somewhere else, doing something

a little late...

2010-04-16T10:01:00.000-07:00

as you probably would've seen in the travel/int'l section of your local paper..spring is in the air!

(well...actually, also some volcanic ash - but these pics are from 1.5 weeks ago...so yep, am a bit late with posting these)

classic photo with bike in Amsterdam with blue skies..

horse..

cool building..

other cool building..

and tulips VS graffitti..

the pics are a bit random; but am completely loving the new light on everything; it doesn't get dark till 8pm now!

1st day of Spring!

2010-03-21T10:04:00.000-07:00

the sun was shining - at 8am no less - and the weather, a crisp 9+ degrees....a great day for a Sunday's afternoon out!

we started with a little bit of a walk from the library along the Oostersdok, with boats of all shapes and sizes! (above is a replica of one of the Dutch East India Company ships, the 'Amsterdam') in front of the NEMO Science Centre

as well as some boats along the boulevard..

we then made it to the Amsterdam Historical Museum (www.ahm.nl) for a contemporary art exhibition on a pretty immersive installation about the red light district here in A'dam...more info on the site...

we then made a short coffee pitstop, and happened to find this cool couple just in front of the Museum!

after an express lunch, we decided to take a bit of a ramble through town, and as you can see, the weather's pretty sweet!

(no..am not double barrelling my milkshakes, just holding onto J's at the same time...but yes, the weather is good enough for milkshakes on the go!)

Oh yah, for the eagle eyed on the internet; it's also officially Keukenhof season (i.e. tulip fields abound! now...so the hordes of tourists should be rocking up on our shores soon..

CNY in A'dam!

2010-02-16T03:13:00.000-08:00

Gong Xi! Gong Xi! To usher in the new Tiger year (and my 2nd entry for the year - been a bit busy with some project things...more info here), I decided to roll up my sleeves and get into the Lunar New Year mood; and what better with some Yu Sheng

on the bottom left of the 2nd pic, you'll see our carefully printed script for all the auspicious sayings when the right ingredient is added..

and all the participants of our little lo hei party..

And for the 2nd course, we had dark soya sauce pork and bak choy with some noodles....and that was pretty successful too!

hope you've had a good CNY so far, and all the best for business/health/ToTo/luck/life!

Maastricht in a day

2010-01-19T11:54:00.000-08:00

this past weekend, we made it to the historical town of maastricht

just stepping out of the train station, we walked past this (pretty nice) building and straight into a flea market - no pics of this, but lots of great bits and bobs..

and we decided to head towards the local contemporary art museum, and walked along the water side..

and this is the museum - with its rocket-ship-shape...cool yah? those eagle-eyed among you will see the cafe sign on the bottom left, and boy, did they have some good eatin' cherry pie!

after an hour plus at the Bonnenfantenmuseum, and a skip through the car park, we ended up in...

the middle of Maastricht city..being a Saturday (and the tail end of the winter sales) the crowds were out in full force..

funny little thing here...intricate street lighting - normal, open square in the middle of the city - normal, statue of someone - normal.....having a constantly burning flame on the statue - not so normal...but that's because he's Jean-Pierre Minckeleers

and this might look like a church from the outside...

but a successful book chain company in holland converted it into a (rather successful when we were there - long lines to pay!) very alternative book-shopping experience!

and of course, when in Maastricht, the Vrijthof has an unmissable grouping of amazing buildings..

i think its quite cool that the intense red of the St Janskerk is countered with the red of the building and the lady's jacket in the photo...

so, as you can see...an excellent day out with lots to see!

(for those who don't know, Maastricht is a good 2.5 hours away from A'dam; its as far as Antwerp from A'dam- but I've been wanting to see the other bits of Holland, and we found an excellent-priced ticket for 2 for single day travel..)

day out in the new year at -5 degrees!

2010-01-11T11:25:00.000-08:00

if you've seen the weather forecasts for this part of the world, you'd know that....

it's perfect weather for submarine-viewing!! (we'd taken the day out to across the Ij for a little change in environment...)

here you'll see the indoor swap meet where everyone with everything possible (clothes/toys/books/dvds/ taps/etc) comes together for some good ol' fashioned rummaging.. it was held in a former industrial area no less..

and the weather outside? perfect for making big steps in the snow

as shown by how much my shoe was in the ground!!

and even icicles on red vehicles

but yes, we're well all bundled up - with barely our eyes peeking out...

it's winter time!!

(weather forecast for the day said -5 degrees; but with the winds blowing, it will feel as cold as -10....brrrrrrrr....)

snowy whi-t-t-t-t-e

2009-12-27T11:00:00.000-08:00

It's xmas time....and this year, it was snowing!! (just like in the movies/music videos/ads for hot chocolate)...it's quite unusual for it to snow this much so early in winter - normally this is more common in February....but you know it's been snowing all night when you..

1) leave these in the snow..

2) see this at your doorstep when you open the main door..

3) go out and buy a tree..

4) bring it home ..

5) and put some great decorations on it!!

(they're great aren't they? I especially like the x'mas eggplant....)

and the days have been full of...

Happy x'mas from us both in Amsterdam!!

-K & J

in our new city!

2009-12-12T09:01:00.000-08:00

So....if you haven't heard yet, we've relocated to Amsterdam (for almost 2 months now) and are looking to kick-start our 2nd adventure in Europe..

and today (with the excellent weather amidst winter - about 6 degrees during the day), we took a little walk around town.. (the first pic above is the American Hotel....really nice architecture)

And just around the corner we have the Leidseplein where 'ye olde' stalls selling oliebollen and other traditional treats for tourists and locals alike..

As well as b-boys dancing for the crowd - as well as to keep warm..

ah......FEBO, its ubiquitous in town because it's the one stop shop for all your....

deep-fried goodies from a vending machine (you put your coins in, open one of the windows, and voila, instant deep-fried satisfaction)

as demonstrated here; with me and my satay kroket...its a satay-flavoured ragout in a deep fried crisp shell....it's as amazing/unbelievable as it sounds!

next, we ended up in the vicinity of the Amsterdam flower market; where in season, tulips go for €10 for a bunch of 50...but seeing as to how it's winter....we have pictures of dummy cheeses outside the 'cheese basement'

clogs made of felt for indoors; i'm on my 2nd pair now, having since moved to Europe - they help keep your feet warm in the colder weather, and are a great fashion statement..

and yeah...a bit of a non-event photo of tulips, but normally the shops aren't too happy if you make photos without buying, but this was strangely placed on the opposite side of the walkway, so it was fair game..

oh yeah....i just looked at the next pics i'm about to post....there's actually no relationship between these 2 pics and everything else i've uploaded for this entry, but hey, it wouldn't be fair to withhold pics of...

Blackforest cake (chocolate/sponge/cherry/cream/madness) and a nut-apple pie (freshly baked crust-apple-macadamia-almond-walnut-pecan-cashew avalanche)...for our mid-afternoon-sugar-resuscitation-at-the-cafe

party-in-the-house!

2009-12-06T05:01:00.000-08:00

Sinterklaas Sinterklaas!

It's that time of the year where we all get together, get some presents, give some presents, and have a grand ol' time rhymin' and dining..

and of course, the obligatory pic of chee-ee-ee-se!

all going towards the extremely successful lasagne for the evening

We'd also made some marzipan things; courtesy of Josefine and some nimble fingers..

and the star of the show....the table of presents!!

and another photo, just so you can see how much Sint got for us all!

and with a break here, and a lasagne in the oven after, it was time for dinner!

Sinterklaas!

2009-11-17T02:55:00.000-08:00

So....

he's here!!

pics from our weekend by the sea (Pt 2)

2009-06-29T13:24:00.000-07:00

and the pics you'll see here are from a little (6hr) ramble we took to France and back from De Panne!

(I think J looks like a rockstar in this pic!)

pics from our weekend by the sea (Pt 1)

2009-06-29T12:59:00.000-07:00

we were (very happily) hosted by J's mom to a week at the Belgian coast; and here is a slice of the super-sunny, big 'n' breezy, retreat by the sea!

This is me at the Belgian themepark, Plopsaland, with double corkscrew rollercoasters, pirate ships and of course an over-sized water pump kiddie playground!

this was our daily view to and from the apartment in De Panne..yes, it felt like a holiday every single moment we were there!

when I looked down and saw this on the beach, I immediately thought this would make an excellent desktop image for the computer..

and more atmospheric pictures of the excellent weather amidst the laid back vibe..

nostalgia..

2009-06-18T15:00:00.000-07:00

we'd made a (long) weekend to Groningen a couple of weeks back to celebrate friends' wedding - and I happily left the digital camera (which I usually use to make the pictures on this blog) in the 5euro locker. So for the happy snaps for the rest of the day, I impulse bought a disposable camera, and I have to say....I wonder why we use digital cameras in the first place..

It's amazing how film just makes me with a bike in front of a dike bridge look super-retro!

J looks awesome too! this is on the big weekend market where they sell fresh produce, lots of things to nibble on and everything you can imagine (yes, even chunks of fried fish, a staggering variety of breads, shoelaces and vinyl tablecloths)
this is a pic of the exterior of the church where our friends got married - the building's been there since the 15th Century....amazing..
and on our way to the church, we took the scenic route by bike and came across some cow-friends
so yeah, the pictures didn't all turn out spectacular, but these 4 we really really like!

and as you can guess, the wedding party was amazing, the day out in groningen was a big discovery, and we had a great time!

