UEFA 39b - Free n Easy

For my new relatives, friends and visitors, UEFA means Unexpected European Far-Flung Adventure. This one was in March 1996. At this moment still no photos. Perhaps next posting, when we enter Amsterdam.


I wanted to put some photos related to this travelog, but, kwank, kwank, kwang...they were not scanned yet.


In the last travelog, in UEFA 39a, I was writing that from the Heathrow Airport we took the tube to Gloucester to meet my niece, Rin, who was studying there is London. She stayed in Gloucester. It was a very short meeting, as we were in a hurry to catch the Euroline bus to Amsterdam.


Although it was a short meeting but I was happy that we could made contact although, she was from Malaysia, and we were from Singapore, but we met in Gloucester, England. Ain’t that some kind of an achievement.


Perhaps, perhaps, perhaps my daughters who followed us in that trip were a little upset, as we had to made so much trouble, just to meet their cousin whom they were not close with.


Unexpectedly, I am the type who is willing to endure the impossibilities and the undesirables, just for the sake of traveling and meeting family. It has been my personality, to visit families’ members, even if they be as far and difficult a place as Timbuktu. As you have seen in my previous trips, I always had someone to visit.


I had been visiting my first sister, Kak Ani, as far back as since 1967, when she was married and moved out to her own house. I would stay a night with her, doing nothing more important and without any other intentions than just a casual visit. When I was about 18, I took her first child, Eddy, out for a short trip from her house in KD Malaya, which was along Admiralty Road West to Johor Bahru. Rin is her fourth child.


When Kak Ani moved to Kuala Lumpur in 1971, My brother and I visited her family at Jalan Pahang in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia and stayed there for 2 nights.


In 1984 when I had a work assignment in KL, I dropped by at her house in Damansara and stayed with her for 2 nights, instead of staying in the hotel. My Malaysian colleague would come to pick me up in the morning from her house, to our Diethelm Instrumentation’s office, in Ampang, which was far from Damansara.


Whenever, I drove up for holiday tours in Malaysia, I would drop for a night at her house. Next day we proceed again to Penang, Terengganu, Kelantan and other destinations within Malaysia.


During her son’s engagement, sometime in 1996, we took that opportunity to travel up with her family to the bride’s house in Penang. After the engagement’s ceremony we proceeded to Perlis, up to the border of Thailand at Padang Besar. Then we went into Gua Kelam, Perlis’s famous luminous cave. We also went to the Kuala Perlis, where there were ferry services to Langkawi.


As for this Gloucester detour, it was just one of my passion to travel free-n-easy, on my own without travel guide. I like to stop anywhere I like, then proceed again to next destinations like a wanderer. Well that’s me.


Gloucester was a busy town. The wind was cold, as it was only about 9 am. After handing her some homemade delicacies from Singapore, we bid farewell to my niece, Rin and her room mate, and proceeded with the tube to Victoria.

UEFA 037 – Oostende to Ramsgate

UEFA 037 – Oostende to Ramsgate


As soon as the train stopped at Oostende Train Station, all passengers walked briskly towards the immigration building. The scene was like sheep been released from the barn or nicer to say, was like the passengers alighting from the buses and ran towards the immigration counters at Woodlands checkpoint. My wife and I walked smoothly through the immigration and custom.



We produced our tickets at the checkpoint and walked up the walkway which leads us onto the deck of the ferry. It was quite a long walk; especially with luggage, it can be quite unbearable.



Our first mystery was solved, that is, the train did not go on to the ferry, but, only the passengers. Perhaps, the train will pick up the passengers from Oostende to Rotterdam or back to Amsterdam.



We are now looking at the English Channel from the Oostende Ferry Terminal.



I imagined myself in the place of Moses, when he was looking at the Red Sea and figured out how he could cross the sea, to escape from the tyranny of the army of Pharaoh. In my case, I was not running from any treat but rather looking forward to explore unexpected adventures.



The ferry was actually a huge ship, like the Superstar Virgo at The Singapore Cruise Centre at Harbour Front. It was a 10-storey luxury cruise. There were many facilities inside the ferry such as restaurant, cinema, disco, video games, billiard pool, spa, massage, swimming pool and casino. Of course there were other facilities which I did not know about.



My wife and I stumbled our way up to the deck, and found out it was already dark. The night sea breeze was too cold, so we went back inside the ferry and settled down at the many common benches provided, while we stared into the TV.



