I had set my mind on the so-called Google Phone, aka HTC G1, ever since I’d heard of it. However, I’ve also been a happy Palm user since November 2000, first an m100, then since 2005 a Tungsten-C.
Yesterday, Palm presented their new Palm Pre, and now I’m so tempted to get one of those instead… Hope my – sometimes temperamental – Nokia will still last until the Pre hits the stores here.
Today I finally have the time to reinstall my Swedish laptop, which I bought 2.5 years ago, and had recently become so pollluted, that even the Windows start-up tune had become “crackled”…
First I failed to use the official Packard Bell Master recovery DVD, which didn’t come with the machine. No, you had to create them yourself, which I did about a year ago. However, after booting up the Win/98 PE version, it just crashed with a stack overflow. Wonderful! So I installed a student version of XP Pro Swedish, which seems to work fine.
However, I was still missing PackardBell specific drivers (like for video, audio, touchpad, etc.). Luckily I was able to download them here .
Today we still went to a mass at the nearby St. Sauveur church, which was also a bit interesting. THe priest approached us when we came in, and welcomed us, asked where we were from etc. And at the start of mass we were asked to introduce ourselves to our neighbors. Nice! After the mass we headed for Roncq, probably the closest village to the Belgian border, and did some more shopping at Auchan. Lunch at Flunch concluded the trip, and we headed back to Holland again.
On Saturday, we went looking for another store of our favorite (?) hypermarket: Auchan, in the village of Fache-Thumesnil. I got a small universal carrying case for my iPod with nice colors: black with an orange lining = very cheerful!. Unfortunately my iPod doesn’t fit in it, so now I’m using it for my cellphone instead…
In the afternoon, we went back to Carrefour at the Euralille train station, to search for an inexpensive ‘cabin size’ suitcase that I had seen in an ad in the TV guide. We found it, and unlike the well-known Delsey and Samsonite brands, which only come in red and black, this “Faraway” brand (from China, where else?) had a nice BROWN color. So it will require a lot less effort to recognize it on an airport conveyor belt (for those times I can’t keep it in the cabin). Will show a picture of it later.
For dinner we went to Le Palais du Dragon on the corner; I just couldn’t stand having stayed in that area for 5 times without having tried the Chinese restaurant there. We had
- fried fish fillet with lemon
- fried fish fillet on a hot plate with sweet&sour sauce.
- beef with “satay sauce”: my dad got this, but was disappointed by the curry-like taste of it.
In the morning we did some shopping at the Tanneurs “passage” mall. At C&A I got a leather belt, and at Fnac, I got a CD of Carmina Burana. Actually there were two, one with the famous Carl Off version, one with the original medieval songs (which I think is pretty rare!). After that we had lunch at the Flunch on Rue du Béthune. The “saumon sauvage de Alaska” wasn’t nearly as good as last night’s salmon.
In the afternoon, we first took a look at the Christmas market at Place Rihour; due to the cold we didn’t stay that long. While my parents did some grocery shopping, I went to the Palais des Beaux Arts, which has a temporary exhibition on Nordic painters visting in France. A few very well known names: Munch, Larsson, Zorn, and a few slightly less famous names, but still very nice paintings. What more could a Sweden fan ask for?
(Georg Nicolaj Achen: Intérieur)
Dinner was had at the Flunch near the hotel. The food was okay, but a noisy and badly behaving teenage gang (of North-African / Arab origin), made the other people at the restaurant a lot less pleasant. While there was a (very alert) bouncer, they didn’t go far that he had to intervene, but unpleasant nonetheless.
From the Hotel Ibis Gares in Lille, I wish you all a very Merry Christmas!
Although the hotel rooms are still the same as in 2004, a great improvement is that Wifi by orange is now free! Back then, you got a scratch card valid between 18:00 and 9:00; now you get a 24 hours pass valid from the moment you first use it. Each day you need a new code, but you can just get one from the reception.
At 18:30 we went to the evening Christmas mass at the big St. Maurice church, which was within walking distance. A few interesting things of that mass happened:
- During the last half hour off the mass we had to come forward to the altar.
- When it was time for the “Our Father” prayer, we had to “connect” by putting our left hand on our left neighbor’s shoulder, while holding the right hand horizontally opened.
- For communion, we did not have to line up in 2 or 3 orderly queues, but it was distributed by many people, at different points in the church.
