of the same coin, I don't like lending money either. If it's for the above reasons that I had mentioned regarding me borrowing money, then sure (if it's for friends/family), but anything more than a couple of hundred kroners for friends are usually "no-no" for me, especially since money tends to destroy friendships and relationships when people don't pay up. It's better to make a friend upset for a few days or weeks when he/she doesn't get money from you, than to totally lose the friendship because he/she doesn't pay up.

The rare times when I make exceptions to my rule, I usually end up getting reminded of WHY I don't loan money out in the first place. Case in point: the recent trip to Berlin.

I was the one who had looked into flight tickets and hotel rooms for me and 2 girlfriends. Well, one was a friend (W), the other was this friend's friend (AL) whom I had met a couple of times before. Anyway, it was easier for me to pay first because flight tickets were booked online and had to be paid for upon reservation, while the hotel rooms were booked via my company so since I was the only one with access to my company's staff website, it was therefore easier for me to just pay for the rooms first.

Anyhow, total amount that each of the girls should pay was 1,468kr (S$420). W paid up on time, but AL asked after some days if she could pay back her part the following month (July) due to a tight economy. "Sure," I said, since I didn't need the money desperately anyway. Which of course begs the question: "Why go on a trip when it's not within your budget?" but ok, that's another story.

After our trip (end of June), 2 weeks passed and I didn't hear a word from AL. Yes, I know she said she'd pay back in July, and July wasn't over yet, but I also know that she would have received her salary at the end of June, so wouldn't it have been right to pay back after settling the usual mambo jambo like rent and bills, etc?

If she was genuinely tight with her economy, then yes, I'd understand better. However, while we were at the Duty Free shop in Copenhagen Airport before catching our flight to Berlin, she had spent a good 700kr (S$200) on branded makeup without so much of a thought! ½ of "my" money! For her to spend like that in front of me after telling me about her tight economy felt just like she was rubbing my face in the dirt, but I said nothing because I didn't want to spoil the trip over this.

So yes, I did expect her to pay back right after getting her next pay cheque before she started spending "my" money again, but 2 weeks went by without any feedback. I wrote an email reminding her about it, but no reply for about 4 days.

Called her up, and she said she didn't receive my email, but will pay it the following week. The following week came and went, but still no sign of a transfer. I sent an sms with the amount and account number and asked that it be paid the following Monday, so I should receive it in my account on Tuesday, and requested also for an acknowledgement that the message has been read and understood. Didn't get it.

Monday came, and I sent yet another sms in the evening asking if transfer was made. Finally a message back, but saying "Oops! I'll do it tomorrow". Tuesday came, and the message I received was that her bank would not transfer the money that day because her account was in minus, so had to wait 1 more day (probably when her next pay cheque came in). So Wednesday came, and though I told her to let me know when done, I didn't hear anything in the morning so I sent yet another sms to ask if it was done. Shortly after, her message came back saying "Done", and after checking my account on Thursday, I finally see my dough.

Case closed at last!!! And never, never, never again. I know that some people would just "let it go" and say "Well, that's how much it costed to get rid of a friend like him/her," but for me, as long as I know how to contact the borrower and/or know where he/she lives, I won't just "let it go". Simply because if I do, it would only be allowing that person to easily escape his/her responsibility to pay back a loan. If people just keep "letting it go", then the borrower will just keep borrowing without paying back.

Anyway, I have now retired from my "loansharking" business. I make a lousy loanshark anyway, since I don't cruelly add on a high interest rate for every day that the loan's not paid back.

Alice's birthday party

2008-07-28T23:38:00.009+02:00

Alice had been a very good girl, since it was hot and sunny on her birthday yesterday. Yes, here in Denmark, good weather = good behaviour, bad weather = bad behaviour. Tough luck for those born in winter then... .

We had been seeing temperatures of around 30 deg C all weekend, and also today. Hopefully for many days more since I like not having to carry a sweater around. But yesterday was perfect BBQ weather, so that was how we celebrated Alice's addition of a year.

Boys and toys. My Martin checking out Alice's Martin's HTC Diamond mobile phone (rival of the iPhone).

Grillmaster at work. If there's one thing I like about BBQs, it's that the guys usually do most of the work :o).

The pit, the pit, the pit is on fire.

At where Alice and Martin live. Not my Martin; Alice's Martin!

It's actually a part of the student apartments ("kollegium" in Danish) at the Danish Technical University where Alice's Martin is studying and part-time working at.

Food! The potatoes didn't get "cooked" even after HOURS! Guess they needed their aluminium wrappings around them to cook faster, those spoilt and rebellious potatoes!

Patiently waiting for food.

Gobble, gobble, gobble!

Alice's Martin caught a bugging bee with his chopsticks! After many tries, though.

But then shortly after, he did it again with another bee! Have to take my hat off to Sensei now.

Break time from food = table football time.

Outfit was bought by my Martin, with some help from my sister, Claudia, while they were holidaying in Bulgaria recently.

Alice's Martin made this cake! Looks very professionally done, yeah? Family receipe, he said. Oh, 1 thing about Danes is that they are so proud of their little country that they use their country's flag for all kinds of celebrations, especially birthdays. Talk about patriotism.

Here's Alice the birthday princess at last!

MINE! ALL MINE! Healthy stuff, filled with fruits (grapes, pineapples, strawberries and bananas). Who said dessert has to be unhealthy? Well, that's what I try to convince myself at least - that this cake is very healthy... .

Thank you Alice for inviting us and for all the good food! Hey, I should have 打包 some leftover food from you yesterday to help you finish them ;o). Didn't think of it until after we left. Anyway, once again, 祝你生日快乐!!!

Check out my cheque!

2008-07-22T00:12:00.005+02:00

Received a cheque in the mail today! Well, for just 300kr (S$79)...but the point is, it's been a long time since I last saw/received a cheque!

In this day an age, I would have thought cheques are things of the past. For this case especially, when this insurance company, danmark Sygeforsikring, has my bank account number! I mean, that's where they pay me back some money for my contact lens and dental services, etc, so why won't they just put the 300kr directly into my account and save me the trouble of going to the bank?