Now our second mystery was solved as we found that the ferry trip across the legendary fierce English Channel was a pleasant one. We had earlier thought it was the same kind of ferry we used to take across Malacca Straits from Butterworth to Penang, or perhaps the ferry was like the one that ferry passengers from Singapore to Batam islands. Our fears were now at bay.



I didn’t remember what happened after that, but, all I remembered was the sound of the horn. I stood up and saw the people who were sitting with us were all gone. I knew immediately, that we had arrived. I woke my dear wife, and we grabbed our luggage and walk back down stair towards the exit. The passengers were already queuing to alight.



We arrived at Ramsgate, a coastal town in England in the wee hour of the next morning. The ferry trip was about 5 hour.


Once again we walked through the immigration and custom very smoothly and as we get out of the ferry point, the feeder buses were ready to fetch us to the train station. We carried our luggage up the bus.

Then at the train station we had to carry our luggage along the long platform before going up the train.



You would have realized by now that I had abandoned the plan of crossing the English Channel via the new undersea railway system from Carlisle to Dover. The main reason was that I did not manage to find out more about it. All I heard from my sister it was expensive.



It was also not feasible, as we were in Amsterdam, and going via Oostende in Belgium is more sensible.



574 words


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Edited on 22.07.2007 at 1057hrs


At Woodlands Avenue 5

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

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Edited on 22.07.2007 at 0915hrs

At Woodlands Avenue 5

UEFA 032 - Boulangerie-Patisserie

Next morning, we visited the castles of France.
First, we visited Le Château de Pierrefonds.

You must see how macho I looked in the outfit of the
Knight of the Roundtable.

The architecture of Pierrefonds is rounded like the fort in Arabian lands, or like the moors of the Normandy era. At one angle, it made me feel like Robin Hood.

Anyway, history had recorded the rule of the Arabs in Spain including the southern France for about 500 hundreds years.

It was natural that the architectures of the Arabs had some influence on the building of these castles in France.

This is now a post from one of the small windows of Pierrefond castle. The scenery of the river was so enchanting that I couldn't help it and want to record it in the camera.

The second castle we visited was Le Château de Shantilly. This castle had an Anglican architecture.

The French do spent their time visiting these castles over the weekends. Even youngsters were seen lingering in the castles.

The roofs were sharp triangles with high narrow minarets. There were domes in between which gave it a look of Roman Catholic Church.

On the way home for lunch, we stopped at a bakery in the vicinity of Quermoy-Viller.

The terminology used for bakery & confectionery shops in France is

Boulangerie-Patisserie.

We occupied the whole afternoon, packing and relaxing, as my wife and I will be leaving for Amsterdam that night. We sat chit-chatting with my sister in the living room. We reminisced over our times in Singapore, until we were late, and had to rush to the Creteil train station.

We arrived at the station just in time before it moved. We jumped up to the train cabin without bothering to buy the ticket first. As the train was already about to move, I did not bother to asked about the ticket counter. Surely we can buy it while on the train.

Until we arrived at Gare du Nord train station, no inspector came asking for tickets. I began to doubt if my sister had deliberately delayed us, so that we do not have time to buy the tickets, and enjoyed a free ride. It reminded me of the commuters who jumped over the barriers in the train station when I first arrived into Paris, few days ago.

Though, the night was freezing cold, we managed to make our way buying tickets to Dortmund in Western Germany, with a sleeping cabin. Each ticket cost Ffr421.00. Guys don’t be alarmed. At that time S$1.00 was about Ffr30.00. Therefore divided by 30, the ticket was about S$140.00.

The train moved northwards via Koln and Dusseldorf and reached Dortmund in the early morning. We wandered in the city of Dortmund looking for budget hotels for a night only.

We found a large compartment for temporary storage of our luggage, and wandered our way in Dortmund. We went asking for room but found that they were expensive.

As we wandered I saw the advantages of having trams in a city area. The pedestrians and drivers always gave way to the trams. The trams frequently horn its way through the crowded city.

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Edited on 22.07.2007 at 0905hrs

At Woodlands Avenue 5

UEFA 031 – Arab Institute

UEFA 031 – Arab Institute

Next morning, around 1100hrs, we followed my sister to fetch her children from school. Then she brought us to a huge shopping complex.

I had forgotten the name of the complex but only remember a name ‘castorama’, one of the big shop inside it.

