A milestone! And a visit from family.

So, exactly a year ago today, I stepped off the plane and onto Dutch soil as a resident.

There have been ups and downs and lots of frustration and getting used to things. But I'm pretty sure I'm on the right track to happiness in The Netherlands.

Last weekend, my dad and stepmum visited while on holiday in London. It's always so nice to have people visiting, helping me feel a little bit more like I 'belong' somewhere, even if it's just for a short while.

Talking about belonging, I still don't feel like I belong here and it can be caused by the smallest of things that people wouldn't normally wouldn't even think about.

For instance, the other day I was queueing up to get cash from the machine. In KL, I wouldn't think twice about me standing in line and how I behave because I've lived in the environment my whole life and know instinctively what the 'etiquette' is.

But over here, I actually am aware and wonder about things like, "How far behind the guy in front should I stand?" or "Should I leave a bigger gap between myself and the guy taking cash, or is that not done here and people will be annoyed for me taking such a big space?". Yes, call me oversensitive, but I do think about things like that.

It can be stressful when your head is always filled with questions and wanting to do the right thing.

Anyway, I had a great time last weekend with my dad and stepmum. Hoping to have more visitors from home soon!

First stop, my home, of course! My dad opened the window to test our clock's judgment of the temperature. Big observation this trip: my dad is obsessed about temperature and time. How many times did he ask me to change my clocks and watches by even 2 minutes? I don't remember. But I know I definitely get my OCD from him.

Bloody cold day. My toes were annoyingly numb.

We visited Schrobbenmaster's parents in Hoorn, taking a pitstop at a Schermer windmill and lunch at Graft-de Rijp, at the restaurant behind where we're standing.

Don't you just love these candid shots?

A behind-the-scenes shot of...

... this. The photographer was way too enthusiastic to wait for us to be ready.

At last, a wonderfully sunny day! The ING building in Amsterdam where we were to take the tram into the centre. My stepmum works in ING KL, just in case you were wondering why this picture.

We trammed to Museumplein, where the Rijksmuseum is located and had a nice lunch in the sun.

From there, a walk to Leidseplein, where my stepmum busied herself in the shops for presents, while my dad watched two guys playing giant chess.

It was a long and tiring weekend, but definitely worth the trouble :)

The big step

In our living room right at this moment is the real estate agent who is going to sell our current house.

We spent the past hour or so taking photos (with Schrobbenmaster's awesome camera - the quality of photos are SO important when selling a house) and organising the rooms in order to show what new owners can expect. Meaning removing overly personal items, matching up all our towels and ornaments...

And starting from tonight, I'll be sleeping with a big, ugly, blue and yellow 'Te Koop' (For Sale) sign outside the window next to my bed.

After weeks of searching, visiting, negotiating and doubts, we've finally made the big step and made it official. It's scary making such a huge decision, especially when it's a house you're actually fond of and there's nothing really wrong with it. But I guess it's a part of life to have to leave something behind in order to get something better.

Maritiem Museum Rotterdam (finally!)

After nearly a year of living in Rotterdam, I finally visited a museum. I feel so ashamed for myself, but my excuse is that I've been busy immersing myself and transforming myself into a Dutch person. Which pretty much means someone who never sees what is right there in their own home. Or does that only apply to Malaysians?

Anyway, the perfect opportunity came when I saw that the Maritiem Museum (Maritime Museum in English, I didn't spell it wrongly) was holding an exhibition on naval-inspired haute couture over the centuries. Sounded right up my alley, so I invited CaroBrasilia and we headed over there.

We actually found out at the end of the exhibition that we had entered from the exit. Oops. So basically, this really nice-looking collection of naval equipment was in the front of the exhibition, explaining the purpose of the whole exhibition, and we only saw this at the end.

Believe me, the clothes actually look waaaay better on the models (they have little screens showing the actual catwalk shows) than on these mannequins.

I do really like that outfit with the hood thingy and yellow boots though.

After this, we headed to the general museum area and then to the actual ship just next to the building.

We checked out the decks below where the sailors work, but nothing pretty there. A few things to play with, which were quite fun though. And a really scary basement area where they kept naughty sailors. I was actually quite scared when I walked down there alone cuz they only had UV lights, and they had sounds of sailors groaning and mumbling insanely. Also little notices on the doors and the walls about what they had done and crazy things like that.

