tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-105533712011-04-22T02:03:14.649+08:00Jan Lambregtshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07093095268337217985noreply@blogger.comBlogger1521100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10553371.post-1150359044708202602006-06-15T19:46:00.000+08:002006-06-15T16:10:44.726+08:00

After spending the first weekend in San Francisco, we rented a car and ventured into the Wine Country north of the city. On the way out of town we made a photo stop at the Golden Gate bridge.The Wine Country produces some of the world's best wines these days, probably much to the chagrin of the French, as a friend of mine remarked. Not only does the region produce excellent wines, but wine

Jan Lambregtshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07093095268337217985noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10553371.post-1150096918595173182006-06-12T19:11:00.000+08:002006-06-12T15:21:58.633+08:00

After another round of dragging butt on my part, here's the start of a detailed account of our US holiday. Chopped up in chunks that are easy to digest and should roughly follow all the destinations we visited.Starting with San Francisco. The City of Brotherly Love. Janet and I left Singapore early on Friday morning May 5, spent 20 odd hours traveling and arrived in San Francisco on.... Friday

Jan Lambregtshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07093095268337217985noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10553371.post-1149422456390934602006-06-04T19:35:00.000+08:002006-06-04T20:00:56.406+08:00

At least for the month of May there was a valid excuse for the silence on this blog as Janet and I were on holiday in the United States.We left early in the morning on Friday May 5th and I only just returned last week Wednesday May 31st at 2am in the morning. The journey back was a bit over 30 hours door-to-door of which I spent 26 hours in a plane. I have some experience in dealing with jet lag,

Jan Lambregtshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07093095268337217985noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10553371.post-1149420867880227612006-06-04T19:16:00.000+08:002006-06-04T19:34:27.893+08:00

Mea culpa. Mea maxima culpa!It has been quiet for far too long on this blog. Besides just procrastinating relentlessly, I have been completely absorbed by World of Warcraft and a possible transfer to Hong Kong. I still think blogs like these are excellent ways of staying in touch with faraway family and friends, so time to make amends and bring you back up to speed on the goings on in my little

Jan Lambregtshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07093095268337217985noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10553371.post-1138870883584145632006-02-02T17:05:00.000+08:002006-02-02T17:07:57.850+08:00

Last weekend was a long one, as it included public holidays on Monday and Friday for Chinese New Year. That's pretty much the one holiday in Singapore when everything really comes to a stand still. Janet hauled in enough food and drinks to last us for 4 days and we holed ourselves up in the house to... play World of Warcraft!That's right, I'm not the only one playing it. Janet's probably getting

Jan Lambregtshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07093095268337217985noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10553371.post-1138870850828563862006-02-02T17:00:00.000+08:002006-02-02T17:00:50.830+08:00

Around mid-January I found myself on a two-day business trip to Malaysia. It was one of those leave one morning, return the next day in the evening trips, during which we visited a flurry of clients. I accompanied a sales person and relationship manager, giving short presentations on our global outlook.It was good to be back in KL, for it had been over a year since I was there last time. This

Jan Lambregtshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07093095268337217985noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10553371.post-1138870815012096852006-02-02T16:59:00.000+08:002006-02-02T17:00:15.013+08:00

Returning from the Netherlands on January 3rd, I suffered from tremendous jet lag in the days that followed. I usually go straight back into the office, which in my experience is the best way to get back in a regular rhythm. This time around I just couldn't really sleep for four nights in a row. I'd get two hours of poor sleep and be wide awake, only to crash somewhere in the afternoon.Finally

Jan Lambregtshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07093095268337217985noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10553371.post-1138870776224274812006-02-02T16:58:00.000+08:002006-02-02T17:02:26.383+08:00

Long time no blog update. What excuse could I possibly have?Well, nothing serious, other than a severe addiction to World of Warcraft (WoW). As a friend of mine noted, I have always been relatively vulnerable to gaming addictions. He almost made it sound like a bad thing! I of course recognized it for what it truly was, a compliment.So all of my free time during the past month was spent playing

Jan Lambregtshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07093095268337217985noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10553371.post-1136535947320252542006-01-06T20:17:00.000+08:002006-01-06T16:25:47.320+08:00

It was inevitable. Like a force of nature, World of Warcraft has finally swallowed me. I've tried to resist for a long time, as my strained neck and shoulders probably aren't served by online gaming, yet I finally gave in.Unsurprisingly it was long-standing friend Remco, a notorious computer gaming addict with whom I spent countless hours playing Ultima III when we were but boys, who finally

Jan Lambregtshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07093095268337217985noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10553371.post-1136535426810561242006-01-06T19:42:00.000+08:002006-01-06T16:17:06.830+08:00

The day before Christmas we played another session of the roleplaying game Vampire the Masquerade. We, that is fratres sanguines Roman, Serge and myself, with Stefan acting as Storyteller. The day after Christmas we played another session of the roleplaying game Warhammer. That players there were Roman, Serge, Stefan and Martijn, whereas I functioned as Games Master.For those unfamiliar with the

Jan Lambregtshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07093095268337217985noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10553371.post-1136533189692007272006-01-06T19:36:00.000+08:002006-01-06T15:41:58.613+08:00

As promised, here are Roman's pictures of our annual Centerparks Gaming Weekend (CGW), edition 2005.You find a full report of all games played here on Roman's blog.

Jan Lambregtshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07093095268337217985noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10553371.post-1136532978311730552006-01-06T19:32:00.000+08:002006-01-06T15:36:18.336+08:00

A belated Happy New Year to everyone!I returned to Singapore right after New Year's day. Jet lag hasn't been kind on me this time around. Sometimes it hits you harder than other times. Suffice to say I've barely slept for the past four nights.Ah well, the weekend's upon me now, which should hopefully see me catch up a bit on sleep. It's also time to fill you in on what all happened during the

Jan Lambregtshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07093095268337217985noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10553371.post-1135531792419970082005-12-25T18:15:00.000+08:002005-12-26T03:13:02.890+08:00

Barely recovered from the CGW, I embarked on a train journey to my company's head office in Utrecht on Tuesday. There I spent the day meeting up with new colleagues in the research team, interviewing a student who was possibly interested in writing a Master's thesis on China and catching up with my home manager.In the evening the entire research team went out for some drinks near the Dom tower in

Jan Lambregtshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07093095268337217985noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10553371.post-1135530788177045342005-12-25T17:17:00.000+08:002005-12-26T01:14:15.740+08:00

On Friday, December 16, it was time for our annual Centerparks Gaming Weekend (CGW) - 2005 edition. The concept? A bunch of old-time friends and notorious gaming addicts rent a cottage in a bungalow park and play board games all weekend, talk tons and share a beer or two. We started doing this in honest in 2003 and it is quickly establishing itself as a tradition. A very good tradition that is!