2nd wedding anniversary

2009-06-13T13:34:00.000-07:00

well, we've just celebrated our 2nd year anniversary and i made a day out of the afternoon - with a bit of a ramble through our part of the world - but some rarely seen bits of Antwerp

this is a really rare find - a 1984 Honda Civic hatchback, my first ever car back in my uni days in Perth, Australia...mine was red, but it sure was nice to see a car nearly as old as me !

yes, your eyes do not deceive you, its spider-man with a watermelon!!

and this is actually an unused entrance to the subway line which goes along one of the busiest streets in Antwerp - they plan to start the line at some point, but for now, its a crocodile
and we took the time to take a picture of us - the now-married-for-2-years couple, but its been a great 8 years so far!!
umm...yah....just a picture of our drinks...i like it..
and as you can see the weather was super-excellent for a bit of a walk and a drink outside - the best way to spend an anniversary!!

battle royale!

2009-06-08T07:57:00.000-07:00

this is a little late, as I visited it on this past weekend with a friend - but the pics are well worth the wait!

I'd seen the poster for this medieval re-enactment weekend in the big park near Antwerp City, and ...

the pictures say it all!!

(and yes, the last picture has guys in their underwear - as part of the comedy act of the face-off between the armies!!)

there were medieval weapons, food, clothes, herbs, metalwork, sculpture and so much more!!

it was a great afternoon out - and we did get rained on quite a bit - but it was well worth the time we had there!

its been a month..

2009-05-25T08:08:00.000-07:00

so here's a quick rundown of what we've been up to in the past month (since our last entry)

we've been busy with...

some lepak-time in Brussels!

2009-04-25T22:23:00.000-07:00

We headed into Brussels today for a whole bucketload of fun! There was the Singapore Embassy lunch hosted by the Ambassador (which we happily forgot to make pictures of because we were having too much fun meeting other displaced Singaporeans and enjoying the Thai makan - there was carrot cake and rojak too, but my focus was on the kueh salat they had on the dessert side of things...heh)

And we kicked the day off with a trip to the Vossenplein pasar malam - which amazingly is open everyday, and everyone comes by to see what everyone else's barang barang is up for grabs..

We had a short coffee pit stop.. (and that's my new summer jacket that I'm sporting)

and enjoyed the sunny, crisp morning air at a cafe on the perimeter of the square...
where anything and everything can be found! I found some super cool fish-decorated dinner plates, but it was a bit too much for too many pieces that the owner wanted to sell them for..

and barang barang as far as the eye can see!
chronologically, we then headed to the Ambassador's home which was a bus ride out of the city centre and had a good lunch time there; and then headed back into the city and this time to the North where there was..

a stretch Porsche Cayenne SUV at the Japanes Tower
just across from the Chinese pavilion where a Moroccan wedding photo sesh was taking place!
by the time we got there, it was a bit too late to enter the buildings - so we've promised ourselves to make it a point to come back for a bit of an adventure in these displaced Asian architectural pieces..
yes, the columns had gilded golden dragons...
and it was just super-cool to see them in the middle of the Royal Belgian Parks! (the short version is that they were constructed in the 1900s by the then King Leopold...fuller story here)
and we continued our little jaunt with map in hand..
looking for the ever elusive...
Atomium! (yes, we've been here a year now, and its only yesterday that we took the time to come have a look at this super-structure from the '58 Expo...fuller story here)
classic tourist shot....everyone was doing it too...
and the form of the Atomium just makes for pretty pictures, no?
and after the big day out and about in Brussels, we headed back into the old centre for a chilled out drink in a brown cafe, followed by dinner at a most excellent pizza joint...

again no pictures of these, because we were absolutely gobsmacked by the sheer awesomeness of these places - and we were kicking back and enjoying the end of a super day in Brussels!!

We're convinced there's still a mountain and a half of cool stuff we haven't seen/heard/eaten yet, and are looking forward to our next trip back!

Easter in amsterdam (pt 2)

2009-04-15T01:10:00.000-07:00

And on 2nd Easter day, we had a rooftop breakfast with J's family (and yes, the weather was a balmy 22 degrees!!)

yes, it was weather for hats! it's amazing that barely 2 weeks ago, we still needed our jackets and coats, and now we are lounging comfortable with the windows open!

and to work off our big big breakfast, we decided to go for a little ramble through the city - this is the rembrandtsplein, where everyone seemed to be out enjoying the sunshine and the long weekend on the terraces of the cafes here..
and the sisters Blok in front of the Doelen hotel
and a part of our little stroll through the streets of Amsterdam!

Easter in Amsterdam (pt 1)

2009-04-14T14:24:00.000-07:00

We took a train into Amsterdam over this past long (Easter) weekend, and spent a Vrolijke Pasen with J's family!

and amidst the fairtrade dark choco eggs, the yummy yummy eatin' and the gezelligheid of being with family...we had this!

hmm...spring onions with chilli sauce from a packet...

(and this is true) - packaging for something familiar sounding (HCR...) that is identical to combat rations from my NS days..

you're right! its hainanese chicken rice! We've found the perfect solution to staving off those hunger pangs for hawker fare; prima tastes does an excellent selection of rempahs and pastes, so we can make some good local eatin!

(we later got down to painting easter eggs for the occasion)

and here is our super-festive Easter morning breakfast!!

Easter eggs!!

2009-03-31T13:23:00.000-07:00

Victoria asked for some more chocolate pictures and since it will be Easter in a couple of weeks time we were happy to buy ourselves a small selection of chocolate Easter eggs for blogging purposes.

I'm not entirely sure which flavours we bought, but the one on top was some sort of yummy dark chocolate with chocolaty filling flavour... The greenish one in front has pistachio filling (and if you look carefully you can see half a pistachio stuck in the side). The one on the right (in the picture above, left in the picture below) is a chocolate truffle egg, the dark one with the red dots (above at the back) is probably the forest fruit (or was it raspberry?) flavoured one.

I think the one in front (in the picture below) is mocha flavoured.

We're planning to go back to the shop after Easter to get some more, hopefully they'll still have some and hopefully they'll be in the discount corner by then...

gezellige plek onder de zon!

2009-03-21T08:45:00.000-07:00

after a couple of uber busy weeks, J and I decided to take the opportunity of a Saturday afternoon with nothing planned to have a bit of time of much needed R and R... we chanced upon this cool/quiet little cafe literally 5 minutes from the main fashion street of Antwerp

which was right next to a small town square, when suddenly a whole procession appeared!

with giants! (and a large dog which might be easily confused for a horse in the picture)

and we had a yum-yum lunch of tapas - anchovy thingamajigs and sundried tomato dingalings amongst the assortment on our plate!

(and yes, this IS the 3rd entry for today - i am just filled with enthusiasm to write and take pictures today for some reason!)

time for some good eatin'

2009-03-21T08:34:00.000-07:00

J came home with some yummy greens during the week...(yes, they are on a plate on our clothes drying rack....but it was the quickest way to get a picture of them in the glorious spring sunshine!)

and it sure is a lot more work than heading to the local hawker centre and nonchalantly saying to the macik at the satay/mee rebus shop, 'Auntie, one gado-gado'....

and the things missing were only cabbage (buying a head of cabbage to make gado gado is a bit silly) and tempeh (which i could have bought, but unsure what else to use the rest of the half kilo block for)

and the secret of a sort-of-almost-there-satay-sauce? fry some crushed nuts, have a half decent jar of sambal in the fridge........and peanut butter!!!

it was pretty good...and i'm glad that it was a good appropriation of a (singaporean) local standard....now on to chilli crab and chicken rice - which by the way if you didn't know have these solutions....we can get them here, and they rock our world!

and there's the business of getting money back!

2009-03-21T08:09:00.000-07:00

and after you've had your beers, don't forget to bring it back to your local supermarket - because when you pay for them, there's a little bit (approx 10 euro cents per bottle) so you bring it back...for recycling!

yum yum beer yummy yum_redux

2009-03-19T02:28:00.000-07:00

So the IDEA was to give a quick run-down of my favourite beers in Belgium, since our first year here is around the corner, but as things happened, I ran out of time and just posted the 'group photo' of beers as an intro..

the backstory to this entry has been bubbling at the back of my head for quite some time now; I distinctly remember my first draft Belgian beer experience back in my Uni days in Perth, where I picked up my first freshly-scrubbed-glass of knife-sliced-head Belgian beer from the tap...and it's since been a constant part of my beer palate..

The beers I am showing below are by no means the only ones available; imagine my (happy) suprise when I saw that the beer section in the supermarket around the corner from our place has a (actually small) selection of 20 Belgian beers; that's excluding the Carlsbergs, the Guinesses and other foreign beers..

Also, I won't be giving 'hints of almond and chocolate'-type reviews...just what I like about each of them

so, in no particular order..

1) Duvel

this one is strong! and it's got the reputation of being the beer that 2 bottles are enough for a night out...I almost never buy this now, mainly because I've since discovered other tastier brews; but it's nice with a burn-a-hole-in-your-tummy curry..

2) Leffe Bruin

This is my number 1 favourite beer! It's dark, it's sweet, it's malty, it's heaven-in-a-glass! and the best thing is; it's 70 euro cents per bottle (as are the other beers on this list actually..you only pay 1euro at the supermarket when its a triple beer or stronger)...

this was the beer that kick started my interest in Belgian beers...and those who are in the know, Oosters near China Square was where I got my occasional fix - and on tap no less!

3) Westmalle Dubbel

Trappist beers are strong: you can just about see that its 7% in the picture...this one is a new favourite of mine...sort of like the Leffe Bruin, but more kick...

its a bit posh, but I actually pick out the beers that I feel like drinking when the mood is right (there are obviously more such guidelines; like 'summer beers' [like Hoegaarden] and fruit beers as a digestive)
4) Stella Artois

Ah yes, the Tiger beer of Belgium - a local once told me that it had the infamous reputation of the morning-after-headache-beer; and more interestingly, its brewed in Leuven: a University town!! (probably testament to its enduring popularity with student types)..