This is the nice part, where the captain and the guests hang out.

The captain's quarters are at the tip of the boat and it's so beautiful! I really love that sofa stretching on the back wall all around the room.

I couldn't resist a silly picture on the WC.

Schrobbenmaster came to join us later and was forced into the pic muahahaha.

The eating quarters. It looks really IKEA to me. Except for the people sleeping on the hammocks next to the tables.

Some items from the sailor's lockers.

A typical boys' scene.

From the ship deck. It looks so nice!

And if we're in luck, we will be living in one of those tall buildings there very soon *crossing fingers*!

Yah, it was pretty cold there, hence the beanie and gloves :P Plus, I biked to the museum.

Some festival pics from 2010

Found a few pictures from last year's NS Try Out Festival season.

Although I wasn't working at the stations like my colleagues, I dropped by every Saturday to check out how my signages and other material were working out and to celebrate the end of the week with the rest of the team.

The after parties are always pretty wild with all the girls going mad with drink and happiness. No pictures of those, hehe. But the team does like starting the fun at the station.

There was a DJ stage in front of us and we were making the moves, yo.

When the whole festival was over, we were all invited for a big dinner as a thank you. In total, including our company, the theatre organising company and the team from the NS, there were around 30 of us. The 'big dinner' turned out to be a group activity where everyone splits into groups and is given a recipe and a cooking area, and we all cook each course of the dinner ourselves. Pretty fun!

I was in the same group as Schrobbenmaster and our videographer, Daan. We had the easiest thing - cookies!

Chocolate cookies with some orange essence.

What a nice kitchen area!

We formed our cookie dough into hearts, circles, triangles and initials. Can you see a few 'J's in there? :D

Wanted to try some macro shooting.

The cookies are ready!

The crowd.

Some of you may have already seen this on Facebook, but for cuteness' sake, here it is again!

I was roasting a red pepper for a lamb pasta dish that night that Hanselem was coming over to cook. And I was informed by the Interweb that it's possible to do it this way. Well, we didn't get any stomach upsets, so I'm sure it was fine.

Okie I'm leaving the office now... ciao!

First girl's night out in Rotterdam

So after nearly a year of being here, I've finally had my first girl's night out in Rotterdam. It wasn't a girl's night out in the usual sense, what I mean is that it was just a dinner outing with only girls. Nothing like going wild in sexy clothes and getting drunk or anything. Hehe.

I was quite excited about it because it would also be the first time I've biked somewhere with girls for an outing. I'd never done it as a schoolkid (as frachely pointed out that it's a normal thing for schoolkids) so don't blame me for being excited :P

Anyway, we were supposed to head to Taj Mahal for all-you-can-eat Indian, but it turns out that they don't do it anymore. So they asked me for suggestions since I'm apparently known to be the Rotterdam restaurant connoisseur. I don't think so myself, but well, it's not a bad thing to be associated with.

Eventually, we chose Chinatown Takeaway (which isn't a takeaway restaurant) on West-Kruiskade, ie. Chinatown. All of them had never had Chinese food before so they were asking about how to eat and how to choose food. And thankfully everyone simply loved the food. We ordered sweet and sour pork, beef in black bean sauce and a plate of vegetables with bamboo (cuz CaroBrasilia just loves bamboo).

It was a lovely night and it felt nice to be part of a girl's group again :) Two of the girls live along the route back home, mine being the first, so it was nice to have company all the way back while making plans for a movie outing soon.

Hopefully more to come!

Was terribly sick.

I've been away for a while because I've been pretty sick.

About 10 days ago, I got a severe attack of rashes all over my body, then fell sick with a fever and cough and was hospitalised because the doctors wanted to observe me (they listed me as an emergency case). Last Wednesday night was spent at the Sint Franciscus Gasthuis and I was feeling very, very lonely indeed. At first, I wanted to have a private room, which isn't possible in this country, but in the end, I was glad that I had 4 other people with me in the ward to keep me company in the silence of the night.

Well, I say silence, but the air was mostly filled with nighttime farts from the old man next to me, sudden yells from the old man diagonally opposite and groans of pain from the woman nearest to the door, which actually sounded more like orgasmic groans, but... yeah.

