Handling Holland.. (and now aidan too!)

I had the opportunity to follow Hardy to Brussels last week. we drove anxiously, well at least i was anxious and excited (my first time to brussles you see!). it took us about an hour to reach the centre, another 15 mins or so to reach our hotel. all this thanks to the help of our Miss Navigator, a system we have in our car, guiding us through all the way!

As we were heading towards our hotel, we pass by some of the shops and i was all excited to see loads of ‘halal’ eating places and lots of asian restaurants. i’m more excited to witness the hotel and what they’ve got instore for us! they claim in their website that they have ‘an award winning bed’. a double bed would be just fine, award winning or not!! hahaha (we currently dont have the privilage to be on one since we got here!)

We saw the hotel, and then i saw how close it was with Pizza Hut. you see, before we left for brussels, i’ve had certain cravings. here’s what i was craving for:-

- i wanna eat prawns

- cheap slice of cheese and tomato pizza

- to hunt for the best hot cocoa

- KFC

- air kelapa muda (fresh young coconut drink)

- i NEED english reading materials, magazines and books

- any asian food that will remind me of home!

We checked in, and it was wonderful. the rooms were just nice and cozy, and of course, the bed was spactacular with lots of pillows!! we headed out on foot for our dinner at an indian restaurant about 9ish, called Bombay Inn. nothing like our favourite Sheesh Mahal in KL, but nonetheless, it was still good. and we ordered prawns!!!

Hardy’s conference was at the same hotel. he started early in the morning and finish off at around 5ish. and in the meantime, i have had the opportunity to scout around the city - alone. i walked on the mainroad of Anspach, and spotted a newsagent and went straight in. YEYYYYYYYY! english magazines! NOW, New, Cosmo, Glamour, Vogue!! it made my day!! further down the road, i saw the famous ‘W’, and thought, hey… i know that font!! and as i walked further down, in my heart, i kept saying, "please let it be Waterstones!" and YEYYYYY!!! it was indeed Waterstones!! at that point i wanted to jump for joy!! i smilled from ear to ear! i didnt get into the shop tho, saving it for the next day. i followed the crowd, and then landed up at Blvd. Du Jardine Botanique, a very busy road, there, i spotted a mall. Weyheyy!! it was too chilly outside anyway! good shops, very good food court, coz there, i spotted pizzas! a slize of cheese and tomato (a huge one!), a portion of frites (fries), and a bottle of mineral water. i sat down and had my lunch. i’m not quite sure whether i was on their high street, but i walked along Rue Neuve, a stretch of good shops for good shopping.

It was almost 5 and i headed back to the hotel with a hot cocoa in my hand (suchard! the best! i remember having it back at switzerland back in the 80s, cant get the taste out of my head!) and there, they sell it at McDonalds! hardy was already done by then, and off we go, jalan-jalan! hardy insisted we go to the Square, where the Grand Palace is. we took one or two wrong turnings but managed to get there! It was such beautiful architecture, old buildings around us. i’m sure it will be very busy during spring/summer. i love the cobbled stones! then, the manneken pis, right at the corner of Rue du Chene and Rue de I’Etuve. i dont see anything interesting with the boy at all! basically, its a statue of a boy, taking a piss! i remembered mum putting up a porcelain tag on our toilet door years ago, didnt know it originated from brussels! now i do! i have to look up for his story! you can find loads of belgian chocolate shops around the ‘budak kecik kencing’, some display a fountain of chocolate! chocolate flowing like water and i told hardy, i’m in heaven! hehe. There was a beautiful stretch of tiny lane, where, you can smell shell fish, crabs, lobsters, prawns, mussels, kepah, kupang, lala, hehe. basically, seafood. they display them outside the restaurants, and inside, there’s a fireplace, very warm and cosy setting. we picked one restaurant and had paella! (my dad cooks a mean one). its a spanish dish, rice, cooked with all types of seafood! Oooo-la-la!! one big platter all to ourselves. tak habis suku. banyak jugak kami makan! 

The next day, i treated myself to a halal fried chicken, doesnt taste the same as KFC but more or less! i’m still happy! funny how i bumped into the shop, as it was out of the main high street! then, i spent almost 2 1/2 hours in Waterstones! Browsing and checking out what they have in store. all in English! the last half hour was deciding which books to buy, since there was simply too many to get! That night, we met up with hardy’s Petronas friends who happens to be in the same town at the same time. we knew one was coming, and we asked him to bring stuff from home! it was trully our rezeki, getting the stuff from home! hardy then treated them (and me) at a seafood restaurant with lobsters and fish and plenty more!!

