When I'm home...

...everything seems to be ri-ight.


Except that it feels funny not to be walking, even if it IS raining... heck, I DID walk for miles through much windy-er & rainy-er weather in Amsterdam and London, after all! And I can't find stuff in my room, one of the reasons being I now have more than one suitcase of it! And my sleeping time is all messed up, although a friend pointed out that it usually is anyway!

Only comparatively trivial things that I face coming home. But before I jump into deeper waters of things that really matter, or goh off in a tirade of factors John & Paul really didn't look into when they wrote that line, or before I just simply plain forget - I should spend some time logging down some of the experiences & memories from this past month that I don't want to forget.

(Note: This post was mainly written on Nov 19 but it got stuck as a draft mostly because there were just too many photos to goh through. Decided in the end to not need to post too many shots here - an extended selection can be viewed in Facebook instead.)

In no particularly-special order:

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#1: Seeing how creativity is nurtured & expressed

Being in a culture that encourages art & creative expression as well as the appreciation for it has been most inspiring. Not just in museums & galleries but also on the streets & in the tube stations. Was telling a friend that there are 2 things the time there has made me dream about, and the first thing, which I also mentioned in a comment under the "Goh-ing dutch" post, is to set up an art gallery in Malaysia. One that will pay tribute to the works of south east asian artists of old, encourage current talents and nurture future ones.

Two British artists I met whose work particularly intrigued me go by interesting pseudonyms:

1. Delicate Mayhem - her intricately sketched prints of London sky & tube scapes were on display in Portobello Market. My camera put away & forgotten in awe of her work, I didn't take any photos. She has low-res files in her online gallery but really, they need to be seen up close & personal.

2. Stanza - he had an exhibit as part of the Cold War late-night open at the V&A Museum. He let loose about 10 little robots onto a large white paper within a rectangular parameter of police-lines. Each robot had a coloured pen stuck to its back which drew patterns on the paper as it moved within the parameter. Meanwhile, the remote cams on top of some of the robots sent video signals to a cctv unit and a VHS recorder. So by the end of the night, the robots had created art on paper and on video. And Stanza had made a statement about Control inside the Panopticon. The 20 shots I took of the robots are posted up for him on my picasaweb.

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#2: Walking & train-ing

Two good points from travelling extensively by foot and by trains: 1. You see more of what's around you. 2. You lose more of what's around you. (i.e. fats =P) ANyway, the following are miscellaneous shots of what I spotted while on foot and from trains. The first shot is simply the sidewalk to my bro's flat... I simply love the way the ground glistens after the rain. Although photographing was rather difficult WHILE it rained, especially if you're also holding an umbrella.

Shot on foot:

Shot on train:

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#3: Browsing through 2nd-hand shops

I must have gone into at least 30 2nd-hand bookstores, charity shops and road market stalls to leaf & scan through books, music, movies, games & knick-knacks.


There's something addictive about the anticipation of wondering what treasures you're gonna find among other people's junk. I must say the English really take good care of their stuff. My bro and I found Cranium for £3 and Scene It for £7! Both board games were in mint condition. I picked up a couple of books for £1 each. One was a pristine hardcovered copy of The Rhyming History of Britain which comes to the 2nd thing I wondered if I could do - write a rhyming history of Malaysia!

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#4: Window watching, etc.

If you've travelled with me before, you'd know that one of the things I can't help collecting on camera are windows. Well, and doors. And flowers. And bikes. And bridges. And chairs. And shadows. And silhouettes. And skies. Hhaha... here are just a few of the above that got added to my collection.







One sad thing that I only realized when I got back: I somehow lost a whole batch of windows and doors as well as Portobello street shots from a walk on 18 Oct 2008. =(





Just remembered a 3rd thing I felt inspired to do: Stereography. This may actually be more achieveable than setting up an art gallery and writing a rhyming history!

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#5: Watching Wicked

Since I'm on a "W" roll, thought I'd mention this next. It took me quite long to decide on the one west-end show I had budgeted to watch. I had been in NYC when Wicked had started its 2nd season on Broadway but I had opted instead for Jewtopia, a play that I knew I wouldn't be able to catch anywhere else. Incidentally, after the play, my buddy Michelle was mistaken for the Chinese actress in it and actually got compliments for her acting!

Anyway, when I knew I was going to be in London this year, I aimed to watch Wicked. But then I heard from my brother that the London cast was not as good as the Sydney cast which made me think maybe I should wait till I get to either the latter or NYC again. Then again, what if I don't make it there? So after scanning repeatedly through the promo posters of countless shows as I rode up & down the tube escalators and doing online research on my narrowed down list of 3, it was only on the 4th week that I finally decided on Wicked.

