Bye bye 2006

I am just packing my luggage and preparing for my short road trip in the good old Malaysia. It has been flooded these days; hopefully it will be a good trip with sunshine and not rain. I greeted 2006 in Malaysia and will be greeting 2007 there as well. Looking back, it seems that this year past soooo fast, on the other hand so many things happened in my life; because of this it seems that it was a long journey.

I have very mixed feelings about this year. It was not a linear year but with a lot of ups and downs. The good thing is that I learned a lot of new things this year and I have been through a lot of good experiences. I managed to try a lot of new things such as diving (and many others:) ). I managed to travel to nice places and meet nice people. However the second part of the year was a bit rocky and therefore I am glad that a new year is coming and things can have a new fresh start.

Some travel plans are already lined up for the new year, I am going home for a short visit in February. Visit me between 15-25th of feb in my nice hometown and up in the snowy mountains :) If I am still in Singapore, then my next trip back will be on the 8th of September.

What else... hmmmm.... I have some new year resolutions as well, but let these be my own little secrets, hehe :):):)

I wish you all a Happy New Year and may all your wishes (except the ones including my death :):), etc) come true in this coming year.

Asta la vista baby!

Kellemes Karácsonyi Ünnepeket

Wednesday we had a party in our office building and I was just enjoying myself in the coolest bar in Singapore which happens to be on the ground level of our office when I felt a strange smell. I thought that I am dreaming, but no, it was the smell of a real pine tree, a real Christmas tree. So I rushed to the tree and started smelling it and it felt like being back home on the Hargita or in the room back home on Christmas Eve. It is the best gift Santa could bring to Singapore, the smell of Christmas at home.

I wish you all a very Merry Christmas. Craciun Fericit! Kellemes Karácsonyi Ünnepeket!

And if Santa will not get to you, then you know why. Check this video :)

Video: Merry Christmas

Rain

It is raining for the past 3 days. And it is not the usual rain, but the heavy tropical one. Sometimes it is raining so heavily that you can’t see more then 100 meters. I was walking on east coast on Sunday and one of these heavy “showers” got me there. In one minute I was completely wet, I had to dry my phone and wallet after that. I was 2 km away from home, so I just had a nice walk in the rain while my shoes were full of water :) I started singing and could not help thinking about dancing in the rain :):):)

I have quite an active life here in Singapore, but now I just go to work and after that I stay at home; it feels very strange. I enjoyed the first two days, because I just read my book, I was listening to the music and enjoying my cinnamon candles. But now I kind of feel that I need to go running or rollerblading or do some sports; I feel that I need to be outside and do something that keeps me close to nature and keeps me active. Otherwise I will become lazy and bored. I already forgot those times in Netherlands when it was raining every day and it was windy and cold. I think after a while you adapt to any weather conditions and if it changes, you feel that it is not “normal”.

This weather makes me feel very melancholic and my mood is definitely influenced by it. But will see the sun again, can’t wait the weekend to stay on the beach and enjoy the sun :):):) I can’t wish for a white Christmas, so I wish a very sunny Christmas :):):)

This view greeted me this morning. It felt like the end of the world is coming but it was just some storm and rain. The ocean was beautiful, it had this blue/greenish colour and still before the storm, no waves, no currents. A perfect picture of "calm before the storm". I have never seen like this it before, though the first thing I do in the morning is to check the ocean. The Nature is Wonderful!!!

"Stoned"

The Million Dollar Christmas Tree...

I had some issues this week with blogger or the ftp server; anyway I did not manage to post and to reply to comments. I managed today as I migrated to the beta version of the new blogger :)

Anyway, not much is happening now in my life (till the next salary, hehe), just the usual activities, like sports and some house parties :)

I was bitching quite a lot about the whole Christmas bonanza in Singapore and how fake it feels for me that everything is decorated with Christmas lights and trees and angels and everything you can imagine. Taking into the consideration that it is not a Christian country, I think they are doing more then one could expect(!).

