Lost in translation 2
Mood:  bright
Topic: Everyday life (weirdness)
OK, everybody can check out my translation skills on this website... just check the Dutch language section and you see the product of my creativity.... And... it's also about the LUNA-Bar, for those who have already visited me... http://test.pacific-regency.com

Worms in the computer department
Mood:  cheeky
The last couple of months the whole hospital network had been infested with worms and trojan horses. But today I saw it's getting worse and worse; the security staff was showing off a sample that they had actually cought in the computer department. It was an at least 2 meters long Boa Constrictor that had made the place to it's home. MMhhh... I turned on the virus scan straight away when I came home... Today worms, tomorrow snakes... what's next... ?

Fighting Fish
Mood:  d'oh
Topic: Night life & other action
I went to the local Dutch Film Festival. Well-well, a dutch movie about Chinatown in Rotterdam, trying to imitate kung-fu. It was bound to end up as some kind of bad Jean-Claude van Damme movie. It was quite obvious that they were trying to hide the terrible Dutch-English accent of the Dutch born chinese actors, but apparently the only way to do so was to minimise the lines of the actors and even then it was mostly quite corny what came out of their mouths. So to summarise; good but too long fighting scenes to cover up poor conversation in lack of storyline. Fortunately I had recently seen 2 nice other movies ("Pursuit of Happiness" & "Pan's labyrinth"), so I didn't land in an instant depression, although I came close.

W.
Mood:  blue
Topic: Everyday life (weirdness)
When I allowed W. to re-initiate contact 1 year ago, I actually knew what I was in for. My friends warned me for foolishness and naivity, but I knew exactly that this was most likely to happen. W. was gonna put me under emotional pressure and upset me at least once a month. Once the choice was made however, I couldn't go back. She made Gita part of my life, and me part of Gita's life. There's no way I could let that go without a fight. I know W. is very nice to Gita and she is a very important person in Gita's life. But sometimes I'm worried... thinking about nature & nurture... and hoping it won't affect Gita, hoping she won't see the things W. does to the people who cared about her, or worse even, following her behaviour.
On and off I think Gita would be better off staying with Arjan. I'm sure she would be happy to live with him and his girl-friend, with the cats and all other pets she adores.... But the reality is of course that in the end Gita needs W. and that is the most important thing of all...

Lost in translation
Mood:  bright
Topic: Everyday life (weirdness)
The other day I was approached by Alberto… Alberto is this chap whom I’ve only met once via a mutual friend whom I haven’t seen in ages either. Anyway, back then he got me to translate some info pamflet on tropical fruits from English into Dutch. He actually thought I had already left Malaysia and was merely trying his luck. Whether I’d be willing to translate a website into Dutch ?? Hell, if you pay me enough I’ll even come over and clean your office…! Well. Or something like that huh huh…. What seemed to be a breeze once again turned out to be a major headache. But... also once again I pulled it off, and when I saw the actual web page in English I knew I had struck the right key with my “blind” translation…As soon as the web page is activated, I’ll put up the URL on my weblog.

Housemates wanted !
Mood:  hug me
Topic: Everyday life (weirdness)
MMhhh Cip's wife might be coming quite soon... I'll have to prepare to find another place around here... It's gonna be rather difficult though. Financial constraints come in and with the current fragile balance and my attempts to slightly reduce the after hour working activities, it becomes will prove to be even more difficult. Some more because, whatever I do, I'll be bound to share any new apartment that I'll take up. Now I don't mind sharing, but there are housemates and there are hosemates. The past 2 years were rather relaxed, but all of you my close friends know the ( by now) famous stories about my half-Dutch-half-Hungarian housemate in Maastricht back then. But that was back then... I guess I'll have to try and see if there are some House Officers or freshly entering masters MO's joinig the program. With a 2- or 3 room apartment, costs should be bearable I guess... But now remains finding people who are looking for a place to stay...

Isn't this good to know ???
Mood:  silly
Topic: House & Garden Philosophy

Finally accepted !!
Mood:  celebratory
Topic: (scary) hospital stories
Geezzz... after so long dragging it around (mostly sitting on the hard disk of my laptop, waiting for some action from either BK or me the darn thing finally got accepted. After BJOG gracefully rejected my submission (even though I entertained them by being a peer reviewer for an interesting article on ECV), The Journal of Obstetrics and Gynaecology Research (Ranking 2005: 51/57 Impact Factor: 0.685) showed sincere interest in our "penfruit" (or actually mine; I still think it's silly for him wanting to be 1st author). Anyway, not bad at all, and at all means better than the local ANZJOG....

Viagra
Mood:  vegas lucky
Topic: Night life & other action
After a well deserved break for a day (which I spent mostly in Bodegas, trying to catch up with my reading), I eventually set off for my S'pore trip. Unfortunately, we arrived rather late @ KL airport, so the MAS-people wouldn't let me board. Fortunately S'pore airlines came (again) at my rescue... Yes.... this is not the first time, in Bali a few years ago I also had to resort to them in order to get back to the Netherlands.

Arriving in the hotel makes it all worthwhile... My first time in a real 5-star hotel. I really owe the GSK-people for taking such good care of me. This morning I had a really nice breakfast and then the symposium really launched.

An enervating day was concluded by Viagra-sponsored Dr. Rosie King ("Some people believe in Santa Claus, I believe in the G-spot") from Australia. A truly remarkable lady, who together with her fellow speakers introduced us to the ins and outs of sexual revolution, the modern myth of hours-lasting orgasms, panicky vagina's and the fact that enema's should be high-hot & hellavalot. It also seems that modern young male Singaporeans are mostly concerned about their penis-length. Mmhh... although that never really was one of my worries, judging to the amount of daily junkmail I receive there's also a lot of people out there who are apparently concerned about that. Anyway, there's quite a number of weird pubs in S'pore, below the pics of one of them...

Como agua para chocolate...
Mood:  spacey
Topic: Everyday life (weirdness)
Finally I got my hands on what might be one of the last three copies of the book in the whole of KL. Like Water for Chocolate, by Laura Esquivel. After I already got her the Calvin & Hobbes "There's Something drooling under the Bed", this should add up to the drooling, as the central theme of the book is food. Anyone who hasn't seen the movie so far, go for it, and otherwise the book would be a good option.

While looking for it, of course, it turned out to be a dangerous mission. In every book shop I visited, books kept sticking on to my hand as if they were covered with glue. Before I knew it there were one - two - three - four books in my bag already. Kiran Desai, of whom I already read Hullabaloo, some other Indian chap, a cooking book which I probably won't use in the next 2 years (but just in case fate gets me outside Asia and I need to cook all those things myself again) and Amy Tan, well, need I say more ? Almost I ended up with the latest of Salman Rushdie (I love his style), but I managed to restrain myself in the last moment thinking of the-still-to-be-read-pile back home (the German version of The Devil wears Prada and another novel by Paul Theroux). I know that in reality I won't be able to finish even 2 of those in the next 2 years to come, unless I get jobless, thrown out of training, decide to call it quits and set out on a world journey or even all three of the above.

Melancholic feeling suddenly bestowes upon me as I think about the small book pile I used to have on my coffee table back home in my own house, and another small pile on the pretty antique commode next to my own Ikea bed. Sometimes it's difficult, living in a box, even when your box is an established room...