There was a patient lying opposite me, but from the time I walked into the ward, he had his whole body covered with the sheet. And I was so curious about him because I didn't know if he was a male or female and if he was young or old. Even the next morning at dawn, when the nurses came to check our vitals, I perked my ears up to hear a voice, but all I heard was the nurse asking him questions and apparently getting the answers telepathetically.

Anyway, today, I'm feeling better mentally and physically. I still have dark marks all over my body which should be healing eventually. The only thing I hate is waking up every night with agonisingly itchy ankles, which are swollen.

I also have an appointment in a week with the dermatologist, who took a skin biopsy when I was at the hospital. Oh, that was a little scary cuz I didn't know how big or how deep she would go. I ended up getting stitched back up because I wouldn't stop bleeding. It must've been pretty deep then, eh!

To lighten the mood, let's look at a photo I took at a photo booth during the fashion exhibition at the Maritiem Museum:

Had a good laugh? I was busy concentrating on keeping my head within the marked areas when I pressed 'Foto maken' and they didn't have a countdown, which is why I ended up with a face looking like this. Poo.

Malaysia: Holiday in Penang

It was Schrobbenmaster's first visit to Penang, our heritage island up north, but he had absent-mindedly left his camera back in KL. How disappointing! So we didn't take many photos except in extra special places, like Kek Lok Si temple.

Btw, I just want to mention here how ridiculously expensive the taxis are in Penang. They all have a pact with each other to rip out their meters and just charge their own rates, which I think have been agreed upon with each other. Which makes it more freaking expensive than taxis in KL. My dad says it's because Penang is so small that they don't make any money dropping someone 10 minutes away, compared to taxis in KL. Still, for this reason, we ended up walking a lot more and visiting little shops and cemeteries along the way.

We did have the assistance of my spritely old grandmother who whizzed in and out of traffic in her 25-year old car to bring us places like Kek Lok Si and hawker food. And when Mumsy Bumsy and Yelleh Belleh arrived a few days later, we had the car, but we still hardly went out because Mumsy Bumsy was looking for a relaxing waterside weekend.

Here are the photos, then, from Kek Lok Si (Temple of Supreme Bliss). It consists of a series of monasteries, prayer halls, temples and landscaped gardens. I only took exterior shots though.

It was a really, really hot day and I was SO glad I wore a sundress that day.

Looking out at the view over Penang island.

My grandmother and I.

This woman is almost 80 years old, can you believe it??!!

There is an inclined lift to bring us up from the lower temple floors to the towering 6-storey (my estimation) statue of the Goddess of Mercy, Kuan Yin.

View from the temple.

We spent ages staring at the giant and multiple koi in the pond. It was really calming and very cool to notice the ghost koi swimming by as well.

Any visitor to Malaysia should definitely visit Penang and this temple. It's really more impressive than I thought.

End Penang post :D

Christmas decorations for 2010 (a little late...)

I finally dug out the cable for my camera because I went touristing today, after so long, and I really need these photos.

Back in KL, I picked up a local design magazine called Cut Out, and when I saw that they have a section where they display photos from abroad, I contacted the editor offering to take photos from NL. She was enthusiastic about it and promptly told me to go ahead, adding that I wouldn't be paid for it.

No problem, it's nice taking photos and contributing to a magazine.

Hence the need to extract some photos from my camera. And the point is now hitting home that I have quite a shitty camera :( That's not gonna be so nice for my advent into the contributing-to-magazines world!

Anyway, to clear out some of the previously taken photos, ta-da!

Pim is now banned from sleeping in this bed (and even a new bed that we bought for him) because he keeps bloody peeing in them!

I bought a nativity set from De Bijenkorf for Christmas last year. I've always liked wooden ornaments and toys, and these are so cute!

And to complete the festive look, I bought starry lights and Schrobbenmaster (because he's tall) draped them on our lamp.

Signing off for now, because I need to make some dinner, but coming soon are photos from my trip to the Maritiem Museum with CaroBrasilia (yes, she's from Brazil).

A useful tip in life

It's really important not to daydream when you're in the middle of doing something.

How many times have I been doing something and then drifted off, and later wondered if I'd done that thing I was in the middle of doing? Or how many times have I suddenly panicked, thinking I'd forgotten to do something, just because I was daydreaming while doing it? Like shampooing my hair twice or walking a great distance back to my car to check if it's locked.