However what is too much is too much, even if I know that they try really hard to be unique and outstanding. In one of the malls there is this Christmas tree with diamonds and crystals. See some facts about it:

But if this is the meaning of Christmas here (and this tree I think perfectly represents what Christmas is here), then no thanks, don’t want it!!! Especially withouth the snow :)

The Movie Star :):):)

Psss….. psss….. silence….. a new superstar has been borne today. What can one do on a Sunday in Singapore? Go for a movie shoot and launch itself in the movie industry, hehe :):) Lele, if you need some actors or some crew for your movie then you know who to contact :):):)

I have been to some photo shoots and some TV commercial shoots, but I think I would not mind at a certain point of my life to get engaged in the production of a whole movie. It is a totally different ballgame and I think that would be quite a lot of fun. Though if you have bad crew, then you have to do the same scene again and again and again.
Autographs will be given at the launch of the movie, hehe :):):)

P.S.: No, it is not a porn movie!!!

Time...

Since I live in Singapore, I have a feeling that time has stopped somehow. There are no seasons here (except rainy and very rainy) and this gives you the feeling that it is continuous summer. Maybe because it is continuous summer here, hehe. Just realized that it is December already and that we just celebrated the New Year and just can’t feel that time has passed. I just realized how much our sense of time is linked to the change of the seasons back in Europe and now it feels like still being august – late September. I feel that I am a bit confused and that this lack of change in seasons takes away a bit the sense of urgency as well from my life.

Back home usually you would put your milestones according to the change of seasons (get married till summer, learn Japanese till winter, the dog will have little puppies till spring). Here this is missing and sometimes it feels that can’t link the things happening in my life to something. Even though looking back I know that much more things are happening in my life now (or at least in the past year). One idea I just had is that I put on my desktop pictures with the current European season. Any other ideas to this issue before I get totally lazy and will just stay on the beach whole year round?

Boat Party

The good thing with Singapore, that there is always something new you can try and do. I got an invitation last week for a boat party, so I said that it is a must try. Well, not sure if it was a boat, or a ship, or a yacht but it was fairly nice. It is called Harbor Queen and apparently this beauty has hosted dignitaries like Queen Elizabeth II and other party people:)

Basically we just left Singapore and cruised around the southern islands for few hours while we could party on the three levels of the boat (party deck, smoochers deck and open-top moon deck, with full moon that night):):):).

It is a very interesting concept and the crowd was quite open to have fun, so I think it is a party that needs to be repeated hehe:) At the certain point though you might not know whether the boat is moving because you drunk too much or because the waves get high:) It is cool to have a drink and feel the nice breeze, have fresh air, see Singapore from distance and enjoy the sea :):):).The only bad thing about boat parties is that if you want to go home early, then you have to swim a bit. But then, who would want to leave early with such a nice crew on board?

Celebration of national day? Maybe…

Today is the country’s national day. Today the Romanians celebrate the “unification” of Romania in 1918. Now, not all people in Romania celebrate this event. Therefore for me it is a bit stupid that this date was chosen as the national day. Because a national day should engage each citizen, or should be relevant to them at least. But it is not for around 7% of the population. More then that, it is considered a tragedy for 7% of the population, more like a national day of mourning.

Transylvania was part of Hungary till this day, and this unification after the First World War meant that this land became part of Romania. Transylvania basically was a gift for Romania for its role in the second part of the “Big Fight”. Before this day in Transylvania the majority of the population was Hungarian (Transilvanya considered as old traditional province and not in the form considered today)and since then it started the “reshaping” of the population which lead to a majority of Romanian population nowadays. 1/5th of the Hungarians went to Hungary right after the unification and later more in a forced way the ethnic % has been changed (especially during the communism).

For the Hungarians this “unification” is a tragedy because it means separation from the mother land and the ethnic changes following this. I think the best books about this were written by Wass Albert (available in English on Amazon). The dude is highly controversial (charged with war crimes by Romania); however his books are very good, they describe very well what happened in the period after that. I heard a lot about this period from my grandfather as well and his books are just like those stories of him.

I think it is not a lack of patriotism, or it is not nationalism the fact the Hungarians can’t celebrate this day. I think it is natural and therefore I think the national day should be another day, which is more relevant to the entire population. For example could be the Revolution in 1989 instead, where all the nations were fighting the communism together.

I understand why it is a reason to celebrate for Romanians and it makes sense for them for sure, but is never likely to be a celebration for Hungarians.

The embassy here in Singapore had an event where I hoped to eat some Romanian food, but unfortunately they did not have any this time. And I think it was not the most successful event (boring speeches, bad food, etc) but it was good to see some old friends and to catch up on what’s going on at home. And the room was nicely decorated, this ice thing was really really cool.

And some Romanian wine tasting:
Happy celebration my Romanian friends!