Jan Lambregtshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07093095268337217985noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10553371.post-1135527472456095762005-12-25T17:04:00.000+08:002005-12-26T01:14:40.033+08:00

Christmas - so plenty of time to spend on your family and some updates to this blog. I'm more-or-less halfway my holiday in the Netherlands and past 1.5 week included plenty to report on.Starting with the day I arrived in the Netherlands, Thursday December 15. My dad picked me up at the airport early in the morning, 6am to be precise. The flight had been pretty standard - long, fairly dull, but

Jan Lambregtshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07093095268337217985noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10553371.post-1134561546701176412005-12-14T19:55:00.000+08:002005-12-14T19:59:06.716+08:00

In a few hours I'll be flying off to the Netherlands for a nice long Christmas holiday. All the work's done and the bags are packed, so the fun can begin. First 13 hours cattle class joy, however!Upcoming weekend we'll be having our annual Centerparks Gaming Weekend. The concept: six friends rent a cottage in some vacation park, drink beer, talk a lot and play a bunch of board games. After that

Jan Lambregtshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07093095268337217985noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10553371.post-1133859702888661992005-12-06T20:05:00.000+08:002005-12-06T17:02:04.853+08:00

Janet and Stephan went to the Hardrock Cafe on Friday night, while I was Bollywooding away. This was problematic, for as they reported to me next day on how good the food was, I got a craving for chicken fajitas. A craven that had to be addressed on Sunday night.So Janet and I went off and while she dug into a New York strip sirloin steak I gorged myself on chicken fajitas. After sharing a huge

Jan Lambregtshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07093095268337217985noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10553371.post-1133859079234905332005-12-06T19:45:00.000+08:002005-12-06T16:51:57.166+08:00

Stylish. That's the word that first jumps up when I think back of the movie Aeon Flux. Janet, Stephan and I went to see this movie last Saturday afternoon. It was an interesting experience.Reminiscent of The Matrix, some serious fashion designers worked on Aeon Flux. It is hip. Very hip. Next to tons of eye candy on fashion styles, there's architectural futuristic designs and a virtual

Jan Lambregtshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07093095268337217985noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10553371.post-1133858211629336572005-12-06T19:20:00.000+08:002005-12-06T16:41:35.106+08:00

Friday night I abandoned Janet and Stephan for a night with my colleagues. It was time for our annual company Dinner & Dance party. This year the location would be the prestigious Raffles Hotel, where the ballroom had been reserved for our entertainment.The theme for the evening would be Bollywood. A week earlier I'd taken Stephan to Little India to show him around a bit and pick up an Indian

Jan Lambregtshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07093095268337217985noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10553371.post-1133856347065325792005-12-06T19:00:00.000+08:002005-12-06T16:07:02.710+08:00

On Thursday night, Stephan and I took a taxi to one of the tallest buildings in town - Swissotel The Stamford. There we went up to the highest floor, to visit the Equinox bar and enjoy the view.Late in the evening, especially on the weekends, the Equinox New Asia bar is quite a happening place as it transforms into a night club. The irritating part is that it's usually fairly crowded and you can

Jan Lambregtshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07093095268337217985noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10553371.post-1133855791609351092005-12-06T18:45:00.000+08:002005-12-06T15:56:45.496+08:00

Saibot returned to Belgium late last Saturday night. So time to catch up on what all happened during those final few days after visiting the Night Safari.Wednesday night we walked over to a nice hawker restaurant near Great World City. It's one of my favorite places and serves a wide array of food. Normally I'm not very wild about places that offer such a broad choice, as it makes me suspicious

Jan Lambregtshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07093095268337217985noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10553371.post-1133426483464671702005-12-01T16:30:00.000+08:002005-12-01T16:41:23.486+08:00

Tuesday night I took Stephan to one of the best original attractions Singapore has to offer: the Night Safari. Over the past three years I've been there like seven times, so the novelty is sort of gone, at least for me. Yet I still like to take guests down there as it's a really good experience.In a nutshell: the Night Safari comprises of a jungle filled with all sorts of animals that don't mind

Jan Lambregtshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07093095268337217985noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10553371.post-1133163769057541022005-11-28T18:22:00.000+08:002005-11-28T15:42:49.080+08:00

Time to share an impression of last weekend with you.Friday evening Stephan and I walked to Orchard Road to have a look at the Christmas decorations and give him an overall idea of Singapore's main shopping street. Admittedly the annual decorations are always rather tacky and kitch reigns, but it's nevertheless a must see if you are in Singapore around that time of the year anyway. There's

Jan Lambregtshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07093095268337217985noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10553371.post-1132819489214409722005-11-24T18:28:00.000+08:002005-11-24T16:04:49.230+08:00

No shortage of good food in Singapore, but today's Thanksgiving and my lovely American wife will see to it that turkey with cranberry sauce is served, along with mashed potatoes, gravy and turkey stuffing. Plus strawberry short cake for dessert. I'm a willing victim, as you can imagine, and so is Saibot.Let's take a few steps back however. Tuesday night Saibot and I walked to the Funan IT Mall to

Jan Lambregtshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07093095268337217985noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10553371.post-1132628207120746142005-11-22T18:25:00.000+08:002005-11-22T10:56:47.210+08:00

Our good friend Stephan (better known to us under his Mortal Kombat gaming alias Saibot) is staying with us for two weeks holiday. Both Janet and I got to know him through online gaming several years ago.Saibot, Randall and I together set up the Multi-User Dungeon (MUD) called Hesperia. It's a medieval fantasy text-based adventure with all original content. We have worked on it for many many