I told hardy, i wanted to wake up early the next morning to have pancakes for breakfast at McD’s. McD’s was just ten steps away from the hotel entrance. but as i got up, i was too lazy to get out of the ‘award winning bed’!! so in my mind, forget it. he was late for the conference. he left in a hurry. and 15 mins after he left, i heard someone entered our room. there he was, with a McD’s paperbag, pancakes, good maide orange juice, and tea inside it! the things a husband would do for a wife at this stage/point of time! :)) (you know what i mean, thank you so so muchhhhhh!) :))

My last day. i had to stroll down the china town behind our hotel! it was on Rue de la Vierge, i saw the chinese asian supermarket at the corner, and didnt waste anymore time. first i thought, i might just check things out, wont be needing a basket. after walking down a couple of aisles, i went back to the entrance to get myself a basket! i started filling them slowly. the supermarket is not that big compared to the one in London called Wing Yip, but i’m not complaining! NO! you can get good basic supply of asian things there. dont look at some of the prices tho! they even have durian (there’s durian here mum!), bunga kantan! (reminds me so much of mummy’s yummy-licious laksa!), ice cream potong.. anyway, here’s what i bought:

- frozen roti prata

- udon vegetable noodles (i used to eat back in UK)

- indomee instant noodles (i wish they have maggi asam laksa!)

- dried mangoes

- jerok mangga!

- rambutan in syrup (they even have mangoesteen in syrup!)

- tom yam paste & green curry paste

- tepung ayam goreng kalasan (javaneese) (lily, my ex housemate back in oxford introduced me to this!)

- crabmeat (nak try buat nasi goreng ketam macam kat ampang!)

- soursop! yes! durian belanda!

- air teh bunga yeos!!

- air tebu yeos!!

- air kelapa muda in a tin!! (tastes like santan but jadi-lah!)

- lempok durian (hardy’s craving!)

I came out of the store a very happy girl! wished they had cincau! we couldnt afford to buy everything, our fridge is very small, and its not that cheap either!but at least we know where to get them!

Didnt get any laces (belgium’s famous for its laces), didnt get any belgian chocolates. Brussels was warm, and very international, of course it would be! to see tourists around makes me feel less of a new person in the country/continent! loads of turkish and morccon muslim people, i feel somewhat safer. but as hardy puts it to me, its all in the mind!

I remembered this, a passer by stopped me. "madammoiselle?" he said. after a few of those, i suddenly noticed him calling me. i turned and said "wee?" (perasan boleh cakap french kejap!) he then spoke french, asking for directions! i remembered raising my eyebrows and smiled, "sorry, i dont speak french! i wish i could!" and at the hotel lobby, the bellhopper was a filipino, he asked us whether we were filipinos, to which we said nope! we are malaysians! another old man stopped me and asked whether i was a thai! hahaha!!! i can look everything in Brussels! french, filipino, thai!! but i’m a very proud malaysian but its great to hear people greet you "bonjour" when you walk into the shops, and "au rivoir" when you leave!

All in all, BRussels was BRilliant and MArriott was MArvelous!!

Last valentines, we went full swing on our quest to find our perfect home. my husband took a day off and made such perfect arrangements and all the necessary appointments. we started the day with a quick breakfast, and ‘tapau’ (packed) our baguettes, crisps, bananas and other munchies (not forgetting my asam!). off we go.. it was going to be a longggg dayyy…

Our first appointment was at 9am. it roughly took us about 30 mins on average to view one house. depending on how well the makalaars are and how good the house is! here’s how our day was like:

9am: Berkenlaan - lovely! we can see tennis courts from the house!

930am: Jupiterstraat - single standing! and i can have ducks in the pond!

1030am: Dr. Nolenslaan - scarry! way to scarry!!

1130am: Hoolstraat - a town called Beek. - nice but too far

1pm: Termileslaan - at Maastricht. too much work to be done!

230pm: Felix Timmermanstraat - nice, new, ready to move!

3pm: Henry Welterstraat - nice stairs, but not enough rooms!

430pm: Aan het Bos - like the house, not the makalaar!! so its a no!

5pm: Prevotlan - posh area but reminds me of brady bunch! orange carpet!?

6pm: singgah Albert Heijn (supermarket) bought ourselves prawns and muscles!

7pm: Berkenlaan (another house on the same road) perfect! lovely! nice makalaar!

