We decided to visit “Keukenhof” today. Sunny never seen it which actually is no surprise, but I have never been there either and I’ve been living here for 36 odd years. We went early in the morning and to our surprise the parking lot only had six cars there and in the park you could wander around without seeing anybody. Did that change in the time we where there until we left, by that time it was crowdy. So one piece of advice, go early…. It allows you too make very nice pictures. And we shot plenty.

Now there is a title…… But would you be surprised that I actually did see it? I was on my way to work when I passed a wooden contraption on a barge which indeed looked similar to what we see as Noah’s Ark. It seems that one of my fellow countrymen has been quite busy building the thing and putting it on display in different cities. The last being the cause I saw it as it was transported to yet another city in the Netherlands. This little endeavor has it’s own website which can be found at http://www.arkvannoach.com. It will also tell where to look for it or if it will come in your neighbourhood. Maybe if it’s close by enough I will take a look at it. It seems the bible history relating to this particular story is depicted in the vessel itself. Might be interesting to see.

It will become a bit quieter on Office Communicator as all Chinese colleagues aren’t in the office for a week celebrating their Spring Festival. Happy new year to all of you and also other Chinese friends and not too forget, Sunny ofcourse. By the time Spring Festival ends I should be back, but from the US all the best in the year of the Rat. This puts an end on my year was born a pig about 36 years ago or so. A week from now I should be on my way back to Holland, it seems the weather will improve as it rained a lot so far so I hope to enjoy some sunshine during my stay here. In Holland two other migrations await and next to those four other ones in different locations just not sure which location comes first, that will depend on priorities not set yet.

… A very intersting look on the world of people suddenly vanished from the Earth. It was broadcasted on the History Channel in the US. I have no idea if it was broadcasted in Europe as well as I’m not there at the moment. Life after people simply looks at how all our achievements would decay as we do no longer maintain them. Takes about a thousand years for nature to erase just about everything humanity stands for. It looks like both the Great Wall of China and the Great pyramid of Giza will outlive most of the modern marvels. If you have a chance, watch the show. Something in the same line is BBC’s End Day. However this shows six possibilities on how the earth will end. According to some sources, in the US the supervulcano was left out, most likely because lava was flowing through Washington DC, however New York being flooded didn’t seem to be a problem. The part dealing with strange matter I find less likely and looked more like something from a science fiction novel, however I must admit that I’ve got no idea on it’s current developments.

The Russians launched their very first satellite ‘Sputnik‘ and with that started what is commonly known as the ‘Space Race‘ between them and the USA. This finally ended with the USA going to the moon a couple of times. After that it became more scientific and less about prestige. And now the eyes are trained on the moon again by more then one nation so it starts to look like a new ‘Space Race’ is about the emerge, who knows. I just hope I can go to moon one day as a tourist and maybe even further. Being a die hard Science Fiction fan this is easily explained of course, even though the moon will be a dull barren place with only it’s low gravity being a sensation (in bumping ones head against the ceiling that is). In the end we as species need to get off this rock (being Earth) as in the end it will stop supporting us, either naturally or by our own wrong doing. But imagine this, as one reporter on BBC World said, the Chinese picking up the American flag from Tranquility Base (Apollo 11 landing site) and selling it on Ebay…

… That is Seoul in the Korean language. I left during their Chuseok holiday as the office is closed. The visit was only a couple of days in which to see how the office was doing and to do a couple of upgrades on their IT infrastructure. My colleagues where nice enough to drag me with them for lunch and the occasional dinner. One hooray for the office ladies who made this my best visit yet. Especially the office administrator who gave up some of her time to have dinner with me and show me Insadong. Still a long way to go is understanding something of the language. Instead of knowing just one word, I now know two, wow!!!!!! On the one free day I had, I have been to Cheong Gye Cheon as it had been featured on the National Geographic Channel in one of their mega constuction programs. Went passed City Hall and found some kind of palace bearing the name Deoksugung after having some lunch first. Then I strolled back in the direction of Cheong Gye Cheon and using the Seoul Metro Map arranged by a colleague found my way above ground to Insadong again after wandering into Bosingak Bell Tower and Tapgol park. At that time my feet where hurting as I came to Seoul without any good walking shoes….. The next day it was time to catch my flight leaving from Incheon International Airport.

….. Sunny came to Holland, so today we are actually celebrating our two year anniversary of living together. This will most likely also be the last anniversary as it will be taken over by a more important date next year : Marriage. The chance of a three year anniversary is therefor slim, unless we do want to celebrate it or something. Upon entering the Chinese office I already got asked if I got married or not so it seems it’s quite important for the average Chinese girl. Chinese culture is different to my own if it comes to marriage, that is something I already noticed a long time ago, and my girlfriend does remind me of so every now and then. She will eventually win, but you have already came to that conclusion by the story above.

Or simply Amsterdam in English or Dutch. My girlfriend already asked a couple of times to see downtown Amsterdam. Finally I’ve buckled against the amount of stress caused by her to go there and so we did. Just criss-crossed around the city so she could look around at the Dam, along the concentric canals, the red-light district and of course China town. We also had a look at several famous buildings from our history. In a future visit she can make up her mind on which of those she wants to visit……