Jan Lambregtshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07093095268337217985noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10553371.post-1132625132292746392005-11-22T09:54:00.000+08:002005-11-22T10:05:32.306+08:00

Following the completion of our epic Star Trek: Voyager DVD journey and a brief love affair with the 10-part mini-series Taken, Janet and I were in desparate need of new DVDs to sink our teeth into. Larry, aka as the Singapore King of DVDs, brought in fresh supplies last weekend.We have since finished the remaining DVDs of season 8 for Stargate: SG1 and season 1 of Stargate: Atlantis. So that has

Jan Lambregtshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07093095268337217985noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10553371.post-1132043346047213682005-11-15T17:31:00.000+08:002005-11-15T16:29:06.083+08:00

Last weekend I came across a CNN news story about a guy who bought a virtual space station in a gaming universe for US$100,000. That's real cash, in case you were wondering. The man is playing Project Entropia, a Massive Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Game (MMORPG). Big deal, I hear you think, the likes of Everquest and Ultima Online have had their share of players who sell virtual in-game items

Jan Lambregtshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07093095268337217985noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10553371.post-1131889600676487512005-11-13T21:27:00.000+08:002005-11-13T21:46:40.693+08:00

I bought the game Runebound it at the end of August, but only had a chance to play it last Friday, when Kenneth, Nicole, Larry and Michael joined us for some good food and games.We kicked off the evening with a game of Bang! It's a favorite among my various Singapore gaming friends and I can only agree wholeheartedly. For those who don't remember from previous blog entries, players take on the

Jan Lambregtshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07093095268337217985noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10553371.post-1131541948605724912005-11-09T20:58:00.000+08:002005-11-09T21:12:28.620+08:00

As I wrote earlier this week the countdown to the annual gaming weekend has begun. I decided to buy a new game to introduce at the gaming weekend and stocked up on it today. Now here comes the kicker. I'm not going to tell anyone what that game exactly is all about. Muha. Since I know at least two or three of the friends presents regularly catch up with this blog, I can feel their anxiety levels

Jan Lambregtshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07093095268337217985noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10553371.post-1131372485300089642005-11-07T21:47:00.000+08:002005-11-07T22:08:05.316+08:00

As I noted in my previous posting, the holiday season is drawing close. In preparation of tons of good food and a drink here and there, I have therefore decided to get totally fit. I'm not so much talking exercise here, for I bike away for 40 minutes about 4-5 times a week on my hometrainer already. No, I'm talking about getting my weight back to 80kg in around about 6 weeks time. I started about

Jan Lambregtshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07093095268337217985noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10553371.post-1131282891976197112005-11-06T20:38:00.000+08:002005-11-06T21:38:26.296+08:00

November has arrived and that means the end of the year is drawing close. Traditionally that means the countdown is on for one of the best periods of the year. Christmas and New Year of course and more in particular all the gaming sessions in that period!Janet will heading over to the States on December 6 (scheduled to return January 10), whereas I'll be off to the Netherlands on December 14 (

Jan Lambregtshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07093095268337217985noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10553371.post-1131280701596451562005-11-06T20:27:00.000+08:002005-11-06T21:30:09.016+08:00

Three families. Four Generations. 50 years of alien encounters. That's the premise of Steven Spielberg's mini-series Taken. We recently bought the 10-episodes series on DVD, as I'd never seen it and Janet only saw it partially when it was originally broadcasted on American TV.Each episode is a small movie of 80 minutes and over the course of 10 episodes it builds up 50 years in which three

Jan Lambregtshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07093095268337217985noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10553371.post-1131280013401556942005-11-06T20:10:00.000+08:002005-11-06T21:24:45.456+08:00

Over the past year Janet and I spent many an hour watching all seven seasons of Star Trek: Voyager. Janet usually from the comfort of her couch, whereas I'd typically be sweating and puffing, pumping away on my hometrainer in front of the TV.Voyager's certainly been an entertaining show to watch and I'd heartily recommend it to anyone who can get a hold of the DVDs. We were able to borrow them

Jan Lambregtshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07093095268337217985noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10553371.post-1131003593973011042005-11-03T18:22:00.000+08:002005-11-03T18:49:02.556+08:00

Last weekend we went to see The Great Raid. I'm a sucker for modern WWII movies and this one was certainly entertaining. The movie is set in the Philippines in 1945 and tells the true story of an American batallion charged with the liberation of 500 American POWs in a Japanese POW camp, called Cabanatuan.I'd never heard of this mission before and neither had Janet, but it sure made for an

Jan Lambregtshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07093095268337217985noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10553371.post-1131002535643058252005-11-03T17:11:00.000+08:002005-11-03T15:22:15.663+08:00

Time to catch up with a few blog postings and give you a sense of what's all been going on here.Janet and I saw the movie Flight Plan about 1.5 weeks ago. It stars Jodie Foster as a rather confused mother who just lost her husband, then loses track of her daughter in a plane. Yet no one has seen her daughter embark the plane, she's not on any of the passenger lists and cannot be found even after

Jan Lambregtshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07093095268337217985noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10553371.post-1130246581891888872005-10-25T19:45:00.000+08:002005-10-25T21:23:01.946+08:00

Last week was spent touring Singapore, Hong Kong and Shanghai visiting clients with Bernard, my manager from the Netherlands. The lunch presentations - one in each location - were well attended and well received, plus the one-on-one meetings went pretty good as well.The client visits gave a good business justification to the whole trip, but Bernard's main purpose was actually to pay me a visit

Jan Lambregtshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07093095268337217985noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10553371.post-1129368800857547012005-10-15T17:24:00.000+08:002005-10-15T17:33:20.870+08:00

The week ahead promises to be a busy one, as my manager, Bernard, will be over in Asia. In fact, the past two weeks have been extremely busy with preparations for this visit. We will be visiting clients in Singapore, Hong Kong and Shanghai during that time, doing both a series of one-on-one meetings and a total of three large lunch presentations in each location. The presentations are dual ones,