One quite important tip I would like to offer (thankfully never happened to me) is never to daydream when you head to the public toilet. Everyone, at least once in their life, I'm sure, has opened the door on someone peeing or pooing. I did it just recently, on the plane back to Amsterdam.

I walked to the toilets and the door right in front of me was green, so I pushed it open... to find a big white man standing and peeing. Oh, thank goodness I didn't catch sight of his thingamajig with pee flowing out. Might have made it even harder for me to sleep on the plane (thankfully I managed to sleep relatively comfortably). All I could do was just quickly step back and let the door close. And I saw the door go red exactly when it closed. I think the guy sitting right next to the toilets saw what happened as well, because he was giving me a really dodgy and serious kinda face when I glanced at him. Geez, like it was my fault.

Another time I remember stumbling upon someone else was in a public toilet, and the cubicle door was green so obviously I pushed it open... to find a white girl squatting over the toilet.

This brings me to another point...

Of all my years of going to public toilets in Malaysia - and by this point, I mean to say that I've been to the same toilets with a majority of Asians - I've only ever stumbled on whites not locking their cubicle doors. Honestly, why is that?

The man on the ground is still good

So, my first trip home to KL has been a blast. I've done almost everything I wanted to do (not had roti yet, nor 70 sen nasi lemak though...) and it's definitely felt like a proper 5-week holiday. Almost getting back into the groove of living here even.

I've had good and bad experiences in these 5 weeks.

Bad experiences
Driving. Need I say more?

Except to add that I was shown the middle finger twice - once by a taxi driver and another time by a woman. Both times it was their reckless and dangerous driving that caused me to piss them off by honking at them very loudly indeed.

Good experiences
When we first came back to KL, Bruno (my old car) was having aging troubles. In the end, he overheated on Christmas Eve, when we were on our way to lunch. We had to stop by the nearest petrol station to check out what was wrong.

After checking it out for 10 minutes and calling people who could help, up pulls a taxi and out comes the driver who's heading to the station's toilet. He passes us and asks what's wrong. When we tell him that our car has overheated, he nodded his understanding and then said, "Saya buang air dulu, ya?".

He finally came out from the toilet (whose duration was more like a buang air besar than just a buang air, but who's counting?) and then checked the car thoroughly. He finally surmised that it was the fan that was broken, or the switch connecting to the fan that was broken. He started calling his friend who sells taxis their spare parts to ask if he had any for my car, but he didn't. Even his wife came down from the taxi to check it over and give her opinion as well.

They were so helpful and friendly, even when it wasn't their problem!

In the end, I got my dad's driver to call his workshop to pick up the car because Bruno just couldn't be driven safely anymore. And the problem turned out to be aged and rusted pipes that weren't sending the coolant to cool down the engine.

My next good experience was just last week, when Mumsy Bumsy, Yelleh Belleh and I went up to Fraser's Hill for the night. Halfway up the hill, there is a point called The Gap. This point is where the two-way road ends, and a narrow one-way road begins. The rule is that cars going into Fraser's Hill can use the road during odd hours and cars coming down can use it during even hours.

We had arrived 20 minutes before the gate opened, so Yelleh Belleh and I decided to look for a public toilet. We walked 10 metres down and found a burger stall with people sitting around. We stopped to see if the toilets were behind, when a customer called out to us and asked what we were looking for. I told him, and he pointed a few steps down the road. Then I asked him if we needed to pay to go in, and he said that it was 30 sen.

My face must have fallen noticeably, because when I mentioned that we would have to walk back to the car to get our purses, he beckoned us nearer, dug in his pockets and gave us coins for both of us to use the toilet. Even when I told him it was okay, he insisted on giving us the coins. So nice of him!

---

I'm so glad to have had these experiences, reminding me that even though the state of the country and its seemingly growing racist character seems to be going downhill, the common citizen still feels a sense of community and helpfulness toward their fellow man. Cue warm, fuzzy feeling.

My purse cries tears of snakeskin and metal

Sigh sigh sigh, I've taken a few pictures for the blog, but someone needs to invent a more convenient way to transfer photos from cameras or phones to the computer! Maybe something like Bluetooth in a camera. Just access it through 2 clicks on a computer, without having to either attach cables or remove the memory card and stick it in the computer.

