Finally, a break from all the busy-ness
I know that I should upload my pics on the last few days of my Germany trip. In fact, i've done so just that i have problem putting them up in blogger from photobucket. Thus, it shall be postponed. Hee.
Today, i mean yesterday morning was really hectic. My colleague went to Taiwan with his family and thus his customers and end users have been calling me non-stop in the mornings. Imagine from 830am till 1130am I have been either on my office phone or mobile one. Thank God, He brought me through the day although time really flew past. I managed to do quite a lot of work and of coz with the encouragement of my dear dear online. =)
Before I left office, I took about half an hour to delegate whatever work i have to my fellow colleagues so that they can help me out. I can't imagine on Monday and Tuesday whereby both my customer and my colleague's will be calling and sending enquiries (urgent ones) to be quoted and for orders to be delivered. I really pray for favour and unity in the company during those 2 days. Wednesday my colleague would be back in office and I'll be back in office on Friday.
In the evening before I went for cell, Doris ran out of the house when my dad opened the gate for me to drive the car out. I was "sian 1/2" coz it's not easy to catch her since now she is very active and strong. The last time she ran away, I took Doby to lure her back. Somehow dogs can communicate and signal the other dog to come back or something coz that time she ran back to us when she saw us near the dou huay shop. This time I wasn't so lucky. I walked the same route with Doby (the one where I bring them out for walk) for 3 rounds and no sight of Doris! My parents told me to leave Doby in the house and go for my gathering. My parents went for their weekly Tai Ji.
In my mind, i was telling God, it always have to have something happen when I'm going for God encountering camps. Does that mean I have to leave Singapore without knowing Doris's whereabouts? How about I don't go for cell and continue to search for Doris and probably I may find her and can then leave for church camp in peace? However, during that moment my dear dear called me and said that "no matter what I do, if Doris blur blur walk till lost, there's no way I can find her in this huge neighbourhood." I told God that during my last round of walk, if I can't find Doris, I shall honour You and go for cell and not let this situation hinder me from knowing You. I believe that You will even bless me back and I will find Doris when I go back from cell to search for her later on.
Guess what, just when cell ended, my dad called me and said that he found Doris at heartland mall outside. He carried her all the way back home. First thing that came to my mind, I was thanking God that indeed He is good! I believe my dad saw her before he went for his Tai Ji which should be around the time whereby I told God that I would go for cell and honour Him. He is really fast in replying my prayer! ;p After the good news set in, it dawned upon me that it should have been very tiring to carry her from heartland mall back home. My dad didn't bring the leash along and it would make matters worse if she struggled. How great is the fatherly love. My dad knew that I would not leave Singapore and have fun totally if Doris is out. Thus even though it would be really exhausting and definitely he'll get body pain carrying Doris the next day, he made sure he carried Doris all the way back home safely. I'm deeply touched by both my earthly and heavenly father's love. Thank you.
In 3 hours time, I will be leaving for bangkok to have my retreat. 2 days of shopping and eating at bangkok followed by 4 days of camp in Cha-am. I really hope that God will meet me in a special way and rejuvenate my body, my spirit and my passion there! Bangkok, here I come!
Germany Day 7 - part 3 pics
Germany Day 7 - part 2 pics
Germany Day 7 - part 1 pics
Germany Day 7-11
It's more than 2 weeks since I last updated where I left off. Haha. A bit lost of the memory already there. Actually I had more fond memories during the first half of the trip. Oops.
On Day 7, we had a city tour at Schwelm. It's a small town (about the size of toa payoh I think) and it has an overhanging rail train. It is more than 100years old and is the one and only structure built in this manner in the world! As you can see from the pictures, it's a very small town and it took us 30min of the ride to 1 round of the circumference of the city. We also went to sit in a "sky chair" that took us up the hill to a "rebuilt castle". The castle was 70% destroyed during WWII and during the past 20-30years it was rebuilt to his former glory. We had some nice spitzel and cakes for lunch. At night, we went to some brewery to have dinner. Sian, it was only cold bread with cheese / ham plus beer. I had plain water and cold bread with cheese/ham for dinner. Yucks, lousy dinner. The koreans had the same sentiments but no choice, when we got back to hotel, there wasn't any eatery in sight to fill our disatisfaction.