Jan Lambregtshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07093095268337217985noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10553371.post-1129207338554582652005-10-13T20:03:00.000+08:002005-10-13T20:42:18.576+08:00

People sometimes ask me what I miss most about not living in the Netherlands. That would be my friends and (close) family. Probably in that order, since I talk just about every other day with my mother and she keeps me totally in the loop on all things family. In fact, I dare say I keep better in touch with my parents than many kids who live just a town away. The downside of living as far away as

Jan Lambregtshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07093095268337217985noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10553371.post-1129035269469330302005-10-11T20:38:00.000+08:002005-10-11T20:54:29.476+08:00

Janet and I saw the movie The Skeleton Key last weekend. What looked from the start like a standard haunted house type of horror movie turned out to be a very interesting production indeed.Without giving too much away, the storyline goes something like this. A city girl goes to work as a caretaker for an elderly couple that live in an old estate on the bayou in Louisiana. The husband suffered

Jan Lambregtshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07093095268337217985noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10553371.post-1129034240345723502005-10-11T20:25:00.000+08:002005-10-11T20:37:20.366+08:00

Last week the moment was finally there. As you may remember I gave a presentation to our senior management in Hong Kong in late June and in the process betted a bottle of champagne on a near-term move by China on its foreign exchange regime. That is I expected such a move before year-end, while the counterparty manager from London didn't. China moved scant three weeks later on July 21, so I was

Jan Lambregtshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07093095268337217985noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10553371.post-1128517231203290392005-10-05T20:48:00.000+08:002005-10-05T21:02:25.420+08:00

Jan Lambregtshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07093095268337217985noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10553371.post-1128435305434830602005-10-04T21:10:00.000+08:002005-10-05T21:02:45.086+08:00

We returned from a long weekend trip to Cambodia late yesterday night. The trip itself was in one word spectacular. We thoroughly enjoyed ourselves crawling through the ancient temple ruins around the small town of Siem Reap.For a decent trip report, let's start at the beginning. We caught a direct flight from Singapore to Siem Reap on Friday morning. It was only a little over two hours and

Jan Lambregtshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07093095268337217985noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10553371.post-1127641031664173112005-09-25T17:23:00.000+08:002005-09-25T17:37:11.693+08:00

Rita made landfall at a relatively safe distance from Houston and preliminary damage assessments all look like it could have been a lot worse. They must have had some bad wind and lots of rain up there, but nothing worse than that.Janet's since been in touch with the family headquarters (i.e. the dynamic duo: her mother and her daughter April, between those two little news escapes!) and all is

Jan Lambregtshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07093095268337217985noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10553371.post-1127536288249684122005-09-24T12:19:00.000+08:002005-09-24T12:31:28.260+08:00

My mother and brother Mark arrived yesterday night with a modestly delayed flight from the Netherlands. They'll be with us for a good two weeks during which they hope to relax in Singapore and have a long weekend trip with us in Cambodia.Other than touring a part of Singapore and visiting a good restaurant tonight, we'll be in front of the TV for a good part of the day watching Rita make landfall

Jan Lambregtshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07093095268337217985noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10553371.post-1127398223578145882005-09-22T21:25:00.000+08:002005-09-22T22:10:23.586+08:00

I didn't write much on the impact of hurricane Katrina, since I was on a business trip in China by the time it became clear how bad it really was. By the time I returned all was pretty much said and done. Luckily none of Janet's family in Louisiana was affected by Katrina, since her mother, daughters, sister Jeanne and brother Jeff all live in north Louisiana, near the border with Arkansas. They

Jan Lambregtshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07093095268337217985noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10553371.post-1127122841615641272005-09-19T23:15:00.000+08:002005-09-20T16:17:10.606+08:00

We missed out on it during our New York cinema spree, but finally got around to it this weekend. Der Untergang, or The Downfall, a movie after the intriguing book by renowned Hitler biographer Joachim Fest. The movie displays the last 10 days of the Nazi regime, in particular zooming in on the bizarre events in the Fuhrer bunker.What makes this movie special is that it was entirely a German

Jan Lambregtshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07093095268337217985noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10553371.post-1127115026895241362005-09-19T22:11:00.000+08:002005-09-19T15:30:26.906+08:00

Saturday night I went out for some good local food with a Dutch friend and colleague, Bor. We steadily worked our way through chicken, beef and mutton satays, chicken murtabak, plain roti pratas with curry sauce, nasi ayam sambal and a baby kalans - the latter's a vegetable dish, mind you. All to be washed away with a proper jar of lime juice. At the end of this food fest we were each out of

Jan Lambregtshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07093095268337217985noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10553371.post-1126853927866399962005-09-16T19:45:00.000+08:002005-09-16T14:58:47.873+08:00

Aided by my absolute lack of energy this week, Janet and I have been in front of the television every night for a Lost marathon. We bought the complete first season on Amazon.com and had it delivered to our doorstep for a very reasonable price overall. Needless to say we gobbled up the first season entirely by now.The series is quite interesting. A diverse bunch of people try to survive on a

Jan Lambregtshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07093095268337217985noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10553371.post-1126839280803902382005-09-16T18:30:00.000+08:002005-09-22T21:22:10.946+08:00

The flu caught up with me again this week and while it hasn't kept me out of work it did sap my energy enough to postpone my blog report on Shanghai. Time so set the record straight.Shanghai and Beijing is a difference of day and night. Shanghai is truly an amazing city. While there's still a lot of air pollution its location nearby the ocean makes it far more bearable as you get to enjoy a

Jan Lambregtshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07093095268337217985noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10553371.post-1126337849201208482005-09-10T14:25:00.000+08:002005-09-22T21:24:34.813+08:00

I returned from China late Thursday evening. Unfortunately I came home running a fever and with an upset stomach; flu symptoms that didn't settle over a night's sleep. I tried to get into work on Friday morning but after I got dressed I found myself shivering with fever and figured it was really no use in that shape. So I called in sick and crawled back in bed. I'm feeling a bit better now, at

Jan Lambregtshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07093095268337217985noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10553371.post-1125413003898783892005-08-30T22:35:00.000+08:002005-08-30T22:45:07.800+08:00

