Paul the octopus residing in Oberhausen, Germany has done it again – apparently predicting that Spain would win over Germany in the semi-finals of the World Cup! Okay, not that great because I’m actually in Germany right now.

Anyway, I’m neutral, I’m only rooting for Netherlands to win because I’m an Oranje-supporter! (And Jeroen is taking care of my mini friend)

A little out of sync here but I always like photos in my post, so here is the growth and growth of mini b.

When I first got him he was a sweet, sweet friend…

A week later he was still sweet but he bit Jon, so I guess he was already ferocious inside.

For some reason, it seemed that he couldn’t stop eating, this is only one week later.

And this is one week after that, at the rate he’s going he’s going to kind of explode or something.

But he’s so cute!

Otherwise, I have made Amsterdam my new base station and I’ve changed my function (we’re encouraged to move within every couple of years to understand the entire business – I’m still in the same company – this company is a good one – especially when yours truly will now play a part in its future strategy). Funny enough, if there was one question I can remember during the interviews, it was the: What do you want to do in 5 years? I said: No idea. Later I was on the phone with my dad and I was like, maybe I’m like the only candidate who said, no idea, and everyone else said that they wanted to be a business leader, VP or something ambitious and I sort of like screwed up. I got offered the job anyway.

BTW, my new job is super cool, and the team is super smart and hardworking, even the CEO called us “bright MBAs”.

PS: I think you can’t have too much of a plan in life. Whatever comes, comes you know. You just find couple of things you love, couple of things you are fantastically great at, and then, stay happy and healthy, and well, party harder.

I went to little Holland in Den Haag few weeks ago, I thought it was so cool – because I was there more than twenty years ago!

Look how much I have grown since:

Half-baked Dutch when you are making a reservation at a fancy restaurant

vs.

Half-baked Dutch navigating the legal and financial consequences of buying a new house

I thought to myself about the time required:
Time taken to buy a house: 6 months
Time taken to decide to buy this house: 3 minutes
Time taken to mentally convince my family that I was going to do it: 3 days
Total number of houses looked at: 5
Total number of houses I took a trip for: 3
Order of house which I bought and finally got it: 2nd
Time taken to get a mortgage: 2 months
Time taken to move into my new home: 5 days

Of course since I was still contemplating should I buy a house before I actually even bought a house – which was that 3 minutes in contemplation. I’ve concluded that people who regard me as unable to make decisions just really don’t know me at all. When I know, I do. When I’m being a fluff bunny, you know that I just don’t.

Since I’m in “vakantie” mode, I bought a whole bunch of relatively useless but feel good stuff. I first got the Schwarzkopf got2b anti-frizz lotion and dumped a whole lot on my hair. I actually bought this because there was a charm hanging off the hair lotion. Now you know how to appeal to my demographic, hang useless but pretty things on the side.

But since I’ve dumped a ton on my hair with this photo, you can see it was actually a great buy at 5EUR! At least it smells nice and makes my hair seem of flowers.

And by popular demand, if you are ever in Dresden you definitely need to drop by the Ogura Restaurant in the Hilton. I took the ramen today and it was wayyyyy lekker!

Tempting you with a picture!

I like business cards.

However, recently a dutch company called “My name is E” has come up with a neat idea.

Basically it does away with business cards and allows you to exchange stuff like social networks, numbers, everything. So far it comes with a Web Interface, as well as a dongle which you can buy in order to exchange contacts.

I like this idea in general, however, the One Billionth Downloaded App Bump is Free, and it has the same features as well. Plus the fact that these ideas often only catch on if someone out there is using it as well. Nokia has tried a few times (and failed), Lovegotchi has tried, and so on so forth… Similarly, I deleted my “Bump” on my iPhone when there was absolutely nobody to bump into.

So, the app is already free. What’s stopping people from using it.