(Perfect timing sayang! thank you so so much for arranging them.)

To sum it all up, viewing 10 houses in a day is absolute crazy!!! hahaha, but we were quite happy with 4 of the houses. and chances of me living in maastricht? very very slim. the city’s perfect, but so far houses there are expensive, unless we are ok with the apartments, where parking might be of a problem. overall houses in sittard are fairly in good condition. we’re going to haggle on the price and see how fast they are willing to move out of the house. the scarry thing is some might take as long as 4 months, and the house will be ready for us during the summer. that’s way too long for us. there are some ’scarry’ houses as well. one of which is dr.nolenslaan! build in 1960, it really looked older! all the houses so far, here, are of good size. the worrying bit is how much work you want to put in. some of the kitchen needs a complete makeover. some of the 2nd and 3rd bedrooms are too small. some place their washing machines and dryer at the attic (which might be a problem later). there’s just so many things to take into consideration! cost, convenience, comunity, occupying space, and loads more!

Its really important to feel at home when you walk into a house. almost all the houses we saw was fully furnish, we have to imagine it empty and with ideas of our own. this is where, martha stewart, debbie travis, and who’s that guy on astro? bald and kept saying "cantik tak"… i forgot his name.. well, thats where all of these people will come in! (altho i dont really quite like that guy). its going to be exciting furnishing the house! but first things first, we have to have a house!!

We got home at 830pm. and cooked seafood tomyam. then i went straight to bed! while my husband was on the net, still in search of our home

Overall, i think we’ve seen about 20 houses? maybe 19? and i can tell you, its not easy!! more to see next week!! wish us luck!!

And as i’m writing this, i’m home alone! hardy has gone to Vaals. the 3 point country. where germany, belgium and the netherlands all meet. marketing and sales conference. very important for him since he’s new to the team. good opportunity to spend time with all of marketing people from europe. it has been a very windy day and not a good day to go out. there has been a couple of drizzle as well. i still went out to get a couple of croissants. i kept missing them at C1000 (another supermarket) as we kept going there after 5pm! all the bread and pastries are gone! so, tak boleh jadi, i have to get fresh ones so i braced myself with the wind and got 2 for lunch! yeyheyy!! ;))

Weekend’s coming and monday we’re going to Brussels. more chocolates! i have got to stop! lately i’ve been eating nutella, with a spoon! that is so dangerous!!! 

Have a good weekend everybody!

For more than a week now, we’ve been on house hunting. searching for a house to buy. everytime we’re in the car, our eyes were tuned to the words ‘te koop’ which is ‘for sale’ in dutch. we’ve looked over the internet, went round the area to see whether its in a good neighbourhood, making appointments and today, we’ve actually come down to viewing them. my husband’s been really into it. he’s practically infront of the laptop right after dinner till midnight. with the FALK map downloaded, he keeps flippin the pages back and forth, checking out the locality and diffrent sites of the ‘maakalars’ (property agent). he is REALLY REALLY into it!! me however, is slightly less into it. will improve, i promise sayang!

Its really exciting, getting a house together, seeing and knowing of our different preferences and needs. we might not agree on certain things, thus, disagreements, but we both normally would give in to each other. (honestly, doesnt do us any good) ;). the first factor is of course, the price: no arguments on that one. we both agreed on how much we should spend, or perhaps, the maximum. and not forgetting, how long has it been on the market. second is the town/city: where would we want to live? sittard? maastricht? geleen? munstergeleen? (this is where the arguments will kick in). third, the surroundings: walking distance to town or good access to it, does it have a supermarket nearby? a school? a park? (this is very important to some, in order to achieve a so called balance life!) forth, the condition of the house: when was it build? flooring, kitchen included? shutters for the windows during winter? will there be a garage for hardy? etc.

It is really not as simple as one would thought it would be. especially when you’re new the area, let alone the country. thankfully, we’ve got friends on our side to give us the plus and minus. yvonne’s been really helpful. stefan will surely help, and of course people at hardy’s office.

We both fell in love with the locality of a house at molenweg, sittard. this chilly and windy morning, we viewed the house. it was a fairly new house. a lot of good work’s been done to it. super clean and very nice. the locality was perfect. more than perfect. walking distance to town, near the frozen lake and plenty of ducks to feed, there’s a school nearby, etc etc.

However, there were a few setbacks. overall, the house, we felt, was a lil bit too small for us. and if only there was a shower instead of a tub.

