a.false.alarm.and.christmas.market

you are jet setting again today, to a northern city - edinburgh.  on your arrival, after the immigration passport check, you rush to the toilet because of the nature's call. then you walk out the international arrival and hop on to a taxi to your client. somehow you decided to reach your handbag for something by then you kinda realize your passport is not in the inner compartment. panic. stressed. you check thoroughly once, twice and you ask the driver to turn back to airport. after some moment of inquiries and calls, you finally being directed to the right counter.  you expressed that you lost your passport and you suspect it is left in the toilet in the arrival hall. but thanked God that you got it back in no time. phew!!! false alarm. you were worried what if you couldn't find it, would you be trap in edinburgh, can you still fly back to malaysia in two weeks... what if, what if... anyway, thanked God that things didn't go that track...

fast forward, you checked in to your favorite hotel in the city center and went out to explore the city (of course) and much to your surprise you found a christmas market at the princes garden along the princes street.

 the big wheel

 an atmospheric christmas market at the foot hill of edinburgh castle, there is a ice ring in the princes garden ...

 brewed wine is served here too...

and a christmas crystal ball, except this is in human size....

carousel and many more....

it rains shortly after and the wind is becoming stronger and stronger. you decided to walk back to your hotel and stop by waterstone for some book browsing and call it a day.

it's a nice prologue to a anglo saxon christmas market and this saturday you are going to visit one too in germany.

capturing.november

november come and go so fast. so many things happened in a month that i have not been able to capture.

to start with, we had very good weather in november. lot of sunshine, bright and clear sky days.

 and i enjoyed walking in parks on a good day to capture the fallen leaves

then a pleasant business trip to paris for training and shopping in between ^^

on one occasion we made ourselves this japenese curry that full of fall colors. and then before long...

there are a number of days where the entire lowland is hovered and covered by a thick layer of mist

and two business trips to geneva.

followed by a last minute decision for baptism on a saturday before the two trips, and a rather sick me....

he took this picture while we were in the emergency room.  i may be smiling in this picture but i am actually in pain that i have to admitted to the emergency room...

it's been a roller coaster month, and surely i am just going to focus on the positive things (contentment) and december will be better.

::birds::

no, you didn't make this cake. this cake came as a gift from your SIL who recently been to a cake decoration workshop.

you thought it's really pretty and brighten your autumn gloomy day. you love the pink and green combi, very spring and almost transport you to the cherry blossom time in japan.

and the pink fresh flower matches too ^^

just by admiring the decoration and the little birds, you were reminded of a scripture in the bible. it's amazing how your God sometime use every ordinary thing to communicate to you. it's a blessing ^^

look at the birds in the sky: they do not sow, or reap, or gather into barns, yet your heavenly Father feeds them. aren't you more valuable than they are? (matthew 6:26)

it's yummy, you each had a portion as breakfast the next morning. and for the rest you brought it to the church to share. sharing is caring after all.

thank you SIL.
==
finally went to gym today, didn't do the zumba as that is a power exercise and you need to regain your stamina before you can go back to zumba.  it's a good sweat and more sweat from sauna too.
happy monday!
===

quality.time

you have been traveling so much that you hardly eat out together. last night dinner was impromptu. you already had a lunch with your girlfriends in utrecht and least thing you want is to eat out again considering you have been eating out almost everyday since last wednesday.
nevertheless, it's a right decision to dine out to spend some time together.

steamed jumbo oysters with ginger and onion

another two jumbo oysters steamed in salted black bean sauce

a deep fried soft shell crab with chili, garlic and onion （避风塘炒软壳蟹） but this was disappointing and you were glad that you only ordered one crab instead of three as originally intended. the crab was soaked in oil. the garnish was however delicious.

you favorite cantonese style chinese spinach in broth with salted and century egg. you ordered this dish a lot during the last trip to hong kong.

fish head and tofu claypot, seriously yummy especially when you pour some gravy over the rice

a mini squid dim sum for him, not really your cup of tea especially you just had dim sum for lunch.

you were both tired from a week of work but nonetheless, it's a quality time together, just you and him with simple food that appeal to both of you on a saturday late night dinner.

it's now sunday night, you are still fatigue and tired from your traveling. thankfully that you only need to jet set on wednesday onwards. you are counting down, two more weeks, two more business trips and you are done with your work in 2011 ^^.

have a blessed week ahead!

::contentment::

exactly a week ago. after the baptism you went from amsterdam to helmond. to meet a very special and renowned speaker from america.  it's a bit of long drive but you wanted to go any how.

she preached about discontentment and contentment from philippians chapter 4 that God wants us to live in contentment despite of the battles we are in. contentment will bring forth peace of God because it is a sign that God is in control of the situation because we can do all things through Christ who strengthen us.

