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New Travel Blog - PassportChop.com

2009-06-30T17:40:00.001+02:00

A new travel blog about our journeys around the world. A new layout and interesting photography during our travels.

Well.. long trip again

2005-06-02T21:55:00.000+02:00

well not much time to finish up my blog.. finally finsihed my homeworks n projects n assignments.. today in the nick of time.. scheduled for a flight at 6am to Barcelona.. but as tehre r no public transport this late, we have to take a 2am bus to the Cityterminalen where we take our airport bus at 4am.. thus have to find somewhere to hide for 2 hrs

Whats up the past few weeks...

2005-05-29T08:07:00.000+02:00

well as mentioned earlier, was busy studying n doing assignments the past few weeks so havent taken the time to update blog.. yah didnt expect to be so busy but when everything builds up n r due at around the same time.. yep! Crunch TimE! nvm its all over .. exams n lessons.. had only 2 exams - Swedish language -> quite do-able and Image Processing -> jialat.. actually is also do-able just that i didnt study enuff.. nvm..

had been walking around town to do some grocery shopping and check out some camera stores.. went thru this street, Tunnelgatan.. in Swedish, gatan means street so this literally translates to Tunnel Street.. n it indeed is a tunnel street as u can see..

this is in the downtown area.. there r 2 streets separated by a rather high hill.. there r buildings n streets on the hill as well..so this tunnel street saves the hassle of having to climb all the way up n then going down again to reach the other end.. its a rather long stretch of tunnel n its closed after 10pm.. i guess to prevent drunkards or the homeless from taking refuge inside..

why m i checking out camera stores.. u may ask.. yah.. my camera drowned! it was on that fateful day to Helsinki.. someone was late for the boat (leaving in a few minutes) n we had to run... my water bottle cap came off as a result n water flooded my bag.. thus drowning it.. nvm now sending it to be repaired by the Canon Service Center here.. they say my warranty only covers Singapore but will repair it out of goodwill since its only been less than half a year since i bought it.. hopefully it could be repaired b4 i go for my long summer trip.. *crossed my fingers* i m too used to the freedom of snapping pics at anything new or unusual or cant be found in Singapore.. now feeling very restricted and having to take pics using my Song Ericsson camera phone.. sigh..

yah i was also packing up my stuff to be sent to Singapore.. here is pretty cheap 385kr for 10kg to be sent to Singapore.. but the box is rather small.. as u can from the picture below compared to the 5kr Saver Box my gf sent from Singapore

first time i brought to the ICA supermarket to weigh how heavy it is.. its only 4.6kg!! but i could barely squeeze in any more stuff.. decided to take out my sweaters n put in more heavy stuff.. second time i went its 7.5kg but i tink i have packed enuff n lazy to bring up to my room to put in more stuff.. yah so i sealed n mailed it..

Tried this potato salad selling for around 14kr only (3+ Sing dollars) its 1kg so can eat for quite some time.. eat it with bread n other stuff.. its good n quite fattening i tink with all that salad sauce..

haha coming up next.. cheapskate way to have lunch for free in Stockholm.. was doing some grocery shopping in the Hemkop in Ahlens City in downtown Stockholm.. not all stuff could be found in the cheap Netto supermarket (pretty limited variety, shld go to big supermarket if want other stuff like masking tape)
yah as mentioned, was doing some shopping when came across several stores of free sampling food..

Pieces of chocolates each with different concentration of cocoa.. tried them all n pretending to ask questions to look interested n try some more.. "Hmmm.. this is nice.. how many % cocoa is in them.. ooooh.. wats that.. how much for them all.. nice taste.." haha but qute nice chocolates they r but not cheap..

Rice with some sauce in a small sampling plate..

There r more.. sandwich with some sandwich sauce .. some salmon.. Yoggi yoghurt.. had a unexpectedly good n free tea break while grocery shopping.. they r veyr unlikely to stop u if u take more than 1 serving.. but u have to be thick skinned enuff to do that.. haha

Days r getting so much longer these few days.. the sun sets at around 10pm and gets up at around 2am.. the amt of sunlight at 430am (dont noe why i woke up twice at that time) is as if its 12noon..

yep! Simon's travel agency has reopened.. after closing for exams.. it has reopened to plan trips to Morocco and Norway. will be going on a long summer trip of abt 20 days to Spain, Morocco and Italy.. i m in charge of the Morocco leg of the trip..
after coming back to Sweden for the midsummer festival, will be going to Norway for the first week of July b4 flying back to Singapore.. n then might be planning a trip to Malacca with some friends n of course my "jattetrevling flickvan" (Very Nice girlfriend in Swedish.. have been rather familiar with this word since have been writing them in essays for Swedish class.. haha) Tingyi..

pictures n stuff abt my travels in Denmark n FInland r in the process of being updated.. my previous Easter trip of Czech Republic and Germany n UK will be updated as well.. so stay tuned..

Day 2: Part 1: Frederiksborg Palace

2005-05-06T11:54:00.000+02:00

Took some pictures of Boo Feng's place b4 i leave for my excursion today.. Boo Feng is my host for this Denmark trip.. a very nice guy.. haha just like me.. nice guy too. :p He has an American roommate who is cool with me staying over for a few days too.. The table with the Soviet Union flag hanging over it belongs to his roommate..

Their beds..

the kitchen is just a few steps away from their worktable.. i sleep yah u can say in the kitchen but there isnt any clear distinction.. ok lah.. i slept beside a microwave oven.. i shld be in a kitchen then.. haha.. there u see my mattress on the floor in the kitchen

the neighbourhood..

Jl, LL say Boo Feng n I look alike... do we?

JL, LL , dom n me took a train to Hillerod where we could find the Frederiksborg palace.. one of the recommeneded sights to see.. while at the train station, we met up with 2 other ppl, Alice n Xiao Ming..JL's friends.. we travelled together..
The town of Hillerod..

Riding a hippo sculpture..

The palace across the lake..

Along the road to the palace..

A group photo...

Entrance to the Frederiksborg Slot.. (slot in danish means castle, slott in swedish means castle) Xiao Ming (XM) says that the castle was burned down a long time ago n Carlsberg provided the funding to rebuild it.. thus as a result of this sponsoring, Carlsberg was given the privilege to use the symbol of the Danish crown in their Carlsberg logo.. several other Danish brand also have the Danish crown in their logo.. could be due to other sponsorship or stuff like that..

The castle was surrounded by a outer moat..

Here is the next moat (an inner one)

Entrance to the castle grounds..

The innermost moat surrounding the castle itself..

Entrance to the castle costs 40DKK.. n lockers to put out bags n coats r free.. u deposit 20DKK coins which will be returned after use.. cool..

The Castle chapel..

Donation box..

The rest of the castle showcases collections from Danish aristocrats and royalty their room and their belongings.. i tink this is more of a musuem than a castle but its still very nice with all these collections.. in fact the interior is better than VErsailles palace in Paris since we r allowed to walk through the room n take a closer look at the exhibits instead of just watching from the side like in Versailles..
A rather plain room..

A nice corridor leading to the room above..

SOme of the rooms r really beautiful..

There seems to be a sensor on the pillow on the bed.. haha maybe to prevent someone to jump n rest on the bed..

More beautiful rooms..

Playing or rather posing with the harp..

A clavichord?.. i m not so sure myself.. definitely not called a piano.. learned this from my Science of Music class back in Singapore..

Infinite rooms..

Astrology room..

Room where banquets were held ..

Antique clocks..

At the top floor of the castle, there r exhibits of modern Danish arts..

At the first floor, there is a playroom for kids as well..

Royal Gardens..

The small boat pickup point to bring ppl to the other side of the lake where the town of Hillerod is.. dont noe if its included in admission fee.. we didnt ask so we would never noe.. haha

There are small maze like patterns in the royal gardens... they r actually shaped like a crown..

chilling out in the sun..

A panoramic shot of the frederiksborg slot..

after this, we proceeded to the Rosenborg Castle in Helsingor..

Day 1: Part 2: Frilandsmuseet

2005-05-05T22:20:00.000+02:00

We realised shortly that so many Danish have bicycles that they tend to tok abt distances in terms of cycling time.. when asking directions n abt how far is a place from where we r.. the usual reply is that "Oh its just 10 min away" .. !! wat they didnt say is that its 10 min by cycling.. walking takes at least twice that time!!..

On the way to Frilandsmuseet..

Nvm.. after walking for some time, we finally found the Frilandsmuseet.. its an open air musuem showcasing houses in Denmark a long time ago...

pretty boring.. unlike zannse schans in holland with ppl selling stuff n making traditional danish stuff.. but still the surroundings look pretty nice..

Checking out where to go in this big open air museum..

LL spoiling my picture!! arghh!

Flowers.. spring!!

The stable..

Hard at work..

The roofs of these houses r made of straws..

Nice house..

Chilling in the countryside..

We saw a young goat walking around.. thus we surrounded it n took a pic with it.. lukcily its mother did not attack us..

Another goat.. so scared that it will kick me..

Windmills..

More houses n huts..

Nice garden..

The interior of a more recent house but still quite old..

Muahhaaa.. JL posing by the kennel of the house.. nice pose though.. shall spread this pic thru my blog..

After this walk around this museum, Darren said to bring us to a nice place with a nice fountain.. "its only 5 min away" - he said.. (he has become Danish too.. 5 min is by cycling lah!! took much longer than 5 min to walk loh)

n this is the nice fountain he promised.. hahaha anti climax..

after this, we proceeded to have dinner.. along the way some ncie flowers..

we had some nice dinner.. then we went to have some beer.. Carlsberg comes from Denmark so its pretty famous here n cheap too..

we played some cards b4 going home... thats it for today..

Day 1: Part 1: Copenhagen.. S-tog & Metro in Denmark

2005-05-05T09:32:00.000+02:00

Finally arrived in Copenhagen after a gruelling overnite bus ride of more than 8hrs from 10+ pm the nite before til 7am.. first thing we did when we arrived.. is to go to the Central Station to meet up with Darren, our Singaporean host in Denmark or rather one of our hosts.. We r staying at different ppl's place for the next 3 nites.. Darren is the overall co-ordinator..

how do we noe Darren in the first place, u may wonder.. well.. he contacted LL asking if its possible for us in Stockholm to host them when they come up from Denmark.. but in the end, we asked for their help when we r in copenhagen but none of them came up to Stockholm..

first thing he settled with us is the Klipper tickets to take the train.. we bought each 2 zonal n 3 zonal tickets as shown below..

each klipper strip had 10 columns.. one column representing either 2 zone or 3 zone depending on the ticket.. if u r travelling across 5 zones in the train, u have to clip once on the 3 zonal ticket n once on the 2 zonal ticket which thus adds up to 5 zones.. confusing rite? n the fact that zones change very quickly between every 2-3 stations makes it worse..
There r 2 types of trains.. the Metro n the S-tog.. pretty much like the U-bahn n the S-bahn in Germany.. for each station, a number of S-tog lines go thru it.. some r fast trains.. for example those lines with the plus sign (e.g. H+) r fast trains.. they skip certain stations..

In Copenhagen, there r no barriers where u have to swipe yer card to get thru to the trains.. unlike Stockholm.. its like Amsterdam where u clip yer tickets yerself in machines like these..

Transportation here in Copenhagen is rather expensive.. our 2 tickets costs 260DKK in total.. in total we can travel thru 50 zones (thus we can use them for at most 25 trips since least number of zones clipped is 2 zones) each trip costs abt 10+DKK .. which is abt 3+ Sing dollars n as mentioned before, zones change very quickly so we could easily chalk up to 4-5 zones in one trip.. but if u r staying in Copenhagen central, then its a different story since all r in the same zone.. however, all of us r staying in places just outside Copenhagen.. so haha .. not cheap for transport.. but at least we saved up on accomdoation..
The machine will make a loud clipping sound everytime u insert yer ticket in to be clipped.. it will stamp a time n the zone u r currently in.. transport is so ex that everytime when i hear the loud clipping, it felt part of my life is clipped away.. haha too exaggerated i noe.. just kidding.. u may tink that since no barriers can dont clip wat.. quite true but sometimes there r conductors who check the tickets of commuters n the fine of not having a valid ticket is 500DKK (close to 140+ Sing).. as mentioned in this sign..

Whenever u see these signs..

u r near a S-tog station

u r near a Metro station..
pretty much like the T n J signs in Stockholm..
The S-tog trains look pretty new..

The interior of the trains look pretty nice too.. the electronic board on top tells u how many more stops b4 yer destination n where r u now.. each compartment is separated by a plastic door.. i tink its soundproof.. to prevent talkative ppl from distrubing others

These doors r for bicycles to get on the train.. ppl could bring their bikes on the train..but they have to pay for the bicycle fare.. there r also fares for dogs.. (its the same price as a child travelling in the train)

These doors with bicycles printed on it signifies that these entrance allows the bike owners to park their bicycle in holders like these so the bike wont move around in the train.. the retractable seats could be brought down to be sat on while waiting..

Interior of the Metro driverless trains.. these trains cover a shorter route n r fast n efficient..

SOme trains have speical compartments where no toking n no mobile phones r allowed.. nice..

haha u may notice i tok a lot abt Denmark trains in this post.. yah becos i was really impressed with the efficiency and punctuality of the trains as well as its nice interiors.. very nice trains n good service.. best i seen so far.. yah also another reason why its so memorable is that at times i tend not to clip my ticket.. its stressful becos i have to keep my eyes wide open when the train reaches a station to see if any conductor gets onboard.. haha but its fun.. Darren had had much fun playing with the system.. he seems to get his kicks from beating the system.. i have to say its fun n satisfying but its also tiring n stressful all the time.. haha when i m too tired to bother, i would clip my tickets.. :p there r several techniques to check out if any conductors board the trains n i sort of mastered them already in just 2 days.. haha cool.. maybe i was lucky, the few days we went were public holidays.. maybe the conductors r not working..

After the 4 of us, JL, Dom, LL n me split up to go to our individual host's places, we met up again to go to Copenhagen's open air musueum in Lgynby, the Frilandsmuseet.. Dom, JL n I met up with some Danish gers (DCB alert!! DCB = Danish Chio Bu) while waiting for the trains.. we were still not very sure abt the train system so we sort of asked them.. they r dressed for their school prom... guess how old r they?

They r ONLY 14 years old!! haha unbelievable rite?

Wont be around til Monday

2005-05-04T16:14:00.000+02:00

Havent been updating my blog since Monday.. came down with fever.. must be the rain n my terrible cooking.. ok This weekend is a long weekend for Sweden..

Thursday 5th May is Ascension Day and Friday has become a National holiday as well since no one will come back to work after a Thursday holiday.. most will prefer a super long weekend.. so no classes as well.. haha

going down to copenhagen, denmark for this super long weekend.. will only be back on Monday

Valborg!! Part 3: Bonfire..

2005-04-30T23:35:00.000+02:00

We arrived back in Stockholm n we each went back to our homes b4 coming back out to meet at 7:30pm at Gamla Stan where we will walk to Riddaholmen to see the bonfire..

The woods to be burnt...

Nice evening sky..

At 8:45pm, there is a line of ppl carrying fire torches to the pile of wood..

Everyone of them surrounded the wood n threw their fire at it..

It began burning up..

Irene n me.. it starts to get very hot even for us... we were standing quite far away

LL n me... the light from the fire is lighting our face up.. haha

Me..

Burning wood..

My head on fire!!!

As the wood burns, ppl around us starts to sing some songs in Swedish, to welcome the spring.. i guess.. n ppl will also be dancing around the fire as well..

Valborg!! Part 2: Picnic n Hat Ceremony...

2005-04-30T23:32:00.000+02:00

After the end of this watercraft competition ,we walked around Uppsala.. everywhere in Uppsala is in a festive mood.. stores selling food, handicrafts r everywhere..

Human models?

We met up with Irene who just arrived at the train station.. woah.. this statue has a really really big one.. haha

We bought some food from Netto, supermarket.. Dom n I bought a 50kr kebab which includes a can of coke as well.. Alex bought a pizza for 45kr..
We went to the place around Uppsala Slott.. everyone is having a picnic n chilling out there.. along the way, we see lots of ppl drunk from partying n boozing..

Ppl could be seen peeing in the bushes as well.. basically its chaos...

Irene looking on as Alex opens up the box to his pizza..

A wrap up pizza..

My Kebab..

The girls..

The guys...

1 handsome guy n 2 gers.. haha shameless i noe..

The streets r choked with ppl.. many ppl partying away in bars n student union houses..

ppl selling balloons..

in keeping up with the craziness of the ppl around here.. we took some crazy pics as well..

It was drizzling but it didnt dampen the party spirits of the Swedish..

Another look at the crowded street..

We proceed next to the front of the Carolina Rediviva for the hat ceremony.. at 3pm the principal is supposed to wave his hat n students, present n past will wave their high sch graduation caps together as well to signify the coming of spring.. the students, past n present will bring their summer caps n gather here at Uppsala for this ceremony.. everyone will sing a Swedish song as they wave their caps.. i tink it signifies spring is coming..

A band entertaining the ppl waiting for the hat ceremony..

We borrowed a cap from a Swedish.. n took pictures with it..

Parts of the road in Uppsala r cordoned off.. just for pedestrains..

Look at the rubbish all around... a very unlikely sight in Sweden.. an even more unlikely sight is to see ppl finishing up their beer bottle n just throw it on the floor in public.. or finish up their food n throwing the wrappers on the floor just like that.. haha its just only for today..

We proceeded back to stockholm after hearing from the locals that there wont be a bonfire in central Uppsala but only at the outskirts.. this is due to the fact that most ppl in this university town r students.. n they would rather spend their nite partying then to watch wood burn... so its not such a big event here.. we could see it back in Stockholm so we took a bus back..

Valborg!! Part 1: Watercrafts

2005-04-30T18:43:00.000+02:00

Walpurgis, the 30th of April, marks the end of the winter in Sweden and Finland, and is the most important festive celebration of the year alongside of Christmas and Midsummer

Walpurgis in Sweden: Valborg

Valborg is celebrated in Sweden in different ways, always depending on the part of the country. Lighting large bonfires is a popular celebration in eastern parts of Sweden like in Svealand or Uppland, where people gather material for their bonfires for months ahead. Lighting bonfires is an ancient custom related to keeping away evil spirits, demons and witches.

Nowadays Valborg is just seen as a celebration of springtime, but for a feel of the good old Viking days the Skansen Open-Air museum still celebrates Stockholm's largest and most historical Valborg celebration.

For most of the Swedes though, Valborg just means the end of the winter season and there is no better way to celebrate it than singing Spring songs. Spring songs and choral singing are very typical of the Swedish Valborg celebrations, with many of the traditional songs dating from as back as the 19th century. The most popular and traditional spring festivities are held in the old university towns of Uppsala, Lund and Gothenburg, with its famous carnival parade.

Current and graduated students party all day and all night, and even perhaps longer than that, wearing all the time their characteristic white graduation caps. Valborg is a double national festivity in Sweden because King Carl XVI Gustaf celebrates his birthday on Valborg's day, 30th of April. Swedish flags are raised all around the country to salute him and show him respect.

Forsränningen and "The hat ceremony" at Carolina Rediviva are important events on the last day in April –The BIG day of Uppsala. This is the day where we welcome spring and the whole town is full of picnic blankets, spring songs and student hats. Uppsala, the city of traditions have captured generations with its traditional celebration of Valborg. Celebrating the last of April in Uppsala is something that you do not want to miss whether you do it as a participator in the race, a functionary or a spectator.

Jenley, Dom, LL, Alex and I took a 8:25 bus to Uppsala.. there is a special promotion that for selected routes, customers can choose to pay using a special Swebus prepaid card.. the route from Stockholm to Uppsala costs 50kr for students but if u pay using the card, its only 34kr.. cool.. the train to Uppsala costs 39kr.. Today is the 30th April.. thus we decided to go up to Uppsala to check out the celebrations..

we have been up here before in Winter.. if u r interested.. u may click here to take a look wat issit like w/o all the partying n mess now..
Uppsala in Winter

WHen we reached Uppsala, Dom contacted his Swedish friend who invited us to his place to have some Swedish porridge eaten esp during this period.. The porridge is actually just oatmeals cooked so that it looks like porridge..

n they eat it with milk around it with lingonberry sauce on it..

There were lots of ppl in his place.. mostly Swedish.. they r gonna go out n then party til 4am the next morning.. we decided to go see the famous Forsränningen by the Fysi River..

Forsränningen is one of the biggest and most famous student events in the country. It is a competition where teams, consisting of four people, use their imagination and their creativity to create crafts. When the crafts are made the race takes place in the centre of Uppsala when they enter Fyrisån to defy the waterfalls and the cold water in. The creativity, the daredevil ness and the Ice cold water makes about 400000 excited spectators come to see this spectacular event each year. The fleet that manages to impress the sole judge principal magnificus at the university of uppsala the most wins the competition.

How did the race begin?

In the spring of 1975 two students, Anders Ahnesjö and Carl-Johan Hansson, had grown a bit tired of the fact that they could not use the things that they had learned on a practical level, everything seemed to theoretical. Growing tired of Integrals and formulas they started searching for an adventures challenge in their everyday lifes. The answer laid right in front of them –Fyrisån, this indomitable beast of nature. They decided to make a bet, they were going to head down spring flood in a homemade craft. The date was set to the last of April, and they were not about to back down though their friends told them not to do it. After careful calculations concerning the physiological capacities of the craft they dared to defy nature. To their great excitement they made it down the gigantic waterfalls in one piece, and the first race in history had been carried out. Thrilled by the experience they decided to do the same ting next year, but then they would invite everyone to participate in the battle against nature.

The banks of the Fysi river were crowded with ppl... there were so many ppl in Uppsala.. everything have to queue.. even the mobile network is down.. its very hard to call out from Uppsala..

Everywhere is sort of like a carnival with candy stores n ppl selling balloons..

More pics of the crowd gathering on the river bank..

There were lots of police around as well... for crowd control..

When we got there, it was too crowded.. we made our way to the mini waterfall where the action is.. but its also super crowded.. we squeeze ourself in but not near enuff to see wat the fuss is abt.. i feel that if i came all the way to Uppsala n not having pictures to show for it, i will feel very pek cek.. haha so i told JL to sit on my shoulders n take pictures n videos using my camera but haha unfortunately they were spectacularly nice.. wasted my effort.. Dom tried that with LL but gave up after a while.. then LL suggested to let Dom sit on her shoulder..

There was this old ingenious Swedish guy who came near us with 2 of his homemade periscopes.. haha we borrowed one from him n shared it among the 5 of us.. haha.. cool.. we were able to see exactly wat happened..

we managed to finally squeeze into the crowd somemore to get a better view.. this is the mini waterfall which all the crafts of the contestants have to overcome..

There were safety personnel on the side.. divers ready to jump in whenever any contestants fell from their crafts..

Each craft had a unique design.. sometimes representing certain countries or other stuff like rock bands n stuff like that..

The Pimp mobile.. n getting down successfully but getting stucked along the way..

Most crafts made it down the waterfall with at most one or two parts falling off.. but this plane shaped craft disintegrated completely..

Falling..

Sinking... note that safety diver with the blue helmet rushing to help those falling off..

Back up again..

Really admire these ppl.. their efforts n bravery n esp their thick skinnedness.. haha the water temperature that day was around 10 degree celsius.. skin have to be thick to withstand the cold.. worse if u fall into the water..

Pirate ship..

Their fence r falling off..

toilet papers?

Norway, Sweden, Finland.. Scandinavian combi..

dont noe wat is this.. but looks interesting..

Saving their bunny... their bunny at the back almost broke off after coming down the waterfall..

Playmates..

Ash Tray..

Surviving crafts finishing the journey down the Fysi River..

Tried to take a group photo.. this ang moh guy rushed in from behind to join us as well..

Nothing much today.. chilling out..

2005-04-29T18:19:00.000+02:00

Well today is 29th April liaoz.. my SL card (transportation for T-bana n bus) expires yesterday...

but i m not gonna buy the next mth's card today.. Planned to buy it on 2nd May, Monday so as to maximise my usage.. we have booked a flight to Barcelona on the 2nd June.. if i buy on the 2nd May, then my card will expire on 1st June.. see how lah.. must plan properly.. tomolo going to Uppsala, shld be jumping the barrier tomolo.. haha.. if kena caught, its a fine of 800kr, a SL card costs 600kr.. doing the mathematics, of course its much better to buy a card.. but aiyah i saw ppl jumping the barrier blatantly in front of the ticketing counter.. so.. see how lah.. haha

Not going out today since no SL card.. study, update blog n stone loh..

yep toking abt homework, i thot of my Image Processing class.. the lecturer mentioned smt abt this image that has been used in almost all Image Processing lectures, tutorials and txtbks in the world..

Lena Soderberg was the person in that picture.. She was last reported living in her native Sweden, happily married with three kids and a job with the state liquor monopoly. In 1988, she was interviewed by some Swedish computer related publication, and she was pleasantly amused by what had happened to her picture. That was the first she knew of the use of that picture in the computer business.

The interesting thing is that this picture actually comes from a full page centerfold in a November 1972 Playboy magazine..

The story of the image is as follows..
Alexander Sawchuk estimates that it was in June or July of 1973 when he, then an assistant professor of electrical engineering at the USC Signal and Image Processing Institute (SIPI), along with a graduate student and the SIPI lab manager, was hurriedly searching the lab for a good image to scan for a colleague's conference paper. They had tired of their stock of usual test images, dull stuff dating back to television standards work in the early 1960s. They wanted something glossy to ensure good output dynamic range, and they wanted a human face. Just then, somebody happened to walk in with a recent issue of Playboy.
The engineers tore away the top third of the centerfold so they could wrap it around the drum of their Muirhead wirephoto scanner, which they had outfitted with analog-to-digital converters (one each for the red, green, and blue channels) and a Hewlett Packard 2100 minicomputer. The Muirhead had a fixed resolution of 100 lines per inch and the engineers wanted a 512 x 512 image, so they limited the scan to the top 5.12 inches of the picture, effectively cropping it at the subject's shoulders.

For the full image.. haha WARNING!! There is nudity in this link...
Original Lena Image

yeah.. another thing i wanna say.. is yah abt Ryanair Tickets..
Ryanair is a top budget airline in Europe..
its air fares r pretty cheap but that is exclusive of tax.. the tax r usually more ex than the air fare.. to get cheap air fare, u have to book very early like more than 1 mth before... n the cheap air fare r usually to a limited number of places n usually flying from London where Ryanair HQ is at..

An example is that i booked an air ticket from Venice to London for our upcoming summer trip.. its stated 0.99 Euro but when the total tax and the credit card handling fee is included, it comes up to abt 22.58 Euro !!
From London to Stockholm, its stated 0.99 Pounds, but after tax, it became 16.59 pounds!!.. but its still quite cheap to fly at these prices...