Ah...maybe it's because they hope it'll be too much trouble for me, so I would just forget about it and not claim it. I did actually not cash in a cheque before...as it was for the miserly amount of 45kr (S$12)! The cost of transport to and from the bank would almost cost more than the cheque amount! Not to mention, the higher cost of my time.

I did own a cheque book for a period of time in my early twenties. I actually felt quite "grown up" at that time, whipping out my cheque book, writing down an amount - both spelt out and in numbers, crossing it, signing it, and finally tearing out that valuable page from the rest of its still blank and valueless "friends". And where possible, I would use my "grown up" Parker pen to write it out.

Yes...all those years as a child watching my mum write out cheques to give me so that I could pay for various fees at school (usually if I need big amounts), and finally, I could do the the same, though just for a short time since Internet banking started to become more and more popular. Now cheques are just hassel, hassel and hassel, and you can't really pay for things with cheques anymore, can you? Maybe just in parts of the world that do not have Internet connection for online banking... .

I love IQ puzzles!

2008-07-21T22:40:00.005+02:00

I had this puzzle from my parents-in-law last Christmas because they know that I enjoy solving them (and can be quite stubborn sometimes by not giving up unless it's extremely difficult).

"Very difficult" it says. We'll see about that.

I didn't really make time since last Christmas to try to solve this one, so had just kept it away. However, a couple of days ago, I heard it taunting me: "Nah, nah, nah, nah, nah - Sheila can't solve me, Sheila can't solve me!" so I decided to settle this challenge once and for all.

Out of the box it came. The challenge is to arrange the bricks so that they become a dice again. And yes, I did time myself on this.

Tada! Done in 8 minutes :o). What, you don't believe me?

The time on our camera is actually still showing Australian time...but that doesn't matter. What matters here, is the start time.

And here, end time - 8 mins.

Just like dice again.

Showing all sides...

Anyway, did you know that the plural of "dice" is "die"? But it does sound funny to say "throw 2 die", doesn't it? I guess that's why "dices" is a word that is accepted too... .

Do you know the 1 puzzle I'll like to solve before I die? The Rubik Cube!

The problem is, I don't have one to try to solve. Not yet, at least. My birthday is coming soon. Anybody want to get me one ;o)???

Sunny Home apartment at Sunny Beach for rent!

2008-07-19T16:42:00.008+02:00

Wanna see some updated pictures of our Sunny Home apartment in Sunny Beach, Bulgaria? It's pretty much complete now. Only "big" thing missing is a TV and TV shelf thingy, but that will have to wait till some other time. Besides, who goes on holiday to a beach resort only to stay "home" and watch Bulgarian TV, right? Anyway, it's only because we need to have it on the list of "Things to have" when we want to rent it out while we're not there, otherwise we would not bother getting it.

Our apartment (2nd floor from the top, just above the balcony with drying clothes.

Side view. Red car was rented for a week and booked via my company at very special price.

Swimming pool still not ready! That's annoying, because it apparently affects the price for renting out our apartment. Has been 2 years already that it's been empty, and I do want to know why.

Some new building going on now. Hope it won't block out whatever little sun that the pool area gets.

The living room area - sofabed, picture on the wall and blinds are new additions. The rug on the floor was brought from our Copenhagen apartment because we don't use it anymore (and I didn't want to just throw it away).

Dining area - blinds are new. Table and chairs we had already bought last year when we were there. I would actually like the tables and chairs to be closer to the window, with the idea that we can look out of it while eating breakfast.

Kitchenette - nothing new from last year really. We're still missing a couple of bar chairs, but that's just minor detail. Oh, and maybe also a microwave oven.

Bedroom - blinds are new.

Still the bedroom - dressing table and blinds are new. Would need a picture on the left wall, a nicer chair (although the stool works fine for now), and some decoration thingy to the right of the dresser otherwise it looks so bare. Oh, and a small rug on the floor.

But yeah, it's slowly becoming more and more "homey", and we're going to be renting it out pretty soon already. If any of you want to go to Sunny Beach, just let me know and I'll give a very special price for you my friend ;o). If you need a bit of convincing about why you should make a trip to Sunny Beach (besides that it's a cheap destination within Europe, if you're already living in Europe), how about sights like these:

It really does look like being in Rio de Janiero, Brazil, with the mountains and all.

Yeah, ok - the beach can be crowded, but if you're looking for a "happenin" place, then Sunny Beach is it. If you want a more quite beach, you can always rent a car and drive outside a bit.

See? A quieter area here.

And a really countryside area here... .

More pictures here: Sunny Beach 2007
Video from 2007: Sunny Home

And the latest here:

So, what are you waiting for???

Car talk

2008-07-13T22:53:00.005+02:00

I learnt today how to push start a car. Yes, I said "push start a car", not "push a car" (though I did push the car too). I'm actually quite amazed at how many guys out there who know how to do this! Seriously, where do you guys learn this from? I certainly didn't have this lesson in my driving school years ago. I'm curious now about how many girls know this. Maybe I'm the only female driver who didn't... . Hmm... .

Anyway, the engine starter in my father-in-law's Renault Megane Scenic car has been having some problems now and then, and he hadn't had time to have it fixed at the mechanic before flying off to Bulgaria with the rest of the gang. I have the pleasure of having the car for the whole week that they're there, and though I was advised about the problem, it wasn't supposed to be a biggy.

They were dropped off at the airport on Sat and I drove home after that without any problems. Went to play tennis this morning and drove to the tennis courts without any problems. Came home from there without any problems either. After a couple of hours, I drove to church, and though the engine didn't start the first time I turned the key, I was told before that I should just keep trying and it'll come to live, so I turned the key the second time and it worked.

After church, the problem started. Engine would not start no matter how many times I turned the key on and off. Would not start no matter how many times I released the safety feature of the car (a trick of locking + unlocking the car doors before turing the key again to start the engine. Don't ask - it's a French Renault feature).

So yeah, the only way to start the car at this point was to push start it, and luckily there were enough men around to help do this. Thing is, I had never done it before (being in the driver's seat to start the car while the men pushed), but luckily, my mum knew the procedure so she took the wheel to do it, and the engine came to live!

Anyway, in order not bore you, I can just mention that we had to do this a couple more times later on, and every guy (or two) who came to help us knew this procedure:

1. Turn the key to the On position.
2. Release the parking brake.
3. Push down on the clutch pedal and put the transmission in second gear.
4. Keep the cluth pedal pressed.
5. When the car is rolling as fast as a person running, slowly release the clutch pedal while giving the engine a little gas with the accelerator pedal.

