Our New Bonsai Tree

Yes, we did it. We got sucked into the whole Bonsai show during the Koi Show and my Hubs bought one :) Do you know that bonsai is an art of aesthetic miniaturisation of trees? Well, pardon me, I didn't know until that day :P

Definitely the Bonsai show was a success, we were not alone. A lot of people were buying these plants. There were displays of really nice ones, some were as old as 100 years!! There was also a demo on how to trim the plants, etc. It was quite interesting.

I must admit it sure looked very nice sitting in our living room on top of the cabinet ;) Well, it's bonsai so it's high maintenance. I know my Hubs will take good care of it ;)

17th Holland Koi Show

Sat, 21 Aug - Known as the biggest Koi show in the world which was held at Kasteeltuin (Castle Gardens) in Arcen, Limburg province of the Netherlands. From 21-23 August, koi enthusiasts and dealers from all over the world exhibited their koi to a large public visiting the show. My Hubs and I were invited by my parents-in-law whom by the way, owned a very nice koi pond in their backyard.

All Koi lovers or people like us will flock to the venue to catch a glimpse of these beautiful prized kois.

The castle itself was nothing special as compared to many other castles but the span of area that makes up their famous beautiful gardens was something else. The castle was built in the 17th century in the Baroque period. When we got there, there was a long queue at the entrance so we decided to have an early lunch first. Lunch was kipsate (chicken with peanut butter sauce aka sate sauce in the Netherlands) with fries ;) After a full lunch, we went to check out the gardens of the castle which was divided into 5 different themes. Rosarium (rose garden), Watertuinen (man made rivers and canals with beautiful landscape), Wereldtuin (Italian garden, Eastern garden, bamboos garden among others) Lommerijk (literally means shadow area where beautiful plants were also can be seen there) and Casa Verde (Mediterranean and tropical plants and animals garden, over here they have a big green house where visitors can enjoy a stroll to see all the tropical plants and flowers). The garden areas were huge, it will take you hours to finish all!When we finally walked to the center of the koi show, there were over 140 stands with a great variety of offers focusing to the entire koi commerce. Mind you, it is a very lucrative business. An advanced filter can fetch up to EUR1k plus easily. We get to see all the manufacturers and dealers displaying their kois, advanced ponds equipment and filters, pond magazines, koi travels and koi paintings.

This year the organiser have included 3 new shows such as the Holland Bonsai Show, the Holland Aquarium Show and the Holland Shrimp Show. This show has a very friendly atmosphere, perfect for a family day outing. We definitely enjoyed ourselves very much.

Of course, the whole point of going to this show is to catch a glimpse of all these beautiful selected kois and of course to see the grand winners of the koi show.

Below are the grand winners....aren't they gorgeous~~they are big too!

A constant batte at work...

Although organisation such as the one I'm working for has an advantage of having a few days of their own holiday for all staff, there are also the 'dark' side of it. Information are given on the need-to-know basis so if one is a newbie, the doors are closed. People in the organisation are very protective over what you should know and not. Most of the time, they determine what you should not know :P so you're constantly in the dark, fumbling around. It's a pity as there are no unity within the branch and division. Everyone is doing their own dance. At times I wonder, why on earth was I hired? The whole summer, I was basically doing very mundane things to the point like I'm overly paid for such a mundane task *DUH* while 'waiting for some sort of activity of my given big project'. The big gap between now and next year is a LONG period. I just hope things will pick up soon.....for my sanity sake.

It's a constant battle raging within me which I've tried to supress else I think I would have gone to a depression by just thinking of it. The uncertainty of my contract extension when I have the short-term contract does not help matters. This mean I'm unable to plan ahead with my holidays, to buy a car, etc. I'm wondering does 90% of the staff are like me during this summer period or it's just me? Was I hired for a job just to cover a branch budget? Or does the Head of the branch knows what his plans are for me in the organisation besides the big project assigned to me? What is going on? A conspiracy that I should know about? I want to contribute, I want to work. But unfortunately for me, it's not happening anytime soon :( I prefer being busy then pretending to look like I'm busy all the time...it's stressful! It can do some damage to my brain cells in my remaining intellectual department. Let's be honest, I'm only using 5% of my active brain cells everyday for the past 44 days since I've started working :P Who knows....the organisation might extend me or might not, if they do, I think it's a miracle considering my 'workload' :P Part of me, I wanted to be extended...for the $$$ and the experience, whatever it is.

