Singaporean in Algiers

2009 Update: A Really Final Post

2009-04-01T18:53:00.001+03:00

source: http://seven350.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2009/01/brand_new_blog.jpg

Hurrah! I have started blogging again!

Please visit my new blog (http://senchalifeinsingapore.blogspot.com) and give me your support in the comments section.

Hope to see you there!

Sencha

Final Post: Thank You For The Fishes

2008-10-17T09:03:00.002+03:00

It's been roughly a month since my return from Lebanon and I think it is time to end this blog.

I will not be updating this blog anymore. However, I may be returning to this blog from time to time to respond to comments, if any.

I shall be starting a new blog soon ... so stay tuned.

Homecoming

2008-09-24T14:51:00.003+03:00

We had our homecoming celebration on 20th September at Xiyan, a private dinning restaurant.

Started by a celebrity chef from Hong Kong, Xiyan, which means feast of happiness, specializes in Chinese cuisine with other Asian culinary inspiration.

The evening's 12 course dinner (+ 1 on the house) was an absolute delightful dining experience for me. Every dish on the course was unique so I found myself looking forward to the next dish. Moreover, portions were just right, leaving enough for second servings.

Second row (L-R): Jacky Yu (celebrity chef and owner of Xiyan), me, Xinyi, Lindsay (Xinyi's sister), Jackson (budding actor and Xinyi's brother; First row (L-R): Parents of Lisa (Xiyan's partner), Xinyi's parents.

Farewells

2008-09-24T12:30:00.011+03:00

Another belated post from Singapore.

Before we left Beirut, we got together with some colleagues to say farewells.

Restaurant Pinocchio @ Monot, Beirut (12 September)

Us with Cho family: Cho san, Agnes and Yun chan; Yeoh san & Houari

Hickies @ Gemayze, Beirut (12 September)

Hickies before the crowd came in

Us with Pablo & Houari

Second drinks: Vodka Redbull

Us with Pablo (holding on to his Mojito)

Red-faced me having a tequila pop and Houari looking on. Speaking of looking, what is Pablo looking at....or rather who?

Happy Houari! =)

We discovered a new drink that night. Liquid coccaine. 3 of this is enough to get you high.

Liquid Coccaine recipe:
1/2 oz Bacardi® 151 rum
1/2 oz Goldschlager® cinnamon schnapps
1/2 oz Jagermeister® herbal liqueur

Tequila Pop recipe:
1 oz tequila
1 oz 7-Up® soda

Vodka Redbull recipe:
2 oz Absolut Vodka
I can Red Bull

Mojito recipe:
3 fresh mint sprigs
2 tsp sugar
3 tbsp fresh lime juice
1 1/2 oz Sagatiba Pura club soda

Casper & Gambini @ Verdun, Beirut (13 September)

Iftar in Beirut

2008-09-24T09:04:00.011+03:00

Houari breaking fast...

A belated post from Singapore.

We accompanied our friend Houari to Iftar on September 9 at Cafe Al Kahwa along Bliss Street in Beirut.

Cafe Al Kahwa on Bliss Street crowded with customers breaking their fast

Besides Hommos and Moutabal on the left side, I forgot what to call the others. Anyone care to venture?

Soup. Although I would much prefer Algerian chorba frik.

Main course of minced chicken (again I forgot its name)

Dessert

Return To Singapore

2008-09-18T20:00:00.000+03:00

I've returned to Singapore safely on 18 September via an Emirates flight.

It was an enjoyable flight. We upgraded ourselves to business class. Much to our delighted surprise, we were upgraded again to first class this time for the second leg of the journey from Dubai to Singapore. It was a Boeing 777 with fully reclinable seats.

My stint in Middle-east (Lebanon) and North Africa (Algeria & Morocco) has officially ended.

Belated Posts From August

2008-09-09T23:29:00.030+03:00

Here are some of entries that were previously left out...
Live in Europe, Work in Asia: My Visit To Istanbul (6 - 10 Aug)

As part of an upcoming big corporate meeting I was helping to organize for my company, I visited our distributor in Turkey to support some materials preparation.

My hotel was located at a very tourist friendly Taksim square in the European part of Istanbul. The distributor's office was situated on the part of Istanbul on the Asian continent. Every morning during my trip, I had to leave Europe, where I'm sleeping, by car to go to work in Asia.

During my visit, I was recommended to visit Odakoy, where I took this impressive picture above. In the foreground is the Odakoy mosque. In the background, one of the three bridges connecting Europe on this side to Asia on the far side is showing.

A lot of restaurants and pubs can be found around Odakoy mosque. Because of the nice seafront view the place offers, the restaurants and pubs were frequented by tourists and local alike. A row of bazaar is also located between the pubs and seafront marketing all sorts of souvenirs, arts and crafts and even second hand books.

Odakoy was definitely a cool discovery for me during the trip, except that I was alone and it got kind of boring.

A Farewell Party

It seems kind of strange that after being based in Lebanon for over 3 years, this was the first time I was invited to the house of a Lebanese and it was for Xinyi and my farewell.

But when we arrived to his beautiful home, we discovered to our delight that our host had spared no efforts in making sure that we were comfortable and well fed. The fare was a sumptuous spread of cold cuts, cheese and wine. Besides, his wife made us the much-touted-in-the-office "monkey bread" and an American cheesecake to top up the dinner also attended by several colleagues.

Yummy Cheesecake courtesy of Mdm. Derkaloustian

Nice and Monte Carlo: 17th - 22nd Aug

About the big corporate meeting I mentioned in the Istanbul section above? It was held in Nice.

For me it was a nice gesture from the company (no pun intended) because I've visited Algeria on the south side of the Mediterranean sea and resided in Lebanon on the east coast, so visiting Nice allowed me to see the north side of the sea.

Actually, it was torturing to go to Nice for work. While the alluring pristine Mediterranean beckons, I had to force myself to think about the smooth execution of the corporate meeting (I was one of the organizers. We had a great team of organizers by the way...)

Nevertheless, I was able to explore the Cote d'Azur using non working hours such as evenings or during my morning run. Here are some of my photos:

Le Meridien, where we resided and its surroundings
A night shot of the corniche along Cote d'Azur.
Deck chairs enjoying the coolness of evening.
A lovely beach side restaurant was the place for our first dinner since arrival. Prices were a tad steep.Official welcome dinner was organized at this place, La Petite Maison. I was told it is a famous restaurant.
The beach is crowded with people! I cannot understand why? The beach is that great, they have pebble instead of fine sand. However, the scenery's great!
Two outdoor cafes somewhere in the old town Nice, called the Vieux. I cannot pronounce the name accurately in French without someone laughing.
On the last day of our meeting, our Monaco distributor hosted a dinner for us in Monte Carlo. Some of us got so high that everything was a blur.

Final Working Day

2008-09-09T14:04:00.006+03:00

Yesterday was my last day of work in Beirut head office.

I'm now officially unemployed!

My final day in Beirut is 17th August. (Opps another typo....it's supposed to be 17th September)

Meanwhile, what shall I do in Beirut? I still have 6 prepaid gym visits to spend.

Me and new Algerian transfer employee to our team in Beirut on my last working day

Singapore F1

2008-09-05T12:25:00.004+03:00

According to Yahoo news today (article replicated below), Toyota's Jano Trulli commented recently that the F1 drivers are a little bit concerned about the safety of Singapore's untested F1 track.

Singapore is set to host an F1 race this month. Due to land scarcity, the F1 track is actually a make shift track from normal road and the race will be held at night. Probably, this is to minimize traffic flow problems caused by road diversion for F1?

Anyway, either Trulli don't know what he is talking about or it is true. If it is true, then my country is doing slipshot work at this upcoming F1 race. The race is going to be held soon and no one had bothered to test the condition of the F1 circuit? *Throw up both arms in disgust*

However, I would urge Mr. Truli not to worry. I counting on it that another news article will appear soon along the lines: "Minister says F1 track is safe". As our ministers are paid to know everything, there is nothing to worry about....NOT! =P

Motor racing-Trulli says Singapore still a worry for F1 drivers
Reuters - Friday, September 5
By Alan Baldwin
SPA-FRANCORCHAMPS, Belgium, Sept 4 - Formula One drivers are still fretting about the sport's first night race less than a month before Singapore's new street circuit makes its debut.

"It's a new circuit, we don't know much about it, the schedule, the times of running. we all are a little bit concerned about the night race and the poor weather which might occur there," Toyota's Jarno Trulli told reporters at the Belgian Grand Prix on Thursday.

"It's a big question mark for everyone, we mustn't underestimate the situation."
Singapore will become the second new venue this season after last month's Valencia street race when the southeast Asian island state hosts the 15th round of the championship on Sept. 28 at the tail end of the monsoon season.

Unlike Valencia, which staged a couple of junior formula races on the street circuit a month before the grand prix to iron out any problems, Singapore remains untested.
"In Valencia they did a good job, so I am confident they can do a good job for Singapore," said Trulli. "But the location is different and the climate conditions are different.

"We are all a little bit uncertain because we probably don't have enough data. I haven't seen the circuit layout but that's not the problem. The problem is we don't know if the circuit is good enough, if the surface is good enough, if we have enough run-off areas, if the safety is good enough for a night race in wet conditions.

"There are several question marks and several concerns. I'm not saying that I don't want to race there, but that we might encounter some more problems than in Valencia."

September Update

2008-09-03T09:04:00.010+03:00

Wake Me Up When September's Here...

September's here finally.

The month of August saw me doing a lot of travelling and no blogging...
August 6 ~ 10, I was in Istanbul.
August 17 ~ 22, I visited Nice in France and Monte Carlo in Monaco.
August 23 ~ 31, I returned to Singapore for vacation (a week!)

September is going to be my last month of expatriation. I am repatriating to Singapore in the middle of this month.

But more about this later.

I went to Singapore and all I got was a lousy....

...Portable Hard Disk!

I bought it when I visited COMEX 2008.

Is COMEX an abbreviation for Computer Exhibition or Communication Exhibition? I never can tell but it is the largest IT exhibition organized in Singapore annually.

COMEX is therefore a much anticipated affair as Singaporeans are flocking there to look for the latest bargain price on digital cameras, notebooks, printers, mobile equipments and other electronic products.

I hate crowds. If I hadn't wanted portable hard disk, I wouldn't have gone. After going around some of the booths, I shortlisted my choice to 3 brands:

Maxtor
Western Digital
Imation

Their prices were about the same: around SGD125 (USD90) for 250GB. The difference was in the bundling. For instance, Imation comes with a free protective sticker and a pouch.

Long story short, I went for this Western Digital one:

I got it because I thought it was the best looking among the 3. I am such a sucker for product design when it comes to shopping. I bought 2 additionally for Xinyi and her friend KK. I hope they don't regret my decision.

Ramadan and Mid-Autumn Festival

When I returned to Beirut, it is the beginning of Ramadan, the Islamic fasting month. For the Chinese, we are anticipating the Mid-Autumn Festival that falls on the full moon of August in the Lunar year.

The difference from our Muslim brethens is that, we eat.

We eat mooncakes. A lot of them!

It is a sweet cake-like pastry with a very sweet lotus seed paste and salted egg yolk filling.

The mooncakes I bought looks something like those in this picture. The round egg yolk filling resembles the moon.

To be exact, Muslims also eat a lot of during the breaking of fast during Ramadan. Especially the sweet stuff. Come to think of it, we're not so different after all. Everybody eats a lot of sweet things and gain a lot of weight. Only difference is that their practice is just a bit more restrictive in that they have to fast a little during the day.

So I bought some mooncakes to be brought back to Beirut. Somehow I got a discount buying mooncakes from Marriot hotel Singapore, which is rather known for their mooncakes.

Anyway, my intention was to bring some mooncakes to my Asian colleagues working in Algeria. Somehow, the moon in Algeria is especially big and them being far away from home during this occasion, so I thought it might be a nice touch.

.... RAMADAM KARIM & HAPPY MID AUTUMN FESTIVAL to ALL!!!

Playing Tennis in Algiers

2008-08-11T16:51:00.006+03:00

I began playing tennis in Algiers at Unite Golf Club at Cheraga.

It was a weekend Friday so there was no work.

I haven't played tennis for years. The last time I picked up a real tennis racket, it was during a physical education during junior college years. Although, I "practiced" some tennis moves on a Wii in my colleague's Beirut apartment occasionally.

In reality, I have no inkling about tennis, other than Sharapova is really eye candy. In the words of one team-mate, Pablo, we pretend to play.

It is an understatement because Pablo is one of the best players among us. Or perhaps the rest of us really sucked?

After several games, I do realize that I'm have a consistent form when it comes to hitting the net, hitting the ball out of court or failing to hit the ball at all.

My failure rate to hit the ball was more pronounced when I was on the receiving end of service from Mike, our number 2 player, who incidently is an excellent badminton player who had done some coaching in Japan, and therefore, doubtlessly, packs a powerful serve.

Then there are our two Japanese team-mates, Terada and Tsuchiya. Terada is reportedly an excellent baseball player, which explained his donning of baseball attire even when he was playing tennis.

Terada also has a real talent for humour. Once, he mimicked the throwing style of famous Japanese players. Unfortunately, I'm clueless when it comes to baseball or the game's famous personalities. But he looked really funny so the humour was not lost.

Tsuchiya san is really a nice team-mate to have. Among the team, he and I had been in Algeria the longest. Super nice guy with a good sense of humour. The Algerians also never forget his name once they were introduce to him, because his family name is similarly sounding to an Algerian traditional musical instrument.

Encouragingly, my gym sessions in Beirut were beginning to pay off. After running after balls that I failed to hit (it happened a lot!), I was able to maintain some level of fitness. Yey, me and gym membership!

Interestingly, the tennis courts at the golf course don't come with electric lighting. As evening approaches, we found that we could not see the ball very well anymore and have to stop the game. No offense but is this really a golf club?!

After tennis, it was a spicy Thai dinner at the newly opened Bangkok Thai branch near Deli Ibrahim.

The following are some pictures:

Pre-Game
I was invited by Mike (Thu san) to his guesthouse for lunch. It was curry chicken and fried eggs, nicely concluded with a delicious melon and Hagen Daaz! I simply right the watermelons in Algeria. The sweetest!

Unite Golf Club @ Cheraga, Algiers

Front entrance
Part of the club house and restaurant

Doing our warmups
Pablo (left) and Terada (right) in his baseball attire
Mike (left) is our badminton expert and Tsuchiya (right) is named after a musical instrument.

*This entry is post-dated to 3 Aug '08, as I didn't have internet access to upload. Incidentally, this is my last visit to Algeria.

Movies: The Forbidden Kingdom & Kung Fu Panda

2008-07-17T11:27:00.005+03:00

I'm still in Beirut.

One of the perks for being in Beirut is that I can go to the movies.

Singaporeans are avid movie goers. We have the highest movie-going rate in the world. According to a 2006 source, on average, we watch 8 movies a year.* The national average might be more now. If that is true, then after arriving to the MENA region, my annual movie-going rate had fallen below the 2006 national average at about 6 movies/year. When I was traveling in North Africa, I missed out on a lot of movie releases.

In North Africa, I did not have the opportunities to visit the movie theatres out of reasons of personal choice and time.

In Algiers, I passed by a movie theatre in downtown several times although I had never watched a movie there. The movie played there are probably voiced-over in French so I cannot understand. Also, the movie theatre did not look inviting to me.

I did try watching a movie once in Morocco and it was a big turn-off. I watched the Da Vinci Code in Megarama, a cineplex in Casablanca. As expected, it was entirely in French. Plus the theatre didn't have AC that day and the air got very stuffy.

Anyway, I always go to the movies as often as I can whenever I'm back in Beirut.

=====================================
During the past 2 weeks, I saw two movies in Beirut: The Forbidden Kingdom and Kung Fu Panda. Incidently, both were about kung-fu.

The Fobidden Kingdom

What can I say about a movie that casted Asia's titanic martial arts actors - Jet Li and Jackie Chan?

Suffice to say, I went into the movie with pretty low expectations.

Without a doubt Jackie Chan movies are always awesome in the fight scenes and martial arts choreography but terribly weak in plot. In Chan’s movies, the plot is just an excuse to link all the spectacular fight scenes together.

If you grew up watching his movies like I did, then a time will come when you could not expect anything new.

His roles are always similar (90% of the time, a police hero). Reluctant hero forced to fight by circumstances. There are new death defying stunts every time but his acting never improved. Arguably, his recent stunt scenes had gotten less spectacular when compared to some of the incredible stuff he had done in the '80s.

As for Jet Li, I still think that his best movie role ever was his debut in "Shaolin Temple". He was great in "Once Upon A Time In China" for his portrayal of Wong Fei Hong. It reignited popular interest in the legendary Chinese folk hero and several movie sequels. Then he was again great in his portrayal of another folk hero, Huo Yuan Jia, in "Fearless". In this role, he managed to show another sensitive depth to his acting.

I found his latest role as "Monk/ Monkey god" trite. He looks uninspired, overweight and overage to be monkey god. Forgive me for being bland but his bad complexion showed prominently throughout the movie. If he wants to continue to make it in Hollywood as a leading man, I think he should consider using some of that Hollywood magic, no?

Perhaps now you can understand why I went to the movie without any expectations. And yet I was disappointed even further by the movie.

The story was weak. Basically a coming of age story about an American kung-fu aficionado who got teleported? to ancient China (presumably) on a quest to save the stone encasted monkey god by returning his staff to his statue. During the quest, he found travelling companions in the likes of Drunken Immortal (Jackie Chan), Monk (Jet Li), who taught him Kung-fu 101 and Swallow (Liu Yifei), a potential love interest or to add a feminine aspect. The main antagonist, the Jade Warlord, whose treachery was the reason behind monkey god's imprisonment, is pulling all stops to impede the protagonists.

Beyond the special effects, modern English dialogue, the plot reeks of the stereotypical coming of age and revenge plot elements as popularized in the 70s & 80s kung-fu movies. I get more complex and moving plots when playing Final Fantasy on Playstation!

The names of characters like Drunken Immortal, Golden Swallow and White-hair Assassin are not new. Their characterizations were but pale shadows/ diluted amalgams of iconic heroes/villains in popular Asian movies and novels. In fact, a lot of these characters had so much more depth and backstory that were left undeveloped in the course of the movie due to lack of screen time. It is like putting the Hulk, Spiderman and Batman in a same movie so that you get all the action and nothing of the backstory. Perhaps, spin-offs are in the making? (Think The Mummy Returns and The Scorpion King).

Of course, it can be said that kung-fu movies are all about the action and not the plot. If so, the highlight of the movie would be the extended fight scene between Jet Li's Monk and Jackie Chan's Drunken Immortal. For me, that fight scene didn't work so well. The figh scene between Uma Thurman's character and the Crazy 88s in Kill Bill was more memorable than this one. I was actually waiting for it to be over and get on with the story.

Although the film was not a hit for me, online ratings gave it moderate review ratings.

=====================================
Kung Fu Panda

I had a better time watching this animated movie than the previous movie.

What do I like about this movie?

Firstly, the production quality was great and it showed. According to the wikipedia write-up, the production design, animation and even the music were created after extensive research on Chinese art and culture. Yet, the end result was not a rip-off but a very original movie that pays tribute to its Asian roots.

Secondly, the voice acting was good. Big names like Angelina Jolie and Dustin Hoffman were attached to the voice of the characters. This is hardly new news in the movie industry. What I think worked for the movie was that the voice-actors had a lot of self respect by not spoofing the Asian accent in speaking English.

Thirdly, it was funny. The movie came from the same studio that delivered the Shrek franchise, so I would be sorely disappointed if there were no punch lines in the movie. Granted, it wasn’t hilarious funny but there were some funny moments that helped advancing the plot well. I thought the funniest scene in the movie was the acupuncture scene between panda, tigress and mantis.

I read that sequels are in the pipeline. Yey! =D

* This source, quoting a 2003 Unesco study, put Singapore in 6th place in movie attendance per capita, behind Iceland, US, N. Zealand, Georgia, Australia. Lebanon comes in at 10th place. Morocco in 49th and Algeria in 76th.