I have to say (quite honestly) I only get this when I (sheepishly) feel like having a Tiger beer...
5) De Koninck

This is my new favourite; its an amber beer; so its got a darker colour than a pils (tiger, carlsber, stella, heineken) but its still got a light/refreshing taste.. What's more, it's a local brew (as in from Antwerp), so it's even more attractive to me! When the locals order it in a pub, they ask for a 'Bolleke' which is the half spherical glass which this is served in...

yum yum..

(i was even ambitious enough to want to do a day by day review of each beer, writing as I was sipping one of each of these...but as you can imagine, it was a bit hard to do this..so this is a sort of summary post)

Look out for the next yum yum review! maybe salty snacks, or sweet stuff that goes on bread, or the weird and wonderful world of vegetables!

yum yum beer yummy yum

2009-03-17T02:17:00.001-07:00

wow what a week!

2009-03-14T03:50:00.000-07:00

Just a word; the pictures from this entry are of some great flowers we received from J`s dad when he came over for a visit ..

and as the title of this entry suggests - it´s been a really intense week for us!!

I´ve been busy with a bunch of things all leading up to this weekend; more details of that here.
Also, J´s been super-duper-ultra busy with her recent week of internships at a primary school here in Antwerp.

and if anyone was wondering- we are coming out of winter here in Europe! we`ve been enjoying 12° to 15° days, and the weather is clearing up. Before long, it should be time to stow away the winter jackets and start sporting shorts-slippers-ensembles!

The reason for this sort-of-email-type-entry is that we`ll be soon be at our 1st year anniversary year here in Europe, and I was thinking to get you our friends and family in Singapore to send us your requests for `European´ things that you might want to see on the blog - a Belgian Chinatown, local McDonald´s offers, cheese, etc...

tell us what you might find interesting to see - we´d love to hear from you!

you can email me at keefecordeiro@gmail.com on what you think yah?

hope to hear from you!!

Graaaargh!

2009-03-04T01:48:00.000-08:00

So we hopped into the car with J's family, and we went into Brussels to visit the Natural Sciences Museum; and boy do they have some cool dinosaurs!

i was awestruck-gobsmacked! (it is in part that I have always liked dinosaur-abilia, and part that we had just watched Jurassic Park II on TV the night before)

i was flung back into my (heady) He-Man days when I saw this display...this video says it all

there were obviously a whole host of other exhibits; but i was transfixed on the awesome-awesomeness of the dinos!

Highly highly recommended for anyone who likes dinosaurs/natural science/dinosaurs!

http://www.naturalsciences.be/

happy 14th february!

2009-02-14T09:32:00.000-08:00

dear everyone, today is of course valentine's day all over the world; and here are some snippets of what we say around town today

(above is my cappucino at {one of} our favourite coffee places...yes, the foam-crafting was done by J) -- they might not have a Starbucks/Coffee Bean/Spinelli on every corner, but the places wth the out-of-this-world coffee are a-m-a-z-i-n-g!!!

(if you didn't know already) my surname is an approximate translation for 'sheep' in Portugese - and yes, one of the famous brands of oranges here in Belgium is 'Cordero'.....no Sunkist,,

and our local spupermarket (literally 2 door numbers from us) had a Valentine's special of 5 'koffiekoeken' (coffee pastries) at about 50euro cents a piece..

and we got a danish, a croissant, a pecan twist, a raisin this and an apricot that...all yummy freshly baked goodness..

the fruit and daffodil plant are just there to fill out the space lah...

so we hope your weekend was restful, and till the next post!

dooi!

chocolicious!

2009-02-08T01:15:00.000-08:00

so we were walking around in the old city centre in Antwerp; and we passed by our favorite chocolate shop - and look what we found!

flavoured chocolates! ranging from cumin and ginger, to plain old 88% dark and milk coffee....it was good fun trying each of the flavours! kinda like a wine or cheese or dim sum session - with each of us picking our favourites!

we did agree though that by the 4th or 5th caraque (i know this term because I used to be a sales rep for Godiva back in S'pore), your tastebuds are a bit overworked from the multitude of flavours..

my personal preference? the aniseed dark chocolate, with small pieces of aniseed seeds...

vintage fair!

2009-01-20T01:35:00.000-08:00

those of you who have been eagle-eyed to notice; its been a good 2 weeks that i've been trying to upload these pics onto the blog - i think its just the timing - sometimes it isn't as fast..

but the wait is over - here are some pics from the vintage design fair that I was helping out at..

pretty pretty things for the study, the lounge, the living room, the cigar room or even the conservatory!

and the amazing thing is; its not even super expensive! sometimes, the vintage version of a design piece is cheaper than a modern reproduction by the same studio...so you get a slightly worn, but really amazing piece of history!

and the old-timers...what can I say - for €40,000 (about S$100k)...i'd get it if i could afford it..

amazing stuff they made yah?

funny story behind this pic: back when we were living in Seah Street, we had to clear ut some really grotty/dusty/yucky fabric upholstered chairs from the apartment when we first moved in...

and looking at this original Eames from the 50s, i realised 2 things:

1) its amazing but very true how the humidity and heat affect things even only after 50 years

2) we must have then thrown out original made-in-china copies of these Eames chairs!! (but without the cool legs and the metal struts)

super-mega-ultra-photo-upload!

2009-01-12T08:14:00.000-08:00

Dear Everyone,

yes, ys - its been almost a months since the last post; its been a whirlwind of a end-of-the-year...and rather than bore you with the details, here are (quite some) pretty pics!

enjoy!

curtain colourful!

2008-12-13T02:09:00.000-08:00

sinterklaas 2008

2008-12-07T11:20:00.000-08:00

Pluis de kip

2008-12-02T03:35:00.000-08:00

I realised that Pluis perhaps needed some explanation, before everyone thinks we're the type of people that make make chickens and let them sing to the Bee Gees just for fun...

As you may (or may not) know, I (Josefine) have gone back to school. I'm doing a primary school teaching degree and for my previous internship (in P1) I had to make a hand puppet.

So I made a chicken and called her Pluis (fluff). Because I was insanely busy with all the other internship preparation stuff, Keefe made the lovely ball of fluff for her head. He even made two, cause the first one turned out to be just a tiny bit too small...

Anyway, the kids loved her and, as it turns out, she can sing too!

Unfortunately, my next internships are in year 5 and 6 where she probably won't be appreciated that much. She now has to decide if she wants to stay on the shelf for a while, till she can go back to school or if she wants to pursue a singing career.

We'll keep you updated.

een rustige zaterdag...

2008-12-01T08:17:00.000-08:00

So this past saturday, I met up with some friends for a saturday morning brunch which turned out to be a really good idea!

in case you are wondering, J doesn't appear in the pictures because she was at work ...but she did join us for the 2nd half of the day (which I conveniently forgot to take any pics of)

Here you see the lovely hosts C and D...

and we had a real breakfast spread that lasted well till noon-ish! (with token appearance by one of our rice bowls from Singapore)
and here you see us looking at a pigeon.....there is a story behind it too!!

(looking at the picture again; it actually looks very posed.....but we were completely not posing....hmm...)

Big thank you to C and D!!

Pluis de kip zingt de Bee Gees

2008-11-30T01:06:00.000-08:00

as the mystery unfolds

2008-11-24T02:45:00.000-08:00

5+ days of work, with hours of snipping, painting, sewing and stapling.....

snow on our street

2008-11-24T02:36:00.000-08:00

and this is what the school playground from our terrace looks like now!

shopping on a sunday!

2008-11-24T01:02:00.000-08:00

So J and I were taking the bus to Wijnegem, and we got off the bus stop and this is where we ended up...

not kidding; this shopping centre was (suprisingly) open on a Sunday because of the upcoming festive season; but this being our first time there, we were suprised to see that it faced a big open patch of green...and then we saw the brightly coloured Christmas decorations, and knew we were in the right direction
so this is it, antwerp's answer to the all-in-one suburban mall...
with Sinterklaas decor
and a small house (which, by the way, parents would pay 6euros to take a picture with good ol sint, and get a small bag of candy) with a precariously climbing zwarte piet
I thought this was a pretty good use of a (pretty) normal piece of furniture, as a setting for the contact lens campaign..

and of course, this is us having our free samples of yoghurt (we got a tub of coconut [??!?!?!?] and a tub of raspberry) ...
had to post this; they have this chain in holland as well; and I always thought it was an excellent way to get people into the shop - what better, than to call it free?
so we were done with our day of window shopping; and we stepped out and this is what we saw!!!
the weather forecast had warned that it would be a day of snow and the day temperature hovering around 1degree...
and being in Wijnegem (which is about 15 minutes out of the city) it was really quiet, white...almost like a movie...the snow really dampens the atmospheric sounds out...

day at the verbeke foundation

2008-11-04T10:56:00.000-08:00

So J's family came by this weekend, and we had an excellent excursion out to the Verbeke Foundation - a sprawling contemporary art space with an amazing array of sculptures/collages/really really nice stuff..

this is one of my favorite rooms - it showcases the foundation's collection of collages and assemblages; and not only are the works a riot; I was intruiged by the nature of the roof of the room as well..

and here we have my lovely dutch family looking at the various works on display

now we step out to the enclosed outdoor area; and yes, your eyes don't deceive you - they are parangs (machetes) mounted on machines, each presenting a book - and they move and squeak and creak and make a whole lot of sound!!

this picture basically summarizes my experience of the spaces here: just the right mix of 1)unexpectedness, 2) unsettling sights/sounds and 3) a healthy dose of context

this is a cool one...two motors outfitted with rubber tires are activated and these in turn feed a thick (marine) rope at a speed where it creates a moving lasso.. here you see the rope in action

and here the machine is off, and the rope stays limp on the ground..

this was one of the most arresting pieces that I saw, where the artist created these avian hybrids of bird/lizard taxidermy pieces..

and in the outdoor spaces, this was a fascinating work made from planks - which in my mind, heightened my perception of the lowly rattan basket, when seeing this work in its huge format!!

if you ever find yourself in Antwerp/Belgium, this is one highly recommended arts space; it was great to run around and find works around every corner and in the green too!

mega autumn post; power up!