And so the engine should start. Works only for cars with manual gear, though...and that's what most people drive here in Denmark anyway.

But yeah, I was just surprised that all the guys whom we asked to help knew this, particularly about putting the transmission in second gear. Hmm...I wonder if Martin knows this. Will test him when he gets back (if he doesn't read my blog about this first).

One other thing I've learnt today besides "How to push start a car", is that needing help for this is a GREAT way to pick up men ;o)! I mean, imagine me and my mum in a car that wouldn't start, neither of us are strong enough to push the car fast enough (alone), so all we needed to do was to wait and "catch" the first (cute) guy we see for help.

The guy, seeing 2 helpless ladies in a helpless car, would feel proud to be given the opportunity to help 2 beautiful ladies. This is where strength and knowledge can work to his advantage. If he's lucky, the car would be able to start in no time and he can get all the credit.

If some time goes by and the car still hasn't started, then depending on what time of the day it is and where we are, a second guy might walk/drive by and see that 2 beautiful ladies need help. He'll come by to assist Guy#01, and together, they can combine their macho-ness to save the damsels in distress.

So yeah...single girls out there, get yourself a car that won't start and see how many macho men you can pick up in a day. I'll bet that there won't be enough seats in the car for all of them ;o).

And btw, some say push-starting a car is bad for the car while most say it's harmless (just make sure you have space enough so you don't hit anyone or anything). I guess in general, it's really ok - just not for automatic cars. Check out what these experts have to say: Car talk

For the record, I still have not successfully started the car in this way. I have only learnt how it is done, and was not successful in starting the engine during the couple of times I was in the driver's wheel while the helpful guys pushed, so good that my mum could take over wheel while I watched and learned.

And yes, it SUCKS to have had the chance of using the car for a whole week, but ending up enjoying it for only 1 day. Oh well, at least it's not because I had smashed the car or made some new problems to it that caused it to die on me... .

My 1 week of singlehood...

2008-07-11T23:20:00.002+02:00

....starts tomorrow!!! Well, not quite "singlehood" in its true sense. It's more "being without hubby", that kind of "singlehood". He'll be flying off to Sunny Beach, Bulgaria tomorrow for a week with his parents, a cousin, and my sister, Claudia.

Poor me have to be stuck here in Copenhagen because of work. Oh well, I actually like being in Copenhagen in the summer anyway, so I'm not really complaining. Would of course be fun to be with a bunch of family there, so that's what I'll miss the most.

Nevertheless, I'll make the most of my time alone here. Will be working as usual during the weekdays, and the only weekend alone I'll have is this weekend, so besides the WILD WILD PARTY that I'm going to throw...no, just kidding - it'll be a quiet weekend...sorta. I'll try to play tennis tomorrow with a former colleague (if he's free and no rain), lunch appointment after that, then maybe checkout a new nightclub in town if I don't get too lazy.

You know what's nice about having a holiday apartment? That you can put stuff there that you don't need in your real home ;o). Too many mugs/glasses/cultery/plates? Bring to Bulgaria! Duvet covers we can't use anymore (not because they're old, but because we had bought a new duvet which is longer than the previous one, so we can't use the "old" duvet covers anymore)? Bring to Bulgaria! Big rug that we can't use anymore (because we bought a real carpet)? Bring to Bulgaria! Hubby that you can't use anymore? Send to Bulgaria! No, just kidding ;o)... .

Anyway, everything's packed up and ready for check-in. Parents-in-law will come by tomorrow between 07:00 - 07:30, so I had better go catch up on my beauty sleep.

National news at last!

2008-07-07T20:56:00.010+02:00

From one of Denmark's national papers today (Politiken):

The full article on page 3, with K in the picture.

The first 2 columns, if you want to read it better (click to enlarge).

Centre columns

Final column.

Here's something interesting from the Amnesty International link from my previous post (in case you didn't have time to read through it all):

Abstract:
Amnesty International is also concerned about the continued existence of two other forms of punitive administrative detention imposed by the police in China: 'Custody and Education' (shourong jiaoyu), used to punish alleged prostitutes and their clients with between six months and two years' administrative detention, and Enforced Drug Rehabilitation' (qiangzhi jiedu), which enables the police to impose between three and six months' detention for alleged drug addicts.

Recommendations to the Chinese authorities

In line with official commitments to improve human rights in the run-up to the Olympics in August 2008, Amnesty International urges the Chinese authorities to introduce concrete reforms in the following areas:

Fair trials, torture and administrative detention

Take concrete steps to bring all forms of detention in China into line with international human rights law and standards, including measures to uphold the rights to fair trial and prevent torture. These should include:

Abolishing 'Re-education through Labour', 'Enforced Drug Rehabilitation' and 'Custody and Education', ensuring that decisions on detention are no longer exclusively in the hands of the police.

From another interesting link:

Abstract:
First of all, during the Cultural Revolution, China's legal system was disabled. The Public Security police, the prosecutors and the court were all paralysed. After the Cultural Revolution, in an effort to restore the function of the police, the prosecutors and the court, the government gave the police exclusive rights to arrest people. No other department has the authority to make an arrest. Therefore, in the general publics minds, it is legal for the police department to arrest people. In today's China, most people don't understand the law. Most Chinese people naively think that if the police arrest somebody, then this person must have committed a crime. Otherwise, why would they arrest this person? People will tell you that the Cultural Revolution is over; no one gets arrested without a good reason. Therefore in many Chinese people's minds, only the police can arrest people. Hence a common misunderstanding exists. If the police arrest you, then you must have committed a crime. The due processes such as the prosecutor work and trials in the court are only procedures to decide on a proper punishment. There is no question on whether or not this person indeed committed a crime. During and after the Cultural Revolution, the police authority went from useless to absolute power above the law. The evil regime took advantage of the situation and conveniently fooled people into the current misconceptions.

