Juleens latest trick is to show off and ask people's attention for it
Look at this, papa!
Monday, October 16, 2006
Monday, October 09, 2006
My trip to Singapore
We had a marketing conference with our Asian Pacific region in Singapore last week. We arrived on Sunday night and I shared a room with my friend Di. Monday was a day-off for the Aussies and I did an amazing shopping spree in the morning (Orchard road trees nicely decorated), I've bought half a suitcase in 3 hours (Far East Plaza shopping mall, basement for cool & different stuff). At 2pm we went for lunch with the team, followed by a touristy boatride (see lion & angels), continued with some Singaporian Sling cocktails at Raffles (at the Long Bar - way too sweet for my taste buds) and we had a fantastic chilli crab dinner in one of the local restaurants (No Sign Board resto) where we seemed to be the only tourists... The conference itself was a great experience, if anything to see all the local differences in people - I now could nearly put a nationality on each face (and some character traits), whereas before I wouldnt have been able to. We had 2 great sessions during the week and Peter Fisk (book Marketing Genius) was the most inspiring. I would highly recommend his book for all marketeers among us (even though I still have to read it myself now).
On Wednesday night we had Lynette's hen's night, a great night out with all our Aussie collegues. And whilst one was about to get married, my friend Di got proposed! Darren arrived on Friday night as a total surprise (not for me, ;-)) and they decided to stay on for the weekend, where Darren proposed on Saturday night (whilst Lynette was saying 'Yes, I do').
The last night we went to little India and had great low-fi dinner at Banana Leaf Apolo where food is served on real banana leaves and eaten with hands (they do have forks!). We then checked out Mustafa Shopping Centre (11pm) - which was an unbelievable experience. For anyone who stops by in Singapore, I would strongly recommend to come with half a suitcase and pass by Mustafa. It is a 24/7 huge supermarket/bazar where you can buy anything from jewelry, watches, sports gear, baby clothes, suitcases, handbags, china ware, home decoration, hifi/technology/mobiles/ for significantly less money and huge choice. Make sure you have at least half a day to spend there, I was very sad to leave at 12.30am, my flight the next morning was calling me...
As much as I loved the shopping, it was really disappointing that there is not a lot of other things to do. And all new buildings under construction were to my greatest disbelief even more new shopping malls.
At the airport back in Sydney it was a very special and unique moment - our little family happily reunited. A smile and hug from Juleen, a kiss from daddy, a little tear of happiness from mummy.
Fashion Victim
Anouk came back from the shopping capital of the world with ...
... and guess who loved it the most ?!?!?
Sunday, October 08, 2006
Fun in the Park
Saturday morning we went to the Bi-Centenial Park with Zach and his dad Pete - because there was no swimming class !!
Juleen & Zach
Juleen & Zach
Tuesday, October 03, 2006
Foebal
Reading about the declining popularity of Belgian soccer makes the cynic in me smile. When you see how much efforts, professionalism and resources are invested in each of the popular (and even less popular) sports in Australia, where sport events are true family events ... a long way to go. And let's not even get started about our the national soccer team...
We just had a huge sports weekend with both the Australian Football League (AFL) Grand Final (Sydney Swans lost this replay of last year's final against the Western Eagles from Pert ) and the National Rugby League (NRL) Premiership Final (the Brisbane Broncos defeated the Melbourne Storms after a few contested calls by the referees). I guess that's already too much information for most of you :-)
The action on the home turf becomes "emotionally relevant" when the draw of the next round of the UEFA cup puts Club Brugge against some of Europe's strongest teams, with 2 games drawing particular attention: First there is Tottenham, which has a strong fan base in Australia starting with our neighbour Andy who is an enormous fan. Final game for Brugge, 29 November, against Besiktas, home team of Cem (still living in NYC).
In good old Aussie tradition I may be tempted to take a punt and put some money on those 2 games... on my black & blue team, because you never know...
Monday, October 02, 2006
Papa - Juleen week
A special week for papa & Juleen: Anouk has a conference in Singapore. We drove Anouk to the airport on Sunday. To put it in Juleen's words :
"Mama gone
Mama airplane
Mama Sinapoor"
Sunday afternoon we went to the playground at Fox Studios and bought a tricycle (typical dad behaviour...). Afterwards we went home and played and finished our painting.
Monday is Labour Day in New South Wales so we had an extra day to hang out together. In the morning we went to Paddington to play tennis with Ben & Leslie. Juleen observed from the side line and from the umpire's chair. We had brunch at Five Ways and by that time Juleen was crashing (not following the morning routine, no morning nap - again typical ...). When we got home we both had an afternoon nap for 3 hours! Around 5 we went to Bertoni's on Darling street, Juleen on her tricycle and dad behind her, where we had a flat white and a babychino (foamed milk with cacao powder - an Aussie classic). We bumped into Dylan and Ben, who where also driving their tricycle around ... it does get quite busy on Darling street on a bank holiday. We were invited over to Dylan's house where Juleen and Dylan had dinner and a bath together. It was dark when we got home, had a bottle of milk, gave mum a call to tell her we survived our first full day on our own, and went to bed.
4 work days (9am-5pm, for a change) to go before Anouk arrives on Saturday evening. We will report back on how it all went.
Wednesday, September 20, 2006
Our dear PM John Howard on global warming
TONY JONES: What do you see as the biggest threat to Australia in the future, terrorism or global warming?
