The Girl Who kicked the Hornets’ Nest by Stieg Larsson

This is the last of the Millenium series by SL. From the 1^st book, it will grip you till the end. After my twilight books affair (by Stephanie Meyer), I was thirsty for more – of the same or something as good as! And then along came Stieg Larsson, I was hooked from the very first few pages of his first book and couldn’t stop reading till the end! I am such a bookworm, it is pure agony when I get my hands on a very good book. When I am at work I couldn’t wait to get back home to read the book, everyday I look forward to just being able to read another chapter or chapters!!! But Stieg Larsson didn’t disappoint folks! He writes beautifully and ‘wittyfully’. Because the book is a translation (from Swedish) you will spot some odd grammatical sentences or even spelling mistakes. But that doesn’t deter its readers. For those who haven’t got a clue yet, the 3 books is about our heroine, Lisbeth Salander – how she was wrongly put away in an institution, tortured and how it was all covered up by the authorities in Sweden. But she’s no weakling, she fought back with all her might together with her small circle of supporters. It is an intriguing tale of spies, politics and women’s rights in Sweden – so definitely a MUST read! So go pick up the book now, it will leave you thirsty for more.

Ps – Sadly, the author didn’t live long enough to enjoy the fruit of his success. What a loss to the world of writing.

What's for dinner?

Haven't posted anything on food for a long time, I have not been active on taking photos of our daily or special dishes. In our household, we eat 50% asian and 50% western - of course, asian dishes are quite cumbersome to make but B enjoys them to the last drop of curry! Anyways, here's some photos of our recent menu.

Chicken Tagine - we eat this with a delicious portion of couscous

Pasta Green Salad with boiled eggs

Whipped potatoes, corn, boiled cauliflower and beef patties.

Bologanise sauce, delicious with a warm plate of spaghetti

Weekend in Vossemeren

We celebrated the 50^th wedding anniversary of my parents in law with a weekend getaway with the whole family in Vossemeren. It is located in the province of Limburg – which lies in the north-north-east of Belgium. From Ghent, it is about 2 hours drive cross country. We rented 2 bungalows for the weekend – it was nice, cosy but more importantly, well kept and clean. The place didn’t look run down. The place we stayed at is called – Centreparcs – they are located all over Europe, usually located in a big forested area. And in Centreparcs you have all sorts of activities, IN and OUT doors, usually the indoor pools are famous with the kids with fancy and fun slides. We all went for a walk, played some indoor games, mini golfed, visited the children’s farm, went swimming and had a lovely celebration dinner with the family too in one of their restaurants. Although the place is nice, I personally find it was not my cup of tea. I leave you with some photos from our short getaway.

Nora with her basketful of autumn decoration - she picked the leaves, seeds and cones together with her oma. And they have made the basket together.

We saw these running about freely between the bungalows.

The view from our bungalow, a small pond.

The river that is in the middle of the park.

The New Front

B E F O R E

A F T E R

The Colours of Autumn

Today we officially mark the change to winter time, thus we all could enjoy an hour more in bed – perfect start to a lazy Sunday morning = ) Also, today – weather wise - is the best day of the week. Thus, like our compatriots, we too head out into the woods to get our dosage of fresh air and the gorgeous colours of autumn. We didn’t snap a lot of photos though, too busy enjoying each other’s company and the quiet nature around us. We leave you now with a few snapshots and we wish you a productive week ahead.

Three Cups of Tea by Greg Mortensen & David Oliver Relin

This is one of the many NON-fiction book I have enjoyed reading – I have to keep reminding myself that it is fiction and that all this happened! It is about one man’s struggle and mission to promote peace by building schools in the remote and poor villages of Pakistan and Afghanistan. As one reads further into the book, you will truly feel for Mr Mortensen, his frustrations and moments of pure sadness. It was such a tough journey for him to cross very dangerous borders and all the red tape he had to endure. I think anyone would have given up, but I guess because he is such a determine chap, with a heart of gold – he truly stick to his goals and words. It was amazing to read his achievements and how happy he has made many children just by giving them a proper place to study! Also he liberated women in those villages by providing a place for them in the schools too. I teared up reading about the first educated women that Mr Mortensen’s school has produced. He is still actively setting up schools and at the end of the book, they share with you on how you too can help. I am not usually a fan of NON-fiction but this one gets 2 thumbs up from me!

I am now reading the 3^rd and final book of the Millenium by Stieg Larsson – stay tuned for the review. Have a fantastic weekend all. Hugs from a cloudy and rainy Belgium.

Singapura – 18th September to 10th October 2009

Click HERE for photos.

After a 2 year hiatus from Singapore, this current visit holds many surprises for me. Firstly, we came home to a new flat. Our family moved into a bigger unit, although not far from our old neighbourhood, it was still a nice surprise. Then the sudden influx of immigrants to Singapore was abit too much for me to take. In such a small island, the government wants to increase its population from 4 million to 6 million, thus it is almost always crowded (yes, even on a weekday) everywhere. At a lot of places where we shopped or eat, I find that I have to speak slowly or have to repeat myself several times to be understood by the service staff as they are not locals (but then again perhaps my English has gone haywire).

We saw that in many HDB estates, there are new malls being built – do Singaporeans need more shopping malls?? And in Orchard Road, where the lovely green fields were, just on top of the Orchard MRT station, there now stand a monstrosity of a mall - ION. Along Orchard too there were many changes taking places! We had a tough time trying to find the entrance to the Somerset MRT station amidst all that crowd and construction!! In the centre, where the Padang and Cricket Club is – there are a lot of construction still going on – for the new casino’s, more office buildings and apparently a theme park too. I guess this all goes to show, Singapore is doing well despite the economical crisis!? I don’t know really but I sincerely do hope that there will be some parts of Old Singapore left so it is recognizable for the ‘old schoolers’ ; )

Of course, B and I didn’t waste time and stuff ourselves silly with a lot of delicious and spicy delicacies especially my mum’s home cook meals. It was sure good especially spiritually to spend time with our family and friends, I think especially for me, it was much needed. Nora was everyone’s favourite of course, she was like a shadow to her cousins and her Uncle Man. She would always want to spend every minute of her waking hours with them. We even had a hard time to coax her to go out with us because she rather stay home with her grandma and her cousins!! It was nice of course, but our friends was really looking forward to see her, many were left disappointed - so our apologies to those who didn’t get a sight of our little Nora.

The 3 weeks passed by so quickly, I felt a sudden rush of tiredness and sadness at the end of it all. The heat wore me down so much, I was always bothered by it – I returned home to Belgium and got sick almost immediately! I must say our trip to Singapore was “exhaustingly satisfying”!