Toyota Man Died Of Overwork

2008-07-10T10:50:00.005+03:00

Photo credit: Luxomedia

Saw this piece of news on Yahoo Singapore this morning. An engineer working on Camry hybrid has died of "karoshi", which in Japanese means literally, death from fatigue due to overwork.

The victim, whose name, had been witheld by Toyota Motor Corporation (TMC) was said to have clocked 80 hours of overtime per month in the two months leading to his death.

TMC has stated officially that it will improve it's monitoring of it's employees health.

Japanese society which place a lot of emphasis on values like working hard and placing team before self, karoshi has been a growing trend in the official records for the past few decades since early 90s.

I remembered a chat several years ago with a TMC employee from product development. I was told that the company has started then to limit overtime work by monitoring individual employees' working hours.

Employees were required to clock in and out on a daily basis so that their bosses, and sometime corporate HR, could monitor the number of hours worked. Employees who wished to perform overtime work has to get approval from his/her superior!

Being the worker bees that they are, TMC employees were known to circumvent the system. For instance, an employee starting work at 10:30 am under the flexi-hour scheme, would report to work earlier at 8:00am but clock-in at 10:30am. So on paper, it looked as if he/she reported to work on time whereas in fact, this employee has already performed 2.5hrs overtime.

Similarly, employees were also known to clock-off on time but stayed behind to work. As there was simply too much work to do, the bosses tend to be more lenient when it comes to enforcing the overtime limit.

Letting the employees bring the work home to limit overtime work was not a viable option because of the sensitive and confidential work information that the employees were handling.

It blew my mind when I heard this. Throughout my work life, it is usual to know of colleagues who were late but got their colleagues to clock-in on time for them to aviod a pay deduction penalty. In Algeria, truancy was so rampant that the company had to install a fingerprint scanning system for employee clock-in & out!

It is extremely rare to learn of employees who perform more overtime than they should and let it go unreported, considering that working harder is good for performance evaluation. Only in Japan!

The Japanese worker is an epitome of the selfless, dedicated samurai who places his/her team above all else. Stubborn and anal retentive, yes, but nevertheless responsible and dependable. Of course, I do personally know of exceptional cases but it's a valid generalization.

During business trips in Japan, I could experienced several very brief stints of the nerve-wrecking, high pressurizing work culture there. I really hope that major Japanese companies could really review the work environment and work curcumstances in the interest of their employees' health, social and family life.

LABOR BUREAU: JAPANESE MAN, 45, DIED OF
OVERWORK
By JAY ALABASTER, Associated Press WriterWed Jul 9, 4:08
PM ET

A Japanese labor bureau has ruled that one of Toyota's top car
engineers died from working too many hours, the latest in a string of such
findings in a nation where extraordinarily long hours for some employees has
long been the norm.

The man who died was aged 45 and had been under severe
pressure as the lead engineer in developing a hybrid version of Toyota's
blockbuster Camry line, said Mikio Mizuno, the lawyer representing his wife. The
man's identity is being withheld at the request of his family, who continue to
live in Toyota City where the company is based.

In the two months up to his death, the man averaged more than
80 hours of overtime per month, according to Mizuno.

He regularly worked nights and weekends, was frequently sent
abroad and was grappling with shipping a model for the pivotal North American
International Auto Show in Detroit when he died of ischemic heart disease in
January 2006. The man's daughter found his body at their home the day before he
was to leave for the United States.

The ruling was handed down June 30 and will allow his family
to collect benefits from his work insurance, Mizuno said.

An officer at the Aichi Labor Bureau on Wednesday confirmed
the ruling, but declined to comment on the record.

In a statement, Toyota Motor Corp. offered its condolences and
said it would work to improve monitoring of the health of its
workers.

There is an effort in Japan to cut down on deaths from
overwork, known as "karoshi." Such deaths have steadily increased since the
Health Ministry first recognized the phenomenon in 1987.

Last year, a court in central Japan ordered the government to
pay compensation to Hiroko Uchino, the wife of a Toyota employee who collapsed
at work and died at age 30 in 2002. She took the case to court after her
application to the local labor bureau for compensation was
rejected.

Office Humor

2008-07-07T12:58:00.005+03:00

If you use MS Excel to generate graphs at work like I do, you may appreciate the creative graphs on this awesome site: Graph Jam: Pop Culture for People in Cubicles

Here's a few personal favourites...=)

Internet Connection in Beirut

2008-07-02T17:38:00.004+03:00

This is the internet connection speed in my office on good days. You should see the connection speed at my apartment, the connection speed test screen won't even load sometimes. I heard most of Lebanon is still on dial-up speed. Sigh...

(reference: http://www.internetfrog.com)

Viva Espana

2008-06-30T17:17:00.003+03:00

Spain 1:0 Germany; Torres (33)

Fortunately, the power cuts that plagues Beirut for 6 hours daily did not affect the live broadcasting of Euro Cup matches on TV.

Euro Cup ended yesterday with Spain become crowned as champions, ending a 44 year wait. In my opinion, the Spaniards rightly deserved to win with their stylish play and tight ball passing.

In the words of a colleague: "Good bye Euro '08 .... Welcome Olympics 2008!"

Pictures: A Beyrouth 22 June '08

2008-06-24T08:55:00.003+03:00

For once, my flight was on time. I was able to arrive in Beirut in time for 2nd half of the Spain vs Italy match in Euro '08 quarter-finals. To my delight, Spain won.

Algerian boy

Cabin

My seat: Air Algerie flights have many damaged seats in the economy class

Close up

Bangkok Thai: Restaurant Thailandais

2008-06-19T13:33:00.009+03:00

I kid you not, this was on the menu of Bangkok Thai, the Thai restaurant in Draria, Algiers which I frequent. I think the restaurant is making a huge mistake on it's menu.....like erm...Satay is not Thai food?

Having said that, Bangkok Thai is one of my favourite restaurant in Algiers. It is the only restaurant I know that serves decent Thai food. No surprise here since the entire kitchen crew hails from Thailand.

Catering to local palette, the taste was scaled down so the food is not as spicy as true Thai fare, and also it is a lot saltier. But after dinning there several times, the chef, perhaps, learnt about our preference and tends to be more generous with the chilli and will do away the extra salt or MSG.

The Tom Yum (Mixed seafood soup with coconut milk) must not be missed. I never fail to order it because I felt it combines the best of both worlds: authentic Thai cooking and fresh Algerian squid. I usually give away the prawns to my dinner companions because of my allergy. The fragrantly wok-fried Kao Pad avec Viande (Fried Rice with meat) is another favourite.

Tom Yum Khom with Algerian squid

Appetisers: Satay and fried spring rolls

Main: Fried rice (back); (front): Pa Ka Pow beef (left) & green curry / cari vert (right)

One flip side though, the Pa Ka Pow (Stir fried) beef is not authentic but nevertheless delicious. Everytime I order the dish, it came tasting more Chinese than Thai. This could be due to the miscommunication between the Algerian waiters and the cooks because I think I'm being served another dish on the menu - Stir fried beef with oyster sauce.

But one can hardly fault the kind and gentle Algerian waiters there. By local standards, their customer service standard in Bangkok Thai is one of the best I've seen so far. That's if I go easy on the mandatory long waiting time and the frustrating communication barriers, of course. But these happens everywhere in Algeria.

The interior of the restaurant is decorated with memorabilia that seemed to have come from Bangkok's Chatuchak bazaar. What I like is that the place is kept clean and odorless. As with most restaurants in Algeria, ventilation is bad. Restaurant dining areas are filled with strong smells straight from the kitchens. This is not so obvious in Bangkok Thai.

The restaurant also provide a saloon for customers to relax. During hot months, there are two sheltered tables in the outdoors but there is no view. I'm told that there is a massage palour complete with a Thai masseur on the second floor of the restaurant. The service is provided only for women only (because the masseur cannot touch men?!).

Restaurant Bangkok Thai

Outdoor dinner area

Overall, I like this restaurant despite some drawbacks. Especially, I'm not used to paying such a high price for the kind of Thai food served in the restaurant, which, in Thailand are considered standard fare. (5 000 DA or 72 USD for 3 persons). But anyone in Algeria who enjoys good Thai food, Bangkok Thai is a must try.

Bangkok Thai
Restaurant Thailandais
Lot. "C" No 71 Draria - Alger
Tel: 0221354897 / 0552984940 / 0770925050

Les Les Orange

2008-06-14T18:12:00.006+03:00

cava pas

Saw the breathtaking match between Netherlands and France last evening over a BBQ at my colleague's place. Not only did I get BBQ wings, I also got my wish. Les Bleus got their French butts whipped by the Orange Army!

YEYYYYYY!!!!! =D

So now Netherlands can safely proceed into the next round in Euro 2008 after defeating France 4 goals to 1, an incredible feat that well complements the stunning victory over World Cup champions Italy.

France and Italy are now facing possible elimination this early in the games. Both teams now have to fight hard with each other in their next game to gain points. Both teams might get a chance if Romania doesn't beat the Dutch in their match also on the same day.

I can't wait to watch the two matches to see which is the next team, in the group of death, that will qualify.

victory!

Picture source: http://www.dailymail.co.uk

Update (21 June):

And the Dutch are out! =(
Their fitness just weren't able to compare to the energetic Russian side in extra time. The Russians won the game 3:1 to go into semi-finals.

Prague (Part 3)

2008-06-11T16:33:00.013+03:00

As promised, I'm going to blog about my European trip. This entry is about my second day (24 Apr '08) in Prague, Czech Republic.

This day in Prague was spent quite leisurely. I didn't have to go for training at the local office until the late afternoon.

So with a map, a camera and a bottle of water in a backpack, I went out walking. My target was to go to Prague Castle on foot.

The weather wasn't as cold as initially forecasted, but at below 15 degrees celsius, a light jacket was necessary to keep the wind out.

Along the way, I was treated to beautiful buildings and scenery reflecting an old central European charm. I also encountered a park along the way that presented some nice photographic moments.

Tram

Street along Mala Strana

Sculptures in park along Mala Strana

Park

Eventually I made my way to St. Nicholas Church at Lesser Town (Mala Strana). Facing the church was a row of pubs and restaurant that looked really appealing. I reminded myself to come this way on the return trip to try one restaurant there.

Observing a concert queue formed outside the church, I vaguely remembered that central Europe was famous for their love of classical philharmonic music (unverified knowledge). It occured to me that it would be a pleasureable experience to enjoy a concert here. However, this time, I didn't have the right company nor the time for it.

St Nicholas Church

St Nicholas Church

Concert goers at St Nicholas Church

Statue near St Nicholas Church

Passing the St. Nicholas Church, up a steep sloping road that eventually led me on a left turn around more restaurants and finally Up the a steep flight of stairs, I arrived to the Prague Castle at last.

By that time, I had already covered about 4 km on foot, including some very steep stair climbing. Forgot to mention that in the morning, I had a 2.4km morning run and some exercise at the hotel gym and the legs were already aching.

So I was quite tired and seriously entertaining the thought of hailing a taxi for the return trip.

Prague Castle - Hradcany
Glimpse of Prague Castle

When I arrived, I was in time to catch the the changing of guard parade. A band was playing on the second floor on the right during the parade.

Changing of the guard parade

It was mentioned in Lonely Planet that the uniform of the guard was designed by the costume designer for the film Amadeus. Nice!

Prague castle is an amazing place! It is the largest castle in the world and has been for a long time, the seat of the country's government, including the current president. Inside the castle is a complex of buildings each reflecting different architectural styles, creating a captivating ambience.

My personal favourite building is the cathedral of St. Vitus. The sight of this gothic church looming over other buildings added a forboding and eerie dimension to the beauty of the place.

Unfortunately, I was not able to enter the church because I didn't have any Czech crowns on me as I didn't want to break my 500 Euro notes. There was also a long queue of waiting tourists outside the cathedral and I didn't have so much time.

Prague Castle entrance displaying statues of clashing titans

St Vitus Cathedral

St Vitus Cathedral

St Vitus Cathedral

St Vitus Cathedral

Street Cafe at Prague Castle

An Idle Noon

Lunch
Pivnice U Glaubicu - Czech Pub

Honoring my promise to self, I made my way back to the row of restaurants near St. Nicholas Church for lunch. I chose one that has a name I cannot even pronounce. From outside, it looked like a traditional pub diner but I realized there were more extensions that housed several more dining chambers inside, making it bigger than I've imagined.

In Singapore, when we dine with our Muslim friends, we try to avoid non-halal food out of respect. Yesterday while dinning with my Algerian colleague, I stuck to ordering halal food, although I had some beer. This time, since I was eating lunch by myself, I had no qualms about ordering anything. I've been dying to try the popular traditional Czech dishes of roasted pork and duck.

Lunch: vegetable soup & Pilsner

Lunch: Roasted Pork Knuckle

I chose roasted pork knuckles over the duck. The serving size of half a duck would be too much for me. The pub's customer service was slow so I had to wait for my lunch. After relieving the mug of half its pilsner, my roasted pork knuckle at last landed in front of me. Weighing almost 1 kg, I ate heartily and sumptuously. The Czechs really know how to prepare their meat and I thought that I could definitely live here comfortably. Food compatibility is important to me.

The heavy lunch was definitely the culprit for making me sleepy during the rest of the day. In addition, I became tired from the walk back to the hotel. In total I covered 10 km in distance by running and walking in just half a day.

During the training, I had to rely on a few cups of coffee to keep myself attentive. I could barely work up an appetite and had little for dinner in the evening, even though it was a amazing restaurant, named Cowboy, with an excellent night view of the city.

To be continued...

Dutch Thwarted World Champions Italy

2008-06-10T09:30:00.006+03:00

I didn't catch the full game as I was out for dinner. Managed to catch the game from the last 20 mins including the 80 min third goal by Van Bronckhorst for the Dutch side.

YEY!! =D

(Picture source: http://en.euro2008.uefa.com/tournament/matches/match=300686/report=rp.html#slick+dutch+stun+world+champions)
I hope they will beat the French also.

Scuba Divers vs Komodo Dragon

2008-06-09T14:03:00.006+03:00

Interesting piece of news about scuba diving that I read today.

Several European divers swept by current 30 kilometres away from their dive site, scrambled onto the small island of Rinca to avoid drifting out into the open water, only to face a hostile Komodo Dragon. They defended themselves against the reptile by pelting debris and won. They were rescued the next day.

I miss diving...

Stranded scuba divers chase off Komodo dragon on remote Indonesian island

By ALI KOTARUMALOS,Associated Press Writer

JAKARTA,
Indonesia - European scuba divers swept away in strong currents survived 12 hours in shark-infested waters and then scrambled onto a remote Indonesian island where they faced yet another threat: a Komodo dragon.

The divers _ three from Britain and one each from France and Sweden _ came face-to face with the giant, carnivorous lizard on Rinca island's palm-fringed beach, and fought it off by pelting it with rocks and pieces of wood, port official Pariman said Sunday.

"Luckily, they were able to chase it away," said Pariman, who, like many Indonesians, goes by only one name.

The beasts have sharp, serrated teeth and often come out when they smell something new, including humans, whom they've been known to kill, Pariman said.

The divers encountered treacherous currents after plunging from their wooden boat off Tatawa island on Thursday afternoon. They drifted 20 miles (30 kilometers) from their dive site before swimming to Rinca, their last chance to avoid being swept into the open ocean.

"We struggled against the current for several hours, but eventually stopped," 31-year-old Laurent Pinel, of France, told The Sunday Times of London. We "tied ourselves together by our diving vests to preserve energy."

They ran into the Komodo dragon on Friday afternoon. The next day, rescuers plying the waters in more than 30 boats spotted them waving frantically on the shore and took them to Flores island for medical treatment.

The area where the diving trip took place is famous for its rich marine diversity, including sharks, manta rays and sea turtles. But it is also known for its treacherous and unpredictable seas.

Recommended only for experienced divers, it is in a place where the Indian and Pacific Oceans meet, creating currents that converge and separate. Whirlpools and eddies can pull divers downwards.

"We're safe but absolutely exhausted and dehydrated," Charlotte Allin, a 25-year-old British diver, was quoted by The Sunday Times of London as telling her parents from the hospital where the five were taken.

Komodo dragons, which can grow up to 10 feet (3 meters) long and weigh as much as 365 pounds (165 kilograms), are only found in the wild on Rinca and Komodo island. There are believed to be 4,000 left in the world.

Thousands of tourists visit the area in eastern Indonesia each year to see the lizards in their natural habitat. They are normally shown around the arid and rocky island by guides who carry large, forked sticks to ward off the lizards.

8th June Back In Beirut

2008-06-09T12:39:00.003+03:00

Finally, I arrived in Beirut yesterday midnight after being away for 46 days!

The Air Algerie flight was delayed as usual, departing 2 hours later than the original 4 pm schedule. However, I was able to land in Beirut just an hour late.

It was a pleasant surprise that Air Algerie was serving water to waiting passengers in the terminal for the delayed flight. Small things but it counts a lot towards customer service.

Anyway, it's great to be back....but I'll be leaving for Algiers again next week.

Crazy Domestic Help

2008-06-07T23:58:00.006+03:00

We just never had any luck with our domestic help for the guesthouses that can provide a peace of mind.

The domestic helper in Algeria has a tendency to do something that drives me up the wall. They do stupid things to my stuff like stealing (food, washing powder!!!), mess up the order of the house, using a single piece of cloth to clean the toilet as well as my dining table!

My favorite story, and this was witnessed by an ex-colleague, the domestic helper was caught using his room-mate's toothbrush to clean the sink! Yew!!!

This current domestic helper at the Palm Beach guesthouse is recently scaling new heights in her stupidity! Just two days ago, she threw away my half pot of soup that was sitting on the stove, lid enclosed. My dinner just went down the drain that evening.

If you think I'm picking on her? I now have pictures to prove it. Today I discovered that she has decided to put my shoes on a side table, near my stove, that is used by me to place food!!! On the bottom left of the picture, you can see that she had place my tea bags together with my shoes!!!

Who puts shoes with food?!?!

The point that this was after moving day with most of the food gone is irrelevant. I have occupied this apartment for more than six month. Since she cleans everyday, I assume she will have a good grasp of the layout and organization. Why she acted upon a sudden whim to reorganize with such scant regard to hygiene and basic common sense is beyond me!

Beach

2008-06-07T12:34:00.007+03:00

Sometimes life's a bitch. Or maybe management's the bitch!

As I mentioned previously, just as the beach-going weather sets in, I received instructions to move out of the guesthouse at Palm Beach, Sidi Fredj.

Conditions at Sidi Fredj is very bad but at least there is a beach to spend the summer. The Cheraga guesthouse can provide better comfort but the surrounding area is really boring. Both places cancel each other out in different pluses and minuses so I really can't complain.

The bottom line is that I hate moving!

Moving Day/ Traffic
On moving day yesterday, I could see the road leading to Palm Beach jam packed with beach goers. The queue of cars trying to enter the beach was so long even during the late hours in the afternoon. Probably the late sunset at after 7 pm helped as people could stay at the beach longer.

With heavy traffic everywhere, it was nice to see policemen stationed at almost every junction to direct traffic. I think that this is one of the things Algeria is superior to Morocco. In Morocco, I see a lot of policemen on the road doing nothing about the traffic. They are just there to collect bribes. Yes, the Moroccan police are that disgusting!!!

Isn't it labor intensive and expensive to expend so much manpower to direct traffic, you'll ask? Yes, it is. But judging from the Algerian driving style which disregards most traffic rules, the roads will be impossible to drive with every vehicle trying to meander around each other. Bottlenecks will appear everywhere. So the human "touch" is necessary!

Last Moments At Sidi Fredj?
While the bulk of my things were already transfered, I will continue to stay at Sidi Fredj for the remaining two days of this visit. I leave tomorrow for Beirut.

Trying to maximize my remaining time at Sidi Fredj, I mingled a bit with my fellow tenants, the ICTs. I was invited by the Chinese (3 of them) ICTs to their apartment for dinner for several times. Once I contributed a dish - ABC soup, South-east Asian style.

A home-made Chinese dinner, easily tastier than Restorante Mudan at Hotel Mecure

Me and Pablo, my Colombian colleague, being the other manager there, were also invited to an evening teaparty organized by the Syrians and Egyptian ICTs. We munched on digestives, sipped beverage and shared our general disdain for most of the commercially prepared Algerian food we can. It was a nice evening that uplifted Pablo's spirit after Colombia's defeat to France in a friendly soccer match that day.