I declared my decision to my brother and he told me that everyday at 10am, the Apollo Victoria box office released 24 front row stall tickets for just £25 (as opposed to £50-£60). The next day, I was there at 9am, ready to join a queue that usually starts by that time. I was the 1st in line! So I whipped out my Rhyming History of Britain and read away the hour. That night I was sitting right in front and right in the middle and right behind the orchestra conductor! Wicked seat & wicked show!! A superb must-watch if one gets the chance! Even if the guy playing the male lead couldn't really dance. But er... definitely much easier to take than Pierce Brosnan singing. This is the pre-show view from where I was sitting:

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#6: Ordering & receiving things by post

I took opportunity to order stuff online while I was in a country where access to discounted hard to-find-goods is a-plenty (like the Back to the Future 4-Disc set which I got for £8 instead of RM169), & where delivery of the goods is fast and cheap or free. I already blogged about the arrival of my PDA's new battery. As time went on, I received a few more padded envelopes and that gave a rather nice feeling - getting things through a postman. Hhaha, even if I did initiate the sending myself.

The most interesting item that came through physical mail was an NPW (NasaParaWing) kite from Germany.

It came in a medium-sized box and Kerstin Born, the kite's maker, had attached a note which said, "Hi Choon Ean, I am sending you a liquid greetings from Germany." Now in earlier emails with him, I'd been having trouble fully understanding his translated-from-German English, so this note made me wonder if that was some sort of German expression or proverb. Then I pulled out a bubble-wrapped item from the box, unrolled it and out came a bottle of German lager! I laughed out loud when I realized that Kerstin had meant his greeting to be literally liquid!

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#7: Being in the audience of a BBC Radio show

One of the websites I checked often was www.londonisfree.com which lists down all the free things to do in London. From there I got to learn about applying for tickets to watch recordings of BBC radio shows. So one of my nights was spent at the BBC Broadcast House and laughing myself silly, alongside the rest of the (mostly British) audience, at a recording of I've Never Seen Star Wars hosted by Marcus Brigstocke. Every episode he'd challenge a guest star to try things they've never done before, then discuss & rate how much they enjoyed it. That night it was British comedian Barry Cryer, and Marcus got him to watch Friends, read Catcher in the Rye, listen to an ACDC album, try a variety of tofu products and change a real-life baby's nappy. The two of them were just hilarious! And although it was for a radio broadcast, there were parts of it that everyone there, including Barry, wished listeners could see and not just hear. Tune into BBC Radio 4's next season of the show and you may just catch me laughing over the airwaves! =D (Incidentally, I caught Marcus playing the Radio DJ in the film Love Actually when I rewatched it a few days ago.)

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#8: Feeling at home away from home

It's always nice to be able to visit with different members of God's family wherever I goh. From Holy Trinity Brompton (HTB), where the Alpha course was first developed, to Hillsong London, where I got to observe the workings of their elaborate visual setup in the Dominion Theatre... from dropping in on the Amsterdam Shelter prayer meet to staying with the Ouwerkerks... I was greeted & treated in such ways that made me feel right at home. =)



I also had a splendid 24 hours with my mum's close friend from before I was born, Aunty Pansy & her husband Uncle Dave, who must have fed me the highest number of meals I ever got to eat in just one day throughout the 4 weeks I was there. =D

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#9: Goh-ing on Tours

I'm actually the kind of person who hates tour-package-travelling. Besides the fact that they often cost a ridiculous sum of money to move you by the herd and lure you into tourist traps, I like mapping out my own routes & researching about stuff & moving at my own pace & not be rushed through sights that personally interest me. (Not forgetting having the option of stopping to add to my collection of windows, doors, bikes, etc.) I must say however, that many of my memorable experiences have been kinda tour-related, though not of the "package" kind -- looking out of the misty windows of the canal tour boat in Amsterdam, peddling away on Christina's bike-around-Zwijndrecht tour, dashing all over the British Museum to catch as many 40-min free guided tours of different civilizations as I could, catching the 3-hour Royal London Free Walking Tour, following Uncle Dave to the places around his & Aunty Pansy's home in Solihull & enjoying his verbal illustrations of what we saw, and listening to the Windsor Castle audio guide which was supplemented by the wealthy storehouse of British trivia in my brother's head. He actually gives an excellent tour of Cambridge by the way. When he said he needed to find a part-time job, I told him he should consider doing walking tours in London.