Anyway, I'll write about past interesting events when I have photos to accompany the stories. For now, all I can say is that the house is really quiet because Schrobbenmaster is off to Bangkok on his own. Why didn't I follow him? Because I don't really fancy Bangkok. Don't ask me why I don't, I don't have a particular reason, it just didn't pull me in like other places have done. Well, except for the awesome Green Curry Chicken with Indian Pancake at Wave Place. That is the most awesome green curry ever.

Yesterday, Schrobbenmaster and I were at Bangsar to pick up my stupendously expensive new spectacles. My previous ones are about 5 years old, so I thought perhaps it would be nice to have a new pair. Think again, JY! I'm gonna use these for the next 10 years!

The lesson I learnt is: Just because you haven't heard of the brand, doesn't mean it's not known.

This particular brand is called Lindberg and is from Denmark. They are amazingly light and minimalistic and cool and... and... all that... well, I just really have to make myself feel better by telling myself how much use I'll get out of them over the next 10 years.

(If you visit their website, you could be forgiven for thinking that they're just some nerdy, glasses manufacturer, but let me just point you in the direction that these glasses are way more expensive than the Prada ones I tried on as well)

Since we were in Bangsar, we just strolled around BV I and II and stumbled into a store called thirtyfour. Oh, woe betide my purse, for I fell in love with their snakeskin cuffs!

And after pondering for the entire dinner at Chatterbox, I finally bought one.

In case you're wondering why I have a picture of my cuff so quickly when I don't have any of New Year's, it's because I took the easy way out and took a photo with my iMac.

Thirtyfour is a bunch of Malaysian designers and smithers who are trained in industrial, metalsmithing and all sorts of other design fields. It's really interesting, so go visit their website.

The founder, I believe, is the one who went to Parsons in New York where she studied metalsmithing, after which she opened thirtyfour there and consequently in Berlin and Singapore. After a few years, she decided Malaysians were finally ready for such sophistication and opened a store in Bangsar Village II in November. This is the story I got from the two shop assistants.

I'm really glad I found it! I love the sophisticated yet tough look of the accessories (not lovin' the sharp chunkiness of the bags as much though, but to each his own).

So go visit if you're in the mood to support Malaysian stuff that is not boringly traditional or berkualiti.

On the brink of a new year!

Apologies for the thousandth time for not updating in a while. I've been so busy with Christmas shopping and generally catching up with life back home in KL for the past two and a half weeks that I've had hardly any time to catch my breath. And when I do get to sit in front of the computer, I have to do work for back in Amsterdam (the perils of being the only graphic designer in the company).

Christmas was a fun affair - we did the usual church and family thing. I spent loads on Christmas presents, and although I got less than half in return, I did enjoy shopping for the presents and just the whole fun of spending money for a purpose instead of just buying more clothes. Which I also did, of course.

I've spent way too much on clothes for myself, but I'm actually restocking for spring and summer in NL. I brought back old clothes that I want to give away and had already planned to stock my wardrobe with new things from here. But it's just that spending a whole lot of money in one day makes me feel terrible, even if it is for things that I will wear for a whole season (or two).

I'm also happy to say that my eczema is cured except for one or two patches here and there. And I no longer feel the need to scratch all night (phew!). It's been so good as well to catch up with my dogs and give them the attention they need. I missed them! They're so cute and they actually look quite tiny now that I've been living with a humongous cat for the past 5 months. It just makes them look cuter :P

I'll stop here with the updates, need to get ready to head to Dan the Drinker's place for some dinner. When Schrobbenmaster was staying with him, they used to have dinner delivered from a place called Puzzini's, which Schrobbenmaster has been missing a lot. So tonight's the night we reenact the old times.

Till next time...!

Food for thought: Foreign languages

You know, the funny thing about foreign languages is that the words don't really mean anything to you even if you know how to say it.

How easy is it to say "Je t'aime" or "Ik hou van jou" to someone you don't love? In this case, please assume that your native language is not French or Dutch. And yet it's so hard to say it in English. Again, please assume that your native language is English.

It's pretty much something I realised when I first started learning Dutch. Right now, it's become a little more imprinted in my being, so it's more meaningful, but in the beginning, whenever I stayed the night at Schrobbenmaster's parents' house, everyone would say "Welterusten!" and then go to bed. And even though I also cheerily said "Welterusten!" to everyone, it never felt right, like I was just finishing a conversation halfway and then turning my back on them.

