Romanian Speed

Forgot about the following useful information below that I acquired during my Christmas trip back to Amsterdam. One night in the Blues Brothers coffee shop I was with Danny and two randoms from the UK. These geezers were long time acquaintances of Danny's, they were cross European couriers. They were based in the London and collected and delivered cargo across various destinations throughout Europe.

Getting paid ridiculous amounts to their testimony to drive across Europe? Countless transshipment stops in Amsterdam? Sounds awesome right? Well they frequently have to drive through the evening and sometimes for days on end but fear not, these long distance drivers have a cure for petty tiredness..which they call Romanian Speed.

It's not illicit, narcotic or illegal.. and it keeps you up all night with ease laughing in the face of fatigue and slumber.

Ingredients are:

- A tablespoon of Nescafe Original Instant Powder / Granules
- A can of Diet Coca Cola

 

Instructions:

- Take the spoonful of coffee granules and chew rapidly

- Wash down with a diet coke drinking it as fast as you possibly can.

- Give 10 - 15 minutes for the Caffeine to kick in.

Having not tried this I cannot guarantee it works however these two guys were adamant it was superior to Pro Plus. I guess I have to put a disclaimer here NOT to try the above (unless you are crazy of course) especially if you have a dodgy ticker.

There you go; Romanian Speed information for all the long distance drivers out there.

Malacca, Malaysia

Melaka in Malay or as the Colonialists called it; Malacca..

So just back from the Christmas break and just before the Chinese New Year Rush (which, believe it or not Is a big thing in Asia....) me and Cindy decided to go to the wonderful city of Malacca on the west (well it’s central west-ish) of Peninsula Malaysia.

This was to be my third city visited in Malaysia, the 1^st being Cindy’s current place of residence Johor Bahru or JB as the locals call it and the 2^nd being Kuala Lumpur although we didn’t really go to Kuala Lumpur we kind of went to this weird Bermuda triangle of Kuala Lumpur only known to civilization as “The Curve”…will tell you all about that trip another time..

On the morning (well early afternoon) of Saturday 13^th January 2012 we jumped in her Civic, that’s right folks a Honda Civic and a nice one it is too, with the 2 Litre V-Tec engine, even has flappy paddles but she won’t use them because of the fuel consumption; doing her bit for the environment I suspect. On paper it was 2 hours or so to Malacca but as it always is the case with these type of car journeys it always takes longer than planned. Nevertheless the sun was shining, we had a full tank of fuel and wallets full of Ringgit, nothing was spoiling.

On the road to Malacca..

After the joyous road trip and getting slight lost in the early meters of the city centre we finally reached Malacca. Cindy had booked us a fantastically located hotel right on the main street in Malacca “Jonker Walk” and we were both in need of a bit of a break, those post Christmas Blues one gets when they realize they have to wait another 365 days for those festivities. Malacca is a rich city; I don’t mean rich in the context of wealth but in the context of culture, cuisine and history. This is where Stamford Raffles negotiated and acquired the Island of Singapura (Lion City) now known as Singapore in 1819. The Baba Nyonya’s (15th and 16th century Chinese immigrants in Indonesian Archipelago of Nusantara and Malacca] it also has elements of other colonialists such as those efforts of the Dutch and especially the Portuguese.

Originally built in 1521 as simply a chapel known as Nossa Senhora da Annunciada (Our Lady of Grace) or the Nossa Senhora da Annunciada (Our Lady of the Hill). The chapel was built by a Portuguese fidalgo or nobleman, Duarte Coelho, as an act of gratitude following his escape from a storm in the South China Sea.

The City is also known (as many Malaysian cities are) for their wonderful variety of food on offer, the variety and diversity in cuisine here also stems from the several invasions the Malaccans experienced by the Colonialists but also by the heavy Chinese populations inhabiting Malaysia. I did nothing but eat from the minute I arrived in Malacca to the minute I left, the calories consumed in 48 hours was simply   unquantifiable and thank fuck for that; I really do not want to know!  Below is a selection of some of the wonderful dishes I got to sample during the weekend:

Pai Tee - Seafood, Turnip, Chili Sauce in a crispy Nacho like cup

Baba Curry Mee

Cendol - Malaysian Brown Sugar based iced dessert dish

Portugese Egg Tart

After you have been in Johor Bahru it’s evident that Malaysia is made up of many nationalities, many , races, creeds, colours and religions but the three that stand out most are the Malays the Chinese and Indians. The Chinese have a huge influence across Asia and no less in the City of Malacca.