To not break my back any further by sorting through the 3000+ photos, for this section I'll only include some of the images I caught on the Royal London Walking tour.

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#10: Spending time with my brother

Which was the main reason why I had gone there in the first place. =)

I was nine when I first felt that God could hear my innermost wishes - He gave me a baby brother! I remember I was so thrilled & preoccupied with the wonderful gift that 1st year, that my studies got neglected quite a bit and I think I even dropped to the 2nd class the following year. But that didn't bother me at all - what could compare with a baby brother?! =D


He's no longer a baby of course. He's not even smaller than me anymore. But I'm still thrilled and thankful that I have a brother. So from grocery-shopping & cooking & having typical Goh-family mealtimes (in front of a screen), to walking around London or standing around in a field trying to fly his kite in the crazy wind... it was really great to have time together for a whole month!

It's been a hard day's night

Actually, it's been several hard days' nights - that I've been working on my blog. An extended post wrapping up my trip to UK. Not helping with my jetlag though. Or is it the other way round? So er... it's coming soon! =S

...from both sides now

The first thing that struck me when I stepped out of the tube station at South Ealing was the sky. "The Simpsons..." tune kept playing in my head everytime I looked up. After several comments about how wonderful the sky was, my brother simply stated, "But it's the same sky in Malaysia."

Skyscape, somewhere in England.

Skyscape, somewhere in Malaysia.

My brother's statement reminded me of the time I had spent with S'ya Mang Sian & S'yama Ning when they came over to Malaysia sometime in August.
It was S'yama Ning's first time outside Myanmar and I had asked her what her observations were of our country. One of the comments she made in Burmese made me laugh - that the Malaysian sun is so bright and hot! The couple laughed at my reply (in broken burmese): "Malasia-yeh-nei neh Myanmar-yeh-nei atudu naw?" "The Malaysia sun and the Myanmar sun is the same sun, isn't it?"

Sunrise at Bagan, Myanmar.

Sunset at Kota Kinabalu, Malaysia.

Gives one pause doesn't it? --realizing how we can perceive something as a totally separate entity when we look at it from different angles.

It also just dawned on me that it's been a year since my 2-week trip to Myanmar when we had an extended time with this wonderful couple of great faith. =) hahahh - we had an interesting exchange of sorts - they looked after us on our crazy cross-shaped journey across Myanmar while we taught them how to feel comfortable on camera!

S'ya Mang Sian & S'yama En Ning.

Our 2nd week route minus Sagaing & Pindaya Caves.

Shots from the Goh & Lam DSLRs of the various modes of tranportation we took.

Later: Shots of the land and people of Myanmar. (Post-2007-monk-uprising period)

Of course, a lot more has happened in Myanmar since then. Below is a video I edited a few months back to help in raising funds under the Myanmar Christian Coalition for Cyclone Relief (MCCCR).

"I've looked at clouds from both sides now
From up and down and still somehow
It's cloud illusions I recall
I really don't know clouds at all."

- Joni Mitchell

Skyscape, Bagan.

Skyscape, London.

Yet He gave a command to the skies above and opened the doors of the heaven; He rained down manna for the people to eat, He gave them the grain of heaven. (Psalm 78:23-24)

Goh-ing Dutch (a couldn't-resist exception to my title rule)

Having a spot of trouble getting out into the world beyond South Ealing. I've been back here for 3 days and other than the grocer's, I'm pretty much reluctant to venture far from my brother's flat. Might be because I had such a maximized time in the Netherlands. In those 8 days, I walked substantial distances around 7 towns, including Brugge in Belgium, visited 13 museums and snapped more than 1500 photos on my 350D. Perhaps with so much just past, I'm not feeling too keen to add on to my overflowing treasure of experiences for fear I'd forget some.


So this post will be an attempt to visually journal it down somewhat so that I can "move on". And I say visually because verbally I think I'm maxed out as well from the previous post about losing my phone. =P

Took me a while to figure out some sort of structure to this post - again, there was just so much that I experienced. Decided to revolve it around a major highlight of the trip - visiting museums & appreciating the Dutch masters of art. So instead of dumping a whole lot of my own photos (although i don't think I can avoid a fraction of it), I'm gonna be posting up the incredible works of art I had the privilege to admire up close in the beautiful land of dykes and windmills.


The following is a chronological visual recount of the sights that made me stop & stare.

::::::::::::: 21 Oct 2008. ROTTERDAM. :::::::::::::

Men watching over museumpark.
Museum Boijmans van Beuningen...

The "little" Tower of Babel, c. 1563. Pieter Brueghel the Elder.