Holiday Spree

After a taste of a great but short weekend break in Paris recently, I'm now in a quest for another short weekend trip ;) We will be given an extra day off in September and October respectively in my work place so this means taking a 3D2N trip will be possible :) These are the perks with working in a public organisation such as this as they have their own holidays besides the national holidays in the Netherlands.

Our next planned trip will be to Berlin in September!! A city we always wanted to go or at least me. I'd finished all our flights and hotels booking yesterday and mind you, hotels were pricey especially during this peak period - summer. We are looking forward to this trip. Moreover, Berlin is celebrating its 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall this year so there are bound to have some sort of special events organised for tourists.

In October...yes, I'm already planning for October...ha! we're thinking of going to Tuscany, Italy. My Hubs and I always wanted to go to Italy...to tour Italy by car...my Hub's ideal trip :P But for this October, there'll be no driving trip. I know at this moment, we are spending a little too much on all these little trips (but always within our limits) but we'd a good reason for it. Both my Hubs and I are thinking of starting our little family soon hence that gives us not much time to visit as many places as possible beforehand :P I reckon that we should do this before having a baby cos once the baby is out, to travel will be different next time...travelling with baby bottles, fixed feeding time, nap time, strollers, etc.

2 Museums and A Bag

14-16 Aug, hot summery weather with an average temperature of 30+ degrees in the City of Lights - "Bonjour!!" There went the greetings wherever we went in the city. It was definitely a nice and hectic weekend back in Paris. To be back in the city again after 3 long years of absence, it was deja vu ;) We decided to make up of what we'd missed the last trip - visiting the museums and taking the river Seine cruise :D

Boy, was I glad that we spent most of the time in museums and not outside cos going sightseeing with a temperature of 30 degrees and above was way too hot even for a tropical gal like me :P Even the birds had to let off some steam in the puddle ;)

Covering 2 museums such as the Lourve and Musee
D'Orsay was no joke. However we managed. Both museums were delightful different in their exhibition. Musee D'Orsay has a modern and contemporary way of exhibiting all their masterpieces whereas Musee Lourve, it's more traditional in big rooms/halls. Nevertheless, both museums have such amazing masterpieces! It was impossible to see them all in 1 day or even 2! In D'Orsay, beautiful collections of Renoir, Monet and even Van Gogh impressionism paintings can be viewed!! In Lourve covers a lot more of other masterpieces such as Leonardo da Vinci and of course the famous 'Mona Lisa' whom recently was attacked by a very angry woman with her cup of tea!

My Hubs and I both enjoyed the museums a lot, just a shame that we did not have more time to do it more leisurely. We definitely need more than 1 day to cover a museum. Oh and we discovered this really nice cafe in the Lourve called Cafe Richelieu. The cafe has a nice terrace overlooking the Lourve courtyard where the pyramids are...this is our nice panaromic view while having our tea at the cafe. It's definitely a must-visit cafe if you decided to take a break for a coffee at the Lourve ;) Mind you, there was a queue outside the cafe. After a long day spent in the museum, we went for a nice and relaxing River Seine cruise. Well, the plan was to take the St.Martin canal cruise however we missed the evening cruise at 6pm (only 5 mins late!) and was informed that the night cruise was cancelled :( Since we were leaving Paris the next day, we had no choice but to take the River Seine cruise instead which to me was equally nice! The cruise took us passed all the top attraction monuments such as Musee D'Orsay, Notre Dame, Pont d' Alma and the Eiffel. None of them let us down, all the buildings and along River Seine was beautifully lit up (now I know why they called it the City of Lights). The finale was when we approached Eiffel Tower. She was magnificent at night with all the lights!!

Of course this trip was not complete without going through the famous shopping streets of Paris in Champs-Elysees and a particular store! In that particular store, I'd sinned big time, I got myself a bag. The only shopping item I'd in this trip but it was enough to set me back for a long time...and to recuperate.

This time around, we managed to take the metro and went to Boulevard Haussman to Gallery Lafayette and Printemps. We decided to hit the shopping streets in the morning to avoid the crowds but still it was crowded :P When we got to the Gallery Lafayette, it was like going into a candy store...the store was filled with all the designers goodies and of course all these came with a steep price...so all I did was gawked and drool over it! But then again, we were rushing for time cos we wanted to hit the museum right after lunch and only managed to quickly went through the shoes/bags floor :( Too many things to drool over but too little time *sigh* Next trip......

