The Man from Beijing by Henning Mankell

My first novel from the world renowned Swedish Crime Writer Henning Mankell and I have to say in a quick summary; I loved it. I was in Amsterdam Centraal Station after recently moving location to a small town on the outskirts of Amsterdam called Amersfoort. The regular twice daily trains had now become a part of my life and to pass the time I thought I’d treat myself to a new book. On reflection I love to read but don’t really get the chance to so I will be sad when these train journeys come to an end. 

I browsed the section of English books for about 10 minutes briefly reading some summaries on the back and breaking the first rule on reading, judging books by their covers. The book caught my eye and I quickly read the summary on the back before purchasing at the till for 9 Euros.

The book covers several main stories spanning the globe and stretching over almost two centuries. The book starts up in the northern and coldest parts of Sweden when a small town exclusively of pensioners are brutally murdered. A local district judge realises she was distantly related to the old people in the village after the surnames of the victims are released by Police in a press conference. The local judge, who has been signed off work for a fortnight due to high blood pressure, decides to visit the area of Hesjovallen where the murders took place to seek confirmation she was indeed related to those killed. Her legislative experience and exposure to crimes in her daily job help her discover information which leads her across to the other side of the world; the middle Kingdom, the colossus that is China. 

In China the book takes us back 150 years to the last dynasty of China and follows the story of San and his brothers Guo Si and Wan. They’re desperate struggle to find a better life took them across the globe constantly facing death and turmoil in the face. The book reaches us in Modern Day China just after the communist "emperor's" Mao and Deng. The book goes deep into Chinese politics and their economical struggles throughout their reign. 

We are then transported to London, England where the book meets its eventful and surprising conclusion. This book is a wonderful fictitious crime novel with revenge at heart influenced by politics and family honour. An awesome read from start to finish, another one of those where suspense increases with each turn of the page.

The book covers several main stories spanning the globe and stretching over almost two centuries. The book starts up in the northern and coldest parts of Sweden when a small town exclusivey of pensioners are brutally murdered. A local district judge realises she was distantly related to the old people in the village after the surnames of the victims are released by Police in a press conference. The local judge, who has been signed off work for a fortnight due to high blood pressure decides to visit the area of Hesjovallen where the murders took place to seek confirmation she was indeed related to those killed. Her legislative experience and exposure to crimes in her daily job help her discover information which leads her across to the other side of the world; the middle Kingdom, the colossas that is China. 

In China the book takes us back 150 years to the last dynasty of China and follows the story of San and his brothers Guo Si and Wan. Theyre desperate struggle to find a better life took them across the globe constantly facing death and turmoil in the face. The book reaches us in Modern Day China just after the communist "emperor's" Mao and Deng. The book goes deep into Chinese politics and their economical struggles throughout their reign. 

We are then transported to London, England where the book meets its eventful and surprising conclusion. This book is a wonderful ficticious crime novel with revenge at heart influenced by politics and family honour. An awesome read from start to finish, another one of those where suspense increases with each turn of the page.

4/5

A Weekend In Maastricht

Saturday 5th / Sunday 6th Feb

We started planning this back in December, well...when I say we...Jeroen organised the entire thing and all we had to do was show up. He arranged for us to go see The Red Bull Crashed Ice Event in Valkenberg just outside of Maastricht in the South of the Netherlands.

Jeroen arranged a Hotel for us in Maastricht Randwyck just outside the City Centre in a surreal medical district full of hospitals, care centres and medical technology labs. The hotel was smart, really smart especially considering it cost us only 40 Euros per person and we didn’t have to check out until 5pm on the Sunday! 

The adventure started for me at 8:00am Saturday morning when my phone alarm woke me, quick shower and ready to be out of the house by 9:00am...well 9:20am is Ok too :)

Got to Central Station in the heart of Amsterdam and had 5 minutes to spare, had myself a Tall Vanilla Latte from Starbucks and a quick cig outside before walking to the train platform to meet Jeroen and Arien. We boarded the train on time and sat back for our 1 Hour train journey to Utrecht where Jeroen's friend Wouter picked us up. We also met Claudio at the train station in Utrecht, Claudio works with me at Diageo. Claudio is such a character, a very clever guy but best summed up as a Crazy Italian.