Same thing when we used to say goodbye to each other by saying "Doei!". I was always so tempted to add a "Bye!" as well, because it didn't feel right to just yell out a meaningless word and leave.

---

Anyway, this is my last work day before going home for the hols. There are officially 23 minutes left!

It's gonna be a little strange, I think, to be holidaying at home. I've never stayed so long away from KL before, and I'm really curious to find out how I'll feel, roaming my old haunts. The awesome thing is that I can now have as much and whatever sushi I like without caring about the price, haha. Euro, come on!

My luggage is completely packed to the brim and I hope the stroopwafels don't break too badly or spill their crumbs all over my clothes. Also hoping that my favourite shoes won't be squashed. Thank goodness it's made of well-formed and slightly hard leather and suede, so it's a little protected that way.

The next time I write, I will be in warm and humid KL!

Doei!

5 little things to be thankful for

Sometimes, little things make a big difference in our lives. There are some things here in NL that really put a smile on my face and make me thankful. Yes, indeed, we should be more thankful about things that make our lives just that bit easier.

1. Drink cartons really ARE no-spill.
2. Food is as fresh as morning dew.
3. Drivers are courteous and law-abiding.
4. Pork is easily obtainable.
5. Moleskines and Brabantias are affordable.

It is now approaching crunch time! I have to buck up and buy all the souvenirs and gifts to bring home to KL. And it's not ideal weather for going out.

Tonight, we had dinner in a really cosy place on Hoofddorpplein in Amsterdam called Kek, which is a colloquial word for "sweet and cool". We found it through Google Maps (one more thing to be thankful for) because we had planned a dinner with one of my ex-colleagues, Danny Lim (and the guy he's staying with in Amsterdam, Joao), and because of the snow, we didn't want to drive through the centre of Amsterdam. This restaurant is only 10 minutes from our office and in a nice, quiet neighbourhood.

Danny is in Amsterdam for a few days en route to Kuala Lumpur from London, via Madrid, Munich, Budapest, Vienna and a hundred other cities up till Tehran and then the journey stops abruptly only because there are no proper rail transfers across India and Iran.

What an exciting journey!

He's doing it all by rail as well. What a wonderful way to really explore and discover yourself, with all those hours alone. I think it's just great.

Anyway, the past 2 weeks have been really full of 2 or 3-course dinners at lavish restaurants and I'm feeling like I'm gonna be heading back to KL having put on weight that I never had before. I enjoyed all these dinners, experiencing more of the Amsterdam lifestyle. Too bad that it had to be at a time when my skin is really acting up and making me very self-conscious. Thankfully most gezellig places are dim indoors, which makes it easier to hide flaws :P

So back to the point of this post, the next time you encounter something that helps make your life that little bit easier (for me it's definitely the no-spill cartons), remember to pause and smile in appreciation!

The unbearable sickness of being.

I'm suffering right now.

I knew when I came here that I would have to suffer through this thing called Winter. But I was totally not expecting this thing called Eczema From The Very Dry House Because Of The Heating.

My whole body is affected by little mosquito bite looking thingies, which keep me awake all night because they're so bloody friggin itchy. But the worst part? The worst part is that it has also affected my face! My whole face is dry, red and itchy. When I wash my face, my hands aren't touching what is called My Face, but what is called The Gravelly Road.

Which brings me to a point that I hate about this country. What's new, you say? Well, I've been gradually getting used to and accepting the way of life here, but this point is really, really annoying.

The doctors.

First, let me point out the good thing about going to the doctors here is that you can walk in and out without paying or sitting around for medicine because it's all covered by a mandatory medical insurance (which you have to pay for, of course). And they send the prescription straight to the pharmacy near your house, where you can pick it up for no cost either.

The bad thing?

You have to call to make an appointment with the doctor, which you will usually only get at the shortest, 3 days later. I called two Thursdays ago, and found out that the whole clinic was away for a convention and I could only call on Monday if it wasn't an emergency. So I called on Monday and could only get an appointment on Friday. This is 9 whole days after I needed to see the doctor!

I should explain that this visit is actually a follow-up visit. I saw the doctor 4 weeks before to check a rash, and she gave me a cream for it then asked me to check back in 4 weeks. Three and a half weeks later, the rash has grown and is even worse. So I was actually pretty worried and desperate to get it checked out again.