The boo boo-factor at Cheraga is the lack of social activities. Cheraga guesthouse is occupied by senior managers and they aren't a lot of fun. Most of them just want to drink, smoke and sleep.

At The Beach
Yesterday, I visited the beach with Pablo. It wasn't the best but it wasn't that bad. At least there were efforts to keep the beach clean.

The lack of safety consciousness in Algeria showed in few instances at the beach. In particular, young men are especially prone to reckless and dangerous behaviour.

For instance, many riding motorcycles were observed to be dashing across junctions and traffic at breakneck speed along crowded roads. Some were doing willys. None of them wore helmets. Perhaps they think they look cool but they could endanger theirs and others life.

Things were not safer at the beach either. I saw young people riding jetski along and very close to the coastline. These people own the jetski, so they are rich and probably well educated. But yet, they also don't have the consciousness that riding that close to the coast line could endanger the safety of people in the water, especially children.

I'm no stranger to high speed ocean going crafts, so I know how difficult it is to spot a head bobbling in the ocean. And also I wonder in the first place, why are these people jetskiing so near the coastline when the ocean is so big?! If not to draw attention to themselves than what else?

Algerians are sometimes stupidly crazy like this. Everything that can be done, they will do it.

While I was observing the jetskiers, a rider on a horse galloping along the beach came into my view. I know that there is a horse riding school nearby but didn't the rider think about safety also. What if the horse got startled by something, went berserk and started trampling on the sun tanners? Can a rider control the horse 100% of the time? I think not, especially in a place with so much distraction.

It wasn't all bad though. I did get to enjoy a nice sunset and experienced some interesting activities of the local people at the beach.

I thougth they were playing majong (popular Asian domino game)
So in love.... =P

Merry makers at the beach - drum n dance

No Water

2008-06-05T12:14:00.002+03:00

This morning, after returning from a jog, I discovered that there was no water in my apartment.

Can you imagine returning all sweaty from exercise to realize that you may not have enough water to take a shower? Plus, I need to go to work for half a day (We work half-day on Thursday in our Algerian company). I got a little desperate and went after the care-taker of the building.

Turns out, summer is coming so they are starting to fill up the swimming pool. The water in the tank was diverted to fill the pool. After he turned off the hose filling water to the swimiming pool, Viola!, I got water again.

Probably once the pool is filled, we won't have water problems anymore. Or else, they are forcing me to take my bath in the swimming pool!!! =P

Negative Feedback

2008-06-04T19:28:00.003+03:00

Getting Bashed
Sometimes I get comments on my blog entries like this:

"Score mate you had burgers and fast food since you were a kid... that obviously makes you much better than algerians??? how stupid is this? When you read what you wrote did it make you feel good? in fact did you even try to understand why
there are no fast foods in algeria or does this require too much brains which
surely you don't have." -Anonymous-

This was a comment on the entry "Fast Food & Algeria" that I blogged sometime back. It was about Algeria finally getting their first corporate fast food. The commentor sounds a bit defensive although I don't understand for what?

I believe that my entry was more an observation than a judgetment. I'm merely trying note down my personal observation of that experience.

The Levels of Online Debates
A while ago, I came across an interesting post on the Movie Blog entitled,"The Levels of Movie Debate on Film Websites". (Link) It talks about how people have differing opinions and true and effective debate can be successfully conducted only when people are doing it the right way.

As the post suggests, online commentaries can be categorized into several categories from the worst to the best.

I will reproduce in summary the main categories and examples as mentioned in that post here:

7. Name-calling
Apparently the weakest and stupidest form of disagreement, and it goes like this:"You're an idiot if you think Star Wars isn't the best movie ever."

6. Ad Hominem
This means attacking the messenger instead of the message. "How can you not like Juno? Like you would know a good movie from a bad one. You didn't even like Hot Fuzz." The main issue was not addressed but instead the disagreeing party is jumping to another topic.

5. Responding To Tone
"I don't like the way you said that!" This kind of comments just waste space and the time taken to read them.

4. Contradiction
It is fine to be contradictory about an opinion or idea without debating the merits of another persons idea or opinions. "I didn't really enjoy Star Wars." I think that the world is big enough for people with differing opinions to breathe the same air without imposing on each other.

3. Counter-argument
A step ahead of just being contradictory in that the disagreeing party gives reasons for being contradictory. "I didn't enjoy Star Wars because of A,B,C...."

2. Refutation
This is when objective, measurable facts are supplied by the disagreeing party to counter an opinion or view. It provides a good learning experience for the refuted party.

1. Refuting the Central Point
Accordingly, the best form of argument in that opinions, ideas and facts were freely exchanged while staying on the central idea.

So What Were You Trying To Tell Me, Anonymous Dude?
Now back to the bashing comment, it doesn't even deserve any of my response because it doesn't leave any room for discussion (i.e. Category #7). But what the hell, I'm behind in my blogging anyway. =)

It would be more fruitful if the commentor had pointed out to me what he disagreed with me rather than just plain disagreement and name-calling. If I was too judgemental let me know where was I being judgemental? Wouldn't it be nice if the commentor could refute what I've said based on facts that I don't know about?

Who knows, our conversation might have sprout an online friendship?

The Mattress Incident

2008-05-30T14:31:00.002+03:00

When on the road, the quality of simple stuffs like clothes, food, accomodations and means of transportation can make a lot of difference to the travel experience.

My trip in Algeria didn't start well. Yesterday, I found out two things:

1) My means of transportation, a Corolla, which I am sharing with 2 other colleagues, now had to be shared also with over 10 ICTs*. That means my freedom of movement is somewhat curbed because I cannot have all time access to the car.

I can stomach this because it takes a little advanced scheduling and everyone can be satisfied. What I couldn't stomach is the following:

2) I discovered that the mattress in my room at Palm Beach had been swapped with one that is inferior. Consequently, I couldn't get my quality sleep last night because of that.

I thought the guesthouse management swapped my mattress because I hadn't been living in the guesthouse for a long time and my mattress was of good imported quality provided by my company. A little investigation this morning told me that I was wrong about them. A Japanese director from my headquarters company in Beirt is now implicated. The investigation continues...

Dear XXX san,

Yesterday I arrived to Palm Beach guesthouse. During bedtime, I discoverd that my mattress, the one I brought from Cheraga guesthouse had been switched.

My mattress had been switched with a very old mattress that caused backaches. I could feel the spine of the bed for the entire night because the mattress was too soft. As a result, I couldn't sleep well because of that.

This morning I checked with the Palm Beach attendant and a ICT, they told me that you exchanged my mattress with Chinese ICT six weeks ago

May I understand if this is true and the reason why my mattress was changed?

Sencha

* ICT: (Inter-company transferees) Employees belonging to our distribution companies in other countries transfered to Algeria to work for a length of time.

In Algiers At Last

2008-05-29T23:03:00.005+03:00

After two weeks of waiting for my visa, I was finally able to come to Algeria.

I realized that the process of getting the Algerian visa from Morocco was too complicated because it passed through too many hands. Unfortunately, this time I couldn't help it due to the recent crisis in Lebanon. In the future, I would prefer to apply through the embassy in Beirut.

Moreover, the Moroccan sun can be so punishing. And this is coming from someone who lived all his life in a country that only knows summer.

Seemingly peace has triumphed in Lebanon. A peace settlement brokered by the Arab League had been reached between the fighting Sunni and Shites factions. A new president who was the chief of army was elected.

I was informed that most expats had returned to our Beirut office to resume work. A Lebanese colleague who I met in Casablanca told me that after the blockades to Beirut downtown was removed, the shops and restaurants are all starting to reopen. (The blockade was for several months a Hezbollah-led effort to disrupt the economy and protest against the government before the crisis in May).

That means that I have more choices during lunch when I am back in Beirut.

Will the peace last? Any guess is as good as mine. Since Hezbollah has not agreed to disarm and since it has another agenda outside of Lebanese national interests, international politics may again trigger off events such as the Hezbollah-Israeli war in 2006.

Meanwhile, I will stay in Algiers for one week for work issues. Due to some internal adjustments, I will also be moving out of Palm Beach guesthouse back to the former one in Cheraga.

Just when the good weather is coming, I am moving away from the beach. What a let down.

An Update From Casablanca

2008-05-20T02:46:00.002+03:00

Although I have so much to blog about, I had difficulty accessing a computer until when I arrived in Casablanca. I got a temporary notebook from our local office here. When I was leaving for Europe, I didn't want to bring my notebook along but I didn't expect to miss it.

It had been a very long trip starting since I left Beirut in late April almost one month ago with a large backpack worth of clothes. I'd spend most of my time visiting parts of Europe and Turkey for vacation and for a little business. After my arrival last Wednesday in Morocco, the travel bug apparently hasn't stop biting. Over the weekends, Xinyi and I joined our colleague and his wife on a road trip to Tangiers.

I should be travelling again this time at the end of the week, to Algiers, provided if I am able to get my Algerian visa before the week ends. All because I wasn't able to return to Beirut from the Europe trip due to the political unrest there.

Updates from Lebanon confirmed that the Beirut airport has re-opened. However, I wish to evaluate if the calm will persist in Beirut a little longer before deciding to return. In the meantime, I will be settling in my second home in Algiers.

As I mentioned earlier, there are so many things to blog about. I've yet to update my entries about the Prague business trip. As things had been moving so fast, I missed the opportunity to blog and upload my photos of the exciting Europe trip to the Netherlands and Belgium. In addition, there's the Istanbul and Tangier trip that deserves their separate entries along with lots of photos too.

With so many thing to come, I wonder when will I ever get the time to blog about all of this long trip.

Crisis in Beirut (Again)

2008-05-09T19:44:00.014+03:00

Things Gone Awry
If things went as planned, I will be blogging this entry from Beirut about about my European trip. Instead I am now blogging from an Istanbul hotel about the unrest in Beirut.

During the transit in Istanbul with Xinyi after my Prague business trip and our 2 weeks vacation in Europe, it was announced that our Beirut bound flight on late Wednesday night was cancelled.

Approaching the Turkish airlines transit desk for more information, we were joined by many others who were also from the same flight. Personnels at the desk explained that Beirut airport was closed because Hezbollah and the Lebanese army started fighting and the airport was blockaded by either one of the factions.

The Lebanese passengers however told a different story. The airport was merely closed due to a strike. As usual, nobody knows the clear situation in Lebanon, even the Lebanese themselves.

After diverting some passengers to limited seats on flights to Jordan and Syria, the remaining passengers were shuttled to a hotel in Istanbul early Thursday morning to try for the late evening flight to Beirut should the airport be opened by then.

As I have the 'highest confidence' in the Lebanese when it comes to resolving political issues, I am sure that the airport will not reopen that soon. It seems like my vacation still hasn't ended and I will be visiting Turkey. Also I had to mentally prepare myself to be out of a living base for a while for the second time.

An Earlier Than Expected Visit To Turkey.
We were already planning to visit Istanbul in May for business and for a short vacation. In fact, we bought a guide book for Turkey in a book sale when we were in Holland. It was strange that we are unexpectedly in Turkey and the book became handy. Was buying the book a premonition?

Thursday was spent visiting various tourist sites in Istanbul by taking advantage of the hotel's good location within Istanbul old city. We admired the awe-inspiring domes of the Sultan Ahmet Camii (Blue Mosque), scoured the outskirts of the Aya Sofya museum and park (it was past closing time), shopped for Turkish apple tea and doner (shawarma) at the world's largest covered bazaar (4,400 stores!).

During dinner, it was apparent that things in Beirut don't look so good (heavy street fighting) and the airport will remain closed. Turkish airlines extended our hotel for another night and we will decide alternative travel options the following day.

In the evening, joined by two Dutch men, a German guy and a Lebanese lady, we visited Taksim for drinks. Taksim, in contrast to Istanbul old city, was full of trendy restaurants, chic pubs and modern stores that caters to a vibrant and young Turkish crowd and foreigners. There seem to be no restrictions on public drinking even though the entire population is Muslim.

By Friday noon, it was common knowledge that Beirut is off limits indefinitely. Foreign visitors opted for alternate destinations such as Israel to fly to or return to their home countries. Lebanese passengers chose to fly to Damascus where Turkish airlines will arrange transportation for crossing the border to Lebanon.

I felt that Turkish airlines responded to our cancelled flight situation very professionally and timely. For instance, we were entitled to a good hotel and three meals. However, it would be much more appreciated if the airline management could inform a bit earlier about our options after learning the closure of the Beirut airport.

Situation in Beirut
It seems guilty to be having fun while Lebanon is in crisis and some colleagues were left behind.

Most expatriate colleagues and family in Beirut were being evacuated to Syria when the situation was getting critical in Beirut, some expats and all the Lebanese colleagues remained.

A Columbian colleague contributed on the ground correspondence through sms. He had to spend Thursday night in his favorite Hamra pub with other patrons and staff because gunfire and explosion were going off on the streets. But at least he got free wine.

A Japanese colleague was unable to leave Beirut because his passport has been detained by the authorities for residence permit renewal just prior to the outbreak of violence. The unlucky guy has to live through two nights of street violence.

Eventually, I got information that both of them and all Lebanese colleagues were able to be somewhere safe away from the violence.

I'm not sure how things in Beirut is going to play out. Although the situation in Beirut received some major international attention, it has been downplayed by the cyclon disaster in Burma. Perhaps the world is starting to say to Lebanon that it is time for the Lebanese to solve their own problems instead of depending on others.

Interesting Trivia:
Number of flights cancelling on me: 2 (in France, 2006 and in Turkey, 2008)
Number of times I was lucky to be out of Beirut when the shit hit the fan: 2 (July 2006 and May 2008)
Am I beginning to see a pattern here?

Prague (Part 2) - Updated

2008-04-23T10:06:00.011+03:00

After my coworker from Algeria arrived, we went to for a short excursion to Prague's renowned Old Town Square for a visit and dinner.

The Old Town Square and the nearby Charles Bridge (more than 600 years old) offered amazing sights of wonderful architectural structures that are rich in history and culture.

After spending an evening soaking up the fabulous medieval-ish European atmosphere, I've decided that I cannot adequately capture the moment in words. Unfortunately, my poor skills with the camera don't do justice to the pictures I've taken either.

As the evening draws on, it got colder (around 5 degrees) and we were inadequately clothed. Taking the recommendation of our taxi driver, we found a local restaurant that is "less touristy" to take our dinner near the square.

Here's some pictures that do the Czech historical sites gross injustice...but anyway... (I'm going to add comments later).

Streets Around the Hotel
A type of Czech architectural styles

Big Loreal office building and store: Eat you heart out, ladies!

Around the Old Town
Dancing Building named after Fred Astaire & Ginger Rogers: Could you guess who is who?

Lamp-post

Old Town Square
Approach to Old Town Square

It's romantic to walk to Old Town Square in the Evening

The Astronomical Clock Tower in Old Town Square

Old Town Square

Astronomical Clock & Tyn Cathedral

Tyn Cathedral

Jan Hus Memorial

Great looking building

Doorway to Tyn Cathedral

A puppet shop

Another nice building - Byzantine syle?

Stone carved decorations

Charles Bridge

View of Prague Castle from Charles Bridge

My Algerian Colleague

Dinner @ Apetit
A recommendation from the cabbie

Cozy interior

Traditional beef meatball soup

Bohemian style beef with dumplings (the white bread-ish thingie on top

Trufito or something...Nice!

Prague

2008-04-22T16:44:00.009+03:00

I arrived in Prague via Istanbul. This is the initial leg of a first long trip to the European continent, excluding all the airport transits in Paris in the past. I will be in Prague for two days for a business trip before leaving for Netherlands on vacation.

My flight to Prague was an ultra early flight via a long transit of 5 hours in Istanbul. It was reminiscent of my first flight to Algeria where I reported for work for the first time in late 2005. I was similarly stuck in Istanbul airport for quite a while then.

As I've only just checked in (I'm blogging from the hotel business center), I've yet to see the splendor of Prague, a much touted city of architectural and historical marvel.

Since tomorrow's business itinerary will be starting a bit late, I'm waiting the arrival of another co-worker before planning to catch a glimpse of some of the interesting places that Prague can offer later in the evening and tomorrow morning. And of course, to have a glass of the famous local pilsner while I'm at it. Meanwhile, enjoy some pictures here...

Ripping off the hotel postcard ^^''

Main building of Hotel Movenpick, my hotel, is in the foreground. Looks like a school doesn't it?

Lobby of the main building

Says here I need to take the cable car to the executive wing. Same car as seen in the hotel postcard.

Glimpse of my room

I'm about to raid the minibar!!!

Big Dinner In Little China

2008-04-10T16:49:00.012+03:00

We found this Chinese restaurant, Little China, recently at the entrance of the popular Beirut clubbing Monot Street (think Mohammad Sultan street of Singapore).

Looks like a 5-foot way entrance, ain't it?

Apart from having a name that doesn't inspire any of my appetite, the interior of the small restaurant does invoke an authentically Asian feel. From the management and crew, interior decorations down to the tableware, everything looks made in China.

Raise the red lanterns

The Manchurian Candidate?

Paintings of the four seasons

According to the restaurants sole waitress, who hailed from Beijing, the restaurant has a long history in Beirut, since her brother started it more than 10 years ago.

This is obviously no "Rush Hour".

Asian usually dine around 6pm, we arrived way ahead of the dinner crowd.

Conversing in our rusty mandarin, we stated our preference (make it extra spicy!!!) to the waitress but left it to them to bring us the food that they think we would like.

Eat Drink Man Woman: Hungry and expectant customers

The moment of truth came as we tasted dish after dish. Altogether the three of us had 6 dishes. The generous food serving was notably untypical of overseas Chinese restaurants.

There was authenticity in the cooking in this restaurant. For example, I could discern the different base of Asian sauces used to prepare each of the dish. The plus side of having more flavour in their cooking is that they can save on sprinkling more MSG or salt, which makes the food more enjoyable.

This is unlike other Chinese restaurants, like Chopsticks, which basically based most of their dishes with either one or two sauce base: i.e. soy sauce or bean paste sauce (rare) or curry (not even East Asian). Usually, the aftertaste is terribly salty and an insatiable thirst usually associated with eating too much MSG.

I considered the quality of food in Little China to be comparable to the more mainstream restaurants in Asia and definitely should be returning to the restaurant soon to try more of their fare.

Springrolls that was tad too oily, as characteristic of Northern Chinese cooking.

Hot and Sour soup, which was neither hot (my standards) nor sour at all. But it still taste good.

Huay Guo Ruo, refried pork slices

Teppan Yaki beef, Chinese style. This dish was rare in this region.

"Fried Rice Paradise"*. This was the worst dish of all. The taste was a little bland. So no, I didn't go to paradise after eating this. (*Name of a popular Singaporean musical)

Smiling customer = Happy customer

New PSP

2008-04-10T15:43:00.006+03:00

Did I mentioned before that I lost my PSP in Morocco last year?

Now I have a new kick-ass PSP Slim in Mint Green, courtesy of my financial advisor, Gillian!

Googled it, the mint green version is only a Japan release recently launched in February 2008.

I think it's an awfully cool color. Don't you?

Is That My Car?

2008-04-02T18:39:00.003+03:00

I was blog surfing (at work!) when I came across these blogs.

Almost couldn't refrain from bursting out in laughter.

Parking Idiots in Singapore: covers reader contributions before 2007
Singapore Parking Idiots: covers reader contributions after 2007

I'm just glad to know that I'm not alone out there...

Anyone interested to start a blog about parking & driving idiots in Algeria.

Singapore 2: 0 Lebanon

2008-03-27T13:18:00.004+02:00

In yesterday's 2010 FIFA World Cup Asian Qualifiers, Singapore beat Lebanon and moved to second place in Group 4.

I always have the opinion that the Singapore Lions is a lousy team. Now I know that the Lebanese national team is also lousy. Suddenly, I feel a sense of national pride that we are just slightly better than the Lebanese.

Actually, to be precise, Lebanon has a ultra lousy coach. Here an exerpt from his post-match interview:

Lebanon's coach Emile Rustom, who was missing four first-team players including Cologne midfielder Roda Antar, bemoaned his selection problems.