I say:

1. “My name is E” is a neat idea, although the name speaks of nothing. Hence I’m using a kitty thumbnail and it could mean anything!
2. Is there a way to exchange contacts in a better E way? Or is there a launch party where you distribute E tags/gadgets to A-listers or someone who wants to promote your product?
3. Is E able to connect up with other sorts of contact exchangers? Or could it be integrated to say.. when someone gets information and it immediately downloads it to their contact file. For Macs, it could be Address Book. For PCs, it could be Outlook.

If anyone owns an E, I would be interested to just know!

T-Mobile is the first carrier I’ve ever used since I have been living in the Netherlands. It was kind of obvious to choose T-Mobile because it was the only carrier here which offered the iPhone, although it is quite anti-expat as the website is entirely in Dutch. I was using prepaid with Lebara Mobile previously.

I’m quite anti-contract, having bad incidences with Singtel in Singapore. Never ever get a plan with them! They do not control their franchise and resellers, resulting in misleading advertisements on the local newspaper, bad customer services where you stay too long on the phone with no result, even if you overspend with their basic plans they give no suggestion to improve… At least Starhub is better IMO… at least if you ever visit or stay in Singapore…

Anyway, the good thing is. I really like T-Mobile! Here’s the breakdown of Lebara Mobile vs. T-Mobile:

Lebara Mobile:
Type: Prepaid
Call Quality: 4/5
Data Plan: None
Costs: Low. 0.07EUR to a Singapore mobile, 0.12EUR to a NL mobile
Offers: Often. From buy 10EUR, get 10EUR. Free sms to overseas af en toe
Extras: English translated website
Worst: Zero customer service. If you needed it, you had to pay for it.
Perfect for: Students on a budget, especially foreigners

T-Mobile:
Type: Contractual (Prepaid available)
Call Quality: 5/5 (Never dropped once)
Data Plan: Inclusive with plan
Costs: Quite high at 29.95EUR/month for 150 minutes, 150 sms, unlimited Data. For overseas calls you pay extra, roaming calls cost the roof
Offers: None for my plan. Except my 16GB iPhone costed me 159.95EUR
Extras: Punte, or points for each EUR you spend with them. Approximately 1 Pt = 0.02EUR. Fantastic Customer Service
Worst: No english, Google Translate or Bablefish is your best friend, thank God for its customer service
Perfect for: Working people, or people attached to a smart phone

Considering that T-Mobile also has its surf and go promotion for about 9EUR, 20EUR for 150 minutes and 150 sms is not exactly the cheapest plan in the house. But since I was no longer a student on a budget, T-Mobile and of course the iPhone (Skype, Vopium, Fring) was attractive for me.

But what really impressed me about T-Mobile was the customer service. When I walked into the T-Mobile store to get my iPhone, I was told about well, almost everything, in English of course. I was told how to activate the phone, the time I had to wait if I was to be using my old simcard, how to switch off Data Roaming, and some extra fanciful details. I was even told details which I need not know, like how using an ABN AMRO Credit Card does not really put extra insurance on the iPhone even though I thought so. He wasn’t pushy at all, even when in a very fickle female fashion I started contemplating on black vs. white, 8GB vs. 16GB, if I were to continue to use my old number…

Then, I noticed that Dennis had a Belstatus iPhone App van T-Mobile on his iPhone which informed him about the remaining minutes and smses which he had. And since I was told about it by the nice sales person, I tried unsuccessfully to include it but had huge problems because of the great amount of Dutch on the website. So I called the Toll-Free number and got on straightaway. I half expected to be put on hold for 10 minutes like some *ahem* *singtel* other carriers I know. The lady was nice and explained everything, including that Gebruikersnaam did not mean my bank account name. She also explained the kind of charges I would expect using my phone roaming and all in London.

Verdict: I am impressed by the customer service. And although the price is not cheap, I highly recommend T-Mobile NL. The overseas rates are exorbitant but do your research well into VOIP and you can probably find something which might save you money in the long run. As for Lebara, well, both are targeted for very different markets, and if you were a visitor, or a foreign student, with little phone usage, I would recommend that instead.