Chinese Pots in Jonker Street

Not only was it my first time in the wonderful little City of Malacca but it was also my first Chinese New Year since my move to Asia in August last year. For 2012 it was the year of the Dragon and a year of prosperity. I witnessed a spectacular show of the Dragon chasing the ball of prosperity through Jonker Walk right through the middle of the bustling night market; I also got to witness a display of Chinese musical accolade only moments after the passing of the Dragon which was also very beautiful and special to see.

Serenaded by a wonderful Chinese Orchestra - not the blurry face of death in the background :)

In the main stretch of Malacca (Jonker Walk) was a woman with no arms (lost below elbow) doing calligraphy. Yes, that's right no arms and yes doing calligraphy. She was doing customized pieces for passers by without a fixed price, cheap Singaporeans giving her 5 Ringgit for work. When I saw her in action and the amount of effort and human love she put into her work I had to get one done; I gave her 40 Ringgit for my piece.. To be honest, I don't exactly know what it says, my Chinese could do with improving somewhat but here it is in progress below:

I now have this piece framed on my wall

The current marketing and advertising slogan of the tourist board of Malaysia is “Malaysia Truly Asia” and from what I’ve seen so far it seems very similar to Singapore, notably less developed yes but similar in the sense it is a conglobation of cultures living together in harmony each bringing their own diversity to the nation; there are a few gems I saw in Malacca from Jonker Walk itself which contains some amazing food, colours and people, to the Mr. Malay statues, the Cavanthe Art Café, the Geographer Café, the beautiful and unique architecture 

Jonker Walk @ Chinese New Year

If anyone is visiting Malaysia, especially either the Johor Bahru or Kuala Lumpur areas you need to set aside a day or two to see and sample Malacca; what a wonderful place.

Just before I sign off I’d like to formally introduce all readers of this Blog to the lady in my life; the beautiful Malaysian Miss Cindy Ng:

Cindy in the centre of Malacca

In November last year while working for the Big D at our Tuas site in the west of Singapore close to the Malaysian Border a girl used to walk back and forth from the office of our 3PL and WMS company IDS past the entrance for the Diageo employees, I thought she was very pretty but thought also she had one of those faces, the boys will understand if I say one of those faces with “fuck off” written on it. Being the shy boy that I am I wrote a note and placed it under the windscreen wiper of her car telling her I thought she was very pretty and asking if she would like to go for dinner one day, signing off with my phone number and my email address and to my surprise I got a text back that evening saying she would love to go for dinner and as they say everything else after that is history. Four months later we’re still seeing each other and she’s the first one I’ve cared about this way since NL. 

It’s funny the fact Cindy actually saved me from that feeling you get when you go through a hard end to a relationship, the feeling that you will never find anyone to replace the previous one. I’m very cautious about using the L word after what happened with NL so I’ll refrain as long as I safely can but right now I’m writing this sitting in the passenger seat of her civic with the laptop on my knees glancing over at her every few words with a very strong urge to tell her I do, I need to be strong and keep the barrier up a little longer…just a little...

If you're unlucky enough to be my facebook friend; For a full set of pictures Click Here

Chrismast back in The Dam

First of all apologies for blogging about the past, It's the first of April and I am very much of aware of that bu I've been trying to find the time out of my busy capitalist life style to get on here..

Hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas and a great start to the New Year; we all know start as you mean to go on..should imagine a lot of you were extremely drunk when 2012 crept in as is the usual way to celebrate the most overrated time of the year..anyway, less negativity throughout the rest of the blog I promise.

..So it is the 27th year of my life as 2011 becomes 2012...sh*t...27? Slowly but surely creeping up to the big 30 - which scares the shit out of me but once some very intelligent  man once said "Time waits for no man" and they were not wrong. Alas.. onto my adventures below:

Singapore -> Amsterdam -> Sunderland -> Amsterdam -> Singapore 

So, a 14 hour flight back to Amsterdam but at the time to be honest I couldn't have cared if the flight was 140 hour I was desperate to get back to Amsterdam. Four months in Singapore and I was missing Europe as a whole never mind my special little friends at the Coffee Shops; luckily for me Claudio was on the same flight, we had both convinced our bosses it would be beneficial for us to work from Amsterdam over Christmas..ahem it in fact left us with more annual leave for 2012 and also to be back in Amsterdam was simply priceless; evenings spent in the clouds in the beautiful little city I used to call home..