"It was expected. Lebanon were missing four key players, you can imagine Singapore without four players," he said.

What a LOSER!!! Haaahaaa.....

You mean the rest of your team cannot play?

Mr Rustom, when you cannot do something, seriously reflect on what your management skills and how to improve. Don't blame the circumstances. Who will you blame when your team meets a stronger team? Blame it on Israel?

Soccer-Singapore ease to qualifying win over Lebanon

Reuters - Thursday, March 27
SINGAPORE, March 26 - Singapore
comfortably beat Lebanon 2-0 to pick up the first three points of their Asian
World Cup third round qualifying campaign on Wednesday.

The city-state's 37-year-old striker Aleksander Duric, who scored twice on
his debut in the 3-1 second stage aggregate victory over Tajikistan, opened the
scoring in the seventh minute after capitalising on some poor Lebanese
defending.

Midfielder Fazrul Nawaz then doubled the home side's advantage, effectively
sealing the game after 24 minutes.

Singapore coach Radojko Avramovic praised Bosnian-born Duric, who was
called-up to the national squad late last year after becoming a Singapore
citizen.

"He was running hard in the first half and then in the second half he was
playing more in midfield, I think he has done really well for us," Avramovic
told reporters.

Lebanon's coach Emile Rustom, who was missing four first-team players
including Cologne midfielder Roda Antar, bemoaned his selection
problems.

"It was expected. Lebanon were missing four key players, you can imagine
Singapore without four players," he said.

Singapore move to second in Group 4, level on points with Saudi Arabia whom
they lost to in February and three points behind leaders Uzbekistan. Lebanon
remain bottom without a point.

12th Algeria Motorshow & Trade Talk

2008-03-27T01:17:00.009+02:00

The 12th Algerian motorshow opened yesterday afternoon. Unfortunately, I could not attend the show because I had to travel to Casablanca. This is probably going to be the first Algerian motorshow that I will miss since I started working in Algeria.

According to feedback, the motorshow in Algeria is improving in terms of the quality of the booth designs and display models compared to 3 years ago. In my opinion, Peugeot and Toyota booths are setting the benchmark.

Also noteworthy was that last year, Mitsubishi brought in a Lancer Evolution as special exhibit. I think it's the ninth version. This year, not to be outdone, Nissan will be showcasing the 2008 GTR. I love the GTR but unfortunately I won't have the chance to touch this new model at the motorshow.

The signature tail-lights of GTR

As for us, I would love to see a special concept car on display during a motorshow in the future.

Friend of mine got a nice hybrid concept car for the motorshow in his country

I think that things are heating up in the Algerian automobile market. The market has been undergoing tremendous growth coupled with the rapid development of consumer financing and economic improvement. This is good news for us.

But a lot of companies are making more efforts to increase their sales in Algeria, so competition is going to get tougher. With the Free-Trade agreement with Europe, the French brands, which had traditionally dominated the market, will be benefiting from lower import duties and are definitely going to get their acts together.

However, as the economy will still take many more years before reaching maturity, Algerians will probably continue to go for lower-priced, entry segment cars. Which is good news for brands that specialize in cheap cars like Tata and Maruti.

To digress, Tata is really making inroads into the global automobile markets with the launch of Nano, a super cheap car with a retail sales price USD$2,000. According to recent news, Tata has bought Landrover and Jaguar to it's sprawling group. It's definitely a force to be reckon with.

Back to the point, I do find the Algerian market a tad uninteresting because it appears that the market is very price driven and customers are mainly attracted by low-priced cars with very basic specifications. I'm really curious to see that with the proliferation of consumer financing options from Societe Generale and Cetelem, will customers begin shifting towards higher end models like 308 or Auris? What do you think?

Dinner @ Thu's

2008-03-24T16:23:00.006+02:00

My host for the evening, Mr. Thu

Two evenings ago, I was invited to the guesthouse of my Malaysian colleague, Thu, for dinner. He made me a simple but satisfying meal.

I love his place. It is way better than anywhere I've stayed in Algeria. WAY!!! So I had to take some pictures for my blog.

In my opinion, got European standards lor....

Buddhist Dog

2008-03-24T15:56:00.004+02:00

Please sir, may I have some more?

As part of an effort to boost cost-efficiency of the clergy, Buddhism is setting the trend by outsourcing religious ceremonies to canines. All it takes are three vegetarian chows a day for Benji. =P

Buddhist dog prays for worldly desires

NAHA, Japan (AFP) - - Buddhists clasp their palms together to pray for enlightenment, but Conan, a chihuahua, appears to have more worldly motivations.
The dog has become a popular attraction at a Japanese temple after learning to imitate the worshippers around him.
"Conan started to pose in prayer like us whenever he wanted treats," said Joei Yoshikuni, a priest at Jigenin temple on the southern island of Okinawa. "Clasping hands is a basic action of Buddhist prayer to show appreciation. He may be showing his thanks for treats and walks," he said.
Conan, a two-year-old male with long, black hair and a brown collar, sits next to Yoshikuni in front of the altar and looks right up at the statue of a Buddhist deity. When the priest starts chanting and raises his clasped hands, Conan also raises his paws and joins them at the tip of his nose.
Visitors to the temple look on with curiosity.
"It's so funny that he does it," said Kazuko Oshiro, 71, who has frequented the temple for more than 25 years.
"He gets angry when somebody else sits on his favourite spot. He must be thinking that it's his special place," Oshiro said.
Conan, originally a temple pet, has become so popular that people come in to take
pictures almost every week, the priest said.
Yoshikuni estimated that the temple receives 30 percent more visitors, especially young tourists, than it would otherwise.
"I'm glad that people feel more comfortable visiting the temple because of Conan," he said as he jokingly joined his hands and bowed to the dog.

Chick Lit: Review of Undomestic Goddess

2008-03-22T13:42:00.006+02:00

(Previously unposted)
I actually found chick lit quite enjoyable sometimes.

They are fun to read, easy on page turning and light on the mind. Plus you get a glimpse of how women think. Albeit a very tiny glimpse...heheh.

Last week, I picked up Sophie Kinsella's "The Undomestic Goddess" last week from Way In bookstore in Beirut. I started reading the novel before my flight from Beirut to Algiers and finished the book soon after landing. That took a little more than 4 hours. Not a feat considering the book is quite easy to read. It's plot is straight-forward when compared to sci-fi, fantasy and thrillers books that I usually read.

However, I did find some of the characterization, perhaps intended for a dramatic comedy effect, not to my liking.

For instance, some characters were badly portrayed. Trish and Edwards, in particular, despite being mentioned as self-made business owners, were uncharacteristically portrayed as dumb and gullible.

It doesn't take long to figure out if someone is lying to be a professional. In the book's case, even with weekend cooking lessons from a good cook, it's not going to do a lot of good in a short span of weeks. Not good enough to do a gala event anyway. This subplot took a lot of suspension of belief on my part.

As a promising young top notch lawyer, the protagonist, Samatha, was gauche in several social situation and often prone to resort to a childish and whimsical behaviour.

Although such extremes in characterization is not quite persuasive in my opinion, anything is permissible in the name of good entertainment, perhaps.

Despite the flaws, the book did have it's moments and a bit of humour. I do recommend the book for someone who wants some lighthearted airplane reading.

Bon Weekend: Singaporeans Meet-Up

2008-03-22T11:15:00.012+02:00

I arrived in Algeria safely but 1 hour behind schedule. Nothing new. After the usual hassle of clearing immigration and baggage collection, I found myself in an empty terminal at 3am in the morning.

The driver wasn't not waiting for me. Again nothing new. Scenes from Tom Hanks' "The Terminal" started playing in my head.

After several tries, I managed to get the driver on the phone, who apologized that he had forgotten about picking me up. Still nothing new. Fortunately, he lives near the airport and was there to meet me within 15 minutes.

Algiers was a lot colder than Beirut. I heard it had rained for the past 2 days.

By 4:30am, I was back in the Sidi Fredj guesthouse.

By 9:00am, I was awake. The curtains were unable to hold back the glare of the morning sun from my room. Only 4 hours plus of sleep. How annoying!

I was thinking of going back to bed around noontime when I got a call from the office. Top gun needed my help in the office for some presentation to our principals the day after next. Bummer!

Things picked up towards the evening.

A while ago, a group of 2 Singaporeans and a Malaysian got in touch with me via my blog. We arranged a meet up at Bangkok, a Thai restaurant in Draria.

A little held up at work, the guys were already waiting for me at the restaurant. As I entered the restaurant, to my pleasant surprise, the group of guys appeared to be around my age.

The guys, Pradeep, Jek Suen and Yong are based in Bejaia, about 4 hours of drive to the East. They are working for Porktek, a Singaporean company, contracted to provide management expertise to Bejaia's port. They were in Algiers for holiday.

Pradeep, a fellow NUS FASS alumni, has been here since 2004. Yong, a Johorean working in Singapore for a long time, has been in Algeria since 2005 and will be completing his tour of duty in June. Jek Suen, the newest addition to the group, started working in Bejaia only two months ago.

In my opinion, these guys are big time hard-core! My professional interaction with local Algierians are limited mainly to the graduates of Ecole Polytechnic, the creme de la creme. But these guys are managing the blue collar workers on a daily basis! Pradeep mastered the French language and the group even got the port workers speaking Singlish, Singaporean accented English, now

Yesterday's meeting was after a long time since I last "talked cock". It was nice to hear and speak local accents as we traded stories about life in Algeria. There were so many common grievances or topics but just to name a few:

Unscrupulous cleaning service: My previous cleaning lady once stole my Bak Kua, mom's home-baked pineapple tarts and washing powder. Yong's cleaning lady most probably took some of his perfumes. Pradeep's wife lost some of her cometics when she last visited.

Missing things: We all complained about the missing food from our office drawers and the security guards that feign ignorance even though only they have the keys. Yong had his cassette deck and high-performance speakers stolen from his CDV! Unbelieveable!

Water problems: The water supply in my apartment is miserably low (40 minutes to shower). The guys in Bejaia sometimes don't have water in the summer!!!

Ramadan: Why is there a spike in fighting incidents during Ramadan?!

Food and social entertainment: The lack of variety in food choices and pitifully few social entertainment venues to speak of.

I had the most enjoyable and hilarious evening in Algeria so far.

The inaugural dinner of the Singapore - Malaysia "huay guan" in Algiers

P.S. This pretty much disproved my theory that I am 50% of the Singaporeans based in Algeria. As far as I know, there is also one other Singaporean blogger based in Oran. I am now 25%. =P

Leaving Beirut / Air Travel Stories

2008-03-19T18:14:00.011+02:00

Tomorrow evening, I'm leaving Beirut for Algeria. Colleagues in the office were commenting how "lucky" I am to be travelling during the long weekend holidays. In Algeria, Saturday and Sundays are working days and they don't celebrate Easter holidays there.

In Beirut office, public holiday has been declared from Thursday, Friday and next Monday. That's 5 days off in total. I could have gone to Cyprus for a short getaway.

Tomorrow's flight will, confirmed and guaranteed with a big stamp, be delayed for sure. Based on international standards, the time reading on boarding passes and boarding gates is usually the flight departure time. When it comes to Air Algerie flights, the stated time is usually taken to be boarding time!

However, don't be fooled into thinking that since the flight is usually delayed, one don't have to be right on time. A colleague managed to miss his flight because it departed AHEAD of schedule.

Among colleagues, we sometimes trade 'amusing' stories of our air travels. Amusing, yes, only in hindsight.

My personal 'best' air travel stories were the observations on passenger behaviour while boarding and alighting a plane. Actually, these observations extend to all north african/ middle east flights I've taken (Air Algerie/ Royal Air Maroc / Emirates).

Firstly, I noticed that passengers here usually do not turn off their mobile phones even when the plane has started to move. They continue to text-message or make phone calls on their mobile phones while the plane was taxi-ing to the runway. I don't know what the actual standards were but during air travel in Asia, we were constantly bombarded by overhead announcements to turn off our mobiles once on the plane.

What made it worst here was that the cabin crew usually don't give a damn! They walked down the aisle turning a blind eye.

Once, I even got into an argument with a Moroccan passenger after I pointed out to him that he should stop using his phone during taxi to avoid interfering with pilot communication. He refuted that technically the mobile phone needed only to be switched off AFTER the plane left the ground. I don't know who was correct technically but what's the fucking difference a few minutes between taxi-ing and taking-off make? (Airports in Algeria, Morocco and even Beirut are not busy airports, so it doesn't require more than 10 minutes to takeoff).

My second observation was that IMMEDIATELY after the plane landed on the asphalt of the runway, passengers whip out and turn on their mobile phones. A cacophony of mobile phone activation beeps and incoming message tones started going off in surround effect. As if on cue, everyone with a mobile phone started calling or texting someone. Perhaps I must have been flying with local equivalents George Soros or Warren Buffet who might lose millions of earnings for just one missed call.

I can almost imagine what goes on in Mohamad Soros' frentic mind when he started dialing as soon as the plane wheels scratch the runway. "Gotta stay on top of the stock market! Gotta make this call! It's make or break 50 million durhams!" Yeah OK, next time don't come squeeze with me in the economy class, if you are so rich, take business class.

And finally to my third observation, soon after making the million dollars calls to their brokers, all the Mohamad Soros and Abdulhamid Buffet began clambering over seats for their luggages and getting ready to disembark the plane while the plane was still moving to the terminal. It's as if they get a mystery prize for being the first out of the plane. For goodness sake, the plane was still 2 miles aways from the terminal!

Whenever I saw this on an Emirates flight, my heart really went out to the poor stewards and stewardess who tried in vain to request the passengers to go back to their seats and fasten the seatbelts. How do you restrain a herd instinct?

The most amusing story was one I heard from my Japanese colleague. Once while traveling back to Algiers from Hasi Mesaoud in the south, he and 2 other colleagues boarded a plane only to realize that it was completely full. There were not a single empty seat left on board.

He supposed that he may have boarded the wrong flight but it turned out to be the correct flight. That was only one flight for that day. Few thoughts occured in his mind.

1) Why did the ground crew allow his party to board when the flight was full?

2) If he had to stand throughout the flight, why hasn't the cabin crew showed him the hand-straps?

Just then, a steward came into the cabin, pointed to three passengers at random and told them to get off the plane. My colleague and his companions got their seats promptly.

As they say in Algeria, anything is possible.

HAPPY GOOD FRIDAY AND EASTER DAY!

Blackout!

2008-03-17T16:22:00.004+02:00

Blackouts In Singapore
During my childhood, I enjoyed power blackouts.

Blackouts occur very infrequently in Singapore so whenever they happened, my sisters and I were usually very excited. Whenever the power and lights went off in our 3-room Clementi apartment, I would run to the windows. If our opposite apartment block appeared pitch dark too, I knew for certain that a blackout had occured.

"Blackout! Bring out the torch and candles," I would happily informed my family.

We would light up several candles to cast away the darkness. I believe that the main reason we liked blackouts was because we were allowed to play with candles, outside of mid-autumn festival. My dad would use his torch to check the condition of the fusebox, as if it would help. We would berate our dad because his torch-light was diluting our candle light, making the magic moment less unique.

The blackouts were moments for community building. Residents were suddenly forced to leave their TV sets or whatever they are doing and start socializing with their neighbours. Within minutes from the blackouts, the entire apartment block came alive with lively chatter and lit up like a christmas tree with flickering candle lights and fidgeting torch-light beams.

Usually, a blackout lasted half an hour. As soon as the first flourescent tube started flickering back to life, the banter died down and the candle light extinguished as the evening drifted back to it's mundane normacy.

"Go back to your homework!" My mom would command.

Blackouts in Lebanon
Fast foward 20 years later, daily power failures are a norm in Beirut.

Since the late 2007, Lebanon has been enforcing daily 3 hours power-cuts. Which is an inconvenience when your building doesn't have a backup generator. Fortunately, the current apartment has one.

It's a bigger nuisance to experience the power-cuts in the office, especially when the backup generator often fail as well (Murphy's law!!!). Halfway in a meeting and then *poof* everything went dark. Or the printer will jam halfway during a print job when the power died.

Blackouts in Algeria

The frequency of the blackouts depends on location. I can't speak for most of the areas but for two areas I'm more familiar with - Cheraga and Sidi Fredj.

By far, Cheraga was the worst of the two. During close to a year's stay in Cheraga, there were many blackouts. Though not a lot compared to Beirut standards, it had been pretty inconvenient to our daily routine, especially when there was no backup generator at all.

The most memorable was a 3 day blackout in late August 2007, which affected quite a large region around our guesthouse. There was no lights, no heater and no refridgeration. At that time, we didn't had any inkling how long it was going to last.

After sulking around for an entire evening without being able to shower or cook and much worse, see anything, we invoked company policy and checked into Sheraton Club des Pins.

In my opinion, at about USD200++ a night, Sheraton Club des Pins is the most expensive hotel in the world if you compare service with cost. Simply put, at the hotel, you get tourist class service and attitude while paying 5 star hotel prices.

Anyway, upon checking in, we discovered that the hotel was holding a Mexican Fiesta event for that week. My latino colleagues (Colombian, El Salvadorian) were of course quite excited. Here's some of the pictures we took.

The setting for a night of Mexican music and food.
Latino crooner for the evening aka 'golden voice'.
According to my Colombian colleague, who has some inkling about Mexican food, "this is not Mexican food! They imagined this up!" We checked and the guest chef was indeed Mexican so we attributed the cause to be a lack of proper ingredients. We also didn't appreciate the food being served cold.
After dinner, we enjoyed a live performance by Mariachis in 1001 Nuit, the Sheraton inhouse pub
The next day, a weekend, we spend half a day lounging at the beach. My South American colleagues were watching a beach volley game.Finally, the electricity came back on and we were checking out to move back to Cheraga. While checking out, we caught another performance of the Mariachis at the lobby.

Healthy Eating

2008-03-12T10:20:00.008+02:00

Did I mention that I've moved into an apartment in Beirut?

The thing about having an apartment instead of staying in a hotel is the freedom. When it comes to food, I have now the choice of not eating out everyday.

Although on most days while eating out, I opt for green salads. Sometimes, I would like to have hot food. It is becoming a bother because most of the commercially prepared hot food are pastas, burgers and subs, which are greasy and high on carbs and sodium.

So now I can try to do some of my own cooking. And the Kenwood steamer FS360 comes to the rescue. It comes with:

Three or two transparent basket layers allow multi food steaming eg fish, poultry, vegetables, fruit, puddings, rice, eggs
Oval basket design for optimum capacity

Removable easy clean stock tray retains the nutrients for use in stock, gravy etc

Inclusive 1.2 litre rice bowl for cooking rice, various marinated food stuffs or deserts within steamer

I like steamed food. It's guilt free eating with all the natural flavours and nutrients preserved and takes less time to prepare.

Steamed chicken breasts with some soy sauce, lettuce and red chili

Prison Break Singapore

2008-03-04T08:53:00.006+02:00

Have you seen him?

My country is now on full alert as the manhunt continues into the fifth day for Mas Selamat Kastari, the leader of terrorist group, Jemaah Islamiah.

Mas Selamat Kastari escaped last Wednesday afternoon from the Whitley Detention Centre where he was detained under the Internal Security Act, which reserves the right to detain anyone without trial.

Meanwhile security agencies were confident that he hasn't left Singapore because he was acting alone and received no aid. However, they also mentioned that, as a trained mechanic, he could jumpstart vehicles to aid his escape.

According to friends in Singapore, telcos are circulating his photos via MMS to all their subscribers in the effort to help identifying him.

On a lighter side, our local humour site, Talking Cock, questioned the effectiveness of circulating his photograph because if he was "smart enough to escape ISD HQ, you think he wen go and find some more powderful disguise, meh?"

As a contribution to our national security, the website also posted an Escaped Terrorist Spotter guide (below) for the public to print out and keep in their wallets to help identify him regardless of what disguise he's in. Oh that's cute...

Translation: If you see him, immediately call the police, don't be a hero okay?