Day 8, we went to a coal mining museum. The goverment decided to preserve this fairly new factory (about 30years of mining) because they feel that it's part of the heritage. By the time the tour ended, it was around 3pm and we were told that we have our own R&R. By the way, there are no shopping centres open at all on a sunday, thus we are left with looking around for nice restaurants to eat. The koreans and us decided to team up to visit a chinese restuarant. It was a good choice as it reminded us of home cooked food and to spur us on for another 2 days.
Day 9, we were "tricked" to go to a packaging exhibition as our supplier said that due to overwhelming requests, he decided to bring everyone of us there to take a look. We have to pay our own tickets (55 EURO PER TICKET!!!!) as our supplier do not have a booth and they are too "stingy" to pay for us. That's like S$120 per ticket. What was worse is that the whole exhibition was not our forte. We are mostly doing marine industry and not packaging. Paying S$120 to look at something only about 5% related is totally CMI. We had the time from 10am to 4pm. Gary and I walked around till 1pm to have our lunch. After that we found a cosy corner and slept till 330pm. Haha. At night, we went to another brewery. This time round, the building was refurbished from an indoor swimming pool. If you look at the pictures carefully, the central bar counter is actually where the pool was resided previously. The upper floors were the changing rooms. That was why the whole building is very "swimming pool" themed.
Day 10, we finally got a chance to visit our supplier's office & factory. Most of their items are outsourced from elsewhere and they do the assembly in house. Due to sensitive reasons, we are not allowed to take pictures of factories and machinery. We also had our technical training from morning 10am to 430pm where we also had our own country's sales report presentation. Man, this would be the first and last time I would want to do such presentation. Stress....
Day 11, we were still quite bitter over the 55Euro ticket and still have to find our way to take train from Schwelm to frankfurt airport. Another amazing race thingy. Thank God the supplier has a meeting a frankfurt that morning and offered to fetch us there early in the morning! Though we had to wait for 3hrs+, it was worth it! I would rather wait in the airport then to miss any transit while changing trains again.
That sums up my Germany experience 2008. Enjoy the pics! =)
Germany Day 6 - Lost in Transition
All good things must come to an end (for part 1) and our fellow Asean counterparts were kind enough to give us a farewell lunch (Thai food) and see us off at the train station. The Thai food was really good (probably it has been quite a while since we had rice and spicy soup) and it gave us the morale booster for another week in Germany!
As Gary and I were carrying our luggages, we didn't take much pictures for the day. No spare hands! However, I still managed to take some pictures of a flower shop, countryside view from from the train.
One incident happened that will leave a mark in our Germany trip. That is the ICE train trip from Hamburg to Schwelm. We had to change train from Hamburg main station to Hannover main station. From there, we need to find out the platform that we are supposed to take. We had only 10minutes to do so. Imagine we were carrying our luggages at that time! It's worst then the amazing race.
When the train reached Hannover main station, you can see swarms of people rushing out to try to go to their respective platforms. For those who do not know (like me), we had to go down to the counter and look at the screen to see which platform our train was located. It's like a mini airport just that you substitute it as a train. Thank God, we managed to get onto the platform and into the train in the nick of time.
From Hannover main station, we need to make another transit to Hagen train station. That is when things went wrong. First, there was a technical fault with the train and the train conductor announced the fault and there would be a replacement train for those who are rushing for time. However, all these were spoken in German which I do not understand at all! After the announcement, I saw many people standing up and leaving. However, I also saw quite a number of people who remained in their seats. I approached a few of the people but none understand English. When I finally managed to speak to an American and understand what was going on, the "replacement" train had left. It's ok, we waited for the fault to be rectified and proceeded with the journey. When we were reaching Hagen main station, Gary and I stood at the door waiting for it to come to a stop. Guess what, when the train stopped, the door didn't open. We thought it may be some technical error or something but when we saw other people exiting from other doors, we realised something is wrong. We read the instructions by the side of the door and realised that we had to press the button and pull the handle to manually open the door! When we tried to do that, it was too late. The train had started on it's next journey! It was heading towards Wuppertal Main Station.