Swedish culture excursion around City

2005-04-28T00:50:00.000+02:00

The excursion was pretty boring.. tok abt how the Swedish govt tried to transform the old Stockholm into a modernised one.. took some pics of an interesting elevator lobby.. very colorful..

Spring is in the air...

Statue for peace or no guns.. i tink..

Art model for the old Stockholm..

We went all the way to the Old Town and the King's palace..

Looks like the guards have changed to their summer uniform.. much nicer compared to the ones they wear in winter..
Guards in Winter clothings.. (taken few mths ago)

Guards in Summer clothings

The pavements along the way to home was lined with beautiful flowers... Spring is definitely here..

Fountains are spouting WATER!!.. haha it may be normal to see water flowing out of fountains in Singapore but here, all fountains are closed during winter..
The same fountain in winter...

The fountain now..

Tallinn.. Nice City!! Pissed Drunk on boat..

2005-04-27T22:01:00.000+02:00

Woke up at around 9 + am.. finally reaching Tallinn after this 16-17hr boat trip.. How this boat trip works is u pay 95kr for a return ticket to Tallinn.. u board the ship at Stockholm at 5pm on the first day then u arrive in Tallinn at around 1030am then u walk around Tallinn then board back the ship at 5pm n arrived back at Stockholm at 1030am on the third day.. so we could only spend 6hrs in Tallinn..

The Room Access Card for our cabin..

Arrival at Tallinn after passing thru border control.. TO TOWN!!

Dont jump off the pier..

Group pic with the Tallinn old town backdrop..

Taking a pic with the towers with red top, symbolic of Tallinn.. there r actually watchtowers left behind from medieval times when there was a defensive wall surrounding the city..

Houses in old town of Tallinn..

We passed by this alley.. which is smt like a mini bazaar..

but its a tourist trap.. the stuff there r rather expensive..

Town Hall..

souvenior shops r rather ex in the Old tOwn as well...

took a pic of St Nicholas Church..

a 400 year old Pharmacy.. oldest one in the world.,. it had been prescribing medicine even b4 Columbus discovered America..

Some ppl in medieval costumes promoting their restaurant..

Estonian Royal Opera House

Some graffiti.. this was done with spray paint.. very nice..

according to the Lonely Planet guidebook that i borrowed from the Stockholm library.. there is a rather cheap restaurant in the New Town.. outside the Old Town that offers cheap buffet lunches.. thus we proceeded over there..
and yes indeed its cheap.. for 75EEK (Estonian Krooni) abt 10+ Sing dollars, we get a good lunch buffet

My first round of many more rounds to come.. some small crispy, nice tasty chicken wings, some pork n stuff..

We r finally done.. it was a good meal.. filling n satisfied.. we expected some service charge included when the bill came but to our surprise, there was none.. just 75EEK as stated in the menu.. no hidden charges nothing.. haha GOOD!

For the first time, we left tips for a restaurant or anything.. not much thou.. abt 5EEK in total .. less than 1 Sing dollars.. cheapskates yeap maybe but hey we r only students..

The restaurant, Eesti Maja..

Old Watchtowers from the past...

THe Old City Wall.. the real one.. haha

Flower market..

MacDonald's in Tallinn.. they r EVERYWHERE.. haha

Dom started toking abt the Big Mac index.. where the price of the Big Mac r used by economists to gauge a country's std of living.. since it is pretty much pegged to it.. in Stockholm, one could get a set meal for abt 50kr (which is abt 10+ Sing dollars) here in Tallinn.. it costs 42 EEK accoridng to the ad above.. (which is abt 6+ Sing dollars) abt the same price as Singapore's Mac set meal..
a unique bike..

Kiek in de Kok Tower (whcih means "Peep in the kitchen" in German) dont noe why though.. didnt go n see.

More pics of the Old Town..

Estonian postbox..

We went to a pastry shop to buy some dinner.. haha

Back on the ship..

Safety instructions.. have to wrap yourself up in a thermal covering..

I went back to my cabin n was flipping thru a Tallinn tourist info book when i realised wat did i missed!! Non stop striptease.. haha n the comment on the guide book says
" Non-stop striptease, beautiful Estonian girls. Wide selection of drinks. Male strippers for the ladies in a separate room. Only we have 100% striptease! 100% secure."

aiyah wat a miss!! must come back Tallinn.. haha becos we didnt really visit finish the Old Town.. time is too short.. hehe

We bought some alcohol.. n decided to get ourselves drunk tonite.. haha we played Big 2 poker game.. last 2 losers drink alcohol.. i tink i drank too much.. i got super pissed drunk that i cant go to see the performance in the Show Bar. had planned to sit in front to catch more action.. haha.. Alex was worse.. he vomitted in the sink.. making the whole toilet stinky.. haha

Boat ride to Tallinn, Estonia

2005-04-26T14:50:00.000+02:00

Had a brief presentation for our Image Processing Lab 2 this morning, followed by its tutorial.. but most of the time daydreaming cos' excited of the trip coming up in a few hours time.. haha

We booked two 2 man cabins for our boat trip to Tallinn, Estonia. It costs only 95kr per person, cheapest so far. The boat was operated by Tallink. The reason why it is so cheap is that we r going on weekdays. so bo bian have to skip some lessons. not much lah n not very impt ones as well.. hehehe.. making up excuses.. :P

On our way to Frihamensterminalen, we passed by this banana company.. hehe.. nothing special, just wanna post that pic..

The ferry terminal.

Check in here..

After checking in and passing thru the Swedish border control, its OFF TO THE BOAT... as the sign indicated.. haha

Picture with the boat.. not really a boat.. its more of a big boat or a SHIP..hehe

well, its my first time on a ship so big.. never been on a crusie before.. hehe
The bar where ppl could watch performances..

The so called casinos with its few jackpot machines and a roulette and blackjack table..

We took a brief walk around the ship.. a very brief one, becos its so damn cold!!

Show Bar.. yah where the action, the mini casino and the bar are situated..

There are animal labels.. maybe indicated the floors or where certain places r.. i dont noe!?

Our corridor.. we have a B4 2 man cabin.. which is pretty cool.. this r usually quite ex.. but luckily we got this during the promotional period..

Our room number..

Our toilet..

Shhhhh!

Took some pictures of the thousands of islands that the ship passed by.. the windows r pretty dirty so cant see clearly..

Island with small houses..

Acting cool..

haha interesting sign for the night club..why does the guy have to lift his leg up? dancing? :p

Dom, Alex n me decided to each pool 10 kr each n try out the jackpot machine, any winnings we shall split.. it costs 1kr (S$0.25) to play once, thus we could play for 30 times hoping to strike big.. indeed we did win but not much.. at one time, we won back our investment of 30kr + a few more kroners.. but our greed led us to continue playing... our superstitous thinking led us to switch machines everytime we win back our investment.. haha we switch 2 machines before finally losing it all...
Me in happier times with the jackpot machine

So Tallink, the boat operator was pretty clever, give us this offer of cheap boat ticket to entice us on board n make us give back money in other forms.. haha
ok, U R GOOD.. so far u took 10kr (S$2.50) from me.. never mind!!
we went out for a short walk again.. a even shorter one, the cold was unbearable but i managed to sneak some pictures of the islands..
islands in the sunset n caught in the shadow of the boat.. nicer pictures as i took them from the outside..

we went back to find that the blackjack table had started.. haha its only Blackjack, shldnt be too difficult to win money.. hehe
so here we r..

i invested 100kr.. minimum bet is 20kr (S$5).. well.. it was a rollercoaster ride.. i was UP n then DOWN n then UP n then finally down.... sigh.. the dealer was pretty fast n i never played blackjack in an actual casino with real dealers before.. so it was pretty stressful... n i was being dealt the cards first.. so not much time to think.. haha i won back my investment of 100kr + 10 or 20 kroners before losing it all again.. haha.. ok loh..
so now Tallink took 10kr + 100kr = 110kr from me liaoz.. which is more than my 95kr boat ticket... sigh..
the roulette table.. nah i didnt try this one.. minimum bet is 5kr.. according to Dom, the roulette wheel is hard to predict because of the movement of the boat..

Anyway if anyone said to try the buffet dinner in this Tallink cruise.. DONT DO IT!!.. it costs 200kr!! and we walked around to take a look at the food.. rather pathetic.. nothing spectacular.. another way for Tallink to get money from its passengers.. luckily we didnt try..no way m i prepared to fork out 50 Sing dollars for a meal...
After this casino trip.. we went back to our room where we chilled out n tried to study a bit.. i brought some notes.. surprisingly, i was able to study more than i could in my room with all those distractions such as teh Internet.. u must be tinking WAT.. come cruise then study in the room.. yah but the boat facilities r really pathetic.. not much to do anyway.. we did went out to watch some show in the SHow Bar.. hehe.. its was pretty good.. girls scantily clad dancing away.. n it was fun as well.. hehe there was one part when the girls r dressed up Moulin Rouge as can-can dancers with their large skirts.. they would go around n cover unsuspecting guys in the front row with their large skirts!! COOL!!.. haha, the girls change clothes with every change in their dance theme.. interesting.. MUST SIT IN FRONT ROW DURING PERFORMANCES ON THE RETURN TRIP!! haha might just get lucky
yap this lasted only 30 min then we went back to our cabins to sleep liaoz at around 1230am...

HAPPY 1st YEAR Anniversary!! Darling!!

2005-04-25T00:00:00.000+02:00

haha a slight digression from my blog entries of my daily life in Stockholm n travels..

It's the 25th of April liaoz!!

Just wanna say "Happy 1st Year Anniversary" to My Love, Tingyi, back home in Singapore.. its been a year since we are together n she is the main reason why i started this blog, Simon Says.. to update her of my travels around Europe and my life here in Stockholm..

Some pics of us back in Singapore.. we sort of went to quite a lot of attractions back in Singapore as well..

The Merlion with an evening setting..

HSBC Treetop Walk in MacRitchie Resevoir area..The first of its kind in Singapore and in the region, this free-standing suspension bridge connects the two highest points (Bukit Peirce and Bukit Kalang) in MacRitchie and offers a bird’s eye view of the community of plants and animals that live in the forest canopy. It's a 10 km walking route to the bridge.. haha took us hours but it was fun n refreshing.. the nature, escape from the bustling Singapore city life...

Singapore Zoo.. we had some free tickets to the Zoo so why not.. n it has been a long time since i have been there.. i tink the last time i went was when i was twelve.. woah it had been 10+ years.. i m really getting old liao

The bdae present for my Darling Tingyi.. Baby Taz, her fav cartoon character and something i made using a breadboard from my school projects and LEDs taken from my school lab.. no no i m not wasting school property, just recycling it.. these were components from my previous Microprocessor EE2007 project.. since we wont be using it anymore, so might as well make full use of it.. the words made of LEDs will light up when connected to a battery.. hehe..
My bdae is on the 6th December and her bdae is on the 7th December.. haha wat a coincidence.. haha but gives me one more day to prepare or shop for her bdae present every year.. oops!

yep! Darling! so sorry cant spend the first V-day and our anniversary together..
to make full use of my Swedish knowledge: Jag älskar Dig !!!

My Room

2005-04-23T23:58:00.000+02:00

Writing an essay in Swedish abt my room (one of my assignments for the Swedish language module) reminded me that i havent described my room b4 in my blog..

haha so here we go.. some warning first for those neat freaks.. becos as u will definitely see later, my room isnt very neat i.e. to say it is MESSY!!

Some external shots of the building i m staying in.. rather interesting curved shaped..

The Tunnelbana station nearest my place, Sundbyberg Centrum..

Tunnel leading to the station..

Pressbyran shop (smt like a 7-11 convenience store) being vandalised with graffiti..

When asked abt yer student accomodation, ppl will usually ask if u r staying in a lagenhatt which means apartment in Swedish or a studentrumm which means student room in Swedish.. for me, i m staying in an apartment.. student room is like those where LL n Dom r staying in Lappis.. got lots of students staying there.. my neighbours r mostly ppl in their 40-60s... haha

My room rental is 3000 kr per month.. that is abt 750 Sing dollars per month.. YES!! PER MONTH!!.. haha a Type A PGP room with attached bathroom and air-conditioned costs only 1000+ SIng dollars PER SEMESTER!! yeah lah.. i tink thats the std rental for Stockholm.. plus the room i have comes with a wardrobe room, bathroom and a kitchen with fridge, oven n electric stove.. not bad lah..

My corridor..

Ppl usually paste this notice on their door "Ingen Reklam Tack" which means "No Advertisements Thanks" .. yah usually the postman wil dump lots of junk mail of advertisements as u can see from one of my previous posts -->Home Swede Home

The postman trolley.. wat amazed me is how hardworking the postman here are.. there is no central mailbox at the ground floor where the mailman could just dump the letters into the letter box of each individual.. he goes to every floor n slots mail to the letter box of every door.. wah thats very xiong.. n i tink the apartment buildings here r all like that.. haha

My workspace.. haha

My bed.. messy..

My luggage.. basically i havent utilised my wardrobe room at all. too much of a hassle to hang all of them up n take.. just take from my luggage clothes i need..

Unutilised wardrobe room..

My kitchen..

My dry food storage cabinet

My fridge

My oven and stove

My bathroom n toilet..

Moved my bed recently so that its just beside the table where my laptop is.. so that i could lie on my bed to study n tok on skype on my laptop at the same time.. lazy i noe.. but dont care.. haha but the problem is that most of the time i ended up sleeping while studying on bed.. n YES i do study at times.. only those times when i m not travelling, daydreaming, chatting on net, cooking..
The new look.. with bed just beside table..

ok thats all for my room.. Day 10 of my Easter trip updated liao.. trip out of Munich into Prague.. a city supposedly where we could live like kings n is every boy's fantasy place with lots of CCBs... (haha it means Czech Chio Bus.. i dont mean the other hokkien bad word.. haha) Day 10 Munich to Prague

Nothing much today.. Good Dinner..

2005-04-22T22:56:00.000+02:00

Went to crash in SC's lecture after my classes... there is a talk by the executives n engineers of Ferrari company i tink from italy.. abt its cars n motorcycles..

Cool Lamborginhni Car.. the price tag on the window states 1.43 million kroners.. RATHER CHEAP!!.. i tink in Singapore, it will also cost 1.43 million but in Singapore dollars... 1 Singapore dollars = 4 Swedish kroners

Cooked myself a good meal tonite.. big bowl of Szechuan soup (i didnt make the soup it came from a can), some chicken marinated in prawn powder n deep fried n rice n multi mineral juice... why such a good meal? haha got to clear my food stocks soon.. wont be staying here anymore in June.. dont wanna waste the food..

so far only 9 days of my 20 days Easter Europe trip updated.. haha rather busy this few days.. will update them soon...

Visit to Alby suburb..

2005-04-21T22:30:00.000+02:00

Class starts at 6pm today with another field trip with the Swedish class to the Alby suburb.. it was a super far place.. took me an hour to reach.. i was half an hour late but luckily for me, when i got out of the train station, the whole class walked past me on their way to the next place (they had gathered at the town hall earlier at 6pm) n i managed to join them there.. phew..

From the picture below, we could see that this suburb seems to be in the middle of the forest.. many suburbs in Stockholm r built like this.. this belongs to the Botkykra kommune.. kommune means municipality in Swedish.. All these subrubs r built in response to the govt plan to build one million homes in Sweden in the 1970s.. Sweden was then facing a serious shortage of housing..

rather old fashioned n boring looking blocks of flat..

ppl fishing..

we walked around the town for quite some time with occasional breaks where the guide will stop n tok abt certain areas.. finally the trip ended for ALby.. n we walked towards the next suburb Fittja to take the tunnelbana from there back home..

Nice scenery along the road to Fittja

Electricity cables...

The "nite" sky at 8pm.. days r getting much longer this mth...

The Fittja suburb..

One of the housing blocks..

well thats all for today's trip...

Long n Tiring 10am - 9pm School Day..

2005-04-20T22:09:00.000+02:00

Went all the way down to Flemingsberg where our radiation class have yet another field trip.. this time, its at Huddinge Hospital.. they r toking abt their Ultrasound equipment.. we were given a lecture by a lady who is a fashion disaster!! she wore a shirt with 2 zipper pockets around the region of her breasts!!... the dangling zippers r very distracting.. haha

We were given an hour plus lecture followed by a demo of the Ultrasound machine that the hospital has.. yep there is a naked guy lying on the bed in the picture below.. he is actually one of the students in the class.. he volunteered to have his heart ultrasound-ed n demo-ed to the class..

This gel is used to apply on the scanner b4 being placed in contact with the body for the ultrasound.. it has smt to do with the reflection indexes of the air, the gel n the body so that could get a good enuff contrast to tell the shape of watever they r trying to measure..

Here we see that guy's heart..

Here image processing comes into use.. pseudo coloring is introduced to show the movements of the blood in the heart.. u cant see clearly here but there r actually 2 colors here.. red n blue to indicate blood flow up n down..

finally the lesson ended.. we took the Pendaltag back up to T-centralen where we went to settle our bus tickets n ferry tickets for our upcoming trips.. there is still some time b4 our next class..
Along the way to our next class, Image Processing, we passed by this misleading structure.. :P looks like a rather soft pillow or bean bag.. doesnt it? its just a metal piece shaped like that n hollow inside.. not very soft..

Such large pots of flowers could be seen placed everywhere around Stockholm at the beginning of Spring.. (SSS) stupid stockholm spring!! its still so damn cold.. abt 6 degrees !!.. haha this is crazy..cant wait for summer to come..

Sleepy lesson in Image Processing.. dozed off a quarter of the time.. haha not bad quite an achievement for me..

Proceeded next to our Swedish language class.. another few hours of gruelling lesson til 9pm.. arrghh..
During break time, LL bought a "Snickers Big One" abt 30% longer than normal Snickers

ok the end of class liaoz.. yawn...

Visit to Karolinska Hospital.. Greenzap!! Make some money!!

2005-04-19T20:54:00.000+02:00

yeah.. today we r supposed to go for a hospital study trip.. we will have our Radiation Detector lecture at the hospital itself.. met LL at Vastra Skogen but we missed the 12:21pm bus.. the next bus comes at 12:51pm.. we r supposed to meet up at the hospital with the rest at 12:45pm.. ok loh.. too bad.. i decided to try walking there but everything seems not rite when i tried.. until we found an old man who told us that walking there will take us at least an hour.. the fastest way is by bus 507.. i wondered how Jiakai always walk to his school, Karolinska Institue, which was near the hospital.. i called him n he told me it took him 30 min to walk there.. WAT!!.. aiyah nvm.. LL n I decided to take our time to wait for the bus.. we saw an interesting sculpture... at first look, we thot that some ppl are trying to sun their pillows.. but these r actually stone sculptures shaped like pillows!!

close up of the pillows..

me posing with my "comfortable" pillows..

this one really fooled me.. its folds n creases made it look so real.. these r all just pillow shaped stones n they r all fixed to the ground..

yah our bus finally came.. but its in the opposite direction.. the bus driver got down to buy some fruits from a fruit store nearby.. diaonz.. he got back up n ghe drove away.. i tink its a loop service.. we waited in a nearby convenience store to avoid the cold wind with still abt 15 min to spare..

finally bus 507 came n took us straight to Karolinska hospital.. we rush towards to the lecture hall where the lecture had begun.. the lecturer was a rather young hip hop looking Canadian.. he was pretty good.. if i wasnt so tired, i would have been interested in wat he is saying.. hehe i slept most of the lecture.. he would explain stuff very quickly n at one time he was trying to explain the atom spin n he ended up spinning a few rounds himself.. haha damn funny sight.. quite a clever guy though.. he is currently doing his PhD here in Sweden.. he rushed off for his 3pm concert after the lecture..

after him, it was followed by an rather old guy who tok more abt the Nucelar Medicine n Magnetic Resonance (MR) treatment for patients.. pretty interesting.. then at 4pm.. thats the end of the visit.. i guess we missed the visit to the NMR machine since we were late but nvm..

yep then got home cooked some pasta n STUDY!! yep.. anyway came across this Greenzap company.. smt like Paypal.. according to wat it says, it will pay 25 dollars to anyone who sign up with them now for this period.. no strings attached.. n the ppl who sign up could refer other ppl for 5 dollars each.. sounds pretty good.. it says instead of paying millions to advertise its service, it is advertising thru this way of paying ppl referral fees.. which pretty much makes sense.. so if u r interested.. i shamelessly ask u to help me make some money n at the same time, u could make some money yerself.. haha so click here --> www.greenzap.com/lin Promo Code is lin

CT Scan of Barbie..

2005-04-18T11:09:00.000+02:00

Today is a very long day.. lecture from 10 to 12 noon then Radiation lab from 1pm to 6pm.. lecture was boring toking abt color image processing.. but lab was interesting.. haha

we were supposed to do a CT scan of Barbie doll.. (apparently she was kena shot by a bullet n its lodged inside her perfect figure n we r supposed to do a CT scan to find out where exactly it is.. )

Posing with our patient, Barbie..

There is a radiation source which is emitted n passed thru Barbie's body where it will be detected on the other side.. the amount of radiation detected by the detector will tell us if any part of the body is more dense than the rest.. in our case, the bullet will absorb most of the radiation compared to the rest of the body, thus the detector will yield a low reading..
Yah there is a radioactive source but it is rather mild.. n there is a casing around the machine to protect us from the radiation.. if the cover is opened, it will auto shut down the radioactive source..
One more pic of poor Barbie.. in our expt, Barbie was rotated many times so as to get a very accurate picture.. but haha dont worry, in the real case, the detector is rotated around the patient not the other way round..

evidence of Barbie n Ken abuse!!.. some Barbies n Kens been kept away in a cupboard, ready to be examined.. haha

A barbie poster on the wall.. some exhibtions in France.. haha n an X-ray film.. dont tink is relevant to the lab..

Mark n LL, my other 2 lab partners..

The full CT scan of Barbie took 1hr 20min.. so the lab demonstrator told us to take a 45 min break..
I had a Daim ice-cream... hmm yummy.. haha a rather suggestive shape for an ice cream but its GOOD.. 18kr though (abt 4+ Sing bucks) well i wouldnt pay more than 2 dollars for an ice cream back in Singapore.. but bo bian lah..

Yeah!! Results of Barbie's CT scan out..

as u can see here, the blue part shows where the bullet is.. becos its much denser thats why it appears like that.. the lighter blue one on the side r her arms.. this is the cross section of her body.. first we do a X-axis scan to find out where is the bullet.. then once we find the location, then we do a Y-axis scan to get the exact location, therby producing this cross-section..
yah n YES.. the two bumps is her BREASTS.. haha.. that means the bullet is lodged in her back..

The picture below is a sinogram.. basically the dark blue part is the bullet.. it appears as a long strip... aiyah this is quite hard to explain by typing here but i explain by toking abt it.. thus i shall not do it in this blog.. the main pts is we found the bullet!! nah we r not gonna remove it from her.. we just gonna do our lab report n submit in 2 weeks.. haha :P

the place where we took our lab. the Alba Nova center.. the physics center of KTH..

Nordiska Musuem, Dinner at Lappis.. (GOod!)

2005-04-16T09:24:00.000+02:00

My breakfast for today.. IKEA pizza n sausage..

didnt take any pics of the Nordiska museum.. but its a pretty interesting one, showcasing the Swedish lifestyle from shoes, houses, dresses and festivals etc..
after this visit, we went to a park in Djugarden which is the island we r on now.. where we had a mini sushi picnic.. one of SC Jap friend brought some sushi.. took some pics of geeses walking around us..

After this brief picnic, we proceeded back to Lappis.. i borrowed a bicycle from SC friend and SC, LL n I rode to a newly opened branch of PrisXtra.. apparently there r some offers there n since we r cooking dinner tonite, we have to get ready our ingredients.. its been a long time since i rode a bicycle.. fell quite a number of times.. haha .. nvm we got out ingredients back to Lappis where we prepared a sumptous meal of crepes and macaroni cheese..

we bought this super big sausage as one of the ingredients..

Busy busy.. so many things on the kitchen table.. flour, cheese, milk, milk with 40 fat to make cream, onions n stuff..

Me hard at work with the crepes.. i m using a super heavy frying pan.. damn tiring..

The cheese macaroni or rather cheesy pasta.. we took too long to buy the groceries and macaroni thus Dom used n cooked the pasta instead macaroni

Dom showing off his flipping of crepes while Irene tried it out as well..

The sauce for the crepes.. we could use this to eat with the crepes or jam..

Cheesy Pasta in the oven..looks good..

the last crepe.. finally.. we prepared enuff for 5 football teams.. i tink.. haha overdid it..

finally done.. yummy..

we were super full after the meal.. by the time we start eating, ita around 9pm liao.. we took a long time preparing.. shagged.. after the meal ,we proceeded next to SC place where his friend from France, Jacqueline was preparing apple crumbles.. it was good but i m too full to finish it.. we finish off the nite with a movie, Elektra.. but it was getting very late for IRene, Jiakai n me sicne we r staying quite far away thus we left early in the movie...

Sumptous Lunch.. Lucky find..

2005-04-15T09:51:00.000+02:00

LL n I were waiting for our lab partner in the library.. There was a buffet held for KTH staff in the library.. the food there looks pretty good haha.. i was sitting at a bench waiting when i was approached by this lady with a "University Adminstrator" who asked if i wanna take th food in the buffet.. apparently they cant finsih the food n the function end lioa... when i get to the buffet, there was still like more than 3/4 of the food left.. wat a waste..

Some pictures of my platefull of food.. 2 drumsticks, salmon, some cold meat etc.. yummy.. had a rather full n sumptous lunch..

After this lunch, we met up with our professor for Image Processing for evaluation of our project.. he was pretty easy going n fine with it.. haha LL kep gushing abt how shuai he is.. ok lah quite good looking..

in fact i m starting on my personal project of trying to keep a rugged look after seeing SC, Eric not shaving n having that rugged look.. haha try smt new

"Relief" Package arrived, Class Excursion to Sodermalm

2005-04-14T08:48:00.000+02:00

yep.. finally my "relief" package has arrived.. it was sent from Singapore on Monday and it had arrived here in Stockholm on Thursday.. very fast but expensive though by Speedpost.. abt 90+ SIng for the first 5kg..

the package contains txtbks that were too ex to buy here, 2 travel guide books that we lost during our Easter trip (we have to buy back to compensate the library.. cheaper to buy in Singapore n ship over) and haha some food n flavorings to cook my chicken with..

However, one of the maggi mee packet broke apart.. leaving mee everywhere in the box..

After collecting my package from the postman, I proceeded to school where LL, the Iceland guy n I r having a project discussion for Image Processing.. then we left for our class excursion at Sodermalm.. the guide tok pretty interesting stuff but he tok too slowly n despite being Spring now, it still felt very cold, with the cold wind blowing from the sea.. (Stockholm is situated by the Baltic Sea, and we r at a place pretty near the sea so we felt the full effect of the cold wind.. brrrr..)
didnt managed to take much pics but this is a pretty nice place.. may come back later

A small n simple boat

A nice view of the city.. we could see some of Stockholm's cathehedrals in this picture.. unfortunately most of them r undergoing reconstruction now, thus the scafoldings r sort of spoiling the beauty of this churches..

some pretty nice scenery..

large chess pieces..

this looks like a garden of someone's backyard.. but this is actually public place.. anyone could come here to relax n chill.. it will be prettier in summer..

