Things I find hard to understand

[Note: Ranting time!]

I don't get why many people (and believe me, I have seen this LOADS of times before, including in a newspaper article) misspell "Harry Potter" as "Harry Porter". One, this name is so famous, and two 'T's in a row should be very easy to remember! Two, the two words (or names, if you prefer) aren't even pronounced the same way! I have no explanation for this.

And then there is the "Siaran Langsung" (live telecast) tag on RTM. As some of you might know, the Asian Games are ending today after about two weeks. RTM (TV1) is showing live telecasts (or maybe I should say live reports, since the telecasts aren't always live; read on) every day. During these slots, they have hosts telling us the latest news and they will show us clips of games that are going on in Guangzhou.

But these clips aren't all live. Some of them are delayed telecasts (of course they need delayed telecasts, they can't show two simultaneous events, and some events aren't held during the Asian Games reports slots) What bugs me is that the "Siaran Langsung" tag right under the TV1 logo (you know, on the upper-right corner of the screen) is on all the time. Even when they are showing old clips. That is so misleading, especially if you've just switched on the television. Is it so hard to turn the "Siaran Langsung" on or off when you're showing something live (or not)?

But for this I have an explanation. They're too lazy.

A break from travelling?

I just published the last post about my last trip before coming back to Malaysia. Seeing as I'm writing more and more detailed posts about my trips, and that this trip was rather long, this has got to be the longest-ever "series" I've written.

So now I'm wondering, should I give the travel posts a break or should I just continue with the others? (in case you have forgotten, I still have my Switzerland trip to post about!) I don't know whether you're tired of reading of all that travelling!

As for me, I'm tired of reading about them :P But this might be because I read each post THREE times! Once when I first write it and decide which photos to post, the second time when I upload those pictures and format the photo captions (I don't know about you, but I'm a compulsive reader, I can't format photo captions without automatically reading them -_- ), then the third time when I read the whole post through right before publishing it.

But you guys only read them once (unless if you decide to read them again, which is your own choice) So if you've got an opinion about whether I should continue churning out the travel posts or give it a break, please let me know...I'll take your comments into consideration!

(Oh, by the way, I already have some posts ready to publish, and I will be writing the rest soon, whether I'm publishing them soon or later. So the only thing to consider is whether you want to read more now!)

A little time in Compiègne

As an epilogue to the north-east trip (comprising Bruges, Antwerp, Ghent and Berlin, if you haven't read those posts yet), here are a few photos of Compiègne...just to show you the town. I didn't really visit. Not as a tourist, anyway.

view from a bridge in town (I believe we crossed the bridge when we were walking from the train station to the town centre)

château de Compiègne

the courtyard

the garden behind the castle

the rear of the château (I think :P )

the garden led to an open field

some building in town

the town hall

the square in front of the town hall

the statue on the square

That's all for Compiègne...it's a small town, okay? Buses are free except on Sundays (1€, I think), but NOT frequent at all!

Hi, I'm .... Yummy!

I have always wondered why people would want to be called a food. I am talking about choosing a food name as your name (anyone come to mind?). Your own name, at that. Not some parent choosing his/her favourite food as his/her child's name. (that would also be crazy, but hey, some parents just don't think about their children's future...like Brooklyn being conceived in Brooklyn, get it?)

I'm sure you've heard of Fish Leong. From the first time I heard this name, I found it ridiculous. I initially thought that it was a Chinese/Taiwanese who heard the word "fish", found that it sounded nice and decided to adopt it as her stage name. Without knowing what it meant.

Then I discovered that she was Malaysian. From that day onwards I hated her for choosing that idiotic name. Later I found out that she had a reason for that, because of her Chinese name resembling "fish". I guess that justifies it. A bit.

And now I've found a TV personality with the name "Orange". What?!! As if being a fish wasn't bad enough (at least a fish can swim, be "free" (if it doesn't get caught and deep-fried)), now someone wants to be an orange. An orange that just sits there (maybe she's thinking of rolling away?) and waits to be eaten.

Silly girls.

("Orange" is the name of the girl who hosts Ho Chak!...I don't normally watch the show but I happened to see the beginning the other day, when they showed the hosts' names.)

Berlin: Walking until I felt like my legs would drop off

Here's what I visited in Berlin while I hoped that the sky would clear (a wish that was sadly not granted).

I went to see what was left of the Berlin wall, of course. The East Side Gallery, a 1.3km stretch. I didn't find it that interesting, so I snapped a few photos (near the Ostbahnhof (east station) ) and left :P

I was there!
(I'm definitely getting better at this self-shooting thing :P )

back on Alexanderplatz, the bottom of the TV tower

the only way to capture the whole tower, from base to tip

the red town hall (just nearby)

the Nikolaikirche, I think

a bear fountain! (or is it a well?)