The old hangout...Blues Brothers 

My time back in Amsterdam over the festive period was of mixed emotions; main emotion for me was that I had missed this dirty little windy city and its attributes both positive and negative and that I was indeed happy to be back, very happy. The second emotion was that of Sadness, Sadness that I didn't live here anymore; I spent two full years here, straight from University, I started to become a man here, I met wonderful people mainly inside work..which is where the sadness really kicked in. After the Big D made it's reorganization announcement last year the office where I had so many happy times has taken on a metamorphosis of depression, solitude and has this swamp like negative atmosphere induced by the simple fact the wonderful and diverse pool of people who made Customer Service what it was will soon go, May 31st and the entire CS Operations in Amsterdam will cease it exists. 

I am so thankful that I got to spend two years here; yes it was hard work; late into the evenings and on throughout some weekends but without all the strife I would not have meant the scores of wonderful people who aided me on my journey in life and the journey from boyhood into manhood.

Below a few pictures of some of the great people I miss..

Claudio Claps (Left) and Marijn Baaij (Right) - The Handsome Duo 

The lovely Serbian Jelena Dzida

The beautiful Slovakian Erik Linhartova - before you ask, no I didn't..

Rebecca Smith (Left) and Diedre White (Right)

The Epic wonderful and perpetually lovely Dieuwke Swain - hope she doesn't get offended but kind of my like my substitute Mother away from home :)

"Do not dwell on the past, do not dream to the future, concentrate the mind on the present moment" - Buddha

If any of my old colleagues or friends from Amsterdam are reading this, thank you for everything and I will see you again :)

Thanks for reading...
TGM

Sunbeam Orphanage

A few weeks late in writing this up but been a busy old week at the Big D again (when is it not?)

A few months ago an email came out regarding a Supply Chain Christmas Celebration; mindlessly I signed it up for it; basically if it's not in direct relationship with my job or the items I have to do on a daily basis the usual practice is I never have time to read it so I either delete it, archive it (parking it in corporate lingo) or I mindlessly accept / respond and in this case it was the latter.

On Friday 9th December the day was here, the celebration was here and we were booked in the morning for the 2nd Annual Big D Ethics Day - I won't bore you with all the nitty gritty details of this exuberant day but gladly it were only half a day and were scheduled to finish at 12. In the afternoon as part of the Celebrations we were booked to go to a Child’s Orphanage near the Malaysian Border called Sunbeam. I didn’t really do much (any) research on it and when the time came I used the usual excuse of I’ve too much work to take half another half day out but I didn't resist too hard and before I knew it was nearly 1.30pm and we were approaching the location for the day. 

It was a beautiful day in Singapore on Friday 9th December 2011; I jumped off the bus with the others and it was 32 Degrees outside; the sun was bouncing off the pavement and the place we'd been taken too were serene; akin to those really posh Garden Centers you see in the countryside of the UK. The itinerary for the day was basically to help bake cookies with the kids of the orphanage, eat with them, then a balloon artist and a face painting pro were coming in to entertain the kids this was then followed by a Big D only after work drink and mini celebration. Needless to say with my phobia of Children I was dreading it and  running through my head over and over again why I'd accepted the invite as it wasn’t even mandatory.

I was part of Table 5; when we arrived we were all assigned a specific child to sit with for the day. Mine was an 11 year old Indian / Singaporean lad called Gabriel and my first observation with this kid was his energy levels were through the roof and in comparison with some of the other kids close by I felt I was being punished for a conglomeration of past sins by being assigned to this one. He was loud, obnoxious, and rude and oh did I mention energetic? 

We started making the cookies and over time he seemed to rely on me for the complicated things; when I say complicated we had 4 ingredients and it was one of the easiest recipes in the history of mankind but he seemed uneasy with some of the tasks such as rolling out the final mixture for shape cutting etc. We worked together as an epic team and churned out a ridiculous volume of cookies which we sent off for baking to revisit later for the icing competition. I tried to be as friendly as possible so was addressing him as bro to which one particular comment he retorted "I’m not your bro, you're white and I’m brown" I had to struggle not to laugh out loud. So I switched the bro to dude and everything seemed more manageable from them on. The balloon artist came and the face painter and the kids had to queue for both. My kid was desperate for a balloon. So I decided to go queue for him; I asked him what he wanted for a Balloon and as if it was a magic lamp with three wishes these were his requests:

2 x Swords - I Purple and 1 Brown

1 x Train - Red and Blue in Colour with three x passenger cars and a cargo car carrying coal.

