The White Cliffs Experience

The white cliffs of Dover is also an amazing sight to behold. It was the peak of summer last year and we spent the afternoon walking around the white cliffs.

At some point in the late afternoon, we walked back to catch our return coach. We took a different route than when we arrived, thinking that it will lead us back to the city center. After some time, the way turned narrow and became a footpath. Progressing further, it was a dead end.
Turning back would mean missing the coach. The alternative way through, however, was a main road located 5 metres right above us.

Standing in between us and the main road was a rocky cliff. Below us there were more cliffs. Somehow through the mix of recklessness and sense of adventure, we decided to climb to the main road. Marc had climbing experience, but we did not have the proper gear then. Halfway through, I felt regret as climbing was not as easy as I thought. Marc, however stayed calm behind me. His position was more difficult because he had to arch his body more to cover me. If I were to fall, both of us would fall.

Midway we reached a position where it wasn't easy to go either up nor down. We were stuck there for what seemed to be a very long time. We just had to go through upwards. Finally, we managed to get to the main road. A sense of relief came. This is one of the things that I wouldn't think of doing again. Looking back, I think I owed a life to a friend.

Mirror for the Soul

I remember going to a retreat about around this time last year. It was a part of a Christian living program in my previous church. I attended for two reasons. First, I thought that if I wanted to serve I should follow the foundation class of that church first. Another thing that prompted me was that I felt that my spiritual life was rather dry at that time. I regularly attended church, but the desire for God was just not there.

The retreat went as usual. Solid teaching. Great food. At some point, I felt that God revealed something in my heart that blocked me from seeking Him. It was bitterness. Bitterness towards God. I was surprised. I never thought of that.

As tears flowed down my cheek, my hand wrote down what I felt, almost without thinking. I resented God that He did not seem to care about certain areas of my life. Things that I felt I prayed hard enough but did not seem to have any answer. That made me think that if God did not help me I would take my life into my own hands and I didn't need God. That also lead to subconscious thought that reading the bible and prayer was useless, so it's very difficult to do them. Of course my mind disagreed with all these but my heart somehow believed.

It's only several months later that healing took place and I found the desire for God again but that's another story. However, this revelation showed me what my heart was really like. It's amazing how subtle issues, such as bitterness, could take root in the heart and easily choke our life.

Count My Blessings

It's been a while since I have written. Many things have happened since my last post.

I've gotten used to my job as a software engineer. I am privileged to work in an area that I very much enjoy. Not to mention that I get good manager and colleagues who are very supportive.

I've moved to another church earlier this year. The church helped me to grow, gave me a sense of family and accountability and also empowered me to serve.

I've got the chance to learn from past relationship, even when it was not meant to be. This has revealed my weaknesses and the extent of God's grace for me.

I've got to know some good friends, and even when some people inevitably come and go, their traces remain in my life.

For these I give thanks to God. And for many more to come.

Dover Castle

We had amazing sights to behold at Dover Castle. It is a major fortress just on an elevated hill just around the south east tip of England.

One notable thing about the area is that it has a more natural feel to it, unlike typical castle which is dominated by solid stone. It makes it a perfect place to blend the strength of medieval story with relaxing feel of a green pasture.

As in other parts of England, people flock to the park during good days. It is not uncommon to see people lying down on the grass to even sleep during the day.

Night at the Museum

In early summer, they closed down Oxford street for cars and put in a promotion from Night at the Museum 2. The T-Rex doesn't look so big here, it must have been the special effect and sound that makes it terrifying . . .

Winchester

Summer is pretty good in England, it's not overly hot as some parts of Europe but just the right temperature to go out with t-shirt and shorts.

As I have got more comfortable with my workplace, I thought it would be a good idea to explore the English countryside.

Our destination was Winchester. It was the old capital of England before London took over, so there are a good mix of medieval stuff and natural countryside feel.

The main cathedral stood majestic on a blue sky backdrop and green pastures. A clear river flows steadily across the town with ample pedestrian path on the side. The small shopping street provides convenience and relaxed atmosphere typical of a medieval town.

Making Sushi

One of the positive side that the outside food is expensive here is that we tend to save money for dinner by cooking. And it gives us a push to learn new things. It helps that my flatmates are food-loving as well.

The good thing about sushi is that you can put various toppings in. It's a good and tasty way to clear our fridge. And since the main ingredient is rice, it is cheap and filling. The videos on the internet helps us to know how to make sushi and also the composition of the ingredients.