This was something unexpected and we told ourselves to get out of the train at the next stop no matter what. When we reached Wuppertal Main Station, we were deciding between taking a cab from Wuppertal to Schwelm or take a train back there. Taking a cab would cost us around 30Euros for half an hour ride. Take a train would cost us less than 10 Euros in total. I bought 2 train tickets from Wuppertal to Schwelm. You would have guessed that this would be the end of the episode right? NO!!!
Gary and I waited at the platform for the train to arrive. When the train came, Gary wanted to play safe and went to approach a couple to ask whether the train that has stopped is going to Schwelm. At that time, I was already in the train because I was quite sure that it was going there. It took a while for the couple to understand what Gary tried to ask and when they understood and told him that the train is heading to Schwelm, the door closed. Man, now we're seperated.
I called Gary up on his mobile and told him of the next train that is heading to Schwelm and also the platform and we would meet at the entrance of the Schwelm train station. Finally, we met up at the Schwelm train station after 2hours behind our scheduled time. We then proceeded to taking a cab to our hotel which is less than 5min drive. It cost us about 8Euro. Cabs are expensive! After a whole day saga, we met up with our other supplier and the asia delegates (India, Malaysia, Korea) and had dinner at the hotel. That sums up day 6 of Germany trip.
Miniature Wonderland part 3
Miniature Wonderland part 2
Miniature wonderland part 1
Sightseeing Hamburg part 2
Sightseeing Hamburg part 1
Germany Day 5 - Sightseeing tour at Hamburg
Yeah! With all the business related events for the past few days, finally it has come to some R&R. We had been staying in Hamburg for about 3days and it was the 4th day that we managed to get our first sightseeing tour.
First stop was to take the coach from the hotel round the city centre around the Alster Lake (where all the activities revolve around this lake). As you can see from the pictures, it was still really cold early in the morning. Managed to take pictures of some of the fantastic houses, they are really really big!
Next stop was a church in Hamburg. I find that the churches in Germany are very very nice and once you see them, you can feel that the church has been there for really quite a long time. After that, we went for a 1hr boat tour at the port of Hamburg. It's is Europe's 2nd biggest port but compared to PSA is still quite far la. hee. If you are observant, there is 2 pictures whereby you can see that the boat that we were in entered a "gate". We have to wait for the gate to open and the boat will enter into the waiting area. Once the gate that we had entered has closed, it will open the other side of the gate. This is to prevent sand from being washed from the other side of the sea into the port. It was really fun to be able to see all the big ships real close and also entering smaller rivers where you can see the buildings just beside you. If you have a good memory, these buildings will be reflected in one of the pictures from the miniature wonderland that we visited after our lunch.
I feel that one of the highlights of the sightseeing tour besides the boat tour would be the miniature wonderland. It's really really good! You have to be amazed by the architects who designed them. They must really have passion and creativity to do up all these. Heard that every year, more exhibitions are added into the collection. There is miniature of Hamburg, Europe, Las Vegas. What's more interesting is that these exhibits have the ability to transit from day to night and back to day again within a few minutes and you can see the lights coming out at night and the view are different and awesome! I think enough of my explanation. A picture paints a thousand words. Let alone many many pictures and a few clips too! =)
Germany Day 4 - 2nd day of Hannover
As I mentioned in the previous post, one day is not enough to finish walking the whole Hannover fair, thus on our 4th Day, we went for a 2nd round. This time round, we went about looking at things that are interesting.
Following this post will have a collection of photos of Day 4 and also a video clip on an robotic underwater jellyfish! Enjoy!
At night, we went to a local brewery where we had pork knuckles (famous in Germany/Europe!) and we had a person who came and performed for us! (view the clip!). It was considered a day of completion of my first batch of supplier's "mission". They brought us to see factory, logistics centre & Hannover fair. The following days would only be sightseeing at Hamburg and they would be heading home. It was part 1 of 2 for my Germany trip complete. That night, the koreans, japanese and ASEAN delegates had a good time knowing each other better. =)
Germany Day 3 - Hannover Fair
Day 3
I felt that the hotel I stayed in Hamburg was the best among all the hotels i stayed in the trip. And it happened to be the cheapest (probably their room is small but very nice) and do not have other facilities. However, the Hamburg main train station is within working distance. When I look out from window of my room, I could see the small street whereby people goes to work. From the main entrance of the hotel, one can see the Alster lake that is the feature of the Hamburg city.
