Riding on Red Bricks: 10

Laptop crashed Saturday, October 28, 2006 |

Dear friends and family... The laptop crashed. Won't be updating for some time. It is not a software problem, cuz i formated c:/ and was installing windows halfway when the BSOD appeared... U know... Blue Screen of Death. Sent for repairs, but the shop says if it is not a memory problem (harddisk or ram), they cannot help me.

Let us pray...

Truely depressed. Confused with the numerous ups and downs over the past few days. But now it's really going down down down...

24 Saturday, October 21, 2006 |

Thank you guys for a memorable birthday... :)

B'day Song from HH! Friday, October 20, 2006 |

Finally got it to work... after much help from Xianzhi. Thanks bro~ and once again thanks HH! Haha... Sorry lah, good things must share. We can already find ur pageant face on youtube... guess you won't mind airing ur voice too~ CHECK IT OUT! GOOD STUFF!

Presents Galore Pt 2 !!! |

Finally received the parcel my family sent me today! Seems like I always have problems when it comes to Dutch administration. The 1st day the parcel arrived (Tuesday), I was not in. So I received a coupon in my mailbox saying that I was not present and they will deliver it the next day. I won't be in my hostel the next day too so I called them and changed the address to Craig's as I will likely to be there. On Wed I waited the whole day, no package. Called them and they told me that they delivered it but it was declined by receiver! Apparently they sent to the neighbour's door as the house is split into 2 and there are 2 doors with the same number (more Dutch weirdness). Naturally the neighbour turned it down since it wasn't his.

Then the story got more absurd. I called them on Wednesday night and the operator told me the parcel was scheduled to be shipped back to Singapore (cuz declined by recipient)! I screamed at them and told them that there was just a simple confusion and made them deliver it. Finally today I got it (Friday freeday, stay in hostel to wait for it to come!).

I have a red ugly dog! Haha... Kewl stuff! And a new Creative Muvo 512mb MP3 player. So happy! The MP3 player i brought here was busted. Life is going to be better with music on the roads!!! Thanks MZ and Father and everyone who remembered (especially HH who wrote a song! Hmmm... trying to figure out how to blog it. It's a hilarious song about his delusions of himself being my top 2 friend!)

Below is a mini flyer to publicize the public crit for our dear friend Olaf, a local student who helped us international students alot (think of him as a Dutch Minghui). It's his graduation crit, and his friends and family will all be there to listen to his final presentation. Way cool. Too bad we can't be around as we will be heading for London on that day. Well, here's wishing you all the best Olaf! I've seen the design. Won't give anything less than an A+++!

Deltaworks Excursion Wednesday, October 18, 2006 |

Netherlands is located in a low-lying delta. A large part of the country's history was a constant struggle against the flooding waters of the North Sea. In the 1950s, the Delta Works was established. This project aimed at improving the safety of the lower areas of the Netherlands against severe storms and flooding by constructing a series of storm surge barriers and dikes.

Last Saturday, we went on an excursion organized by TU Delft to the Oosterscheldekering, the largest of Delta Works' storm surge barriers, located in Zeeland some 100km South of Delft. The trip was great because everything was free! The bus, the lunch, the admission, everything. We did have some troubles with the administration as we signed up late, but in the end, there were more than enough vacancies in the 5 huge buses they chartered.

The storm surge barrier is basically a massive structure that holds on to a continuous metal sheet (we're talking enormously scaled stuff here...). The barrier lowers the metal sheet to cut the sea waters away from inland waters when the high tides reach beyond 3m above sea level. This will keep the water levels low in the Netherlands and prevent flooding. The boat below is a specially constructed craft that carries the precast foundation of the barrier and lowers it onto the ocean floor (already laid with layers of massive rocks and sand).

Prior to our visit of the storm surge barrier, we spent an hour or two enjoying ourselves at the outdoor water theme parks. This is basically a nice outdoor space with various gadgets and machines to educate people the properties of water. Kids learn certain techniques in which water can be stopped / transported, like the miniature dam pictured below :)

Had good fun playing with the water slide. Got sick of it after 2 tries though haha... Some of the water splashed onto my jacket but it was fine... just a little colder that's all. Check out the Frank Gehry look-alike building below. It's a whale museum, which was a building within the park.