From there, she dropped us at a place where we can catch a bus to the city of Paris. We alighted at The Institute of Arab World. I supposed it was a building of an Arab Organization. We went to the roof-top and had lunch in a restaurant.

The windows of that building had a uniquely designed shutter like the shutter-blades of a camera. I read a notice stating that the larger middle shutter blades will automatically adjust the size of its opening according to the amount of sunlight that fall on it.

From there we walked by the famous river Seine, and I felt the vibrant of its historical artistic fame, such names as Voltaire, Lewis, Monalisa, Picasso, Leonardo da Vinci, Satre and Victor Hugo.

The walk brought us to the famous Louvre Arts Museum. I was dying to go in and see with my own eyes the grandeur of its fame.

Unfortunately, we do not have that extra French Franc to afford the entrance fee for both of us. On the other hand, as a loving husband, I do not have the heart to leave my dear wife wandering alone at the shopping mall, while I admire Monalisa in the Louvre.

Even, if she agrees, I still would not have the heart to do so, because, I know me very well that, I would take a very long time to admire every stroke of Monalisa. Doesn’t that sound awkward to you?

Well that is what we call 'Arts'. One who appreciate Arts can be a strange person, and sometimes look like crazy.

I am one of those crazy people who appreciate Arts, especially, in short stories and novels. In painting, I scored a proud P5 in my 1969 GCE 'O' Level Arts.

By 1994, while searching for new direction in life, I had been reading alot of novels and short stories.

My favorite was malay novels by A Samad Said, who had won many Writer's Award. In his writings, he introduced me a lot awas malay novels by bout Paris Arts scene and its writers, such as Voltaire, Lewis and Jean Paul Satre.

I also admire Anton Chehkov, a prolific Russian short-story writer. Born in Rostov, Russia, he did not write in English, but I managed to admire him from the translations of his works.

Next afternoon, my sister, brought us to Eiffel Tower. The entrance fee was Ffr56.00 each. My wife and I went up, while my sister and Paula waited downstairs. My sister was afraid of heights.

The last time in 1986, we did not have the chance to go up, because, the queue was too long. It was a magnificent experience. Although it was already 8pm, the view of Paris from Eiffel Tower was very clear, as it was in the end of May.

From the top of Eiffel Tower.

You wouldn’t believe it if I say that the tower was moving, shaking and always tilting left and right, like the swerving of trees when blown by strong wind. Like you, I had always thought that,

“the Eiffel Tower is made of stainless steel. It must be firm and will not be moved even an inch by the wind.”

To my surprise, you and I are wrong.

There were gadgets installed, to measure the movements of the tower. I observed that the movements and the tilting of the tower is way more than an inch.

The most enthralling experience was to see the city of Paris from the sky. It was fascinating to see how the narrow lanes were winding like a maze and to see the amazing River Seine flowing lazily through the city, carrying on it hundreds of boats with thousands of tourists and century load of history.

605 words

Drafted on 07.04.2007

Edited on 22.07.2007 at 0855hrs

At Woodlands Avenue 5

UEFA 030 – Viva Parie

UEFA 030 – Viva Parie


I arrived at Gare-de-East train station in Paris early next morning.


The morning crowd was rushing to work. Many commuters were jumping over the entrance and exit, indicating that many of them had free rides. I snatched some bread and a cup of coffee at a café to get some coins.


There were guide maps and instructions on how to go places with the public transport, but, all were in French. I could figure out somehow, that there was a bus service direct from the train station to Charles de Gaulle Airport. European has adopted sign languages for their directions and public instructions, that more pictures and logo and less words.


It seemed that the arrival hall of Charles de Gaulle Airport was a huge circular corridor. In the middle you can see escalator going up and down. I checked at the monitor and go straight to the Arrival Sortie, where my wife will be arriving. As soon as I reached there, my sister greeted me, as she was already waiting.


My sister moved to France in 1987. She had a boy named Frank and a girl named Paula.
Though a housewife, she was involved in some voluntary social works, such as, a committee member in the Association of Singaporean living in France. She wrote to me quite often after moving to France.


After a short wait, my wife arrived. She looked tired but managed to smile.


My sister drove us to her beautiful French cottage, located just at the outskirt of Paris. It was a village town named Quermoy-Viller, in the district of Creteil. Quermoy-Viller is pronounced as “Oma Villa”.