Anyway, I finally saw the doctor on the Friday, and she took photos of the old rash to send to the dermatologist. When I asked her about the new eczema itches, she barely glanced at them and just pronounced that it is eczema and said she'd give me cream to moisturise my body with. All fine and dandy.

But 3 days later and 3 sleepless nights later, I'm getting really annoyed, because I don't see or feel any improvement. Makes me really REALLY miss my doctor in KL, who would have, first of all, got my first rash fixed or at least diagnosed by now, without it growing so serious and bothersome. And second of all, she would have prescribed not only moisture cream, but anti-histamines to take away the itch and maybe also a cream to calm the eczema. I've barely slept in the past 3 nights! I'm just guessing here, but I think because the medical is covered by insurance, they only prescribe the bare minimum that they have to. Well, I don't want the friggin bare minimum, I want to be cured!!!

When your whole body is red, lumpy and itchy, your face is rough, dry and ugly and your eyes are small and swollen, believe me, there is nothing about the medical system in this country that you can feel you will ever get used to or accept.

Netherlands vs Malaysia

Just a quick one while I can still remember what's in my head...

It's a colleague's birthday today, and as she was walking around giving muffins to everyone in the office, I couldn't help thinking of how it's completely the opposite in Malaysia.

In NL, when it's your birthday, you are the one who brings goodies for everyone and goes around getting wished "Gefeliciteerd!".

In Malaysia, you come into the office (or wherever), and people come to wish you "Happy Birthday!" instead, and probably bring you out to lunch that day, some closer colleagues even buying you a present.

In one situation, you are making everyone else happy, and in the other, everyone else is making you happy.

Got me wondering why the Dutch have to work so hard on their birthdays, when the rest of the year, they're pretty self-centred and individualistic.

And then I realised that perhaps that's how it works...

In NL, 364 days of the year, you are being self-centred and taking care of number one. So when it is your birthday, you give back and be a nice, giving person, making everyone around you feel special for once.

In Malaysia, however, you spend so much time belonging to the group and (usually) giving in to the group's majority decision, that when it's your birthday, the group gives back to you and makes you feel like the only one that counts.

I kinda like that everything balances out in the end :)

Started drawing again

A quick update for those who are interested in what happened at the embassy...

It's a good thing I read Mumsy Bumsy's comment about printing out all the emails before going to the embassy, because when I got there and explained my business, Mr Bangla Bastard (who is actually a Malay dude) repeated the same thing to me as he did on the phone. Oh boy, do I know his voice really well now.

So I dug into my hat of tricks and pulled out the printouts of the emails. Mr Bangla-Malay read them in silence, then told me to pass him my police report and also to let him take these emails with him to check with Mr Jamal.

In the end, everything worked out, thankfully. Mr Bangla-Malay turned out to be a nice, talkative dude, albeit still having a sort of Melayu manner (more social than work-minded, but that's fine since I don't work with him) even though he's lived in NL for over 30 years.

My translation only cost € 35 (phew!) and although Schrobbenmaster and I waited all morning, Mr Jamal could only work on my report in the afternoon because he had a particularly difficult case to handle before ours. So we were advised to go home and wait for the post to deliver my translation.

It came 2 days later (yay!). So now I'm all set to get the remainder of my life back.

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On another note, although I hated having Schrobbenmaster away from me most of the month of October for the festival, it was a good time for me to start looking into myself again and explore what I like. I decided to start drawing again. It's been awesome therapy and it's great to see a style emerging.

I'm planning to make a recipe book for the kitchen here. A homemade one with blank pages to fill in. Right now we're just using a plastic folder with ugly black and white printouts from Textedit (Notepad for you Windows dinosaurs). I just need to find a lovely, cute, LARGE kitchen hook to hang the recipe book on. (Big hint for my Christmas wish list, anyone?).

Maybe I'll make my own Christmas cards this year. Or if I'm lazy again, Christmas tags like last year.

I have more sketches in my sketchbook at home, but I'm not sure what I wanna do with them. Whether to show them to anyone or just keep them as exercises in expression. Schrobbenmaster calls it my Tree Book, cuz I only draw trees in it :S

Btw, I started a new page on Tumblr to collect designs I find inspiring. Visit it here: goodputty.tumblr.com

Embassies! Ugh!! Malaysian embassy FAIL.