1 x Vacuum Cleaner

I managed to get him a train and an awesome one it was...

Thomas the Tank Engine - Or an attempt at it anyway;
this is a basic train and looked more complex that Astro Physics during creation..

On a side note; has anyone recently seen a balloon artist or magician or whatever the sugared job title is for them now? They're AMAZING to watch! It's akin to witchcraft I have to say...

I wanted to get my face painted into something sinister or maybe match the Spider Man T-Shirt I was wearing with some Spidey face paint but the queue was too long and didn't want to take the fun away from the kids.

On the way back from the balloon artists to my table; a few of the girls at the Sunbeam centre wanted me to sit with them and in fact told me I looked like Edward out of Twilight? They complimented me on my handsomeness and also on the fairness of my skin. Then I got very uncomfortable when they started asking me for face book details and to kiss them!! It was strictly communicated by those above beforehand that contact details were not to be given and I would have gone to jail for the kissing! A part of me wanted to say "give me a call in 10 years time" but I thought it wasn't appropriate so kept my mouth closed…I'm learning.

After the balloon artist and face painters it was time for us to decorate the cookies we'd made earlier. We got a selection of M&Ms and coloured Icing and basically just had to go for it to make the craziest shapes and colour combinations possible. Gabriel didn't really like getting his hands dirty so I took care of most of the icing for him (I enjoyed it perhaps a little too much). After the icing was done we gave out gifts to the children and said our goodbyes. 

For me it was a joyous day; a day I've never experienced before and my buddy Gabriel (can officially call him Bro now as by the end of the day there was a definitely a connection) he thanked me for my time and wished me a very merry Christmas and asked me to come back again someday. On my departure he gave me his balloon (pictured above) and one of his cookies.. I had to rush off into a shitty work call with Scotland and missed the actual waving the kids off but I felt extremely touched and in a potentially selfish nutshell felt like I had helped someone and done something worthwhile in my life. Even if it just was for an afternoon.

The epic Christmas Tree Cookie By Gabriel complete with missing M&M

Another lesson I learned this day; was how fortunate I was as a child; never wanting for anything and made me feel a bit ashamed of those tantrums I had thrown when I got the Die Hard Trilogy Game for my Play Station and not the Original Resident Evil game I'd asked for. What a douche I was as a child.

Happy Holidays everyone.

Jack

Doei Nederland, Hello-lah Singapore

It’s been almost a 5 month hiatus since I updated this blog, I’ve been meaning to do it almost every single week since my last update but as they say “time waits for no man” and it certainly doesn’t show me any favoritism. 

So, some big big updates since I last posted on this blog: What can only be described as an online diary; partly for my own entertainment and for those who are bored enough to read it or those unfortunate souls who come across it by accident.  

I guess the biggest change in my life is that I moved, I moved from Diageo Brands BV and I moved from beautiful Amsterdam all the way to South East Asia on the next part of my journey. I’m sitting here typing this blog on the public transport system in my sunny new home town of Singapore. 

Let me side track for a second by saying highlighting the Singapore Public transport rail system otherwise known as the MRT (Mass Rapid Transport) – try if you can to imagine being a sardine or an anchovy in a tin of the said fish you buy from the supermarket or even better imagine a packet of cigarettes, machine packaged into your little cardboard box, it’s just like that – and it’s like that pretty much every hour of every day. The Singaporeans in my new work team give me the condolences that “it’s better than Hong Kong” and maybe it is but I’m in Singapore and I f**king hate their public transport system. It’s not inefficient, slow, late or expensive – all the usual complaints us Europeans would highlight it’s just the fact it’s so busy all of the time!

Anyway…. enough of my complaints (for now), the Big D as I like to call it in blogs to try and avoid vindicating myself from negative comments I may be inclined to make have had a reorganization or a change of operating model; whatever corporate sugar you want to sprinkle on it. They decentralized their customer operations as part of the Supply Chain from Amsterdam into the respective markets and just my luck; Asia was the first market in scope. I remember hearing rumors back in May this year that this would happen after the first reorganization of the demand side of the business in Amsterdam and on a Sunny day in June we were pulled into a meeting room and given the “bad” news. The reaction as you can expect was mixed but surprised how tolerable the reaction was from those impacted; if it had been a room full of Mackems or Geordies it would have been very different; trust me. 