It was a 2-storey bungalow with basement.

The front yard was green turf. In the stroller was baby Paula, while Frank was sneaking from the front door.

The rear view of her house. In the stroller was baby Paula.

the backyard was a mini garden bordered by a bushy vacant land.

The basement was a garage, boiler-room for the heating system and storage of bulky items. The handyman would have their DIY workshop in there and the wine lover will turn some of it into a cellar. In short, it is a multi-purpose basement hall.

Of course my wife loved the kitchen and the luxurious dining hall.

Frank was a little shy, as he had not seen us for 6 years.

Paula looked at us a strangers, as she was born in France, and that was our first visit.

That night we had a nice delicious dinner, especially for me,

after a month of butter and cheese in Heerbrugg.

My sister is a fantastic good cook.

523 words

Drafted on 07.04.2007

Edited on 22.07.2007 at 0845hrs

At Woodlands Avenue 5

Zurich & Basel who is older?

In my last post on Zurich and basel, I couldn't find these pictures which were saved in my office pc. Now I managed to copy them to my thumb-drive and bring them home, 4 U 2 C....!!!

I was wondering who is older, Zurich or Basel ?


But in Zurich I saw this double-decker train. It must be younger. But the Railway Station was so messy.

But you see above that there is a limousine, tram bus and a lady on her bicycle in the middle of the busy world business city of Zurich !

Still I am not convience that Zurich is younger because there was also an old red English double-decker bus in the city.

But after seeing this Basel railway station above, I am sure Basel is an older city than Zurich. The framework of the station were made of steel. Only very little concrete.

But outside the station the view is much new and modern.

I walked till I came this roundadbout, I don't know which way to choose. I chose to walk to the right and came to almost an end of the pavement and saw these grafiti at the building.

It was this staircase that led me to the unexpected porn cinema. I should have known from the words in the grafiti that it was a red-light area.

Then I walked back to the Basel Railway Station.

UEFA 29 - Evil Balloon

UEFA 029 – Evil Balloon

The train ticket to Paris valid for 1 week, which means, I could actually stay a few nights, along the way, in any interesting cities of Switzerland.

I stopped in Zurich and wandered around the city centre which is also Swiss world business centre. I must admit that there were many items that would tempted you to spend all your money. With Paris in mind, I quickly caught some bread, dough-nuts and coke for lunch at MacDonald’s.

There were many busy people in Zurich. There were also many foreigners. It was very much different from Heerbrugg. There were many tram buses that ran on tracks, and had cables lines along the road. I saw for the first time in my life a double-decker train, at the Zurich Train Station.

I had calculated my time and made it easily in time to catch the next train to Basel, another town in Switzerland. I had planned my trip, with the help of Swiss Train Guide. According to the train guide, the night train to Paris will leave Basel at 6:30pm.

I reached Basel at around 4pm. So I had 2 hours to prowl the hustle and bustle of Basel.
Basel was not as busy as Zurich, which made me easier to go around.

Once again, I wish to stress that this post is not for you to follow my mistakes. I confess these

mistakes to warn you that there are many dangers awaiting us, if we do not strengthened

our faith and fear of GOD.

GOD is repeatingly warning us that this world is a test for us. It is required from us to prove to GOD that we will prevent ourselves from doing things that GOD forbid us from doing. The challenge is to uphold our faith when we are alone in places where there are so many evil.

In Chapter 18 Al-Kahfi of the Quran, GOD said that great rewards will be awarded to anyone who fear GOD when he/she is alone and prevent themselves from doing evil.

Unlike my condition in 1986, this time in 1994 I was cheated and fooled by the satan, who were given the permission by GOD to misguide us.

Unknowingly and unexpectedly, I walked into a phonographic cinema. As I was confessing earlier about my changed attitude, my curiosity managed to win me over, to see what is inside the cinema.

There were 2 big screens in 2 mini theatres. There were about 50 seats in each theatre. Different movies were running concurrently in both the theatres, and one is free to hop from one to the other as he like. There was no guard or usher.

Next to the theatres were rows of about 10 cabins, like the telephone booths. In each cabin there was a TV screen and many buttons to select hundreds of porno movies.

In these cabins one had his own privacy, while, in the theatres there are many other people.
Anyway, there were not many people in the theatres and cabins.