After this excursion, we proceeded home.. i decided to heat up food that i tabao from DS to eat.. nice spaghetti..

Image Processing project.. interesting..

2005-04-13T23:42:00.000+02:00

Wat we r supposed to do is to capture some images from the webcam in our teacher's office remotely using Matlab.. we were supposed to detect whether there is a train by using the Matlab to code a program that can tell us that..

An image with a train captured from the webcam..

One without train..

luckily we found one more person from Iceland for our group who had pretty good knowledge in Matlab.. so he taught some tricks for Matlab.. we managed to thus complete the project finally.. hehee.. we made use of an accumulative difference method.. we subtract subsequent frames of image from a reference one.. so that we will get a product image of just black n white dots.. basically a digital image is made up of small dots called pixels each with a certain number corresponding to their color n brightness.. if the same color (i.e the same number) minus each other off, we get zero = black.. thus things that r on the image that did not move will yield zero from the subtraction.. moving stuff will yield white color..

but first, we convert the image to greyscale for easy processing..

the train is moving, hence the white parts in the black background..

we improved the Matlab so as to get rid of some of the grey specks in the picture known as noise..

a more solid image showing train movement..

these images above r for day.. the next one is captured at nite..

basically anything that moves shows up as white pixels after the subtraction.. so moving cars n moving ppl could also show up in the picture.. we thus make our Matlab to calculate the number of white pixels n if its big enuff to be a train, it PROCLAIMS: There is a train!!.. haha nice.. phew finally done..

Busy busy busy week..

2005-04-12T23:25:00.000+02:00

Yah nothing much happened on Monday.. attended some boring classes.. got to get down to my Image Processing project asap.. its due on Thursday n its Tuesday now!!.. haha LL n I had not a clue on how to start it.. we had the theory in our head but coding it in Matlab.. seems tough.. haha we try loh..

took some picture of this toilet in school.. smt pretty strange in Sweden is that toilet cubicles have a sink themselves.. there r more sinks outside.. ok i sound pretty confusing now.. haha .. first u go into a toilet, then there will be sinks n mirrors n urinals n also cubicles.. within these cubicles, there is a sink as well each.. it was observed that Swedes if they wanna beat the system of paying 5kr to go into public toilets by sharing, they tend to go inside together instead of one guy or gal waiting outside for the other person to finish their bizness.. once we saw 2 gals going into the toilet to use it at the same time,.. hmmm kinky.. haha..

Went to the De Silvas to have dinner after our project discussions.. pretty good meal of spaghetti.. a million times better than the ones i cooked.. haha
While on the way back home, the train station was flooded with ppl going the reverse direction of me.. escalators going in my direction were stopped to allow this ppl to go in the reverse direction.. the escalators on their side were flooded by ppl.. it was very packed.. n they were wearing Hammaby soccer jerseys.. i guess they were coming back from a soccer match somewhere.. some were chanting n singing their team songs.. abt 2-3 police were following them to maintain order.. they had their riot gear on standby as well..

was doing a quick survey of my socks when i found this pair.. this pair was the one i wore for the Easter Euro Trip.. wow it was so worn out.. from all the walking i guess.. the see thru part in front of the sock wasnt deliberate.. it was worn out in front , behind everywhere .. haha

Vaxholm.. 10000th Picture taken today..

2005-04-10T22:37:00.000+02:00

Took the bus 670 all the way to Vaxholm island.. one of the idyllic islands in the Stockholm archipelago..

Ducks chilling out by the dock..

Ducks hiding under the shade..

The Vaxholm fortress.. unfortunately its closed now.. will be open in June.. it was built in the 16th century to fend off the Russians and the Danes from Stockholm..

We went to Battery Park.. posing on top of a disused bunker. This area, i tink, contains most of the island's defensive coastal batteries..

Group photo with the beautiful sea as background..

View of the North Harbor..

These pictures r that of the North Harbor, an idyllic place..

Panaromic shot of the North Harbor

A Water Taxi..

Along the way to the town center, we came by this shop that sells pretty nice handmade stuff..

When we went in, we found a note on the table that says that the shop owner is in the garden.. wow thats very trusting of her to jsut leave her shop open like that with no man tending to it..

Items sold here..

The shopkeeper.. finally back..

Me posing with a big anchor at the North Harbor..

JL was obsessed abt this swan.. nice pic though..

A pink house.. nice..

A telephone booth..

Toilets here costs 5kr as well..

Houses in Vaxholm..

Note the exterior.. there is a balcony like area.. Alex say this is the sun room where ppl come out of their house to chill out in the sun..

Diesel for boats..

Back to Stockholm..

Nothing much to see in Vaxholm.. but it sure is a refreshing retreat from the busy city life.. after this, we proceeded to IKEA where we did some more grocery shopping b4 going back home..

After uploading the pictures to my laptop, i realised that my camera had taken its 10000th (yeah i didnt add in another zero by error.. its ten thousandth)picture today
n i only just bought this camera b4 i came to Sweden so i have taken abt 9000+ pictures during my SEP.. nice.. haha guess how many pics we took while on our 21 day Easter Euro Trip? .. there r abt 3GB (Gigabytes)+ of pictures in total.. luckily i brought a laptop along for the trip...

Identity of Guy who confessed in Lecture Revealed..

2005-04-10T19:22:00.000+02:00

Well well.. looks like the NUS saga is even on the Straits Times, Singapore's newspapers.. got this article from someone else.. no way m i gonna subscribe to this stupid ST online newspaper.. its supposed to be free loh..

ST News On The Go
Headlines Next»
10/04/05
« Gen Y »
Undergrad's public love plea sets Internet abuzz
Undergrad declares interest in girl by giving her flowers during lecture; videotaped scene grabs attention online
By Ng Mei Yan

BOY likes girl. Boy presents flowers to girl in a packed lecture hall. Girl is embarrassed and horrified. As the class ends, the students disperse, chuckling to themselves.
End of story?
No, this March 28 incident at the National University of Singapore (NUS) was captured on video along with the lecture that was being recorded.
Available to students through the school's Intranet, the grainy video has been downloaded and posted on the Internet, where it is now spreading like wildfire.
Some surfers who saw the webcast wrote about it in their blogs and included links to the video and to the girl's online journal.
People as far away as the United States and Africa have seen it and left scores of comments on the girl's blog, some encouraging, but most poking fun at or criticising one or both parties.
First-year Science student Gary Ng, 22, who presented the bouquet, told Gen Y: 'I have no idea why there is so much hype, but some of my friends just laugh it off as a joke.' The girl in question, a 20-year-old engineering student, said in her blog that she was 'ultimate grossed out' and 'traumatised'.
She also said: 'I think I'm on the verge of going berserk. But no point. Trying to think creatively about capitalising on my current fame. Merchandise?'
In her latest posting, she said she has removed the comments that others have posted on her blog.
'Too blown up,' she said.
There were rumours that she complained to the university about the lecturer who helped Gary plan the surprise, and that it had issued him a warning.
But she refuted this on her blog, and NUS has also confirmed that no warning has been sent out.
Gary said he got to know the girl through mutual friends and that she had made a deep impression on him because he liked her smile.
The idea of openly declaring his feelings crossed his mind 'a few times' but it was only after some discussion with his friends that he decided to do it.
'When we were thinking of doing it, we weren't thinking of the consequences,' he said.
His friends pointed out a 'nice lecturer' who could help out, and Gary asked Associate Professor Victor Tan for permission to spring his surprise during a break in the lecture.
Said Dr Tan: 'He came across as being sincere, and it was a well-intended gesture without offending the female student, so I agreed to his request.'
So when the time came, he told his class that he wanted to tell them a story about a boy liking a girl and flashed a PowerPoint slide, which asked the girl to hold Gary's hand.
Gary then appeared, went to her seat and gave her a bouquet of red and orange hibiscus flowers. (haha why hibiscus? :p)
The room erupted in cheers and applause, and the lecturer told the students to 'leave them alone'.
Gary, who had not dropped any hints to the girl before that he liked her, said: 'I was only hoping that she would accept my flowers.'
She did, and even gave him her mobile phone number, but later that night, her blog told a different story.
The girl, who declined to be interviewed, said on the blog she was embarrassed by the attention but was glad that her friends had stuck by her.
Some people think she is making a mountain out of a molehill.
Undergraduate Tan Ying Zhen, 22, said: 'It's just a guy professing his love for the girl he likes so what's the big deal?'
An American who read the girl's blog left this comment: 'Really, just grow up. There are far more mature ways to deal with this.'
Others thought Gary was foolhardy.
Undergraduate Ow Yong Hong, 21, who witnessed the incident, said: 'I think it's brave of the guy but it's stupid because it's not as if the two of them are nearly going to be together already.'
Added fellow engineering undergraduate Lim Ziqi, 21: 'I think it's rubbish. That moment of 'brilliance' made the girl pretty freaked out.'
Counsellors were not surprised by the amount of talk generated.
'People may like to follow books and movies and think that such public declarations are widely accepted, but it is not so in the Asian context,' said Dr Brian Yeo, consultant psychiatrist at Mount Elizabeth Hospital.
'It is better to take things step by step and know the girl better in the group setting first.'
But Gary said he has no regrets.
'It just felt like the right thing to do at that point of time and I never regret any decisions I make,' he said.
He still thinks he may get the girl and added: 'I may give her a call when things cool down.'
Embarrassing or endearing?
'I would be freaked out and totally embarrassed.'- LINUS CHAN, 16, Secondary 4 student
'I would be touched because it would take a lot for a guy to do something like that...'
- SALLY LEE, 19, undergraduate
'I would ignore him and then put the matter aside.'
- JASON CHUA, 18, JC student
'I would be flattered that he mustered up the courage to do that in front of hundreds of people, but also a little embarrassed...'
- CATHERINE LOW, 22, undergraduate in Britain

Checked out my blog sitemeter just now.. n noticed that there r a lot of ppl arriving at my blog by Google, Yahoo or Alta Vista search engines.. guess wat they were searching for? .. take a look yerself..

Last 20 Keywords:
cui wen MA1506 (Google)
cui wen NUS lecture (Google)
NUS Love Declaration during lecture video clip (Google)
nus lecture romance (Google)
article on nus lecture professing love (Google)
cui wen ma1506 (Google)
blog love declaration in NUS lecture (Google)
NUS + MA1506 (Yahoo)
proposal nus lecture theatre video (Google)
nus MA1506 (Google)
nus courtship blog (Google)
nus lecture surprise blog (Google)
nus lecture proposal (Google)
lecture proposal NUS (Google)
nus lecture proposal video (Google)
NUS lecture (Google)
nus courageous love declaration (Google)
nus lecture clip (Yahoo)
NUS romance lecturer (Google)

hmm.. interesting.. anyway just came back from our outing to Vaxholm.. one of the islands in the Stockholm archipelago.. very nice place.. a refreshing visit away from the bustling Stockholm city.. will be updating soon with pictures..

Image Processing tutorial n Asian BBQ!!

2005-04-08T08:17:00.000+02:00

There was a early Image Processing tutorial at 10am... i chose a pretty nice spot when i reached the classroom.. one with a very big window looking out to a nice tree n a nice sky..

a perfect place to daydream n drift away if the lesson gets too boring.. haha
took some pictures of the class..

every classroom in KTH has four sliding whiteboards or blackboards.. so that the teacher need not erase everything to make space for his next writings.. pretty efficient.. n for those classrooms with a chalkboard.. there would be a cabinet for them to wash their hands of chalk when they r done.. but this classroom doesnt since no chalk is involved..

Me "hard" at work in the tutorial class...

This freaking course txtbk that i tok abt in my previous blog post costs 650kr (abt 160 Sing dollars) in the sch bookshop.. but when my gf checked out the prices of the same txtbk for me in Singapore.. it costs just 38 Sing dollars!! (abt 5 times cheaper!!) wah.. my gf will be shipping LL n my books over together with the library bks that the 4 of us so stupidly lost on our trip last Easter.. hopefully, we will be able to sell the txtbk after we have used it.. haha even if i sell it for 400 kr (100 Sing dollars) i will still make a profit of abt 40 dollars after factoring in the shipping costs.. :P

after the lesson, LL n I went to the student room, Elektro to have our lunch... we bought some cheap pizza from the fridge.. abt 19kr i tink.. remember my previous blog post abt this room?.. take a look here if u dont..Elektro

We heated up the pizzas at the kitchen microwave..

We were tempted to try another snack in the fridge so we paid n took it out to the heated b4 digging in... tastes pretty good

After this "sumptous" meal, we proceeded to the library where we used the computer there to pass time b4 going for the Asian BBQ at 4pm.. i was tinking why would anyone do a BBQ at 4pm.. i guess i m too used to BBQ-ing at nite in Singapore.. n BBQ in the open during a rather cold Spring.. well thats a first for me too..

It was a pretty unique experience.. Spring isnt getting any warmer.. the temperature range is around 7 degrees that day.. haha not really the appropriate temperature to BBQ outside.. it was freezing.. its ok to walk abt in this temperature but definitely not staying at one spot waiting for your food.. n the wind is terrible n strong...
THe food..

Each of us paid 40 kr (10 Sing dollars) for this BBQ.. it was a pretty alrite price considering how expensive meat is in Sweden.. i heard from Eric, one of the organisers, that they bought abt 800 kr of food.. thats a lot..
Some Korean ladies, there could be gers of other nationality inside this pic but i m not very sure..

The mostly SIngaporean clique..

basically we were sort of in our own cliques.. because there were 3 places available to BBQ food.. ours is a portable BBQ pit.. n the fire is not very strong.. so it took quite some time.. our group consists of mostly Singaporeans, Malaysian and some Chinese n Taiwanese.. so we spoke Mandarian most of the time.. one of the other clique where the fire is much stronger spoke mostly Japanese or Korean.. haha interesting..
THe Chinese speaking BBQ pit.. haha

THis is the first BBQ i have been where:
- i ate rice using a plastic cup.. Ian, one of the orgainsers, say to bring our own utensils for this BBQ.. i m too lazy to go to LL's corridor kitchen to get the utensils so we improvise by using our plastic cup to scoop up rice n eat by pouring it down our mouth as well as drink fruit punch n Coke with it..
- i see everyone gathering around the BBQ pit at all times instead of sitting n lazing around waiting for food... i guess in such a cold weather, its best to be near the fire..
- i felt so super cold.. with the cold wind blowing.. n my nose dripping n my hands close to the fire..
- we all encountered a drunk Swedish guy who tried to fool us by keep saying he was a student here.. n tried to take some of our food.. he tried to pay us a measly 3 kr but we rejected him.. he was pretty crazy, kept toking abt some nuclear holocaust.. we ignored him n some nice Japanese guy tried toking to him for most of the time until he left.. we heard that Jap guy even gave him some money... he chose the wrong BBQ to mix in.. this is an Asian BBQ n he doesnt look a bit Asian at all..

well.. after the BBQ, LL, dom n I went to SC's place where we watched Constantine.. a pretty confusing but interesting movie.. it feels as complicated as the Matrix to me.. i guess the reason why i tink of Matrix is becos Keanu Reeves is the main actor in Constantine as well.. by the time it ended, it was already near 12mn.. i took the bus back to my place n reached at around 1am..

Tiring Day.. Slingshot Swedish Movie

2005-04-07T19:39:00.000+02:00

Took the Swedish Culture class today at 5pm.. first hour was a super duper boring lecture which i couldnt really bother to listen n understand.. its abt the Swedish model of politics... how the trade unions, capitalist big companies n the govt made some form of a deal in the 1930s to keep the country in stability.. the trade unions will agree to rally their workers to vote the Social Democrats (one of the political parties in Sweden n the one in power during the deal) into the govt for the next few years n the capitalist companies will also support the govt.. the trade unions will not arrange too many strikes or demonstrations against the capitalist companies employing their members while the capitalist companies will have a favorable pay scheme for the workers.. the govt in return will grant these 2 parties concessions in terms of workers' welfare n lower tax rate for the capitalist companies.. this triangle r/s seem to work fine in theory but the problems r that the trade unions represent mostly metal working men (which is the biggest industry then) n the capitalist companies r really major ones.. thus those small n medium size companies get left out of this deal n their employees do not really enjpy favorable concessions from the govt.. this model finally faded away in the 1960s with the big companies going international.. as a result, the dreaded issue of outsourcing occurs n the special r/s bet. companies n trade unions come into conflict.. n that spells the end of this triangle r/s..

there seems to be attempts at achieving a newer Swedish model.. but it takes time.. yah i tink i remembered all these parts.. haha to tink back, actually not bad of me to remember so much..

after this boring lecture, we moved on to our smaller groups to our seminars where we discussed stuff more in detail.. the seminar was a joke as there r 3 groups, A ,B and C in each seminar team.. but the average attendance of each group is abt 2 out of 5 so in the end, we were divided into 2 smaller groups of 3 to discuss.. pretty boring as well..

after this seminar, we proceeded next to see a Swedish movie, Slingshot..

This cover picture is from one of the scene of the movie.. Roland, the boy in the pic is looking up the skirt of a ger with a lit matchstick.. This ger, lets boys look up her skirt for some money.. Roland earned some money to buy his bike but however was told that it was sold.. he then decided to spend his money on that ger instead as he was pretty curious abt wats under the skirt.. when he first went in, he said he cant see a thing, the ger passed his a matchstick n warned him against burning her.. haha.. of course the show is not just abt this but this is one of the funny scenes in the movie..

It was a pretty good movie.. very interesting.. Synopsis as below.. if there is a chance, one shld watch it.. of course with English subtitles..

Ake Sandgren's "The Slingshot" is a moving, poignant film. Set in Stockholm in the 1920's, Sandgren envelopes us into the world of a twelve year old boy, struggling to find his own way in the world. With his Jewish Mother and Socialist Father, life is not easy, but with a little help from his imagination, turns - what to an adult is taboo - into a slingshot. This is touching, moving, poignant, melancholic, happy and humourous. Ake Sandgren takes us away from ourselves and a glimpse back on childhood, and the relentless ache of growing. Sandgren uses some delightful details and a sophisticated use of imagery.

The movie title "Slingshot" came from the condom slingshots that Roland was making from condoms he took from his mum who was selling them illegally to other women.. it was banned under Swedish law to use condoms during the 1930s..

yah thats all for the movie.. by the time, all this ended, its abt 9pm liao.. by the time i reach home, its pretty late.. tiring..

Interesting article on NUSSU Hooked..

2005-04-06T13:20:00.000+02:00

Well forgot to check the course website of one of my modules.. turns out there is a lecture at 10am today.. i thot it was on Friday as it usually was.. nvm.. :p

Received an email from the lecturer from another module at 11am then the lecture scheduled at 3pm will be cancelled.. good good..

Well.. came by this interesting article found in the NUSSU E-magazine, Hooked.. seems pretty related to the recent NUS lecture proposal saga..

Dear Miss-Know-It-All,

Do you know the feeling when you really like someone but you’re too much of a wuss to do anything about it? Well that about sums up the way I’ve been feeling this whole semester. There’s this chick in my lecture that I totally dig. She’s pretty and her dressing’s way hot. I so want to ask her out or even talk to her. But I can’t seem to pluck up any courage whatsoever when I’m around her. I don’t even think she knows I exist! What do you suppose I do? Do you think I should just go up and ask her out? Or come up with some lame pick-up line maybe? Or should I just talk to her, start it off as friends? I don’t know what to do! And I don’t think I have the guts to anyway. Is there some other way? Maybe an e-mail or is that too psycho-stalker style? In fact, I’ve heard about some guys declaring their feelings in lectures like after their presentation and stuff or pakat with the lecturer. Should I try that? Do you think that’ll work?

Unloved

Dear Unloved,

Your last option of trying out what I call ‘lecture theatre proposals’ is frightening and sad, to think that NUS guys have got it so wrong in getting us girls. While we appreciate that you are trying to be unique, I must say it borders on being humiliating for both parties.
Firstly, let Miss Know-It-All share a story I heard directly from my friend, who was in the lecture theatre and is a friend of the one who received one of these ‘lecture theatre proposals’ (*grin, you get the picture!). It’s a true tale and very scandalous! Well, okay… More disastrous than scandalous.
Miss Purple Sweater (name changed for *duh reasons) is a pretty business school student who (unfortunately) caught the eye of a guy who pretty much thinks like you do on the ways of female courtship.
After his presentation, this romantic Romeo (a year 4 arts student) gushes his liking for a girl in a purple sweater telling her that he really likes her dressing and that he hopes to get to know her better and requests to take her out to lunch (after the lecture presumably). The little downfall to this pretty full-proof plan would probably be the fact that
a) He didn’t care to mention this to the lecturer, who in typical Singaporean-old-school fashion reprimanded the poor Romeo and in addition to that took down his and the girl’s name down (for what we have no idea!)
b) The poor girl was so taken by surprise and shocked and devastated by the suddenness of things (and not to mention the horrible humiliation) by this, -- did I mention sudden? very impulsive professing of liking to her plus the fact that she somehow inadvertently gets into trouble with the lecturer for no apparent reason and not to mention gets a whole new level of popularity (and sympathy) that is entirely unwanted!
So it wasn’t really quite surprising that the girl rejected him and if she could, would choose to never come to school anymore or would have at that moment, preferred to have a paper bag over her head.

Later on the same day, during an engineering lecturer, some science guy decided to declare his affections on power point as well, and even got the lecturer to make a speech on his behalf. Needless to say, the poor girl was mortified by the sudden unwanted attention. Miss Know-It-All even got to speak to this lecturer to kay po a bit. The lecturer said that he didn’t expect for this to go so far and sounded regretful that he let it happen.
You see, it did no good. Both girls rejected the guys (they’re nice girls, but you can’t force them to want you just because you made a grand gesture of ‘lecture theatre romance’).
So, what can we learn from these two incidents?

1) DO NOT, I repeat, DO NOT TRY THIS AGAIN unless you thrive on getting rejected publicly and in some sick, masochistic way like to see someone cringe and traumatized by your declaration of love.
2) Even with the help of your lecturers, it’s no sure route to success.
3) Try smaller steps than grand gestures.
4) Be yourself. If you’re shy and can’t go up to her/him, going about it in the exact opposite way is not going to help!

So dear ‘Unloved’, clearly you’re not the only one out there who’s trying to get that girl. I hope you really don’t try this stunt of being Mr. Romeo because it’s tried and tested and the current rate of success is one big fat zero, nada, zilch geddit? Instead of publicly humiliating yourself and the girl, the best way to go is personally and from the heart. Girls can’t bear to say no to a sweetie who’s sincere. But don’t be too intense all she’ll just think you’re psycho.
You must be thinking, "don’t girls want elaborate, on the spur, spontaneous gestures?" Well as much as they may be flattering, they’re only for show and are clearly superficial. In fact if you do get the girl that way, it just goes to show that she’s into getting all the attention and likes her ego being inflated. So, if you really like her, save the grand gestures for when you do get her and surprise her with your spontaneity when you’re together, but for now, stick to no-frills methods and you’re sure to clinch her (we hope)!

First lesson of Period 4: Image Processing

2005-04-04T10:12:00.000+02:00

Got up pretty early for my first lesson in KTH for Period 4..
Lecturer was pretty boring but the subject is interesting..

He showed us some optical illusions.. interesting..
Optical Illusion 1:
R the Red Lines in the picture on the left straight?
Optical Illusion 2:
What do u see in the picture on the right..

This stupid course txtbk costs 650kr.. (over 150 Sing bucks).. i tink this bk would cost at most 50 dollars at most in Singapore

Dinner for today... (tabao-ed from DS place..) nice chapati n chicken patti n some vege..

Some more pics of the dinner at Irene's place yesterday.. (haha u actually get to see the delicious food in these pics)

Wont be going much for the next few days.. sch starts liaoz.. haha n lazy to plan next trip.. see if any idea for a trip crops up, then we will get going..
a bit strange though, last period was the cold winter n its the worst time to go out but we went everywhere.. this period is the warm spring, ideal period to get out of the house but i felt rather lazy to get out (must be due to travel fatigue)..

so wont be much exciting pics for the coming blog entries.. maybe food stuff.. haha
but still can check out my past blog entries with regards to my Euro trip.. still updating now.. 20% done.. (4 days of travelling in Paris updated)

Nice Dinner at Irene n JiaKai place..

2005-04-03T23:50:00.000+02:00

hmm.. been rather busy procrastinating n at times updating my blog of my Euro trip the past Easter holiday.. did some grocery shopping some days back.. bought quite a lot of stuff..

2 onions.. (the rest r all rotten or dont noe wat lah.. these 2 looked the best..)
3 Multi vitamin juice.. (ITS 3 for 10 kroners!! thats abt 2.50 Sing dollars.. Cheap!!)
a very big slab of butter!.. can last til august.. good enuff for me.. but its whute butter.. shld be the same lah hor..
big slab of cheese.. i tried this b4 n it was good n the cheapest..
n finally 20 eggs that will last til 14th April.. haha n that means i have to finsih them asap.. maybe 1 per day.. (omelette uses 2 eggs.. )quite cheap as well.. 1 egg for 1 kroners (0.40 Sing cents) not very cheap compared to Singapore but this is the cheapest here liao..
n all these just for 71 kroners.. (less than 20 Sing bucks..) i tink thats all the groceries i need for the period til i leave for Singapore.. except the eggs lah..
Meat i bought a lot in London.. 1kg of bacon n 2.5kg of chicken..(total of abt 15 Sing bucks) very cheap compared to meat here in Sweden..
Nice.. my fridge is fully stocked now.. good..

The sun is setting at a much later time compared to when i first arrived..

the picture above shows the amt of sunlight we get at 7pm.. previously when i just arrived, it sets at abt 3pm.. haha n according to locals.. the sun is gonna set at 10pm n gets up at 1am in summer.. cool..

anyway now Singapore time is just 6 hours away from Stockholm time instead of 7 previously.. thks to Daylight Savings Time (DST)..

Some reasons why we have DST:
One of the biggest reasons we change our clocks to Daylight Saving Time (DST) is that it saves energy. Energy use and the demand for electricity for lighting our homes is directly connected to when we go to bed and when we get up. Bedtime for most of us is late evening through the year. When we go to bed, we turn off the lights and TV.
In the average home, 25 percent of all the electricity we use is for lighting and small appliances, such as TVs, VCRs and stereos. A good percentage of energy consumed by lighting and appliances occurs in the evening when families are home. By moving the clock ahead one hour, we can cut the amount of electricity we consume each day.

Daylight Saving Time "makes" the sun "set" one hour later and therefore reduces the period between sunset and bedtime by one hour. This means that less electricity would be used for lighting and appliances late in the day.