So not quite sure what I want to do with myself, with my career or my life I decided to apply for the new roles posted in Asia, pot luck really as I’ve made a few big mistakes in the early part of my career and surprised this was not held against me. To cut a long story short (and to remove all the BS) in the end I got the role and was the only person to move from Amsterdam over to Singapore in the first phase. It all happened very quickly and with rather lucky timing to be honest (Claudio my good Italian friend and roommate also moved over a week before me and our living accommodation had expired right on time). At the end of August, on a sunny Friday afternoon I said my goodbyes to my colleagues in Amsterdam (teary eyed as is usual practice for Jack in these types of situations) and on the 29^th August I took my flight from Schipol destined for Singapore.

The Boeing 737 taking me away from Amsty..

 I landed safe and sound on the sun scorched pavements of Singapore (my first time in Asia actually – quite brave / stupid – feel free to decide) happy to see some of the colonialist actions carried out by the British were still evident (driving on the correct side of the road was the first one I have to mention). I pretty much hit the ground running and started working the day after I arrived. The Big D had arranged for a rather nice studio apartment for me on the 27^th floor of a building close to work at a cost of 7,000 SGD (3,500 GBP) per month which I was very glad I didn’t have to pay – especially considering the place was 30m2 if that but my God It had one hell of a view..

View from the 27th Floor of the One North Bridge apartment building

The first month passed extremely quickly and of course; good things never last; the apartment rented for me was only for a month and post this month of holiday feeling I had to find myself a place to stay; obviously in true Jack style I left everything to the last minute and before I knew it found myself homeless in South East Asia. It was this point where I had to rely on the Italian, the tricolore, one of the nicest guys and epic friends any guy would be lucky to have. Claudio put me up for a week in his place him and his girlfriend were living in…unfortunately I had to play Gooseberry for a week but hey beggers’ can’t be choosers can they? 

During this period I was frantically searching for permanent residency, partly to held out Claudio as I didn’t want to impose on him and his girl any longer but mainly for my state of mind. I guess I follow the Maslow hierarchy more than I ever though and I need a permanent place of residence, somewhere to put my books and hang my coat in order to function properly. During this period of uncertainty I just wasn’t myself at work and was feeling pretty down in the dumps.

I eventually found an epic place; what they call a Condo Apartment here in Singapore, it’s basically shared accommodation in a semi-up market style (i.e. non Government buildings or HDB’s they call them here). It was in a place called Kembangang and had an infinity pool on the roof, a Jacuzzi and a BBQ pit for pleasure. The room was only 550 GBP per month and considering Id been paying 100 quid more a month back in the shitty place I was living in Amsterdam this made a fresh and delightful change. 

Unfortunately I lost out to a pair of boobs; trying not to be sexist here for the possibility of a wider audience but it was a single French guy renting out the place and If I was in his shoes I’d probably have done the same thing. Anyway two good things came out of this viewing; one I met a really cool Filipino guy (the guy who was leaving the apartment) called Oryx who has one of the most beautiful English accents I’ve heard for a non native, almost poetic with a twist of South African. The second good thing to come out of this was the fact that he recommended me to his two friends who were looking for a new roommate and alas this is the place I stay now, in other words it was because of this chance meeting that I’m now living in an epic condominium in a place called Paya Lebar (which means White Swamp in Malay), so if you’re reading this Oryx; thanks a million!

The epic Swimming Pool I have to put up with every day :

 I’ve now been living in this Condo for a couple of months now and I have to say I probably wouldn’t still be here in Singapore or at the Big D for that fact if it wasn’t for Oryx and this new place. I live with two American guys, well when I say American it’s in the most general tone possible – both have American accents but in reality one of them is Mexican (Enrique) and the other a French Canadian (Nico) both of whom are working for 3D Effects companies making and rendering special effects and animation for movies, video games, TV etc. One of those really cool jobs we would all love to do if we’d studied hard enough at school or had the dedication to go for. 

Ok so that’s it for now; we have an up and coming positively gonna be epic BBQ this Saturday (3^rd December 2011) at the BBQ Pits in the Condo with about 40 – 50 people coming. It’s going to be a mash up. Will keep you updated ;) oh and another thing – I must try and post more often to minimize the length of these posts – no one likes reading an essay right?

Peace,

Jack