Back to School

This young man above wanted to be an Admiral in The Navy.

So after graduation from West Hill Primary School, he went for further studies to Naval base Secondary School.

While in Naval base Secondary School he displayed his talent wiothout the need of any supplement and without the support of Tongkat Ali.

During the era of The Beatkes, he splashes his imitations of The Beatles on stage and in front of the class as early as in Primary 5.

His teacher inspired him to be a teacher. Alas he did not score a good point in his O and hence end up being a Technician, Engineering Assistant and finally an Engineering Officer.

However, GOD made him traveled far and wide during his career as Technician and made him serve the public as he began to show sign of ageing.

Well that is the methamorposis of Life

UEFA 033 - Osnabruck

UEFA 033 - Osnabruck

While we had our breakfast in one of the snack shop,

I flipped through the map of Germany, which I bought in Heerbrugg, and planned our way up to Amsterdam in Holland.

I had 2 plans.

Plan A is to visit Mike at Blumenstrasse in Drensteinfurt, which is just some distance from Dortmund. Mike was my daughter’s pen pal and she was a cute girl of about 12 years old. They had been writing to each other for quite sometime.

I had also written to Mike, while I was in Heerbrugg, of our intention to visit her, and she seemed to be accommodating in her reply.

Plan B is to go straight up to Amsterdam, if the visit to Mike’s place was not possible.

After considering the odds and evens, we decided on Plan B. It was a train trip north to Osnabruck, where we had to change to a westward train to Amsterdam. I checked the train timing and found that we had some time to wander about in Osnabruck.

Similar to my trip to Europe in 1986, our passports were not stamped by the immigration officers in Switzerland, France and Germany.

Therefore, as a proof of our visit to Osnabruck, I deliberately, took picture of a bus that had Osnabruck displayed on its electronic panel.

After that we stopped for lunch in a Turkish restaurant. My wife enjoyed the kebab wrapped in round Turkish bread called 'pita' and light English Earl Grey tea.

We went to the train station early, to make sure we do not miss the train.

As the time was drawing near, we get very worried, because, all announcements were made in German.

It made us unsure if the train to Amsterdam is coming or we had missed it. We were also unsure, if were waiting at the right platform.

All praises to Al-Mighty God, who hears everything, including a whisper in the hearts. An European man, a fellow commuter, approached us and made enquiry of our destination. He immediately consoled us that the train is coming in a minute, after knowing that we were going to Amsterdam.

It was a DB train. DB is an abbreviation for Deutschbahn meaning German-train.

We had to stop in Hengelo to change to a Dutch train which will take us straight into Amsterdam. The Dutch train was bright yellow with a little bulge on the top of both end of the body.

Hengelo is at the border of Germany and Holland.

We arrived at Hengelo at 5:30pm. Once again our passports were not stamped by the Dutch Immigration.

Germany in German is called Deutschland.

In French is Allemagne and in Spanish

and Italian is known as Germania.

From Hengelo the train moved on to Amsterdam via the towns Almelo and Apeldoorn. I had the thought of going via the town Groningen, where our football hero, Fandi Ahmad, used to stay when he was playing for Ajax Football Club, but it was 120km north of Apeldoorn.

431 words

Drafted on 07.04.2007

Edited on 22.07.2007 at 0915hrs

At Woodlands Avenue 5

UEFA 022 – Schipol

This post is the continuation of the previous post UEFA 21 Datuk Adam.


Check it out.......!!!!


Way before that meeting in Paris, with my sister and wife, sometime in early April 1994, I flew to Schipol Airport in Amsterdam. It was only a stop over. So I immediately transit to Zurich. Although I did walkabout in Schipol Terminal building, I couldn’t remember any excitement. By the way, it was very early in the morning, probably 6:00 am.






Aerial view from Amsterdam to Zurich was enchanting. I could see the Rhine River meandering from Switzerland, thru Germany, right into the old town of Amsterdam and finally into the North Sea. The Rhine and The North Sea had witness many human intervention of history. It was almost similar to the human intervention of the automated legal requisition reply system in the road and rail system in my office.

Zurich to Heerbrugg was a familiar sight for me, as things did not change much in Switzerland. I went through Flughafen, Wintherthur, St Margrethen, Roschach, Au and finally Heerbrugg.

Hotel Heerbruggerhof was also still the same.

And I had the same Room No 17, facing the train station. Anne the Hotel owner was also the same nice lady. Her husband was also a familiar man. The only difference you would see and hear later in this series is the writer. I let you imagine first what changes could that had been.

This time around, I had to report to the factory on my own, as that was my second visit.
The training room, however, had changed to the red building. Before reporting to the Training Room, I went through the normal welcoming address by the Administration Officer. This time I was issued with tickets for free lunch at the Leica canteen.

The Training Room was at the ground level of the red building. My trainer was once again, Mr Jungker. He offered me his cunning smile and a hard handshake with a rigid grasp. I handed him the souvenir I got from Schipol airport. He didn’t seem to have aged despite after 8 years.

I have told you before, but I just feel like telling you again, that I was really amazed at their Training Room set-up and facilities.

I had a nice table with a pedestal drawer of tools and an anti-static work surface.

-359 words

-Drafted on 07.04.2007

-Edited on 03.05.2007 at 0018hrs

-At Woodlands Avenue 5