It was a 2 hour car journey from Utrecht to our hotel in the outskirts of Maastricht but we needed a pit-stop en route so we pulled over at a service station for some food and to stretch our legs, I needed the bathroom which brings me onto my next rant... Toilets in The Netherlands, you have to pay 50 cents almost everywhere you go, it’s an absolute sham, if the taxes here aren’t high enough already! This time the 50 cents was worth it because in my Toilet Cubicle someone had wrote "To Enter the Matrix Press the Flush Button" which briefly amused me.

We arrived at the hotel, checked in, dropped our bags off and immediately jumped onto the train to head to the Red Bull Event. It took about 15 minutes on the train and we where there surprised by the amount of people who were actually there. I was expecting maybe 5,000 and 20,000 turned up to the event. I believe so many people turned up because the event was free entry and we are talking about Dutch People here, the tightest people on the planet. 

We were at the event a good three hours early and had a lot of time to kill so we did as all self respecting young men would do; ate hamburgers and drank a lot of beer. The beer speeded things up a bit and before we knew it the event was starting; the best way for me to describe this Red Bull Crashed Ice event would be to say it's simply Urban Ices king / Racing. A track built in an urban environment where the object is to ice skate through the track as quickly as possible. Lots of tricky corners and jumps to encourage countless crowd pleasing falls and crashes repeated in slow motion on the big screens for all to gorge. Unfortunately the views were extremely restricted and I would say like Formula 1 in that respect you stand and all you see is an Ice Skater or two go past ever few minutes, and after 1 hour of the event we all got bored and left.



From left to right; Wouter, Jeroen, Claudio, Arien and Me



 

We decided to go back to the hotel, freshen up [in mine and Claudio's case - Get even more wasted] and hit Maastricht City Centre for a mega session.

We jumped on the bus and headed to the city centre after our fresh time in the hotel (still absolutely smashed) and get some food in the city before starting with the real drinking. Grilled Pork Tenderloin wrapped in ham was my choice as the entire Menu of this Dutch Restaurant was horrid; there was literally not one thing that I liked. Thankfully it was absolutely stunning and the chips they brought us were superb like my Mother’s Home made chips of yester year. 

With food in our bellies we hit Maastricht and started with the beers, it’s not really done drinking Pints in The Netherlands, they are either 270 - 330ml servings but because they are so small you drink them so quick and lose count very quickly. I think drinking this way makes you less bloated, when drinking beer anyway and gets you drunk at a better pace.

First club we went into sucked ass, really bad music; Gloria Gainer and George Michael. We had 2 beers there and made a quick exit. Next place we went to was just round the corner and it was awesome, much better music and was a bit more up market without sounding snobbish.

All the guys, except Jeroen were trying their luck for a member of the opposite sex, optimistic in their attempts. Myself, I wasn’t trying..; I just wanted to have a good weekend with the boys away from Amsterdam. It was after 1am and I bumped into a blonde girl and as is the randomness of life (especially after 15 beers), we started talking. The other boys had got themselves into a group of in my opinion annoying ladies; a Cypriote, a Bulgarian and a Serb. Neither being my cup of tea. We went to another club, famous in Maastricht for being one of the few open after 2am, it was absolutely packed. Impossible to move so I kept talking to the girl I met and even though I was severely intoxicated at this point I couldn’t think about anything else but Nisa... all the way in Singapore, how much I missed her, how much I love her. 

The blonde left at 3am and we kept going for a few more hours accompanied by the eastern European Brady bunch; well until Claudio put an end to the night around 5.30am. He got removed from the last club we were in for shouting and starting trouble with the door staff; funny these guys were twice his height and four times his width but he showed no fear; a combination of his state of intoxication and his Italian blood. 

We got ourselves a taxi driver who drove like Lewis Hamilton and within 15 minutes we were back at the hotel; me and Claudio taking an early morning puff puff pass pass before getting some rest. The next day we jumped back into the car and hit the road, it seemed to take much longer on the way back but the good news was even after 25 beers and a few hours sleep I had no hangover and felt right as rain. Wouter dropped us off at Utrecht station as he was off to meet a lady for a bit of bunga bunga, Claudio made his own way back to Amersfoort and Me Jeroen and Arien got the train back to Amsterdam. 

