Keukenhof - May 2012

It was the last week before Keukenhof. The tulips are already blooming. Ada yang dah nak mati pun. We took the bus from Schipol airport. A short ride and then it was a few hours of nothing but posing and posing somemore.

We met this kakak and her husband from Shah Alam somewhere in the park. Dia terkejut beruk bila aku offer dia, "Nak tolong ambik gambar kak?" after looking at the two of them juggling an iPad, a SLR, camcorder and a phone to snap pictures. "Eh, ada orang Malaysia...Ambik guna iPad dik, nanti senang nak upload kat Facebook" hamek kau Jah...hahaahha I wonder how did her pictures turn out. And I wonder who she is. But she was wearing a Burberry coat no less!

Now, let the pictures do the talking.

 

Amsterdam, Netherlands - May 2012

It's about 30 minutes train ride from Den Haag to Amsterdam. After last year's fiasco, we didn't get to enjoy Amsterdam. Well, a year later I still didn't enjoy Amsterdam. Orang beribu-raban! Hehehe tapi masih berjaya menjejaki HRC ye. Bagus jugak sebab ada sign everywhere... just follow the cookie crumbs. One thing that I like about Amsterdam is the selection of souveniers. Nak apa je, semua ada. Magnet dia pun cantik2, memang rambang mata.

Anyway this time around, we did something different. We joined a tour visiting places outskirt of Amsterdam. The tour company office is very near Amsterdam Centraal. Within walking distance. You can see all the tour busses lining outside.The tour took about 5 hourds and cost 36 Euros per pax. Quite fun actually.

First stop - Zaanse Schans ...

to see the Windmills. The old windmills was moved here to make sort of a park/ musuem? There's quite a number of attraction here (which I failed to discover). Wanted to go inside the windmills to see what's going on, but it seems far and I'm worried that I might missed the bus. You can also take the normal bus from Amsterdam Centraal and spend the whole day exploring this place. I have an officemate who spent half a day here.. which received a puzzled look from me. What the heck did you do there? All i did was take photos (and used the loo). And that last about 30 minutes? Hahahaha

I also spend time taking shots of this bicycle. Macam tak pernah tengok basikal. Ni la padahnya tak membaca before visiting a place. Tak tahu apa benda. Tak reti nak appreciate apa benda.

Next stop - Volendam

This is a fishing village. With boats and seafood stalls.. the works. We had our lunch here. After overload of kebab, seafood is a welcome change. Plus this stall ada Thai sauce. Then we also had this thing call Poffertjes. It's like small pancakes.. very light, very sweet.. very manis. Yummeh. Kat sini nothing much to see or do, except makan.. and take the ferry/ boat to our next destination. From the pier, we can see a lot of sailboat. Agaknya semua orang weekend pergi sailing. Also we notice a lot folks were out on racing bicycle. Another favorite past time I suppose.

The small village of Volendam. Taken from the boat to Marken. Macam nak hujan, and it was cold!

Final destination - Marken.

Marken was a sort of an island previously. But now there's a highway connecting it to the rest of Netherlands I suppose. Over here we can see how the people live in the traditional sort of way. Think the Dutch lady..milkmaid sort of outfit. All the houses here are quaint wooden houses. We visited a cheese and clog factory. The dude making the clog so the chomels (check him out below.. gambar kasi besar bior nampak)! And we had free tasting of the cheese. That was fun. Sebab free. Hahahahha. The boat ride from Volendam to Marken kejap aje, but it felt ages sebab it was cold. We set on the deck at the top of the boat when the wind is blowing in your faces, memang taubat kejap la.

From there, the tour bus was already waiting to take us back to Amsterdam. If you want to read more about the tour read here)

The Hague, Netherlands - May 2012 - Part II

Scheveningen

There's a beach near den Haag. So one fine day it was a holiday and it was sunny. We took the tram till end of it's line and came to the beach. It was overlooking the North Sea. Coolness. Literally. Sejuk ok, though the sun was out. Not many people as it was quite early. There's a long pier with interesting shops and eating places. We had an earlier lunch at a seafood joint. A lovely break from eating kebab... kebab and more kebab.

Madurodam

Another attraction here is a miniture park called Madurodam. It's a the next stop after my office if not mistaken. It has small scale of everything in Netherlands... from Schipol airport, to the duct, to the AJAX stadium. Kids would love this place. We sort of completed the whole place in like 30 minutes and dah penat. After making endless joke about being Godzilla around the miniture buildings, we were out of there. Hahah tak senonoh.

Cooking session with the team

One my 3rd day in the office, the team suggested that the whole bunch of us should go out and do something. The do something .. is going to this cooking place, where we are going to cook our own dinner. Exciting at first, the jet lagged just sets in. And I don't bloody trust myself with a knife or anything to do with fire! And bugger I thot I would be good at this, rupanya mcm terbanggang ok. We always see all those cooking show that seems so easy - aku pun boleh buat tu... Naah... not when you are with people you just met pastu ngantuk gila babi. Nak pecah telur pun malu2 kucing... (ok maybe that's just me). The menu looks doable (tapi ingredients all in english, some of it I have no idea what they are), so I ended up with goreng telur dadar aje. Hahahahahahahahahhahahahaha. They were all looking at me sideways... "I thot Malaysians all cook at home". (Not this Malaysian apparently). Turns out semua orang sangat terror. Even the guys! Malu akak yo! It was fun actually. We had  pumpkin soup, shrimp, lamb (i had tuna steak instead sbb lamb tak halal kan) pesto, guacamole, chocolate pudding (which I think had rum in it.... tapi aku tawakkal je la). We also had creme brulee. Aku sepantas kilat nak volunteer memblow torch the sugar! I'd put the pictures of everyone so engrossed in cooking, but nanti kang this will be traced back to me, so I put the picture of what I prepared je la.