Still life with fruit and ham, 2nd quarter of 17th century. Jan Davidsz. de Heem.

HORIZONS Interactive Installment, 2008. Geert Mul.

Netherlands Architecture Institute.

The Chabot Museum.

::::::::::::: 23-24 Oct 2008. AMSTERDAM. :::::::::::::

Westerkerk...

Where Rembrandt was buried. Notice the similar plaque later in "The Night Watch".

Amsterdam History Museum...
A painting depicting the arrival of Rembrandt's statue, with a very cool moving wall installation behind.

Where Rembrandt's statue stands on Rembrandtplein, and where others sit.

The Rembrandt House Museum...

Rembrandt's studio.
Self-portrait, 1630. Rembrandt van Rijn.
Rijksmuseum...

Self-portrait, 1628. Rembrandt van Rijn.

The Sampling Officials, 1662. Rembrandt van Rijn.

The Night Watch Rembrandt van Rijn.

The Kitchen Maid, c. 1658. Johannes Vermeer.

The Mill at Wijk-bij-Duurstede, c. 1670. Jacob van Ruisdael.
Although I've only managed to find one of the Ruisdaels I saw, I've actually become an ardent admirer of this landscape painter.

The Van Gogh Museum...

View of Auvers, 1890. Vincent van Gogh.

Landscape at Twilight, 1890. Vincent van Gogh.

Jewish Historical Museum.

foam: Fotographiemuseum Amsterdam.

::::::::::::: 25 Oct 2008. HAARLEM. :::::::::::::

Frans Hals Museum.

::::::::::::: 26 Oct 2008. DEN HAAG. :::::::::::::

Escher in the Palace...

^snapped by Christina Ouwerkerk.

Day and Night, 1938. M.C. Escher.

Three Spheres II, 1946. M.C. Escher.

Ascending and Descending, 1960. M.C. Escher.

I can't find you anywhere

On the sixth evening of my eight days in Holland, we came back to Christina's home in Zwijndrecht from a day out to Haarlem and later picking her parents up from Schipol airport.

For dinner, we picked up a 6-dish Chinese takeout meal which was a whole new experience altogether although really quite tasty! As my brother said a few times before and during the meal, one needed to wipe away any preconceived ideas about what Malaysians are used to when it comes to Chinese food. My favourite from what we ordered was the kuh-luh-yuk (sweet and sour pork) which came in the size and shape of golf balls (without the indents, of course).

Sometime after, i went upstairs to transfer the day's photos to my hard drive and that's when I reached into my pocket to find my phone - the spiral stairway was dark you see, and well, I couldn't see, so I needed my phone's flashlight function.

But it wasn't there.

The hours after that took me through a fluctuating frenzy of feeling hopeful and devastated:

- I searched inside, under and around the car, twice with Christina, twice with my brother.
- I searched the pockets of all the layers I'd been wearing countless times throughout, as well as the bags i had taken with me and also the ones i had left behind.
- We went out again to search the area of the now closed Chinese takeout place
- We went online to search for ways to pinpoint geographically the location of my phone (which led to either a crude prank or a huge payment).
- I went over and over in my mind my movements and tracks since I last remembered taking it out at a albert heijns (grocery store) in Haarlem.
- We looked up the contact number and opening hours of the albert heijns in Haarlem.
- We sent text messages in english and dutch asking whoever may find it to please call Christina's mobile number.

As the night went on, I started to mourn internally & externally my lost phone, as well as the photos I hadn't yet transferred to my laptop. I was thankful however, that i had transferred a few months worth of photos just a couple of nights before.

Some tough constraints on decision making - one was the knowledge that my battery was low. After my brother had called my phone 5 times at different intervals that night, we decided to conserve battery. It was still ringing although nobody picked up and that gave me a glimmer of hope that it was still somewhere waiting for me to rescue it! This also made us decide to tell Maxis customer service whom we had called on Skype not to deactivate my number yet, praying someone chivalric would pick it up. The fact that the battery was going out was good because whoever picks it up won't be able to make expensive calls for too long. Bad because whoever picks it up might not be able to see the messages we had sent.

Another constraint was time - the following day was a Sunday and we were supposed to follow Christina's family to church in Den Haag. So although we looked up various train routes and times to go to Haarlem, it was hard deciding if I should goh first thing in the morning so that I could get to church on time (which may not be possible) or if I should goh after church. But the latter would mean increasing the chances it'll be picked up by someone with an unknown level of civic duty.