In China, along with the economic development and open door policy, the collective social morality is rapidly declining. Widespread social ills go undeterred. Things that never existed in China quickly found their way in and have become much worse in China. The moral decline is out of control. Under this circumstance, China's traditional legal system could not effectively improve public security and maintain social order. To stay in power, the Communist regime deployed "harsh crackdown" in the late 70's and early 80's. The slogan was, "Heavily and swiftly strike all kinds of crimes and ugly phenomena in society." However, the new policy of "heavily and swiftly strike" might not be readily convenient if a case would need to go through the due process that involves independent Prosecutor and Court trial. Under such a social background, the Communist government conveniently recycled the "Re-Education through Labour" system, which was abolished as early as during the Cultural Revolution.

China's own constitution clearly states that Chinese citizens cannot be arrested without the prosecutor's approval and they are not guilty unless decided by a court trial.

In other words, Chinese citizens can only receive a verdict after a fair court trial. This is in line with the rest of the world. Moreover, China is now "opening up" its doors to the world. A very important element is to harmonise China's laws with those of the world. In any country, to determine if a citizen has committed crimes can only be done through a fair court trial. This is beyond question in all countries.

Then why in China, are sentences of "Re-Education through Labour" not decided by the courts? Why can the police alone sentence citizens to "Re-Education through Labour?"

Here, the evil regime plays another trick. In the official definition, "Re-Education through Labour" does not require a guilty verdict. The government says that criminal trials belong to the court, and that the police cannot decide who's guilty. On the other hand, the police can impose administrative penalties on citizens. In their dictionary, a "Re-Education through Labour" is the most severe administrative penalty, not a guilty verdict.

*******

Like I said before, China has a loooong way to go in getting up to accepted international legal standards. I hope with enough international pressure, they will change their system. Some say that the world needs China (implying that they can basically do what they want), but I believe that as much as the world needs China, China too, needs the world. It's a 2-way highway. After all, if major countries do not want to have anything to do with China, or if international companies do not invest in China, where would China really be right now? It has the rest of the world to thank for for her growing economy!

And let's not forget, China isn't the only big and highly populated country in the world. There is also India, and as far as I know, labour in India is just as cheap, if not cheaper than in China, English is an official language there (unlike in China), Indians can be very hardworking, and most importantly, they do not have "human rights" issues the way China does. It will take time for India to grow to the current economic status that China is enjoying, but I strongly believe that they will get there. And when they do, would the world really need China as much anymore?

My friend's "Shanghai Diary" - China and their lack of human rights

2008-07-07T00:07:00.018+02:00

With the Olympic Games being hosted in Beijing, China soon, there has been a lot of "hoo-ha" going around regarding China vs Tibet and their human rights policies. Or rather, lack of. I must admit that I have not been following very closely what the big issue surrounding the Olympic Games is because:

1) it's kinda "old news" when it comes to lack of human rights in China. They've been pressured for years by international organisations such as Amnesty International, but nothing much has changed.

2) I've always believed that sports and politics should be kept separate. Countries competing (fairly) against each other in the name of sport is much better than countries fighting against each other in war.

3) I've never known anyone personally who has been a victim of China's unjust, corrupted and communistic system.

Point 3 has changed since 1 week ago, when a friend of mine became a victim of China's unjust legal system. The story of what happened is so bizzare, that if it wasn't because he is a friend, I might have found it hard to believe. But then again, it is communistic China that we're talking about.

I am all for prisons being a place of harsh conditions, and for criminals who have been found guilty to live in these harsh conditions. After all, when a crime has been committed, the gulity criminal should not be doing his time in "hotel" conditions. No lesson would be learnt then, except that you get "free food and free lodgings" when you eg. rape someone. Also, when you know that conditions in jail are harsh if you get caught and found guilty of a crime, it would (should) make you think 10 times before you commit it.

However, everyone, guilty or innocent, should have the right to be innocent first until proven guilty. Everyone should have the right to defend himself. Granted, no country in the world has a perfect justice system since a) the courts are run by imperfect humans, b) judgements can therefore be flawed or clouded, or c) you might just be able to afford a damn good criminal lawyer to fight your case for you. Nevertheless, the basic elements of bringing justice should always be there: innocent until proven guilty, and the chance to defend yourself. Basic human rights.

Did my friend and his friend have both, or just 1 of that right in Shanghai, China? NOT AT ALL!!! They were jailed for 10 days in harsh conditions and had to pay a fine of 500 RMB (375 DKK / S$99) for a crime they DID NOT COMMIT! They were NOT ALLOWED to exercise their right to a phone call, nor was the Danish Consulate in Shanghai contacted by the police on their behalf as legally required.

When I read the detailed story that my friend had sent to me (his "Shanghai Diary"), I became very ANGRY. It was almost too difficult for me to read because neither of them deserved the treatment they had received by the Shanghainese police.

I won't go into the details of the full story (the pdf file I had received was 6½ pages long), but here's the summary of it:

My friend, S, was in Shanghai on a business trip for 4 days, and would spend an extra 5 days for vacation. His friend, K, who was also on a business trip in Hong Kong, joined S on S's 4th day (19th June) so that they could vacation the rest of the 5 days together.

After a night out on the 19th, K chatted up a Chinese girl at a bar, and when he was ready to go home, they decided to share a cab because she was going in the same direction. They then agreed to have a drink in the hotel room before she continued home. Though she did try to seduce him, it did not amount to anything because K was gay.

Sometime later, S returned back to the hotel room which he was sharing with K. The girl then left (a bit frustratedly) to go home. Shortly after (5am in the morning), the police, who were apparently waiting downstairs in the lobby, knocked on their door, together with the hotel's own security guards and the duty manager by their side. The duty manager was the only one who spoke some English, so he told them that the police wanted them to go down to the station for some questioning, and that it would not take a long time. The girl who was with K earlier had been arrested by the police as she was suspected to have stolen money from a tourist some days ago.

At the station, they suddenly got to know that they were both under suspicion for being 3 people in the room at one time, which implied "immoral" behaviour. "Implied", not "proved". An immigration officer was there to attempt to translate some Chinese documents in his bad English for them, and told them that the punishment would be very mild - at best, a warning, at worst, a fine of 500 RMB. They also got to know that they had a right to make a phone call.

At 9am, they were taken to a small hallway with other tourists and locals to await further questioning, with 2 policemen guarding them. 1 of them offered to get them some coke to drink (they had to pay for it themselves), and this was the only thing they had for the whole day!

