A warm embrace for a neglected friend

Unconventional for I am blogging from my phone. The wonders of technology keeps me from boredom nowadays. It has been a while since this page was updated. Many things came and went by and I have yet to chronicle any of them.

I started yoga and am enjoying it completely. It started with a close colleague of mine wanting to lead a healthier lifestyle, hence the search for a yoga center started.

We were supposed to start much earlier in a different place but I had to leave for a week in Singapore. In the end we picked a place pretty far off from the office, all the way in Damansara Perdana. A quaint, serene, calming, modern place called Beyoga.

A little before this yoga episode, a friend said something along the lines of my every ounce of energy came from my only source of protein which can only be red meat. I begged to differ and as a result I am a vegetarian for the next 30 days, having been on a vegetarian diet for the last 8 days.

The end of a Europe trip

Believe it or not, for someone who loves to buy things for people, I have yet to get a single souvenir for anyone and this is my last day in Europe. =) I had practical reasons, I could not buy anything in Italy because I was flying Ryanair. Coming back here, I was just too swamped with tiredness to think of any gift items to buy for anyone. People are going to hate me.

On a similarly dark note, my last day today is in Amsterdam. I learned to like this city more than the rest I have visited. Ok, maybe this and Rotterdam. That would make the Netherlands my best liked place. =)

Yesterday I was at the Heineken Brewery. It is just a stone’s throw from where I am staying in Amsterdam, someplace called the Sphinx Hotel. So unfortunate for me, I was placed in a room with 7 guys and trust me, sleeping with the rhythm of half of them snoring, is a tiresome task. I woke up more tired than when I went to bed.

Anyhooooo, I found out Heineken is very much like Jotun. The company prides themselves on keeping their employees like family. The Heineken family (yes, there is a family behind this) has always had an interest in the company and the latest addition to the board is the daughter of the mastermind behind the marketing strategy of the brewery (he was a third generation Heineken).

The Heineken experience, as they call their tour, is not cheap. At 15 Euros, one gets to walk around in their specially designed lot where there are lots to see including the boiling of the barley, the mashing of it, the adding of the hops, the revered A yeast, advertisments from the 1960s onwards, cold beer to enjoy and lots more. Oh, and when you go in, you actually get 3 free beers. I got 4 because a glass was smashed right in front of me but I am no beer drinker! =(

Their lounges are fantastic. Laid back and open, lots of lights, lots of taps and their extra cold beer was really enjoyable. Their souvenir shop sells everything Heineken, from your name engraved on their mugs to their jackets and t-shirts, to openers, to posters to god knows what else.

p/s: Before I forget, I have not been able to find a Starbucks in the cities I was in. Weird.

It is barely 7 in the morning and I am already up, ready and at the computer. Really really horrid. I blame all the snoring. =)

A sad farewell

My stay in Sandefjord is nearing its end. I had fun while I was here, truly. This place is so serene and inviting that Richard may be right in saying I am going back home to pack and get my visa and am jumping on the next plane back. (Of course that isn’t going to happen, but one can dream, can we not?)

Norwegian food is quirky in many ways. They have cold food for both breakfast and lunch. The only hot dish you can find in the kantina during lunch would be the patty of either fish or chicken to be inserted in between the two slices of bread to make a sandwich.

Dinner is taken really early, so most of the restaurants are opened when I get off work. The majority of people (who don’t cook) drop by to take away food. By 7.00pm, those eating at the restaurants are usually only Asians.

Supper would be some light meal, such as soup and bread. Surprisingly, for a place this small, 5 chinese restaurants (1 is considered a cafe like shop) are surviving. I do wonder if they survive on the constant stream of Jotun employees from all over the world yearning to have rice for dinner.

The offices here are different. They respect personal space. Each one has a personal office in the headquarters as well as in the warehouses. In the training centre, it is more of an open concept, but even so, they are not cubicles like ours back home.

Tables with no offices, outside for general use, are called project areas. Anyone who is a guest of someone in that department can use the project areas to do their work. One would compare this to the desk of an external auditor back home.

I truly enjoyed going to work on time and coming back on time too, no late nights, no stay backs, all are encouraged to go home, spend time with the family, spend time with nature, spend time with friends, do anything and everything, as long as it does not concern work.

I do hope to be back here the soonest possible. I think I can live giving up nasi lemak ayam berempah and bah kut teh for a bit. =)

The never-ending debate

Somehow I do think the Europeans got one thing wrong in their work culture. They should be taking winter off instead of summer off. Ok, maybe that’s the workaholic Asian in me talking but think about it, if they were to work during the summer, they can take longer winter breaks.