We had breakfast at the hotel before proceeding to Hannover Fair by ICE (Inter City Express) train. It was really cold walking on the streets but when one goes into any building, the people traffic and the heaters warms up the area. But it is really cool walking in so many layers of clothings and enjoying the air and the weather.
Taking the ICE (fastest train in Europe) to Hannover Fair takes about 1hr 40min and in the train, there is a cabin which serves coffee and some snacks. Cool! I made some real nice people in the trip.
Sutrisno, an Indo-chinese, who is a Christian and serves faithfully in True Jesus Church in Jakarta. He testified that God is good. He was born in a Christian family but he stopped going church during his early teenage years. When he got married and had a child, he woke up one day feeling that he has to go to church. He wants to be a good example for his children and family. However, things wasn't going well when they tried to have their 2nd child. His wife had 6 consecutive miscarriages irregardless of what the doctor prescribed. The doctor said that his wife's blood is too thick to feed to the child. When the wife got pregnant again, he consulted another doctor (this time a Christian one), he told them to pray and seek God. Though it was hard to put the trust onto Him after so many miscarriages, Sutrisno pressed on and told his wife that if God allows, He will give them the miracle. Indeed, with much prayer, he got his 2nd son 6 years after the 1st.
Mudzakir, a customer of Sutrisno, is a Muslim in Indonesia and he's really a nice guy. An engineer with no temper and willingly shares his advice on management and experience with me. As there is no free internet in Germany (unlike Singapore), he purchased 1 month unlimited access of internet connection on the 2nd day in Germany. He was so nice to give me the account and password on the 25th as he knows that i have another 5 more days in Germany. This gesture really saved my boredom on those latter days.
Hannover Fair is really a mega fair. It has about 27 halls which are filled with exhibits. Even though we went there for 2 days, it was not impossible to walk finish and visit all the halls and exhibits. However, we managed to visit the ones that we targetted to visit during these 2 days and I took pictures and videos on some very interesting ones.
At night, we had dinner near the town hall at Hamburg. The building is really very very nice and it's dinner by the riverside. The river is filled with swans and the atmosphere is really romantic. (How I wish my dear dear was there with me).
Germany Day 2 Detmold slideshow
Germany Day 2 Detmold
I've came back from Germany and now i can slowly describe the days i spent there.
Before I introduce Day 2, the first few pics that you will see from the slideshow are the dinner that I had at Bielefeld. Asparagus European style! Yes, it's big and long and not green. The taste is a bit plain and I find it ok only. Not that fantastic though. And as usual, ham for almost every meal.
Day 2, we moved out from Bielefeld and onto Detmold. A small town where our supplier's factory and logistics centre were located. I realised that every city start from a small town and every town the basic structure have a town hall, market place and a church. The town hall is where the name list of the people residing in the town are kept and updated. The marketplace (usually in front of the town hall) is where people come together to do business or to have a chat. Church is where people come to pray, get blessings, batpise their children, hold their wedding and funerals there.
We sat a coach from Bielefeld to Detmold. After visiting the factory, we proceeded on to Hamburg where we are going to stay in the hotel for 4 days. There was a break inbetween for us to go and answer the call of nature. If you notice one of the pic i was holding a coupon of 0.50Euro, it's the entry fee to go to their toilet. Yes! it's that expensive. haha. Almost every coach / car in Europe are equipped with the GPS system and it has an voice that direct where you should go and how is the traffic ahead. Cool! If you're thinking petrol in Singapore is getting more and more ridiculous, wait till you see the prices in Germany!
Oh ya, when i reached the 2nd hotel, i realised that every hotel room there is a New Testament bible in German. However, I do not know why it is only half a bible and not the full version. The big wind "mill" kind of thing you see in one of the pic, that is their wind generator. There are over 10,000 of such generators in Europe and they are supposed to be eco-friendly and help save on burning natural resources. =)