At 1pm, they were driven to a hospital to take a bloodtest. No one told them why.

At 3pm, their fingerprints were taken, and they were made to write their names on A4 paper and had their photos taken frontview and both sideviews. At this point, they started to be more nervous and frustrated, and decided that they should contact family members in Denmark for precaution's sake. By pure bad luck, both of them had left their mobile phones back in the hotel room, and by pure lack of human rights, neither of them were allowed to make that 1 phone call that they were entitled to make.

At 8pm, their case was finally brought up again. S was brought to a room and was told to sign a document (again in Chinese) about the 500 RMB fine. He refused, because no where in the document could he see the number "500" written on it. For all he knew, he could be signing his life away. After 45mins, he was sent back to where K was waiting, and with the bad news that on top of the 500 RMB fine, they were also sentenced to 10 days in prison!!! The 17hrs at the police station was already "inhuman" enough (no food, no drinks, no good explanations, no chance to exercise their rights), so they didn't dare imagine what 10 days in prison would be like!

They were driven to an unknown place in Shanghai, and luckily put (or rather, pushed) into the same 20sqm cell as each other, together with 8 others. That was to be their "home" for the next 10 days. Their entitlement to a phone call each was still not given to them, and neither was the Danish Consulate in Shanghai contacted on their behalf even though the policemen said they had already did that. Lies.

The 10 day experience in ~~hell~~ the cell was:

1) Sleeping on a 2m x 2m quilt on the hard floor (shared), with a smaller sized quilt for each to cover himself with. The quilts were also used by previous prisoners and stank of sweat since they were never washed nor aired.

2) Getting awoken up every morning at 6am by a loud alarm, and having to quickly fold away their quilts into a storage box in the cell.

3) Starting the day with 2 hours of listening to propaganda radio attentively, followed by 2 hours of watching progpaganda tv programmes on a tv that was placed outside the cell. This, they had to "watch" even though there was a technical failure on 1 of the days, whereby no sound or images were coming out of it.

4) Small bowls of plain rice with inedible "extras" that was not even fit for a dog, such that they could only eat 1/4 of what they were given each time or else they would throw up. These "meals", they had to pay for!

5) 2hrs of afternoon nap in the hot and humid cell (and waking up to the same day instead of a new day).

6) Not getting any real sleep at night since on top of hard floors, the lights were never turned off.

7) Ice-cold showers which you can have only in squatting position due to the short shower tube thingy.

8) Not being able to shit the whole time because of the lack of privacy in their cell.

Day 4 of their prison stay was the day they should have taken their flight back to Denmark (24th June). Family members and friends were already starting to get worried by now because of not hearing anything from them (K's brother had turned 40 on the 23rd of June). K was supposed to start work the next day on the 25th, and when he didn't show up, his boss and his family eventually called the Danish Consulate in Shanghai to find them.

On the 27th of June (K's mum's birthday), someone from the Danish consulate finally went to meet them. S, and later K, were taken to talk to their representative, and was instructed by the police to put some civil clothes on instead of their prison clothes. They were handcuffed when out of their cells, but these were removed just before they met the Consulate's representative. An obvious grand show of how they "humanely" treated their prisoners.

They were finally released on Monday, 30th June. S had lost 3½kg, K had lost 5kg. They paid their 500 RMB fine, collected their clothes that didn't fit anymore and their shoes, and were escorted back to their hotel by 3 representatives from the Danish Consulate who greeted them with sandwiches, chips and soda. They were able to catch the evening flight back home to Copenhagen and loved ones that very same day.

Hearing about this nightmare story from a friend who experienced it 1st hand has opened my eyes to the justice system in China, and I'm sure this is only just the tip of the iceberg. I am also very surprised that a big and vibrant city like Shanghai was not able to produce a capable interpreter to communicate between the accused foreigner and the police to clearly explain the crime they were accused of, and the rights they had. This should be a very basic and common sense thing in the least!

I suppose S and K could have offered a bribe to the police officers and get away from 10 days in prison (as what these officers probably expected), but that would only be feeding and encouraging the corrupted system, wouldn't it?

I have a few friends from China, so I have nothing against them as individuals, but I have to say that their country does have a very looooooooong way to go when it comes to being called "civilised", and enough of the Chinese people has got to come together to change the system from within. For now, the image I have of China is 1 in very negative light, and it would take a BIG change to happen before I will view the country positively, if that will ever happen while I am still alive.

A toast to F.R.E.E.D.O.M!!!

Danish version of my friends's story here: Dansk rejseagent fængslet i Kina

And here's a long but interesting read from Amnesty International: People's Republic of China The Olympics countdown -- failing to keep human rights promises

I think I'm going to watch the movie Red Corner from 1997 again, starring Richard Gere. And if you have not read the book Wild Swans yet by Jung Chang, I highly recommend it. It's scary $h!t.

And for the record, S was actually in Singapore for about 8 days for vacation (his first time in Asia!) before he left for Shanghai, and he LOVED it there :o). So despite his horrible experience in Shanghai, he will at least have the good memories of Singapore to bring home with him.

"Ich bin ein Berliner"

2008-07-05T23:45:00.005+02:00

Am now back from Berlin! Well, was back almost a week ago, actually. It was a short but good trip in general. Oh, and Germany didn't win the Euro Championship this year. I think I had really jinxed that country just by being there...which actually worked fine for me because I wanted Spain to win anyway.

Saw a lot of German fans on Sunday, but I didn't get to watch the match itself. Good thing I have a friend and colleague to update me on the results while I was on the plane. Yes, I had my mobile turned on throughout the whole 40min flight, including during take-off and landing. I usually always make it a point to switch off my phone, but not on this particular flight.

Well guess what? The plane didn't crash! Maybe because we were sitting too far back in the plane away from the navigation equipment ;o). Anyway, I don't know how true it is that mobile signals affect the plane's navigating equipment, especially if everyone on the plane has their mobiles turned on, or if these interferences can actually cause a crash. What I do know, is that on September 11, 2001, there were 4 plane crashes and while many (if not all) passengers in those planes were calling their loved ones to say goodbye via their moblie phones, it was *not*, I repeat, *not* mobile signal interferences that caused all 4 crashes.