This is a very long post with lots of photos. Be warned!!!

I’m not sure where I saw the ad, but it was for Singapore Day 2009 in London. And since London is just an hour away, I just had to go. I took the photos with a mix of my iPhone and Sony T20. For the record, it has been 20 years since I’ve last been in London, London was the first place I have ever lived for a few years outside of Singapore. And I have no recollection of Singapore in my earliest childhood. I can only remember London and Robinsfield Playschool where I had a blond best friend called Abe, that I sucked ladybugs out of trees with little gadgets, and that once I wrote alot of Ks on my paper such that my teacher thought that I was someone else, and that I had to choose between a pink bag and a green cat bag in Harrods and my dad buying me a little ball which costs too much since the GBP was like seven times to the SGD.

I also remember vague things, like things my parents said about Camden Town and that I should be left there with a milk bottle, how we would possibly return when we were older, and arriving at the maisonette in Singapore when I came back, only to realize that Singapore was in fact my home country, and not UK. I also realized that people hated my British accent and everyone wanted to speak Singlish.

The Ryanair tickets were really cheap. I paid like 60EUR for a return trip to London Stansted Airport. There are trains running from Stansted Aiport, and the Stansted Express takes you from the airport to some known location or to the Liverpool Station for about 15GBP. From there, take the underground, or overground to your destination. This, I don’t really understand because the transport system in London looks like Japan! The iPhone App I had (London Underground) was useful at some point, but not all the time because sometimes you need to take a mixture of train, underground, train, or bus to a certain place. No 3G didn’t help either.

We rented an apartment at the Marlin Apartments Olympic View for about 60EUR / night. Can I say it was the BEST DEAL ever???

Yes I will say it.

Marlin Apartments were the best deal ever!

The apartment was clean, big, and neat. And suitable for two to four people. There were twin beds and a couch which doubled up as a sofa bed. It had everything! Almost like the suite they booked me in (because the hotel was overbooked) when I was traveling for my last business trip in Groningen. The kitchen had a dishwasher, oven, microwave, utensils, pots, cups, champagne glasses. There was a washing machine, bath tub, digital TV with a gazillion channels. It is even better then my own home in the Netherlands!

The downside, however to living in Stratford, is that it is located where the Olympic Games 2012 London is being held, so the scenery is facing the construction site of the Olympic games. It was also an incredibly shady neighborhood being on the outskirts of London and it freaked me out slightly to be trying to find directions at 11pm at night in a neighborhood of black prostitutes, sleazy bars, drunk brits and buying kebah from a guy with a seriously disfigured face which looked like he got beaten up so badly. The main gate to the apartments also disappeared on the second night I was there…

However, there was a Porsche parked next to the apartments so it couldn’t be that bad.. right?

The next day, going to Hampton Court Palace for SG day was kind of fun. The transport in London is very expensive, and the transport system is separated into different zones which I never tried to figure out. But a good plan is to get the day ticket which costs approximately 7GBP. Going from Stratford to Hampton Court costs about 7GBP too…. one way.

Because most of my friends here are non-Singapore and mostly Europeans, it was quite funny to listen to so much Singlish in one day. It was almost like being back at home. But I’ve already talked about Singapore day so you can read that story here.

Since attempting to travel great distances and getting lost at 11pm is a really tiring thing. We went back to Stratford and shopped at Sainsbury supermarket, everything was so cheap there! I had Fishermen’s Pie for 75p – now thats’ absolutely gek (crazy)! I was also happy to know that there was many, many Starbucks around, even in such a sleazy neighborhood.

Sorry I just had to be unfaithful to my Nespresso for the next couple of days. Its like meeting your first love again.

Oh this is so sinful. Whipped cream, Berry mocha Frappuccino for Summer….