JOHN HOWARD: I think terrorism is a greater threat because I think we are doing things about global warming. We're doing things about terrorism, but terrorism is more arbitrary, it's far more capricious, and of course its immediate consequences on the people it touches are more hideous.
TONY JONES: You'd be aware that that was a rhetorical question that Al Gore asked in his film.
JOHN HOWARD: Yes, (indistinct).
TONY JONES: Precisely, because he is saying that the difference is that the actual fate of the planet is at stake with global warming, not with terrorism.
JOHN HOWARD: Well, I will see the film, he sent me a copy and we had a brief discussion about it. But whilst believing that the planet is getting warmer and whilst accepting some, I don't accept all, and I believe that the methods that he proposes will do a lot of short and medium term damage to the Australian economy. It will send industries offshore, send Australian jobs to countries like China and Indonesia. I think we can tackle the problem in a different and equally effective way.
TONY JONES: You might be aware, I don't know, that there is a strong, sort of, rumour, it has been reported widely now that President Bush is about to do a huge U turn.
JOHN HOWARD: I've seen some reports.
TONY JONES: Would that influence you if he did?
JOHN HOWARD: We make our own assessment of these things. Our own assessment is that if Australia were to sign the Kyoto Protocol, we would damage our country's interests because the arrangements would impose obligations on us that would not be imposed on countries like China and Indonesia. Therefore it would be less costly for industry to invest in those countries and they'd take their investments from Australia elsewhere and we lose jobs.
From ABC Lateline interview, 19/9/2006
JOHN HOWARD: I think terrorism is a greater threat because I think we are doing things about global warming. We're doing things about terrorism, but terrorism is more arbitrary, it's far more capricious, and of course its immediate consequences on the people it touches are more hideous.
TONY JONES: You'd be aware that that was a rhetorical question that Al Gore asked in his film.
JOHN HOWARD: Yes, (indistinct).
TONY JONES: Precisely, because he is saying that the difference is that the actual fate of the planet is at stake with global warming, not with terrorism.
JOHN HOWARD: Well, I will see the film, he sent me a copy and we had a brief discussion about it. But whilst believing that the planet is getting warmer and whilst accepting some, I don't accept all, and I believe that the methods that he proposes will do a lot of short and medium term damage to the Australian economy. It will send industries offshore, send Australian jobs to countries like China and Indonesia. I think we can tackle the problem in a different and equally effective way.
TONY JONES: You might be aware, I don't know, that there is a strong, sort of, rumour, it has been reported widely now that President Bush is about to do a huge U turn.
JOHN HOWARD: I've seen some reports.
TONY JONES: Would that influence you if he did?
JOHN HOWARD: We make our own assessment of these things. Our own assessment is that if Australia were to sign the Kyoto Protocol, we would damage our country's interests because the arrangements would impose obligations on us that would not be imposed on countries like China and Indonesia. Therefore it would be less costly for industry to invest in those countries and they'd take their investments from Australia elsewhere and we lose jobs.
From ABC Lateline interview, 19/9/2006
Sunday, September 10, 2006
Rainy Weekend
It continues to rain in Sydney ... hopefully the final convulsions of this winter, as spring started on 1 September!
We stayed home all weekend, but had plenty of visitors to play with / cook for / talk to ... Sunday morning we had Ramiro and his family (wife, 2y old son and 1y old daughter) with us for brunch. Originally from Argentina, Ramiro studied at Columbia before spending a few years in Brazil. He and his family transferred to Australia a few months ago and we hope to see them more often as the kids (and the parents) get along really well.
Saturday afternoon we caught up with our Belgian friends from Killara (North of Sydney): Lise, Anja and Peter. Anyone who considers a trip to Australia should have a look at their website : they just finished another great trip (Darwin -> Broome) and the photos of this and their previous trips are spectacular!
Lise and Juleen
Finally, Nicole, Paul and their newborn son Christian stopped by on Saturday as well. Nicole is a colleague of Anouk and she gave birth on 30 August.
Hoping for better weather soon - the rain leaks through the terrace roof and our garage is getting wet...
We stayed home all weekend, but had plenty of visitors to play with / cook for / talk to ... Sunday morning we had Ramiro and his family (wife, 2y old son and 1y old daughter) with us for brunch. Originally from Argentina, Ramiro studied at Columbia before spending a few years in Brazil. He and his family transferred to Australia a few months ago and we hope to see them more often as the kids (and the parents) get along really well.
Saturday afternoon we caught up with our Belgian friends from Killara (North of Sydney): Lise, Anja and Peter. Anyone who considers a trip to Australia should have a look at their website : they just finished another great trip (Darwin -> Broome) and the photos of this and their previous trips are spectacular!
Lise and Juleen
Finally, Nicole, Paul and their newborn son Christian stopped by on Saturday as well. Nicole is a colleague of Anouk and she gave birth on 30 August.
Hoping for better weather soon - the rain leaks through the terrace roof and our garage is getting wet...
Saturday, September 02, 2006
Frog in the Garden
Deze namiddag hebben we de "pond" (een putje van 1 vierkante meter) uitgekuist om er binnenkort enkele visjes in te kunnen zetten. Bleek dat er al een kikker in het mini-vijvertje woonde. Een spannende namiddag!