Update: 08 May 2009

After a year in hiding, Mas Selamat Kastari, Singapore’s Jemaah Islamiyah (JI) leader who escaped from Whitley Road Detention Centre last year, has reportedly been arrested in Malaysia. Yes, the little children of Singapore can sleep a little better at night from today onwards. =P

Late Lunch at The Maharaja

2008-02-26T13:33:00.011+02:00

Last Saturday, a Japanese colleague introduced us to Maharaja Indian restaurant in Beirut. Coincidentally, there is a Maharaja Indian restaurant in Algeria and also in Singapore but they are probably all unrelated.

According to the brochure, one gets to dine in 'authentic Taj Mahal atmosphere'.

What I love about the restaurant? A good view of the mediterranean ocean.

Nan with cheese

Basmati rice

Not sure what it's called in Indian but suffice to say it's curried eggplant.

Spinach gravy

Chicken curry! So sedap!!!

Although the food was quite delicious, the restaurant wasn't a popular choice with the local population because during the time of my visit, it was fairly empty while the Lebanese restaurant besides the Maharaja was full.

Address: Sporting Club Bldg., Chouran Street, Raouche, Beirut
Tel: 961.1.743915 - 961.1.742275

The Maharaja in Cheraga, Algiers

Since we are on the topic of Indian restaurants, I wish to also introduce the Maharaja in Algiers. I'm not sure about the exact address but it is located around the vicinty of Galaxy supermarket.

Restaurant facade complete with welcoming party of one.

The interior was quite lavish by Algerian standards.

More Indian food! The taste of the curry fromage was particularly memorable!

Algeria's Mobile Phone Numbers Change

2008-02-22T17:35:00.004+02:00

Got this piece of information from Harmony in Setif

Starting February 22nd, 2008 there will be an extra number appended to
mobile phone numbers in Algeria. It will be added to the front of the area code.
And it will be a duplicate number. For example, if the mobile number is
072-66-65-99, 072 being the area code, then the new number will be
0772-66-65-99. So you just double the number in between the zero and the first
number in the sequence.

For international callers you will omit the zero and add 213 to the
front. So the new number to dial would be 213-772-66-65-99.

Which means that I need to get a new sim card from IT and update again all the numbers of my Algerian contacts. Anyone coming from Algeria? Bring me a new sim card please?

Update on Apartment Hunt

2008-02-21T20:01:00.003+02:00

After some considerations, we decided to go with the 3rd candidate.

Candidate 3:
Pros: Location, nicely furnished, comfortable lifestyle oriented, well maintained and cleaned, functional kitchen
Cons: Price, size, proximity to construction site

Will be moving in this Sunday! Hope it doesn't rain.

Lord Of The Wings

2008-02-20T15:48:00.007+02:00

Yesterday's dinner in Gemmayzeh was at a restaurant with a name that has a nice ring to it (no pun intended). Specialty of the restaurant? Buffalo wings (duh! of course) with a choice of 12 flavours. The restaurant also serves good BBQ ribs as well.

Inspiration behing the name: Pictures of a middle earth map decorates the restaurant interior

Buffalo wings available in 12 tastes

Buffalo wings in Lebanon are small compared to Singapore

And not hot and spicy enough too

Highlight of the dinner: Yummy ribs!

Apartment Hunting Continues/ La Tabkha ~ Cuisine Libanaise

2008-02-19T17:08:00.005+02:00

Update of situation in Algeria

Remember my Palm Beach guest apartment at Sidi Fredj? Recently, we received 6 more occupants from Syria. As designated Inter-Company Transferees (ICTs) from our Syrian distributors, they will work in our distributor company in Algeria for a year to study and learn.

There was a major lack of planning and coordination. The ICTs arrived without the means to shop, move about or cook by themselves. Transportation is only provided to and from office. Dinner catering is by the same lunchbox company that our expatriate group have sworn off (read about it here). Already I heard about complaints that they are sick of the catered food.

As the locals often say to foreigners when situation FUBAR: "Welcome to Algeria!"

Apartment Hunting in Beirut Continues

We have shortlisted a couple of apartment around the Hamra region. Before decision time at the end of this week, we hope to visit again and evaluate the candidates again.

Candidate 1:
Pros: Price, location, size, kitchen, looks reasonably well maintained and cleaned
Cons: Old (furnishing looks circa 70s), depressing looking bathroom

Candidate 2:
Pros: Location, size, well furnished, maintained and clean
Cons: Price (electricity cost an extra $30/mth; internet connection for $100/mth), small kitchen, bathroom reasonably ok

Candidate 3:
Pros: Location, nicely furnished, comfortable lifestyle oriented, well maintained and cleaned, functional kitchen
Cons: Price, size, proximity to construction site

La Tabhka - Cuisine Libanaise

Discovered this restaurant several trips ago but didn't really get to try it's food until we were apartment hunting last weekend. A simple restaurant chain that serves lebanese traditional cuisine in a modern ambience.

Restaurant facade at Hamra area (facing Plaza Hotel and Lina's)

Vegetable platter (left) Lebanese Mezza buffet salad of spinach and lady fingers (right)

Lebanese Eggplant with minced meat stew served with rice (Makloubeh?)

Fatoush

Back in Beirut/ Apartment Hunt Begins Again...

2008-02-12T16:41:00.001+02:00

Somebody pointed out to me that I am blogging ahead of my time (See the post below). Thanks Phaeton.

The weather improved before I left Algiers. It wasn't cold and there was plenty of sunshine. People were coming out to the sidewalk cafes near Palm Beach. I managed to enjoy a late afternoon run at the forest of Bachaoui last Friday weekend. The parking situation there was terrible as hell as there was a huge crowd there.

Clearly, I had chosen a wrong time to return to Beirut. Weather forecasts said it will rain for most of this entire week. Compared to January, the temperature has gone up a bit so it is no longer cold but it is definitely wet. The wet weather makes it difficult to move about in the city.

That is inconvenient considering that I am apartment hunting again. Management told me that this year, I may be staying more in Beirut that last year. I already had a difficult time hunting for apartment in 2005 when I first arrived in Lebanon (read about it here) so I'm not looking forward to this.

Apartments within our budget (Deep-sixed's and I) and criteria are limited in supply. The choice location, Hamra, is within the vicintiy of Lebanese universities, AUB and LAU. Apartments below USD 900 were quickily taken up by students of these universities since the semester had already started.

We are aiming to get a furnished service apartment because we will be travelling frequently and hate having to clean up after returning. It also doesn't make sense to rent one that is too costly and too big because we won't be around much to enjoy it.

Based on past experience, I want an apartment that comes with a kitchen so that I can prepare my own food. Eating those fajitas and sharwarma sandwiches caused me to put on so much weight in the past.

Deep-sixed is concerned about bathroom. They shouldn't look too rundown and old while the water pressure should be decent. Quite a few of the apartments we looked had shabby bathroom.

With so many requirements, will we ever be able to get an apartment we want?

The hunt continues.....

First 2009 2008 Post

2008-02-09T12:34:00.001+02:00

This is my first post in ~~2009~~ 2008. Damn, I really know how to procrastinate.

The beginning of the new year had been an exceptionally busy time for me with all the planning duties I had to do back in Beirut headoffice.

Some changes may be in due as my job responsibilities have changed slightly. I probably will spend less time in Algiers and more time in Beirut. It is also likely that I will be travelling more extensive in the MENA region outside of Algeria and Morocco.

As a follow-up to our Marrakesh trip end of last year, deep-sixed made an entry that can be read here.

I'm leaving for Beirut tomorrow. Will blog more when I'm there.

Marrakech Here I Come

2007-12-20T21:55:00.001+02:00

Tomorrow is the first day of the Eid holidays in Morocco. I will be visiting Marrakesh for a weekend getaway with Deepsixed. Woohoo.....!

On this day, muslims commemorate Abraham's willingness to sacrifice his son Ibrahim to show his devotion to Allah. Instead of sons, muslim households will each sacrifice a sheep on this day. It is also a day for charity as 2/3 of the sheep will be given away to the poor so the meat doesn't go to waste.

About a month or so before this event in Algeria and Morocco, you can see a lot of sheep being traded by people just about anywhere you go. In Morocco, a sheep cost about USD300.

I heard that in Morocco, 1 million sheeps will be sacrificed tomorrow. Geez, that's like 1/3 of Singapore's population!

Sacrificial Lambs in Algiers: taken from a passing Corolla. Where's Little Bo Peep?

December 11 & Security Concerns

2007-12-20T17:30:00.000+02:00

While we were busily moving houses on that day, Al Queda struck again for the 2nd time this year in Algiers. Read about it here.

The explosions happened nearby our office, about a couple of minutes drive away. According to Algerian coworkers, the earth shook violently when the bombs went off and a few seconds later, a big bellow of smoke was visible some kilometers away.

The attacked had taken a big toll. 62 were killed including a number of university students riding in a bus at the wrong place, wrong time. The students were from the university behind my office. I probably had seen them before on the way to lunch.

More than a week has elapsed since the terrorist attack so this is already old news. The international media has moved on to other news but the security concerns remain very real.

Despite the constant assurances of local management that Algeria is a very safe country, it takes a little logic and a bit of observation skills to know that it isn't true.

Obviously, the definition of safety is relative. For a group of people who had witness a bloody civil war and the atrocities people had done to other people, one or two bombings a year is nothing. For a Singaporean who has just ventured out of his tortise shell in these couple of years, a sudden tire screech could be interpreted as a terrorist attack.

The reason why I don't feel that Algeria is safe enough is because the Algerians do not place enough emphasis on security awareness and standards.

For example, I used to check in to Sheraton Club des Pins. Although being a 5 star hotel and probably the best hotel in Algeria, it doesn't have a good security check at the front gate where I was being driven in. Like many places, the security guard here just walk around the vehicle and do a cursory glance before passing it as safe. I used to quip that the Algerian security guards are X-men, because they have mutant powers to know from afar if there is a threat or not.

After the first Al Queda attack on the PM office earlier this year, Sheraton hotel improved their security checks somewhat. The security guards now attempts to open the bonnet and the trunk of the vehicle for inspection. However, they still stop short of physical checks or check under the vehicle.

The government security standards were not much better. Any traveller who passes through the Algerian airport is subjected to the cumbersome security checks. For the outgoing traveller, there are a total of 6 security checks excluding check-in and boarding! In conversations, some Algerian acquaintances proclaimed proudly that they are taking security so seriously.

If a traveller approaches the airport in a vehicle, there is a checkpoint just before alighting. Before entering the airport building, he/she has to go through the second checkpoint with a scanner. After check-in, there is a third check to validate one's passport and ticket. Upon clearing immigration, a fourth security checkpoint with scanner looms. If he/she clears this one, there is a customs check (the fifth). The officer will ask you to declare if you are bring local money out. After boarding, there is a sixth and final body and luggage check right outside the plane. Nobody could board the plane without feeling a little harassed after so many checks.

The question is, with so many security checks, are they all doing their jobs? On several occasions, I had observed the security personnel sitting behind the scanner monitor happily sms-ing away. The airport is a classic case of having quantity does not equate to quality.

I was scheduled to leave Algiers for Morocco on the 16th. As it was just after the December 11th incident, security airport was running at its peak. Traffic was jammed up along the road to the airport caused by the more stringent checks (however, still no physical checks) just outside the airport.

Sitting in the car, I realized that heighten state of security in Algeria is only a temporary measure. When you have tighter security, the normality breaks down. In this particular case, traffic gets into a bottleneck at the erected checkpoints. In a weeks or two, in order to expedite traffic and resume operational normacy, airport security breaks down again.*

It will take many years of transition before Algerian security becomes a norm, that is, when functioning, does not break down the routine.

*In pretty much all of Algiers, when there is a police checkpoing, traffic jam occurs or people starts to clusterfuck, becoming a non-moving crowd.

我也很忙

2007-12-19T15:40:00.000+02:00

Haven't been blogging for a while because of a busy schedule after the Singapore holidays.

Anyway, we arrived back in Beirut first to apply for our visa to Algeria. On 9th December, we got back to Algiers on a night flight. On 11th, we were busy moving to a new guest house. After that, I prepared a presentation for the year end meeting on 14th December. Soon after, deepsixed and me departed for Morocco to apply for yet another 3 month Algerian visa. After getting the visa, we intend to fly to Beirut to celebrate the new year and spend January to do 2008 planning.

Life can be this complicated sometimes.

Bye Bye Cheraga

December 11 was moving day. Our group of young? expats (below 40) were transferred from the present guesthouse in Cheraga to another guesthouse in Palm Beach. After living in Cheraga for almost a year, it was a pity to have to move.

Relocating to Palm Beach could take a little of getting used to. In Algiers, it is already challenging to find a supermarket with a wide range of products to cater to the expats. To date, only three supermarkets in Algiers fit this bill: Opera, Galaxy and Carrefour. Even these are still below par compared to our neighbourhood NTUC or Cold Storage. So after moving, we would have to travel a longer distance to be able to visit the same familiar supermarket and grocer. With a Corolla issued to us, we could probably cope by planning weekly purchase trips.

Most of my stuff are in two categories: books and clothes

The second inconvenience has not presented itself yet. It is winter now but comes summer the entire route to the office will be crowded with traffic to and fro Palm Beach. The entire Palm Beach will be crowded with visitors during summer. Supposedly now, we are able to enjoy some seaside tranquility after moving here. Save for the fact that it is very cold and breezy out there now.

Algiers Palm Beach is similar to the resort-like Palm Beach in Florida only in namesake only. Palm Beach Algiers is made up of: a cluster of seaside motels, which are vacated during most of the year except during summer. Our new guesthouse is one of these motels; a few rows of seaside bungalows belonging to the Algerian high society members; small superettes (mini-marts) and restaurants measuring little larger than 5 meters square; and a kilometer stretch of undeveloped beach.

Because of Algeria's violent past, building are usually surrounded by high protective walls topped with concentina wires to ward off the unwarranted visitors. Palm Beach was no exception but it makes this little resort town look like a cluster of mini prisons amidst meter tall unkempt wild grass patches and a small beach (Read: escape is neigh impossible).

Takes a lot of imagination to picture this relatively unscenic place as the much touted place to be during Algerian summer.

Moving in: first glimpse of my new apartment

When I first arrived to my new apartment, I didn't like it at all. What was management thinking? The place resembles a cheap seaside motel. Wait, it IS a cheap seaside motel with very basic facilities as the company is going for cost-cutting. A big downgrade from our brand new Cheraga guesthouse, this place looks so used. Further more, Palm Beach is further from the office than Cheraga, and in summer the jams are a killer.

Unfortunately, we have no choice in where the company places us so we have to try to make do. The only plus point I could think of at present is that it has a view to the mediterranean sea. But now in winter, being near the seas can be so cold and the two small heaters in the apartment are hardly warm enough.

After the professional movers came with the furniture from the previous guesthouse, the apartment looks a little more furnished and homely. I would love to update you with more pictures of how the apartment looks like now but I got busy with work presentations and packing for my Moroccan business trip, so I have to postpone.

Currently, the guesthouse has 5 residents. Deepsixed and I occupies the two apartments in the fourth storey. The two latino guys occupies the third floor. Our Turkish coworker lives on the second floor. The remaining apartments on the second floor, one third floor apartment and the large penthouse are awaiting the 15 inter-company transfers (ICTs) from China, Syria, Japan, Egypt and Sudan to arrive in Feburary '08. When full, the guesthouse will become a bigger expatriate community. Hopefully then, everyone can get along with everyone.

Diesel Fumes Health Hazard To Asthmatics

2007-12-07T15:40:00.000+02:00

According to this news article, exposure to everyday pollution from diesel-powered vehicles can be a health hazard for people with asthma impairing their lung function in just a few hours, a new study showed.

It's a wonder that my asthma hasn't relapsed after spending so much time in traffic jams in Algiers with the car windows down. Can someone explain to me why Algerian drivers have such an aversion to air-conditioning?

These Algerians like to feel the diesel fumes in their hair.... Ah~

Nephews!

2007-12-04T11:23:00.000+02:00

Lucus, Lucien & Angus

At Home On Vacation

2007-11-21T05:25:00.002+02:00

In case any of my non-existent reader wonders why I have not blogged for weeks, the reason is because I am on vacation in Singapore. This time I'm staying for 3 weeks and will leave by early December (Already I'm in the second week).

The pampering and comfortable life in Singapore provides a temporary repreive from the low standards of living in North Africa.

Take the example of water, tap water is safe to drink here. The quality of the water doesn't cause skin and scalp issues.

Or the water-heater. At home I get warm water for shower on demand 24 x 7.

At our guesthouse in Cheraga, the water-heaters had been conspiring to breakdown just when winter is coming. Freezing showers was becoming the norm because the hot water tends to get cut off halfway during the shower.

Before I left, I sent for the plumber who had no idea how to fix the problem. Meanwhile, the company deemed it cost ineffective to replace the unit. It just told us to share whichever heater is still working. They must think we are already very fortunate because the Algerians do not even get water everyday!

Interesting isn't it? A country that is steep in the Islamic faith and God seems to be turning his back.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Cest La Vie
Anyway, I've been busy, very busy. There are so many personal errants to run.

Personal financial planning issues requires some attention especially after being away for months. Islamic countries frown upon insurance and interest so the money never grows and life is cheap. Lebanon is an exception but interest rates there cannot beat inflation and insurance cost like hell.

I've also been exercising regularly to reduce a little weight. Back in Algeria, the environment was not conducive enough. There is no place to jog without being harassed by the jobless bumps hanging along the streets day and night.

Partly, I'm at fault for not keeping a healthy dietary regime and the weight has been piling up. My intention is to kickstart a healthy habit of regular exercise and dieting while on vacation and bring it back after vacation.

Vacation is about meeting up friends and doing enjoyable things together. After being a third world recluse for months, I have no intention of excessive partying and binge drinking. Probably because I find no lack of alcohol in my guesthouse inventory anyway.

I still enjoy feasting and dining with friends. I believe that a little management on the ordering side will not be detrimental to my weight reduction plan. Nothing beats sitting down for food and drinks with likeminded friends while we reminisce the good old days, speculate the future or sometimes just resort to plain o'bitching about things under the sun.

But the best of all, family time! It's nice to come home and play with my nephews. All three are growing up fast and full of life's energizing zest!

It's heaven to laze around the house and be in the midst of family and relatives and the world of free food and clean laundry on demand. =D

Life is good...

Freshmen Training Accomplished

2007-11-09T11:18:00.000+02:00

Photo with group B

That's it, I have completed my part in the Freshmen Training Camp teaching 4 classes of about 30 students (31 Oct & 3, 4, 6 Nov) about marketing & TWSM.

I didn't want to lecture the entire day, so I planned the program to be a half day lecture and half day workshop. Still, it was exhausting as I had to talk almost the entire day. In the workshops, opposing teams sometimes can't see eye to eye and I have to play pacifier.

So workshops are just as tiring but they can be very fun too. There's a lot of brainstorming and teamwork.

Workshops are great for judging people too. Sometimes, I get a glimpse of occasional talent or leadership potention in several quiet and unassuming freshmen. Several of the better educated and outspoken ones ("You know I have a Masters degree?") seemed very self assured ("Don't I deserve more points for completing the task first.") but upon further evaluation, turned out to be just as clueless as the rest.

Next round, I'll plan a 2 hours lecture and workship for the rest of the day so that I don't have to work so much. Ha! Continuous improvement!

Marketing Workshop

Freshmen masterpieces

Class photos (Group C)

Back To The Middle Ages

2007-10-22T17:35:00.001+03:00

Sometimes I feel that coming back to Algeria is like being back to the Middle Ages.

When I return to my apartment in Cheraga, I discovered these:

1) Heater for apartment and water spoilt and dismantled. The apartment is getting cold (20 degrees celcius interior)and I have to shower at co-workers apartment everyday. I felt very inconvenienced.

2) Wireless internet down. Router missing.

3) Cable TV down

It's back to basic living...

4) Housekeeping lady ate my pork Bah Kua!
I found few pieces of my vacuum packed bah kua missing. Only the housekeeping lady has been in the apartment since I'm gone and she has been known to eat our food and take our things.

Is it a sin if a Muslim ate pork, even though unkowningly? Well she deserves it for taking food without asking anyway.

------------------------------------------------------------------------
2nd Freshmen Training Camp Begins!

So the 2nd company 'freshies' training camp has begun in Algeria from Oct 21 until Nov 15. Company has decided, following a successful season in Morocco last year, to increase the intake from 40 to 120!

