Sunday, December 14, 2008

emmasen 111






































13Dec08
- Praise JESUS, His wisdom enabled me to hand in my 2nd assignment last night, after dinner fellowship.
- I cooked - praise ABBA, independently! - chicken in red curry gravy, with onions, tomatoes and potatoes!
- So, I decided to make a day visit to Maastricht, the southern most town of Netherlands
- Made a very early setting out, at minus 1degC, for the 7:30am train and reached Maastricht at 9am.
- I noticed that even the train can be very packed, and old people are lingering by the aisle, seated passengers can have their bags in the empty seat and not bothered at all. If you need the seat, open your mouth. Then they will remove their bags. You can see a pix here.
- Some interesting things I saw: Fleamart, Boat Motels, Old Castle Towers and Walls dating back to 13th Century, the Modern Bridge, the Old Bridge, St. Petersburg Cathedral, frost on leaves, Town Square unused Water Pump (Zimbabwe is facing cholera outbreak now, in the London cholera epidemic in 1854, Dr John Snow forensically traced the source to the excrement contaminated town square water pump on Broad Street), Old Buildings, the Maastricht Winterland Fair.
- Oh, it was just an ocean of people at the fair: carousel, ferris wheel (I took a ride at E$4), dinosaur park ride, food (I had goulash soup, then braadworst - huge sausage with onions and mustard), iceskating, etc.
- I had taste of hot Gluhwein - Austria-Belgium-Germany origin type of wine with aromatics such as lemon, orange and herbs, served piping hot. Oh, it was nice at 2degC in the streets, with a biting wind.

Friday, December 12, 2008

emmasen 110


12Dec08
Saw a symbolic car license plate just now: GG JT 83
GG can be GOD's Grace
JT can be Jeen Tiang (my nephews and nieces address me by my Chinese name, Voon-Cheng, and Cheng is Jing in Mandarin, so after some time, they just call me Jing Aunty)
I'm not superstitious, so 83 doesn't mean anything except that my flat at Ang Mo Kio is bordered by Avenues 8 and 3.
I'll show you the picture if one day I come across a VC license plate.

Thursday, December 11, 2008

emmasen 109





11Dec08
It's late autumn, winter will start, I heard, on 20Dec.
Many trees have already shed their leaves.
Some of them, like this one here, then exposes the birds' nests that had been built in them.

Wednesday, December 10, 2008

emmasen 108




10Dec08
Jackaline showed me how to make pancakes: 3 eggs, sugar, flour, milk, and pinch of salt. Amounts of ingredients is perfected from experience, therefore no recipe measurements. How much batter one pours into the pan, how fast one twirls the batter around, and how one flips the pancake are skills honed by experience too. She gave me a passing mark - not too bad for a 1st attempt. Imagine, making pancakes for the first time in my life. Well, everything has a start, and every start has a season. And every season is in my ABBA's loving hand.

emmasen 107







9Dec08
Near Stappegoorweg, the road of my campus accomodation, there is a cul-de-sac of new homes. Beautifully lighted up for Christmas!

emmasen 106


8Dec08
First visit to the post office, managed by TNT.

Monday, December 8, 2008

emmasen 105
































7Dec08
- What a sunny and beautiful Sunday - praise ABBA.
- After listening to Pastor Prince's sermon online, I walked out to a botanical nursery "Intratuin" just round the corner of our flats
- Lovely place! Theme: Winter Festival
- Lots of flora and decorations
- Live caroling and a live Santa
- Cute bird-houses
- Saw how they truss up christmas trees for delivery
- Captivated by Winter Wonderland miniatures and nativity scenes!
- Santa on a motorbike
- Santa on the moon
- Snowman with christmas tree
- A completely inverted dinner table hanging in mid-air
- Moving polar bears and huskies
- An aquarium with terrapins
- Before I left, I picked up a pine twig and Intratuin's DIY push-out christmas tree decoration card
- Back in my flat, I put the aromatic pine twig into a wine bottle - and viola! An instant Christmas Tree!
- Merry Christmas, every day!
- JESUS is The Reason for the Season
- GOD bless you.