I’m glad I walked so much along Oxford Circus that all the cream didn’t go to my ass. I checked! I’m still the same weight as I left! The day however, ended weirdshit. Because everyone except me, slept at 7pm!!!! 7pm!!!! I wanted to party at maybe Ministry of Sound, or God’s Kitchen, or some great big hot club in Central London and its unearthly for people in their 20s to start sleeping at 7pm on Saturday nights!

Bah!

Anyway the next day, we went to the Oxford Street and Regent Street and naturally did alot of shopping! We went to the huge Apple Store in Regent Street and it was my only source of Internet as I brought the WiFi equipped iPhone without my Airport Express (There was free wired broadband at the apartments), and I used Vopium and Skype to call my parents and back to Netherlands. Got to love Free WiFi!

The iPhone in the UK costs only 340GBP for an 8GB version without contract, and we “almost” got another one because it was seriously quite cheap! There were a few stores which sell it, O2, which is the main carrier, as well as Carphone warehouse and a few more small stores. The uncontracted version however, was a simlocked version which was Pay as you Go, and it required a UK Credit Card or BankCard – no cash allowed! It was irritating! We managed to get those small stores which allowed you to unlock iPhones with their special Simcards and he said that he would use his card to get us a phone if we paid him twenty quids. The cash machine promptly did not want to let us withdraw money and we felt uneasy taking money from his “little machine”, so we left it as that. How do you unlock a locked iPhone 3G anyway? I never checked that part out.

Disappointed, we also went to the Nike flagship store and it was fantastic!

I have to admit, I was walking in my slippers in the rain all around Central London. After a while I was kind of grumpy making wet puddles with my shoes, so I went into Nike, saw this wonderful pair of Nike Plus.

You know what’s Nike + right? They sell shoes with this empty space in the sole, and iPod sensors along with it for like 19GBP. You drop the sensors in your shoes, and connect them up to your iPod nano and you can track how much you run! The suxy thing was that it didn’t come in my size, so J ended up with a kickass shoe anyway and I had to choose a different model.

The Nike store also had Nike ID where you could customize your shoes and they could sew it on the spot. The entire store was decked in iMacs and it was super pretty and awesome really.

So now I have Nike+ shoes without the iPod nano! Anyone wants to get me a really early birthday present? The shoes cost 68GBP, the same pair of shoes sold in the Netherlands costs 120EUR. Go figure at how much the GBP has dropped!

Thus, after blowing about 400 quid in the Nike store, we decided to walk on…

Suddenly I realized that I just HAD to buy Paul & Joe. I know, its like a crazy realization that it was available in the UK so I started asking every big departmental store on where to get it, where on earth do they stock these things?!! Since everyone was tired, I threw a great tantrum in order to go to Knightsbridge to buy Paul & Joe at Harrods! I mean, it was a waste not to go to Harrods if you were already in Central London right?

I bought an awesome Lip Gloss and other random stuff.

And since we were at Knightsbridge we had to go see Buckingham Palace. Who knows who I might meet, the Queen? Or maybe some Prince charming? Actually no, we went there to see if we could make the guards laugh.

At Buckingham Palace, I was surprised that the guards did not wear big tall black bear hats. The main gates were also closed so we could not disturb the guards.

So yeah, I did not actually meet the Queen, or the Princes. Sad.

I look soooo geeky here! But the temperature suddenly fell to like 5 degrees and I only had a very thin windbreaker with me so I was really very cold. From Buckingham Palace you can also take nice strolls along the Palace Parks, as well as see the famous London Eye. I started checking out all the people running to see if they also purchased the Nike+.

Otherwise… I really like the many channels on British Television… especially Dave! There was Top Gear every other hour, everyone sounded like Jeremy Clarkson, and there was this really nice show called Dragon’s Den. I also bought into the Raggae Raggae sauce which was featured on the show but was unfortunately confiscated during customs.