We also use less electricity because we are home fewer hours during the "longer" days of spring and summer. Most people plan outdoor activities in the extra daylight hours. When we are not at home, we don't turn on the appliances and lights.

In the winter, the afternoon Daylight Saving Time advantage is offset by the morning's need for more lighting. In spring and fall, the advantage is less than one hour. So, Daylight Saving Time saves energy for lighting in all seasons of the year except for the four darkest months of the year (November, December, January and February) when the afternoon advantage is offset by the need for lighting because of late sunrise.

In most of the countries of western Europe, including the countries that are members of the EU, Daylight Saving Time:

begins at 1 a.m. GMT on the last Sunday of March and
ends at 1 a.m. GMT on the last Sunday of October

Spring is coming or rather its spring now.. daytime temperature is around a comfortable 14 degree celsius compared to the crazy -5 or -8 degree celsius that we had in winter.. but the nights r still rather cold.. haha ..
Today for the first time since i m in Europe, i didnt wear my thermal pants (just my pair of jeans) when i went to Vastra Skogen where Irene n Jiakai(JK) were having a gathering.. it felt cold but it was alrite..

We had dinner with Angie (Irene's friend) who came all the way up here from Lund in South Sweden.. we had a nice meal of curry chicken n some veggie n there r even desserts.. nice..

well. this picture SC is supposed to take of me with the dessert n the gers around me but aiyah he missed that.. but its still fine.. haha

haha Mean Gers!!.. trying to punch me!!

Had a very full n good dinner at DS's place yesterday nite.. tabao some back for dinner as well.. maybe will heat them up for tomolo's dinner.. haha

so many things to say abt my Europe trip during Easter but rather lazy to update.. now just done abt 10% of my trip.. 2 out of 21 days done.. 90% more to go..

Starting sch again tomolo.. a new period.. classes start at 10am for Image Processing.. ok hopefully this period.. i learn more things from sch (too slack; learnt a lot but thru my travelling around).. but also travel around at the same time
Dom went back n calculated the number of days we travelled around last period.. My touring days for the last 3 months are a whopping 33 DAYS!!

Home Swede Home... Interesting Video Clip... hmmm.

2005-03-31T18:12:00.000+02:00

Woah!... i cant believe it myself.. i had been on the road for 20 days straight from 11th March til 30th March.. went to Paris, Berlin, Lepizig, Munich, (border town of Austria), Prague, Dresden and London.. experienced all kinds of funny experiences.. some good, some bad... all these will be coming up in my blog.. together with my Amsterdam trip..

wow, note all the junk mail piled up at my door when i came back..

just will be chilling out for this weekend (n updating blog at the same time).. meanwhile, haha, take a look at this short video clip, who says National University of Singapore Engineering lectures are boring.. haha yah most r boring.. but this one does have smt interesting in it.. true incident.. happened recently n everyone in NUS is toking abt it..

this happened during one of the Maths (MA1506) lecture.. view the clip from the link below.. virus free.. dont worry haha.. if u wished to share this video clip link via yer blog or website, pls link back to me.. thks.. hehee.. i figured why not capitalise on this video clip.. haha

Click here to watch 'NUS MA1506 lecture'

i heard from my gf that there seem to be no happy ending for this guy.. the ger, Cui Wen, doesnt even noe that guy in the first place.. very daring guy though i would say a bit foolish though.. shld have taken it slow n easy.. DO such a stunt when yer confidence level of getting the ger is above 90%.. haha see see.. now u dont get the ger n the whole world(thks to me.. at first only NUS students but now i have distributed the clip on the net) is watching n laughing..

Day 10: Goodbye Munich, Hello Prague!!

2005-03-21T01:04:00.000+01:00

Woke up early in the morning so that we could set off for our 5 hour drive to Prague..
Edgar's room... the 4 of us Singaporean + Edgar + Alvis managed to squeeze into this room.. the 4 of us slept on the floor while Edgar and ALvis share the bed...

The common kitchen.. which is shared by 2 other ppl in separate room..

The French restaurant which Edgar is working in at nite.. its just below his apartment.. In Sunday almost every shop in Munich is closed.. even supermarkets..

Our luggages..

We drove to the Munich market to get some breakfast.. haha but we were tempted by the sight of pork knuckles... n its only 3+ Euro!!.. ahh must eat again.. wah i will die young if i live here.. pork knuckles n beer everyday..

We even shot a video of us eating the pork knuckle..its so crunchy that u could hear the crunch.. Videos could be found in the sidebar of this blog...
The layer of fat in the skin.. bo chap!! just eat!!

No more liao..

We tallied up the number of pork knuckles we ate during the few days we r in Munich.. i topped the list with 3 and a half pork knuckles!! .. the half is becos i m sharing the pork knuckle with SC on the drive to prague from munich..

German - Czech checkpoint...

The cars in front of us were allowed to pass thru very quickly i tink becos of Czech citizens or regular visitors.. but ours took a long time to process.. the Czech immigration officer seem to have never seen a Singaporean passport.. finally after 15min or so.. our passport were stamped n we were allowed thru..

Money changers (very high commission charged!!) but bo bian.. we have to buy a Czech highway sticker thingy to paste on our windscreen..

Toilets at the checkpoint.. 0.30 Euro which is abt 60 cents Sing for peeing!! luckily one of the door is unlocked.. so we got in to settle our business haha

Prague (Praha in Czech) is divided into 10 or more districts.. Central Praha is located in Prague 1.. but becos its divided into so many zones, driving is super difficult there.. lots of one way street, so once we took a wrong turn, thats it.. have to find another way back cos we cant U-turn.. Czech road signs made our journey worst.. after driving for an hour or so in Prague n not getting to Prague 1 which is where we wanna go, we stopped by a petrol station to buy a Prague Map n asked for directions.. finally after another 20 min drive we were able to reach it.. we found some secluded place to illegal park our car.. n we walked to the city centre..

Along the Vltava river, we walked to Stare Mesto, the old town..

Nice sights.. Prague castle in the background..

Birds..

Crystals and Dolls that could be stacked together.. - Czech speciality goods..

This is nice.. the sunset with airplanes flying off, creating white streams..

SC with the Czech tram

Market place in Stare Mesto

We walked around town for a bit.. taking in the sights of Prague.. we passed by this long limoseuine.. 200 Girls per nite!! i tink this car is some advertisement for some cabaret show in Prague..

We went around looking for cheap places to eat in for dinner... "Lived like a King in Prague" ?!?!? BULLSHIT!! the prices r so damn high in the city.. maybe its too commercialised by all the tourism around..
Finally we settled at this restaurant.. pretty reasonable prices..

i tried the Old Czech Special.. supposedly Czech food.. abt 6 Singapore dollars... it was TERRIBLE.. the worst food i had so far in my tour.. the meat wasnt very good.. the rice dumplings tasted much worse .. little or no taste at all..

SC ordered the ostrich meat with bread toasts.. altho rather small serving.. but it was SUPERB!! abt 7+ Sing dollars..

We ordered some soup as well..

The restaurant..

haha look at the dog on the wall.. it seems to have a fifth leg..

the toilets in this restaurant is pretty confusing.. how m i supposed to tell which one is for male or female..

A closer look at the doors..

The left one is for guys n the right one is for gals.. Dom suggested that if u remove the 2 "wings" (which r the one with jagged edges) for the symbol on the door, u will see smt which looks very familiar to the male organ.. haha.. likewise, for the symbol on the right door.. haha
The atmosphere in the restaurant with its low lighting.. makes it rather nice to take some photos.. SC experimenting with the drug addict look in Black n White.. no no he isnt smoking.. he just rolled up some toothpicks..

Our Clown n Bard hostel in Prague 3 district..
haha this look like a concentration camp... haha there r even beds in the attic up there..

yah thats all for today!!

Day 9: Neuschwanstein Castle (Sucks!!), Dachau Concentration Camps, Sinful Dinner again!!

2005-03-20T21:45:00.000+01:00

We drove off from Edgar's place towards Neuschwanstein Castle.. it took us abt 2 hrs..

This is King Ludwig's magnificent and most famous castle, built in the neo-late romanesque style. With its turrets and mock-medievalism, its interior styles ranging from Byzantine through Romanesque to Gothic its a real fairy-tale fantasy come true. It was built between 1869 and 1886 for the Bavarian King Ludwig. A splendid and imaginative "fairy-tale castle" high above the Alpsee lake with the Alps towering above it.Only about a third of the building was actually completed. The 15 rooms you see on the tour show astonishing craftsmanship and richness of detail. Woodcarving in Ludwig's bedroom took 14 carpenters 4 1/2 years to complete. Wagner's operas feature everywhere in the form of murals.

This is wat its supposed to look like.. very nice rite?

However when we reached, it was super cloudy.. this is wat we see instead..

Spot the castle among all the fog..

We were informed that its a 40 minute walk up to the castle as it is situated on top of a mountain... n a horse carriage ride is also available but it costs 5 Euros to go up n 2.50 Euros to get down.. rather ex.. there is also a shuttle bus service which costs 1.80 euro to go up n 1 euro to come down.. a return ticket is 2.60 euro..

The picture below shows the Hohenschwangau Castle.. again money money money.. it costs quite a lot to go as well.. also it takes 20 min supposedly by foot to get up there.. Thus we decided to concentrate on the Neuschwanstein castle

Remember to buy your tickets before going up to the castle or else u will feel like a stupid idiot, climbing all the way up n then having to come down to buy tickets n go up again.. haha.. nah we didnt do that..

Ppl queuing up for the horse carriage..

We realised we still have an hour plus before our tour starts.. when u buy the ticket, its for a guided tour n u have to arrive on time or else yer ticket will be invalid.. we did our calculations.. it takes abt 40 min to walk all the way according to the brochure.. maybe there is a way to bash our way up the route with our car.. haha being just too lazy to climb up, we decided to drive up following a route that we tink we take us to Marien bridge, where accoridng to the brochure, it takes 15 min to walk to the castle.. we drove on up the Alps mountain pass. there was a sort of road just good enuff for a car to drive on.. we even thot of possibly making money out of this, from marien bridge, we could pick up ppl who wanna go down the mountain for abt 2 euros n then we drive ppl from below up to the bridge for abt 3 euros.. still much cheaper than the stupid horse carriages.. haha

we drove for quite some time in the woods..at times the roads r really narrow.. we start to wonder if we took the rite route.. we passed by smt like a checkpoint with the barrier raised.. we thot that was the entry for the shuttle bus, so we assume we r on the rite path.. n since there is no bus today due to snow n frost on the road, we wont risk being sandwiched between 2 buses, one incoming n one outgoing.. haha we drove on, feeling rather confident.. finally, we got out of the mountains onto ground level.. we felt strange, aint we supposed to end up on some bridge or somewhere higher?.. haha we saw someone driving by n asked him for directions.. to my surprise, the guy spoke rather good English, i was expecting some problems communicating with a German considering the number of Germans we spoke to that dont speak English.. we were told to go back up the mountain.. i guess we miss a turn or smt..

haha so we drove back up the mountain.. back along the same route,looking out for any signposts to turn to the bridge.. but there seems to be none.. we saw the checkpoint like thingy in the distance, we noe we r going on the route straight back to where we started.. sigh i guess we have to walk up.. There was a rather large sign near the checkpoint that says "Welcome to Österreich", oh my god, the checkpoint we encountered was an actual border checkpoint n we had crossed into Austria from Germany unknowningly n we had spoken to an Austrian guy just now.. this is one of the famous mountain pass that ppl used to cross the Alps few hundred years ago.. luckily there wasnt any soldier manning the border or we would have been shot for driving straight pass it w/o stopping... haha i guess being in the EU, Austria n Germany had opened up the border to each other..

well too bad, we drove back n illegally parked in the car park only for the hotel residents.. parking elsewhere was pretty ex n its free here.. we proceeded to climb the slope to the castle.. we have abt 30 minutes left b4 our tour starts..

Horses carriages climbing the steep slope up..

As we walked up, we overtook several horse carriages.. the horse carriages r pretty slow... i guess the horses r tired, going up n down with carriage load of ppl (abt 8-10 ppl per carriage) u can see the horse foaming at their mouth.. n shitting along the road up.. along the road up to the castle, horse shit n horse saliva are everywhere.. pretty disgusting..

One of the poor horses hard at work..

As we go further, visibility decreases due to the thick fog..

Finally after abt 20 min walk, we managed to reach the castle, taking less than half the time mentioned in the brochure.. good exercise though..
still very foggy...

damn stupid castle.. so foggy.. only guided tours allowed.. souvenoir shops everywhere ready to rip off tourists n most irritating of all, no photography or video filming allowed.. for photography, i understand why, maybe the flash will damaged the stuff inside.. but for video filming, i dont understand why not.. i guess the main reason for not allowing both is that ppl will take pictures n videos to show other ppl n they worry tourist attendance here will drop.. its a way too commercialised place.. the guide for the guided tour spoke a heavily accented English.. smt cant make out wat the hell she is toking abt.. the castle wasnt very impressive.. i guess after being to Versailles palace, nothing can compare liao.. basically this castle was built for a king Ludwig who is pretty obsessed with swans.. some rooms have lots of swans for deco.. esp one room where according to teh guide, one could spot hundreds of swans or swan like things in the furniture and wall drawings n door knobs, cupboard designs.. basically everything.. the interior of the castle was a dissapointment, the guide was pretty bad.. yah the whole castle sucks.. i tink the only nice part is if u view it from the outside.. but today is way too foggy to appreciate the beauty.. best place to see the exterior of the castle is from Marien bridge which we tried to go but failed...

A model of the castle, thats all the pic i took of the castle inside...

Very dissapointed wih this castle, we walked back down to our car, smelling horse shit n saliva along the way... haha.. we decided to try driving up the road to MArien Bridge to take a look of teh castle from there.. this time we took the correct route.. realising how much we have gone away from the main route.. haha however, when we reached the bridge, it was closed.. due to bad weather.. arrrghh..

we decided to drive back to Munich, Dachau.. There is a concentration camp located in Dachau n since dom had not had the chance to see a concentration camp yet.. so we drove over there loh..

some black n white shots of the camp taken by SC..

Pretty much the same conditions the inmates undergo in Sachchenhausen, the camp SC, LL n me went to earlier in Berlin

A depressing path between rows of trees.. by the trees stood many inmate barracks.. all demolished now..

The parade square..

After this, we went back to Munich to look for some place we can have dinner..
Along the way ,we pass by this major demonstrations.. they seem to want someone freed from prison.. dont understand, dont care n stomach growling, we proceeded to the restaurant where we had dinner in teh first nite..

I ordered beer and PORK KNUCKLES.. they look way too good to not eat.. haha

The 3 of us guys ordered Pork Knuckles while LL ordered some other food..

i cleared my plate, leaving nothing left while SC was conciously trying to get rid of the fat udnerneath the skin.. this is wat is left on his plate.. all the fats.. n he says this is only half of wat he cleared.. the other half of all the fat, he ate it.. oh my god, doesnt that means i ate this much of fat times 2.. haha..
Beer count so far for me: 2 Litres.. in less than 36 hours.. haha

really really sinful meal.. we proceeded back home after dinner.. Edgar n Alvis rented a movie, the Mexican.. which i slept from the beginning.. too tired.. i woke up during the period when teh credits were rolling.. haha

Edgar gave LL this scarf.. he was working for this advertising firm n he often gets free stuff like mugs n scarf from the companies that they r working with.. this scarf is from O2 the mobile phone company...

Day 8: Munich.. fun!! .. Warning: Graphic Images in this Post..

2005-03-19T14:50:00.000+01:00

Alvis's friends decided to take us for a short city walk today.. we bought a group ticket for usage on the U-Bahn.. i tink is 15 euros for a group of 5 ppl tickets..

This sign means that there is a U-Bahn station below.. The public transport system of Munich is pretty much the same as that of Berlin.. the U-Bahn is like the MRT of Singapore.. n S-Bahn r trains that go father outskirts..

Entrance to the Odeonplatz station..

Old Town Hall in Munich.. At 5pm and 9pm each day, the clock at the top of the town hall will chime n the figures n statues will move abt.. there is one time when everyone saw the statues "fight".. one of the figurines actually stab at another figurine.. according to the Lonely Planet guidebook, some bronze figures will also dance abt on top of the tower ..

Posing with a statue of a wild boar..

Beate Ushe.. according to Edgar, this chain of sex shops is named after a famous porn star.. this sex shops sell anything n everything.. haha cool..

We walked to a popular food market in Munich.. it sells all kinds of food..
Pretzels.. a typical Bavarian food.. Germany is divided into a number of regions.. Bavaria is located in Southern Germany n it includes cities such as Munich.. each region has its own unique food n customs..

Cheese shop..

Meat shops..

Dog Food for sale or Dog Meat for sale.. i cant read German.. maybe someone could enlighten me.. i dont tink is Dog Meat.. haha the Germans will be outraged.. considering the reaction by the Ang Mohs to the Chinese eating dog meat..

Honey..

Vegetables..

Seafood..

Interesting picture.. looks like LL is tinking "Fish? So wat?"

This is made up entirely of chocolate..

We proceeded next to a beer hall.. Bavarian ppl seem to be able to drink beer for the entire day... there r beer halls with lots of tables for ppl to order beer.. we went to one to check it out..

It was super crowded with ppl.. we took some time to find an available table with enuff seating for 6 ppl..

Bring it on!! We r ready for our Beers

The table we chose happened to be occupied once by a German King.. haha

The atmosphere in this beer hall is very nice n cool.. there is even a live band playing..

Us with our 1 Litre of beer..
Update on amt of beer drunk so far: 1.5 Litre... in less than 24 hrs

I ordered a Radler.. a kind of beer with some lemonadae.. cant stand the bitter taste of beer..

Now u see it..

Now u dont..

Fooling around.. haha

Pretzel Girl..

Atmosphere in the Beer Hall.. take a look at this video..
Munich Beer Hall
After this beer outing, we proceeded next to the English Garden..
Edgar..

A Munich Mannekin Pis... haha.. remember the little boy peeing statue in Brussels, Belgium?.. Mannekin Pis

First sign of spring..

This patch of grassland serves a very impt function in summer.. Guess what is it? hhaa.. there is a line separating the grass patch.. the line divides the grass patch into 2 concentric circles..

Help mE!!

This notice says that "If u wanna go inside the inner circle of grass patch, u must take off yer clothes, U can keep yer clothes on at the outer circle.." In summer, this grass patch is used by hundreds of ppl to bask in the sunlight nude.. cool,, arrghh came at the wrong time.. must come back to Munich in summer next time..

Warning!! Warning!! Graphic Images coming up...

U r at the outer circle! Alvis! u dont have to strip... haha

3 guys i noe mooning their butts here.. haha for privacy reasons, i shall not name them in case they get harrassed by ppl who like their butts.. haha.. one thing to be sure is that I m not one of them.. haha

After this brief nudity, we proceeded further into the park..
We came by this very Chinese-like beer garden.. a beer garden here is very much like an outdoor beer hall...

A pond in the Garden..

The belongings of homeless ppl.. they gathered around this vent becos hot exhaust air is emitted from there.. keeping them warm in the cold nite..

Cigarette vending machines could be found everywhere in the public..

After this, we split up with Alvis n Edgar.. we proceeded back to the city to look see.. we took a train from this rather deserted train station..

Took some pics around the city..

Post Box..

Telephone booth..

The restuarant where we had dinner last nite..

The U-Bahn n the S-Bahn sign..

The old town hall..

After this short walk around town, we proceeded back to Edgar's place where we chilled out...

Day 7: Lepizig, Munich: Beginnings of a Sinful Lifestyle

2005-03-18T12:01:00.000+01:00

After we left Berlin at abt 7pm last nite, we drove straight to Lepizig.. arrived at the city centre at abt 9pm.. i had already booked a hostel somewhere near Lpeizig.. abt 40 km away.. but no deposit or anything was paid.. so we decided to try our luck looking for an hostel in the city centre so that we could save the fuel to travel all the way down to the hostel that i booked and so that we could explore this city in the morning when we wake up.. but unfortunately there is a book fair going on this few days.. as a result all the hostels n hotels in Lepizig r fully booked.. when i tried to look for hostels online a few days ago, they r already fully booked.. after hours of searching for a cheap place to stay in, we gave up n drove 40km down to Bad Lausick which took us quite some time to find.. we finally checked in at around 1am.. it costs 16.90 euro.. well.. breakfast was included so not bad lah..

The next morning.. this is where we had our breakfast.. pretty good..

This place has all kinds of facilities..

A stone ping pong table

n even an outdoor bowling alley.. haha

our room.. we had this room all to ourselves.. 3 of us in a 4 bed room.. nice..

this is a sink in our room as well.. nice.

After this good nite sleep, we proceeded on to Munich by car.. after like 3 hours of driving.. we decided to stretch our legs..

Enjoying some fresh air

haha LL posing with nature with SC answering Nature's Call in the background.. try to spot him in the background...

Finally we reached Munich.. we arranged previously to meet Dom at the Munich airport at 5pm.. n we arrived exactly at 5pm.. however turns out his flight was delayed for a few hours.. we met up with Alvis, our friend who we will be staying with in Munich.. we will be staying in his friend's place.. after settling in, we decided to walk around Munich n try some German food.. we took some pictures along the way to the city centre..

well.. SC claimed that the church moved in this picture.. thats why it was blur n the ppl(LL n me) were relatively clearer.. ermmm.. ok loh.. haha

After walking around Marianplatz.. the city centre for a while, we settled down in a restaurant.. we ordered some beer..

SC n i ordered some pork knuckles.. LL ordered some chicken meat...

What we ordered...

The pork knuckles is a form of sin.. man.. it was so damn greasy n fatty.. i was so sick after eating it but the meat n the crispy skin is so unbelievable nice.. but its really very very sinful.. somemore i drank 0.5l of beer.. wah.. this is the most sinful meal i had in my life so far...

Some more pictures of the shop.. it was sinful but it was rather cheap.. GOOD!!

Berlin's U-Bahn system is pretty like that of AMsterdam.. u punch in yer ticket yerself when u travel.. us lying on the blue box where ppl r supposed to punch their tickets.. yah we were full n waiting for Dom to meet us here..

Day 6: Berlin: Sachsenhausen Concentration Camp

2005-03-17T09:43:00.000+01:00

Our Hostel: John's Oriental Hostel..

The kitchen where we had our breakfast..

After breakfast, we decided to drive all the way north to the outskirts of Berlin to see the Sachsenhausen concentration camp at Oranienburg.. how can one come to Germany w/o visiting its concentration camps.. It was a very long drive, abt an hour plus again.. The entry to the memorial was free but one could get an audio guide for 3 euros plus a detailed map.. since we r here n i tink we will be lost w/o the audio guide, so why not.. seems pretty good deal.. i left the lady at the counter my driving license as guarantee for our audio guides.. We were told the contents of the audio guide is abt 4 hrs long.. woah..

Camp street : This is the street where the prisoners r escorted to the concentration camp from the S-Bahn station.. the S-Bahn is like the Metro station of Berlin... the SS guards used this public transport to send the prisoners from central Berlin to here.. along the way, the prisoners will pass by the town of Oranieburg where the residents r encouraged to boo n throw things at them.. however after some time, the guards find it too much of a hassle n a waste of time as they were often delayed by the residents' activities.. they decided on another route with a much quieter entry..

THe aerial view of the camp.. (its the triangular shaped structure)

The infamous Tower A.. there r several watchtowers in the camp.. they r all labelled in an alphabetical order starting with this initimidating tower called Tower A.. All prisoners have to pass thru Tower A to enter the camp.. When the camp was first built, Tower A is located such that it has a very good view of the entire camp n a machine gun was mounted on top such that everywhere within the camp is within its firing range.. however, with further expansion of the camp to accomodate more prisoners, Tower A no longer had a centralised location..

The rest of the watchtowers were labelled Tower B, C, D.. n so on.. There is a place called Area Z in the camp.. where executions n cremations were carried out.. so there is this sad saying of that prisoners come in from Tower A and exit at Area Z...

There r a few layers of security to prevent prisoners from escaping.. As can be seen in the pictures below.. there r the remains of an electrified fence n markings indicating the forbidden zone.. if any prisoner were to have any part of their body over the zone, they will be shot at immeidately by the tower guards.. the guards were given bonuses if they managed to shoot anyone crossing the forbidden zone.. life was so miserable here that some of the camp guards would actually encourage the inmates to run towards the fence to end it all..

This is the ground in front of the roll call area where inmates were hanged for major offences.. The "guilty" prisoners will be hanged in front of the entire cohort to serve as a warning..

The very cramped conditions of the camps... the camp often accomodated more than 10 times its original capacity..

The Bathrooms in a prisoners barrack

The storeroom in a prisoners barrack...

The Lavatory in a prisoners barrack

The 3-tier beds..

At one time, when the camp was too overcrowded, the guards removed the beds n got all the prisoners to sleep on the floor.. even when they all slept on the floor, its still very very cramped..its impossible for the prisoners to turn around during their sleep unless everyone turns at the same time.. if any of the prisoners were to get up to the toilet, they may risked losing their place to sleep when they come back..

The exterior of the barracks..

Prisoners' clothes..

The various labels.. red inverted triangle stands for political prisoners.. Jews have another yellow upright triangle superimposed on the red inverted triangle making a Star of David...

Most of the barracks were demoliahed leaving only a few left to hold exhibits of life in the concentration camps.. these stone slabs with numbers labelled on them represent the number of the barracks originally at this position..

The prison cell.. this is the place where inmates who tried escape or did other activities that were deemed bad by the guards were locked up in..

The solitary confinement room where they will be locked up with no light for several days or even weeks or months..

The rest of the prison blocks were demolished as well leaving behind their foundation stones..

The poles where inmates were hung to be beaten up or just forced to stand in the sun and rain..

This is a memorial built for this concentration camps for political prisoners.. Note the Red Inverted Triangles on the memorial.. it means that this memorial commemorates political prisoners n each triangle represents a country where the prisoners came from.. its sad that the memorial takes no notice of prisoners sent here because they were Jews..

Tower E.. This is a tower where ppl could go in n listen to stories of the SS guards n the townpeople around the camp..

The prisoners were sometimes sent to nearby towns to work in factories n they were marched with armed escorts to those areas.. along the way, some Germans may try to help by slipping them some bread or good food.. there is this story of a German woman who tried to help the prisoners by slipping them food n one day suddenly from teh crowd of prisoners, someone threw her this wooden trojka, a form of Russian toy, apparently to thank her for the food.. another story tells of a prisoner who made use of engine oil to draw a painting for the German who helped him.. the picture below shows the trojka n the painting..

Watchtower..

Stone barracks at the other side of the concentration camp..

We went around the camp n explored the other areas.. there was this morgue which felt super chilling.. we entered n felt the cold air n we all walked immediately upon feeling it at the same time.. The weather is also not very good.. windy n cold n drizzling.. very befitting of the environment we r in..