The big intake was to provide a pool of TW-trained inductees to cater for our Algerian distributor's human resource problems. This is also the first year our regional training academy begins to train associates for our distributors/dealer in other countries like Egypt, Syria, China, Japan, Morocco and Sudan, which explains the huge intake as well.

I pity the 'freshies' who are used to creature comforts like me. Upon arrival, they were sent to El Bahir hotel, an enclosed compound that is pretty away from civilization (at the 'attractive price of USD21/night!), and immediately began facing water and food problems. The showers weren't working and food catering wasn't sufficient.

Nothing to shout about in the interior decorations area too. The furniture and room design is circa 60s.

I began to feel that my apartment in Cheraga is a paradise.

"Grand Opening Night"

So yesterday was the opening party of the freshmen camp on site at El Bahir hotel. I was invited.

As usual dinner started late so I took a look around at the facilities. The hotel features a swimming pool albeit it was drained during autumn and winter.

The design of the swimming pool is certainly one of a kind. A rectangle pool that is length-wise olympic standard, albeit narrower in breadth. Right at one end of the pool are two cylindrical pillars with each a tree growing in the middle.

I wonder very often what the Algerians are thinking?!?!

Lifeguard: "Swimmer in Lane 5, WATCH OUT for that tree!!!!"

The dinner portion of the event was in reality very short. The freshies were already starving because breakfast and lunch was light. When the late dinner started, everyone rushed to the food.

The picture did not do justice to reality. I had never seen a buffet spread suffered a more savage and brutal multi-pronged attack other than yesterday evening.

Algerian and Moroccan forces forced a decisive armored pincer push on poulet. Egyptian and Syrian troops launched an airborne blitz assault on poisson. Chinese and Sudan special forces struck at the rear on viande.

It took tops 15 mins for the dinner guests to clear out 3 large table spread of food! Even the dessert table was mopped up simultaneously. Indeed, the adage "Leave No Eclair Behind" was proudly upheld by the freshies last evening.

Highlights of Last Evening's Dinner?

1) Visited by the Japanese ambassador to Algeria at the dinner. He was invited by the chief executive of the local distributor since they are friends. Our core business is Japanese cars so maybe it was a good PR move on the CE part.

2) My first taste of Mattake (matsutake or pine tree mushroom). A luxury product in Japan it is reputed to fetch a high price of USD 1,000/1 kg. In Algeria, they told me that it is growing in abundance. It tastes quite good when barbequed with soya sauce which complement the fresh pine aroma very well.

Congratulations To Jackson Again!

2007-10-21T17:58:00.000+03:00

Dude, you made it into the final 6! Yes!!!

Congratulations!

All the best for the last part of the contest!

Leaving Beirut

2007-10-18T10:57:00.001+03:00

I'm leaving Beirut for Algeria on an evening flight today.

In the days before leaving, we got a celebratory mood going and spent some nights partying.

The pictures will do the talking.

Open Beer, Open Wings @ HRC

Me, Pablo, my Columbian co-worker, looking silly with HRC waitress

We partied with a group of Armenian guys and it was double the fun. Boy, were they were rowdy!

Bora wants to be the new Ghost Rider

Xinyi's Birthday Dinner @ Molly Malone's Irish Pub @ Gemayze

This cosy little pub got really crowded with people soon after our arrival

Gaelic steak; Xinyi said it was one of the steak she had tasted. I agreed after trying the taste.

Irish Stew; Disappointing taste and quantity. I like my stew hearty!

Happy Birthday! to Xinyi

England Through To Rugby World Cup Finals

2007-10-14T16:00:00.001+03:00

Josh Lewsy's early try

The traditional rivalry between the English and French was re-ignited in the Rugby World Cup semi-finals yesterday. The English must defend their championship title against the French on their own turf in Saint Denis.

France is the host country for this year's rugby world cup. The French had very high hopes of going into the finals and winning the the world cup for the first time.

The game was telecast live at The Celtic, an Irish pub along Monot Street (like Mohammad Sultan in Singapore). The mood was high as the pub was crowded with French and English supporters there to cheer their national teams on in this important match.

An Irishman told me, due to obvious reasons, he is sticking with the French. Interesting.

An early try two minutes into the game by Josh Lewsey brought England ahead by 5 points. Johnny Wilkinson's failure to convert the try to increase the score margin would haunt England for the entire game as both sides were neck to neck in their score throughout the game.

Both teams were so evenly matched, no more trys were scored for the first half. The French were able to capitalise on a couple of penalties conceded and led the score over England at half time. Half time - France 6:5 England.

French supporters celebrating their half time lead

The second half was nail-biting for me to watch as the French were slowly inching their way towards victory holding on to their 1 point lead. The British were unable to gain any points as the game will soon draw to a close. England supporters, undaunted, sang the anthem in support for their team both at the stadium and in the pub:

Swing low, sweet chariot
Coming for to carry me home
Swing low, sweet chariot
Coming for to carry me home

The bartenders were obviously not taking sides

Wilkinson back on par in the second half scored a penalty and a drop kick with 6 minutes remaining in the game and brought England to victory. Final Score - France 9:14 England

Oh Sweet victory! England supporters celebrating their team's win

World cup dream for les bleu is over. England will play either South Africa or Argentina in the finals on 20 Oct next Saturday.

UPDATE: SPRINGBOK TAKES THE WORLD CUP (OCT 21)

Despite playing well, the English team lost to the South Africans in the finals yesterday. =(

No repeat victory for England =(

South Africa wins Rugby World Cup for 2nd time

Eid and The End of Ramadan

2007-10-13T13:21:00.000+03:00

In Beirut during Ramadan, things had not been difficult as initially thought. For one, food is readily available.

Several schedule changes occurred during the fasting month. Working hours were adjusted to facilitate the fasting month. Lunch hour is cancelled and Work ends an hour earlier so that the muslims can arrive home earlier to prepare to break their fast. For the non-Muslims, we still get our lunch and knock off with the rest an hour ahead of usual.

In the evening, muslims hang out and enjoy other social activities after the breaking of fast and evening prayers so restaurants and stores stay open until midnight to cater for these customers.

Save for these and some obvious changes to the routine, Ramadan in Beirut did not look that festive to me. In Singapore, muslim households compete with each other to see who can put up a nicer lighting display and glowing green giant ketupats dazzle passing motorists along the streets of Geylang and Eunos.

When I arrived in Lebanon and waited for the beginning of Ramadan, I had expected that the festive atmosphere in Beirut will be even more over the top, given that the Lebanese have a flair for being dramatic. However, I was utterly disappointed. The several nights that I had hanged out along popular Hamra street had not put me in the least celebratory mood at all.

Today is Eid, the first day that marks the end of Ramadan. The streets are almost empty of people and the majority of the stores are closed, saved for popular establishments like coffee houses and shopping malls. It seems that most Beirutians prefer to spend time with their family and relatives during Eid, some even return to their native towns and cities to do that. This is not unlike the Chinese New Year visiting that we do.

The ones that truly enjoyed the coming of Eid holidays were my hotel neighbours (University undergrads?) who stayed up late last night partying, drinking, making a fool of themselves and keeping me up.

Name

2007-10-10T12:55:00.001+03:00

Sometimes I cannot recognize my own name.

In the overseas Chinese context, family name (surname) is placed before name. But following the islamic convention, people in Algeria, Lebanon and the entire Arab world go by their first name and their father's name. So names are constructed differently.

In official papers, they do not only ask for family name and first names, but also for my father's name too. So officially my name will be constructed this way: (family name)(name)(father's name)

Suppose my name is Tan Ah Kow and my dad's name is Ah Niao. My name will be Tan Ah Kow Ah Niao.

So no blame can be put on me when I failed to acknowledge to an Arabic twist of Ah Kow Ah Niao, announced over the bank or government office counter.

Yet Another Update From Beirut

2007-10-08T11:47:00.000+03:00

So I get to spend yet another week in Beirut.

I cannot return to Algeria because my entry visa isn't ready. It'll take longer than usual this time due to a new ruling.

In partial fulfillment of the Algieran visa application, it is now required of me to get a reference letter from the Singapore consulate in Beirut to certify that I am a Singaporean residing in Lebanon. It is not clear why I have to do so because I have a Lebanese resident permit as document proof.

Although this no longer came as a surprise because I have learned first hand that Algerians are masters of generating redundant paperwork in the universe.

Then the consul general of the Singapore consulate in Beirut (a Lebanese) had to add his own contribution into the paperwork fun. First he wants to know why he needs to issue the reference letter in his capacity.

So I had to fax the consulate (their email is not working) a request letter stating my purpose, attached with scans of my passport and Lebanese resident permit. On top of that I've also attached a sample letter issued by the Malaysian consulate to a co-worker , in case the Singapore consul general doesn't understand my request.

Then the Singapore consul general wants to find out if it is in his capacity to issue the reference letter by running it through the Ministry of Foreign Affairs first. I mean, dude, it is just a simple personal request from a Singaporean citizen overseas, don't make it a foreign affair issue please.

And all this while I am legally and physically residing in Beirut since the beginning of last month and had done so last year before being stationed in Algeria.

Meanwhile, my delayed return to Algeria is driving my paymasters nuts because they prefer to see me earn my pay slogging over there where most of the sales revenues are coming from.

USD/SGD Exchange Rate Hits Record Low

Speaking of my pay, which is calculated in US dollars, the recent decline in USD/SGD exchange rate had been very bad news for me.

My 2 year stint with the company has seen the USD weakening against the SGD. Last month, it broke through the 1.5o mark.

Today, the USD hit another bottom (US$1= SGD$1.472). It has reached the record low in 5 years. With my pay pegged at USD 1 = SGD 1.65 in my job contract, today's exchange rate implies that I had kenna an approximately 11% paycut!

Why? God, Why?!

Hopefully, my paymasters will have mercy on me and revise up the pay to compensate for exchange rate losses soon. The pay package is beginning to lose it's attraction.

The Curious Incident About The Dog ... & A Wiimote

2007-09-24T14:27:00.001+03:00

Although I was never a proud owner of a dog .... yet. I was able to experience the joy and tribulations in having a dog when I read "Marley & Me: Life and love with the world's worst dog" by John Grogan.

Grogan writing probably captured the essence of what it was like to have a dog, judging by the overwhelming responses by dog lovers on his blog.

The book is now and will be providing me with hours more of reading pleasure about the exploits of Marley the lab, when I am due to travel back to Algeria next week. It will make me more resolved to have my own pet dog some day after returning to Singapore. I would like to have an alsatian, although I wouldn't mind a labrador after reading the book.

Anyway, given my current fascination with the labrador, it was amusing to come across a very wacky news about a labrador that swallowed a Nintendo Wiimote whole. Now I cannot imagine what a labrador wouldn't do?

According to the news, a family in Colorado allowed their 3 year old labrador an old TV remote as a chew toy. Unable to discern better, the lab came across a misplaced Wiimote, thought that it was another chew toy, and promptly ate it!

When the lab started spitting up blood, the family grew alarmed and sent it to the vet. Upon an X-ray examination, it was revealed that the lab had swallowed the Wiimote. The vet was able to expel the wiimote after some medication and some belly massaging.

In punishment, the lab got an overnight stay at the vet for further observation. The son paid the ultimate price for misplacing his wiimote. He got two weeks allowance docked as a punishment to replace the chewed up wiimote.

Wish I could say "dog ate my missing PSP".

Can you spot the chewed up Wiimote in the X-ray? I can't

Another Update from Beirut

2007-09-24T11:34:00.001+03:00

There was a bomb explosion last week, which killed a politician in Eastern Beirut. It was on the same day I was at ABC Shopping Mall in East Beirut for shopping and movie. I didn't learn about it until the next day but Xinyi and I was wondering the entire time, why there were scarcely any people at the mall?

"It was probably a weekday." was what we thought.

Political assassinations seem to be common in Lebanon nowadays. Yet no one is taking the responsibility for the killings.

The anti-Syrian faction, the ones doing most of the dying, are blaming Syria for the assassinations as revenge on the anti-Syrian faction for plotting an end to the Syrian political domination in 2005. The pro-Syrian faction alleges that the anti-Syrian faction is fond of using Syria as a scapegoat when killing off opponents.

The Lebanese people had grown rather accustomed to these political killings. At the expectant rate of one politician killed every few months, and except for a few unfortunate souls, who happened to be at the wrong place at the wrong time, the Lebanese seems to be unperturbed by any of the violence happening around at all.

Unaffected they may seem though, the Lebanese are probably fretting about the long term impact of this political turmoil. Life goes on as usual but life may not be as rosy as before. Today, the taxi drivers are not bargaining as hard as compared to last year. They figured out that it is at least better to be paid less than to lose a passenger. Peopl are also complaining about the climbing crime rates. Tourism, I think, must be in shambles as tourist are giving Lebanon the detour

The tourist trade in Lebanon, a mainstay of the economy, was given no respite after being disrupted by the Israel-Hezabollah war in late 2006 . Followed soon after by the Lebanese political protest, although a peaceful sit-in demonstration, impacted the economy negatively in several ways, including the closure of downtown Beirut as a vibrant business and dining venue .

Mounting political tensions continued to keep tourists away as two anti-Syrian MPs were assassinated in separate incidents between late 2006 and early 2007.

Then in May of 2007, a bloody insurgency broke out between Lebanese security forces and an outlawed Islamic organization, Fatah al Islam. Ending only in the beginning of this month, it was followed by the explosion that killed the politician two weeks later.

If these events don't scare the tourists away, I don't know what would. If I don't have to stick to my business travel objectives, I wouldn't want to visit Beirut. It is going to take a long time and tantamount efforts before Beirut could regain its reputation as the "Paris of the Middle East".

On a different note, Xinyi and I had a great outing last week at the movies (Ratatouile, in my opinion is an excellent movie) and ate good pasta at Napoletana in ABC Mall.

Italy in your city, the restaurant promises on its slogan

Xinyi's plate: Spaghetti alla Carbonara. It looked pretty good!

My plate: Fusili alla Sicilliani which literally translates as Sicilian twisted pasta. It was an excellent choix.

An Update

2007-09-10T09:43:00.000+03:00

All Quiet On the Middle Eastern Front

I will be working in Beirut for the entire month of September because I need to re-apply for my Lebanese work and residence permit.

Due to the unstable political landscape here, many stores and restaurants in the downtown area where I'm working, had relocated to other parts of Beirut. The entire area now resembles a cross between silent hill, minus the gloom and monsters, and an army camp, where you see troops, M113s and concertina wires everywhere.

People are hinting that the month's end election will foster a consensus between the clashing political factions. However, it seems that there were too many unrealized hopes in the past and it doesn't easily give credibility to this election as a resolution to the country's political problems. At least there had been no outbreaks of violence in the recent months.

News From The Home Front

Angus, my nephew, is able to sit up by himself and has begun to eat solid food. My sis has sent me photos of Angus celebrating his 'coming of age' with a foam party.

Fast Food & Algeria

2007-09-01T11:55:00.003+03:00

There has been some speculation on why there is no proper fast food in Algeria. I'm talking here about big franchises like MacDonald's or Burger King with their standardized menus and ubiquitous restaurant outlets that are encroaching on the modern and traditional alike, thereby, ruining the historical picturesqueness of some places.

One plausible explanation was that there is a lack of freeze storage technology nor stable electricity supply that fast food chains like MacDonalds require to store their ingredients. Possibly also, there is a lack of trustworthy local ingredients supply (Algerian don't usually consider time nor quality to be essential).

Maybe it's a good thing that there is no MacDonalds or KFC. Academics has warned about the dangers of over-rationalization as exemplified by the rapid institutionalization of fast food and eating habits in society (see Weber's Protestant Ethics, 1958; Rizter's MacDonaldization, 1993; Schlosser's Fast Food Nation, 2001). Too much of something is obviously, no good.

Don't get me wrong, there has been fast food in Algeria for as long as anyone can remember. It is not difficult to get your hands on a hamburger with fries and coke from a local store, shamelessly named McMadrid or McQuince. The local fare is unfortunately sans taste and hygiene, in the "man, my burger is dripping oil and the meat patty looks suspicious" kind of way. (if you want a comparison, it's like Ramli burger sold along a ulu street enroute to KL BUT much much more awful tasting and messier!)

Anyway, depending on your perspective, it may be a bane or a boon when you cannot find the familiar golden arches everytime you turn the corner. For a person far away from home, I just want to sink my teeth into something familiar, something that is reminiscent of familiar times, with a predictable taste and quality.

I mean, a Big Mac should taste, smell and look almost similar whether purchased from an outlet in modern metropolitan Shinjuku or from an outlet in down-trodden, desolated slum of Southern Namibia. One can argue until the cows come home about the taste and quality of a Big Mac but we would be digressing.

So it is not an exaggeration to say that social change has finally arrived with the first opening of a Quick outlet in July 2007 at Ben Mhidi, Algiers.

Quick is a Belgian fast food restaurant chain similar to MacDonald's and has 400 restaurants located in Belgium, France and Luxemburg. It has made plans for 20 outlets in Algeria for the next 5 years, with the next outlet opening in Sidi Yahia.

Given the present situation, it wouldn't hurt abit if Algerians could learn a little bit more standards in food preparation and storage from the fast food MNCs. Food poisoning is a serious problem in Algiers due to lack of knowhow in food storage and the unhygienic way of preparing food. (http://www.algeria-events.com/article867.html). Every expat colleague of mine has experienced different degrees of food poisoning while in Algeria making the term halal food rather meaningless.

Often we encounter local restaurants that are simply no longer interested in improving their menu and customer service to woo customers anymore. The emergence of a fast food industry in Algeria will most probably drive competition up, forcing the local business to either level-up or go out of business.

Our Visit to Quick
Deepsixed, Pablo, Felix and me visited the first Quick outlet in Algiers downtown one evening. Was too busy to blog about it until now.

Like any fast food restaurant in other parts of the world, it was crowded with teenagers and families. Although the facade doesn't look like anything special but this IS the first burger restaurant brand owned by an MNC in the history of Algeria. (And we were there, Wow!)

We had to fight the queue in order to order our dinners from the counter. Algerians queue like the way they drive (me first! me first!). There is no respect of proper queueing, people are cutting queues and elbowing each other. It was so frustrating that I forgot to take a picture of the chaos at the counter. Since I grew up taking MacDonalds for granted and these Algerians had been waiting their entire lifetime to eat foreign brand burgers, I relented and allowed some of them cut my queue.

When it was my turn to order, the cashier was able to take my order for four persons correctly amidst the din the shoving crowd was creating (Incredible!). When she returned with our food, she had forgotten to give us fries, which is a typical Algerian habit of not delivering on promise. Anyway, deepsix reminded her and she quickily rectify the mistakes on the spot. A historical achievement for Algerian service industry!
Doesn't my burger and fries look neat or what? It has been a long time since I came across a burger that is nice prepared and neatly wrapped (if the ones in hotel restaurants are to be excluded). Interestingly, my colleague ordered Quick's signature burger, Giant, but it appears to be no bigger than all the other burgers on the menu. Giant is the name but do not necessary refer to the size, I was told later.

I saw a staff in the restaurant who was distributing balloons to children of the customers in the restaurant. Many patrons were approaching him to ask for free balloons, even asking for those that are not yet inflated. I presume that many of these people were asking for balloons for their kids, their next door neighbour's kids, their cousin's kids in the next wilaya, their former room-mate's kids or something.

Again, things that we took so much for granted, they are special here. I later heard that this is probably the first incident of free balloon giveaway in Algiers. Maybe the Algerians had never been able to buy balloons or get a free one before this.

Hainanese Chicken

2007-08-26T16:54:00.002+03:00

What can I do when I'm stuck in Algeria but missing the food from home? I recently had a craving for Hainanese chicken rice so it was time to head for the kitchen.

The Hainanese chicken rice, an eponymous dish from Hainan Island, China, actually gained it's commercial success in South-east Asia and is now much touted as Singapore's national dish. I adored this dish as a child but had to refrain because, according to some advice, it might worsen my asthmatic condition. Years later, the asthma having subsided, I can now truly claim that Hainanese chicken rice is one of my favorite food of all time.

Based on a recipe from a cookbook that I brought here, I was partially successful in re-creating a taste of Hainanese chicken, sadly without knowing how to prepare the rice nor chilli. Er...soli but recipe book neber provide leh, how to do?...Cook is kayou!