There were houses which are perfect for us in every sense. all out of our budget of course. and i asked hardy ‘kat sini tak ada orang lelong rumah ke?’ hehe the answer was, sadly, NO! all somehow managed to pay their mortgage!

So.. off we go again.. searching for our new home. another appointment set for tomorrow. and hopefully there will be more properties available, within our means.

it has been quite a while since i last wrote something in here. i’ve been wanting to start writing again but its quite difficult to get back the momentum after a very hectic period.

and so here i am, trying my best.

lots of things happened since my last entry. i got married, my sister got married, we moved our furnitures out of the apartment, my uncle passed away, i was admitted to puteri specialist, we’ve made new friends, hardy left for holland and i followed 2 weeks after that (we waited for our visa for almost a month - embassy spelled our names wrong! it was a silly error, shouldnt have happened in the first place since they’ve done it thousands of times already! and looking at the fee we had to pay!!!! but alhamdulillah, both got through, kena banyak sabar!!). as hardy’s secretary, kak rahmah, back at dow says "bukan senang nak senang".

it has been a very very busy 5 months. i’m now in a new country, a new place, a new environment, a new life. its not as easy as i’ve expected it to be. having been here only once before since our nikah (the familiarization trip + honeymoon), i thought it’s gonna be just like living in UK. i was wrong! but, i know however difficult it can be, i have my husband right beside me!

my mum msgs me, (she now knows how to yahoo - she’s got her own yahoo ID so we can chat! and she’s even got a skype account!) my sister and redza calls  every now and then just to check up and ask how we’re doing, we’ve made new friends, met them for dinner at den haag last couple of days, noreen and maz and their ever so charming smart friend oscar. we wish to meet daniel next!

i was all teary and sad when i left malaysia. and as i remembered ayah’s words to me at the airport:

"dont be sad. this is your dream. you got what you wanted, so dont cry. you should be happy. look at it this way, even nabi pon berhijrah dik. niat adik ngan hardy baik"

i guess at one point in our lives, we have to ‘hijrah’. some might be near, some might be a huge step, thousands of miles away. i’m glad dad made that point.

i am a little bit homesick, well, ok… quite a bit! i wish i can take most of the things back home here! but i know i’ll manage.

there’s 36 channels, and i can only understand 5.. maybe 6. we went to the supermarket, and i dont even know what i’m buying! i wanted to get milk, there’s low fat, skimmed, half skimmed, half fat, bla bla bla…. probably 10 or more choices, and i didnt know which one’s which coz everything’s in dutch! i play by the colour, blue seems to be safe!! and get this… this is funny, yesterday, we went to the supermarket, we needed to get mineral water, and so there was this clear pastic bottle, with clear water inside. on the label its written ‘AZIJN’ and hardy was like, "lets get this one, this is cheaper", so he took 2 bottles. and i said, "i need to drink a lot, ambik lebih lah", so i added another 2 bottles into the cart. paid for our stuff, then we went to another supermarket next to it to get milk and bread, and saw the same thing on the shelves next to herbs and spices. and hardy said "yang, i think we just bought ourselves 4 bottles of vinegar tadi!" hahahahahahahaha!! nasib tak minum!!! its really funny. we so have to bring our dutch-english dictionary everywhere we go now on!!!!

one other thing i wanted to get was calsium pills, and i dont understand a word on the labels! not just pills, but shampoo, shower gels, everything’s in dutch!! *sigh* it will probably get better, hope i will pick up the language soon!

shops here in sittard closes very early. some at 5.30pm, some 6pm. sundays, everything’s closed!! we didnt know what to do last sunday! so we left for maastricht, where they had some sort like a carnival there, so it wasnt that quiet. maastricht is a city, macam johor bahru. sittard is like pontian or batu pahat. hehehe. lucky for us, the two is just 20 mins away.

hardy goes to work at 8.30 every morning. i prepare breakfast and pack his lunch. he gets back from work at 5.30pm. and when he gets back, we cook dinner. i’m still trying to beat my jet lag, its getting better now. today, it’s thursday!!!! late night shopping!!! shops closes at 9pm!! yeayyyyy!! i’m going to open my bank account today, and we’re going shopping!!!

i’m still adjusting my life. adapting myself to a new place, a new country. its not as easy but i’m sure we’ll make it easy. it wont get any easier when hardy goes travelling, so i have to get use to it!! brussels in a couple of weeks and i get to follow!! that’s something to look forward too!! yeayyyyy!! :))

and last but not least, we got to feed the ducks. i’m extremely happy. thank you sayang.