Rolling sushi is not difficult, but rolling a good sushi is. We had many broken sushi which we ate as we made. As we roll, I tend to put a lot of rice on the seaweed resulting in big sushis. This may have something to do with my perception on what is enough. Should do with less next time.

In the end, we made way too much, there's an extra tray of sushi when everyone's finished.

Brighton

Towards the end of winter, our first day trip from London was to Brighton. It is a coastal city just south of London. The temperature was still pretty cold at that time despite the sunshine.

We brought our packed lunch and had a short picnic on the beach. The coast is consists of peebles and not fine sand, which in a way good because our clothes won't get so dirty. We spent some time in the brighton pier, which is a theme park on top of the sea. Towards the evening, the weather got really cold. A visit here during the summer would definitely be much better.

Snowy London

I don't really know if I was lucky or not. There was snow in London in February, which fortunately was beautiful to watch and does not happen often ( as in every 10 years or so).

The downside was that it happened right on my first day to work. I was not sure about the dress code and so I was wearing suit. The thin leather shoes rather felt cold on the feet.

To make things worse, the public transport did not work. I went for the tube and wait 40 mins for train only to be told that the tube station was closed due to the harsh weather. Outside, the bus was not operating at all. Even taxi was difficult to stop. After another 40 mins, when my sole almost froze, I managed to share a cab with another guy and arrived at the office an hour late.

The scenery outside my office was beautiful. It was good that we have glass walls that I could see across the square covered in snow.

Delphi

The final chapter of my trips last summer was Delphi in Greece. It is around 2 hours bus ride from Athens. The town is located on a mountain overlooking a wide valley. The view from the top was amazing. Some of the restaurants there are built on the edge of a cliff so that people can enjoy the view downhill.

Delphi was the site of the Oracle in ancient Greece. I like Greek mythologies because it has many fantasy creatures and also because of its storyline. However, visiting the place is a different story as the mythology is often better than the reality.

The main place to visit in Delphi was an archeological site located on the mountain. Despite the ruins appearance, the site still gave some trace of its majestic past. Well, at least it is still good to enjoy because of the scenery, plus since we were EU students at that time, we got free entry to the sites.

Cape of Poseidon

Just an hour drive from Athens, there is this cape of Poseidon. We were lucky that the weather was pretty good when we arrived there. The temple overlooking the sea is now in ruins but at least it still shows the trace of the shape.

One thing I like about capes is that it has a wide horizon view of the sea. It brings tranquility and relaxing feel to look at the infinity. It also helps that the sea and sky is clear blue and not gloomy.

Athens

The final part of our last summer trip was a trip to Greece (it's almost a year now from the trip itself, indeed how lazy I am . . ). Athens looks more similar to Indonesia rather than the other parts of Europe, no piazza or medieval buildings, lots of cars on the streets. The exception was the existence of some ancient archaeological sites in the city. These sites, however, are much less glorious than it was in the past.

In the valley there was the temple of Zeus, only some massive pillars are left now. The main site was in a small hill housing Parthenon. Restoration works are in progress but I still feel somewhat pity that these once majestic buildings are becoming ruins now.

Below the Parthenon hill, there is the Mars hill or Areopagus where Paul presented the Gospel to the Athenians. It is not exactly the best place to sit and discuss anything as the hill is not flat. Perhaps the ancient people were just stronger than us.

Mini Switzerland

At the end of our swiss trip, we went to see a miniature park with some of the famous landmark and landscape of Switzerland in a smaller scale. It is hosted in a small town called Melide.

While the theme park was more aimed for kids/families, with small trains for children running around the park, it was pretty enjoyable. In particular, we could identify the landmarks that we visited before and also get to know the landmarks in other areas of Switzerland that we missed.

ICF Easter Retreat 2009

Recently, I attended an Easter retreat for the Indonesian Christian Community in the UK. It's refreshing spiritually, with plenty of good food as well. I had a good time meeting other Indonesian and, of course, to stop speaking English for a while . .

Lugano

Another small town we went into was lugano. It is the Italian-speaking part of switzerland and thus all the signs were in italian but with swiss flag.

The station is on the hill, so in order to go down and around we need to walk down through the city center. But it was a pleasant walk because the city center has a typical medieval pavement.

At the end of the walk there was the lugano lake. The lake brought about the feeling of calmness and freshness as it is surrounded by mountains.