2008-10-20T07:53:00.000-07:00

So I finally had the opportunity to bring the camera out for a half day, and the result of which are the following photos of autumn here in Antwerp! (less words, more pics this time)

yes, there are a couple of plants still flowering here and there..

[short interruption] and the reason for this super-photo post is that our friends from Holland, R and J are visiting us for the weekend (and a bit)...here you see a bit of Antwerp-orientation at Antwerpen Centraal Station where they give out free maps of the city..

Back to the theme of Autumn...like I mentioned in my previous post, there are carpets of yellow everywhere! its like a movie or something...on any other day, this would just be the corner of a street, but in autumn, its like a patterened carpet...

and here, for randomness' sake, is a Fig plant..

and the reason for it is that we happened to head in the direction of the Antwerpen Plantentuin

and look! a real christmas tree! not made of plastic/with glowing lights/smells of 'real' pine...

and I saw this poster and think it is super-keen-cool...i even alreayd have the handy flyer for the same event with the same graphic...

ok, so here is super touristy pic of the Cathedral and a tree...but not bad right, the light is still quite good for taking photos!!
and last but not least, i thought it was sorta important for everyone to see what we look like in our autumn fashions!!

this is what autumn looks like

2008-10-16T05:30:00.000-07:00

So I had the opportunity for a quick trip out for some groceries (for the regular stuff, but also some extra things for friends who are coming over from Holland for a day or two); and the blankets of yellowing leaves, the 10+ degree days and the penchant for soup-stew-curry simply summarizes that the cooler days are here..

I packed my trusty camera for the trip to the supermarket and tried looking for some examples of the autumn-y vibe..

and the strangest thing is that, the first thing that I saw that caught my eye was this bottle of vodka on a power exchange box - the red was really jumping out in the 11am light..

and this is the tram that runs adjaecent to the Antwerp Zoo, and the uncle crossing the lane looks like he's making a funky dance move onto the pavement!

here is an example of the above-mentioned yellow-leaf-blanket; its amazing; sometimes you can't even see the road/pavement (for those who don't know - there is only the wet-rainy, 95% humidity season in Singapore, so all this 4 seasons stuff is new for me)

And when I looked across the road, there was a statue of Mary and Jesus in a rather unusual place - its almost at the 3rd floor of the building!

and this building has a cool back story; if my orientation is correct, this is the ante building to an abandoned church currently being used as a location for a squatter's community [behind the wall] - they have gigs, pasar malams and all sorts of activities at this building -- sorta like a community centre, but completely existing because of grassroots activities.
and yes, you did see correctly; there's a 2-man tent on the roof of the building!

yah....construction and wayfinding signs

in case anyone is wondering, this is what I look like now..it's not the best picture in the world, but you can (roughly) see that I'm bundled up (i'm in 3 layers here), and still wearing trainers..

and this is the last (and a bit random) picture of this post; when I got back from the adventure of grocery shopping, it was hailing! the picture doesn't really show this clearly, but that's what hail looks like when you are taking a quick picture...

chocomelk tijd!

2008-10-02T23:28:00.001-07:00

So here is some big news; i got my certificate for the first stage Dutch language course!! I am super-stoked that I can now head over to a cafe/supermarket/the library without panicking!!

to celebrate this big occasion, here is a truly inspiring series of photos; I present....

Hot Chocolate in Antwerp!!

Step 1: Put the milk on (not pictured), and assemble all necessary items

Step 2: Pour hot milk into mug, position chocolicious goodness above mug

Step 3: Slowly lower said cube of chocolate goodness into mug

Step 4: (Optional) Swirl stick around a bit; the sight of melting chocolate makes you happy..

Step 5: kick back, relax and sip slowly....

I tried to upload a video of the melting chocolate, and will try again... hope you enjoy the pics

it sure feels like europe!!

2008-09-28T23:36:00.000-07:00

what an excellent autumn day! the sun was shining, but still cool enough for a light jacket during a languid Sunday afternoon bicycle ride into the South [het Zuid] of Antwerp...

I'd brought along my camera for any incidental photos, but the amazing thing that i found out when I got back was that I really liked all the pictures! There was a very fine fog in the earlier part of the day, and probably helped to diffuse the sunshine that little bit extra nicely..

here is just a doorway to a house on one of the streets leading to the Leien [the avenues that used to be the fortifications of medieval Antwerp]

and in this pic, you get a sense of the fine mist i mentioned earlier....its quite magical what it does with the light

here, the first signs of autumn are kicking in; with just-browning leaves
and an extremely desirable addition to any home; a shrubbery!
i was gobsmacked when I saw the entrance to this unassuming ground-floor entrance to a 3 storey walk up
look at that character all behind the typeface of the number; I would love to get such a classic typeface for our next home!!
i seemed to be taking a fair number of autumn-coloured pictures, and this is one of the unexpected ones that I really liked!
and I took this pic on our way back home; isn't it amazing that the builders have to put this much effort to conserve the integrity of the neighbouring apartments on the corner? I think I am too used to seeing yet another HDB en bloc redevelopement site...this, to me, just says that care and effort are going into this building!!
and here was an unexpected bit of street art that jumped out of no where....can you spot it?
all in all, it really felt like a very European day out yesterday - yes, its a bit silly to state the obvious, but that's what I was thinking in my head for the rest of the day...

op de dokken!

2008-09-21T09:13:00.000-07:00

So we spent the evening yesterday at the docks of Antwerp; yes, for those of you who didn't know, Antwerp is a bustling port-city too!!

I was involved with this project - MAS under construction, where there was a one day exhibition/livemusic/BBQ event, and i was working on the exhibition component of this where we installed works INSIDE a heavy goods boat!!

here is a pic of the MAS [museum aan de stroom] in the morning; it's a new building built on 'het eilandje' or small island, which is in the docks...and the museum is for the maritime history as well as ethnographic past of Antwerp...

here is a pic of the boat where we installed the works into...it was a really nice space with lots of rust and textured wood! and get this, the owner is a web designer!!

this was some kind of light-boat which was docked around the corner from the MAS..cool eh?

and this is the view into the boat....here we have some artists installing their works ...

and this was one of the main things i had to work with an artist-friend, Ephameron - it was just about being finished when i took this pic...

one little thing...Jos has mentioned this in the past days...the weather here actually looks really nice - AND it averages about 15 degrees during the day...which is great!! the nights on the other hand are dropping to the single digits, so it is getting a bit cold...

nothing some hot chocolate can't solve, eh?

its national day again!

2008-09-14T11:06:00.000-07:00

yes yes, you didn't see wrongly...the Singapore Embassy for the Benelux threw a National Day makan session for Singaporeans in the region, and i scored us an invite!

so in the morning, we decided to go past the Art Deco Swimming Pool from 1933 which was open as part of the Monument Open House day..

on our way there, we came across this children's playground..it must be some kind of device for child-like fun....but it looks like the synthetic floor's been pierced!

so we made it to the swimming pool; and yes, the skies are blue but the weather is now firmly in Autumn with 15-19 degree days, even with the sun out!

here are some balloons on the ceiling for the kids who visit..

and this is us on the part of the tour where we look at the basement levels where they have a 'hammam' styled bath - with spice and oil baths for patrons!

and this is a chimney which comes out of the complex..

we then made it over to an Indonesian restaurant where the National Day celebrations were being held...the Ambassador to the Benelux gave a tiny 4 minute speech, and basically everyone went into full swing with eating and talking and saying 'lah'

and here is Jos with half of her lunch [which consisted of a good version of rendang, gado gado, ayam lemak and mee goreng] outside because the place was packed !!

it was good to have met some Singaporeans overseas - and of course the makan was a good reason to be there too!!

graff in antwerp!

2008-08-25T00:06:00.000-07:00

the short version of this is: the can-it festival was running over the past weekend, and an artist friend was installing her work .. there was also a breakdancing comp, but it was too dark to take any pics/video...

the best thing is that the location is a 'youth centre' where they run programmes, so this brand new graff has a home for a year till the next iteration of the festival!

lillo - rommelmarkt deluxe

2008-08-17T06:46:00.001-07:00

and on this slightly cloudy sunday, we decided to head over to the annual Lillo Sjachermarkt - similar to the rommelmarkts we have written previously about where basically everyone brings out their barang barang and tries to sell it off..

we got 5 nice frames for 5 euros [one has its glass pane broken in 2 bits, but we'll fix that] and got to see a wide variety of strange and wonderful things..

this pic however, is of the boat-park during low tide..

and this is just to the side of the core of the buying and selling area; everyone was making a beeline for this bit of the town because of the fries as well as the pub [in the brown bricked building in the centre]

where they have a very low archway for an entrance!!

and here we are enjoying our lunch in the outdoor terrace - classic belgian gastronomy; fries with mayo and a beer [i'm having a De Konnick, the local brew from Antwerp - which i've picked up a taste for!!]
and here is the dockside of Lillo...strangely enough, there has been a campaign by the inhabitants of this tiny town to keep the industrialization of the port at bay - it took a good 2o minute drive from the city through the docks of the port before arriving in Lillo...and the Lillo

Sjachermakrt is testament to this!!

in the distance is the rest of the docks and pretty much the core of the shipping trade in Antwerp [which by the way, is also a pretty important stop for all those ships that probably come through Singapore].. it felt a bit surreal; for a Singapore reference, it was kinda like going for a pretty much original- authentic kampung-esque experience in the Shenton Way area, by geographic distance!!!

woh woh woh woh waterloo!