Though it was no Chatterbox or Boon Tong Kee, the chicken turned out to be pretty tasty. At the very least, it satiated my craving.
Need serious help in how to chop a chicken properly! Anyone?

Lunch & The Little Spoon

2007-08-19T16:30:00.002+03:00

My colleagues and I had for a while liberated ourselves from certain death by dreadful lunchtime catering. For a long time since we started working in Algeria, we have suffered under the hands of a caterer with a serious creativity crisis, who got the tender from management to decide the contents of our insufferably repetitive lunch menu.

Enough is enough. We decided to repeal lunch catering and leave the office for lunch.

Unfortunately, our office's poor location in Hydra don't exactly give us easy access to popular places. And there is a lack of information source about the locations of good food. Through word of mouth recommendations and a little bit of exploration, we discovered that there are actually several decent restaurants that can serve up a satisfying lunch.

A New Good Place for Lunch

The Little Spoon deserves some mention because it serves the best pizza I've tasted in Algeria so far. In fact, only go there for the pizza because the rest of the menu don't exactly live up to expectations.

The interior of the very small restaurant is fashioned like an Arabic tent, which, at first glance, seems cozy and lush. After staying a while, I noticed that the rest of restaurant furniture don't go along with this theme.

We were four so we ordered two Royale pizza (recommended) to share. We had a choice of beef (viande hachee) and chicken (poulet).

The pizzas look ordinary enough but I think the secret is in the freshness and choice of ingredients used. For example, the stuffed crust was filled with very special soft and light cheese that went very with the rest of the pizza.

Getting to the Little Spoon is like getting anywhere in Algiers. It is more convient to access by car and it took a few trial and errors. There's no easy landmark nor a proper street directory guide here so one has to rely on the locals, although they may not always be sure.

LITTLE SPOON
CJSTW (Lot Mimosa) No. 38
Ben Aknoun Algiers
Mobile: +213 (0) 51 143 506

Singapore National Day

2007-08-09T13:45:00.001+03:00

HAPPY 42nd BIRTHDAY, SINGAPORE !

This is my second time I spend National Holiday overseas.

Does it matter?

Yes, it very much matters to ME to be away from my homeland, my country, Singapore on National Day, thank you very much!

Why, because of the simple fact that it is a public holiday back in Singapore but I have to work today!

I was telling deepsix that life is so boring here (work, work, work and work) that I'm actually excited about watching the web livecast of the National Day Parade (NDP) at Marina Bay in the office in about few hours time (It's GMT+1 here). Hopefully, my colleagues of other nationalities will cut me some slack, but hey, it's a day for Singaporeans right?

That's if the connection to the web livecast is successful. From my last year's experience, it was difficult to connect to the web livecast in Algeria because of the low technological infrastructure of the IT department in my office here.

In situations like this, it really puts one's patriotism to the test - how much effort do I wish to expand in order to watch the NDP live and express my fervor as a Singaporean. Based on last year's experience, I discovered that I'm not even close.

But I do hope that this year, the connection will be better. There seems to be a lot of hype put in to this year's NDP. For the first time, the parade will be held away from the traditional site, the National Stadium, as it has been closed for a few years of renovation. This year, Marina Bay is the location of the NDP. A floating platform, offering 27,000 seating capacity, was build along the waterfront for people to watch the parade.

To further "engage and entertain Singaporeans, from the young to the young at heart", claims the official website, the emphasis has been shifted from National Day Parade to National Day Festival, signifying that the celebrations will move beyond a single day.

If you are in Singapore, you can find the list of the activities tied to the National Day Festival here. If you have excellent internet connection, you can catch the live webcast from the official site (http://www.ndp.org.sg/)

As for me, I just hope that I'm able to catch some fireworks online this time round.

The following are some pictures from the rehearsal, gleaned from the official site.

F-16s performing a Flypast over the floating parade

Best military unit of the year - Commandoes performing Guard of Honour duty. That's what you get for being the best: burnt weekends rehearsing at the parade grounds.

The lightning strikes everywhere: Nowhere to run...

Like I said, life is so boring here, I have nothing better to do...

UPDATE (11/08/07):
The internet connection between first world and third world was really lousy, therefore, I wasn't able to watch the NDP live webcast successfully.

Watermelon Season

2007-07-27T15:37:00.001+03:00

Watermelons on sale at our grocer at Cheraga.

Choosing from the bottom of the pile was a big mistake. The entire pile toppled. Some watermelons bounced all over the place and hit the parked cars besides. Some watermelons were smashed opened. It was a total disaster.
The culprit (facing camera). The store owner was kind enough for not asking us to pay for the damaged goods. It pays to be a familiar customer.

Finally, we only bought 2 good ones. As usual of watermelons here, they were big, juicy and sweet.

Congratulations To Jackson

2007-07-22T13:32:00.001+03:00

I'm happy to announce here that Jackson has won a place in the Star Search Singapore 2007 final 20 contestants. That is no small feat considering having to beat 1,500 applicants from Singapore, Malaysia, Taiwan and China.

Jack, once again, All The Best!....

Actually, I learnt about it when we met in Singapore last month (I blogged it here) but I was sworn to secrecy until the official announcement in the media. Dude, I am capable of keeping secrets after all.

Do kindly throw my friend your support, especially if you are my friend and you are from Singapore. Visit here to discuss about Jackson on the MediaCorp forum.

Media Coverage so far....

In English

The Almost-A-Chippendale
Name: Tan Sia Chong Jackson
From: Singapore
Looks like: Taiwanese actor/singer/host Zhang Shanwei
Age: 23
Occupation: Student at Singapore Management University, Economics
Iron Man factor: Timing for his second Osim triathlon (1.5km swim; 10km run; 40km biking) in 2005 was two hours and 35 minutes and was ranked 21 out of 63 participants.

Jackson would be great prancing around in children programmes like his Taiwanese half if it wasn’t for his hulking V-shape build, no doubt a trophy from his participation in triathlons. In an Ally McBeal moment, I could almost see the buttons of his shirt giving up its valiant struggle to keep his tanned chest covered and doing a Chippendale in front of me. Yay!

In Chinese

翻版张耀扬
陈侠中 Tan Sia Chong Jackson
23岁大学毕业来自新加坡
陈侠中身高181公分，身材魁梧、肤色黝黑，是最壮最man的参赛者。乍看之下，发现他长得和香港型男张耀扬很像。他自2004年开始参加三项铁人赛、脚踏车比赛。陈侠中说自己非常向往娱乐圈光芒四射的日子，曾经有星探邀他当模特儿，他拒绝了，理由是：那个世界太“奢华”了。陈侠中外型非常“熟男”，好在他的个性随和，容易融入大伙话题，不至于显得格格不入。

Back In Algiers

2007-07-22T10:35:00.002+03:00

I've returned to Algiers with my stash of goodies from Singapore. Bye to leftover lunchbox dinners...

My stash of ready to cook meals

---------------------------------------

BBQ at Turkish colleague's place at his Cheraga apartment.

Sleep

2007-07-21T10:48:00.001+03:00

Dinner conversation with colleagues at our hotel in Casablanca.

A (58 years old): How to sleep 6 hours without waking up?

B (60 years old): Impossible! The most I can sleep is straight 5 hours without waking, especially after drinking. I set my alarm everyday but I always manage to beat the clock in getting up.

A : Yes, yes ... usually I'm up, looking at the alarm and waiting for the it to go off.

Sencha (gasps incredulously) : Wow... And I'm complaining that I have difficulties waking up every morning.

B : You are still young. As you grow older you start to require less sleep.

Sencha (thought) : Darn! I don't wanna grow old....

Mental note to self, start enjoying my full night's sleep for as much as I can before I grow old.

Dinner - Oeuf Benedictine

Bureaucracy: The Joke Is On Us

2007-07-13T14:30:00.001+03:00

Happy Friday the 13th!

It's all quiet on the Moroccan front lately as the summer holidays are here and some of the staff are on vacation. I will be conducting a training for them in a couple of days time and I'm confident that the attendance rate will not be as planned because of the vacation season. Can their HR people plan better in advance?!!

I was reading this Singaporean blog and found out about a sad story related to bureaucracy.

In the story, a woman passed away due to massive loss of blood after childbirth. Unfortunately, the hosipital was obstinate in upholding its blood use policy of 'use 1 replendish 1', and refused to provide more blood for the woman's treatment, resulting in her death. According to the deceased's husband, it was explained that authorizing the use of more blood for her treatment was subjected to approval by more higher layers in the administrative structure. Usually, this kind of gesture requires time which a dying patient don't have. (You can watch the report on youtube here).

Has that hospital person-in-charge in question considered the purpose of the hospital before refusing to commit more blood? I believe that every hospital in the universe puts preserving lives somewhere in their mission statement. Therefore if that purpose was to preserve lives, shouldn't the hospital went ahead and provide what is necessary to preserve the dying woman's life? Perhaps I'm wrong, the purpose of that hospital was to watch their blood inventory level.

Shouldn't there also be a kind of a quick communication process up the bureaucratic chain whereby critical decision could be made for emergency cases? If the person-in-charge is afraid of making the decision, somebody at the top could be informed and could make a quick judgement call to release the use of blood . The hospital can worry about the blood inventory level later by mobilizing the public to donate in order to replendish the inventory. In my opinion, this kind of emergency don't happen everyday so there should not be a frequent break of policy.

But perhaps hospitals are so accustomed to dealing with life and death situation on a daily basis that nothing is out of the ordinary. The person-in-charge probably thought like this:

We just followed procedures so everything should be fine. Too bad that sometimes people die but hey, it's a given 50/50 right? The patient just didn't respond positively to our efforts as expected. Anyway, we tried, so good job, let's give ourselves a pat on the back and go grab a beer.

Much as I dislike bureaucracy especially red-tape, in the modern society, we simply cannot live without a bureacracratic structure to handle the needs of the masses in a professional and efficient way.

But I'm afraid that if the incident becomes more prevalent, then our society is approaching the day when we have bureaucrats that Max Weber dubbed "specialist without spirit, sensualist without heart". Believe you me that I really dread the day when Singapore becomes a society without bureaucratic flexibility.

We are facing so much of bureaucratic inflexibility in the countries where we are working. It really irks me that no matter how inefficient and incapable these people-in-charge are, I cannot do anything about them because they are preserved behind official positions and layers of rules (sometimes unstated and probably made up impromptu ... you sons of bitches!) and so can do no wrong.

Red-tape is the name of the game here. In Morocco, a colleague took almost 3 months to get a visa application approved when it should have taken 2 working days. For my Lebanese residential permit, there are simply too much layers of in the approval process that I get thrown from departments to departments for one fucking piece of crappy looking paper. More often than not, we received no explanation about delays and processes but instead all we get is the "take it or leave it" attitude.

Veronica Mars, I'm Loving It!

2007-07-12T12:37:00.001+03:00

Just finished watching Veronica Mars season 2. Did I ever mentioned that I love this show? As Josh Whedon (Buffy and Firefly) puts it, Best. Show. Ever.

For the uninitiated, the series follow the ups and downs in the life of Veronica Mars, the title character played by Kristen Bell, who is part student and part super-slueth. The series basically maintains a good balance of elements like high school and college drama, social divide problems, murder-who-dun-it, romance, off-beat humour and witty dialogue. Now, if that's not good TV, then what is that? (Read also Deepsixed's blog entry about how much she likes this show too)

Recently, I'm becoming a fan of the hardboiled, gritty and chivalric gumshoe like Harry Dresden and Jack Reacher. And it was refreshing to see a young and cute female Veronica Mars fits into this kind of typically masculine role. I also found the witty dialogue, complex story arcs and plot twists as strong points of the show. The series had received good reviews from Kevin Smith (Clerks, Dogma), Stephen King and others.

Jackson: I don't care what people say about you, Veronica Mars. You rock!
Veronica: Yes, I do. I also take cash.

Anyway, I'm one season short of completing the VM franchise, since it has been confirmed that the show has been cancelled after the season 3 by the network after suffering at the ratings, despite critical acclaim. I can't wait to get my hands on the last season so that I can continue to root for the hot couple, Logan and Veronica.

Uber-intelligent, witty and cute Veronica solves murder mysteries like a walk in the park

...but can she spell?

For now, it is the beginning of a new struggle between a good night's sleep and starting a new TV series. This time, it is about intergalactic dog-fights, high tech battle cruisers manuvres, saving the humankind and women in uniform....ooooh I like Battlestar Galactica already...=)

Back To Singapore - 25 June ~ 1 July (Part 2)

2007-07-10T19:31:00.001+03:00

Here's the rest of my exploits during my Singapore visit, blogged after I arrived in Casablanca.

Lunch with Benson

Benson: How's your living condition over there in Africa?
Sencha: It's not that fantastic. Living standards are pretty low.
Benson: Of cos lah! That's why they ask you to go, if it is that good, they ask ang mo to go liao.
Sencha: Brudder, you are the man!

Brudder, thank's very much for Battlestar Galatica and Lost series.

Krispy Kreme @ Xinyi's (it was flown in fresh from Sydney)

I is missing durians Catching up with good ol' friends...Ces't la vie

Mom's cooking...the best!

Baking diva, Socks, Sherrie and gang, great meeting up with all of you over at New York, New York!

Back To Singapore - 25 June ~ 1 July (Part 1)

2007-06-28T19:42:00.001+03:00

Yipee! It feels good to be back.

But my week in Singapore is flying by fast. Today is already the second last day and I haven't met up with many friends yet. My schedule has been really really tight and I try to prioritize my time for personal errands and family.

So if I missed catchng up with you, please accept my thousand apologies.

The climate in Singapore is soooooooooo humid that I try to shower twice a day. North African's climate should be just as hot now but not humid. Humid aside, it is a nice feeling to be back from dusty Africa.

Monday
- Arrived late in the afternoon. My family was gathered at my sister's place in Farrer Park. I tried to take the MRT there but it's difficult to move around with a big lugguage. I made it as far as Bugis MRT and decided to take a cab from there.

Tuesday
- Had lunch with Xinyi's dad at Turf city. Got a delicious Indian bryani rice treat!!!
- Enjoyed playing with my nephews, Lucus (9) and Angus (0.5)

Angus

Lucus

- Shopping at Mustafa Shopping Center. My colleagues gave me a big list of vitamins and health food to buy for them.

Wednesday

- Hangout day with Jack. Saw Darwin's Nightmare which was a movie about the ecological disaster in some African country with a forgettable name. I'm still wondering why we chose to watch this movie and not a more entertaining one. It turned to be a very good but serious film. But, Oh Boy...talk about Africa again...

- We had our dinner at Botak Jones in Toa Payoh. Here are the photos:

Entree...Fried Stuffed Jalapenos

Viande...Grilled Rib Eye 200gms

Cafe....Iced Coffee (You can't find it anywhere in N. Africa! *shock*)

Jack, trying to eat a fork.

Dude, best of luck for what is to come!

Thursday

- Busiest day of all. A lot of personal errands to do...including:

Buying TOTO to win the 3 million jackpot! Mental note to self, if I struck TOTO, immediately purchase air ticket to return to Singapore AGAIN next month. DO NOT FORGET to SNEER at workaholic colleagues!

Get International Driving License. It cost only $20 to apply for one. Mental note to self, DO NOT FORGET to SNEER at colleagues who paid USD100.

Tze Xiang, nice seeing you at the MRT station. Unfortunately we couldn't linger to catch up.

- Dinner at the Sun with Moon Japanese Dinning and Cafe with family! it is quite a nice place located in The Central at Clarke Quay. Check out the pics...

Some of the appertizers:

Ebi Ten Roll (Prawn Roll)

Salmon & Potato Salade

Ton Toro Yaki (Grilled Pork Cheek) I fucking miss eating pork!!!

My order: Yakiniku Kamameshi (Isn't it an upscaled Yoshi Gyu don?)

Dessert: Sweet Box 4 in One (... and all for love =P)

Flying Back To Singapore - 24 June

2007-06-25T12:00:00.001+03:00

The east bound flight from Casablanca via Dubai to Singapore could be described as a progressive upgrade in the modern retailing experience.

Casablanca's Mohammed V airport, inferior even to the Algerian airport, occupies the lowest end of the spectrum. It seriously lacks a nice and comforting retailing environment. For a tourist country, its airport is unhygenic and inefficient.

Dubai International Airport occupies the more developed end of the spectrum. Its duty free stores carries products that appeal to people that the airport receives. On one hand, there are branded items for the business class travellers. On the other hand, there are no lack of electronic goods and indigenous souvenirs for the ordinary tourists. When I'm there, I'm always tempted to find something to buy.

In my consideration, Singapore Changi Airport is even one rung above Dubai's airport in the retail experience. There are so much more amenities to be found besides the shops I thought amenities like the nature garden, kid's playground and movie areas really caters to the passengers' varied tastes while in transit.

There's also free broadband access which is a good way to lure in potential customers too. Otherwise how can you explain why Samsung and Sharp want to place many laptops around the terminals for free use by the passengers? Subtle marketing?

Algiers To Casablanca - 22 June

2007-06-23T19:22:00.001+03:00

Normally, I don't enjoy visiting Casablanca because it's so darn hot there. But this trip was an exception. I will be leaving for Singapore via Casablanca.

On a different note, I don't own any cats but I'm sure cat lovers will agree that they do the darnest things right?

Saw this cat at the Algerian airport while waiting for my departure. I took a picture of it washing it's face at a mini fountain outside a duty-free shop IN THE MIDDLE of the airport waiting lounge.

Looks like it just woke from a good night sleep and was trying to freshen up. Perhaps it owns the place. Xinyi pointed out that the cat is sporting a square top. How it got past airport security was beyond me.

After landing in Casablanca, my colleague and I decided to follow through with our rightful return to "civilization" by heading to MacDonalds. (MacDonalds is still not available in Algeria). We bought the latest promotion burger known as the Big Tasty.

After tasting, I want to change the name to Only So So Big and Tasty.

Dîner Au Restaurant Bon Gerbil

2007-06-10T11:04:00.001+03:00

This is one of the few nicer restaurants in Algiers. It has a good ambience and serves mostly French food with a little bit of local twist. We visit this place occasionally when we have guests. I remember being invited here for my first dinner after coming to Algeria.

Entrance

Some of our visitors from our trading company in Japan with Algerian local staff.

Cozy Interior

Selection of French and Algerian wines

Fireplace for winter season

Al Fresco Dining Area

The restaurant was almost empty when we arrive for dinner (7pm) because Algeria normal dinner time starts after 8.

Al Fresco dining in Spring time

Mixed salade: Octopus, shrimps, lettuce and springrolls

Entrecote: My dinner.

French courses are so slow, by the time my steak arrived, it was already dark...

Listomania - Top 10 MP3s

2007-06-05T13:43:00.001+03:00

Here's a list of current top 10 favourite songs that get me through the day, in no order of preference.

1. Never Let Me Down Again - Depeche Mode
Blast from the past. This is one of my favourite DM songs and DM being one of my favourite bands.

2. Bullet With Butterfly Wings - Smashing Pumpkins
Never did gave much attention to SP until now. This song is a classic with SP fans. Heard that Billy Corgan is reviving the SP vehicle this year.

3. In My Life - Beatles
See above comments for SP. I honestly didn't know that Beatles were this good. A meangingful song.

4. Ava Adore - Smashing Pumpkins
It's this song that I adore...

5. Chasing Cars - Snow Patrol
Made me wanna watch Grey's Anatomy.

6. We Used To Be Friends - The Dandy Warhols
Neo noir high school detective series Veronica Mars theme song. Very nice upbeat and revamp of 80s synthrock style.

7. 君の好きなとこ - 平井堅
この曲が気に入る

8. Girlfriend - Avril Lavigne
I don't know about you but I just enjoy this catchy tune and naughty lyrics alot.

9. 我真的以为 - 张栋梁
虽然没有觉得很好听，不过觉得容易唱. 可惜这里没有KTV.

10. 夜空のムコウ - SMAP
SMAP didn't do it justice because some members have poor vocals but nevertheless still quite a nice song to listen to.

Having a a good selection of music to accompany me during the day can entirely uplift the mood of an otherwise mudane workday. So what are your top 10 song choices to get you through the day?