After this visit, we went back to the main building where we loaned our audio guide from.. when i asked to get my driving license whcih i left as guarantee for the audio guides, the stupid lady at the counter couldnt find it.. she misplaced it n we wasted the next half an hour trying to find it.. she kept saying she didnt receive my card.. but she was the one who i passed it to.. she had a file containing all the cards taht were left as guarantee but apparently mine was not there.. it was a while b4 she saw it slotted somewhere on her desk.. stupid woman.. i was worried that she had lost it but at the same time i was planning on how mcuh to ask from her in compensation should she really lose it.. i was tinking 50 euros (abt 100+ Sing dollars) haha enuff to replace my card in Singapore n also some for me to spend.. haha but in the end she found it so too bad loh..

We drove out towards central Berlin from where we will head towards our Lepizig where we had booked a hostel for the nite.. We did some chop chop sightseeing.. we went to take pics with the Victory Column..,

Some ppl will try to wash the windscreen of cars which had stopped at the traffic light.. n then demand a fee for doing so..

The Russian memorial near the Victory column..

The tanks placed at the memorial were one of the first to enter Berlin..

SC's head gonna be crushed by one of the tank

My big gun..

Our car.. pretty small..

We proceeded next to another famous landmark of Berlin.. a bombed out church that had been left as it is as remembrance for WW2..

Its interior..

A new structure built by the side of the bombed out church.. this is where ppl got for their weekly service..

A car billboard advertisement..

We drove next to Potzdamer Platz where we tried to take some pics.. but it rained pretty heavily so we proceeded straight to Lepizig to spend the nite..

Day 5: Berlin.. Berliner Dome, Brockwurst

2005-03-16T22:46:00.000+01:00

Arrived at Berlin Schoefeld airport at around 9am.. we proceeded straight to collect our car which we rented at Budget Car Rental.. At the rental counter, they told us that the standard stuff like insurance n stuff like that.. we could choose to pay 5 euros per day as insurance so that if anything happens, there will be a 200 euro subsidy off damage charges of 700 euro.. doesnt really seem like a good deal.. We r renting the car for 10 days n will be returning back at this airport..

We were informed of countries that our rental car could not go n one of them is Czech Republic.. Oh crap.. they said that our car, an Audi, do not pass security tests in Czech so its not allowed in.. oh man.. i thot our travel plans spoil liaoz.. we were told other cars such as BMW, Volkswagon and Opel could enter the country.. we enquire for a change in car but was told there was none available here.. oh crap.. we just take the car n adopt a see how attitude.. the bridge will be straight in the end mah.. haha

n so our adventure begins on this rental car.. we navigated all the way up to Berlin.. took abt an hour plus.. we went straight to the Reichstag.. this is the German parliement building.. it had quite a history.. was heavily bombed by the Allies during the war..

Entrance to teh Reichstag is free.. but we decided to come another day with Dom.. n the queue is also very long.. Currently just SC, LL n me are travelling.. DOm will join us in Munich.. he is having his exams now..
A very big library beside the Reichstag..

we drove to the street opposite Unter Den Linden where we parked our car n got out for a short walk.. Unter Den Linden is a very famous street in Berlin which starts from the Brandenburg Gate towards the famed Musuem Island.. This entire street is in the East Berlin area during the COld War.. The wall was just outside the Brandenburg Gate..
We walked towards the Brandenburg Gate..There is a tourist office there but its a terrible one.. There are signs everywhere in the office that states all brochures n maps r not free.. first time i see a tourist office like that.. usually Tourist Info provides simple maps but not this one.. we improvised.. we took some advertisements by Bus Tour COmpanies.. those r free. n we tried to figure out our way by using the simple maps there.. we were also provided with a map booklet at the Budget rental company

The region around the Brandenburg Gate r full of embassies.. i tink this is carried on from teh Cold War era when this area contains the embassies of the French, US n British since this area is pretty near the wall n the Reichstag where the West German govt was briefly at b4 being moved to Bonn..
The British embassy.. being protected with concrete barriers n stuff like that.. heavily guarded place.. the road outside the embassy was sealed off..

We proceeded next to try out the famous German sausages.. Its only 2 Euros n its big.. haha

There r a lot of car showcases along the street n this BMW bike in the showcase. It costs abt 2000 euros.. wah..

We went to our car after this short walk.. along the wat we noticed that there is a parking facility nearby which costs just 2 euros for 4 hrs.. super cheap considering the fact that it costs abt 1 euro for an hour at other parking facilities..
At Berlin, the P sign for parking is everywhere.. prices varies..
2 buggers standing in teh middle of the road supposedly advertising where the parking facilities r.. but they r toking to each other n moving around so much.. the arrow signs pointing to the parking place moved around with them, changing every few seconds as they fidget.. haha i wondered how many drivers were misled by them..

After we parked our car at the cheap parking place.. we noticed a branch of Budget rental.. we approached them asking if its possible to change the car to an Opel so that we can drive to Czech Republic.. they checked for us n said that there is an Opel available at the Berlin Tegel Airport.. we immediately jumped on this oppotunity n drove towards the airport to change our car.. Phew.. luckily we managed to finally change our car...
But we sort of lost our way on our way back to Berlin Central.. after abt 1 hour plus, we made it back where we continued on our walk along Unter Den Linden..
We passed by Babelplatz where Hitler n his gang burned books that they tink is not good for Nazi rule of Germany.. cant find the place as indicated on our German guide bk.. but we found this sign stating Babelplatz.. shld be aroudn here..

We passed by this church.. pretty unique interior.. just some sculptures..

Its exterior..

The famous landmarks of Berlin.. the Berliner Dome n the TV tower..

Look Ma.. Four Arms.. haha

The entrance fee to the Berliner Dome was abt 3 euros.. i was tinking why pay moeny to see a church.. but once i went in, i felt it was worth it.. it was nice..

Super big organ..

A model of the Berliner Dome

We were even allowed access to the roof.. where we could walk n get a very nice view of Berlin.. But it was a very tiring climb cos it was pretty high up..

The Sunset view from the top of the Berliner Dome..

This looked like HDB flats in Singapore.. these r i tink apartments left over after the Berlin Wall came down.. this entire area used to be East Berlin so buildings in this region r usually quite obiang.. n functionlity counts more during the Soviet regime than asthetics..

We took some more pics with the Berliner Dome..

I was fascinated by this very ugly looking building beside the Berliner Dome.. It sports the word "Zweifel" I thot this is like a East German version of IKEA.. it is closed to public.. turns out i was wrong.. did some research on the net.. found out that this was actually the Palace of Republic building in East Berlin.. it served as a multi purpose building such as the parliment building for East German govt as well as other functions n exhibtions.. However it was closed down as a result of the massive amounts of asbestos used in its construction. A rather poisonous environment in that building.. but the East Germans had used it for like decades b4 being closed down in the 1990s.. Recently, a Norweigen artist Lars Ramberg installed the word "ZWEIFEL" (DOUBT) in massive (white) neon letters atop the Palast der Republik. He's entitled the work "Palace of Doubt."

Back to our carpark.. better go to our hostel asap or else its gonna be difficult to find our way..

We lost our way again.. pretty confusing streets n the map we had was inadequate.. the small streets were not labelled here.. arrghh.. LL took this pic of SC n me being stressed in front..

Finally, we found our hostel.. it was pretty cheap abt 9 euros per nite.. (std price for hostel is 20 euros is Europe) There is also breakfast., just simple bread toast with jam, magarine n butter..
It was a pretty unique experience becos its sleeping on mattresses on teh floor.. there r some rooms with proper beds but we just happened to get the one w/o beds.. but its fine for me..

The living room of the hostel.. where ppl could watch TV or chill out..

according to LL n SC, that nite i snored super loudly.. that i woke the whole room up.. there was this one guy who was super pissed off with me.. SC said he heard that guy keep on repeating fidgeting on his bed n keep saying "Shut the F**k Up" n even stood by my mattresses to look at me n threw a piece of paper at me.. but i guess i m too tired to realise that amt of attention that i m receiving from the rest of the room.. haha.. Dont Care.. just wanna sleep..

Day 4: Paris: Artists' Corner, Eiffel Tower..

2005-03-15T23:41:00.000+01:00

LL had her own room n bed in Weizhe's place.. Weizhe is SC's friend who we r staying with in Paris..

WZ Kitchen

Not very nice looking sink..

This is due to a leaking heater..

This morning, i will be cooking pasta!!.. but today is with some chicken n mushroom sauce i tink.. yesterday was bolongnase by LL..

After brunch, we set off for another day of Paris touring.. we went straight to the street of lotsa of souvenior shops.. its just across the river from Notre Dame..
I saw this painting that i like a lot.. but didnt buy..

Along the river, there r a lot of stalls set up to see those art pieces n other art stuff.. this tradition of selling art by the river of Notre Dame church had been going for centuries.. The stalls could be folded up easily when its closed..

After settling souveniors, we proceeded straight to the Garden that SC recommended us to take a look.. we passed by the Pantheon.. This is where some famous ppl were buried i tink n there is a pendulum inside.. (dont noe for wat scientific reason.. no time n entrance fee involved.. so we just skipped it)..

We proceeded straght to the garden.. very crowded place.. a lot of ppl just chilling out n lazing around in deck chairs..

Beautiful garden..

Flowers..

Spot the duck..

Clean up yer dog's shit!! It can be pretty annoying when u see dog poo all around.. inconsiderate idiots who dont clean up after their dogs..

We passed by a church en route to the Metro station..

On the Metro, we were bored so we took some pictures.. haha
The complicated Metro lines.. there r 14 lines in Paris.. super complicated..

Note the lever that one have to pull up to open the door..

Our weekend ticket..

The Paris Map in a handbook.. (very handy, thks to SC)

Foldable chairs.. for ppl to use when there r no more seats.. saves space since could be folded up when train is crowded..

U will turn into a rabbit when yer hand gets trapped.. (Corny joke i noe.. haha)

The train station looks very retro..

We reached Abbesses.. hoping to use our ticket to get up the Funiculaire like we always do.. its a weekday so we dont have our weekend tickets just normal ticket.. we thot we could use the ticket that we used just now for Metro to get up but turns out NO.. aiyah..

Watch out for these buggers.. They r different from the Bling Bling guys at Eiffel.. they r not trying to sell u things, they will try to get very close to u n try to convince u to let them tie a string on yer hand n then demand money from u.. dont even let them get close to u n walk away as far as possible from them..

Since our tickets cant be used for the Funiculaire.. we climb stairs loh..
Before climbing stairs..

After.. shagged ah!!

We proceeded straight to the Artists' Corner..

Looks like him..

More drawings..

Chio bu..

Hungry Dog..

Nice Drawing..

Looks like the Taj Mahal.. the Sacred HEart cathehdral..

St Peter inside the cathehedral.. note that the statue's toe markings on the right leg r gone n the right feet had totally changed in color.. its said that when believers touch his feet, all their sins will be erased.. that explains the change in color.. haha

We were not supposed to take pictures in the cathehedral because there is a service going on.. the security ppl r very strict.. he would shout at ppl to not take pictures..

LL took this picture while i blocked the view of the guard.. we sat down at the back pretending to be listening to the service.. haha it was a good partnership because all the tourists around us were scolded for trying to take pictures.. we were very lucky.. haha

At the foot of the hill.. there is smt like this (i forgot wat this thing is called..)

LL has a weakness for pastries.. so when she saw a pastry shop.. thats it..

Very nice Metro entrance..

We went to take some photos at the State Opera House..

We went to a MacDonald to use its toilets.. cool.. haha.. its free
We noticed smt unique.. iPods for the customers to use while their meals..

After this, we proceeded to Arc D Triumph..

We then proceeded to the middle of the road where there r some space for ppl to wait to take some more pics of this Arc..

After we left, we saw that there is a large group of ppl who seem to be queuing up to take pictures in the middle of the road (probably inspired by us).. its very scary to stand in the middle as cars zoom by u very fast..

We proceeded next to Eiffel Tower..

The bottom of the Eiffel Tower..

Posing with the Eiffel Tower..

Posing with the blinking Eiffel Tower..

Peace Memorial with the Eiffel Tower..

Press to cross..

We proceeded to Napoleon's Tomb.. very nice..

Nice Eiffel Tower..

After this, we went back home.. we presented WZ with a bar of chocolate that we bought for him as a gift of appreciation..

The next morning, we left very early for our flight to Berlin by Easyjet..

Paris Day 3: Louvre Museum.. (damn big as well)

2005-03-14T15:12:00.000+01:00

Got up early in the morning, went to do some grocery shopping with SC n LL.. we will be cooking our brunch.. (save moeny!!) we cooked some pasta.. nice..

The sofa bed which SC n I shared for the past few nites.. there is also a PS2 conveniently located next to it.. haha but i didnt got the opportunity to play it since i m too busy sight seeing..

My hair was so damn disgustingly long.. (at least for my standard) wanted to cut it in Sweden but it was way too expensive.. (abt 20-30 Sing dollars).. back home in Singapore, it costs me at most 10 Sing dollars.. haha was planning to cut in Czech Republic where ppl say things there r cheap.. but since there is a hair salon just next to the place we lived in Paris.. might as well.. it costs me 8 Euros (17 Sing bucks).. but its not bad lah.. haha told SC to tell the barber to cut very short.. (they dont speak English, only French).. SC even taught me how to say cut shorter in French in case not short enuff.. but i forgotten wat is it now.. There was hair washing n shampooing.. (smt new for me.. never gotten my hair by other ppl b4) n the resultant hair cut wasnt that bad.. he even gelled my hair up for me.. haha.. nice.. n I can tell my ppl i had cut my hair in Paris (the most stylish city in the world) b4.. haha but omit the fact that it was being cut by an Arab in some suburbs..

After a full brunch, we proceeded to the Louvre.. even the train station near the Louvre is like a mini museum.. so arty farty..

The famous inverted pyramid of the Louvre..

Inside the big pyramid of the Louvre.. diff one from the previous one.. there r 3 pyramids in the Lourve courtyard..

There r security checks as u go in the entrance tru the big pyramid..

Inside the Louvre musuem.. SC told us that there was a movie made abt a group of guys who tried to finish the Louvre.. wat they did is that they ran from exhibit to exhibit in a touch n go manner n they managed to cover it in 4 minutes.. i wonder how they did it.. its such a super big museum.. i tink i need at least 2 days..

This is the exhibit for Napoleon's apartment.. i tink its diff from the one at Versailles..

Such extravagance..

This is the one of the most famous painting gallery.. There is this big long floor which is just for paintings n another one just for sculptures n another one for dont noe wat exhibits. just madness.. too many things here.. ok the ticket for this museum is worth it.. 8.50 Euros.. compared to the stupid Van Gogh musuem..

Painting of a corridor or smt like that.. (looks pretty real) n yah one thing best abt this musuem is u can get take pictures!!.. the stupid Van Gogh musuem forbade us from doing so..

Tower of Babel

Taking the module of "Making the Modern World" in NUS was very useful.. opened up my persepective of the world n history.. that module gave me quite a lot of ideas of where to go in Europe.. since we studied some history of European development from 1500s onwards in that module.. a lot of things looked pretty familiar to me around here like this self potrait here.. i remembered the lecturer saying that in self potraits of that era of 17th or 18th century, the ppl drawn looked more like humans compared to those b4 the Renaissance period of 1500s.. n that in self portraits, the background consists mainly of Nature.. becos ppl then r very much in awe of the power of Nature n stuff like that..

What the FISH is this? ... haha Kinky though.. haha

More art works..

After a while, i looked at the time.. n decided this is not the way.. its impossible to see most of Louvre at our speed.. we have only covered abt less than 1/4 n musuem is closing in 2 hours time..
Thus, LL n I adopted a touch n go method to try to cover as much ground as possible..
First step: look out for paintings with the Earphone symbol means the audio guide covers this part.. (we didnt rent the audio guide.. too ex) the audio guide sign means this painting is impt n good enuff to be mentioned in the guide.. so must take note..

Second step: Take a picture with the painting for memorabilia sake.. haha

Third step: Take the reading material (if available) n take a picture of it (not enuff time to read, go back home then read on computer)

Repeat Steps 1 -3 til the end of the musuem.. haha

There r quite a number of paintings of nude women.. For the paintings of this period from the 18th century onwards, they seem to like to expose only one of their breasts.. seldom both.. haha ok loh

We went to the a special exhibtion of the British crown jewels i tink.. Nice Blong Blings they have there..

Posing with a very big cup..

Posing with this dont noe wat.. but everyone is taking pics of it so why not..

Mona Lisa frenzy.. at the Mona Lisa picture.. everyone is like crowding n flashing it with their cameras like nobody's bizness.. SC speculated that this painting could be a fake since the musuem would not bear to let the real Mona Lisa be damaged by all the flashings of stupid tourists..
Its rather anti climax.. this is the highlight of the museum.. the Mona Lisa.. n its just such a small painting being crowded around by the mad camera toting, flash crazy crowd...

LL's pic of the Mona Lisa.. (no flash) but i tink she took like 10 pictures of that painting.. sometimes flashing it.. haha

Aiyah since i m here.. why not take a pic with this overrated pic.. n flash it lah.. bo chap.. wat diff does it make if i flash it.. haha

Floor of sculptures..

Michaelangelo's famous sculpture of David.. (correct me if i m wrong)

TIMES UP!! Out of the Louvre museum.. we were chased out of the museum like everybody else..
The legendary LOuvre pyramids

The third arch.. in the family of Paris arch.. smallest one as well..

In keeping up with the campaign of "I'm too sexy for my blog" organised by some of Singapore's top bloggers.. haha

Impatient Red Man (Paris traffic lights)

Go Green Man

Louvre.. note the illumination of the museum by the setting sun.. nice..

Eiffel Tower during sunset..

Some guy trying to make money by covering himself in a mummy costume.. n he will make a bow whenever someone puts money into his tin.. n THATS ALL he does.. LAME..

Louvre pyramids at nite.. nice..

This is abt the only thing not illuminated at nite in Paris.. the boring small arch..

The Concorde obelisk.. (stolen by the French from Egypt n placed here..)

After this, we went to meet up with SC who is gonna bring us to eat some French dinner.. its a 3 course meal (appetizer, main meal, dessert).. it costs 14 euros.. most ex meal i had so far but French meals r ex.. "experience lah, Qiang, experience lah.. haha once in lifetime.." i comforted myself..
i had some meat in salad for appetizer..

LL had an onion soup..

I had some Lamb chops.. (Fatty n nice..) SC commented that French food r mostly fatty n oily..

The Ultimate Sinful dessert.. Cream Puffs dipped in Chocolate Sauce.. GOOD!!..

Paris Day 2: Palace of Versailles (Damn Big!!), Moulin Rouge

2005-03-13T16:51:00.000+01:00

Main Entrance to SC's friend's place (the place we r staying)

Got up early in the morning n bought a weekend ticket to Zone 4.. VErsailles is situated quite far away from Paris city centre
Entrance to Versailles

Black teenagers peddling souveniors.. some of them can get pretty annoying.. at nite around Eiffel Tower, they would peddle the same stuff.. those small glow in the dark Eiffel Towers.. n will keep on saying... "Bling Bling" Come get some "Bling Bling"..
Avoid them as much as possible unless u really wanna buy anything from them..

More pictures of Versailles..

The queue to get into the palace is crazy.. one can wait up to 20 minutes.. n as the palace consists of many parts.. u have to get separate entrance tickets for each part n queue up for them all over again.. so one have to queue to buy tickets n then queue to get in with yer tickets.. n thats only for say PArt A of the palace n the whole process repeats.. We took the easy way out.. for 15.50 Euro.. we get a ticket that will save us all the queuing n includes entrance to all parts of the palace as well as to other parts of the large garden which requires entrance tickets.. the Audio Guide is also included (it costs abt 4.50Euro if rented on its own).. very good deal despite being rather ex.. u have to get an audio guide or else u wont understand wat the hell is going on in the palace.. its very ncie but it would be more worth it if u noe wats going on..
The palace interior

Me with my audio guide in one of the many extravagant rooms in this palace..

The King's bedroom..

a preview of the hall of mirrors...

the actual Hall of Mirrors.. the most famous room of the Palace of Versailles..

Other parts of the palace..

There is a long hall with many many paintings hung on its side..

The palace itself took us abt close to 2 hours to finish.. now we r out of it, we decided to walk around the palace grounds.. its damn big.. in this picture, to walk to the end of the river takes abt 45 minutes..

there r other smaller buildings that housed other exhibits like Napoleon's house which takes abt 20 minutes to walk there from the palace.. there is a train available but it costs abt 3-5 Euros.. rather ex.. we decided to walk there instead..

At Grand Trianon.. after a long walk (abt 15 minutes)
This is Napoleon's apartment.. Its not as crowded here becos its rather far away from Versailles.. our 15.50 euro ticket covers this entrance as well..

Along the way to Petit Trianon.. there r some farms...

however after a 10 minute walk, we realised we went the wrong way.. all thks to LL, haha.. i was lazy n told her to lead the way.. but she got it wrong.. haha sigh.. gers cant read map.. (Proven!!) turns out Petit Trianon is just beside Grand Trianon.. bo bian loh, we walked back..
At Petit Trianon..

The Pavilion of Love..

We proceeded next to the Queen's Hamlet.. its almost 6pm liao.. but since we got the ticket n we came all the way here.. might as well.. wah... this Versailles palace took us almost the whole day.. anyway Queen's Hamlet is rather nice.. diff from all the palaces n stuff.. i tink the Queen or her ppl could have stayed here b4, thats why they kept this hamlet..

By the time we walked back, its rather late abt 7-8pm liao.. haha..we went back to the palace to take some more shots.. by rite, we r not allowed in but there was a function so the gate was open.. LL as usual, lost her gloves, so she decided to go back to the Lost n Found Department to look for her missing glove.. she couldnt find it so anyhow took one glove back.. she lost just one side of her gloves.. she said that when she enquired abt the glove, there is a whole box of gloves for her to choose from.. haha

We took a train back from Versailles to a station near the Eiffel Tower where SC's other friend is staying.. SC recommended this Kebab store which is rather cheap.. Kebab at 3.50 Euro.. very cheap liao by European standard..

luckily we arrived at the just rite time.. becos immediately after we ordered n settled down.. there was a large crowd queuing up..
After dinner, we proceeded to Sacred Heart church hoping to take pictures of its interior.. its very nice n unique.. n since we have the weekend ticket, might as well make use of it.. but unfortunately it was closed..
We proceeded to the Artists' Corner.. where LL was rather tempted to get a portrait of herself drawn.. some old woman came up to us n asked us if we wanna be drawn.. she quoted us a price of 50 Euros.. LL was very tempted but the price is too steep.. so she quoted her 15 Euros instead.. old woman thot for a while n accepted it..

Another artist drawing for another ger..

While the old lady is drawing a portrait of LL, a group of French teenagers gathered around us.. they asked me how much r we paying for the drawing.. they said the same old woman drew it for one of the gers for just 10 Euros.. when the drawing of LL was done.. the French teenagers pressured the old woman to charge LL just 10 Euros instead n she reluctantly agreed..
LL posing with the other ger whose portrait was also drawn by the same old woman..

There were only abt 4-5 artists at this Artists' Corner that nite.. LL felt that there will be more during the day.. so we decided to come again the next day..

Sacred Heart church was closed.. so we took some pictures outside it..

To me.. i tink the drawing doesnt really look like LL.. it looks more like Michael Jackson or Janet Jackson (as shown on the left).. just had the look of the Jacksons..

The funiculaire which we took up to Sacred Heart.. its smt like a tram lift.. we could use our weekend ticket to use this lift..

After taking some photos with the Sacred Heart church, we decided to go to the famous Moulin Rouge.. a Moulin Rouge show costs abt 70 Euros (according to SC) n its just a cabaret performance.. with naked gers dancing n singing..

After this, its around 11pm liao, we proceeded back home to Goncourt...
This Big M means there is a Metro downstairs..

These r the exit doors from the Metro.. there is a pressure sensitive mat near the door which will activate the opening of the doors..

as can be seen here, the 2 levels of barrier at the entrance..

The Metro station..

The streets around the place we lived in.. SC told us that this region used to be rather complicated.. but now it seems much better due to police around the region..
SC told us of some incidents of his friends being robbed at gunpoint.. he himself was almost being robbed once..

Paris Day 1 Part 2: Arc d Triumph, Champs Elysses, Eiffel Tower, Sacred Heart

2005-03-12T14:17:00.000+01:00

We arrived at Arch D Triumph by metro.. took some pictures of the Arch on the outside..

This arch is situated on top of a roundabout where there r 12 lanes around it..so it pretty seems like a huge traffic mess..

We took an underpass to get directly under the arch.. the architecture of the arch as can be seen here..

From here, we can see the Grand Arch.. again thks to my 10 time optical zoom..

the 3 archs all lie on the same straight line.. so if u walk down a straight road from grand arch til the end, u will pass by the 3 archs..
the 3rd n the smallest arch can be seen in the picture here..

Its behind the long tall obelisk called the Concorde.. it was taken here by the French from Egypt.. behind the third arch will be the Louvre Museum..
We walked along Champs Elysses, one of the world's most famous shopping street.. rental here is also super high..

we heard from SC's friend that in the Louis Vitton shop along Champ Elysses, there r some ways to make a quick buck.. he mentioned that his friend earned 70 euros just by buying some LV bags for some Chinese ppl.. the LV store limits purchases of its products n they check passports of the customers.. and ppl from China will usually try to buy a lot of LV bags back to China to sell but they r limited by the rule.. so wat happened to SC friend is that some Chinese ppl approach him n passed him 2000 Euros to buy LV bags for them.. in return, they gave him 70 Euros.. of course hearing of this incident, i tink why not try our luck at the LV store..
SC mention that its very hard to miss the LV store.. when i reached, i understand why..

next picture is me trying out the stitch function of my camera.. not working very well.. but u get the idea of how showy the LV store is..

but however, the store along Champs Elysses is closed n have moved to another street.. not giving up on the idea of earning a quick buck, we proceeded to the other LV store..

take a look at its showcase outside the store n the prices... wooo...

well no such luck, no one approach us to buy for them.. n surprisingly the LV store is packed with Chinese, Japanese tourists.. the items are not very cheap loh.. but the store is still packed with ppl actually buying the stuff not just look-see..
we got out of the store n proceeded to the Metro..

Paris post box..

along the way to the metro, we passed Princess Diana memorial..
this highway is where Princess Diana was killed in the car accident a few years back.. the picture shows the entrance to the highway.. the car accident happened just beneath us..

Some tributes to Princess Diana written on the wall..

this served as a memorial to PRincess Diana altho its original purpose is to celebrate the millenium or smt like that but it just happened to be placed at this spot so it was used as a memorial as well..

The Eiffel Tower from far away.. the problem with Paris (not actually a problem) everything is so big here from the archs, palaces, eiffel tower etc.. that they all seem so near but when u try walking towards them, it takes half an hour to an hour.. crazy..

we proceeded to SC's old home in Paris where his friend is staying in now.. decided to take a rest from today's long walk..