More Home made Steamboat!!

Tuesday p.m: My girlfriend and her boyfriend decided to host a dinner at their place in Amsterdam since our girlfriend and her boyfriend from US were in town for a visit, it'll be perfect to host a steamboat dinner!

Steamboat or hotpot that evening was superb. The whole day, I was anxiously anticipating the dinner since the last steamboat I had was months and months ago. One thing about steamboat, the more people, the better. This also means that we get to have more food items in the 'menu'. Trust me, we sure know how to indulge ;) My girlfriend bought so much food and of course the dinner lasted for hours! All of us took our time to enjoy it, chatting and chilling out in the comfort of my girlfriend's apartment. And none of us that night dared to say that they went to bed hungry. It was perfect! We ended up leaving close to midnight and mind you, both my Hubs and I had to work the next day.

But it was such a nice time to catch up with my girlfriends and conversation flowed so easily and comfortably among us, it was really a great feeling :) How often do I get to do this, right? So the next day at work, coffee all the way!

Bazar

Monday p.m.: Bazar Hotel cum restaurant in Witte de Withstraat, Rotterdam....my Hubs and I had been there before but mostly during lunch time. Last Monday, we had decided to choose Bazar for our dinner get-together with 2 other couples. One of the couple were from US whom were down for a visit in Holland - the girlfriend was my ex-primary schoolmate which I have not seen for yonkers! It was so bizarre that of all places, we met up in Holland and not back in our home country, Malaysia :P

We had such a hearty meal, the food was simply delicious. Everyone was very happy and content, we decided to proceed to Witte Aap, the best pub in the world voted by Lonely Planet. We have not been there before so we thought to bring our visitors to the pub for a drink ;) It was indeed a cosy pub, the staff was friendly and it was packed with tourists and locals on a Monday night! After a couple of drinks, we had our nightcap at our place before the group left. Although, it was close to 1am when they left, nevertheless, it was a nice evening out with great company, some catch-up with the gals and good food :)

Our little Gent trip

Today, my Hubs and I decided to take a short drive (1.5 hours drive from Rotterdam) to Gent, Belgium. We have not been there ourselves so we always been wanting to take a trip down and finally we did. It was such a great sunny day throughout the day, it's unbelievable considering we'd some pretty wet weather for the past few weeks.

Gent, a smaller town as compared to Antwerp and Brussels and it is the city before Brugge (another favourite touristic city in Belgium). Though it's not as popular as the latter, Gent has its own charm. Its canal running in the city centre was once in the medieval time, an important harbour. Now, it serves as a touristic purpose for tourists to take a cruise on the canal. One of the few highlights of our trip there were the St. Bravo Cathederal, the Town Hall, Belfry Tower, Korenlei and Gaslei, to name a few.

Gent is a nice, relaxing city minus the hustle and bustle of Antwerp and Brussels. It has also it's own shopping streets so if you want to spend a nice time shopping without the crowd in Belgium, I would recommend Gent :). The people speak Flemish (Belgium Dutch) and for me it was a bit difficult to understand with the unique accent. However, people are friendly there. We'd a long lunch in one of the cafes, watching people passing by and I noticed that the ladies in Gent were pretty slim/skinny side ;).

Nevertheless, the next time we go back to Gent, we will further explore the nice city since this time, we did spent some time in the shops :P :P *guitly as charged*

Summer Holidays Frenzy!

Black Saturday, the busiest day on the European route ever recorded: Yup, it's official, the summer holidays has begun with a big bang! Today while we were on the way to Gent, Belgium, we heard over the radio that there was 870km of traffic in France!!! In Austria and Switzerland, the traffic was at its peak by the Alps tunnels. Holiday goers have to wait for 6 hours to get into the tunnel en route to their holiday destination!

Even during our drive to Gent, we saw so many cars and caravans with their family, packed to the brim (some you can't even see the back mirror anymore) on the highway en route to their holiday destinations. And because of the global economy crisis, more people are opting to spend their summer holidays in neighbouring countries instead of travelling anywhere further. Some of the favourite holiday destinations: Germany, France, Austria, Switzerland, Italy and Spain. Geez, I just hope in 2 weeks time, the holiday traffic in Europe will ease up a bit cos we're planning a weekend trip to Paris!