Dear friends,

 This blog is again written in English... we’ve met more and more people, so it’s fair that they can read the stories which I write about them. It’s already a long time since I wrote my last story—almost two weeks! As a result this log will be quite extensive, sorry in advance... :-D

 I’ll start with Friday July 15^th. It’s already a long time ago, but I remember that Yew Lim, Edwin and I went ‘clubbing’ on Orchard Rd., a paradise for ‘shopaholics’ and people who like to party! First we went to an outdoor café, because the queue in front of the China Black was far too long! After some relaxed talks we entered the disco without waiting... it was different than the Zouk which we’ve visited here in June. Here we encountered more locals and less tourists. And, of course, it’s always nice to meet some Asian boys and girls. After some Carlsberg beers—which are not so good as Heineken—we started dancing and playing some beer games with Yew Lim... probably we’ll play them someday in Eindhoven too. After Yew Lim left, because he has forgotten his keys, we stayed for another hour and went home for a restful sleep.

 Saturday became a day to arrange some matters. We needed to book tickets for the coach to Kuala Terengganu from where we’ll continue to Pulau Lang Tengah (an island in northeast Malaysia) by cab and boat. We tried to get those tickets in Singapore’s biggest shopping mall Suntec City Mall, but Transnasional’s branch over there is closed since a while. Because we were very thirsty and promised Michael—our German colleague—to get some info about the famous Sunday Brunch, we visited the Paulaner Bräuhaus to enjoy a freshly brewed German beer: they maintain there own microbrewery to brew Munich’s Paulaner. Our main question: are the tales about a brunch with free flow of beer for less than S$ 35,- true? Yes, so we should plan to go there with our colleagues at A*STAR! We got our tickets at the (international) bus station at Lavender Street where we also found a hawker centre with delicious food.

 After a really splendid meal we walked to Farrer Park MRT station to go to Sentosa where we wanna have some fun with Jazz by the Beach, although we were soaked up by a shopping center which is open for 24 hours a day: yes, it was Mustafa... we stayed there for about one and a half hour, bought some fine goods—for example my original Wham-O frisbee made of recycled shoe rubber—and cancelled our trip to Sentosa. We were at home on time, but managed it to go to bed at 2.00 am—chatting with family and friends was the main reason for the delay. :-)

 Wednesday we went for a drink in a pub with a total new concept: the Eski Bar. As you can expect, it’s very cold over there (about minus 3° C) which was very nice in tropical Singapore. When you bring with your own winter coat you’ll receive 10% discount on the drinks! Of course I showed my The North Face jacket which did his work very well. Unfortunately I don’t have any pictures of the waitresses who weared nice coats with (artificial) fur collar. And finally, I shouldn’t forget the really nice claypot rice suggested by Yew Lim which made up our dinner before the polar experience!

 Next day we had to struggle with some bad news... according to A*STAR’s human resource dept. it was necessary to visit the Ministry of Manpower to extend our training visit pass. Regrettably we were ready to go to Pulau Lang Tengah—all our bags were already packed—and we didn’t want to postpone our trip. However, after some conversations with our secretary we decided to go to the Malaysian island next week (our Malaysian travel agency Ping Anchorage postponed our journey without charging any fines). We returned home with our bags, took a taxi to Lavender Street to cancel our coach, bought new tickets for about 75 Singapore dollars, had meal at the same nice hawker center, and watched Sin City in Cathay Cineplexes to forget all disappointments of today. The movie was very nice, in my opinion it’s a real piece of art. Nevertheless I think that the connections between the different stories are much too vague.

 Again we had to arrange some things regarding our weekend, because we first had the idea to be on ‘holiday’... we changed our (not) weekly party with colleagues to this friday and the Sunday Brunch at the Paulaner Bräuhaus to this sunday! Happily everyone could change their plans... :-D The friday night party started at an Indian vegetarian fast food restaurant which I should really visit with my sister and brother-in-law who will visit Singapore on September 4^th and 5^th. Thereafter we visited subsequently the Introbar at Swissôtel The Stamford, the Next Page pub and the Liquid Room. I enjoyed it and needed to rest till 1.30 pm next day! Zzz...

 Saturday July 23^rd we visited Sentosa, again! It’s just so nice to go there... we already got some tickets for the Dolphin Lagoon together with the entrance of Underwater World which we visited the Sunday before—both sights are on Sentosa. After viewing the act of the dolphins we—finally—went to Sentosa’s jazz festival Jazz by the Beach. After sharing four Italian style pizzas—much better than the ones from the USA—at Trapizza with Qi Yong and his friend, who leaves to Sweden next month, Eddy and I suggested them to try some real Dutch beer: Grolsch. Yong liked it... “It’s much more spicey!” he said.

 We went to bed early, because Sunday should be an exhausting day... it was time for the Sunday Brunch which started at 11.30 am. Summarizing, we have time to eat sausages (and, of course, other German food) and drink Paulaner for ample three hours. :-D It was really great... next to Yong, Yew Lim, Michael and Pamela, Klaus (Michael and Pamela’s friend from Germany), Desmond and Susan (they also work at Biopolis) and Igor (a Russian colleague from A*STAR) with his family also joined the brunch. Es war ein wundervolles Bierfest! And it wasn’t over yet, we stayed the whole day in the Paulaner Bräuhaus and had a lot of joy...

 Last, but not least I came with the idea to prepare some Dutch pancakes at Michael and Pamela’s condo... Of course, the first ones are not always as good as you wanted, but after a while I even dared to turn the pancakes in the air! Together with a small barrel of Heineken beer this was the perfect closing of a German/Dutch day... I won’t forget this day in the near feature thanks to our magnificent souvenir, a CD called Wiesn Hits 2002 with German Oktoberfest music. I’m really satisfied and would like to cite the world’s ‘best’ soccer player ever: “Every disadvantage yields profit!”

 Tomorrow (Friday July 29^th) we’ll after all travel to Pulau Lang Tengah... In the morning we’ll pack our bags and think about the latest (?) refinements to our algorithm which automatically should register two MRI data sets with each other.

 Check the photos of our trip around Tuesday... :-P

Cheerio,
Joris

 And, especially for Wouter, did you know that we enjoyed four marvellous dinners this week? Monday Yong and his friend brought us to a hawker centre in the neighbourhood of Red Hill MRT station for some traditional Chinese/S’porean dishes; Tuesday Edwin, Michael, a colleague and I lunched at Raj, an Indian vegetarian restaurant which serves very good food—Marije should visit this one too; in the evening—thanks to Yong—we found a place to eat one of our favourite dishes (lemon chicken w/ rice) and today we ate lasagna with the interns during lunch at a Pizza Hut branch in Clementi.

 Did you know that the servers at Raj (yes, the vegetarian restaurant) buy their lunch at totally non-vegetarian Burger King?

 Did you know that I met a Singaporean girl who fights for her customer rights in bureaucratic S’pore?