- After the mass, most people did not return to their seats, but maybe went somewehere else. A few even left before receiving the blessing…!
After that (a bit after 
we had dinner at the hotel restaurant (Estaminet), which had awesome menus: for a mere €10, you got a main course + a dessert. I had a delicious warm smoked salmon, and for dessert a fantastic apple tart, with lots of apple on it.
Went to an amazing concert. Although the performers were not very famous, the way they played was great.
The conductor, Ludovic Morlot, was a short and modest man, and he conducted without a baton, but what impressed me most, was that he also conducted the orchestra without a score… He knew all of Tchaikovsky’s Fourth Symphony by heart!
The violinist, Valery Sokolov, was a young guy from Ukraine, who similar to the conductor, played without bravura, but quite skilful yet calm. Hardly seemed tired at all at the end, although Sibelius’ concerto is quite demanding.
We sat at row Pf, which is De Doelen code for “6th row”; so quite near the front. And unlike the Concertgebouw, in De Doelen you don’t have to look up a meter when you’re close to the stage.
Before the concert we had dinner at a nearby Italian restaurant with the suitable name “Pavarotti” 
Oh, and 45 minutes before the concert started, we attended an introduction, by an old lady, who had a voice with resembling the Polygoon Journaal from the 1950s But she gave some interesting background info on the composers and the works we were going to hear.
On Tuesday, I got my revenge for the failed attempt 2.5 years ago to see my favorite pianist Hélène Grimaud in concert, at the Anton Philipszaal in Den Haag (and at a ridiculously low price, with the NS 2-for-1 promotion).
She played Rachmaninov’s second concerto; before that, the orchestra played a romantic work by the unknown Dutch composer Jan van Gilse, and after the interval, they played Tchaikovsky’s 5th symphony. Although it’s not really the most daring repertoire, the whole concert was very enjoyable to listen to. BTW, 70-year old Neeme Järvi was still vividly swinging and dancing.
And although I never take illegal pictures at classical concerts, for belle Hélène I made an exception to the rule.
The only small disappointment was that she didn’t have a session to sign her CDs, but oh well.. Can’t have everything…
And the most surprising thing of the evening, was that they started the concert with the national anthem… We had completely forgotten that it was a special day for the royal family: Prinsjesdag…
So we’re back in the western world; with many memories of spectacular sights, fantastic food, and especially wonderful people. Now remains the task of selecting the best from nearly 1400 (!) pictures. It’s all my new camera’s fault: it switches on fast, and also reloads fast, so before you know it you suddenly have taken 200 pictures a day! And of course not having been to Asia in 20 years helps create the idea (illusion) that everything is interesting.
In addition, I want to write some entries about specific topics, rather than bore you with a daily record of the events of that day (which I do keep, but just for myself). Topics screaming to be described include: food (why did I stay away so long?), people’s attitudes, working life & living standards in Asia, shopping experiences, differences between China, Malaysia, and Indonesia, and maybe family reunions. Oh, and of course the Search for our Roots.
(Luckily all the diseases we feared stayed away, like diarrhea, malaria, and EV-71)
So stay tuned for more!
So after a whole week, I’m finally online again, but not for long, because I’m sitting in a cubicle at a cybercafe. Officially, they are a Business Service Center, but sending normal postcards seems to be very difficult for them 
Finding it required an odyssey in the catacombs of the Ciputra mall (passing the “Gojim” = Gold’s Gym first), but it is worth it, because at the hotel they ask RP 50000 (EUR 3,50) per hour: almost as expensive as Schiphol, and you have to use it up in one go. Booh to Hotel Ciputra Jakarta. In Semarang it was free.
Anyway, as expected, I had a nice week full of fantastic meetings with many relatives: many old, many new. Not going somewhere for 20 years definitely improves your popularity, and my cellphone is hardly silent for more than an hour.
Great fun, great food, lots of laughs, lots of interesting sights. 3 weeks have passed, but it felt just I could easily add another 3 weeks. Even though its’ true what they said about Jakarta: it’s hot, has bad traffic, and not much entertainment except food and shopping (i.e. no parks and geocaches). Luckily all the great people make it worthwhile.
Well, more details later, since I’m running up a huge bill of 3000 Rp already, which is about EUR 0,21
Unfortunately, we’re flying back tonight already. Oh well, just savouring the last few hours here…
