Christmas Day in Brussels

The two-hour early morning journey by Eurostar from London St Pancras International near Kings Cross to Brussels was not really comfortable. Whoever own the rail company really try to pack up as many passengers as possible for the sake of profit. Most of the seats face each other and the leg room was restrictive. I noticed that Europeans with long legs have to place them on the aisle! What was more disconcerting was when you had to travel against direction of train and face to face with strangers especially a "hot couple". The premier class was the same except they had newspapers so I decided to travel standard class. My left knee was aching. That was on 24 December 2008. The actual undersea channel tunnel crossing was only about 30 minutes.

Upon arrival, we took a cab to our hotel, the Royal Windsor located near the Grand Place. It cost us Eur 7.80. The driver was a Moroccan who only spoke French and he was listening to a nasyid-like song called "Thank you Allah" which sounded like a local group Raihan.

On 25 December I woke up to the ringing of church bells, so loud that they set off cars' alarm system. They went on for about five minutes or so. After having a full breakfast, we decided to walk in the city. The narrow streets were gaily decorated and street musicians, one was playing an accordion and another,a group was playing classical music at a junction. And there were beggars as well crouching against the walls. Some buildings appeared to be spray-painted by vandals.

Quaint stalls lined up the cobblestone streets, selling crafts bric a brac. Souvenir shops, Belgian craft shops dotted the lanes and chocolate shops, Godiva, Nehaus, Leonidas, Corne.. all famous Belgian chocolate makers were there scattered all over the beautiful city square. There were rows of cute small restaurants displaying seafood, lobsters, cockles, prawns you name it they were all there arranged decoratively in ice on the pavements. Christmas decorations of red, green and gold were a plenty lending color to the festivities. They have arcades which they call galleries, selling all sort of things from keychains, T-shirts, shawls, intricate Belgian embroideries, jeweleries to leather jackets.

As the day progressed, more and more people came out to the square and jammed the narrow streets shoulder to shoulder. The day was cloudy, overcast and chilly. It grew dark very fast, by about 3 pm it was already nighttime. The square, bordered on four sides by old and architecturally stunning buildings, came alive with modern rods emanating colorful dancing lights which appear to respond and gyrate to the modern invigorating music. The atmosphere was electric, people, families with children even the disabled on motorized wheelchairs were mesmerized. At the end of every musical session, the big projector would highlight the moving shadow of Santa on his sleigh of reindeer across the baroque building electronically sprinkled with falling snowflakes... it was a magical moment, a virtual technology concert.

We stayed for three musical sessions before deciding to walk back to our hotel, it was then nearly 8pm. What a Christmas day it was! Tiring and yet rejuvenating.

Premier Travel

I remember the first time I came to London some years ago when I was upgraded to business class and the seat, two to a row was similar but larger than economy class with slightly bigger leg room, the flight stopped at Frankfurt, distracting the journey and the immigration queue at Heathrow was incredibly long and most of the officers were elderly white and stiff. Terminal 3 was then under construction and the entry and walk to the immigration check was interminable. My second business class travel was more or less the same except the stop was at Dubai where I wasted some money as the duty-free shopping of high quality items were cheap.

My recent business class travel was something else. The seat was now fully electronic and could be reclined to any position from flat to any angle most comfortable to you and the TV monitor followed you. Such luxury in the air no wonder despite the cost, it was difficult to get a business class seat! The cabin was full. Moreover the flight is nonstop, no more distraction, financial and physical and less jet lag problems and before disembarkation you are given a "premier lane" immigration check form, you virtually breeze through, no more vexing long queue. The plane landed at 5.20am local time and I was out at the meeting point just before 6am.... incredible. In the past it wouldn't be before 9am and I remember how our bags were waiting for us, scattered on the floor! This time we were waiting for our bags.

Custom check was conveniently through the green lane. The arrival was pleasant to say the least and hardly a muscle ached despite the nearly 13-hour journey. Indeed for the businessman or woman and anyone else , that was really premier travel!

Saved by Shakir

Sunray shafts over London

I have booked for my MAS ticket to go to London way back in August but somehow there was a slip up as I did not follow up till mid-November and that was the start of my problem where being a gold Enrich member and a shareholder did not help! My booking was cancelled by the system as it detected double booking... yes the travel agent had not cancelled the earlier booking and when she finally did.. my second self booking had already been automatically cancelled and when I rebooked... guess what? Waiting list all the way, entirely my fault, no one else.

Countless phonecalls, going through important people at one stage even a Deputy Minister of Transport was mentioned to help me be on that plane as onward booking to Belgium and several theatre tickets have been purchased and what am I to do if I cannot have confirmed seats.. I persevered, humbling myself, begging to be helped.. the local MAS manager must have been rather fed-up of me with my desperate SMSes! Then enter Shakir.... Shakir the dedicated officer at Enrich MAS building KL.