I left the theatre thinking, “Where could the peep-show be?”
My friends were saying that "the peep-show is peeping at real life models performing the sinful act. You can see them, but they could not see you."

The thoughts, however, reminded me of the devils. They can see us, but, we cannot see them. Thus making us easy prey for them, and we do not seems to be able to avoid them.

Prophet Muhammad, peace be upon him, was reported to have said that the devils run in our body, like the flow of the blood in our veins.

No wonder, I was so easily following my corrupted desires, because I had allowed the devils to run in my blood veins. GOD did helped me,and I managed to pierce a pin in my evil balloon and proceeded straight to Basel Railway Station.

With the help of GOD I consoled myself with the thoughts that, at least, I only look at evil, but I did not get involved in any evil. GOD really protect me from evil. I must confess that with the thoughts and remembrance of GOD we can be prevented from evil and dangers.

I checked in at the counter and booked a sleeping cabin to Paris.

530 words

Drafted on 07.04.2007

Edited on 22.07.2007 at 0752hrs

At Woodlands Avenue 5

UEFA 028 – Ni Aiwa

The gleaming smiles of the Switzerland

UEFA 028 – Ni Aiwa

In UEFA 1994 visits to Europe, I had grown long hair. The religious values in me had worn out, due to some personal depression that I went through as I was approaching 40.

It all began when I foolishly gave up all religious activities, in order to spend more time with my children and their studies.

It became worst when I started making budgeting calculation of my salary and expenses. I realized that I had been spending all my salary for my family, i.e. 4-room HDB flat in Tampines, wife and 3 daughters.

I was unhappy and my wild thoughts provoked me with the unfair treatment I treated myself.

“You should spend some money for yourself!!”

the devil whispered loudly in my ears.

I was seduced by the whispers. I bought an AIWA mini compo Hi-Fi set with CD player and cassette tape player and recorder and also an AIWA walkman with stereo earphones.



When alone At home I would play my favorite songs to a high volume to enjoy the sense-surround bass reflex. Away, I would plug my ears with my favorite songs via the walkman.


The walkman and my favorite musical tape albums followed me to Europe. Some of albums were Collection of M Nasir, Search & Wings, Ella, Cliff Richards, Engelbert & Tom Jones. Latest was Ella USA. I would listened to her almost every other day.

This Malay composer was born in Singapore and became successful song producer, writer, composer, who wrote original Malay songs with strong adherence to Malay culture.

While the album Rampage by a rock band Search, who follow the music genre of Scorpion for ballads and Mettalica for heavy metal.

What I like about them and other albums, is because they contained some religious values if you are to reflect deeply in the lyrics. I leave that to you to find out. I found my path and solace and they finally hold my hands to come kneeling to ALLAH, The Absolute ONE.

I gave away a football album of our Lion football team to Zimmermann, and, another album 'Saudagar Mimpi' by Malay composer M Nasir to Mr Aerni, as he sometimes performed with his band in weekend functions.


From here onwards, I would like my family to understand my passion for writing the Truth. This is not to display the dirty side of me, but, for everyone to reflect on the disadvantages of travelling, especially alone. Please do not follow this bad lifestyle of me, of which I had repented. I am writing it here to caution my children, relatives and friends to be mindful of today's challenges living as a faithful servants of GOD. There are too many seductions out there in this worldly life. Beware and becareful about their fatal attractions.



Coming along with the long hair and my Aiwa, was a little naughty side of me. With a sudden flirtatious character, I easily had conversations with the pretty Swiss girls. I found the courage I lost in 1986 trip. My shyness and religious discipline crumbled into the Swiss see.



The Swiss girls are very friendly and flirtatious too. A girl in a pharmacy proudly said that she had been to Singapore and that she liked Singaporean. We had quite a long chat from weather to hobbies. She spoke fluent English. Luckily, I was not entangled further into any complicated affair, until it was time for me to leave Heerbrugg for Paris.




449 words

Drafted on 07.04.2007

Edited on 03.05.2007 at 0042hrs

At Woodlands Avenue 5

UEFA 027 – Benz & Katowski

UEFA 027 – Benz & Katowski


My next outing was a group dinner with Mr Benz, Mike, Yakhzan, Seo and Moon to an Expo. I could only recalled that there were fashion shows and loud music. There were many youngsters. As usual, in such functions there were free beers and soft drinks, as Europe is the land of wine and distillers.