Anyway...while I would not like it if people are talking loudly into their mobile phones while I try to get some sleep in the plane, I think that airline carriers should loosen up a bit by either a) allowing phones to be used in "Flight mode", or b) allowing sms'es to be sent/received as long as the phone is in meeting/silent mode.

Ok, enough about phones. Back to Berlin! The first night was fairly uneventful, since we arrived late at the hotel. Was pretty easy to find our way there once we found out which buses or trains to take.

Since the weather was pretty rainy the next day, we agreed to go shopping :o). Not that we spent much anyway. My shopping items as below:

Leather traveller bag - outside

Leather traveller bag - inside. Pretty compact, huh?
Previous price: 48€
Sale price: 25€

Sporty traveller bag - 5€ (sale price)

Pair of shoes: 14.95€

Tank top: 6.90€

Soles for shoes: 1.95€

Pair of earrings: 8€

Travelling shampoo and conditioner with interesting fragrances - 3.75€.

That's about it! Total shopping price of non-food items = 66€ (500 DKK / S$132)!!!

Enough of my shopping...here's what we did:

Day 01

Riding in the bus.

Under our umbrellas, ellas, ellas, eh, eh, eh... .

Interesting looking church.

Smoking...

...this - a water pipe (or Hookah), apple flavoured.

Hmm...apparently not quite as safe as I thought :o(. Unless we had the "tobacco-free flavour". Anyway, that would be my first and last time. Kids, don't try this at home (or anywhere else, for that matter).

The Netherlands supporter vs a German supporter

Evidence of our shopping...but what else could we do when it was raining outside?

Can't really see it in the picture, but that shoe is size 45! Can women really have such big feet? Or would these be for erhm...cross-dressers and transversites?

Shopping area in Berlin.

At an U-bahn (or Untergrundbahn / Underground)

Gonna check out Berlin's nightlife.

This really reminded me of Clarke Quay in Singapore.

Not sure if this was a restaurant or bar.

I SO wanna see "Mamma Mia!"...but not in German, so Adagio was where we were headed to.

It was a church building converted into a nightclub. Was HUGE! Big enough for a fountain within.

Lots of people, as you can see.

Day 02

Vandalised section of the Berlin Wall.

Non-vandalised section of the Berlin Wall.

No, I did not vandalise this section.

Didn't see any trams in central Berlin, so not sure if they're only going around certain parts.

This station was closed when East and West Germany were separated, and opened again in 1989 when the wall came down.

TV Tower with the promise of a good view of Berlin, but we didn't go up because of time (the queue looked quite long) and money (9.50 EUR/72 DKK/S$19 just to go up, lookie-lookie, and down again - No way!).

Checkpoint Charlie

Got my passport stamped with orignal stamps by this solider. Funny guy. He even made me go buy coffee for him (he gave the money, of course). I should have bought it for him at staff rate (1 EUR), but due to some miscommunication, I ended up getting it at the usual rate of 3.60 EUR! Oops. He paid up the difference, but I doubt he'll ask a tourist to buy his coffee again ;o).

My stamped passport.

Bye, bye!

Not sure what this building is, but it's definitely not a nightclub ;o).

Wanted to walk through here as there was a park behind it, but the area was sealed off due to the Germany-Spain Euro 2008 final.

Beautiful

Some government building, I guess.

The main station in the background.

Thousands of German football supporters.

Anyway that was my quick getaway in a nutshell. Oh, there was an incident that really pissed me off a bit while in 1 of the shopping centres. We were standing in line to pay for our merchandise, and though it was my turn next, some crazy woman with a child of around 1½ years wanted to cut in! How rude was that?!

Me (getting ready to pay)
Siao char bor ("Crazy woman" in Hokkien) trying to cut in.
Cashier (in German and pointing to me): "This lady was here first."
Siao char bor to Cashier: "Ojaogjr opopep ihwahkf oiweik!!!" ----------> speaking in "German" to cashier
Siao char bor to me (angrily in English): "Is it ok that I pay first?! I've got a baby!!!"
Me: "Sure, go ahead."
Siao char bor to Cashier (still angry): "Wkjalfjo poajsoep p ojaporj!!!" (this is not really German, if you don't know by now).
Cashier explaining to her that she just wanted to be fair.
Wagma asking what was going on, so I told her, and loud enough for Siao char bor to hear: "This woman wants to pay first, but it would have been nice if she had asked first instead of just cutting in."
Siao char bor overheard what I said, and started to give her "I've got a baby!" speech again.
Me directly to her this time: "You could have just asked first instead of just cutting in."
Siao char bor....still angry when she left. Not even a word of "Thanks".

SERIOUSLY!!! Just because you have a baby or young child with you DOES NOT GIVE YOU THE RIGHT TO LEAVE YOUR MANNERS AT HOME!!! If you had just asked first instead of assuming that the rest of us owe you something for being a mother, we would be understanding enough to let you cut the queue. So what if you have a baby? I didn't ask you to get one, so don't make it my problem. And maybe I don't have a baby like you to "justify" being next in line, but for all you know, I might need to pee really badly. Then what? Would my need to pee over-rule the "reason" that you have a baby? It most certainly would, if I am the one who is really next in line.

I hope her child did not learn anything from her during that episode. And for the rest of you who are already parents or becoming one, *never*, I repeat, *never* assume that the Red Sea should part for you and you alone just because you have a child with you. In some cases, yes - like during an emergency, or sometimes even when boarding a flight. In other cases, all you need to do is ask politely, and the majority of the human race will surely empathise and let you have your way.

And kudos to that cashier who was right in wanting to be fair on a "first-come-first-serve" way, because the next bad thing to someone who wants to cut the queue is a service staff to allow it without getting the permission of the customer who is rightfully next in line. Bartenders and taxi drivers picking up passengers on weekend nights are top failures in applying this "rule".

My summer vacation

2008-06-26T22:23:00.003+02:00

Well, it'll just be a 2nt/2day trip to Berlin with 2 girlfriends, but it's better than nothing! Will fly to Berlin tomorrow night at 8pm, and return Sunday night at 10pm, so a full weekend trip indeed!