SC advised me n LL to go to Eiffel Tower now so that we could take nice pictures in the evening.. while he could have dinner with his friends, do some catching up n he will meet up with us later..
We then proceeded to Eiffel Tower..

the queue to get the tickets to go up the Eiffel Tower is crazy.. so many ppl..

haha finally got my ticket.. not very cheap though buy aiyah once in a lifetime leh..

View from the top..

Every hour from 6 or 7pm onwards when it gets dark.. the Eiffel Tower will glitter for abt 10 minutes.. its a very nice sight..

Its freaking cold high up on the tower n its also very windy.. i took a video of the glittering Eiffel Tower.. nice but very noisy due to the wind.. could hear ppl gasping when the Tower starts to glitter on the hour..
Click here to watch 'Glittering Eiffel Tower'
Evening shot of the surroundings

Nice evening sky n the moon..

We went all the way up to the Eiffel Tower.. its crazy.. u have to queue up to get into the lifts to go to every level.. the first lift brings u up to the 1st level n the 2nd level.. u have to get off at the 2nd level where u have to take another lift up to the top level.. ticket pricing depends on which level u go... higher up u go the more ex it is..
Nite shots from the very top of the Eiffel Tower..
Note the blue streak of light.. its just spotlight from the Tower.. there r 2 spotlights on top which will rotate around the tower with blue illuminating streaks...

View of the football stadium from the top.. they looked so small as if they r in a video game n i m controlling them... cool..

We got off the Eiffel Tower.. even getting down by lift, u have to queue.. just too many ppl..
we took some more shots of the glittering Eiffel Tower from outside..

We met up with SC so that he could bring us to another famous Paris landmark, the Sacred Heart cathehedral.. very nice cathehedeal.. unique n diff from the other many churches we saw in Europe..

Paris Day 1 Part 1: Notre Dame n the Grand Arch

2005-03-12T10:08:00.000+01:00

On 11th March, our Euro adventure begins.. we took a Ryanair plane from Stockholm Skvasta airport to Paris.. pretty cheap i tink the flight itself costs a few euro cents but the airport tax adds up to abt 20 euros.. but still worth it..
when we boarded the plane, its almost full n definitely no more 3 available seats in a row.. so we decided to take the first row.. BAD MISTAKE.. its so freezing cold with the wind n snow blowing in from the entrance.. at times, LL n me have to stand in the aisle when the cold becomes too unbearable..

after a long wait, finally all the ppl have boarded n the door is closed.. phew.. when the door closed.. the door was covered with snow n ice. n the stewards have to wipe it clean..
the door after being wiped clean

cockpit door looks very secure with peephole n bolts n locks..

the damn flight was delayed.. we had to wait in the plane.. ppl have to clear the runway of snow.. ok loh..

Finally Arrived at Paris Beavauis Airport at nite.. forgot wat time.. but its quite late.. the airport bus to Paris is 13 Euros!!!.. bloody ex.. they put the name "Paris" beside Beavauis to mislead ppl into tinking they have landed in Paris when they r not actually there yet.. there is still an hour plus bus ride to Paris.. ok loh.. bo bian mah.. we took the metro with our luggage n went to Shian Ching (SC) friend house where we will be staying for the next 3 nites..

Day 1...
We got up early n SC agreed to show us around Paris for today.. when u go to Paris on a weekend, must ask to buy the weekend ticket..its a very good deal.. for abt a few euros, u will get a train ticket that u can use to go anywhere (depending on which zones u bought for) with unlimited usage for the day.. cool.. definitely worth it.. Paris like many other cities is divided into zones.. it gets more expensive if u use to travel from one zone to other zones.. however most of paris nice stuff is in zone 1.. so good loh..
We went to a place near our place we r staying in (Goncourt).. SC brought us to see this unique architecture for a shopping centre.. this area is also known for its arty farty stuff like paintings, photogrpahs n drawings... ppl could buy such souveniors over here..

public toilets in paris.. not very cheap as well (abt 50 cent euro = 1+ Sing dollar)

u can always go to any mac donalds to do our bizness if u want or any other fast food restaurant.. unlike in Stockholm, u have to pay to even get into mac toilets.. of course these toilets r meant for mac customers only lah.. but who cares.. no way m i gonna pay 1 buck for using a toilet..
we walk around town a bit.. SC went to settle his bank stuff .. he was studying in France for 5 years b4 going over to STockholm to do his exchange,, he is a SIngaporean under DSTA scholarship.. going back after his stint in Stockholm KTH..
SC brought us to a smt like a mini mart where we bought a very meat bao for abt 2 euro.. its super big..

SC showed us his sch in Paris..

he brought us up as well.. to see the view of Paris..
the classroom..

the view..

we bought some hot chocolate from the vending machine in his sch b4 being chased away by the janitor.. we proceeded on to Notre Dame cathehedral.. where the story of the hunchback of Notre Dame is based at..
rubbish bins in Paris r replaced with such plastic bags so that ppl could see its contents. .as part of a security measure in fear of ppl putting bombs in trash cans at busy places.

Notre Dame Cathehedral..

its interior

after this we stopped by at some old small church en route to the Vietnamese restaurant where we r gonna have lunch..

Nice stained windows..

but they seem to get lazy afterwards.. haha these windows seem rather diff from the rest of which were rather detailed..

a service being performed in the church..

the Vietnamese restaurant we had our lunch in.. according to SC, its good n cheap..

i had this... Bo Bun.. abt nine SIng dollars.. but to eat out in europe.. this is abt the price.. i have grown to accept this sad fact.. haha no more 3 Sing dollar meal for mee pok or chicken cutlet..

Double decker trains.. usually for train rides to places outside zone 1 n 2..

normal metro trains.. u have to open the door yerself.. n it takes some effort to open them.. the lock holding the door together while moving will auto unlock when teh train stops n passengers wanting to get off will have to pull the handle to open the door..

entrance barrier to the Metro.. there r 2 barriers.. first u slot in yer valid ticket then the get past the first door.. after which the second door will be unlocked for u to push it open.. SC said that this is to prevent ppl from jumping thru.. he tried once n got thru the first door b4 being trapped by the second one.. so he had to jump out from where he came from.. the second door is heavy n high so its rather difficult to jump over it unless u climb.. it costs abt 1.50 euro per trip n the ticket can only be used once.. so if u got off the wrong stop.. u cant use teh same ticket to get back in...
we took the metro to La Defense where we could see the first of 3 famous arch in Paris.. the Grand Arch..

Me holding it up.. haha

this is the most modern arch of the three n its located in smt like a bizness district in Paris.. note the arch d triumph in the background

nvm if u cant see the arch d triumph in the previous pic.. let me make use of my 10 times optical zoom.. haha

Us posing under the Grand Arch..

We saw a garden on the map near this place.. we decided to check it out.. Jardin in french means garden..

flowers.. haha no time no see..

wat is supposed to be a garden turns out to be smt like an amusement park for kids.. yeah there is a garden inside.. but u have to pay to get in.. nah.. forget it.. its not summer yet.. dont tink will be nice..

we walked to the next metro station to take the train to the Arch d Trimuph..

along the way, we saw some french ppl playing some games in the park.. throwing some ball to hit other balls.. haha..

Brussels!! Nice waffles..

2005-03-07T22:41:00.000+01:00

Leaving Amsterdam after a full breakfast at Stayokay hostel..

Telphone booths..

Looks yummy.. while waiting for the Brussels train.. took some pictures..

Vending machines selling hot chicken or beef wrap.. hmmm.. just slot the correct money in n u can open the door to yummy meat..

Use a credit card to buy a train ticket from these machines to save yerself the 50 euro cent service charge per ticket if u buy them over the counter..

Arrived at Brussels.. the train station looked real dilapidated.. haha..

along the way from Amsterdam, we saw some Amsterdam like RLD in Belgium.. train was too fast for me to take a pic of.. just gers sitting by windows scantily clad in broad daylight..
Green green grass... a sight that i have not had a chance to see for a long time.. since most of the time since i arrived in Stockholm,i see Snow...

We saw a small booth in the train station selling waffles.. n ppl say try Belgian waffles when u r in BElgium n so here we go...

Me with my sinful waffle coated with thick chocolate.. ooooh.. yummy..

Yummy...

the central train station..

We were clueless after getting out of the train station.. dont noe wat to do n where to go.. so we anyway explore til we reach a nice church.. a very big one as well... its called St Michel..

Outside the church, Dom was fooling around with JL when suddenly she lost her balance n fell.. It was pretty embarassing for Dom as many ppl were watching as JL sat on the floor stunned.. funny.. haha

we went inside n took some pics.. impressive organ..

after this, i asked around for nice places to go in Brussels n i led the 3 of them on a Brussels walking tour..
Traffic lights in Brussels seem to be always yellow.. no red or green so its pretty hard to cross the road.. have to be alert.. press this button to get the light to turn in yer favor.. hopefully..

Belgium is famous for
Chocolates..

Lace...

Pls dont eat n drool outside.. haha

Waffles..

We went straight to the town hall.. a very beautiful place with a Gothic feel..

Next we proceeded to see Manneken Pis..
It was such a disapointment.. i never expected to be such a small statue.. i expected it to be smt bigger.. no big deal jsut a statue of a small boy peeing..

There are several legends behind this statue, but the most famous is the one about Duke Godfried II of Brabant. In 1142, the troops of this two-year-old lord were battling against the troops of the Berthouts, the lords of Grimbergen, in Ransbeke (currently Neder-over-Heembeek). The troops put the little boy in a basket and hung it in a tree, to encourage them. From there, he urinated on the troops of the Berthouts, who eventually lost the battle.

Another legend goes like this: in the 14th century, Brussels was under siege by a foreign power. The city had held their ground for quite some time. The attackers had thought of a plan to place explosive charges at the city walls. A little boy named Juliaanske from Brussels happened to be spying on them as they were preparing. He urinated on the burning fuse and thus saved the city.

According to an article posted in the History section of http://www.manneken-pis.com, the statue once was used to dispense liquor.

Next we proceeded to Sablon.. another gothic looking church..

then we went to Place Royale..

There is the Royal St Hubert Galleries with its unique architecture n its a shopping centre by itself..

Outside this shopping centre.. there is the long street of restaurants.. no very cheap though..

We settled down for some cheap easy sandwiches for dinner..

took a train down to Chaleroi airport to catch our flight back to Stockholm..

We took a Ryanair flight back.. there r no TV screens to demo the safety feature of the plane.. flight stewards performed manual demos n we r supposed to pay our full attention..

the menu for in flight food n drinks.. NOT veyr cheap..

there seems to be hole inside the aircraft.. n it seems that the air stewards have just stuff some tissue to cover it up...

everyone in the plane clapped when we touched down safely in Stockholm.. i felt weird.. aint we supposed to touch down safely n its the pilot's responsiblity to do so.. why must we clap.. haha
by the time i reached T centrelan central station to take the Tunnelbana back home.. its almost 1am.. i reached the platform, n saw that my train is coming in 3 minutes time.. i looked at the timing of the next train.. 5:06am!! phew luckily i arrived just in time or else i would have to camp here for the nite..

Van Gogh (Boo!!), Zaanse Schans (Good!), RLD (Best!!)

2005-03-06T23:35:00.000+01:00

We got up early in the morning the next day.. having a heavy hangover from last nite's long walk.. haha.. took our breakfast provided with our Stayokay hostel stay..

We proceeded straight to Van Gogh Museum.. everyone is toking abt Van Gogh.. n i guess we just have to see it.. we bought the ticket at a discounted rate of 9.50 Euro from the Stayokay hostel counter.. it was just a 50 cent Euro discount..
but better than nothing..
our hostel reception

no drugs in the hostel.. a sticker on the hostel front door says..

took a tram there n as usual we didnt punch in our ticket.. haha another free ride.. hehe

took some pics along the way to the tram station

At Van Gogh Museum..

I would say this is the worst museum i have been to so far.. dont really noe how to appreciate such art n its so freaking expensive.. no picture taking as well.. ah crap.. ok lah.. knew more abt Van Gogh n his style of painting but not very useful info for me..

U even have to go thru a metal detector b4 entering the museum.. looks like they r worried some ppl might try to steal Van Gogh's painting..

One of the very famous painting by Van Gogh, the Sunflowers.. if i m not wrong.. a picture secretly taken by Dom..

Pictures taken from postcards showcasing Van Gogh's drawing at the souvenior shop downstairs..

i love Holland.. hahha basically entrances to the trains are all just punch-yer-ticket-yerself machines so for those who wanna cheat like us, we could use the trains for free.. when caught, just act blur.. haha.. usually they check at the exits of busy stations.. so must be clever n careful..

Sign indicating that there is a Metro station here..

Post Boxes in Amsterdam

After this, we proceeded straight to Zaanse Schans by train.. its a place with a traditional Dutch village setup with windmills n huts showcasing traditional Dutch products...
Upon arriving by train n on our short walk to Zaanse Schans (ZS), we came smelling a sweet choco smell.. turns out there is a very big cocoa factory over here..

Entrance to ZS

Houses in ZS.. most of these houses contain exhibittion of traditional Dutch products as well as shops for tourists to buy souveniors from..

Windmills!!.. haha i got crazy over windmills.. very nice..

Some of these windmills contain small stores where ppl could buy stuff from.. for example the windmill in the picture below sells mustard. u can also take a look at its interior in the next picture..

A Netherlands flag in ZS..

Cheese factory n store..
haha we went past a mini cheese factory which sells cheese among other many souveniors..

Another of Dutch specialities.. CHEESE!!.. with some of the pretty Dutch gers..

There r a lot of types of cheese available for sale.. as u can see from the different colored wrappings.. each color indicated one type of cheese.. too many liao n they r all so tasty... yummy..

ME fooling around at its mini factory..

Other souveniors available for sale in this shop..

There is this type of special spoon sold here for the handling of honey n other stuff.. note that the spoon is bent so that u can hang it on the cup as it will fit nicely by the edge.. thereby saving yerself from the need to clean up the mess from placing the honey coated spoon on the table...

Other houses in ZS also sells other type of souveniors...

i went in to this shop n took a look at its windmill model but unfortunately some part of the windmill fell off by itself n broke into half as it reach the floor.. i panicked n pretended nothing happened.. only to realise that the one of the employees is looking at me.. i pretended to look aroudn a bit.. haha one of the employees proceeded to take the damaged windmill back to the store n didnt bother me at all.. i just calmly n slowly walked out the store pretending nothing happened.. phew.. NOT my fault wat..

We went into one house which contains a clog factory.. another one of the Dutch specialities.. wooden clogs..

Close up of the clogs..

Me fooling around at the mini clog factory again.. DONT TOUCH the KNIFE.. haha

Wow this clog is as big as my face..

Ppl in clogs..

ppl used to skate around the frozen lake in winter with the wooden clogs..

the different stages of clog making..

Dom trying to spoil JL's picture..

ME in a big clog again..

duck tracks on the frozen lake...

There r many more of interesting Dutch items showcased in the rest of the houses..we explored almost all of them.. most interesting ones had to be both the clog n cheese factories.. the rest r mainly souvenior shops..
some more pics of this pictureque town, ZS b4 we leave..

a Dutch mailbox in this town..

large wind generators.. view from the train en route to Amsterdam..

Beware of pickpockets..

We decided to be obedient tourists n get our strippen card stamped since we have only one day left here in Amsterdam.. however the guy in the ticketing booth in the tram only stamped 2 strips for the 4 of us when he is supposed to stamp 4.. he gave us a wink n let us go.. haha cool..

We then proceeded to a supermarket to buy our dinner.. we bought some crossiants n bread n some other stuff.. we brought them all back to the hostel to heat them up.. n here is our 70 cent euro dinner.. cool..

After this dinner, we proceeded to see another thing that Amsterdam is famous for.. RED LIGHT DISTRICT (RLD)!!!.. yeah.. the tourist map of Amsterdam is so informative.. i was rather surprised when i finally realised that the streets indicated with red light bulbs means RED LIGHT DISTRICTS!!.. haha very cool.. i guess the Tourist Office is sick of ppl asking where the RLD r so they just indicated them on the map..

As we walked along the RLD.. its basically a main street on both sides of a canal.. there r a lot of tourists in the region.. Chinese, Japanese n others.. bouncers of Sex Cinema will come out n ask if u wanna see the "Pink Elephant" hhaa wat pink elephant.. hehe :P most of the prices of teh shows (live sex shows) costs an average of 30 euros inclusive of one free drink.. haha nah i didnt go in to see.. jsut heard those bouncers shouting the prices to passerbys..

then also we get to see woman scantily clad standing by large windows or glass doors.. haha now we noe wat the big windows' other purpose is... some r dressed in fluorescent bikinis which glow in the dark n reflects light so they appear to shine.. haha.. not very sure of their prices though..

an interested client will open the door, tok to the ger for a while most likely abt prices.. n if everything goes well, he goes in, curtains r closed n GETS down to Bizness... taking photogrpahs of the gers or the area is not very much encouraged.. usually the gers will shout at u when they spot yer camera pointing at them or just simply close their curtains.. jsut worried their pimps might come out n confisctae yer camera... pictures here r taken secretly by Dom.. haha so not very clear..
along the way to the RLD, we met some locals who joked that the RLD is abt the safest place in Amsterdam since this place is constantly patrolled by DUtch police.. funny!!..
There is a church located near some of these RLD.. what an irony..

Here r some shots of Amsterdam at nite.. we took it that nite while walking around..

One of the famous bridges in Amsterdam..

After a long walk back.. we went back to our hostel to chill out n rest.. n prepare to leave for Brussels tomolo morning..

Amsterdam.. Cool experience..

2005-03-05T22:55:00.000+01:00

After the Hague, we took a train to Amsterdam.. Amsterdam is famous for its houses with big windows, canals, coffeeshops, tulips, windmills and of course red light district.. 3 of the above mentioned could be seen in the two pictures below.. coffeeshops in Amsterdam means places where ppl could smoke weed (marijuana) or consume weed in any other form such as eating it in weed cookies or cakes or milk shakes.. It is legal in Holland to consume such a drug.. 2 coffeeshops could be seen in the second picture.. heard from my Chinese teacher in junior college that the reasons why houses here have large windows n small doors is that there used to be a tax on the size of the door, thus ppl here make their doors small enuff for one person to just pass thru while windows are made wide n near the ground so that furniture could be passed in or out during moving.. haha i wonder if that is true but it seems rather logical..
also i realise later in the night that such big windows serve "other" purposes..haha

It is rather common to find such signs around Amsterdam..

no no.. dont confuse it with brassiere (which is "bra").. it is brasserie which i tink means cafe or smt like that in French..
After checking in our Stayokay hostel in Amsterdam, we decided to go for a short walk around town..

There is a flower market along a canal.. what does it sell mostly? TULIPS!!.. haha too bad for the snow.. there r no tulips when we came.. not the season yet..

Sex shops r everywhere in Amsterdam.. there sex cinemas, sex gadgets shops.. anything that could be sold abt sex could be found here.. cool...

This is a rather famous coffeeshop in Amsterdam.. its located in a rather deserted alley.. one of the scenes in Ocean's Twelve is shot here.. thats why its famous n often crowded..

Another one of many coffeeshops in Amsterdam.. Its called "Homegrown Fantasy"

These are weed cakes.. i heard that they r really really potent.. once taken, the effect will kick in within one hour n last for a long time

"Nothing" much happened tonite.. we went back to our hostel to rest after a long n seemingly never ending walk in Amsterdam.. haha

Den Haag.. Madurodam

2005-03-05T09:13:00.000+01:00

When our train reaches Den Haag Central, we went straight to ticketing counter to buy our tickets to Amsterdam since we will be leaving this place in a few hours.. There is a service charge of 0.50 Euros for every ticket sold when we buy over the counter.. crap.. we went to the Tourist Info after that to get some info n buy some souvenoirs.. after we found out how to go to the Mini Holland, Madurodam.. we went to wait for the tram.. while waiting i took some pics of course..

At the tram stop..

LL wanted to take some pic that shows she is at the Hague.. (Den Haag is the Dutch name for the Hague) so i took a photo of her with a construction sign with the word "Den Haag" on it.. haha

I read some where that almost every Dutch has a bicycle.. n they would cycle from their home to the public transport station such as bus or trams where they will park their bikes there..

As usual, we took the tram w/o stamping.. act blur.. no one to check.. haha the strippen card is cool, it can be used for public transport in Rotterdam, The Hague n Amsterdam.. the tram stop at Madurodam..

When we reached Madurodam, the ticketing counter person warned us beforehand that what we r gonna see inside is diff from wat we r gonna expect from the brochure becos its snowing recently n most buildings r covered with snow.. the rest felt like going then ok loh.. the entrance costs 12 Euro but we have a dicount card so in the end it costs 10.50Euro..n the lady at the counter said to compensate us, they would offer each of us a free drink in the cafeteria.. ok loh..

A panaromic shot of Madurodam..

Map of Madurodam.. its so small yet so big.. buildings r small but the whole area is so big...

This train is supposed to work but during winter, it does not operate..

The Euromast in Madurodam..

Looks very real rite?

THe Erasmus Bridge in Rotterdam..now a much nicer view..

Other pics..

Masterfood.. accoridng to LL, its one of the famous brand in Holland.. haha there r figures of ppl n cars in Madurodam with the buildings n we can pick them up as well altho i dont tink we r supposed to.. hha anwyay i helping to clear away the snow on them mah..

At the Schipol Airport..

Posing with SIA plane..

Posing with the plane we came in, Transavia

Posing with Dutch national carrier, KLM..

Windmills..

More pics..

Small guys in a small world..

The drink coupon which were given to us to compensate for all the snow that blocked our view of the entire park..

Traditional Swedish clog.. haha .. (the actual one is not as big)

Museum, Bridge, Window Shopping, Pizza n Sleep!!

2005-03-04T13:08:00.000+01:00

After the Cube House which we very much felt cheated, we proceeded on to our next destination on the map.. the Musuem Boijmans Van Beuningen.. took a tram from the station near the Cube House for free.. haha act blur n didnt stamp our tickets.. when we reached the Musuem, it started snowing.. arrghhh.. according to Dom, it only snows once a year in Holland.. i wonder if its just his usual crap or i m so damn suey that it snows on the very day i arrived...

Nvm.. when we reach the museum, the first thing we saw is the pink courtyard.. n we proceeded to buy the tickets at the ticketing booth in the middle of the pink courtyard.. JL recommended this museum.. it better be good.. dont feel like wasting $$ on stuff i cant appreciate.. but we r in luck, the ppl in the ticketing booth said that its free entrance today.. i tink becos they r having some functions

there r quite a lot of art pieces in the museum but the focus for the next few mths is on this surrealist artist Salvador Dali... he likes to take pics of naked women in various poses .. n most of his art r quite chim.. i dont understand as well..

this photograph looks like that of a skull but in fact if u look closely its made up of a number of naked women together

For this photo shot of him n other things suspended in air, the photographers used up 60 rolls of film n abt 8 hrs.. they threw the cat across the room a number of times in the process..

this one with a naked lady..

Dali even published his own newspapers..

A sofa that is shaped like a lip..

The musuem is closing soon at 5pm n we were chased out.. ok loh.. we took the tram to the Erasmus bridge.. supposed to be a beautiful bridge.. but its snowing very heavily.. so nothing much to see.. but since we travel so far down to see this bridge n the next tram leaving for our next destination is not coming soon, we took some pics...

After this, we went to a shopping district near the Central Station to look for cheap dinner.. haha..

but the gers ended doing window shopping... ok loh.. gers r gers mah.. so troublesome.. n that JL n LL will be saying Wah!. H&M .. Wah! Orange , Mango n dont noe wat strange name shops.. then they will say "Wah! 70% off.. here n there" .. we came by this candy store.. selling a lot of Easter bunny chocolates..

After walking for a while, we finally found a pizza house.. selling a whole pizza for 6.25Euros... quite good lah.. but the waiters r idiotic liars.. when LL asked whether a glass of water is free.. the waiter replied that tap water in Holland cant be drank so it will be mineral water n there will be charges for that.. (which we found out that this isnt true.. Holland tap water can be drunk).. when the pizza arrived, the waiter pressed us into buying drinks.. saying that since their pizza is so cheap so have to order some drinks.. freaking idiots where got such things one.. nvm lah bought a cold chocolate drink from them for abt 1.30Euro .. the pizza is not bad though..

After Pizza, we went to a nearby convenience store, Xenos to check out prices of groceries.. turns out that their flavoring sauces r rather cheap.. n there r also some cheap alcoholic drinks.. We bought some n went out to proceed to the Old Town of Rotterdam to take some pics..
B4 that, we pass by this cathehedral, St. Laurenskerk

i took a pic of this.. haha one of my best nite shots..

Dom's version

While nearing the Old Town, the rest of the group felt it might be complicated n dangerous like the Old Town in Stockholm at nite.. thus we decided to head back to our Stayokay Hostel.. Personally though, i feel that any place in the world is dangerous only if one does stupid things like travelling alone in dark alleys or flaunt their valuables around or not being aware of their own surroundings...
The gers did some more shopping at the Body Shop. LL bought some concealer to conceal haha.. better not tell... yah she bought some stuff so that she could look prettier in photos.. We took the train back to Dijkzigt, the metro station closest to our hostel.. for free as well.. since no one is checking.. haha

When we check in, its way beyond opening hours for the reception.. but luckily there was someone there to help us.. We were told we will be in a 8 bed bunk and that currently there r only the 4 of us inside.. but later in the nite, there could be ppl coming in to stay.. We collected our keys n bedsheets n proceeded to our room..