• you were reminded once again that you can do all things through Christ who strengthen you.
• you learned that what you think about is what will control you and that what you talk about becomes magnify. so if you talk about your problem your problem becomes magnify. if you talk more about your blessings, you blessings multiply.
• you read in the bible that david said "magnify the lord with me". so discontentment will destroy you.
• you learned in genesis, sarah allows barrenness to control her. and thus a decision is made based on what you don't have (discontentment).

you are made aware of the causes of discontentment:

• unrealistic expectation - believe that everything must be perfect
• selfishness - all about us
• ungratefulness - we are spoil and ungrateful
• many more....

to live in contentment philippians 4:4-8 are the key versus

• you learn to live a life of rejoicing, a life of praise. for the level of praise is the level of your victory
• you realize that happiness is not depends on your circumstances
• you will focus on the 90 percent of the contentment in your life and not on the 10 percent of imperfection.
• you know that the Lord is near and He is here
• you will start praying with thanksgiving, pray in what you believe God will do. 
• you learn that you are not waiting on God but God is waiting on you.

so today, you may be sick (discontentment) but you give thanks for the healing that you will receive (contentment).

::spotlight::

posters at client's place

you were put in the spotlight at a client's presentation.
you argued last week with the team that the solution is not viable. yet it's like a battle that you cannot win. you gave up and flow along and compose the solution base on the sales assumptions. and true enough as soon as you present you first slide, you were being bombarded by the client that you don't understand their requirements. and what they explained is exactly what you have been fighting and arguing with the internal team.

posters at breakout area, aren't the posters cool?

you were put in a spotlight, not a pleasant one unfortunately. nevertheless, once  they saw your second slide, they calm down a little as your second slide depicts exactly what they want now, not in the future. a guy made a comment that your team are not being honest from start. not a nice comment, even though the comment is not personally to you but you have to take it because you were presenting. in the spotlight.

beef wellington and apple tart for lunch at client's canteen

anyway, it's never your intention to talk about work here but as you continue with the next topic, you can see the customer started to trust you and gain confident in what they saw and heard from you. So, all in all you reputation is not at stake. are you going to the next level of the game? you don't know, it's not your problem because you are not in sales. you do have good feeling at the end when you leave the meeting although the meeting is not over when you left. by the time you went for lunch with them, they are friendly again and you managed to enjoy the beef wellington to the fullest.

anyway, you had two small pate pies.

these mini pies are real good and gave you a sense of satisfaction after a day standing in the spotlight.

and a fruity verrine as your dinner knowing that you will not get any food from klm flight.

will you come to geneva again? well, who knows, if you are qualified for next round you will be back again, if not it's okay even though you never got to see the jet d' eau in person because the meeting room is at lower lower ground today.

::teppanyaki::

 you haven't eat teppanyaki for a very long time.  not even once during your stay in tokyo as you were more into korean bbq than teppanyaki.

this trip to geneva, with same group of colleagues from last week, you had teppanyaki at the japanese restaurant in the hotel.

 the chef lit a flame on the salmon as expected. you were rather amuse and start taking photograph

 and then a showcase of cutting skill, you started the conversation if the chef is actually japanese or chinese. at the end of the show, you found out from the chef that he is filipino who worked and lived in japan for a long time.

your swiss colleague ordered salmon, you had your beef steak, your german colleague preferred scallop and your other dutch colleague had beef sirloin. you don't expect wagyu here in switzerland but you know the swiss beef is renowned for its high quality meat too..

 more light and flame on your beef before the final plate up

at the end of the showcase, each of you got a plate with some vegetables and shared among yourselves.  you had your beef with swiss white riesling, although it may not be the right combination but the riesling is really a joy to drink especially when the switzerland vineyard is so limited. so this particular riesling is a gem,  fresh and floral, you can literally smell the sunshine from the glass but it is absolutely dry. a very rare wine indeed.

geneva is extremely expensive city.  this meal costs for more than 600 chf, expensive huh? you count it a blessing to be able to enjoy good food without paying from your own pocket. and this meal is certainly not cheap.

tomorrow is going to be an early start, you will be pick up at 7am and the oral presentation starts at 8am. it's going to be a long day but you will have the chance to see the famous jet d' eau from the client's office (hopefully).

from hakodate to sapporo

another old post that didn't get published. i am currently in geneva (again) working on closing a deal, this is most likely for the last time unless we move forward to the next stage. anyhow, another tale of the northern kingdom.

===
you took a shinkansen, you leave a day earlier because you have seen enough of hakodate (函館) - a delightful port city with engagingly trickery old trams, a gentrified harbor district and deservedly famous seafood. but you have done them all in two days, so a day earlier to sapporo (札幌).

the train bound for sapporo calling at many stations that you are so familiar with. onuma national park (大沼国定公園), toya (洞爺), muroran (室蘭), date (伊達市), noburibetsu(登別), and finally reaching sapporo (札幌).

the train journey along the west line brought you through the lake, the sea/ocean, the mountains scenes yet vulnerable.

you feel you are so small in the present of the nature. small because your God the creator of heaven and earth is greater and mighty.

you know that if ever another tsunami struck while you are on the train along the coastal track, you will be gone but that's okay. you have live your purpose here. perhaps you have not done your very best but you are doing your part. where you dwell in the word of God, the world surrounding you just changed complete. you are at peace, the word of God rooted your spirit.

{wordless}.daikanyama.代.官.山