And yes, you did read the first line right - I'll be going with 2 girlfriends, meaning hubby dearest will be staying home. 2 nights are not going to kill him though - the longest I had been away from him on a trip was 1 week in Bulgaria, and when I came home, he was still alive and breathing ;o). In fact, he's going to "return that favour" soon in July, when it'll be his turn to go to Bulgaria for 1 week without me. Not that I don't want to join him and his parents, but just that I can't take such a long vacation during the high summer season at work.

That's why a short weekend trip to break my routine a bit is what I can do instead. I've never been on a "girls only" trip before, so I'm looking forward to it indeed. At least shopping together will not be such a bore for anyone of us ;o).

As for Berlin, it'll be my second trip there. However, the 1st time was way back in 2000, during Christmas period. Cold, wet, but Christmasy. I look forward to see everything in its summer glory this time...if it doesn't rain too much. Has been rather chilly and wet here in Copenhagen, so a lot of sunshine in Berlin would be nice, even for just 2 days.

You know what's the worse part though? I had booked our return flight on the day of the Euro 2008 FINAL!!! The FINAL of the finals!!! That means I'll be IN THE PLANE while the match is being played! It wasn't like I had a choice, since there is only 1 flight per day with Sterling, and it had to be at the time of the match. Of course, we could have chose another weekend, but this weekend had a low price that we were willing to pay for. Plus, I didn't realise that it was THE day when choosing the weekend dates.

Anyway, if all goes smoothly, I will touch down at 10pm, so if the airport does not have a bar showing the final, I will have to rush down to the sports bar at the main station to watch the last remaining minutes. It takes about 15mins to get from the airport by train (excluding waiting time), so I really hope the airport has a bar showing the match.

It's been decided 5mins ago that the final will be between Germany and Spain. I really hope Spain will win the Cup, but somehow it feels like the Germans would. Hey, perhaps I should miss my flight and stay behind in Germany and join the Germans in cheering on their team! No wait, maybe not a good idea if I'm really going to support Spain. Unless I engage in "reverse supportology", which is basically supporting the team I want to lose, since so far, every team that I strongly want to win seem to lose (Portugal, the Netherlands). So yeah, if I "support" the team that I really want to lose, then the team that I really want to win will win :o)!

Anyways...I'm done packing. I think. Just the toiletries left to do. Clothes, check! Shoes, check! Underwear, check! Euros, check! Passport, check! Camera, check! Hubby, uncheck! ;o)

I guess I should go spend my last few waking minutes with hubby then. Don't want him crying like a big baby when he says goodbye to me at the airport tomorrow ;o).

Not for the faint hearted....

2008-06-21T10:00:00.005+02:00

Some of you may remember my previous poll in connection with a post as to whether or not I should get my belly button pierced. Well, the results of that poll was:

50-50!

Come on people! It's almost as if I never made that poll in the first place, if the end result meant that I still had to make the final decision. You guys were supposed to help me out here! But ok, I guess you guys are right that in the end, the final decision is still mine anyway. Good thinking, y'all!

Nevertheless, for those who took time to vote either way, thank you! After much more thought, I had decided not to do it....until I saw that my 2 sisters did theirs a month ago! I guess they were my "kick" to get mine done in the end...so yes...I DID IT!!! Last Tuesday after work :o).

Before my belly button lost its virginity. Was just a tiny bit nervous.

Preparing target.

That kinda hurt a little. Like someone pinching you real hard.

"HELP!" I didn't dare look at what he was doing, and thank goodness for that because I would definitely have fainted on the spot!

Click to see the bigger picture....if you DARE!

Almost done! Just needed to screw it up.

But yeah, it was done in under 5 mins. The procedure itself was bearable. I mean, I could feel my belly button getting "violated", but as long as I didn't look, it felt just like someone was pinching me really hard at least 3 times. Well, depends on how it's done. My sister, Tania, said that she only felt 1 big "prick", but that was also because her piercer did it a different way.

Anyway, after it was done, my piercer (who was from Bali, Indonesia, btw), asked if I was ok. I said "Yes," so he told me to go to the counter so he can explain the cleaning procedure.

I got my bags and stuff and made my way there. He asked me again if I was ok, and again I said "Yes," so he began to tell me how to clean:

"You need to use this 2 times a day....," he started by saying...

And that was when I started to feel the throbbing feeling on my belly button...like it had its own heartbeat or something like that. "Duk-duk, duk-duk, duk-duk...," it went. The thoughts going through my head were:

"Damn! I have something "poking" through my belly now! It's something that's going to stay there for quite some time! I just had a needle thingy going though my skin!"

When all those thoughts go through your mind like they were in a race against each other, the mind psychologically switches to panic mode, perceiving that my body had just had a sudden injury. A rush of adrenaline and endorphins started to kick in to make me feel dizzy, so I had to cut my piercer short by saying:

"I'm not feeling so good now... ."

So yeah, had to sit down for a few long minutes (10-15). My hearing closed in on me, I was almost blacking out, he got me some water, but told my sister, Claudia, to go get me some coke to get my sugar level in my blood up (thank goodness Claudia was there with me! My heroine...).

I felt a bit better when Claudia returned with the coke, but after drinking some sips of it, I started to feel slightly worse. My thoughts at this point were:

"TAKE THE BELLY RING OFF ME!!! I'LL STILL PAY YOU!"

"CALL AN AMBULANCE!!!"

"What if I puke all over the floor? That'll be too embarrassing...don't think about it...think of rainbows and sunshine and happy singing birds instead...no...CALL AN AMBULANCE!!!"

Thankfully, the dizziness subsided soon enough. Started to feel quite sweaty, so I told Claudia to get a magazine to fan me, and she obediently did so for 5 mins like a slave would do to her Royal Highness back in Egypt... . No, just kidding. Was not exactly feeling quite so glamerous at that point.

Recovering.

But yeah, after 15mins or so, when I can't really feel the initial throbbing around my belly button anymore, I was able to get up and walk again. Was contemplating taking a cab home, but in the end, was able to make it to the bus with Claudia faithfully by my side ;o).

If you ever decide to get your belly button pierced, I suggest that you sit still for 5-10 mins right after the piercing before getting up and walking around. Just to give your body some time to overcome the trauma a bit.

Anyway...here is the final result:

One thing I'm missing so much right now, is being able to sleep on my tummy. That's the most comfortable sleeping position for me, and I usually doze off much better that way. For the 1st 10-14 days at least, I'll not be able to do this...but I hope it'll be possible after that.