I said by goodbyes to Jeroen and Arien and made my way back to The Blues Brothers for a catch up with the lads and a couple of cheeky ones before heading home for the evening. The weekend spent, my wallet, my liver and my lungs all took a battering. Great fun, here's to the next one!

Nisa & Jack - The Story So Far...

As I've just started my blogging life and I dont really get on here as much as I'd like.. this next post is basically a "catch up" of events so far up until current day, the best thing in my life right now; Miss Nisa.

I'll sum this up as quick as I can but let's start from the beginning..

How we got to know one another

Work,...Work got me into this...

I started at Diageo in Amsterdam in September 2009 and started by supporting a Dutch / Indonesian woman called Maria. She had alot of work on her hands and it was decided I'd support her and eventually take some of her workload. After 2 months I got my permanent contract and began working "on my own" with my first markets. Diageo Indochina [now Diageo Vietnam], Riche Monde Malaysia [now MHD Malaysia], MHD Singapore, VOK Asia and Image Pillar Sdn Bhd. A good mix of In-market Diageo owned subsidiaries and a handful of 3rd Parties to spice things up a bit. To cut a long story short; I began working with a woman based in Diageo Singapore called Phui Har Lim; a Malaysian woman married to an English guy. In her early 30's, Phui Har Lim or PH as I used to call her worked in finance and provided me costing info for my daily job. Eventually I added her to facebook and one night, inquisitive and bored I decided to go through her photo albums on her profile. Nothing out of the ordinary; lots of photos of her and her young child, her husband, friends and travel shots...you know the usual, and then somehow I came across a photo she had commented on, this photo:



The Photo That Caught Jack Smith



My first reaction was quite literally "WOW" out loud, the Doctor Martins are cool no? Then..there are those legs...I'm a 25 year old white blooded male from Sunderland (where proper men come from) but I'll be as subtle as possible..shit, they are amazing.

The next day at work I was having an MSN conversation with PH, my work pal at Diageo and after we'd discussed business of course I light heartidly asked her.."Hey PH, who's that girl in the photo you commented on yesterday" and she replied with "Ahhhh..you mean Nisa?"

Within a minute someone else was invited into the conversation with me and PH, a girl called Nisa. Apprehension to say the least. PH then typed the words "Jack think's your cute"..I went red and blushed even thought we were 13,000 miles apart. I then got comfortable in the conversation and started flirting with Nisa a little and it was reciprocated, shly but reciprocated none the less.

We added each other on FB, and chatted pretty much everyday at work, we got on like a house on fire.... *Hollywood Slow Mo-Fade Out*

Nisa in Europe: Round 1

One day in a conversation with Nisa she mentioned she was thinking about a trip but couldnt think where to go..Europe or another location, can't remember the other place she wanted to visit. I obviously cheekly pushed and pushed in conversations for her to come to Europe flirting every second of it..then an awesome day arrived; she told me she had booked a flight to Amsterdam to come and visit me. Euphoria would be an understatement, by now we'd developed quite a relationship and I reallly wanted to meet her.

I remember distinctly waiting at Schipol Aiport in Amsterdam, standing at gate 3 waiting for her arrival. Her plane had landed and according to the array of LCD Monitors above me her bags had been delivered to the final emotional obstacle in air travel; the baggage collection conveyor belt of death. I waited and waited until eventually Nisa physically entered my life and I just remember being so happy to finally see her, to be completely honest she looked rough after her flight but anyone would after the long haul air journey she had just taken but she was still absolutely stunning.

We had about 10 wonderful days in Amsterdam together, went out and ate alot, enjoyed the sites, sounds and culture the city has to offer..and consequently as each day went by I liked her more and more...We then decided to mak an epic 10 hour trip by car to England and she would stay with me and my family in Sunderland for the remainder of her holiday and then we'd take the ferry back to Amsterdam so she could catch her flight home.

Created by God



She adored England and said it was her new favourite place in the world, which made me smile quite alot, either at the ridiculousness of her statement or by some previously undisclosed sense of patriotism. Our time in England was bliss, we did nothing but eat, sleep, shop, sleep and eat...well the saucey details Im keeping to myself Im afraid :)

 As the saying goes "all good things come to an end" and our time together quickly passed, before I knew it, it was time to take the ferry back to Amsterdam and then once again as if someone had pressed FF on my life; I was in the car with her on the way to the airport. 

To Be Continued

Part 2 Coming Soon