There was an exhibition going on in the main building of the park, and we came across this model. It is the Maeslantkering, another storm surge barrier more elegantly constructed, near the port of Rotterdam. Below are flowers for dar dar :)

Laundry time Tuesday, October 17, 2006 |

It seems like there are too little washing machines and dryers provided for the 100+ residents living here in Marcushof... I was lucky that when I got down the washing machines were empty but the dryers were in use. I used the card to pay 2 Euros for the wash, took note of the duration, and went back to my room. When the time is up, I went down only to find that my clothes were already taken outta the washing machine by someone else... sigh, damn ganjiong. I wanted to use the dryer for my washed clothes but it was in use. So I thought, wat the heck... I'll save the 1 Euro and just hang dry it in my room!

Been really busy lately, as there is a presentation on the 25th October. Sighz... It's not that I've forgotten about it being s/u but... I just can't do a pissed poor job. I don't think I'm a perfectionist nor am I that professional as a student... Sigh, dunno why... just hoping that we do a good job!

who... shall i kill... today? Thursday, October 12, 2006 |

Death note... The manga just finished... and... the anime... was... just...... RELEASED! YES!!! Go and download! It is by far one of the most mindblowing anime / manga plot that I've ever read! Okayz, I haven't read all of the manga, but I've read enough to tell you that you will not regret it! So go and download yours now! First 2 episodes are already available, thanks to the many fansubs effort. Surprisingly, the download rates of bitcomet is very fast in Europe... like... 120kb/s! You probably wonder how i know if i don't download... well, i know cuz my friend downloads. I never download. Piracy is bad. Death note is... to die for...!

Presents Galore!!! Monday, October 09, 2006 |

Hee... showed Chet some presents I got her from Berlin... Well, it is the home of Birkenstocks, so it is cheaper there in Berlin. Also a pair of cute minimalistic elephant sculptures that were hand sculpted by the seller at the flea market :) neat stuff! Hee... click for bigger image:

Oktoberfest 2006 Sunday, October 08, 2006 |

The bandwagon split ways as Juliana, Shengzhi and Cheewee had to return to Lund while the rest of us headed for Munich where Oktoberfest was held! We were all very disheveled when we climbed out of the night train... Here's breakfast at Munich HBF, and a giant poster of Oktoberfest!

Oktoberfest is basically a huge compound filled with shops selling beer, bread, candy, souvenirs, and also make-shift thrill rides and enormouse tents where thousands of people gather under to dance, sing, drink beer and be merry. The atmosphere was certainly joyous, but I guess we were already pretty tired by then. Drank a litre of beer that day, ate some pork knuckles and more sausages. A sinful day, but still a memorable experience...!

Up next are 2 stadiums that we visited in Munich. This one is the Olympics Games tent built in 1972 by architect Gunter Behnisch and the famous Frei Otto. It is a free form tensile structure with steel cables topped by glass panels. A marvellous feat, considering it was done in the 70s. Check out the details and the indoor swimming complex.

We liked the chairs alot. It was basically a random composition using 2 shades of green. Took alot of photos there... Haha.

A pic of the model of a vintage BMW taken in the showroom of a BMW museum right beside the stadium. Isn't it nice? Wish I own one. The door is actually the front of the vehicle. Kewl stuff! We then headed to the Alliance Arena, another stadium, this time by Herzog & de Meuron. The cladding looks like acrylic, but they are really inflated balloons. They light up at night in 3 colours: white, blue and red, but we were simply too shagged out to wait for it to get dark, as you will see later in the last picture.

There you have it. Craig and Elita concussed at the table in an outdoor cafe at the Alliance Arena. The picture is taken from beneath their faces up... Errr... Pretty scary yeah? This marks the end of our Berlin / Munich trip! It was worthwhile I guess. I totally enjoyed the architecture we visited...! Hope to see more of Europe soon. Next would be London!!!