2008-08-14T13:23:00.000-07:00

and today, we ended up in Waterloo - yes, the real one with Napolean and ABBA references..

there was quite a bit more space, considering it was about 20 minutes out from Brussels..

and a maccer's around the corner made it possible for a short drink break

see, we were really really there! and in the background, you see the morning traffic of the main road in Waterloo..

now this one was a nice [sudden] surprise we came across the highway...wheat fields!

obviously we were enroute to the local tourist attraction...

the 'Butte du Lion'...

and as you can imagine, lots of classic war imagery to fire up your senses...

and this was a 'ghostly' bus stop area on our way back to the train station...looks a bit ulu...

so yah, we didn't really spend that much time there because there wasn't really that much to see..and i had to be back in Antwerp for an appointment in the afternoon as well...but was a nice half day out into the country side!!

so the weather is a bit confused

2008-08-13T04:04:00.000-07:00

so i was having a small chat with jos on our way out today, and i was saying:

'isn't it a bit upside-down-inside-out that in spring [about 2 months back - you can see the pics from that time] that the weather was generally sunny, and now in Summer, the weather alternates between sunny and raining and somewhere in between - even yesterday, when i was at the computer, it seemed liek someone was playing with the galactic light dimmer, where the light in our living room was constantly changing!!'

but in spite of all of the confused weather, here are some pics of the awesome sunset from our apartment last night..

imagine if we could head to the seaside for a sunset like that huh....

Sunny Summery Sunday

2008-08-10T08:01:00.000-07:00

So I was wandering around in the sunshine this weekend , and look what i found!

this is the Hendrik Conscience Plein; a nice little square with tree-shaded lanes and an excellent sky today

and this is Hendrik Conscience himself, sitting in a corner of the Old City Library - the eagle eyed among you will notice 'Bibliotheek' just above his head

But what's this? A can of Cara Pils? who would've thought? [no.. it's not some installation piece by a contemporary visual artist, rather, its just the probable aftermath of someone with a good sense of silly humour - but its interesting to notice that the line that separates the two is so fine!!] - and in case you are wondering, Cara Pils is sort of the cheapest/most democratic beer in that almost everyone gets - kinda like the Tiger Beer of Belgium [although there's another 3 other beers who are at the same level]

maybe this entry prompts me to do a beer-extravaganza next....hmm..

Bruges; cobblestone streets and amazing buildings

2008-08-07T23:25:00.000-07:00

And so the weather report warned us that it would be a rainy and cold 18 to 20 degrees for our trip to Bruges yesterday, but as you can see in the pictures below, the weather actually held up for some bits [although at one point we had to run into the nearest cafe for a lunch break because the rain was a bit too much]

this is pretty much a good summary of Bruges; awesome old buildings with groups of tourists with cameras snapping away - and this was a day with not-so-good-weather..

ah....classic Bruges; canals, amazing waterside homes..sometimes, its even referred to as the Venice of the north!

I took a bucket load of texture pics.....I really like the colours and worn surfaces in Bruges....things like this, you can only wait 200 years before they exist..

and here is a classic tourist shot for everyone..

Whilst we were there, I found out that I just missed a comic art exhibition opening by a week...it opens next week friday, AND that after a half day of walking around, we'd only covered about half of the town...so there's more to see and do in Bruges!!!

so the weather's been pretty good

2008-07-27T23:38:00.000-07:00

some pics of antwerp

2008-07-26T02:15:00.001-07:00

oostende!

2008-07-06T12:55:00.000-07:00

And today, we took the early morning [well....830am] train to Oostende which took about an hour and forty minutes for a day by the beach!!

the skies were amazing, the sun was intermittently shining which made it for an excellent day for just ambling around...

ok, we were also there for a pasar malam styled open market where everyone in town basically put out all of their barang barang and sell them for as much as people are willing to pay - we, of course, couldn't find anything because it was the 2nd of 2 days, so unfortunately no pics of our spoils from this...

but we did make it to the therma palace which is a big hotel which doubles as a spa resort by the sea...

but the big [and unexpected] highlight of the trip was this long walk along the 'vismine'...or fish mine, where the stocks of fish are offloaded at the docks of oostende

and integrated with these actual working dock spaces, was a large format photo exhibition at the beams of the vis mine...
it was a really unbelievable experience - the smell of the sea and the hint of fish, along side the sounds of the lapping waves at the docks and the idea that these are the actual working spaces of the fish mine was really amazing..

and whilst we were there, there were even people driving through the exhibition!! how democratic is that? that you have an insightful and inspiring exhibition that you can drive through!!!

so it was a really big day for us, exploring the coastal town of oostende and discovering a super cool exhibition all in the same day!!

when onions ruled the earth..

2008-07-04T07:29:00.000-07:00

Dear everyone, please have a look at this monster underground bulb I found at our neighbourhood greengrocer's today - it is a MONSTER!

and also, the humble brinjal is dubbed 'aubergine' but more importantly, looks like some alien fruit....or something obscenely overpriced you would only find in a jason's marketplace..

no no....we don't eat the onions raw here..

but you can have fun arranging your assorted fruit and vegetables in a colourful display!
and just one more pic to show how insanely large this onion is...

day at the sculpture park_middelheim museum

2008-07-01T07:38:00.000-07:00

So....yes, its been a bit too long since my last entry...i was busy the past (almost) 2 weeks assisting with yet another exhibition - this time in Hasselt, Belgium...more information on that here..

as for today's entry, Jos and I took a much needed cycling trip to the middelheim museum about 20mins cycling from our place [much needed because today's weather was projected at 27 degrees, as well as that I really need to get used to cycling in the city]

as you can see from the photo, got my sunnies on, bike in the background, awesome blus skies, the weather is super nice..

The middelheim museum is a unique exhibition space because it is in the middle of a park!! Amidst the trees and small streams, you'll encounter classic bronze figurative sculptures..

or a girl running in between the trees

or even a rotunda of speakerboxes serenading a rose bush!!

This was one of our particular faves...its a series of curved glass pieces - but in the picture, it looks like some kind of optical illusion!
so after almost 3 hours of walking in and around the park, we headed back home for the 20 minute cycle trip where i even negotiated the tramlines ok [if anyone has ever ridden alongside the tram lines, cars whizzing past, and the thin line between tram line and drain, you know how difficult that can be]

this is how much sun we are getting now!

2008-06-17T06:21:00.000-07:00

Hey...so i wanted to post this earlier, but then the weather turned spectacularly chilly yesterday [well...sorta cold and sorta grey], so the appropriateness of this entry was a bit off...

but the sun is out again [and brings me back to the point that...] which means really really long days... case in point, make a wild guess what time the above the picture was taken...

...

If you guessed 9:40pm, you'd be right! [ok, for all the non-singaporeans reading this entry, you have to empathize that living on the equator gives the flawless-day-after-day sunrise at 6am and sunset at 7pm with not much variation, so an almost 10pm sunset is pretty special]

I've already noticed that the evenings seem to creep into the 9-10pm bracket, and amazingly, the sun rises at about 6am...so that means only about 7 hours of darkness...

ok, so this is probably a natural global phenomenon that I am experiencing for the first time...but its still damn cool lah! [for all you faithful readers, there was my snow story not too long ago as well]

anyhoo, some food for thought...if it only gets dark so late in the night, then it must be super shiok to have post work drinks, dinner, post dinner chat and coffee while the sun is still up eh? awesome stuff!

been a bit busy lah

2008-06-09T13:47:00.000-07:00

so we were walking around in the idyllic town of Leuven when we suddenly came across this..

the short version of the story is that i got a pair of tickets for us to attend TW Classic in Werchter - about 20 mins from Leuven...and big big suprise, this is my first ever real-life festival experience...

and one of the big things that you can't get enough of at any festival (apparently) is the copious amounts of mud everywhere!

and the funniest thing was - it hadn't rained that day at all..so we deduced that it was the free-loving nature of people with beers in plastic cups to share some with the trodden ground to make some authentic soddy ground - as you can see here with our uber-muddy footwear

the experts all came armed with knee high rubber boots, inflatable chairs and mats to lie down on....all very sensible and we will definitely emulate this behaviour at our next festival outing because our feet were killing us from all the standing..

at this point, i have to make the statement that all the photos i tried to take of the Police and Iggy & the Stooges didn't turn out so well...so here are some from the belgian newspapers...yes, sting WAS sporting a monster-cool beard, and iggy pop was still prancing around without a shirt in spite of the 15 degree weather...

and this is the train out from leuven post gig.....so the organisers linked up with the rail network in order for the festival attendees to get home somehow...so we arrived at the train a little after midnight, but because it was a 50k capacity crowd, the train was only scheduled to leave at 130am...so we were fighting hard to stay awake ...

Bits and bobs 3 - Cool foldable table on wheels!!

2008-05-24T08:39:00.000-07:00

So we were at the Kringwinkel (again) to look for a few more pieces of furniture and we found this one: all folded up it looks like some kind of hospital accessory...

Half opened it seems to be some kind of rollator with shelves...

But completely opened it's obvious it's actually our new printer table on wheels!