Our body functions with the presence of light. During the summer in Northern Europe, there could be up to 16 hours of daylight, making people energetic and less tired. It is not the same for winter where people dread to get out of bed, out of the house, one has to wear layers and layers of clothes just to peel if off at work where the heater is high and more energy is wasted there.

On the other hand, one could say the same for summer too. During summer, it is just too hot for them to work, the AC needs to be pumped up to the maximum and they won’t be able to make full use of the sun. (One could argue here that since the sun stays up so late, one could get off work at the same time and still do fun summer-ish stuff).

Oh well, it is never right, is it?

Stromstad, Sandefjord and my weekend

During the weekend, there was not much to do as the team went back and we did not really have a plan on where to go. I suppose I could have taken the night train to Bergen, visit Oslo or make my way up to Trondheim, covering at least one more scenic place in Norway, but that was not to be.

On Saturday, I followed colleagues from HQ to send Min off to the airport (she was going to London to celebrate Raya with her brother) and from there, we went grocery shopping, walking down the streets of Sandefjord, taking a peek at the flea market (it is possibly 10% of what is in the Curve on weekends) and finally having lunch at a Chinese take out place.

Impulsively, someone suggested Larvik and we all hopped in the car and made our way down to Larvik and Stavern where the buildings were beautiful and the summer scene is very happening. Unfortunately, we are at the beginning of autumn.

The next day, a Sunday, we embarked on a journey to Sweden instead. Yes, you heard right, Sweden. You see, this little town over the other side called Stromstad is about 2 and a half hours away from Sandefjord by ferry. The only ferry line that operates from here to Stromstad or Larvik to Denmark for that matter, is Color Line.

The tax free shops on board opens 15 minutes after departure and closes 15 minutes before arrival. Apparently, many Norwegians are fans of this town and ride because if you do your groceries in Sweden, it may actually save you up to 20% to 40% of your grocery bill. That is if you happened to be in Sweden for some other reasons other than your grocery shopping.

A return ticket to Stromstad cost NOK70 and a car (driver included, but not passengers) cost NOK175 upwards. The ferry itself has a buffet restaurant, a bar, a cafe and a show lounge. The sides are lined with slot machines and you can change your coins from all the coin changing machines onboard.

The open sundeck is an ideal place to take pictures of the fjord, the open sea and all the buildings who are lucky enough to be at the water front. (Jotun AS is one of them. =))

The town however, was not that big of an attraction. Yes, even at lunch I could feel that it was cheaper already but we came on a Sunday which meant barely anything was open save for the coffeeshops and restaurants.

We ended up landing ourselves at Kokeret, a restaurant with some really cozy settings and a whole lot of locals, watching the Man U – Man City game. NOKs are widely accepted over there, so no worries about changing Swedish Kroners, and if all fails, everywhere accepts credit cards.

The journey back was with a smaller ferry but with virtually all the same things on board. By the time we reached Sandefjord, it was about 7.00pm. A bit of dinner, and I was off to bed. By the way, Norwegian national TV has almost all Norwegian series and shows. It is only at certain times of the day that they show English shows and only on certain channels. =)

In no particular order – I just miss them

Dexter - Tengku of the Subang house

Baby Angel, the princess of the house

Briana, mommy's girl, first dog to sit 4 hours with me in the car. Sweet girl!

Leon boy - Mommy's boy. Doesn't go anywhere without Mom.

Paula - adorable, beautiful huge baby of the house

Tata

My heart was heavy today seeing that it is the last day for most of them who came for this training. Regardless, I have another week to enjoy Sandefjord, just not with the company I would have preferred.

Most are off to Oslo tonight which then they’ll split into groups going to France and Finland. Tomorrow another bunch will be going off, this time to Amsterdam to transit for a short while before flying home and others will follow on Saturday leaving very few here.

It was a great trip while they were here. I definitely look forward to more trips with the fun bunch. Bon voyage friends.

MU and spicy food

Jon asked some people in the cab whether we would be interested in a football game the next night. Thinking there was going to be nothing going on and thinking that the lot of the fun group would be heading back to their respective countries today, I thought alright, lets go.

Halfway through the next day, Min texted me saying that Inger has invited us for dinner. I was so torn but in the end decided to stick with the football match although I was no fan of any football team.

I must say, that may have been the wisest decision as of yet (in Sandefjord). Steve’s wife, Lily, is Chinese and she hails from Hunan. Last night we had Hunan inspired cuisines.

I learned that chillies are the main ingredients. We had rice with so many dishes with varying degree of spicyness which was so ooooooooo good.

In no any apparent order, we had Thai style green curry fish, shrimps and mushroom in brown broth, shredded potatoes with red spicy chilli, yam with sweet and spicy chilli sauce, fried chicken with dried chilli, squids with chilli pieces and taufu with fermented chilli. YUM!