After this marathon catch-up on some of the events in the past couple of days it's time to call it a night for now. It'll be quiet for a while on this blog as well. Tomorrow late afternoon I depart for a week-long business trip to China.First destination is Beijing, where I'll spend Thursday and Friday visiting fellow economists, government officials, some legal people and clients. Saturday it's

Jan Lambregtshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07093095268337217985noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10553371.post-1125412490411380152005-08-30T22:22:00.000+08:002005-08-30T22:34:50.416+08:00

Last night I went out with a Dutch camera crew working for the VPRO documentary series Tegenlicht. The four man crew consisted of a lead interviewer, director and camera people. I had recently been in touch with the interviewer, Maarten van Schinkel, who normally writes as an economic correspondent for NRC Handelsblad - a Dutch financial newspaper. So when they needed some info for this

Jan Lambregtshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07093095268337217985noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10553371.post-1125411723767998512005-08-30T22:12:00.000+08:002005-08-30T22:22:03.766+08:00

Over the weekend I finished the book Digital Fortress by Dan Brown. Dan-Brown-From-The-Da-Vinci-Code-Yes. It was written a couple of years before that successful bestseller. I supposed for Dan it's a good thing people read the books in reverse order.Why? Because for all their ingenious construction and research, his books are very similar. It's like reading too many Ludlums and even a degree

Jan Lambregtshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07093095268337217985noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10553371.post-1125411084588252352005-08-30T21:52:00.000+08:002005-08-30T22:11:24.596+08:00

Friday night Kenneth, Nicole and Mike came over to share dinner with us and afterwards play some board games. They brought their friend Mark as well, a Singaporean who spent the past year or so studying for his bachelor in journalism in Australia. Much fun was had as we sank our teeth into some chili and rice with dump cake for dessert, after which we commenced with a game of the ever-pleasant

Jan Lambregtshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07093095268337217985noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10553371.post-1125148455214580862005-08-27T21:05:00.000+08:002005-08-27T21:14:15.216+08:00

For the past couple of months I'd been looking forward to the release of the movie Red Eye. The trailer was absolutely promising, leaving you with the distinct feeling Wes Craven produced another Nightmare on Elmstreet or better.Well, not. After seeing the actual movie and comparing it to concept provoked by the trailer you feel definitively cheated. Misled is the best term to coin it with. The

Jan Lambregtshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07093095268337217985noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10553371.post-1125147611289971272005-08-27T20:53:00.000+08:002005-08-27T21:00:11.300+08:00

Just came across a really sick joke to play on your friends - or enemies. Brilliant really to be honest, so let me just share it with you and safeguard you from falling for it somewhere in the future were a kind friend to treat you to this.It's a derivative of the horror movie The Ring, in which people watch a strange short scene on video, directly after which they receive a phone call that

Jan Lambregtshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07093095268337217985noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10553371.post-1124808793609680002005-08-23T22:22:00.000+08:002005-08-23T22:53:13.616+08:00

First half of this year was fairly uneventful in terms of traveling. Well, that is, not counting our honeymoon to the Netherlands and US in May. Oh and a little gig in Indonesia end of April. Now that I think about it, there were also the trips to Japan and Hong Kong in June...Okay, okay, I take that back. The first four months of the year were uneventful in terms of travelling. After that it

Jan Lambregtshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07093095268337217985noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10553371.post-1124806903378366652005-08-23T21:54:00.000+08:002005-08-23T22:21:43.386+08:00

Last Saturday saw the fourth installment of my Singapore Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay campaign. This time around the party of three dwarves and a human set out to guard yet another caravan of wagons to the silver mine of Gotti Baggerson. It was a fairly uneventful and therefore successful trip in itself.Yet on their return from the Middle Mountains they encountered some desperate inhabitants of a

Jan Lambregtshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07093095268337217985noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10553371.post-1124203428287039182005-08-16T22:35:00.000+08:002005-08-16T22:48:29.626+08:00

Well, remember the story about the racing cops that I wrote in March? Geenstijl reports they have since found another job [Dutch link] - at another regional police corps. The men were dishonorably discharged at their previous corps, but since the rest of their resume was unblemished their new employer figured they deserved a second chance.Right. What does dishonorable discharge then signify?

Jan Lambregtshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07093095268337217985noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10553371.post-1124184895979632102005-08-16T17:09:00.000+08:002005-08-16T17:34:55.986+08:00

Janet and I went all experimental last Saturday evening and visited the Cineleisure cinema at the crossing of Grange and Orchard Road to see the German movie Napola. At Janet's suggestion, before I am accused of my World War II obsession getting the better of me once again. Mind you, I started a new book on the Blitzkrieg today, but it was Janet who spotted the movie and wanted to see it. I was

Jan Lambregtshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07093095268337217985noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10553371.post-1124118097168671292005-08-15T22:43:00.000+08:002005-08-15T23:01:37.176+08:00

The wedding pictures arrived today. That is, the DVD with a page-by-page movie of the photo book arrived in Singapore, whereas my brother Freek went to pick up the actual photo book with the photographer in the Netherlands.Janet and I are quite pleased with the result; the photos turned out really nice as far as we can see on the DVD. My mother and brother Mark are visiting us by the end of next

Jan Lambregtshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07093095268337217985noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10553371.post-1123762169259948112005-08-11T19:40:00.000+08:002005-08-11T20:12:30.650+08:00

The New York Times ran an insightful story on Iraq yesterday. Note that you will have to register with them to be able to read the story, but it's free and they don't send you any other crap as far as I know. Only daily headlines, if you like.The article is about a Chinese immigrant in Iraq who carved a number of businesses for himself and actually made quite a bit of money in the past. But the

Jan Lambregtshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07093095268337217985noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10553371.post-1123682091777633692005-08-10T21:38:00.000+08:002005-08-10T21:54:51.783+08:00

Many years ago I somehow got interested in F1 racing. Don't ask me how, why or what, but it was a great time to spend a lazy Sunday afternoon watching those drivers push their race cars to the max.Funny, for I don't even care for cars much, let alone race cars. Yet in a way similar to professional cycling I guess I was attracted to the undercurrent of complex tactical considerations. In those