We also found a rather dainty hallway table where we can chuck our keys etc on when we come home. We hope it will help keep our dining table relatively clutter free. Let's see how long that lasts...

adventure in brussels!

2008-05-17T06:39:00.000-07:00

So we took a day trip to Brussels [finally] to see what the capital of Belgium [and the capital of the EU as well] looks like...

they've got some cool graffiti [just chanced across this when walking around]...

and this is a pic of the famous grote markt [big market] in the old part of the city

and me taking a photo of myself..

and yes, they have wall-tributes to their comic favourites! it is tintin [or kuifje in dutch] and captain haddock running down a flight of stairs!

and then we were in the area of the ....

the real-deal Manneken Pis!

and i have a small anecdote of this world famous sculpture; if any of you who are young enough, you will remember that Liang Court behind boat quay used to have a small fountain on the basement floor [right next to the burger king and long john silver's, and as a kid, i used to clap until my hands were numb because....there was a replica Manneken Pis between the ground and basement floors pissing the day away...and it was sound activated, so the louder you clapped, the harder he pissed....[amazing how easy it was to keep me entertained!]

yah...this is just some dynamic lighting on what was actually quite a hot day - i think we had almost 24degrees! and bright sunny rays everywhere!

and this was our last stop for the day - we made it to the comic museum and it was in this art nouveau building by Horta and there was a museum shop that was....you've guessed it, A Comic Shop!!

[gotta brush up on my dutch asap so i can start augmenting my local comic knowledge!!]

so it was a great day for just jalan-ing around and getting to know the city!

architecture near the dageraadplaats

2008-05-15T08:35:00.000-07:00

So the weather was superbly insanely good; and we decided to treat ourselves to a nice walk in a neighbourhood well known for its gezelligheid [dutch for good vibes] and amazing art nouveau architecture.. the dageraadplaats

this school [in brick] which is flanked by a church is actually a good 15 minute walk from our place, and about 5 mins to our destination...this photo is just to show how nice the sky was that day...

this is an under-a-bridge cafe which we came across and later, there would be salsa dancers sashaying and wiggling their sunny afternoon away..

we are on one of the streets where the amazing buildings are as you will see..

and for some reason, there were these vintage bi-planes flying overhead us all afternoon; this yellow one in particular kept going back and forth..

here is a detail of one of four tiled [or painted] illustrations for each of the cardinal directions of a 4 way intersection..

and here are the main houses on the big street...the kombi [loh tee chiah] was an incidental bonus that happened to be ambling along when we were there...

so it was an excellent primer for us to familiarize ourselves with our neighbourhood - we ended the excursion with a well deserved kriek beer and cola light - the best drinks to have on a sunny day like this!

machine food!

2008-05-15T07:03:00.000-07:00

ok, so when i first made it to amsterdam some 3 years back, i was completely blown away by the in-wall snack bar windows - where you put in your euro coins and turn the handle and you get your delicious deep fried snack like:-

a bami schijf,

[a small fried portion of mee goreng, that's been deep fried in some batter]

a kroket

[ragout in some batter thats also deep fried]

or even a frikandel!!

[they call it a sausage, but no one's really sure what goes into these]

but jos and i made it to one of the suburbs of Antwerp and found these mechanical marvels!

its a bread dispensing machine!!!

and your options are: [top to bottom] large white, large brown, large farmer white, large farmer wholemeal, large white, small wholemeal, small white and......egg sandwiches!!!

just next to this machine was an innocent looking vending machine, but when i looked closer..

they have your regular fizzy drinks, and beer!!

and as we wheeled round the corner, the coolest of the machines was there...

if you look carefully you might be able to make out that in the glass display, they have.....

dagschotels [daily platters] comprising of cheese, ham, lasagne, spaghetti or sausages!!! its like a supermarket in a wall!!

Spring is in the air!

2008-05-15T06:24:00.000-07:00

so were walking around the city a little bit, and we chanced upon the plantentuin [plant town; or more accurately, the city's horticultural park]...this is THE season to be taking pictures of these awesome sprays of colour!!

Laureline and Floris' wedding in Wijdenes!

2008-05-15T05:50:00.000-07:00

So I'm actually a week late with posting this, but the good news is that we now have internet at home! so the posts should be more regular[ish] from now on;

we made it to the tropical museum in Amterdam last friday to witness the civil ceremony of Laureline and Floris' wedding, and it was a really good day with bright sunny weather and lots of catching up with our various friends [and some new friends for me] from Holland

as before, I won't bore you with super lengthy descriptions - here is my super-patented 4 word descriptions of the day [must challenge myself a bit lah]

laureline and floris, vows

rings exchanged, happy happy

cafe for cake, drinks

great weather, chatting, chilling

checking map of Hoorn

[ok, at this point, need a bit of explanation, otherwise it might be a bit vague for you - for part 2 of the celebrations, we've had our wedding cake and drinks after the civil ceremony, and have hopped into our respective car pools - thank you roland and jeanette! - for a half hour drive to wijdenes where we continue our evening celebrations about 4 hours late; during which everyone pitches tents at the campsite nearby, drinks beer, etc....ok, i am getting ahead of myself...this picture shows us a bit lost in the town of Hoorn] - back to the pictures!

wijdenes coast, waaaaah, lekker!

getting tents ready, campsite

wijdenes flora, awesome weather

on our way, party-time!

makan time! cous cous!

dancing to the klezmer!

big big congratulations to the newly weds - and jos and I had an awesome time hanging out with friends and having a ball!

bits and bobs 2 - fish on our walls!

2008-05-13T12:16:00.000-07:00

here's a much-too-late addition to our 'bits and bobs' collection - its our posters from China!

the short version of the story is -

we went to beijing, hung out at the pan jia yuan flea market, and fell in love with the 1950s posters that an uncle sold us for approx 6 singapore dollars - of various animals, plants and science posters from what must have been a school !

we got a pair of sorta fitting frames, and well..here are the fish that are curently hanging on our walls!!

nice eh? we really like them...

ok..just 6 more days to go

2008-05-07T03:08:00.000-07:00

hey everyone..

sorry for the blogging silence - we have just arranged all the remaining things for the apartment, so [hopefully] by next tuesday, you'll be getting a stream of regular updates..

the internet will be hooked up, and so will our tv and we can lead normal lives once again..

in case any of you are worried about our sleeping comfort, the bed arrived over the weekend and we have since been sleeping much more comfortably than on the inflatable mattress

we are also off to amsterdam tomorrow for the 2nd of the 3 weddings this spring, so i will try to post an amsterdam thing or two if time permits..but we are back in antwerp on sunday

can't wait to share all the cool things we have in store for you!

David and Hubertina's wedding in Sloten!

2008-04-26T02:17:00.000-07:00

So..we're now back from Sloten [a picturesque little town about an hour's drive from Amsterdam] and here are some pictures of the proceedings for the happy couple! David had gone to school with Jos for her Art education course, and have known each other for a good 8+ years..

[for something a bit different, I've decided to put up more pics and less words for this entry, so you get to see a bit more of the fun stuff we got to enjoy] -- i'm attempting to do five word descriptions for the day's events..

sloten, boat, waterside, picturesque, sunny

friesland, boat's name means adventure

happy couple on the bridge

[L to R]: Hugo, uncle, Roland, Jeanette, Josefine

Uncle peeking out of head

after the civil ceremony...lah

church where we had presentation

post wedding candid shot, hat

biodiesel in sloten! amazing amazing!

part1 : getting everyone to the side

getting the wedding cannon ready..

part2: david and hubertina approach cannon

part3: BOOM! loudly through the town..
part4: preparing the next shot, ears

part5: third and final cannon blast!

sloten map, 700 plus people!

ring road leading to town

dinner party, drinks, dancing, gezelligheid!

so as you can all see, it was a great celebration and we sure had a nice time at the day's activities..it was also a big highlight for us to catch up with friends from Amsterdam as well as to enjoy the nice weather out in the country..

[in case you were wondering, yes..there were fields of tulips and cows with windmill farms all along the way....but didn't get to take any pics lah]

that nautical almanac i was talking about

2008-04-26T02:07:00.000-07:00

Apologies for writing this one so late - as you know, we've been in amsterdam for a wedding, and have been busy packing and meeting up with friends here as well..

but as promised, here is the almanac that we found in the book fair; pls see the previous entry for more info on our sunday morning book adventure last weekend..

here you see the front cover of the almanac...its from 1962, and is clearly quite weathered..
yup! its a ad for singapore in the 60s on the back cover, with a six digit telephone number!! must have cost Motion, Smith &Son quite a bit to advertise back then!

Look! whats this?

its seems really archaic to have measurements of distances in a book for reference - what with the internet and probably a computer that logs all this information now in the year 2008

you'll see that Bristol to Singapore is 8 000 nm via the Suez and 11 000nm via Cape Town...

amazing stuff ya? there's also illustrations of measuring sextets and old-skool ads for various services and parts for the shipping industry..all quite cool..

sunday morning

2008-04-21T04:14:00.000-07:00

so there was a book fair yesterday [sunday] in front of the city library - which by the way has a COMIC lending section that is h-u-u-u-ge!~ and we went for a quick look around for some insightful reading material; in flemish, french and other various languages of course..

it was a great start to the day where we could just amble about the small square in the sun and look at assorted old books

i ended up with a heavily-discounted-from-bookstore-prices copy of jonathan strange and mr norrell, which so far has been an excellent read [for the first hundred pages or so..and its quite hard to put down]

and jos and i fished out a nautical almanac from the 1960s of which i will post pics the next time i write..got some cool suprises for you when you see them..

and of course, we headed off to the sunday bird market for a walkaround as well as to enjoy the weather....because everything else is closed, and it seemed a bit of a waste to stay in on the-radio-endorsed-weather of 16 degrees!!

in other news; jos and i are off to amsterdam for a wedding this coming weekend, and i am quite looking forward to seeing how the wedding-thing is done here in europe - amidst the packing of all of our remaining barang in amsterdam for the big move on sunday..more on those in the coming entries..

going underground!!