Shakir listened to my sad tale and decided to go out of his way to help me... he sent memos to his supervisor almost daily to remind him of my predicament and to get me that seat. Can you imagine at RM24000 per seat all the business class seats have been taken up! After almost four weeks( 28 days of frustration), Shakir rang me today to confirm I have got that return seat to London... hey ZANA here I come! I must see who are those people who are going to be stuck with me for 12 hours.. very curious.

Shakir, you are great!

Tumbling, crumbling, melting ...real humbling

The global stock markets started to become jittery late last year(2007) as the subprime crisis in US surfaced. Within less than a year, the financial crisis arising from the subsequent credit crunch, has deepened and swiftly affected the rest of the world. The credit crunch is mostly brought about by the loss of trust in the lending business. Banks are just not lending to each other like they used to. Some failed banks are being "nationalized" to protect depositors. Some banks suffer from a run as scared depositors scramble to withdraw their money.

Despite the massive government bailout or rescue package for the failing financial institutions, investors' fear rear its ugly head and has come to rule. Bourses around the world have lost their market values,the magnitude of which is unheard of in the last 35 years. Billions (USD) have been wiped out from stock markets worldwide within a couple of weeks in late September and early October 2008. This is reminiscent of the Asian financial crisis in 1997/1998 though on a much, much larger scale.

The stocks went on a merry tumble and now, at the time of blogging, have virtually crumbled. The melt-down may signal a global recession. Crisis of this magnitude has humbled many an investor whose investments collectively and cumulatively help create and drive the financial system which supports the economy of the country.

Devastating as it is, what can the poor individual investor do except to sigh and wait for the financial turmoil to evolve fully, bottom out and place a mark on the new seven-year cycle! For the courageous, this is the time to buy stocks of good companies at a cheap price, with a long term horizon in mind.

Keep your hand off that ear!

A 27 year old man presented with left ear pain and had begun to feel feverish. He revealed that a few days back, water had got into his ear canals and he used cotton buds to dry them up. About 24 hours later he started to feel pain. He medicated himself by using some kind of solution purchased over the counter (OTC), however the condition deteriorated and fever had set in.

Examination of his left ear showed some serous discharge and a small ulcerated area at 10 o'clock and fortunately his tympanic membrane (ear drum) was intact.The lesson drawn from this case is refrain from inserting cotton buds into you ear canal. Ear has the amazing mechanism of cleaning itself. Any attempt to clean it will risk injury and infection.

A SOjoURN.... A reAL HoliDay

It has been a most challenging month for me in terms of suffering from unbearable back pain which was unnecessarily prolonged, performing religious obligations and driving long distance in congested traffics to go to work, so yesterday afternoon I decided to give myself a treat by checking into a five-star hotel and just sit in the beautiful room and let myself be pampered by maids making up my room and having room service for my meals..no cooking, no washing and no cleaning for three days, thank you. And as luck would have it, I am upgraded by the hotel to a suite because all the rooms are fully booked!

The good thing about this holiday is I do not have to rush here and there shopping or sightseeing and the like. No schedules to keep just laze away and listen to the soft and soothing music from the hotel TV. As I am sitting here blogging away, the sea view is nothing but tranquil with yachts mooring by the hotel marina point and the green islands dotting the background. The two views above are from my hotel window.

I am now feeling invigorated, refreshed and motivated to return to work and deal with life challenges for the next few months. This sojourn is, in essence, a real holiday in every sense of the word.

Acute Back Pain is Really a Pain in the Neck!

Being very tired one day I fell asleep on the sofa while watching TV. It must have been the abnormal position of the body that the back muscle became strained and went into spasm causing, initially,niggling pain and after 48 hours it became unbearable. I could not bend down or even place my hand at the back. Luckily I had no dresses with back zippers!Fortunately for me, the aching pain was confined to the back muscle and did not spread to my legs, so heroically I still managed to drive to work. However sitting at work was a torture!

I first went for physiotherapy at the primary care level which could only offer ultrasound treatment.The pain did not go away despite two sessions of treatment and the week dragged on without respite and I even woke up with the pain, which was a bad sign. I was alternating paracetamol and ibuprofen to relieve the pain. I suffered through the weekend, vowing to seek treatment at the secondary care level where they have a much better physiotherapy facilities the following Monday. My oh my! Didn't I then feel I really and actually have a back? I took it too much for granted.

Mrs Tay, the hospital Physiotherapist was terrific, not only was I given the latest electronic treatment, she also gave me the human message which I really appreciated. After three one-hour sessions of human,electronic and heat treatment, my back gradually became better and no longer a pain in the neck!I was given a simple back exercise brochure to follow at home.All in all,the duration of my suffering was about 10 days. I am pain-free now and no longer "aware" that I have a back....