The creme brulee (aku tolong pukul telur and heat the milk I think).. and burnt it to death

The disgusting looking turd... hahaha pesto in omelette by Moi 

The Hague, Netherlands - May 2012 - Part I

I have been summoned.

This is the first time that I will pay the mothership a visit. Pretty cool. I need to be onboarded for the new job. I should be there for about 2 weeks or so. And dengan tidak malunya, I asked my new boss if I could extend (at my own expense) my stay in Europe. Yes, just do it says my boss. Yeay boss :) Maka saya akan pulang ke 'kampung halaman' membuat hutang yang idak terbayar for the next five years or so.More of that later on.

Merasa la jugak naik Business Class MAS. As expected, sataynya memang tiada tolok bandingnya. Letak dadah ke apa. The flight is about 13 hours. Flight landed in Schipol at the wee hour. Bought me the ov-chipkaart. I took the train heading towards The Hague or Den Haag. The view along the way is very picturesque. Miles and miles of green farm land, peppered with the occasional herd of cattle and windmills.

I checked into Novotel Den Haag. Room's quite nice. But the toilet and the shower is separated. Bugger. But location, location, location. It's right smack in the shopping district. In fact, it's connected to Passage - with some interesting shops. And next door to Dudok, a famous cafe with yummeh apple pie. So this will be home for the next 2 weeks. First order of business? Tidur!

Woke up hungry around noon. Thank god there's a McD a few doors down. Lagi best, dapat guna credit card. Not many places that can use credit card around Hague. Bosan betul. Next order of business I need to find my way to the office. It was Sunday, and I'm expected to be front and center tomorrow morning. With the direction from my new colleague, I manage to hop on the correct tram and stop at the riight stop. The ride is less than 5 minutes and I have to to a bit of walking from the tram stop to the office. Less than 5 minutes. Needless to say, aku la orang yang akan melenggang kangkung jalan pagi-pagi tu. Everyone was like brisk walk brisk walk brisk walk.. and me..saunter saunter saunter... kalau boleh nak jalan backward.. or merangkak. Hahahahahha.

The weather is still cold, but not too cold. My light jacket did the trick. In the office there's heater. On the first day, aku dgn jacket bagai, berpeluh-peluh la kan. Cist. The tram ride is fun actually. Boleh la berangan kejap. I'm surprise that my colleagues mostly drive to work. I thot semua orang akan naik tram and bike and whatnots. Too bad I only manage to find one of a picture of the tram. Dah naik beratus kali, tak teringat pun nak posing. Apa la.

So I was in NL..or Europe from 6th May - 29th May. Lama gila. Will write soon what I did during those days, aside from 'work'. My sister came after a week, seeking refuge in my hotel room. Hehehe.

Train Live in KL, 16th June 2012 at KL Live

It had never occurred to me that I will get to listen to Drops of Jupiter ...live! Well, Train came to KL. Yipeeeeeeeeeee. It will be a small event I guess, since it will at KL Live. Lagi small lagi bagus, senang nak tengok semua orang. But then, semua standing aje la pulak. Can I survive this?

Nak tak nak kena la survive kan. Heheh so it was a Saturday. Nak brave the traffic satu hal lagi. Tapi nasib jalan clear. We parked at the next building to KL Live.. LifeCenter.. whatever you call it. Kejap aje dah penuh parking. Nak keluar dari parking kena naik tangga pulak. Kugagahi jua. Nak masuk KL Live.. tangga lagi. Sabar je la..

Right, we're in. Lepak kat belakang aje. Malas la nak berasak2 kat depan. Susah jugak standing only ni. Sebab if terstuck belakang orang yang tinggi, dah tak nampak.

On cue, Train took the stage. And wow the crowd. Nampaknya semua orang tahu lagu-lagu depa, kecuali aku (as usual). Marry Me was practically sung by the crowd. Heheheh. In between the set, ada pulak si Pat baling free t-shirt pulak to the crowd. Unfortunately we are too far nak berebut. And he was very sporting as well... siap ambik some phone from the front row, and took a shot of himself and the crowd. Sape yang dapat tu, mesti tak tido malam ni.

According to Pat, Train don't do encore. Tak sempat aku nak beli twisties hehehe. Here comes the moment that we have been waiting for. Drops of Jupiter. PERGHHHHHHHHH. best gila. And before you know it. Dah habis dah. The concert was short but it's definitely not a drive by ;). At the end of the nite, Train was giving out a guitar that was Pat was using while performing... Whhhhaaaattttttt????? And the band had put their signature on it... WHhhhhaaaatttttttttttttttttttttttt. Andddd... he gave it to... (wait for it...) ... ME! Whhhaaaaattttttttttttt? Hahahhah of course not. Pat choose a little girl from somewhere in the front row. Adik sape la tu. Dik kalau kau tak nak guitar tu bagi akak dik.

I wonder adik.. tu dah pandai main ke tak guitar tu eh?

p/s: ada gambar from the concert but it's in my phone..tunggu la lagi sepuluh tahun aku nak download and post it here..