2008-04-19T05:14:00.000-07:00

so yesterday [friday] we decided to treat ourselves to a little R&R after lunch...we spent a good 2+ hours re-exploring the city and found - amongst other things:-

1) a classic belgian waffle place called desiree de lillle...with all sorts of waffle-y goodness - deep fried dough balls in sugar, lacquemants and waffles everywhere

2) several 2nd hand shops with really nice furniture - we've pretty much gotten all our required things, so just looking around lah.. there was even one with park benches, school desks and even hospital bedside cast iron utility cabinets!

3) a place that only sold tiles...but some really nice stuff! there were full colour glazed ones and washed-out-finish ones and mosaics and they had a really cool range of plant motifs...

4) an animal friendly shoe shop that carried a brand called :

vegetarian shoes

what a cool concept, but also what an awesome name!!

[at this point, i realise it is a little lame without pictures and will be sure to include pics in the future] ----

so cool to know that the city still has so much more to explore..

but the biggest suprise for us was at the end of our jalan jalan session; where we chanced upon an old building in a small square along the waterside...and we found.,...

the sint anna tunnel:
http://maps.google.com/maps?hl=en&q=Antwerp,+Belgium&ie=UTF8&f=q

this is a 530m underground tunnel under the Schelde for pedestrians and cyclist only! the photo below doesn't do justice to the tunnel...but the perspective you get standing at one end is amazing!!

here is a mosaic giving the basic info on the tunnel..

and this was the other cool part about this tunnel...the escalators were made of wood!!! not just the housing for the escalator, but they used wooden slats to make up each escalator landing!!!!
amazing!!

today, we will be running around a small area about 15 mins walk from our place where there are apparently art nouveau buildings everywhere!! [we spent a good 4+ hours doing up the painting for the small room in the apartment and have decided to leave the 2nd coat for tomorrow] -- so more pics on both those things in the coming days...

bits and bobs 1 - our green chairs

2008-04-17T09:08:00.000-07:00

as promised, here is a introduction to our soon-to-be[hopefully] completed apartment in Antwerp...

in the coming weeks, you'll get to see some of our finds in kringloopwinkels [sorta like the salvos, but a lot cooler with retro ties, LP players and samsonite leather briefcases from the 70s for 5euros], ikea and other assorted places...

first up; our green chairs - if anyone has noticed, in the past months, i have had a strange gravitation towards green things -- my green wallet(which many people agreed was a strangely apt choice), several green things in my wardrobe and green apples (ok, maybe i exaggerate)

so imagine our combined disbelief when we came across these beauties in a kringloopwinkel barely 50m from our apartment!!

they look like they belong in an american diner or some throwback party to the sixties!! they appeared to be in good condition and sturdy - very important, as these chairs must be a good 20+ years old....but the best bit was; we got the lot of 4 chairs for 20 euros......altogether!! [take that ikea!!]

we've realised that we have an affinity for the slightly retro, definitely character-filled environment;

ok, so the truth is, we didn't have a choice with the safes at our seah street apartment, but anyways.....

so we've been on the look-out, and have already found a couple of nice things here in Antwerp..

as a side note, its pretty amazing the stuff they have at the kringloopwinkel - we've seen entire [about 3m in total!] wardrobes made of super solid wood with excellent ornamentation and craft in the design going for a measly 200euros - we imagine that its the sheer size of these that probably dissuades any takers.. but they also have things ranging from in-cabinet TVs to awesome lighting to even original-retro postcards from europe!!!

ok...back to the chairs

so far they've been our primary sitting arrangements in the house, but as things move along, they will be part of our dining suite...[more info on that later]...and we really like them!

on another note, here is a picture of us painting our master bedroom yesterday...

so we were at the cathedral in the old city centre

2008-04-17T07:21:00.000-07:00

wow!

it's like we're really in europe!

we were at the Cathedral of Our Lady this past weekend, as a break from the painting and preparing for the apartment [pics of which will follow soon], and we had a great time at the thai fair on the grote markt - unfortunately no pics of this as we were to busy peering over shoulders to see what each of the 50+ stall had to offer [ranging from soap carving and 10 min massages to the ubiquitous pad thai and curry stalls], as well as the free museum day!

we'd taken some pics of the cathedral which houses 4 large Reubens paintings for your viewing pleasure below...[as you will see, i was so awestruck by the building, i forgot to steal a glimpse of the Reubens works..

tourists sitting in the pews, pillars that seem to defy the laws of gravity, amazing light coming through the windows...yup, we're in europe all right!

i couldn't stop taking pics of the stained windows because of the vibrant colours that were coming through as a result of the 4pm light, which in truth, as like a very rich 6pm magic hour hue of light...and this one is my fave! its got coats of arms, and decorative text and footwear!

if you look carefully, there's someone familiar in the middle of the picture...

AND...the weather's been great today; the blue skies and 15degree crisp air is really making this week a great one!

fast forward to the present::::::

its thurs afternoon as i type this entry, and big news for everyone - our flooring was completed today, and we will start on our furniture construction!!! [ikea nonetheless]...

and our fridge and cooker come in by next tuesday [we hope] and by the first week of may, we'll have the bed and sofa delivered, and we'll have a complete apartment!

finally , i'll be starting a series on some interesting bits and bobs which we've gotten to give our place a slice of our taste...so look out for that yah?

pics of our apartment [some only lah]

2008-04-10T10:06:00.000-07:00

So...as promised, here are some pix of what state we [and our apartment] are in now..

first up, this is what you see when you make it through our main door and into the living room..we've just finished doing up the painting in this room, and will be embarking on a flooring adventure soon

i am a bit sqooshed in this pic because i accidentally resized it in blogger, and i can't seem to get it to look right...but anyways, thats what i look like on a ladder..

drumroll....and this is the groundfloor entrance to our apartment..

and more importantly......we're now officially at the parlophone!!

cool yah?

ok, will post a couple more pics in the coming days....just a warning, the internet cafe we frequent is closed on the weekend, so maybe the next post is on monday..

in other completely unrelated news...the weather today was excellent! it was hovering around 15degrees plus with sunny sun sunshine everywhere!! and also, it doesn't seem to want to get dark till about 8pm everyday, and jos was telling me that at the peak of summer, it might be 9pm before it gets dark!!!

we could be having dinner, under some sunlight!!

antwerp!

2008-04-09T05:47:00.000-07:00

Dear Everyone who sometimes check on this blog,

yes, its been a good week and a bit since my last entry - but i have good reason for this; we now have an apartment in Antwerp! [thats in Belgium, by the way.....hey, i wasn't sure what in Europe was where in the beginning..]

and we've been busy running around getting assorted things for the house, as well as rolling up our sleeves for some serious house painting! Now we were house hunting almost 2 weeks ago, and narrowed our 10+ options to the last 2, the first of which was next to a church and a skip away from a nice - quiet square with restaurants and frituurs [that's a kebab shop - in a nutshell]. This one was ready to move in, but had a bit of a small living room (about the size of a HDB 3 room flat living room size), and didn't have a spare room for any visitors who want to bunk over..

the other option - which is obviously the one we have been eating, sleeping and painting in the past week, is along a small lane which is really quiet, but is about 40m from a pedestrian walkway which is a main artery into Antwerp city..in Orchard Road terms, we're sort of living in the Cairnhill area - near enough to walk into the main city, by far enough for it to still be quiet..

so our apartment is a good 50m2 with a healthy sized living room, a hall with built in coat cupboards, and, even a balcony out the back which overlooks a playground for the neighbouring kindergarten, with trees and a bit of space..

and its got the spare room lah, so you guys can head on over..

at this point, i need to say that the place needed a fresh coat of paint and some re-flooring, mainly because the surface, although in excellent condition, were by the previous tenant who lived there almost 40 years..so we are busy sprucing up the house..and that's also why i haven't had the impetus to take any pictures...hopefully by the next post, i will give you a room by room rundown..

so yeah, we're about a week or two away from fully outfitting the apartment with a trip to IKEA and the electronics store, but we're stoked!

--another thing, i realised that you can only leave comments if you have a blogger a/c - i think a gmail a/c also allows you to do this--

ok, gtg its 3pm here...and i've got to get back to some house painting..

more updates in a bit..

--Keefe and Josefine

in da house!

2008-03-30T12:04:00.000-07:00

Yes true believers! we are now back in amsterdam from our househunting trip to antwerp, and have confirmed an apartment in the city..

unfortunately no pics to share just yet [because we had a frantic 5 days running around seeing as much as we coul] but we are heading back on wednesday to sign the papers - so will take some pics to give you a slice of our life in belgium..

we had a good time exploring the city, and navigating the different bits of our soon-to-be neighbourhood..and are raring to go!

ok, more in a couple of days time..

-k and j

K - the first time i have seen snow in my life!

