it snowed!

IT SNOWED IN AMSTERDAM!!

i'm freezing.

days in Amsterdam

I'm in cold, COLD Amsterdam.

It's been a pretty cool 2 days in Amsterdam, literally and figuratively.

I'm doing nothing much but watching Docu films all day long. Awed by some, touched by others and getting angry too. That's documentaries.

And we also made time to visit the Van Gogh musuem. and I actually sneaked some photos which I later realised I'm not supposed to be taking. haha

Our film will be premiering tomorrow morning! So excited...

And it does seems like it would snow in Amsterdam soon. It's been drizzling and hailing quite a bit today. And the wind is making my hair messy all the time.

Will explore more of the city soon. But I do miss eating soupy stuff esp cos it's so cold here... cos all I'm havng here is bread, bread and more bread.

pre departure jitters

it's the all so familiar feeling of pre-departure jitters.

where you feel like there's still so much to do
and yet you don't really know what is not being done

there seem to be so many things to take care of
and so much you still do not know about the place you are going to

when you feel like you need more time to prepare
and you kind of dread leaving altho you've been looking forward to it

and this time it's even more so cos there IS really a lot to do before I leave
like picking up the postcards, and burning the DVDs, and shopping and P-A-C-K-I-N-G

and cos I've been working really hard recently, all I feel like doing at night is sleep or laze in front of the TV set, so I've not been reading up much on my upcoming destination..

and cos I've nv experience sub-10 temp, I'm not sure if what I bring is warm enough, or would it be too warm.

plus all the nitty gritty details like how much memory should I prepare so I can snap happily away, which bag should I bring along..

there's always so much to do...

still it's coming true.. it's going to happen.. I'll be on my way to AMSTERDAM in less than 24 hrs and soon I'll be sitting in a packed theatre (hopefully) and watching my docu with so many others who may laugh and cry and cringe as the characters in the docu do.

Obama is the man!

The duel has ended and OBAMA had emerged victorious!

It had indeed been an exciting race to the White House, with history made either way. And it is the race the WORLD is watching and I'm amazed at how emotionally involved I got in it, and also how Obama had got the world behind him. I'm not biased.

Which other US president had Indonesia, Kenya and a town called Obama all the way in Japan backing him with his race to the White House?

Kenya even declared that tomorrow shall be a public holiday so that the nation can celebrate for this man, whose father was from Kenya, and still had relatives there.

In true democratic spirit, the world had witnessed the first Black US President. It moves me just seeing how people reacted with tears of relief and true jubilation at their newly elected President. But of course there is the other camp that had reacted dismally at the lost of whom they support. But it is the intensity of the emotions, either way, that struck me.

Would we ever get to see this in Singapore? Would Singaporeans get passionate about politics?

Then and again, the intensity of the emotions came from pent up frustration from the previous administration's failed governance. Just look at other countries in the region which had similar predicament recently and we have no lack of examples - Taiwan, Thailand and to a lesser extent Malaysia.

Does it always take failed leadership for the people to stand up for change and to feel passionate about the country? Would I rather live under a stable, steady and capable government's rule and never know what it is like to feel passionate?

Would you?