The room consists of 4 double decker beds.. the 4 of us took the beds closer to the windows so that we wont be disturbed when ppl comes in..
We felt sound asleep soon enuff since we had such a tiring day of walking.. Guess wat happens at 5am in the morning..
At 5am, the door to our room opened n a Dutch couple moved in to one of the beds.. i didnt see them but just heard them.. too lazy to get up.. initially there were some fumbling of the bedsheets.. maybe setting up the bedsheet on the bed.. but after abt 10 min, the double decker bad they were in started creaking n shaking.. then soon came sounds of moaning from the woman.. n some silent "Oh My God" "Oh My God" from the guy.. its REALLY OH MY GOD.. they r having SEX in the room.. the bed shaking got progressively heavy n the moaning got louder.. n the Oh my God's came more often.. haha n finally at 530am the moaning n creaking of the bed got incredibly loud b4 everything quietens down again followed by some soft pantings from the couple.. hahah from my description, i seem like a peeping Tom or rather eavesdropping Simon (since i didnt get to see any of the action only heard it) but its really no choice.. they r just one bed away. n they r so loud that i couldnt sleep.. i tink the 4 of us were all awakened by their activity.. haha LL is sleeping at the lower deck so she could have a good view of the action haha but her 1000 degrees eyesight impeded her from doing so.. (not that she would wanna look in the first place.. haha :p).. after their activity on bed, i heard from Dom that the ger went out to the toilet NAKED!!.. Arrghh..i didnt get to see any of it.. but Dom accoridng to him, saw the whole thing.. n he commented on how nice her breasts n figure is.. haha aiyah too bad i missed it.. then its around 6am liao.. time to get ready for breakfast n for our next stop, Amsterdam.. LL n Dom went out to use the toilet.. when they came back, Dom said that the Dutch couple r doing it in the toilet cubicle again..considering that he heard smt n he had queued outside that cubicle for too long.. haha when we have all washed up n the couple settled down in the room n had enuff of SEX.. the Dutch guy tok to us.. :P we tok abt Singapore, marijuana here n other stuff.. he even agreed to take a pic with Dom.. with the Jesus pose.. haha

the girl was shy now.. n she covered herself up with blankets.. aiyah.. i missed everything.. haha
hah me on my bed..

bkfast is included.. its eat all u want.. they have got all types of bread.. n jam.. which we kop quite a lot of.. there was this instance when JL tried to kop some chocolate powder.. but she forgot she had opened it.. so when she tried to put it in her pocket stealthily.. everything poured OUT!!.. haha it was so funny.. dom fav comment to her would be "If u wanna be a thief, be one with brains, dont get caught".. haha

After breakfast, we proceeded to Central Station to catch our train to the Hague.. it costs only 4Euro to get there.. however we missed our train so we just hang around n took some pics while waiting for teh next train..

Stockholm has the T n J sign to mean that there is underground train here.. Rotterdam has the M to mean Metro..

THe Central STation

Waiting for the train..

The trains here r double decker.. first time i saw a double decker train.. haha.. cool..

Delfshaven, Euromast, Cube House..

2005-03-04T10:36:00.000+01:00

Delfshaven came to existence when the city of Delft wanted its own harbour. Traffic by water happened then, as it does now, on the river Schie. In 1389 Duke Aelbrecht Of Bavaria gave his permission to the city of Delft to dig a waterway from the village of Overschie to the river Maas. This way Delft had the use of a harbor of its own to accommodate sea-going ships.At the mouth of this new 'Delfshavense Schie' grew a small settlement and in 1398 it was called Delfshaven. The population made a living from fishing, shipbuilding and the distillery of 'jenever', the Dutch equivalent of gin. On behalf of the last, several malt-mills were built. Until the year 1811 Delfshaven belonged to Delft. At the times of the French occupation Delfshaven was independent for a short period. First from 1795 until 1803 and once again in 1811. In 1886 Delfshaven was joined to Rotterdam. In that short period of independence it achieved the status of 'city' in 1825, and the city-privileges that came with it.

From that moment on the city could by right use its own coat of arms. This was derived from the civic heraldry of Delft, which they had used until then, but now it was decorated with a herring and three cornstalks, as symbols of the fishing- and alcohol-industry. During its history Delfshaven knew many times of hardship such as the Spanish occupation, long lasting strife, fires, floods and poverty. Although Delfshaven was kept on a short leash by the city council of Delft, in fear of economical competition, there were times of wealth and prosperity as well.

Houses in Delfshaven

Euromast..
After the walk in Delfshaven, we saw the Euromast in the distance n decided to walk towards it.. bad mistake.. its not a very short walk.. took us like 15 min.. shld have taken a bus or tram instead.. by the time we reached there, we r tired n sianz... we decided to save on the 8Euro entrance fee to go up the Euromast on smt else.. nevertheless, we took soem pics with it to justify our long walk here..

Posed with some statue near the Cube House..

A closer shot of wat it is..

Posing with the other side.. there's a HIPPO.. haha

Note that in most photos, JL is carrying a blue bag.. thats becos she thot food is gonna be expensive in Holland.. so she brought a big bag of apples n breads.. so troublesome have to lug the bag around everywhere she go.. smt we have to carry for her even.. haha
Cube House..
We decided to go to the next place on our list of "Places to Go" ... the cube house.. heard that its rather famous..
In Rotterdam, which had to be rebuilt after its destruction in the Second World War, a lot of innovative buildings were built during the last decades. One of the most unconventional are the cube houses near the city centre. These houses were designed by architect Blom in the 1980s. He just tilted the conventional house 45 degrees. The houses all rest on pilons, have windows, and are all attached one to the other. And perhaps the most amazing thing: people actually live in them! Since they were disturbed so often by curious passers-by, one owner decided to open a "show cube", which is furnished as a normal house. Once inside, you get an idea how it is possible that one can live in such a strangely shaped house.

The entrance fee to the show room is 1.80 Euro.. we felt cheated becos its just a small aprtment with windows of diff angles .. n we cant go to other apartments to take a look...

View from the windows..

Looking unhappy.. felt cheated..

There r small shops such as hairdressers, food outlets under these cube houses..

As mentioned earlier, these houses r occupied by ppl.. note the Bernie doll on the left cube house window in this pic below..

Rotterdam...

2005-03-04T08:46:00.000+01:00

Map of Holland

Our flight to Rotterdam is scheduled to fly at 9+ am.. but the airport bus leaves at 7am so we met up pretty early to buy tickets for the bus..
Took the airport bus from Stockholm to the Skavasta Airport.. ( a 1hr 30 min ride from Stockholm) Budget airlines make use of airports that r far from the city center or main airports such as Arlanda international airport so as to cut down operating costs..

Was bored so took some pics from the bus.. tried to capture shots of the sun outline behind the clouds.. made use of Dom’s polarized lens to take pics of the sun..

Flew from Skavsta Airport to Rotterdam Airport by Transavia

At the airport, there is this smoking cubicle.. there is no door for this cubicle.. the smoke gets suck up so that it does not escape this cubicle..

Waiting for the plane..

Our plane will be near Gate 2..

The duty free shop at the airport..

There r some items in the Duty Free shop that caught DOm's attention.. his bizness mind start to work as soon as he saw all these items.. haha quite nice though..

Pics of the plane..

In the plane.. pretty much the same as normal airplane except that food n drinks have to be ordered n paid for.. its just a short 2 hrs flight away so just take a short nap..

I had the window seat so more photo opportunities… its rather disappointing to see that Holland is mostly covered by snow which equals to no tulips.. :(.. sigh..

From the plane.. we can see that Holland has lots of canals n dykes..

Arrival at Rotterdam Airport..

There seem to be customs check at the airport.. there r also no immigration officers to stamp our passports. Once we get off our plane n collected our check in luggage, we could just walk straight out to Rotterdam.. I guess this is pretty much the case for any plane coming in from any European Union country. The European Union consists of many European countries such as Great Britain, Sweden, Holland, Germany etc.. so moving within the EU countries is like moving around one whole country.. thus no need for security checks n stuff like that.. I guess.. We went straight for information desk and collected maps of Rotterdam n took a bus 33 to Rotterdam Central Station.. it costs 2.40Euro.. (abt S$5) .. the ticket allows us to use any public transport within the next hour without extra charges..

NATIONAL 'STRIPPEN CARD'

The cities of The Hague, Amsterdam and Rotterdam offer transportation by tram. Amsterdam and Rotterdam also have a subway system. Most tram and subway services start at 6 a.m. and run until approximately 12 midnight. The subway trains and trams are usually faster than the city buses. You do not have to buy a ticket on the tram/subway but you use the so-called 'strippen card'.
The local The Hague tram company is HTM, in Amsterdam the GVB company offers tram and subway services, while the Rotterdam equivalent is RET.
Holland's network of buses and trams serves both urban and regional districts. Most services start at around 6 a.m. and end at around 12 midnight. A wide range of tickets is available. Only two of these are of relevance if you stay in Holland for a short time.

The 'Strippen Card' is valid throughout the country for travel on buses, trams and subways. It is also valid on trains which travel within the city boundaries of Amsterdam, Rotterdam, Utrecht and The Hague.
Holland has been divided into transportation zones with set tariffs. To travel one zone you have to pay two 'strips'. You pay an extra 'strip' for each subsequent zone. Within the same zone you may change within a time limit mentioned on the back of the card.
You can buy a 'Strippen Card' with 15 strips (EUR 6.50) or with 45 strips (EUR 19.20). You need one strip more than the number of zones in which you want to travel. Usually a tram ride in Amsterdam center is within 1 zone, so that means 2 strips in total have to be stamped. You either stamp the card yourself in the bus or tram, or you can have it stamped by the bus driver or tram conductor. Several people can travel on the same card, as long as the correct number of strips is stamped. Your stamp is valid for one hour, so you can transfer to other buses, subways and trams as long as you stay within the zones you originally stamped your ticket for.

Thus we purchased a Strippen card with 45 strips for EUR 19.20 at the Central Station n we could share this among ourselves.. otherwise public transport in Holland is very ex..

At the Metro (subway), there r gantries where ppl could insert their strippen card n have it stamped automatically.. of course we didn’t noe wat issit used for then n we still r within the 1 hr limit for the ticket we bought for the bus from the airport. There r no ppl to check if u stamped yer strippen card or not.. but however at the interchange subway station where it’s the busiest when commuters switch from the east line to the west line.. there are ppl wearing green RET(the company in charge of the subway) jackets (like the one on the left in this pic below) checking the validity of the tickets..

In the train.. we saw a croissant shop selling croissants for only EUR0.90 at the station .. we were pretty tempted by it but still not very hungry yet..

There r designated roads for two wheels n four wheels haha.. as u can see below.. bicycles n motorcycles use this track while other cars use the main road..

Trams in Rotterdam..

These yellow boxes are for commuters to insert their strippen card n get the time stamped on one of their strips.. n occasionally there r conductors who go around the tram checking the tickets for date stamped.. n when there r no conductors, of course we dont stamp n save the strips for later usage.. haha

Sometimes the doors dont open by themselves at certain stops, so ppl who wish to get down have to press this "Door Open" button on the door..

Posing with the 45 strips of ticket we have...

Project Presentation!!

2005-03-03T00:47:00.000+01:00

Finally, we had our project presentation this morning.. we start our system demo at 9am then followed by our oral presentation at 10+ am.. the system demo went pretty smoothly.. with Vic toking all abt the project we did.. n the teachers r pretty impressed with it.. haha

Wat was a culture shock to me was the oral presentation portion.. i always thot that it will be smt like a group presentation with each individuals toking abt their parts.. but its really a very individual oral presentation.. with everyone for themselves..it turns out that wat the lecturers r looking for is the presentation style n they really comment on the slides n how the presenter talks n stuff like that.. i didnt expect this for an Engineering subject.. its just totally an unexpected n new experience for me.. i tink i pretty much screwed up my part of the presentation.. totally unrehearsed n unprepared.. we were given 5 min each but i took like 3 min only.. so embarassing.. i sort of panicked n forgot to say some of the stuff..

After the individual oral presentation for our group, the lecturer suggested a break.. its abt 1145am liao.. n i was hoping for just a short break for him so that we can get this chop chop n done with.. but sigh.. everyone but me n LL agreed on a lucnh break of 1 hr til 1245pm.. ok loh.. LL n me proceeded to the Elektro room to have our lucnh.. the rest r going to the restaurant in Q building.. a bit anti social for us but hey its 60kr per meal over there while i could get a cheap pizza for 13kr n some more snacks from my fav sweet corner at a few more kroners.. who cares abt anti socialness when u r a poor student.. haha

after lunch, we proceeded to finsih off the presentation for the otehr group.. there was one guy in that group which just merely writes some words on a transparency n covers some other parts of it to be reveal later.. which looks rather slack.. he says that he is busy with otehr porjects n stuff.. but i tink the time taken to preapre the transparencies is abt the same as preparing some ppt slides.. from this i realise, how very individual this presentation is when his team mates didnt bother to help him with it.. at least our Vic sent us a template for us to base our ppt slides on..

after all the presentation had ended, LL n me went down to the lab to take pics of our project setup.. however the electricity is cut off so we cant turn on the pc to take a pic of the software setup that our team has.. :p
but wat we can do is take some pic of our hardware.. haha

When i got back home, received a email in the evening from the lecturer abt our pts for this project..
For the Machine spectrum group we have actually
chosen to differentiate a bit in the Technical
solution bonus for the different group members as
we feel that the software part is really very
impressive, while the hardware part is more
average. If you feel that this differentiation is
not juste, please contact me.

For you Lin Zhiqiang the result so far is
Plan: 2
Technical solution: 2
User interface: 2
Oral: 1

erm ok loh.. not bad lah.. i PASSED!!.. we need 6 pts to pass.. yeh!! we still have one more portion of the grading, the report.. where we can get max of 3 more pts.. but i just need 6 n i got 7 now.. haha

ok now.. time to get ready for my Netherlands Trip from 4th March to 7th March...

Elektro!! cool.. Swedish lesson..

2005-03-02T00:03:00.000+01:00

haha nothing much to tok abt today.. met up with LL to discuss smt abt our project presentation b4 we proceed for our Swedish course at 5pm..

BUT b4 that, we went to our fav room in KTH, the Elektro.. its smt like a student room for Engineering students.. diff departments have their own rooms all accessible by a encoded card that each student possess..

The part of the room that i like best is this snack corner.. i would often come down here to grab a quick snack when i m hungry..

Prices for the snacks.. 5kr(abt S$1.25) for a Snicker Bar.. quite reasonable..

U can pay for the snacks by putting yer money in this "cash box" .. u handle yer own change yerself.. there r no cashiers around..

Beside this sweets corner, tehre is a big fridge with pizzas n other micro-wavable food items..

A piece of pizza slice costs 13kr.. also pay the money to a box in the fridge..

On the other side of the sweets corner, there is a drinks fridge, for this u have to slot in coins like a vending machine to get the drink u want..
By its side, there is another fridge containing stuff like chocolate wafers n other cold snacks..

there is a table soccer machine here in this room as well.. at times, the ppl playing this machine r really very violent, u can be assured that its not a peaceful n quiet sight when they play.. they just get so animated at times..

Tables in the room for studying, eating lunch or just chilling out..

There is also a kitchen here.. from wat LL told me is that a Swedish student told her that its a very Swedish way to prepare yer own lunch n bring it to this room to heat it up by microwave oven.. which pretty much make sense in terms of economics.. a lunch at the sch restaurant costs abt 60 kr (S$15).. There r cupboards with plates n utensils inside for yer own usage.. jsu tensure u wash it after use..

haha finally me with the Elektro sign..

After this short phototaking session in Elektro, we proceeded to our Swedish lesson nearby..
It feels so good to be back with this teacher (Ms Berit). COmpared to last week makeup lesson on Monday, i feel so relaxed in this lesson even though i havent done any of the homeowrk assigned.. i tink we r suppsoed to read the txtbks or smt like that.. but haha i just figure out along the way lah..
Ms Berit will at times suddenly tok abt her daughter in Australia.. there is this concept of "ex jobb" which is the equipvalent of master thesis writing in Swedish university.. they treat this thesis writing as smt like a full time job instead of studying so Berit was spending like 15+ minutes trying to define wat is "ex jobb" then she will tok abt her daughter doing this in Australia.. n how much she miss her n that her daughter loves Australia's temperature at 31 degree celsius compared to the cold Stockholm at minus 5 to 8 degree celsius..
Then at one pt when she is teaching abt how to say grnadparents, parents, cousins in Swedish.. basically abt family members.. quite interesting..
Farmor - Father's mother
Farfar - Father's father
Mormor - Mother's mother
Morfar - Mother's father
Barn - child
Barnbarn - children's child --> grandchildren
then she start digressing.. alto she is speaking in Swedish, i seem to catch her words a bit.. she seem to be toking abt her barnbarn making her husband a card.. with glitter n glue n stuff , making a big heart shaped card for him.. spending like 4-5 hrs.. n she is so envious that her husband gets it.. n her barnbarn promise to make one for her.. n she is very much looking forward to it..

so tired after this Swedish lesson that i went back to fried some rice.. then did my ppt slides for tomolo presentation.. n fell asleep like a log at 11am.. have to clear those food in the fridge taht r expiring in March since i wont be in Stockholm for the most of March...

Nite Phototaking on Gondolen

2005-03-01T00:17:00.000+01:00

Received this email below from our course lecturer last nite on Monday.. haha.. our group was scheduled to have a system demonstration on Tuesday.. but luckily..

Hi all,

Tomorrow, Tuesday is the deadline for
demonstration of the system you have developed in
the course.

Unfortunately the cold I had has developed into
pneumonia and the doctor strongly urged me to
rest at home.

Therefore I have to postpone the system
demonstration some days. I suggest that the
demonstration is done Thursday March 3 at 9. If
both groups are there at this time we can have it
done in time before the oral presentations at 10.

well ok loh.. our system demo postponed til then.. haha anyway i not very sure that our system will work fine yet..

Met up with LL n Dom at Central Station Mac where they had a set meal for dinner.. i cooked some spagehetti for dinner b4 coming.. We r supposed to exchange some Euros for use in our Easter trip.. haha..

After which we proceed to Slussen where we plan to take some nite photos.. accoridng to Dom, the temp tonite is abt -14 degree celsius!!.. wah!! luckily i wore 4 layers of clothing tonite.. one thermal shirt, one normal shirt, one sweater n finally one coat.. i had a feeling taht its gonna be cold tonite so i wore more.. usually i dont wear my thermal shirt.. just 3 layers.. heng ah..

We plan to go to Gondolen, accoridng to Dom, its the highest pt in Stockholm.. ermm ok loh..
dont noe wat the 1655 means.. could be the time.. but no leh.. its 8+ pm now.. Dom tried to smoke us saying that its the number of ppl taking the life up today.. diaonz..
This is an old lift from 1936 that goes up to Godolen restaurant and also the heights of Slussen. At the top one can walk across a bridge which gives wonderful views of the city. It's covered with protective side wire to save people from falling so photos must be taken from between the wires. The bridge leads out onto the street next to Södra Teatern and Mosebacke Torg.

What is ridiculous is that the lift costs 10kr for adults!!! diaonz.. for just a short lift ride of like a few seconds.. there is a lift operator inside... when we stepped in, he said 10kr each pls.. erm ok loh.. he closed the lift door liao n we r inside so no choice loh.. anyway 10 kr (S$2.50) cant even buy a proper meal here not even a hotdog by the street loh (usually 20kr) but i noe can buy MEE POK back home.. i misss the mee pok in SIngapore so much.. When we reached the top, turns out that its possible to get up free but have to walk some distance.. ok lah next time day shot of STockholm scenery!!

hmm.. wat is LL tinking beside the Coca-Cola sign..

me with Coca-COla sign.. (this pic taken with Dom camera.. more clearer haha)

On the bridge connecting to the gate where we could get in for free if we climbed a lot of stairs up..

My plan tonite was to come here to practise my night photography so that when i go to Paris later i could get nice pics.. tried learning from the photography master, Dom abt aperture size n shutter speed.. ok i tink i write down here in case i forget..

Less light, either increase aperture size or increase the exposure time.. F5.6 is the smallest aperture size F2.8 is the biggest.. (it works in reverse) usually 1 sec exposure is enuff.. when its 1s exposure, the subject shldnt move for 1 sec.. i accidentally adjust it to 15 sec in one photo shoot w/o knowing it.. then i was wondering wat happened to my camera, processed for so long.. n the result is as shown below.. overexposed..

My other tries at capturing the scenery below... (Cannot Make It!!)

n this is wat happens when u shake the camera..

ME with the view from the top.. very sianz got all these wire mesh.. spoil the scenery..

I m still not pro enuff.. Dom's pics r really good.. as u can see below.. some nice night views from the Gondolen

View from the other side of the Gondolen..

This is a moving neon sign of Stomatol.. dont noe wat issit.. looks like a toothpaste..

took some pics at the other end of the bridge.. the bridge which we first crossed when we got out the lift..

took some pics for LL as well.. a lot of her pics in mine n dom camera, we need someone to pose in position so that we can test out our night shots effects.. so she got a lot of pics as a result.. lucky bugger.. :p
haha she complained she look small in the pic on the left as compared to the right ermm ok loh

the pic on the right for LL was a success for me.. finally able to capture smt w/o blurring it.. tried so many times shooting so many things on my stupid tripod.. my tripod is spoilt as well.. my bao pei camera dropped 2 times from it.. heart break ah.. lcukily nothing mcuh happened..

This is wat its supposed to look like in the day...

on the other side of the bridge, it looks like this..

The stupid lift whcih we got charged money for.. arrghhh..

first time in my life, that i paid to take a lift.. its called the Katarina Lift..
The Katarina Lift, Stockholm, was first erected in 1883. This much loved feature of the Stockholm skyline was demolished in 1933 and rebuilt two years later. The lift has two cages and takes you 38 meters up to the old streets of Mosebacke.

Its so freezing cold tonite so high up on the Gondolen.. by the time, we r ready to leave the Gondolen.. my hands r numb already.. mucus keep flowing from my nose.. dont Eeeee me.. this happens when u r in such a cold environemnt.. its not just me loh.. Dom n LL as well.. haha

haha just visited one of my friend's blog... http://lizz-.blogspot.com there is a cool javascript embedded inside.. to prevent source copying.. i tried to right click n copy smt.. then when i got out to do my work.. n trying to copy n paste smt else.. all that comes out is this "Â© lizz rocks "
"Â© lizz rocks " ... no matter what other stuff i copy, when i paste ,i get "Â© lizz rocks " ..
haha thats cool but now fixed liao.. dont worry, it isnt a virus..

Long Lab Monday..

2005-02-28T23:34:00.000+01:00

I discovered a lot of things while over here in Sweden.. One of the many things i discovered is " Dont go to bed with your hair wet".. haha this is the effect of going to bed immediately after showering..

that LL said this hairstyle looks like her idol's hair.. Akira from Slam Dunk.. haha

This is wat i look like normally..

Well enuff of my ego pics.. yah today LL n I were scheduled to have a Radiation detector lab from 1pm to 6pm.. 3 ppl form a group for the lab.. each day can only have 1 group.. we were partnered with a Swedish guy .. that guy was wearing a green tshirt with a Great Wall of China drawing on it with some Chinese words.. i wondered if he wore that becos he thot he is doing the lab with 2 CHinese ppl.. :P our lab demonstrator is quite nice n slack as well.. haha he keep emphasising he wants the lab report short like 2 pages enuff lioa.. ok loh.. hhaa..
One thing special abt Swedish lessons is that for small groups, there is usually a coffee break in the middle of the class. In SIngapore, a break means just a short pause where teh students hang around, stone or sleep.. but over here, it really means coffee break.. the only reason i hate coffee break is that they drink coffee.. i hate coffee.. so bitter.. so for this coffee break, i decided to try tea instead.. luckily its tasteless, like drinking hot water.. there is an expresso machine in the pantry.. LL say expresso is more powerful than coffee.. abt 100 times more bitter.. wah heng didnt try..
after the break, we went back to finsih up on the lab..
FOr my dinner, i heated up the curry chickne that DS tabao for me the last time i went his house n i cooked french fries n bacon with it.. haha so sinful..

Sleepless in Borlange

2005-02-27T23:05:00.000+01:00

Yah.. as mentioned in the previous post, we missed our bus n we hitchhike to a nearby town called Borlange. When we reached the bus station of Borlange, we searched frantically for a bus or train back to Stockholm today.. but unfortunately the earliest train is 1030am n earliest bus is 1230pm both on Sunday... n here we r stuck here on a Saturday afternoon 5pm.. sigh..

We walked abt Borlange, hoping that at least we can get smt out of this unfortunate incident.. however, its a rather boring town with most shops closed by 5pm.. its a very cold place as well.. much much colder than Stockholm.. dont noe the temperature but it feels very cold.. n my hands r very much exposed to this terrible cold.. usually i will wear my gloves.. but my gloves r frozen with ice during the snowboard trip.. n i m also carrying around a big lump of ice stuck on my sweater during my several rolls in the snow while falling n snowboarding.. now just hoping for them to melt soon.. sigh.. sianz..

We reached a shop.. finally.. a open shop.. actually we were looking for any shop to go inside so that we can get some heat n escape from the miserable cold.. how i wished for a portable radiator.. a wish that i would never have think of b4 i come to Sweden considering i lived in Sunny always 31 degrees Singapore.. this shop that we walked into is a candy shop.. it sells all kinds of candy.. n the shopkeeper is rather friendly n we tok a bit with him.. n in actual fact, i m wishing that he would take us in for the nite so that we need not sleep in a train station.. unfortunately the topic never came up.. we did buy a 7kr ice cream each from him.. its a new flavor i tink called "Love Potion" its made in conjunction with V-day i tink n there is a special promotion of half price.. it was originally 14kr..
Tinking abt how cool it is to eat ice cream that doesnt melt as u walked, i decided to try it out.. haha.. n yes it doesnt melt.. the outdoors is as cold as a fridge..
i walked for quite some distance n taking small bites, hoping to savor every bit of an enjoyable moment in this cold, miserable nite...

We reached the train station n we settled down on teh floor to play Bridge.. n waiting for time to pass til the next day.. i placed my frozen gloves on the radiator to melt the stupid ice that got trapped inside..

unfortuantely after a while, a guard came to chase us away.. saying the train station is closed for the nite.. we proceeded on to the bus station (they r side by side).. n we settled down for a while.. we wanted to use the toilet but just not happy to give the toilet 5kr for entry so Dom went ahead to try some method to beat the system..
i tink his original plan was to use a string (in this case we dont have a string, we use LL hair.. haha) to tie around a 5kr coin n to slot it in n pull it out when the door is open.. n then to jam the door so it doesnt close back n lock itself so that we can use it thru the nite..

we ok-ed the plan since we have pretty mcuh nothing to do.. i tried to read a Swedish newspapers while JL n LL took a nap on each other n our "industrious" dom went to carry out his plan..

unfortunately, the plan failed as the hair broke while the coin was inside.. n the 5kr is MINE!!.. haha ok loh.. then we just use smt to block the door from locking itself so we r able to use the toilet for as mcuh as we want.. some other ppl also came to use the toilet taht we jammed.. haha we r doing a public service..

After this mis-cue (seems like nothing is going rite today), we settled down to play Bridge on the floor.. After a few hrs of Bridge, we decided to sleep on the benches at 1030pm since there will be no buses after taht period n less ppl walking abt.. However, the suayest of thing happen.. another guard came to lock the bus station.. we explained our plight but he just said that he cant allow this or else the drunkards n homeless will come here to take refuge from teh cold as well.. yah quite true.. then ok loh.. we decided to end our suffering tonite by staying in a hotel.. the nearest one is Park Inn.. n we couldnt really be bothered to find another one.. cos its way too cold outside.. its a 4 star hotel. .we booked a one man room n shared it.. there is also breakfast in teh morning.. n we went together sicne they dont check.. it costs abt 600kr per nite.. so we make sure we had our fill of the breakfast.. very good breakfast though, scrambled eggs, bacon , all kinds of meat.. a lot of stuff, yoghurt, cereal, bread, cookies.. its buffet so u take wat u want.. there r even vitamins available freely.. we took our fair share of it home as well..

yah the nite spent in the room was good.. LL n JL shared the bed.. i took one mattress from the bed n slept on it on the floor while Dom slept on a comforter... (he refused to share the mattress with me so ok loh.. ) its pretty cold but quite comfortable with blankets n pillows.. other than the snoring, its pretty quiet.. :p haha.. i was knocked out soon after i lied on the pillow so wasnt bother by the snoring.. haha :p i took a shower the next morning.. wah so comfortable.. after a full breakfast n a rather good nite sleep (oops my title is a bit misleading.. i m not really sleepless in Borlange.. i slept quite well), we r rather refreshed n i have the mood to take photos again.. very few photos were taken last nite.. very depressed n tired..

haha a posed scandalous pic.. we didnt sleep like that .. :p

Our room 118..

