brugge: the american retiree home

hey susanne & nick,

so i made it out of my first comfort zone. thank you very much for keeping me over the last 4 days in amsterdam. it was really comfy that couch of yours and as you can tell, i totally made it my space. i highly recommend that couch to everyone. haha

well the rain followed me to brugge and i was really glad that susanne made me carry that umbrella. when i first saw that humongous rainbow colored umbrella, my eyes just widen. but it allowed me to see brugge. thank you once again.

day 5 - on my own
the train ride into brugge was interesting. it took 4 hours because i missed the connecting train. gave me time to read up on my spanish. also had an interesting conversation with this chick on the train. she spoke little english and i speak no french. anyway, if only she was cute.



(train ride to brugge)

after stressing out to try to make bookings in brussels, going to brugge was a good choice. i got a room of 4 all by meself. the place was almost deserted. haha. as i entered the town center - its reminisce of amsterdam. tourist town. only this time, everyone there (literally) are 60 - 80 year old american retirees. some even seems older. haha. and i was the only asian there. young and em. looking good. haha. the locals there are really friendly, they kept smiling and saying hi to me. dont blame them. i'd do the same to me.



(if you are american and u r retired, welcome to brugge)

brugge is a great historical town. i m so glad i came. thanks to racheal for suggesting. the churches are massive and more importantly its free. i also learn that you can't wear a cap when u enter a church. one woman ran down the aisle shouting .. "take it of, take it off" in french or hindi. gawd knows but her action implied it.



(michelangelo and look a windmill but not in the netherlands)

saw a piece of michelangelo and a few windmills and i am not even in the netherlands. go figure.



(me and my colored umbrella - caption these)

in summary :
definitely worth visiting.

mmmm :-
1. free entry to churches
2. yummy waffles
3. relaxing

annoyance :-
1. american retiree home
2. HAS ANYONE TAUGHT THE EUROPEANS THE ONLY WAY TO EAT CHIPS ARE WITH CHICKEN SALT !!! WHERES THE CHICKEN SALT ??? I M SO GOING TO START EXPORTING CHICKEN SALT. ROGER ???
3. sort of miss the monotonous 4 story height limit facade.

xxx. j.

amsterdam: happy to be alive.

dear liz,

so, less then 2 weeks for chatswood huh ? i m sure everything will fall into place. they always do.

Day 3 : near death
was a relaxing day. spent the morning walking around and doing some sketches. spent the afternoon with nick and susanne, picnic in the park. was another nice sunny day.

on the way home, we were standing at the lights, waiting to cross like good school kids. when the pedestrian light turned green, i looked and there were no cars. so i started to cross. i took 2 steps forward. but for some strange reason, i stopped. maybe because i wanted to see where nick and susanne was. but i stopped. then i heard susanne screaming "JXEEEEEE" then i felt a car ran pass me. the car was so close what if i was another step forward i would have been hit. also, if i didnt stop but continued crossing, i would have definitely been hit. and at that speed that idiot was driving, he definitely wouldnt have been able to slow down in time. i dont know why i stopped but i did and i lived. counting my blessings now.


(picnic & chinatown)

city walk at night.

Day 4 - rain
ok it literally rained the whole day. went exploring the city without an umbrella. rained on me. and rained some more. managed to find what i think is chinatown haha. and rained again. but the highlight of the day was when i went to watch a film - hairspray. anyone who is a fan of john waters would know the classic and the musical. anyway this film lived up to john's name. totally love it. definitely have to go watch after the submission. maybe after the team lunch, go do a team movie. i am so downloading the soundtrack now with the itunes voucher. yay ! btw. it rained again after the movie. gawd. no one told me that it rains so much in europe.

ok. comfort zone has ended. belgium tomorrow.

xxx. j.

amsterdam: me gateway to europe

dear mei ...

so i promised u that the first post from europe is to you but more importantly you wanted to know my opinion on amsterdam. so here it goes...

DAY 1 - the arrival
my plane was delayed by 2 hours because the plane was waiting for 25 people from auckland. damn kiwis.
well, got interrogated at the immigration (as usual). its not easy being good looking because everyone wants to interact with you. so i really don't blame them.


(my bag - 11kgs and the arrival)

still recovering from my cold (coughing and blocked nose) i arrived at schiphol air port. dont believe i actually made it out of asia pacific. as i was figuring out where the train ticket machines were and how to operate it, there were people more clueless than me. people were actually asking me questions like i belong. again, more because ... interaction. sigh. if only they were cute too.

i arrived at susanne's place, dropped my bag, said hello and literally left the unit and went exploring. i was so fascinated by rows of 4 storey buildings running the whole length of the street and they were the entire city. took me a while to figure out that there were dedicated bike lanes on walkways and people driving on the wrong side of the road. almost got run down by cyclists (many times too).