Then there was the whole uncertainty of whether it went missing at Haarlem or Schipol Airport where I had got off the car for like 10 seconds when we were moving stuff from the backseat to the boot. So I looked up variations of train schedules from Zwijndrecht to Haarlem, Den Haag (where church was) to Haarlem, and Haarlem back to Den Haag stopping by at Schipol. Which brought in another constraint to worry about - how much all that train travelling would cost.

Also running through my mind was the thought of cars running over it on the street, although I was thankful that it was a Sunday and street cleaners wouldn't be working which increased the chances that it was still lying on the street somewhere - it WAS after all, still ringing.

I finally went to bed about 3am, reading Matthew 6 with sharp pangs in my heart, asking God to help me not be so attached to inanimate objects. Fell asleep somewhat at rest about not needing to catch an early morning train to Haarlem. I didn't totally lock in, however, on my exact course of action until Christina's mum said to me at about 9am: "Just go to church and say an extra prayer."

So I did. It was also really superb of Christina's parents to decide that we'd go in 2 cars so that we could later drive to Haarlem and Schipol. Still, I was conflicted inside about just letting it go and not wasting any more of anyone's time and money. So when the pastor gave the church a moment of silence during the service to bring our burdens to God, I sighed out the final throes of my missing phone woes to Him.

Then I opened my eyes, and my brother tapped me and he was telling me something I couldn't understand at first. He repeated: someone found my phone, they called Christina, it's in Schipol! I was surprised yet not surprised at the same time. I could only muster a soft "Praise God" with my voice but it was balanced by a great volume of praise within. The rest of the day, I remembered what I had read the night before, which had only taken a tenth of the time I had fussed and frenzied! =P

"People who don't know God and the way he works fuss over these things, but you know both God and how he works. Steep your life in God-reality, God-initiative, God-provisions. Don't worry about missing out. You'll find all your everyday human concerns will be met." -- Matthew 6:32-33 (the Message)

To end this long post & to celebrate the return of my phone, thought I'd upload some of the photos taken with it, the times I went DSLR-less in Holland. =D

At the Boijmans Museum, Rotterdam:





At the Jewish Historical Museum, Amsterdam:





At the Photography Museum, Amsterdam:


At the Escher Museum, Den Haag:

Life could be a dream

My first 24 hours in London were spent quite lazily. Slept, ate, researched places to visit, and took walks around my brother's flat in South Ealing. =) The shot above is an inversed reflection on a car bonnet.





Oh, the postman popped by to drop off the battery I had ordered online last week for my Sony Clie! What amazing timing! Yay - long live my PDA!




The most intriguing place hereabouts is a fenced pathway that runs through a cemetery. =) It's actually quite a frequently-used walk as it's the shortest distance between the South Ealing tube station and the Imperial College residence - Clayponds. (You can see a Clayponds window peeking out in the 2nd photo below.) My brother says we're warned not to use it after sundown though. The cemetery, not the window. =S

When you get caught between the moon...

and Abu Dhabi... I know it’s crazy... but it’s true....


Sorry – couldn’t resist following through with the song... but it IS true! =P And it WAS crazy – six and a half hours on the plane KL-AD, seven hours AD-Heathrow, and NINE HOURS in between at Abu Dhabi!!! It took me over 30 hours to get from my doorstep in PJ to my brother’s doorstep! Man, I could have reached Austin, TX in that time!! Anyway, here’s part of how I entertained myself during the 9 hours....


10 clues that you’re spending too much time in one place:

1) When you start deducing where people are walking to (eg. the restrooms) and observing how long it takes for them to walk back past you.

2) When you start to wonder if the people complaining to the airport service personnel are in the same flight as you are.

3) When you also start to wonder if you should get up and join the people complaining to the airport service personnel.

4) When you start noticing how many times different people go over to complain to the airport service personnel.

5) When you start figuring out which seats in the transit area are best for optimum leg-stretching positions.

6) When you realize you’ve done quite a bit of seat-hopping before you finally get to a seat with optimum leg-stretching opportunities.

7) When you identify the most interesting thing about the environment around you and begin to find different angles in which you can take photos of it (in Abu Dhabi Airport’s case, it was the cell-patterned walls and ceiling that merged into each other)


8) When you notice other people finding different angles in which they can take photos of the most interesting thing about the environment around them.

9) When you even have time to switch on your laptop to upload the photos you’ve taken of the most interesting thing about the environment around you.

10) When you decide you might as well write all the above down since your laptop is now switched on.



I realize I didn't give any explanation on why I had to spend 9 hours in Abu Dhabi... but hey - I wasn't really given one either! Plus I was so tired and traumatized from the whole time there that I think I'll add it on another time. If at all. =P