On the last night however, we stayed at Russell Square hostel. Great location, but horrible place. Bad news here. Its like moving from a 4 star hotel suite to a zero star shelter. Not the best place to go because the place kind of stank and we were so out of place there with ten thousand kids and me holding on to my iPhone and Louis Vuitton bag. We decided to hang out at the Yino Japanese Restaurant because it had better toilets and smell. Still, it was 10GBP a night, and the room was shared with 18 people and we had to leave at 2am in the morning.

The good thing however, was that there was this fantastic Thai food place nearby. I think its called Thai Ten but I can’t be sure. A starter and main dish cost only 10GBP and it was the best thing my taste buds have ever tasted for a while. It was even better than the Hokkien Mee I ate at Singapore Day. Honest!

And then, it was time to go home…

I actually liked my trip to London. It wasn’t all I expected, and I was let down by the British weather. Its also kind of hard traveling with new people because at the end of the trip either you’re friends or you never want to speak to each other again, but all went well. But otherwise it was kind of enjoyable and I spent a grand total of 500EUR for the entire trip inclusive of transport and accommodation! For five days i think that’s quite reasonable but then I got really lucky with the accommodation (Come on! 60EUR a night for a 4 star hotel comparable suite) even though I lost my day ticket once!

Till my next holiday! xoxo

(1) Museum Card: I used to think that if you were under 26. Which is the standard for being “young” and “In school”, you would be entitled to student discounts. Not very true in the Netherlands because not everywhere believes in that. And the two most famous museums in Amsterdam, namely the Van Gogh Museum or the Rijksmuseum, cost 10EUR per entry, which is already 20EUR. Now, the museum card on the other hand costs about 22.50EUR and its valid for a year. Which is awesome because almost all museums in the Netherlands accept this card. (Even if you are post 26 you can get the card for 39.95EUR/year)

Alternatively, if you were only visiting Amsterdam, you could just buy the I amsterdam Card. Its not as cheap – 38EUR for 24 hours, but it saves you alot of hassle figuring out the public transport and what is a strippenkart, the paper thing to chop for different zones). And well, there is this “free” canal cruise and some extra stuff.

I would still recommend the museum card nonetheless, especially if you had a plan to travel Netherlands in two weeks or something like that.

(2) NS Voordeelurenabonnement Card: This is a suggestion more for interns. Because as said, if you are a student in a Dutch institute, you are able to choose to travel on the trains free on either weekends or weekdays. Which makes it great for students, but not so great for students of non-dutch institutes, because the trains ain’t exactly very cheap. So comes the NS Voordeelurenabonnement Card to the rescue.

The NS Card gives you 40% discount on all trains after 9am. It costs about 55EUR/year but it does save you a considerable amount especially since four other people get that discount along with you. For times when I’ve reached Schipol airport alone from a very long flight, it is nice to at least pay less to get to where I want to go.

(3) Albert Heijn Bonus Card: No! Serious! I’m just joking here…

This weekend is called pasdagen, which is basically Easter, a big event where everybody spends with their families and Netherlands gets next Monday off. So its a great long weekend for everybody. And time for me to write some more.

Today I’m going to introduce you to Schiedam, which is just next to Rotterdam. Schiedam is one hour away from Amsterdam, but it is the home of the famous Holland Gin, or Jenever. Of course Schiedam has those pretty canals like most Dutch cities.

I’ve only been to one place in Schiedam, but thats the place of the Jenever Museum, which has a selection of Jenever liquor. It ain’t that expensive (4.80EUR) and you’ll get a personal tour guide to walk you through the making of Jenever. As I might as mentioned before, if you have the museumkaart.nl (Which costs about 23EUR if you are under 24), you can pay a visit to the museum for free. Even showing you the huge barrels which you ferment the alcohol. And yes, people have fallen into the huge barrels by accident. It’s boiling you know. And you don’t want to waste that much of alcohol. Okay, then use your imagination.

There are even trolls un-welcoming you to the stores. I really love the shop windows in the Netherlands.

And a tasting in the end. Just a few euros for that shot of Jenever.

Well, Schiedam is a nice quaint city everyone should at least pay a visit if you have the time.