Tensions in Lebanon Again

2007-05-22T09:36:00.000+03:00

It feels surreal to know that violence and bloodshed are happening nearby but yet I am completely ignorant until I learn about them much later.

I didn't know that fighting has started between Lebanese security forces and militants sympathetic to Al Queada in Tripoli, north of Beirut, until I read the CNN a day later. 27 soldiers and 10 militants were killed in the attack. It seems to me that those poor Lebanese boys doing national service never stood a chance against the well trained Islamic extremists.

Neither did I know about the bomb that went off in Beirut on Sunday until I spoke to a staff in my hotel.

"Did you hear about what happened in Ashrafieh last night?"

"What happened?"

"Some bomb went off at ABC"

"Wow, I was just there one day ago!!! Anybody got injured?"

"A women died."

"Wow! That's terrible. Was she nearby?"

"She was sleeping in her bed when the wall came down on her"

"Two guys from Emirates, staying in this hotel were injured also, do you know them?"

"Nope"

"One guy got a cut from a stone on his head. Another guy had his ear injured."

"Are they going to be Ok?"

"I think not so serious. Be careful, don't go out at night, if you can, stay in the hotel."

The same night, another bomb exploded in Verdun, an upscale shopping area I visited several times.

"Did you hear the explosion yesterday night?" A colleague was asking this morning? We are both staying in Hamra, which is near to Verdun. I didn't. I was eating dinner at the Hard Rock Cafe, a good distance away from Hamra.

I remembered taking a nice stroll after dinner along the beach and Bliss street before returning to the hotel. It was still difficult to imagine that just a few streets across, firemen were trying to put out fires from the explosion.

"Be careful." The same colleague said before ending our chat. Hmmm... how to be careful? I don't think I'm able to spot a car bomb anywhere.

Cleanup after Beirut blast (Source: CNN)

Movie Etiquette In Beirut Theatres

2007-05-15T17:17:00.002+03:00

I watched Spiderman 3 at Verdun Dunes cineplex last Saturday. The movie was a good sequel to the previous spiderman movies as it had some interesting plot and character development to offer. However, I'm not going to review the movie here, instead, I want to comment on the behaviour of movie goers in Lebanon, especially at Verdun Dunes and Hamra Concorde cineplexes...

Movies like Spiderman, X-Men and Harry Potter are not children movies! Parents, please do not overestimate the attention span of your children and think that they can sit still for an entire movie. When you let them watch movies beyond their league, they become restless.

Restless children in the cinema don't behave, they started to draw unwanted attention to themselves through:

crying
talking to other movie goers
running about
standing on front row chairs and start WAVING at the rest of the audience!!!

Contrary to what parents may believe, your children stop being cute at these moments. Also contrary to what parents may believe, letting your children disturb other movie goers is not socially accepted behavior in civilized countries.

The theatre is not a country club. Do not come to the theatre if:

you seemingly don't understand English, and,
you prefer to chat and joke with your friends;
you want to engage in an sms message conversaton with someone

Instead, save your hardearned 9,000 LL (SGD $9.00) and go somewhere else for coffee and snacks with friends.

When somebody shush you, it means he/she wants you to be quiet. Do not shush back and start a shushing chorus with your friends and subsequently involving half the audience. Perhaps you may not easily comprehend but people are actually there to watch a movie.

A movie is not the same as a play or musical. Movie goers do not have to clap:

when the movie opens,
everytime the hero vanquishes the villain,
when the credits roll

Do not catcall or jeer at the screen everytime an intimate scene comes up. Keep your sexual insecurities to yourselves.

Having said that, I would like to add that movie going has been the most enjoyable experience at Empire ABC at Ashrafieh. The theatres seats are comfortable and well positioned to ensure a good view of the screen. And, most important of it all, a well behaved audience.

Moroccan Business Communication 101

2007-05-10T15:35:00.000+03:00

I got this information from Yudabong. The University of Iowa's Business Communication Program website keeps an international communication etiquette resource that provides how-to information for meeting people from different nationalities. Read Yudabong's blog entry about communication etiquettes with Singaporeans here.

Working in the MENA region, I am interested to know what are some of the common etiquettes which I may not be aware of. I was able to find something for Morocco but not Algeria or Lebanon. Here are the some of the ones on Morocco I found interesting:

When Moroccans greet each other they take their time and converse about their families, friends, and other general topics.
Yeah, I'm familiar with that. I usually get asked how was my flight 32 times everyday after my arrival to Morocco.

Who you know is more important than what you know, so it is important to network and cultivate a number of contacts who may then assist you in working your way through the serpentine bureaucracy.
Right on! Things never get done if you follow the rules.

Once a relationship has developed, it is common to kiss on both cheeks, starting with the left cheek while shaking hands, men with men and women with women.
Everyone seems to be kissing everyone, I'm confused.

In business it is extremely important to verify anything that has been agreed to in front of others as it may not have been a sincere agreement and the person may have no intention of following through.
Very true! They promise the sky but upon the deadline, they look the other way.

Since Moroccans judge people on appearances, dress and present yourself well.
Dress to kill!!! *Roarrrrrr*

Moroccans prefer to do business with those they know and respect, therefore expect to spend time making a personal relationship before business is conducted.
Whew, I wonder when this meeting will ever end?

It is best to avoid scheduling meetings during Ramadan since Muslims cannot eat or drink during the day.
Better yet, avoid scheduling work.

Companies are hierarchical. The highest ranking person makes decisions, but only after obtaining a group agreement.
False. With or without group agreement. As point 2 is true, most of the group don't know anything or say anything, the decision gets passed by the highest ranking person either way.

Eat and drink only with the right hand.
Right for input function, left for output function. Makes perfect sense.

Expect to be urged to take more food off the communal plate. Providing an abundance of food is a sign of hospitality.
Ordering food in excess amount is a sign of opulence.

Everything else can be found here

Living It Up In Beirut

2007-04-24T12:53:00.000+03:00

If life in Algiers is like season 1 of Prison Break, where all the action was cooped up in a restrained area, then my visit to Beirut is like season 2 of Prison Break - where the action just keeps getting better and I'm moving from places to places all the time. ...bear with me, I think I'm overdosed on Prison Break...

Anyway, I'd been back in Beirut for two weeks now. Beirut is my first whiff of freedom after months of being cooped up in Algeria with nothing to expect but work. This mediterranean city is constanting boasting of nice places to eat, shop, hang-out, club. It is full of vibrancy and life that one can only dream of while in Algeria.

They told me that Lebanon is still suffering from the unstable situation since last year. Downtown Beirut looks a bit quiet and deserted. But the bad situation didn't stop some business from running nor spoil my appetite for good Sharwarma. (Arabic skewered meat)

As expected, there are no lack of places to hangout in Beirut.

WATERMELON

Watermelon @ ABC Mall, Asharafieh was enjoying a full crowd when I visited with Xinyi. Nice thing about the restaurant? It's theme colors, menu and waiters' uniform changes according to the four seasons.

Their table mats have some liquid goo inside. They look so cool that I wish I could take one home to use as a mousepad. We were on diet and so we ordered some wings to share...

...and a salad, that's really big! (check out the depth of the bowl!)

PRAGUE

Located not on the European continent but in west Beirut, this little pub attracts a young crowd from the nearby American University of Beirut. Since me and my colleagues were staying nearby in Hamra, we like to pop by this pub after work for a dose of Almazar, a local beer, or their Nakad house wine.

er... camera 'buay' steady after 3 Almazars...haha...

City Mall

City Mall can be found 10mins out of Beirut by car at Dora (pronounced dow-rah). The first time I heard about this place I thought ... Big Deal ... sounds like my friendly neighbourhood Lot 1 kinda shopping mall, where you can see the quinessential aunties struggling over each other to dig out from the pile, the last remaining piece of maroon and green bedsheet going at $9.90.

It's not a big place compared to Takashimaya but big enough. Familiar labels like Springfield, Timberland and Nike can be found there. There's a huge Carrefour style supermarket, Geant Casino, to complete the store line-up. All in all, there several good reasons to go there to shop.

But now there's a better reason to go there after I learned that their 9 theaters cineplex has already opened for business. I've been starved of my fair share of going to the theaters when I'm in Algeria to the point of desperation. Maybe desperation is an understatement. The experience of going to the movies armed with a bucket of pop-corn (half buttered, half caramel please....) simply cannot be replaced by watching DVDs at home, unless your system is THX certified but mine isn't. Anyway, it's the big screen, big sound or nothing while I'm in Beirut...

Look ma! They also have big cineplexes in Lebanon!

Hard Rock Cafe

HRC promotes Open Wings Open Beer all-you-can-eat every monday nights. We went there on the monday night before the Labor Day public holiday, and saw the biggest crowd that I have ever seen.

I spent a really good time there with my colleagues that night. The music ranged from vintage rock anthems to latest dancey pop helped to spice up the party ambience. And I'm pretty sure the beer helped too...

Faraya

Faraya is a popular Ski resort in Lebanon for a good reason: European standards at a fraction of the price. But when we went to Faraya, it wasn't ski season anymore.

The snow was already melting. But we went up anyway to the InterContinental ski resort...

To enjoy tarts and hot chocolate...

Sadly, I couldn't find Bob, the snowman that I built when I came here last year. (I will miss you Bob~ )
But it was most definitely had been a very chillout trip for us...

Cooking Thai in Algiers (Mar '07)

2007-04-20T15:06:00.001+03:00

"Finger like that and you won't cut yourself..." Na Min said as he demonstrated the technique to slice garlic. Na Min is one of the 10 Thai mechanics working in our after sales service department in Algiers. Na Min is an unassuming and easygoing man of average height. He looks to be in his mid 40s and for that reason he is referred by the other Thais as 'Na', which means 'Uncle' as a form of respect. And also because he does a lot of cooking for them. He was also my Thai cooking teacher and he was obviously very amused by my inaptitude with the kitchen knife.

It all started much earlier when I made friends with the Thai mechanics here. Anyway, one thing led to another, they got to know that I love Thai food. As the common wisdom goes: teach a man how to fish, it will feed him for a lifetime, so about a month ago by chance, I got the opportunity to learn how to prepare some common Thai dishes from Na Min. The recipes weren't that difficult to follow but getting all the ingredients may be a challenge in Algeria. Some of the ingredients such as the spices for green curry and chilli were brought by the Thais during their vacation back home. That means I have to stock up on Thai ingredients during my next visit back to Singapore.

The first dish Na Min taught me was Gang Keao Wan Gai (Thai green curry with chicken).

I was much surprised and relieved that one of my favourite Thai food is quite easy to prepare.

The second dish was Pad Ka Pow Goong (Stir-fried prawns with chilli and basil)

I don't eat prawns but it is easy to substitute using chicken or other meats. Cooking with basil really enhance the smell!

Finally, I prepared Larb Gai (Stir-fried Chicken Salad)

Larb is also one of my favourite Thai food. It was also surprisingly easy to prepare. They say practice makes perfect and I'm willing to spend lots of time and effort to perfect this dish.

The Verdict: Satisfactory (7/10)
Under expert supervision I was able to cook a authentic and tasty meal, even though some of the ingredients used weren't indigenious Thai. The larb dish was my particular favourite because Na Min's recipe was unlike those that I have tasted.

Join The Army They Say...

2007-04-19T17:27:00.001+03:00

I am a trained riflemen.

Although I don't ever consider myself an expert in marksmanship and I'm also out of touch as well but I had received some pretty good training. Some of the things that you learned, you won't easily forget ... just like riding a bike or driving a car. If it comes to the crunch, training takes over and I think I can shoot pretty well.

I remembered marksmenship training to be tough. We were taught to shoot at stationery and moving targets from various positions and from different situations. I remembered seeing a lot of interesting reactions that came with people who are handling deadly weapons. But I had never seen this....

Wah lao...I am glad that there isn't this kind of bonding in my army.

Oh Baby Baby It's A Wild World

2007-04-19T16:29:00.001+03:00

Yes, indeed it is. Just take a look at the recent outbreaks of suicidal style killings in Algeria and Morocco, two countries that I happened to be in at the time coincidentally.

In Morocco, Casablanca April 10th, 3 suicide bombers wearing explosive belts blew themselves up in Casablanca killing a policeman and wounding others. A 4th bomber was gunned down by a police sniper before he had any chance of blowing himself up. (CNN source)

Then on April 11th, a suicide bomber killed 30 and wounded 200 or more when he detonated his car in downtown Algiers. Another bomb also killed 11 people when it went off near a police station. (CNN source)

A day after my arrival in Casablanca on Friday 13th, another two suicide bombers blew themselves up near the American Cultural Center. A third suspected bomber was arrested before he could blow himself up.

And not to mention many more similar terrorist acts around the world, especially Iraq and even in the US.

Why are these people so eager to take their lives and harm the lives of many other innocent people in the process? The common justification for such kinds of action is that the aged old idea of "good vs evil" sometimes with heavy religious overtones. The perpetuators rationalize themselves as the good guys who are fighting against something perceived as evil. However, I believe that any religion worth its salt will never condone any form of reckless killing no matter how noble the ideals maybe.

Incidently the issue reminded me of an espisode in the series Supernatural that I watched recently. In the episode, the spirit of a recently deceased pastor, due to a violent shooting, started to reappear to others as a holy vision. The spirit, believing that he had become God's avenging angel, started appealling as a vision to some 'low life' (a prostitute and an alcoholic), and offered them 'redemption' by taking the life of someone, whom the spirit knew had committed or is going to commit a grievous crime. At the end of the episode, the pastor's spirit, summoned by a séance performed by Sam Winchester, defended his actions and that he was acting upon the word of God, to strike down those who has sinned against humanity. Hearing that, the mentor of the dead pastor disagreed and said, "'Thou shall not kill!' THAT is the word of God!"

Turmoil in Algiers?

2007-04-11T18:15:00.001+03:00

Algeria made it on Strait Times Interactive today with a majoy league bad news that reads: 2 Algiers bombs kill 30, stoke security fears." According to another similar news article on sg.yahoo, it was the first time since the 1990s that the Algiers city center was targeted. The suicide bombing was targetted at the prime minister's headquarters. Hospital sources put the toll from the two bombings at 30. Earlier, the official APS news agency put the toll at 17 dead with 82 wounded. The main guerilla group, the Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat (GSPC), which has adopted a new name since January after it deepened its ties to al Qaeda, has since claimed responsibility. The group, now called the al Qaeda Organisation in the Islamic Maghreb, has been responsible for a number of deadly bombings targeting security forces and foreigners.

Darn!

Well at least the situation reported by the news is better than what I heard from the locals this morning. They told me there were five explosions altogether and 16 unexploded bombs discovered by the security forces. One of the explosion was just few kilometers near our office. Although there is no way of comfirming these hearsay but I believe that the locals are pretty fond of blowing things out of proportion (no pun intended).

It was widespread belief that that the islamic insurgency was a thing of the past after the issue of presidential amnesty for the insurgents (see my previous entry). Any occurences of violence are restricted to the mountainous regions while populated regions are heavily patrolled by security forces. Seems like this theory has been proven wrong.

But before everyone panics, it may be wise to look at the current situation objectively. According to the latest popular belief, the escalation of insurgent attacks is aimed at disrupting the coming general election in May. So everyone can expect a step-up in attacks from now until May. We just have to avoid public places in order to be safe. All in all, Algeria is still a safe place given the low statistics of attack occurences compared to the large numbers of foreigners here.

Does knowing this help? Hell, no. Our group of expatriates has to commute from our guest apartment to the office daily through congested and narrow city streets for about 20 - 40 mins, depending on traffic conditions, in a big Hiace passenger van. We are going to be sitting ducks vulnerable to road side bombs or sidewalk gun fire attacks if we are being targeted. Am I being paranoid? I don't think so, there had been one such attack on expatriates of an American company last year and a similar incident on a Russian company bus last month. While the situation is not totally FUBAR but it will be something to think about on the daily commute.

Man, life in Algiers is getting more interesting!

久しぶりにJAPAN ~ (Part 2) Japanese Food

2007-03-12T12:05:00.001+02:00

I'm doing belated posts again. Working on a tight schedule in Japan had kept me busy and after arriving in Morocco, the inefficient IT at the local office thwarted my plans to blog.

When it comes to food, Japanese and Thai food take the cake. Singaporean and Malayan food only come up in second place. The reasons for my preference of Japanese food? The freshness of the ingredients-used and the simplicity of it's cooking. Like most Asians, I like soya-based (shouyu & miso) flavouring in foods. On top of it, the way Japanese foods are presented is so pleasing to the eye, so what's not to like? Lastly, the Japanese are specialists in cooking fish and they are probably even better than the Chinese. By the way, the Algerian and Moroccan ways of cooking fish leave a GREAT DEAL to be desired (Often a waste of good fish!!!)

Unlike my previous trips to Japan, which were almost exclusively in Tokyo, this time I had the opportunity to spend most of my time in Nagoya and also made a slight detour to Fukuoka and Kyoto. Of course, I didn't disappoint myself by sampling a lot of the local delicacies along the way.

When I'm in the middle east, I missed most ramen cooked in thick pork broth (tonkotsu). The one I had in the picture wasn't tonkotsu but miso based.

Japan beef (wagyu) has a marbled texture due to a well-balanced distribution of fats in the meat. I heard that wagyu are fed beer, good grains and they undergo regular massages for their meat to achieve such a texture. The most famous beef brands in Japan are Matsusaka, Kobe, Omi and perhaps others. Among the best Japanese beef, I've tried Matsusaka beef during my previous trips. On this trip, I again had good luck. The chef in the picture is preparing my Omi beef teppanyaki. Hopefully in the future, I can try Kobe beef.

After eating so much meat during my trip, it was a nice change to have something light and yet tasty. The picture shows a Yu Dofu course that I took in Kyoto. Kyoto cuisines (kyoryori) are known for their refined nature and I think tofu has an excellent and refined taste. Yu dofu literally means tofu cooked in a pot of hot water (yu). The entire course contained no meat but is made up of tofu and other vegetables cooked in different style. Very refreshing and healthy.

One of my Japanese director kindly allowed us a short stay at his home in Tajimi (Gifu prefecture). Although he wasn't on the trip, his wife and daugthers hosted us. I'm always eager to experience living in a Japanese traditional home but unfortunately, I never had the chance to participate in any homestay activities when I was still a student. The Tsuzuki family invited us to a simple but very special and delicious dinner of handmade sushi, salad, eggplant and miso soup (photo). Although the stay was short, it was very memorable. The hospitality and kindness of the Tsuzuki family best reflected the "guest-first" mentality of the Japanese Way.

This was my last meal in Japan before leaving for the airport. Mrs. Tsuzuki invited us to a meal at Yamachan's 幻の手羽先, which is known for making good tebasaki (chicken wings). Tebasaki is one of the specialty foods for Nagoya so it was sacrilegious if I didn't eat it before leaving Japan. I found tebasaki to be moderately nice but discoverd another of Nagoya's speciality "とて煮" (toteni)[bottom-right in picture] to be so much more delicious. I've now acquired a craving for this dish, which is made with miso boiled pork "spare parts" and served with rice.

I am definitely going to miss the food in Japan a lot!

久しぶりにJAPAN~ (Part 1)

2007-02-26T17:11:00.000+02:00

I'm now in Japan on business trip. It's been a week since my arrival to Japan and I'm still in awe with Japan even after the 7th visit. However, it's only my 2nd visit to Nagoya and I'm beginning to feel that I enjoy this fourth largest Japanese city more than Tokyo. At least, it is not as crowded as Tokyo.

The past week had been the first leg of my trip in which I participated in a TWSM program to learn more about the Toyota Way history and philosophy. It was an enriching and deeply inspiration experience to learn about the men and their values that helped propel a small weaving company into the world's no. 2 automobile maker in just over 70 years. (For the interested, you can get the same information online: http://www.toyota.co.jp/en/history/index.html ; http://www.toyota.co.jp/en/vision/traditions/)

Starting this week, it'll just be meetings after meetings. But hey, I'm still in Japan, I can't complain.

Anyway, I'm going to put in more entries about my Japan trip later. Suffice to say, I'm having a great time so far. Well not 100% enjoyable. Just look at some of the food I have to endure:

Or do they mean "herbs"?