I don't know what building this is, but it looks kinda important :P

the Berliner Dom

that's where I was, the big white building was on the opposite side of the river

a man fishing :P

the fish circling

the town hall from across the square (see the construction work going on?)

in the middle of the square (where the construction was going on, it was fenced off so we couldn't go up to the statues)

from the other side

can someone tell me what's the building on the left?

Dom Aquarée
A shopping complex? I find the two statues in the entrance kinda weird...

reached the Berliner Dom

where I came from

the square in front of the Dom

the museum on the same square

the bridge leading from the square to Unter den Linden, the "big street" in Berlin

St. Hedwig's Cathedral

the French Dom and German Dom (in the background)

the French Dom

between the French and German ones

the German Dom (I don't understand why they have the two)

When I was at the Berliner Dom, I saw a golden dome in the distance. After consulting the map, I decided that it had to be the Centrum Judaicum. So I set off to look for it. On the way I saw some other interesting sights.

Not sure what this is for...but it's unique.

on the road heading to the Jewish centre (I don't think it's called a church)

There it is, the dome I saw from far away

the building beside it looks pretty special too

the Centrum Judaicum

So that's all for the sights of Berlin, and the end of the north-east trip posts. I flew back to Paris and went to visit a friend in Compiègne...I will post about that next! I hope you enjoyed the views!

Berlin: The parliament and the tor

The next day (the day after I arrived in Berlin), it rained. :(

But I had to do my sightseeing anyway, since that was my only full day in Berlin. It was actually only rather cloudy when I went out in the morning...oh well, you'll see in the photos.

Potsdamerplatz, where the modern buildings are

an elephant on a lawn

Looking at the map, I think this is the A. den Ministergärten, whatever that is :P

a memorial to the murdered Jews of Europe

the Brandenburg gate (Brandenburger Tor) and Reichstag (the parliament building, with the glass dome)

the Reichstag (this is the side, on the right is the back of the building)

the other two sides of the building (well, kinda :P )

the entrance, where people are queueing up to enter the glass dome (entrance is free) I didn't join the queue then, but came back later, hoping that the sky would clear up. But instead, it rained :(

at the roadside somewhere in front of the Reichstag

near the parliament building (on the way to the Tor)

going back towards the Tor

the Tor (the back view)

the front view

the details

fountain spurting on the side of the square (this was taken when I came back here later, after it had started raining)

I went to some other sights first, hoping that the sun would come out later and give me a better view from the dome. But after I had seen the other sights (those will be in the next post about Berlin), it was still raining and the queue was rather long.

So I followed the tourist brochure's advice and took a bus through the Tiergarten to the zoo. I had a day ticket for the public transport, so I could hop on and hop off as I wanted, but it was raining so I stayed put in the bus, only getting off at the last stop and then walking around a bit before taking the bus back to Reichstag again. By that time the queue was a bit shorter, though it was still raining. I had run out of other places to visit "first", so I joined the queue.

First these are what I saw from the bus (with some photos spoilt by the raindrops on the bus windows).

Schloss Bellevue

something I don't know :P

the zoo (looks Chinese, doesn't it?)

the aquarium, beside the zoo

the Victory Column in the middle of a roundabout...unfortunately with reconstruction work going on

I don't know what's this

the bell tower (fourth-largest carillon in the world, erected for Berlin's 750th anniversary)

seen from the Reichstag...

...from the top of the stairs (almost)
Look at the queue! I queued up for maybe an hour...with my umbrella.

Finally got in, had to go through a security check, then was taken upstairs in a lift. We were herded like lambs, couldn't just walk off anywhere.

the dome!

They gave us each an audio guide, and as we walked up the ramp on the sides of the dome, the guide was activated by our position. It kept telling us to stop and check out the view, so that it could give us information on the buildings we were looking at.

the Tor as seen from inside the dome in rainy weather

the top of the dome
The silver "cup" is to capture rain and snow...it's not perfect though. The floor was wet from the rain.

in the middle of the dome. Mirrors, mirrors, everywhere...

See the grid/grill-like thing on the left of the column of mirrors? It can be moved around the dome to serve as a shade from glaring sunlight. (and the mirrors are for natural lighting)

the view from outside the dome

See the bell tower in the distance? The white building on the right is the Federal Chancellery.

In the next post about Berlin, I will write about where I went while waiting (in vain, that is) for the weather to get better...