(amsterdam & bikes)

found the van gogh museum and really enjoyed it. spent the rest of the day just looking around exploring. even the rain didnt slow me down.

VERDICT: i love this city even though by the end of the day i found the 4 storey height limit abit annoying. very monotonous. after a while i kept walking back to the same place. is the city that small ?

DAY 2 - lucky day
It was a beautiful day. apparently the first nice day in summer. whoa. lucky me. hung out with susanne all day. We went to the Rijksmuseum. enjoyed van gogh better but the rembrant's stuff was pretty cool.

found the proef amsterdam place you sent.
http://www.proefrotterdam.nl/proef_nederlands/proef.html
again. they were supposed to have closed till march next year. they only open for a particular season but the amsterdam indesign is on and they opened just for this event. we tried the picnic sampler which consist on a sandwich, pumpkin soup, some crumple desert and some organic drink. it was great sitting under the warm summer sun (still about 25C).


(proef amsterdam)


(proef amsterdam food)


(proef amsterdam surroundings)

after spending hours sitting under the sun catching up, we went to the old central post office. the elevator is amazing. will post a video sometime somewhere. and the entire ground level is filled with graffiti. made it all the way to the top through restaurant 11 to see the view.


(post CS)

walked by and saw my first architecture feature. a renzo piano building. pic to proof it too.


(renzo piano - so i was told)

walked though the red light district and made it back home.

hows everything back in sydney ?

xxx.jxe

love supreme

Hey mathieu and rachael

so, it was great fun at the love supreme. food was great. so was the company. i was surprised by how many people who showed up. i am kinda jealous that you people are going to be hanging out and doing all these exciting things when i am gone. i have to do some amazing out of the blue things to make you people jealous too.

also, i hope you and the rest will continue to support live music in australia, especially in sydney. keep the music alive. they need all the support they can get.
do subscribe to moshtix. they have weekly newsletter to keep you informed about whats on. the really cool venues are :-
1. spectrum (where we were yesterday)
2. the metro
3. annandale hotel (crap place but have great performers)
4. vanguard (ok venue but great performers)
5. the gaelic club
6. the forum
7. the basement (classy but mostly jazz. the most expensive of the lot)

look out for these artist/bands.
1. laura imbruglia
2. bertie blackman
3. erin marshall
4. mandi jerru
5. the panics
6. melenie horsnell
7. midnight juggernaut
8. theatre of disco
9. pomomofo
10. the baddies

bertie blackman rocks

*(more pix on facebook)

well enjoy your stay in sydney thank you so much for all the tips in france.

.j

intermission.

hey prudence.

so you are the only one besides mei who left a comment on my post. one liner, still you bothered. so, i m gonna write this post to you. i did promise mei that she would be the one i first post to when i arrive at amsterdam. consider this a filler. haha. you can sue me but i don't have any professional indemnity insurance, so u will get nothing out of me :p

so i delayed my trip for a month. its all good to sort things out. most of it is good. i get see more of chatswood (contrary to what most of you think, i do really like the job) i finally got to work on something i really like, be exactly where i want to be in my career, and now i'm giving it up ... in 10 days. ironic. is it all worth it ? only time can tell.

also, got to know matthieu who gave me lots of hints on europe, more time to pack and think about where i want to go from here etc, etc, etc. but the one thing i wanted most, i was investing lots of time and effort in, fell the hardest on my face and now i wish i am already gone. well, looking back in a few months or years, this will probably be my very favourite mistake. i can't be an emotional wreck forever. hah. the tide will eventually turn.

i also blamed chris and phil for not making out. and because of that, i didn't get to see you and karina make out. sigh. but we now know the size of karina's mouth. hahahaha

*cra...jxe night


(more pics on facebook)

i also blame .. ok i m done blaming.

i'll try to get some sleep now.

xxx. j.

ok lets help me out now :)

dear friends :)


*(tick tick tock tock ... up up and away)

so i have 12 working days or 25 days left in sydney before i fly. wow close. there is still so much to do, packing, shopping, organizing etc. its crazy. so much to do and so little time. i am going to leverage my time and hopefully my friends .. u .. can help me out with a little bit of organizing.

below is a list of things i would like to do, places that i will visit and places that i might visit if i have the extra cash or when i m bored with the predestined places.

i hope you friends could give me some advise on anything i miss especially on :-
1. must go/see places
2. must try things - be them food or activities or
3. any great recommended accommodation places - from way low budget to 5*
4. means of transportation - tips, best ways
5. anything else mad or retarded you can think off.

please add it into the comments below or email me at d.mented.boy[at]gmail[dot]com.

ok 1st stop is ...