2008-03-21T11:58:00.000-07:00

Dear everyone,

I saw snow for the first time today! i stepped out onto the kalverstraat [jos was meeting up with friends, so i was just re-re-re exploring -- i.e. getting lost, in the city] and suddenly there was snow!

i just couldn't stop smiling [for the first 10 mins, after that, i had to stop smiling because my teeth were cold...

glorious feather-light bits of ice swaying in the breeze, freezing my nose, neck and fingers - but snow nonetheless...obviously the pictures don't do the snow any justice - that and its not some jaw dropping landscape with mountains and hobbits and mystic rings, but it's my first snow experience!
this is just in front of the dam, where all the mime/ stand up people have miraculously disappeared because of the cold...

and this is a bit of street art on one of the small streets off the main kalverstraat - note the snow speckled umbrella of the dude on the right....see, i never bluff you one...

and just to show how goofy the weather is, here is a pic from about 5pm - sunny sunny sunshine on the pedestrian crossing sign...

what a great way to have a good friday! btw; the easter weekend here is serious stuff..they even get an extra day off on monday, as easter second day....which means their super long weekend stretches from friday through to monday!

amazing! [pls remember most things are already closed on the weekend]

p.s. i made assam fish curry for dinner tonight [no pic posted because it looked not very stylish] but man, it really hit the spot after today!!

some things in amsterdam

2008-03-18T09:39:00.000-07:00

here are some nonsense pics for you hip cats out there:

1) of all the names for toilet paper....

2) these are my new stylin' in house footwear! it gets to about 4-6 degrees C at night...so the socks in the house haven't really been cutting it...they're called cloggies and come in red or white was well....but i thought better to stick with traditional-kicks ya?

3) Josefine arranging some ranaculus we bought for the house....its amazing how nice the flowers are here...

chocoholics of the world unite!

2008-03-18T09:19:00.000-07:00

So this is the post i was warning you guys about.. please make sure you are sitting down when you read this...and maybe have a large bowl-like device handy....because there are some drool-some pics just below:-

so the story is that we were walking along the barri gotic just jalan-ing and looking at the random cool things everywhere in Barcelona [you will not believe the number of pictures of alleyways and near-pointless ephemera i have pictures of], and we decided to have a pre lunch coffee/snack around noon-ish (this is because lunch is typically 1-3pm .....and dinner is from 8pm onwards)

and we though the unassuming little flourescent-lit cafe with the easy going vibe was something ordinary...and it turned out to be super-duper-i-can't-believe-it's-chocolate-holy-shucks-wha-lup-babeh-loobah-wah-lup-pap pap!

Here you see my fellow chocoholic-in-crime, with [clockwise from the left]: Churros, a cup of hot chocolate and my coffee..

More importantly [and stupendously], the chocolate was super thick, and had a hint of orange/ floral accents.....it was like having really good cognac where there are accents of flavour as you taste it!

and this picture clearly illustrates how yummy yummy it was! [sorry for the slightly blur pics; i couldn't wait for my turn to have some lah]...so you dip your churro [deep fried you-tiao like thing] and it is PURE HEAVEN!!!

last but not least....[ok, so this should have been the first pic in the post - but in all honesty, we were so blase about going into this shop, we didn't even see this display facing the tiny lane this hot chocolate shop was in]...they even do creme catalan, flan, hot chocolate with thick whipped cream and brioche!!!!

sugar overload!!

gluggy gluggy super yummy!

barcelona ole ola cafe con leche!

2008-03-17T05:00:00.000-07:00

So we're back now from barcelona, and here are some pics we took on our 5 days there - as a bonus, Jos will be helping me with some of the weird/wonderful things that we found there:

J: Because our last day in Barcelona happened to be palm sunday, we were lucky enough to see a procession of spanish catholic people carrying some sort of woven palm sculptures as well as Jesus on a donkey.

J: It looks like squid.. It tastes like garlic... What can it be?
K: this was one of my favourite lunches actually...the sotong and sardines[in the background] were grilled to perfection....super shiok stuff!

J: The weather was really good, but it was getting a bit cold here... This is in front of the Catalan museum and part of the musical fountain. The fountain was more of a real fountain than the old Sentosa musical fountain, but it didn't have any laser animation things.
K: Brrrr.....

J: Things are better when you're wearing a scarf!

K: and this is the view of Barcelona City from one of the hills, Montjuic, where they also had a Joan Miro museum, the National Museum of Catalunya (with a dizzying collection of artifacts and religious artworks) and a fort where they housed a military museum... the air was really nice up there and gave us an excellent vantage point of the city

K: this is in the Eixample area of town where the Modernista buildings by Gaudi are - the lamp is an actual working street lamp - and is one of about 40 lining the main boulevard...nice

K: and this is the roof terrace of our apartment where we stayed for the 5 days; the weather was mild with excellent sun on 4 of the days - so we had the luxury of breakfast on the roof with local yummy things like strawberries, fresh bread, cheese and assorted things to nibble on!

so yeah...we did remember to look at a house called batlo

eat some yummy seafood extravaganza in a pan

(and even a seafood meegoreng called Fideuà )

and even, get lost in the maze of streets known as the Barri Gotic where Jos got some toe socks and I found Spanish design and street art everywhere!!!

it was an awesome, inspiring and yummy-eatin' holiday!

[i'll be posting other pics in the coming days...and a story of how hot chocolate is super yummy!]

pictures galore!! - C

2008-03-10T01:38:00.001-07:00

and here are some random pics of our adventures!

the first is down an old street in the city - there's this tiny shop in the corner which sells antique collectables and genuine vintage...quite cool

the second is a pic of some tulips we were bringing to Jos'grandmother in Wageningen - approx an hour out from Amsterdam...the colour is amazing, no? i have never seen tulips last so long out of the chiller at the florist's.....well that being said, they leave the flowers out in the open because the weather is cold enough

and the third pic is of Jos along a walking path on our way back to the train station from Wageningen..

pictures galore!! - B

2008-03-10T01:29:00.001-07:00

here you have jos and I from yesterday's walkabout in the city centre - I have the Dam behind me, where there is the the royal palace AND we found out later, bring-your-dalmation-and-maybe-even-dress-up-your-kid-as-one day....

Jos is in front of a canal, and there sure are a lot of them in Amsterdam

and yes, it is as cold as it looks....its been consistently 6-8 degrees everyday..

pictures galore!! - A

2008-03-10T01:18:00.000-07:00

here are 2 pics of the gezelligheid that was absolutely present at the dinner table! warm lighting, conversations abound, wine, makan...it was all there! it was hard to take good pictures because of the lighting though...so lots of action in the pics..

big family dinner!

2008-03-09T00:50:00.000-08:00

makan makan makan!

So Jos' dad organised this shindig at this restaurant 5 doors away from his place to celebrate our return to the land of cold and woollen sweaters; and it was a big-bang-chit-chat-gezelligheid event!!

I got to meet the super tall aunts and uncles and cousins and even nephews and nieces, and we lounged around the house till about 7, and then proceeded to the eetcafe Hooghooudt for the [approx] 5 hour dinner!

We had the resident gypsy band violin-ing through the evening, with some yum yum wines and makan to help with the conversation as well...and the awesome thing was that we got to switch our seats about half way into dinner, so we could circulate and meet even more family members!

having met the neurosurgeons, lawyers and dermatologists in the family, [and more glasses of wine], Jos' dad made the big announcement of presenting Jos with the garnet necklace which we had gone shopping for the day before as a wedding present to her [and me, because i get to see my uber cool wife in some seriously cool bling!]

so the evening was a big big success! got to meet the extended family, got to have nice chats with some of the 20+ relatives gathered, had a good night of makan and music - it was a really big night out for us, and we were glad to have been a part of the festivities!

...in other news, jos and i were down in chinatown stocking up on some supplies for the coming weeks, and guess what? you can't find sambal bleachan in this part of the world; there are indonesian equivalents in the asian shops, but no yeo's or prima versions of the salty/smelly/spicy stuff! looks like might have to experiment a bit in the kitchen...

AND AND, the grass jelly drink by yeo's , is still using the can design from the 90s....AND is made in CHINA!!! woah! steady lah yeo's....making big money now lah...

oh, and one other thing......its co-o-o-o-o-o-o-old....i'm now up to 4 layers, and gloves and sometimes a scarf...and its 8 degrees + all day, and about 5 degrees at night...but it DOES make for a great time nursing a cup of coffee/ hot chocolate and some light reading...

right - am off to wageningen to visit jos'grandma, and perhaps even an adventure in the land where only the kuiferstraat [amsterdams's equivalent of orchard road] is open on a sunday - can relax on the hour and a half train ride and take in the scenery..

p.s. will post pics soon...i am being lazy...

its eight degrees at eight in the morning!

2008-03-06T09:16:00.000-08:00

wowza! after the 13 hour flight, we made it to heathrow and stepping out onto the tarmac at 8am at 8degrees was a big wake up call!

and we made it to Schipol on time, but guess what? our luggage was still in Heathrow, finding its way to us.. so sometime in the next day or two, our barang barang should be returned to us..

so today, we managed to amble around the neighbourhood - to see how much/ little had changed [a ''subway'' (the one with the sandwiches and chipotle dressing) popped up in the middle of one street VS the dulcet tones of reggae still being piped through the enamel-ware and rasta-ephemera shop]. saw the classic frites stall and smelt the stroopwafels, as well as had a glimpse of spring colours at the flower shops...

yes yes, this all doesn't quite make sense when there aren't any pictures, but i assure you, we will post some pics once we get a hold of our time differences/ jet lag

ooh....and one last thing before i end [i am actually a bit tired by now - i am re-re-re thinking my words as i type them -

it's pretty amazing to be in such a cold cold country! winter fashions abound! no need to stuff everthing in the fridge! fruit stays in an actual fruit basket! [and if we're lucky, maybe snow!! (turns out we missed a light snow about 2 days back) - still keeping my eyes peeled for my first ever - once in a life time chance to see/touch snow]

catcha later mates

K (and J - who is now a bit cold)