Jan Lambregtshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07093095268337217985noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10553371.post-1123592521692433892005-08-09T20:42:00.000+08:002005-08-09T21:02:01.696+08:00

Funny anecdote there as I was sitting in a fairly deserted dealing room during National Day. One of the ladies of the backoffice walked in during the day, with in her wake two of her little kids. They were obviously having a good time in the office, so I did what any creep that seeks to corrupt children would do: offer them some cookies.Well, they were really stunned by my presence. Amazed is

Jan Lambregtshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07093095268337217985noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10553371.post-1123589501238540742005-08-09T19:43:00.000+08:002005-08-09T20:14:11.680+08:00

Today's National Day in Singapore. A special one for that matter, as it marks Singapore's 40th birthday. So it's nation building in action all over the island state. Military parades, a kazillion school kids performing, fireworks galore, jet fighters making noise and corny national songs - it's all happening at the historical pedang and over the skies of Singapore.Janet's loving it. She turns out

Jan Lambregtshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07093095268337217985noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10553371.post-1123514053498382272005-08-08T23:02:00.000+08:002005-08-08T23:23:29.850+08:00

Way back in February I wrote about this great cult game, the Kingdom of Loathing. I enjoyed many an hour with the goofy humor of that game's designers. It's been a while since I played it though, as the honeymoon sort of got inbetween and I started to tire of the game routine. There's only so long a game can captivate a nerd's attention, after all.Then I decided to check out the game again today

Jan Lambregtshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07093095268337217985noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10553371.post-1123505146728647102005-08-08T20:27:00.000+08:002005-08-09T17:06:43.550+08:00

Janet and I went chasing after some youth sentiment yesterday as we visited the cinema to see Tim Burton's version of Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory. Or, as the modern installment is called Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. The kiddo clearly became central to the story, rather than Whacky Willy Wonka. All after the great book by Roald Dahl, of course.The movie was quite entertaining,

Jan Lambregtshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07093095268337217985noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10553371.post-1123426301209342072005-08-07T22:46:00.000+08:002005-08-07T22:51:41.210+08:00

Here's for some shameless plugging for all of you who enjoy a good gaming convention and in particular Spiel in Essen. Check my friend Roman's latest post which extensively discusses some of the new games featured this year.Living in exile in Singapore isn't so bad most of the time, but when it's gaming convention season in October-November it's tough on this gaming nerd. Very tough. So tough,

Jan Lambregtshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07093095268337217985noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10553371.post-1123425482648659842005-08-07T21:48:00.000+08:002005-08-07T22:38:02.666+08:00

Not a reference to a new hobby of mine, but rather the third installment of my Singapore Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay campaign.The group was reinforced by a sixth member, Darren. Which was all for the best as two members - Chris and Bertram - are about to be sent abroad for a longer period of time. To Bangelore and Shanghai to be precise. I have already expressed my outrage at this shameless

Jan Lambregtshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07093095268337217985noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10553371.post-1123053155696320512005-08-03T18:19:00.000+08:002005-08-04T14:19:58.676+08:00

This study quoted in a recent article of The Independent is all the justification I ever needed for a youth spent as a computer/gaming nerd.A quick summary of the study's findings: the geeks of the 1980s have grown up and are now an economic force to be reckoned with. They're in high-end jobs, have plenty of cash at hand and many already own a home. Now I hear you think: but at what price? Well,

Jan Lambregtshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07093095268337217985noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10553371.post-1122783265775349832005-07-31T11:53:00.000+08:002005-07-31T12:14:25.786+08:00

Spent Friday evening having a few drinks at the Balaclava bar with my colleague Mark and some clients. Good as usual, but once again had to settle for finger food. Trust me, lamb quesadila at that place tastes like vomit.Relaxed on Saturday with the normal routine of sleeping in, exercising, massage, reading some fantasy lecture and watching a couple of sci-fi shows on DVD. In the evening my

Jan Lambregtshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07093095268337217985noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10553371.post-1122778307787412852005-07-31T10:36:00.000+08:002005-07-31T10:51:47.796+08:00

Last Wednesday early evening it was time for a presentation on our half-year results at the China Club in Capital Tower. Conveniently located from our office, it was a breeze compared to the semi-annual stroll to the Tower Club where we usually have these type of meetings. Although I must admit the latter offers a much more beautiful view of Singapore. Regardless, China Club's view on the

Jan Lambregtshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07093095268337217985noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10553371.post-1122716539955159552005-07-30T17:42:00.000+08:002005-07-31T10:35:11.420+08:00

Last Sunday Janet and I teamed up with Matt and Hazel for dinner at a Brazilian churrascaria. Matt's an Australian colleague of mine who used to work for the bank in Ireland for a while and that's also where he met his girlfriend Hazel. I've been out a couple of times with him and that was always good fun, whereas Hazel bumped into Janet at a tea party thrown by our general manager's wife. So no

Jan Lambregtshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07093095268337217985noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10553371.post-1122716317770149082005-07-30T17:15:00.000+08:002005-07-30T17:38:37.776+08:00

Time to catch up with a couple of blog entries after another pretty busy week.Starting with a week ago, when Bertram, Jonathon and Darren came over to play some board games. Originally Janet and I had planned to attend a BBQ thrown by a bunch of people from a Singapore expat message board. It sounded like a good opportunity to meet some new, fun people. I'd even cancelled earlier plans to hold

Jan Lambregtshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07093095268337217985noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10553371.post-1122301151893640122005-07-25T22:04:00.000+08:002005-07-25T22:23:06.120+08:00

What a week.Last Thursday I'd worked fairly late and then joined two of my colleagues for a drink at Molly Malone's - an Irish pub right behind Boat Quay. We'd had some snacks and a quick few pints, after which my colleagues left and I went for a quick dinner at McDonald's. As I walked out of the McDonald's the phone rang. It was Thomas, another colleague of mine, telling me the Chinese changed

Jan Lambregtshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07093095268337217985noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10553371.post-1121860247780288642005-07-20T19:18:00.000+08:002005-07-20T19:54:06.940+08:00

Monday evening Janet and I were invited at the American Club by Andrew, a colleague of mine. It's a members-only club and one of the more expensive ones to get a membership at. So it isn't like you get to go in if you are/know an American! Members can take invitees along, so that's how Janet and I got in.Andrew's mother is Japanese and his father American. He was born and raised in the US, Kansas

Jan Lambregtshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07093095268337217985noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10553371.post-1121776248206134582005-07-19T19:56:00.000+08:002005-07-19T20:44:01.863+08:00

Forgive me, for I have sinned.Once again I went to the gaming store this weekend. I know it exerts an unhealthy influence over me. It's that storekeeper that made me do it, I swear. Everytime I walk in he starts talking to me. And he knows. He KNOWS. All my weaknesses, my vices, the trigger buttons. Those words that make a perfectly normal guy turn into a monster and scream:IT MUST BE MINE!