1. kuala lumpur, malaysia.
ok i have everything sorted here. its mainly shop and stock.


2. the netherlands
So. i have spoken to a few dutch and when i asked, "what is there to do in the netherlands ?" they all give me how am i supposed to know look. d'oh. if someone ask me what is there to do in sydney or tokyo or udaipur i can name at least 10 things in each city. my current impression of dutch are em. can't think of the right word for it but i will let you know after i leave the netherlands. anyway ...

food:
. fries

a. amsterdam
people:
. susanne and nick
places:
. rijksmuseum
. van gogh museum
. nederlands scheepvaartmuseum

b. haarlem
. frans hals museum
. grote kerk

c. rotterdam
. nederlands architectuur instituut
. museum boijmans van beuningen

d. Kinderdijk
. windmills - dutchlady woo hoo.

any other parts of the netherlands need visiting ?



3. france
so, cant do europe without france. i need to do much more research.
food: french cruising ... cheese. any suggestions ?

a. thionville

b. reims
. notre dame cathedral

c. Paris
people:
. stephane
places:
. palais de tokyo
. eiffel tower
. musee du louvre
. arc de triomphe
. centre pompidou
. the marias shopping
. le bon marche shopping
. musee d'orsay
. musee de l'erotisme
. design flea market at passage du grande cerf

d. st malo
. le mont st michel

e. tours (In the Loire Valley)
. chateau de chambord
. chateau de chenonceau

f. bordeaux
. grand theatre de bordeaux
. musee des beaux arts
. musee d'art contemporain

g. lyon

h. annecy
people:
. cyril

i. grenoble

j. marseille
. cite radieuse, La Canebière
. musee des docks romains
. rue de la charite, vielle charite

k. cannes

l. nice
. musee matisse



4. Spain
so. this is the country that i really want to see. i even did spanish class to prepare myself for it. not like i remember anything but i least i made an effort. definitely a believer on consolation prizes. ok my dilemma no is to skip the netherlands all together and fly straight into spain or go ahead as planned. i have a few more days to think about it. any thoughts guys ?
food :
. paella
. tortilla de patatas
. calamares
. cocido
. migas
. callos
. callos con tomate
. rabos de cerdo con tomate
. marisco
. Emperador
. Lubina
. Bacalao
. Lenguado

a. barcelona
. centre de cultura contemporania de barcelona
. museu picasso
. las ramblas
. temple expiatori de la sagrada familia
. fundacio joan miro
. sitges beach
. els encants, dos de maig


b. valencia

c. murcia

d. cartagena

e. madrid
. hotel puerta america
. museo del prado

f. toledo
people:
. jes

g. segovia

h. cordoba

i. granada
. alhambra

j. malaga

k. cadiz

l. sevilla

m. caceres

n. codoba, ronda

o. santiago de compostela

p. gijon, leon, santander

q. bilbou
. Museo Guggenheim

r. san sebastian



5. united kingdom
so, catching up with people basically and the waterloo sunset. hahaha but i am open to suggestions

a. London
people:
. juliet
. nina
. susan
. reena
places:
. waterloo sunset

b. New Castle
people:
. gary


wishlist :
1. czech & slovak republics
2. norway
3. italy - rome, venice, san gimignano, cimque terra, sienna, florance.



there you go. please comment below or email me at d.mented.boy[at]gmail[dot]com. thanx you people.

love ya ! xxx jxe.

its all about me

dear me ... jxe ... z ... yeah me.


*(pictorial celebration of you)

so this is your first post. more of a test post. but yeah the very first post. its so so exciting. and being the first post, obviously its gotta be about you. yes ! me ! no. you huh ? me. well it kinda depends on whether i am referring to me or me referring to me. gawd ! i so don't make any sense. well, i guess there's always a first for everything. thats right. the first post.

welcome to the world of posting (blogging is so 90's). except you or i am not just gonna post about different shit colors. instead, using it as an emailing device. for the first time you or i am making an attempt to keep in touch !!! most people hate receiving group emails because they feel less loved by the sender but really i do love everyone of my friends (cough cough cough) or if anyone received a link to this site by you or 1, i kinda like you a little anyway (cough cough cough *damn. must be something in the air). each posting will be personalized to a certain individual but for all to read, see and comment. now how cool is that ? yes you or i do admit that this is kinda like a coup out. but hey. admittedly, its an awesome idea.

ok lets post this and see how good you look.

love you always,
xxx jxe.