We headed over to the hall for the MU game which was quite literally a disappointment. They were against a team from Turkey and the game was so slow, it was impossible not to sleep. Scholes finally scored for them late in the game but that was the only highlight.

We headed back at about 10.30pm after the game which I promptly went back, plopped unto my bed and slept soundly until 7.00am this morning. I am still dreaming of the fantastic home cooked food I had last night!

Gaustatoppen

It is in the district/county of Telemark and is the highest peak in Southern Norway. The track up is stony and rocky and if it is in winter, you do not even see a trail. This place has more than just the mountain to shout about. It holds the history of the failed shipment of heavy water to the Germans during the world war 2.

Somewhere in the 1940s during the WWII, the ferry Hydro was deliberately sunk. A gang of Norwegian soldiers sank it to stop the shipment of this vital ingredient in making nuclear weapons to the Germans. At the time of the sinking, the plant’s faicilites for producing heavy water had already been compromised and on the ferry were the last of the 29 barrels that came from the production factory in Rjukan.

Telemark is the county where the majestic mountain was and where we headed to one Sunaday morning (just this Sunday actually). There were 12 of us who attempted to go up the mountains, including 3 kids who were Trond’s children.

We started the hike up the extremely rocky trail at around noon. By the time we were halfway up, my calves (plural of calf, yes?) were hurting to high heavens. The trail up was steep and extremely taxing on the knees and legs. Chow and Jon slowed down for me and we eventually reached up there in about 3 hours.

The view from atop the mountain was beautiful. I couldn’t have imagined a view like this if I hadn’t tagged along with this bunch. The moss, which is yellow in colour, and sticks to stones like how a child would do his painting, was absolutely lovely from up there, because they coloured the grey and sandy stone all over the mountain. The wind was blowing furiously drying my sweat in that super cold weather.

Photos another day. Take my word for it. It was breathtaking, truly.

The transit in Amsterdam

Note: This happened on the 6/9/09. I was too excited about Sandefjord to publish this earlier. =)

We landed in Amsterdam at 5.55am local time (local meaning Amsterdam) and despite the lack of sleep (sleeping in an upright chair does pose some neck aches later on), we were determined to venture out and make the best of our transit time (approximately 8 hours). Being so early in the morning, where the outside was still dark, we saw virtually no one else but those on the same flight.

Coming through immigration (probably because it was so early in the morning and probably because I looked a child) was a breeze. Jon, who was here exploring the place the last time (in June) for us led us to the train ticketing counter where both Min and I were appointed the financial controllers for the group. Hence, the best person to rob that day were the youngest two. =)

We marvelled at the wonder of the baggage locker. The huge locker does not work as how our lockers work in Malaysia. You change your notes in a machine (much like Genting) and when you’re sure you’re done, just close the door, it automatically locks, put your coins in the central machine and it prints a barcode for you. When you come back, just scan the barcode and it automatically opens your locker. How cool is that? I know I know, it is the first for me!

Being early, the most ideal plan (according to boss) was to go to the country side first. We took the train to Centraal and boarded another train to Koog – Zaandjik and walked through the quaint houses which also seemed to function as offices and shops in this really small town until we reached the bridge which we crossed over to get to Zaanse Schanz, a beautified village with the last of the 13 historical wind mills which are oil mills as well as grain mills.

They even have a cheese farm there where we gleefully walked into taking pictures of the cakes of cheese sitting, maturing in their foyer and in their cheese shop where we could taste all the cheese. The famous Gouda cheese was the main attraction to me until I tasted the goat cheese. This place makes honey mustard like no other and it is used to eat with the cheese. It really tasted phenomenal.

After getting myself a packet of biscuits/wafer coated with caramel (apparently it is extremely famous in Holland and it taste really really good!) and a thick rich caramel sundae, we walked out and up a windmill, a grain mill no less where we went to the top of the mill and explored the inside of the windmill. After that, we headed back to Centraal to visit the city itself.

By the time we reached the city it was almost lunch time and there were throngs of people who were walking by embracing the chilly wind and brightening the city altogether with their presence. We took a long walk through the tram lines and the historical buildings and the red light district. I think I saw more beautiful buildings than I could manage to count here. Even their kiosks are so pretty!

Rushing to the airport to board our next flight, we were like teenagers backpacking, running from one stop to the other, just in time for something. Though we reached the airport an hour before our flight, the line at immigration was so long and they were very strict. I experienced my first body search in Schiphol because I forgot to take my watch out, or at least I think that’s why. But all in, it was fantastic seeing Amsterdam and being there and walking through its streets. I can’t wait for my next trip to Amsterdam!