Luzern

The next part of the trip was luzern, a small town easily reachable from zurich. The town as pretty with a river flowing across it. I like the river because it is green in color and not brown like in the big cities. Also the place is surrounded by mountains, so it feels closer to nature.

As with swiss cities, the houses are painted in a light colors giving extra feeling of brightness. And since we visited during summer, the flowers were blooming adding the richness in color.

One thing that is supposed to be famous was the dying lion carving on the wall, I couldn't remember why. I find it more enjoyable to going around the city and the rivers.

Desert Chapter: Rivers in the Desert

And here's the favor of God, that I was given a new, better job, even in the middle of a recession. And here is the story.

In the middle of November, I applied to a company in London. I hesitated at first, because they said the starting date was in April, which I thought was a bit too long, but I applied anyway. I was invited for a technical test. Unfortunately, I did not score well in the test and the company said they won't be proceeding with my application. Another rejection email, I thought.

Around mid December, the same company contacted me again with the prospect of doing another test, and so I did. They did not give me any immediate feedback. And so the Christmas and new year week passed without any news from the company.

Curious I asked the company, early second week of January. I got a reply only after one week. That was ten days before my scheduled departure for Singapore. They asked me for a convenient time for a phone interview. I told them about my flight schedule and asked them to arrange interviews withing one week if possible.

I did the phone interview on the same day, with an hour notice. Without much preparation, I think I didn't do very well on some of the technical questions. Still, they invited me for a second interview in their offices, in a week's time.

At this point, I had no other pending application and was preparing to give up my job search here. But I thought, I will also prepare well for this interview so that I can fly back without any regrets. The interview went well and I was offered a job the next day in financial software development. That was two days before my scheduled flight. Also, somehow they changed the start date, so instead of April, I started in February, just a week after accepting their offer.

I believe it's God's way of saying that he could still do a miracle in the last hour. Also that in times when my abilities failed and my confidence plummeted, God could still give his grace to save the day.

Desert Chapter: Letting Go

As I went through the dry land. It became more and more challenging. The winter nights grew colder and longer. The media brought about daily news about more job cuts and bankruptcy. Rejection notice came one after another. And so the confidence that I had initially of getting work in the UK faded along.

I came to a point when I thought that maybe I should go back to Singapore, where it is relatively easier to look for work. Not that the economy is unaffected, but because I still had permanent residence status there. I looked at my remaining pending application and booked a one-way ticket back to Singapore.

I started to think perhaps God had wanted me to go back and that's why I did not get anything in the UK. I was letting go of my dream to work here. A week into my flight date, I had no pending interviews, 1 passed test and 8 failed interviews. I was at peace then with the thought of going back to Singapore for good, when God shown me his favor.

Zurich

The next segment of the summer trip was to Switzerland. We went to Zurich on the east side. Geographically, the city is not far from Trento, but due to the mountains, the trip involved a detour south to Milan before going north again to Zurich.

For the trip, we booked a cisalpino train which reduces the impact when turning. This is helpful when we had to go through the mountain trail track.

Things are really expensive here, much more than in Trento, although the Swiss Franc is not as strong as Euro. I guess people here really earn a lot. One plus side was that we did not need to spend on city transport since we can hire a bike free of charge as a facility provided by the town council.

The city consists of two parts, the old town area which contains historic buildings and the modern part which has all the shops and financial center. I very much like the old town, which is beautifully crossed by a blue-green river.

Another thing that I like is the buildings. In particular, the variety of light colored building which brings about a sense of peace. This is the opposite of the dark colored building more dominant in UK. I wonder why.

Vienna (2)

After coming back from Budapest, we spent another night in Vienna. The main highlight of this segment is Schonbrunn Palace.

The palace is located a bit on the side of the city. However, it is easily distinguishable by its massive size. In particular, it has a huge garden which may be comparable to the one at Versailles.

We took a guided tour of the palace, and it was good, but we weren't allowed to take any pictures inside the palace. I think the interior is not much different than other palaces in Europe, filled with furnitures for luxurious living.

Around the garden there are mazes with walls of plants It took us a few minutes to find our way out, but it was fun. There's the kids section as well, splashing water, etc.

At the end of the garden there is a hill, which allows wide panoramic view of the palace. Thankfully, the weather was excellent then and we could get the most out of it, well, despite the summer heat.