Jan Lambregtshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07093095268337217985noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10553371.post-1121669706266844952005-07-18T17:47:00.000+08:002005-07-18T14:55:06.270+08:00

Every once in a while you come across a nice new initiative on the web that you just HAVE to share with other people. The boys at Google have plenty of such nice projects, like Google Earth. Totally free to download, this nifty program allows you explore the earth's geography in 3-D as it combines satellite imagery, maps and - of course - Google search.Some spots like major cities have been

Jan Lambregtshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07093095268337217985noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10553371.post-1121604251756073012005-07-17T19:48:00.000+08:002005-07-17T20:44:11.766+08:00

I still owe you an overview of all the movies we saw during our honeymoon. We pretty much saw all of the ones we intended to and more. Plus the past few weeks in Singapore and some business trips (planes!) have seen a couple more added. So time for a decent overview and brief verdict on each one. Reading these verdicts is safe, they contain no spoilers.Starting with Kingdom of Heaven. Enjoyable,

Jan Lambregtshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07093095268337217985noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10553371.post-1121530888287107882005-07-17T00:16:00.000+08:002005-07-17T00:23:01.393+08:00

This is for all you (misunderstood) geniuses out there. Another IQ test has become available to confirm you existence. Seek it out here. It's quick, dirty and highly accurate as long as it scores above 130. For short it's IQ tests as we like them. No more than a couple of minutes work to back up what you already knew... oh and another 15 minutes to cook the books and play around until you get all

Jan Lambregtshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07093095268337217985noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10553371.post-1121511702104888182005-07-16T18:10:00.000+08:002005-07-16T19:01:42.110+08:00

Went bar hopping Friday night with a bunch of colleagues. For some reason many think Singapore is a fairly dull city when it comes to nightlife entertainment. In particular the comparison to Hong Kong is often made, in which Singapore comes out non too good. I've been to Hong Kong a few times and can hardly be considered an expert on its nightlife. I'm not an insider of the clubbing crowd in

Jan Lambregtshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07093095268337217985noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10553371.post-1121258655389568612005-07-13T20:44:00.000+08:002005-07-13T20:58:36.856+08:00

Time to live up to my promise earlier this week and provide you with a glimpse of the Changer of the Ways, also known as a Greater Daemon of Tzeentch, Lord of Tzeentch, and a thousand other unholy names best not uttered or heard by the sane.You guessed it, another miniature painted by Kenneth Tan. This was the first he did on commission for me, now over a year ago. The picture isn't brilliant,

Jan Lambregtshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07093095268337217985noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10553371.post-1121181278657549262005-07-12T22:56:00.000+08:002005-07-12T23:32:23.506+08:00

Three premium sports channels for some hefty monthly fee and yet in their infinite retardedness and love for weird-English-only sports the Asian schedulers decided not to treat their public to a live broadcast of today's stage in the Tour de France.Full coverage of snooker tournaments from the challenger rounds to the finals - no problem. Endless cricket? You got it. The re-run of Manchester

Jan Lambregtshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07093095268337217985noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10553371.post-1121080862047184002005-07-11T18:57:00.000+08:002005-07-11T19:21:02.056+08:00

Blegh, I was down with a mild flu yesterday. Pretty much spent the entire day on the couch doing what I do best: whine and wimper. Luckily nurse Janet was hovering over me along with plenty of DVDs to watch and some great stages in the Tour de France to follow. Unfortunately I had to get up as early as 4.30am this morning to go into work early to prepare for a TV interview with CNBC Asia at

Jan Lambregtshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07093095268337217985noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10553371.post-1120882807386164472005-07-09T12:20:00.000+08:002005-07-09T14:38:21.800+08:00

The newest addition to my miniature collection: the Daemon Prince Belakor. Do click on the picture to get an inkling of the superb job my friend Kenneth did on this commissioned miniature.As with the Greater Daemon of Tzeentch, Dragon Ogre Shaggoth and Lizardman on Carnosaur Kenneth did for me, the longer you look at this miniature the more beautiful details you can make out. Really, the picture

Jan Lambregtshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07093095268337217985noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10553371.post-1120745519501447012005-07-07T21:37:00.000+08:002005-07-07T22:11:59.526+08:00

Picture taken at Korean War Veterans Memorial in Washington, D.C.It was near the end of my working day and I was about to leave a bit early to get a haircut in a nearby shopping center. Our internal chat program was flashing with messages from colleagues in London reporting the closure of several tube stations. No one was really thinking the worst as the closures were reportedly due to electrical

Jan Lambregtshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07093095268337217985noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10553371.post-1120652713419727762005-07-06T20:11:00.000+08:002005-07-06T20:25:13.426+08:00

It probably hasn't escaped your attention that the 2012 Olympic Games will be held in London. It may have escaped your attention that the IOC voting meeting was held in Singapore.Over the past few days the little island state in which we are in exile has therefore been flooded by officials, celebrities, celebrity officials and official celebrities from Moskow, New York, Madrid, Paris and London.