So here goes another embassy rant, except this time, it's not about the Dutch embassy in Malaysia, but about the Malaysian embassy in The Netherlands.

I don't know if I wrote about this before - possibly not, as I've been pretty traumatised by the incident and I didn't want to think about it - but I was pickpocketed at Schiphol Airport when picking frachely up. I believe I did mention a little about it and then linked to frachely's post, but if not, then here it is: Black Friday in Amsterdam.

So with my wallet (if I mention, a brand new, very expensive Lacoste, will I get more sympathy?) gone, gone too were the most important things to carry - my Dutch ID, my Malaysian ID and my driver's license.

Hence, my contacting the Malaysian embassy.

I had already made my police report, but it was in Dutch and I obviously can't send in a Dutch report to get a new Malaysian ID card. So I emailed the embassy to ask if they could translate the document for me. Of all places, you'd think they'd be the first to offer it, right?

First, they took almost 2 weeks to reply. In that time, I even gave them a call directly and was told by some Indian/Bangladeshi accented man that *cue Bangla accent* "No, you kenot translate from Dutch at the embassy, only English to Malay or Malay to English".

So I asked him where I could translate from Dutch to English, as it would have to be an official translation accepted by the embassy and the Malaysian police and government. And he goes, "No, we don't know, you have to search the internet and find an official translation yourself. Official translation, ya!".

*cue an irritated me*

I said thanks and hung up and started searching Google for translation services. Found one (although in the US) and emailed them. They replied the next day, quoting me $ 0.10 - 0.20 per word. Whooooaaaaa... I have 5 A4 sized pages in my report and this was gonna cost me easily a few hundred dollars that I'm not willing to part with!

I left it for a while, when one day I received the long-awaited email from the Malaysian embassy. It said:

Yes, we can help you with the translation. You can call the Embassy at: 070-350 6506 to make an appointment with Mr. Jamal from the Consular section.

So this morning, I called the embassy again to look for Mr Jamal. Unfortunately, the same Bangla-accented guy picked up the phone, told me, "No, you kenot talk to Mr Jamal, he has a visiter.". So I asked if I could just make an appointment with him for translation. And he goes, "No, we kenot do translation from Dutch. Only English to Malay or Malay to English. You have to look for official translation in the Yellow Book.". To which I asked if he at least had any recommendations of companies, I mean, this CANNOT BE THE FIRST TIME SOMEONE NEEDED TRANSLATION SERVICES FROM DUTCH? Of course, the bastard went, "No, you must look in the Yellow Book for an official translater.".

After politely saying thank you and hanging up (hey, I was brought up well), I directly emailed the embassy again to clarify this whole bloody situation, why they tell me one thing, but the guy on the phone tells me something else. I also told them that I'm on a time crunch as I'm flying back to Malaysia soon.

Then I look in the Goudengids (the famous "Yellow Book") online for a translator. Schrobbenmaster helps me call a company near our house and they're very helpful, but they say that their official translators are registered in a database which is accessible by people who need to check, but which is probably not accessible in Malaysia. And that I would therefore need to bring my translated document to a court and make an appointment with a judge for him to stamp the document, making it official. And an appointment with a judge normally takes 2-4 weeks!!!

Devastated, I felt like emailing the embassy again to ask for help, when Schrobbenmaster suggested emailing the Dutch embassy in Malaysia as well. I figured it was a good idea, as embassies SHOULD charge less for translation than external business companies.

I emailed the Dutch embassy for help and advice, and a few minutes later, I receive an extremely speedy response from the Malaysian embassy:

Please come to the Embassy tomorrow or Wednesday before 12.00 for the translation.

OMG.

As relieved as I was to receive it, I can't help thinking, what the hell are they doing? By email they're telling me that they're my saviours, and by phone, a Bangla-accented bastard is telling me that they're idiots.

Anyhow, I will be heading to the embassy on Wednesday morning to hopefully get my translation done. And hopefully for not too much money. I did email them back straightaway to ask who I should look for, because I didn't want to come face-to-face with the Bangla-accented bastard who will probably tell me to go home because they "kenot do translation from Dutch here". In fact, I think I might bring my own "Yellow Book" to bash him on the head if he does say that.

Wish me luck!!!