At the hotel lounge

At the hotel restaurant where we had our breakfast..(the pic is not very straight due to the photographer for whom i took a pretty nice pic of.. haha )

We paid so much for a room.. so must take more pics.. to make up for our financial n emotional loss...

We went back to the bus station after we checked out. However, the bus ticket counter is not opened til 12 noon so we still have time n decided to see the town in the day.. B4 doing that, we took some more pics..
Posing with teh benches we intend to sleep on last nite..

LL's bench as she proudly proclaimed.. :p she was sleeping on this bench b4 being chased away..

1015am in the morning, the town of Borlange is like a ghost town.. no one at all.. i tink no one wakes up that early in Sweden on a weekend..

A parking meter..

Some more pretty random shots of this ghost town..

Where is EVERYBODY!?!?! its just 1030am liao leh.. as u can see from the clock on the top right hand corner..

Ok.. here r some shots with ppl inside.. (as usual its mostly my pic..)
Posing with smt which looks like a kangaroo n alien..

Me in the ghost town..

Me with a advertisement for Semlas.. i fallen in love with this sinful Semla since the Semla outing i had with LL last Tuesday.. :p

With a map of Borlange

With anotehr statue of Jussi Björling.. i tink he is a pretty popular person here.. is a singer.. n even have his own musuem here too.. :p No no i m not yawning.. i jsut imitating his pose..

Pictures with a big globe..

A group photo.. behind us n the globe is a smt like an entertainment centre with bowling alleys n internet lan game cafe..

Me posing like an idiot as usual..

Are they inside or r they outside... looks comfusing..

JL trying to take a pic in a red lump of dont noe wat plastic.. but was tricked by Dom n was pushed into it.. Dom asked JL to raise her leg while she sat on the outside of the ball.. n JL really did.. n all Dom had to do is push her a bit to make her lose balance n slip inside.. hahha.. :P What a mean Dom Dom.. :P

JL posing with the female hairdressing part of the salon..

Me with the male side..

Me with a Systembolaget sign..

Systembolaget is one of the few places where alcohol could be sold over the counter.. (Alcohol sale is heavily regulated by the Swedish govt..)
LL n Dom fighting as usual.. or rather LL is again trying to show off her Ultimate Fighting skills or Judo skills..

Tourist Center in Borlange..

Public toilet in Borlange (also 5kr entry)..

AFter the walk around the town, we went back to the bus station where we just stone n wait for the bus to come.. during this boring wait, we took some pics as well,, (be forewarned, the pics depicts the middle finger.. its just for some fun.. n no special meaning.. dont be offended..)

The bus ticket counter is finally open.. n we bought the ticket.. n it costs 150kr per person!!.. wah so EX!!.. xiong ah..
Posing with the dreaded bus ticket..

Yo yo.. wassup...

One group photo on the bus.. b4 the tortorous 3 hrs bus ride to Stockholm..

Snowboarding in Romme Alpine

2005-02-26T09:59:00.000+01:00

Woke up at 5+ in the morning.. n off we go to our snowboarding trip in Romme Alpine..
Pic of the early morning sky.. haha with the moon..

We went to City Terminalen to take the bus to Romme Alpine.. it takes abt 3 hrs from Stockholm to there.. so thats the reason we woke up so early so that we can catch the earliest bus at 7am n reach there n have time to snowboard..
its written that there is a bus at 630am but the bus only came at 7am..

Ppl at the City Terminalen..

Picture at Romme Alpine.. Jenley (JL), LL, Dom n me went for this trip..

The place where we rent our snowboard equipment.. there r a lot of counters n everyone have to take a number n wait for their number to be shown on the board b4 they can get their stuff..

Our Snowboards..

There is a small building that everyone leaves their stuff there.. there is no locker for your bags n shoes (anyway for skiing or snowboarding, we all have to change to special shoes equipped for that purpose).. everyone just leaves their stuff on shelves in that building n snowboards n skis r not allowed in so everyone jsut leaves theirs outside..

Posing with my snowboard..

Ski lift.. the ski lift takes us up to a very high up place.. there seems to be no beginner slope.. the slopes r steep n gentle at times... LL mentioned that the slopes here r only abt 1/3 of the slopes she experienced in South Korea.. wah..

The pic on top is that of a ski lift at the destination.. so scary, ppl have to snowboard or ski down the slope immediately after they reach or risk being knocked by the lift..

Me after getting off from ski lift..

b4 going down a slope..

Signs pointing to a diff slope each direction..

I tink i have fallen a million times on this stupid snowboard.. its not the snowboard's fault.. its mine.. the slopes r super steep at times.. i always have a tendency to go into the woods by the side.. i tink i fell into it abt 3 times.. its a very msierable feeling.. crawling out.. a very painful experience..
LL here after falling..

A picture of one of the gentler slopes..

One more pic b4 i roll down this slope.. (my snowboard is in the foreground)..

Finally after struggling for abt an hour or 2.. i finally got down the slope with LL n JL.. Dom passed us by 3 times by the time we got down...

More of me.. ( i noe very ego.. haha but hey its my blog.. :p)

A very cool shot of me taken by Dom ( or at least thats wat i tink lah abt the cool part.. :p)

Some pics of the Romme Alpine (nice sky.. very bright sun as well.. tahts why i wore sunglasses.. they r really needed.. also when i snowboard, the cold n strong headwind will not feel good esp on the eyes n i cant close it.. so luckily i had this sunglasses)

Directions to various places in Romme Alpine.. (the restaurant, renting place etc.)

One of The slope.. (all slopes eventually end at the same place)

After our first round of snowboarding for LL, JL n me..n third round for dom, we decided to have lunch at one of the cafe.. the price was pretty reasonable considering the fact of free flow of drinks n salad n dry cookies.. haha or at least we assume its free.. we jsut took.. no one stop us.. it shld be ok then.. haha dont care liao.. too hungry to care abt our face..

After this lunch, we head off for our second round.. however the last bus is leaving at 4+.. we took to the slopes at 3+.. unfortunately for me, i sort of injured my foot after falling a few more million times.. n have to walk down the rest of the slopes.. cant snowboard w/o feeling the pain.. n its a very long walk.. as a result.. i tink we missed the last bus.. when i reached the bottom, the bus was still there but after changing out of all the snowboard equipment n we r ready to go, there r NO more buses.. sob sob.. :P LL, Dom, JL.. sorry for dragging all of u into this shitty situation..

However at the carpark, there r still a lot of cars getting ready to go home.. we found a Swedish kind enuff to allow us to drive us to the nearest town, Borlange.. (the town he is staying in) in the hopes of catching a bus or train back to STockholm.. n the next post i shall elaborate on our "dont noe whetehr to cry or laugh" evening in Borlange (a town i dont tink the 4 of us will ever forget in our life from that nite onwards..)

Busy with Project on Friday

2005-02-25T21:32:00.000+01:00

Wasnt being able to update my blog for Friday and Saturday for 2 main reasons which will be explained in this n the next few posts..

On Friday, LL and I was trying to rush out a 1st draft of a report.. n luckily it was done.. n i stayed over at Dom's place.. since we have to leave for our snowboarding trip early in the morning at 5:45am from their place.. n by the time LL n i have finished our report, its already 1am plus.. :p ..

Some pics of our project.. hehe..

Here r pics of our test subject for our project.. (a bunch of motors mounted on a platform n we r supposed to detect n measure their frequencies using LabVIEW software)

ermm.. ok loh.. also dont noe wat to do.. n the project is due on Tuesday.. but i dont tink we r ready yet.. :P sigh.. see how lah..

Semla Snack & Visit to DS

2005-02-24T23:15:00.000+01:00

well.. nothing much happened today.. as usual i went to do my project.. a bit panicky liao.. still not very much done liao.. then next Tuesday presentation.. stress stress.. nvm tomolo then continue n do up the report..

after which LL n I went back to Hemkop in T-centralen..

last nite, LL was disappointed that no more Semla liaoz.. (she felt that after Feb no more Semlas liaoz.. maybe its becos after Easter liao.. read my previous post here to find out more)-->

Semla

so today we go n try n see if there is anymore today.. n the always so clever LL so coincidentally forgot to bring her wallet today.. haha.. so i have to pay for the Semla loh.. ok loh..19.90kr for 2 Semlas.. its counted as 20kr becos in Sweden, they dont have 0.10kr or 10 ores.. so if its 19.60kr then it will also be 20kr (round up) and if its 19.40kr then it will be 19kr (round down)

Semla on the way to the cashier..

The 19.90kr Semlas that LL wanted to buy n eat but she forgot to bring her wallet.. :p

Advertising for the Semlas..

the last time when i tried this Semla, was in Uppsala.. when LL n JL bought n tried it out.. n i took a quick scoop from their Semla.. LL was saying the Semla at Uppsala then was 35kr n now its 20kr for 2 (1 for 10kr lah).. 3.5 times more..
it didnt taste that good last time.. i dont like the cinnamon taste in the bread.. but this time.. its GOOD!!.. very sinful n sweet.. haha.. :P

Now u see it, Now u dont!.. haha..

The box containing the Semlas..

The Semlas dont last long.. their shelf life is abt 2 days as shown below..

After which, LL went off for her lesson at Telefonplan.. while i walked around town for a while.. went to some souvenoir shops in the area n went to a CD store to check out their CDs.. there is a magazine store by the CD store.. n haha.. other than the comparatively mild FHM (For Him Magazine), they have Playboy magazine (the real one!! no censorship no nothing.. hehe pls forgive the pun)as well.. haha smt that Singapore dont have.. haha :P

I m supposed to meet up with the De Silvas (DS), a Swedish friend of mine.. got to noe him thru my mum.. aiyah long story.. i posted it somewhere b4 liao.. yah i took the train to Slussen where i took a 30 min bus to Skarpovagang where he stays.. had a good dinner over there.. soya pork, curry pork n chicken with mushroom n rice.. yummy.. haha YEH! then talk a bit abt Singapore n other stuff.. then i left for home.. Mr DS also prepared a pack of curry pork for me to take back to heat up to eat..haha.. :p one of my dinner settled!!.. but dont tink will get a chance to eat.. i tink i gonna camp in sch the next few days to finish up the project.. so dont tink will have chance to eat dinner at home.. haha.. so ke lian.. :( ... :p

Took some pics of the bus i took back to Slussen..

Danderyds Sjukhus & Nobel Museum..

2005-02-23T23:32:00.000+01:00

After project meeting in KTH, i proceeded for my field visit for my other KTH module.. a module abt radiation detectors.. took the train up north to stop, Danderyds Sjukhus.. Sjukhus in swedish means Hospital.. so we r supposed to meet the guest lecturer at the main lobby at 3pm..
then after a short briefing, a radiologist brought us to the place where they do CAT scans .. n stuff.. haha basically for the whole of the 2 hrs.. i m like stoning here n there.. partially dont noe wat he is toking abt.. haha have to start reading my notes.. PET scan, CAT scan.. wats missing is a DOG scan.. then he also showed us a 3D reconstruction of what the inside of a intenstine looks like.. what they did is they send a mini camera that travels around the stomach.. to get the interior view.. the lecturer also brought us to see a NMR room (smt called Magnetic Resonance) n we all have to stand n view from the outside.. becos the magnetic field is way too strong.. anything metallic stuck in our body could be ripped out by the strong attraction.. pacemakers will get destroyed.. our watch, credit cards n other metallic equipemnt will all be damaged if they r brought inside.. so the patient have to be clear of any metal b4 going in..
here they scan the bone, heart.. basically everything lah.. i also not very sure myself... haha
The hospital courtyard..

The hospital is pretty much like any other Singapore hospitals.. there r more services here though.. i saw a hair salon here n some cafes n convenience stores..
There is a waiting area for ppl waiting for cabs.. Cab driver will then walk to teh lobby when they arrived n say out the name of the person who booked them.. haha this shld be to prevent the old ppl from waiting outside in the cold..

Me posing under one of the hospital signs..

The link from the Tunnelbana..

After this field trip.. LL n I took the tunnelbana down towards Gamla Stan where we r supposed to have our next field trip for our Swedish culture class at the Nobel Museum..
We took some pics along the journey.. haha so embarassing.. hehe..

Us pretending to read the free tabloids

Finally we reached Gamla Stan.. i very confidently led LL towards the Nobel Museum.. but ended up losing our way.. but hey hey i m not so bad.. in fact we r just one street away only.. hehe.. we found a Swedish guy to guide us there.. anyway if u asking for directions in a touristy place like Gamla Stan.. look for ppl with dogs.. they shld be Swedish sicne they have dogs.. :P we reached the Nobel Museum n luckily they only jsut started.. :P haha

The curator of the Nobel Museum tok a lot.. he seems to noe everything abt the Nobel Museum n the Nobel Prizes.. any questions we threw at him, he has no problems with it.. ask him who is the youngest or oldest winner.. who r the female winners.. the more famous winners.. wat is Nobel Prize abt .. etc.. n he just seems to noe eveyrthing.. i tink maybe he devoted his whole life to Nobel Prize..

We were shown 2 short films abt the Nobel Prize.. very chim.. i dont even noe wats going on.. there were 3 screens in this auditorium.. n the film is shown in these 3 screens.. n each screen shows a diff scene each running at the same time.. very confusing n chim.. after this we were brought out where the curator tok to us more abt the Nobel Prize winners.. then he brought us into another room to view 3 more film clips abt the 3 Nobel Prize winners.. these r a lot more straight forward.. after which he let us roam the museum for 30 minutes.. n off we go to walk walk see see n take pics!!..

A panel of glass showing the achievements of each decade from 1900 onwards..

Currently there is an exhibition: The Dewdrop and the Cosmos:
The World of Harry Martinson .. supposedly its the works n collections of this Nobel Prize winner for Literature..

This is also part of the exhibit.. i noe it looks scary.. haha

There is this exhibit of one of his collection

A close up on wat is written..

If u own 2 coppers
buy one loaf of bread n one blossom
the bread is there to fill u
the blossom u buy is to tell u
that life is worth living
Simon's addition..
after u find out life is worth living
u starve to death
because u could have bought another bread with that copper
or at least buy a fishing rod to catch a fish

On the ceiling, there r pictures of the 770 Nobel Prize winners going around the musuem.. the curator mentioned that it will take 2hr 40 min to finsih seeing all the pics if one just stand there n look up..

This pic below shows the long list of pictures of the Nobel Prize winners all queued up ready to go another round.. everytime a pic goes one round n reaches the end of the queue.. the one at the front of the queue moves on.. i tink abt 4-5 pics r making each revolution..

Outside the musuem..

We decided to walk to T-centralen.. that crazy LL suddenly say she wanna try the Semla in Ahlens.. ok loh..

Along the way, we found a telephone booth.. very retro..

I was forced to take this pic by LL.. very demanding.. haha need the name of the cafe n the menu as well..

When we reach Hemkop in Ahlens, LL was disappointed as her beloved Semla selling at 19,90kr for 2 is no more liao.. haha then nvm loh.. we took more pics..

Eric was fascinated by this lighting.. so i took a pic for him..

Posing with a big biscuit.. LL say that this is a very dry biscuit.. ok loh..
Swedish crispbread, or knäckebröd comes from the middle region of Sweden, where the flour could only be ground in the spring and autumn, when there was enough water to drive the mills. It was normal to do a huge baking once or twice a year in connection with the grain harvest. It required bread with a long shelf-life and which allowed the grain to be stored over a long period of time. This type of hard and dry bread was known as crisp bread and was baked in large round cakes. The hole in the middle was added to make storage easier, with the bread being threaded onto long rods and suspended below the ceiling. The northerners ate tunnbröd, or thinbread, because the only crop which would grow there was barley and it could not rise. The everyday loaf, or limpa was only eaten in the south, where crops were better.Wasa is the world's largest producer of crispbread. Every year the company sells around 60,000 tons of crispbread in 40 countries. The Swedes eat more crispbread than any other people in the world, almost 4 kilograms per capita.

Yoggi drinks.. LL fav..

Advertising the Yoggi drink..

Milk.. according to LL, this is a major milk company in Sweden.. i tink she mention smt a monopoly.. :P More info courtesy of LL..
Basically, Arla is the leading dairy brand in Sweden. It’s market share for dairy products is incomparable. They basically have milk or 3%, 1,5%, 0,3%, 0,01% fat, butter milk, cream, vanilla yoghurt and loads more. In fact, Yoggi is a sub-brand of Arla. Arla tries to portray itself as a product of simplicity and well-being, and its sub-brand Yoggi tries to portray a youthful and modern image. You can seek a stark contrast in their packaging.

Me posing with a card for a cigarette.. no no i m not buying.. this is a diff system from Singapore.. shoppers just buy the card n slot this into a machine outside Hemkop n the cigarette pack that the shopper want will be spat out..

Recycling for CASH!!

This is the machine i m toking abt.. buyers will just slot the card here n the relevant stuff will come out.. this machine accepts cards n dispenses stuff such as condoms, battery packs, cigarette packs n chewing tabacco packs...

This is smt like the Toto n 4D of Singapore.. but there is so much variety here.. so many stuff to bet on here.. i dont noe wat they all mean though.. its in Swedish.. :P just posing here..

Snow snow go away, come again next winter pls..

2005-02-23T21:39:00.000+01:00

Wah.. today is still snowing when i went to sch for my project meeting.. n from the weather news in the tabloid, Stockholm City.. it is still MINUS 5 degrees today.. n the winds r still as strong..
sigh.. quite sick of snow already.. pls STOP snowing.. haha.. a very 180 degrees change from my post in Jan when i always wished for snow.. but now i m truly sick of it.. even simple task like walking to the sch is difficult n tiring.. its like walking in a sandy beach.. the resistance is tiring.. n there r the misleading puddles of water which look shallow.. n the snow that get stuck in yer soles of yer boots that melts n drips onto the floor when u step indoor.. arrrghhh..

well one other main reason i hate snow is that i worry that it will AFFECT my easter europe trip.. tickets all mostly booked liao.. i will cry ah.. i panicked after reading this article from my now very much hated Straits Times online..

Snow disrupts air, road traffic in Europe
PARIS - Heavy winter snow across much of Europe caused major transport woes Wednesday as flights were cancelled, traffic was brought to a standstill on main roads and train services were disrupted.
Thousands of passengers and commuters found themselves stuck in France, Germany, Britain and parts of Italy as the flurries coated everything in white, the result of a cold snap that was forecast to continue for the next few days.
In Britain, the weather service said much of England and Wales would continue to see snow falls and it warned that conditions were 'hazardous' for driving.
Reports said London-bound train services were suspended in some cases and were blocked around the capital.
Paris's two main airports of Orly and Charles de Gaulle were virtually closed, the state management company Aeroports de Paris said, adding that the few flights taking off were being delayed by at least an hour.
Road traffic in and around the French capital was severely hampered, with officials calling on drivers to pull over or not take to the highways until conditions improved.
Almost all of Germany was snowbound, the weather service Meteomedia said.
Minor road accidents were reported in many areas, resulting in at least five people being injured.
Switzerland also faced traffic accidents and delays at Zurich airport, as well as fears that the growing piles of snow were increasingly becoming avalanche risks.
In Italy, authorities closed part of the main highway linking Rome and Milan. -- AFP

ahhh!!.. i going Amsterdam next week.. hope it doesnt affect.. they did not mention anything abt Holland but Holland is north of France.. n France heavy snow.. does that mean the same for Holland.. ahhh!!.. i going down there to avoid snow.. psl dont snow there now.. spring pls come soon!!!... i hate SNOW n WINTER !!.. haha :p

ok ok today's blog posts r not just all words.. pictures coming up in the next post.. :P abt my "adventure" today.. haha

Some Rants b4 proceeding to my main post today..

2005-02-23T21:09:00.000+01:00

Arrgh.. guess wat i received in my Yahoo mail today after getting back home..

This stupid email from Straits Times Interactive.. (My reactions in blue) -->

Dear STi Reader,

You are getting this email from the ST Interactive team as you are among the more than 280,000 of our registered users.
Woah u have so many registered users ah.. why r u telling me this? Did i win some lucky draw or smt?
We thank you for your interest in the website
U r welcome.. :P i have no print version here so read yer online version loh...
and would like to inform you about a major change coming to STI in March: After 10 years of giving ST news reports out for free online, STI will begin charging readers to access it.
WHAT!?!??! &^%&(*^$
A subscription will cost S$72 for six months (S$12 a month), or S$120 for a year (S$10 a month). A one-month subscription will cost S$15.
WHAT??!?! So Ex!!.. WHY?!?! &^%*$#@ i m only a poor student leh..
Why are we doing this?
YES WHY... TELL ME WHY... it better be a good explanation!
We believe that we have a good and valuable product that users will want to pay for. It's also not a tenable business model to charge for the print edition of the newspaper and not for its online edition.
DIAONZ!!.. yes.. STI online version is a good n convenient read but in no way will i pay for it loh.. charging for news that i can get anyway else such as www.cnn.com or http://www.bbc.co.uk .... to tink that u (Singapore Press Holdings) finally gave up on yer ambitious but money losing venture in Mediaworks.. u will have more $$$ to yourself.. now u even wanna suck more money from us readers!! wat is NEXT? charging money for TV news?
i bet yer next move will be to increase the costs of your printed newspapers.. why isnt a tenable bizness model!??!.. if other newspapers can do it, why cant u? why cant u just depend on the advertising revenue u get as a result of readers accessing yer website n advertisers placing ads there.. i seriously dont mind any increase in banners mah..
You will want to know whether you will get anything more, now that you have to pay.The answer is yes.
NO!! I dont want to pay n i dont want to get anything more!! i just want an online newspaper where i can get my daily updates abt news at home!!! this is abt the only thing i cant get from BBC n CNN.. n u money suckers r taking it away from me!!
You will notice that up till now, you get only three reports from Life! and Sunday Life through the week. If you subscribe, all the showbiz gossip and lifestyle features you see in the print edition of Life will be available online.The weekly tech magazine Digital Life is available online now but a day after its print edition goes out with the newspaper. If you subscribe, Digital Life and the health magazine Mind Your Body -- now not online -- will become available from 6am on the same day they are distributed with the newspaper. The fashion magazine Urban will also go online, but later this year.All news reports in the Money section will be available from 6am daily, instead of 6pm.The last perk is that the archive will grow from the current three-days to seven-days. This means you can search back a week's worth of STI editions.The above extras are what you will get if you take up a subscription, in addition to what STI currently offers -- ST print edition news, current day breaking news, webspecials and photo features.
Blah blah blah.. i dont care abt these features.. if i want them, i would buy the printed version!!.. i just want the NEWS, home n overseas!!.. n nothing more!!!.. u $$ faced ppl..
To give you a taste of what you will get in the bumped-up STI, the website will be accessible free to registered readers like yourself for two weeks from March 1 till 14.You have these two weeks to browse and sign up.
I m gonna BOYCOTT U!!
Since you are already a registered reader, you will NOT need to fill in your details again. We already have them. You will only need to indicate that you want to take up a subscription and provide your credit card details.
So thats the reason why u wanted us to subscribe to yer online version few mths ago.. n got a massive screw-up with yer website being unable to handle the massive traffic of subscriptions for the first 4 days.. n have to allow us to access the News without subscribing.. so u have already conspired to take ur $$ in the end!! trying to mislead us then by saying its free to subscribe n stuff like that.. yer ultimate motive is to get our email address so that u can send us this STUPID email eventually..
From March 15 onwards, the site will become a subscribers-only website. Your subscription will take effect in April.
Arrrghh.. i hate Straits Times!!.. http://straitstimes.asia1.com.sg/
STI also has group subscription rates for institutions and companies. The larger the number of users in the group, the deeper the subscription discount. Do call (65) 6388-3838 or email stics@sph.com.sg for these rates.
The larger the number of paying users, the money u get.. is that wat u wanna mean??!!?
We hope you will stay with us. STI aims to continue being your link to news on Singapore, the region and the world.
No Way M i gonna stay with U.. u $$ faced idiots!!.. how r u gonna be my link to news on Singapore.. when all u can tink abt is how to suck us dry of our money!!?!?

Grocery Shopping in Stockholm

2005-02-22T21:10:00.000+01:00

Living alone out here in Sweden means that i have to cook my own meal n to be able to do a good one, we need groceries!!.. well personally for me, i would only go to one store.. NETTO!!
after discovering how much cheaper the stuff over here r compared to other stores like Hemkop n Coop Forum..
There r a number of branches of NETTO in Stockholm.. the one nearest to my home is the one at Fridhemsplan.. the stuff that could be found r pretty limited but they r cheap.. if u want more varieties, other supermarket such as Dags Liv provide them.. but of course at a higher price..

stuff here r not really comparable to Singapore prices.. as in most of them r of course more expensive.. the unique feature of supermarkets in Sweden is that for every item, they will be 2 price tags.. the Yellow one for comparison n the White one is the actual price..
For example. for the bottle of Senap on the right, it costs 24.90 kr n to compare with other brands of Senap or smaller bottle.. they will list the price of it per kg which is 55.28kr in the yellow tag.. Senap is smt like mustard sauce n taste like wasabe.. very choking n shiok ah!!..

At Fridemsplan Dags Liv, there is an escalator leading up to the next storey.. n the innovative supermarket places sweets, candies n other stuff along the slow escalator to tempt shoppers who r bored with the slow speed of the escalator to buy more stuff..

Some supermarkets have these machines which pay u back money for recycling plastic n glass bottles... abt 1kr to 2kr for a large 1 litre plastic or glass bottle.. they also pay abt 50 ore for cans.. (note 100 ores make up 1 kroner... so ores r like cents where kroners r like dollars) the other time, LL, Dom n me were in the Hemkop of Ahlens shopping centre.. we saw a gy with a very huge sack of cans .. n just standing tehre for the whole night putting in the cans for recycling n making a quick buck at the same time..

At times when i walk around town, i can see signs that says..
"Slut Rea!!" well.. rea in swedish means sale.. so does it mean "Sluts for sale?" unfortunately no.. :p slut in swedish means close.. slut rea == closing sale.. :P

This packet of milk costs 6kr.. abt S$1.50... cheap or not? haha its 1 litre.. :p bought it to cook carbonara sauce for my pasta.