Despite his name, Mr Benz did not drive, but he took public transport. As such, we had to leave the premises by 9pm to catch the last bus. Mr Benz was one of the many authors of the Leica Service Manuals.


Mike Clissold from Atlanta US, was doing training with me. Mr Yakhzan from Israel was doing Electronic Distance Meter (EDM). Mr Seo and Mr Moon were from Korea, doing training of levels. There were a few more guys but I had forgotten their names.


The third outing I had was dinner with Mr Olaf Katowski at his house. He lived nearby in Balgach with his friendly wife Helga.

Olaf was about 50. He was one of Leica’s technical consultants who were the Leica project partners I mentioned earlier. He was a specialist in Leica’s Wild TM3000 motorized theodolites, which was also used in the manufacturing industries for setting up of electronic and robotic machines.

I admired his garden so much that I requested him to take this photo of me with the background of the vast open space infront of his garden. Olaf must have cleverly cjosen the best location where there is no other house infront of his house.

I must tell you that I am dreamin to live in his kind of house. In fact, it became one of my ambition to migrate to Switzerland, though I know it was a crazy impulsive thoughts and dreams. Anyway people says dream are free, so why not.

Here in his living room, Olaf and Helga spent his late afternoon chit chat with me, after the steak dinner. The deco were very simple and natural. I like his book case. If I am not wrong, Olaf has no children. I wonder what he is doing now, after 14 years since I met him in 1994.

This is the furnace area, also as simple as the living room. In fact, it is in one corner of the living room.

Olaf came very often to Singapore and was with me, for many midnights in the MRT tunnels doing inspections, adjustments and modifications to the setting up of the TM3000.

This is the bulky TM3000 which I guess was about 5 kg.

My function in the tunnel monitoring project was the technical support, e.g. alignment of the TM3000 to hundreds of prism targets mounted on the tunnel wall, ceiling and floor.

It sound simple, but, I tell you it was challenging, as everything is digitally controlled by joy stick.

Precision instruments are best handle with fingers for accurate pointing. It became unbearable because the 5kg TM3000 was mounted at a height of about 7 metre on the wall of the tunnel.

I was squinting and squirming with my neck bend following the contour of the top curve of the tunnel, in order to get a view of the prism through the telescope.


The main players were my Sales Manager, William and his technical executive, Mr Akram. Both of them launched the TM3000 with tailored software for the monitoring. Olaf was to make sure that both the TM3000 and the software run perfectly well for commissioning.

This is a group photo of the Leica team from Sinagpore, Malaysia and Indonesia at the Leica Expo in Singapore. I think it was in 1994. From left is Anwarisanto, Joe, William, Zimmermann, xxx, Helen, Francis, Ricky, Adam, Busroni and Max.

And this is Akram, who was the Tunnel Engineer, working very closely with Olaf ensuring the TM3000 was functioning properly before the monitoring project was commisioned.

Akram was so close to me that we did went out together for dinner and lunch. Even after office hours we do meet. We were so close that I visited him at home and get to meet his mother, brothers and sisters.

He also came over to my house for dinner and after that we took a double decker bus No 23 to Masjid Angullia, where Akram and I used to attend religious activities. After prayer, we walk across to Mustapha Centre and had our Naan dinner there.

We did not stop there. I went with him to several art gallery in support of his brother's painting activities. His brother was a famous painter who passed away recently in 2007.

We were so close that we used to confide our sorrows and had religious discussions at a wide scope of thoughts.

When his sister took up agency for a health products from US, my family and I patronised them.

Unfortunately, after Leica, Akram took up a job in Turkey in late 1994. He returned to Singapore sometime in 1996 and off to Australia to pursue his degree in Land Surveying. He returned to Singapore again in 1998 and worked at the Changi Airport MRT project as a resident Surveyor.

He left that job in 1999 to join Leica once again as a Consultant. He was sent to Leica factory in Switzerland for a year, but when he returned once again to Singapore in 2000, Leica had reshuffled their set up in Singapore and there was no need for a local Consultant anymore, and Akram was retrenched without any benefit, as he never start work. That was the same year I left Leica.

I was always present to bid him goodbye and in welcoming him home. I met Akram several time in 2000 until he took up full time job helping his sister with promoting the health products.

Drafted on 07.04.2007

First Edition on 03.05.2007 at 0038 hrs

Second Edition on 21 August 2008 at 0059 hrs

At Woodlands Avenue 5