And if you want to know the cost of this: 500kr (S$130)!!! Expensive, huh? It did include the jewellery though, and that costs around 190kr (S$50) already. You'd expect the jewellery to be made of gold at that price...but not here in Denmark, unfortunately.

So yeah, imagine if I had really told my piercer to take it off ;o)! Good thing I got better after 10mins... .

Tchau, Portugal... . Até logo!

2008-06-19T23:46:00.009+02:00

I am grieving. I was prepared to grieve, but when it happens for real, it still feels that you were not prepared anyway.

Today is the day Portugal goes home :o(. They were beaten by Germany in the Euro 2008 football finals with a score of 2-3. I knew they would lose, but was still hoping they would surprise me in the end. They almost did, but it was too little too late, when the 2nd Portuguese goal was scored in the 87th minute of normal play with Germany already in the lead with 3.

Here are 2 of my favourite players from my Portuguese team:

Nuno Gomes

Cristiano Ronaldo

And no, it's not because they're hot. Not really. They are good players, that's why. I also like the Portuguese goalkeeper, Ricardo, but tonight was just not his night.

And then there are other good players like Deco and Simão. Not my favourites, but they're good.

So why Portugal? Well, it was because I made a couple of new Portuguese friends back in 2000, and since Portugal was playing in the Euro 2000 finals, I had decided to support that team. I had never really noticed that team before, but I remember their first group game against England, and damn! They were good! They were the underdogs who were trailing behind, but ended up winning the match 3-2! They also ended up winning all their group matches, thus getting the maximum 9 points. I was simply impressed, so I continued to support them all the way to the semifinals when France defeated them in a very controversial match.

And yeah...it was during their match against England when I decided that Nuno Gomes was my favourite player, despite his temper. Well, most of the Portuguese players have a temper. Probably the Latino in them.

So since then, Portugal became "my team"...and was very disappointed that they didn't manage to win the European Cup in 2004 when they were so close. They lost in the final match to Greece, which was a bit ironic because the opening match was also between Portugal and Greece, with Greece winning that one too.

Now that Cristiano Ronaldo has decided to join "my team" some years ago, I have another reason to keep supporting them, right ;o)?

Anyway....sigh... . Goodbye my hotties :o(. See you all again in 2 years at the World Cup finals... . You guys did great in this finals, despite not going through to the semifinals!

Oh well, I'll be supporting the Netherlands now. They'll meet Russia on Saturday, and I'm sure they'll win, so I am expecting a Netherlands vs Spain semi-final (assuming that Spain will kick Italy home on Sunday). Now THAT'S going to be exciting.

My guess for the final: Germany vs the Netherlands. And the winner?

The Netherlands!

BBQ in Birkerød

2008-06-17T23:55:00.009+02:00

Martin's company had their annual BBQ summer party in Birkerød (his boss' home) last Saturday. The weather was not exactly BBQ weather, unfortunately. Compared to the previous weekend at Shi Hua's parents' "koloni" house party the Saturday before, the weather last Saturday was indeed "pool weather" too, but more like in a "pool of rain".

Nevertheless, we had good food and good company as usual, and we didn't have Bil and Yellow Goddess there "as usual" either (which in my opinion contributed very much to the good company).

Anyway...here are some pictures from that event:

2 big, juicy, fat steaks. And 4 big, juicy...ok, maybe I shouldn't say it... .

Getting excited already.

"When's my meat ready? I'm so hungry," thought Andrzej.

Me and Ning running indoors to get away from the rain.

Spain vs Sweden in their last Euro 2008 group match.

3 men and a lady...watching the match.

I was pretty much alone during the 1st half. What is wrong with the world today, when out of around 15 guys, only 1 girl watches the match?

Spicy sausages

"There's something wrong with my beer," said Uffe. "Yeah, I spat in it!" said Andrzej mischieviously.

"There's something wrong with my wine," said Johnni. "Yeah, I spat in it!" said Andrzej mischieviously.

Johnni wondering if Andrzej had spat in other people's drinks too.

"I wish I had that Sony Ericsson G900," thought Thomas.

"Hey, guys...look at what Andrzej did to my drink!" said Uffe. Johnni however, didn't mind the spit in his wine.

The lesson of today is: whoever comes near my food will get something extra tasty in their drinks!!!

Coffee, tea and cake time!

Yummy.

"I had better pour my own wine."

"I had better pour my own beer."

"Mmm...I'm lovin' it! It's thumb suckin' good!"

"Please don't tell Andrzej that I took his sausages...," begged guilty-looking Finn.

Whisky that is 51 years old (bottled in 2001)!

"This whisky is older than I!"

"Let's enjoy it before we get to that age!"

"I was out fishing yesterday...," said Jörn,

"...and I caught a Danish mermaid THIS BIG!" "I don't hope this is an effect from drinking whisky that is ½ a century old," thought Finn.

"I'm really not sleeping!" said Martin.

"Don't you dare take my picture!" said Carl.

This Martin is on his way to becoming a millionaire by betting on football match results!

Lise looking cosy by the camp fire.

A couple shot before taking the last train home.

Koloni hus party at Ballerup

2008-06-17T00:05:00.001+02:00

Shi Hua had invited us to her parent's "koloni hus" (some sort of summer house) up in Ballerup on the 7th of June. That was to be the last sunny weekend as of now. The weather was so good, that we could even have a "pool" party besides the good BBQ food! Luxury, huh? Almost.

Who likes the sun and who likes the shade?

Toey and me.

Me and bunny.

Lucy and Shi Hua.

There's the "pool"! Martin and Torben (Toey's hubby) not quite doing it right.

This is how you do it, guys!

Martin prefering land to water.

Picnic time!

Eating, drinking and talking.

Real food coming up!

Grill master.

Mmm...keep workin' it!

Am not too into brinjals.

What a feast! I contributed my home-made tiramisu to this party :o).

Can we start to eat already?

Me and bunny again.

Time to do the dishes...happily.

Thank you Shi Hua for a fantastic time! Was a pity I couldn't stay longer to play more mahjong, since Lucy going home and we could get a lift from her...and also, Portugal was playing their 1st group match in the Euro 2008 football Championships, so I couldn't let my boys down by not watching them play.