Jan Lambregtshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07093095268337217985noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10553371.post-1120481281337080982005-07-04T20:24:00.000+08:002005-07-05T06:42:55.173+08:00

No it wasn't a test viewing of a certain video tape I smuggled into Singapore. Rather, Spank the Monkey is the title of a hilarious little card game I recently bought. Let me give you the gist of it by quoting the text on the back of the package:"A pestering primate is wreaking havoc at the junkyard where you work. It may be our closest relative, but that doesn't mean it can go bananas and spoil

Jan Lambregtshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07093095268337217985noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10553371.post-1120479814547833722005-07-04T19:34:00.000+08:002005-07-04T20:23:34.560+08:00

During the first four months of the year I was pretty much chained to my desk at work. I don't think I left Singapore for a single time for business. Or pleasure for that matter, for Janet and I are no particular beach lovers and needed most of the vacation days for our honeymoon plans.But as the honeymoon drew closer things started to get moving. Seriously moving.First there was the little

Jan Lambregtshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07093095268337217985noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10553371.post-1120476798592731172005-07-04T19:15:00.000+08:002005-07-04T19:33:18.606+08:00

Now that the epic honeymoon tale has ended, finally some time to catch up on some of the events that occurred since my return almost four weeks ago.Ample days after I returned I found myself at another wedding party, this time thrown by a Singaporean colleague of mine. Both bride and groom were of Chinese descent, hence it could rightfully be labelled a Chinese wedding. You may recall I wrote

Jan Lambregtshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07093095268337217985noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10553371.post-1119959095904446712005-07-03T19:44:00.000+08:002005-07-03T16:50:25.106+08:00

Jan wearing cowboy hat, picture taken by Janet's brother Jon in his house in Houston.Back from Hong Kong and time to explain this picture and tell you the tip of the tail of our honeymoon trip. No one likes for a long vacation to end, but in this case we had almost been looking forward to the last weekend as we were visiting Janet's brother Jon and his wife Shelley in Houston. We left New Orleans

Jan Lambregtshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07093095268337217985noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10553371.post-1119879475539558522005-06-27T21:37:00.000+08:002005-06-27T21:46:53.586+08:00

A picture of us in front of Jackson Square, New Orleans. That's not a belly on my end, it's my wallet in a pickpocket-proof spot! Honestly. Food had been good in prior weeks, but not that devastating in impact.There we were, back in New Orleans for a 3-day stint. Back in the city where we first met, exactly 5 years earlier, staying in the same hotel, the Bourbon Orleans, in the historical French

Jan Lambregtshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07093095268337217985noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10553371.post-1119875939432952822005-06-27T20:38:00.000+08:002005-06-27T21:33:58.993+08:00

The above picture of the family was taken at our wedding reception in Monroe, Louisiana. It's not the clearest picture taken that night, but it's the most complete one in terms of people of the direct family. A quick introduction - in no particular order. The lady in white is Janet. The suit behind her is me. Directly to the right of Janet are her mother, her sister Jeanne, sister-in-law Shelley

Jan Lambregtshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07093095268337217985noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10553371.post-1119791793156425752005-06-26T21:16:00.000+08:002005-06-26T21:59:08.516+08:00

The Washington Monument, picture taken from the foot of the Lincoln Memorial on the west end of the so-called Mall.Having spent a week in New York, we traveled by Amtrak train to Washington on Monday, May 23. It was quite a hassle logging all four of our suitcases and various smaller bags around while traveling, but it seemed like fun to try out public transport once. We arrived in Penn Station,

Jan Lambregtshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07093095268337217985noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10553371.post-1119777994664095682005-06-26T17:26:00.000+08:002005-06-26T17:46:34.890+08:00

A business contact of mine, Les, had somehow gotten the whiff of Janet and I being in town for our honeymoon. I receive a steady stream of research reports through his company, which is based in New York, and a couple of times a year he comes over to Singapore along with one of their analysts for lunch meetings and the like. From the start he'd been eager to help us out with restaurant info,

Jan Lambregtshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07093095268337217985noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10553371.post-1119776121141950782005-06-26T16:55:00.000+08:002005-06-26T17:24:27.826+08:00

New York panorama: the southern part of Manhattan. Picture taken from the top of the Empire State Building.That faithful Monday morning, May 16, we flew from Buffalo (NY) to New York City, with a brief stopover in Detroit to catch a connecting flight. A taxi took us into Manhattan, where we stayed at the La Quinta Manhattan - on 32nd Street, right between Broadway and 6th Avenue. The hotel turned

Jan Lambregtshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07093095268337217985noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10553371.post-1119709230535412422005-06-25T22:20:00.000+08:002005-06-25T23:05:27.980+08:00

Back from Japan and with Janet back at my side as she shortly afterwards returned safe and sound to Singapore as well. But more on that all later, for first the honeymoon tale must be finished.Today's entry: Niagara Falls. Attached a picture shot from a rock plateau in front of our hotel, providing a breathtaking view of the American Falls (including the so-called Bridal Veils) on the left and

Jan Lambregtshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07093095268337217985noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10553371.post-1119280295322557432005-06-20T23:03:00.000+08:002005-06-20T23:11:35.326+08:00

I'd planned to write about our trip to Niagara Falls tonight and possibly make a headstart on New York and Washington as well. Alas, I was too ambitious there as I got stuck at work and afterwards packing my suitcase for a business trip to Japan.I'll be in Japan from Tuesday to Friday, so no updates for the blog there it would seem. I promise I'll get down and dirty this weekend and finish the

Jan Lambregtshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07093095268337217985noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10553371.post-1119190902559525062005-06-19T20:52:00.000+08:002005-06-19T22:21:42.570+08:00

May 12. The big day had arrived. We'd spent the night in a small hotel called 't Wapen van Balveren, which was conveniently situated right next to Kasteel Wijenburg. The location was great for our purpose and the hotel acceptable. The hotel manager was a bit of a weirdo with a semi-permanent cloud of cigar smoke around him. Allow me to indulge you with a little anecdote.We were essentially

Jan Lambregtshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07093095268337217985noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10553371.post-1119020005513337692005-06-17T22:07:00.000+08:002005-06-17T22:53:25.520+08:00

In the days between my bachelor party and our wedding day there were still a lot of preparations to be made. My mother as usual was a great help and drove us all over the Netherlands to get everything done. I have a driver's license myself, but I haven't driven a card in three years and was never much of a chauffeur to begin with, so protect myself and everyone else I decided to be safe rather

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