Police on Horses

Weird. [photo taken near the central station of Goteborg]

I’m not sure what’s the special day, but there are many policeman patrolling along the streets. Of course, not all of them ride on the horses.

What are they queuing for?

Singaporeans out there, what comes to your mind when you see this? Intuitively I asked my colleague, “what are they queuing for?” and my colleague laughed and said it was a typical Singaporean remark.

You will think it’s some kind of free gift, but surprising… they are queuing to take pictures or signature of a singer! I don’t hear any screams or see any mats on the ground where people queued overnight… But, he’s really handsome!

Måns Zelmerlöw

Hey, I heard his song Cara Mia on the radio. At least twice every night…

Liseberg

Deng deng! Presenting the main tourist attraction of Goteborg… Liseberg!

It’s a place for everyone! An amusement park. But what’s special about it is the rides are integrated and go over each other. One of the rides where all the screams are coming from is the big swing!

I took this picture below a safety net below the BIG swing. Ha, on the net there are some soft toys.

Another famous ride is the wooden roller coaster, called Balder. Yes, it’s made of wood!

The only ride we took is the boat around the park. Most of the time it moves peacefully, but there are a few exciting slides, where you can get really wet. There are 3 of us in the boat, so the boat was tilted at the back, and I was quite wet after the ride. But it was extremely fun!

One of the slides… so fast that the picture is blurred.

My nice colleague YH treated us ice-cream! Yum yum…

Another enjoyable programme is the live band performance. The songs they played make people dance with them.

Here are some of the other rides.

Found something interesting in their souvenir shop.

A tall and skinny water bottle.

It’s fun here! (Provided you enjoy taking those rides.) A nice change for me after shopping for the past 2 weekends.

JDramas

It’s only 2 weeks and I’ve completed 2 Japanese drama series and is half way through my third series. (I brought a hard disk filled with animes and 6 drama series.)

One of the series is Attention Please. Ha, it happens to have the same theme as my work. It’s about the training to become a cabin crew.

And the leading male actor is Nishikido Ryo, the nice guy in 1 litre of tears.

Kakkui…

Anyway, I’m watching Hana Yori Dango 2 now. (Japanese version of Meteor Garden)

And I love its theme song, Flavor of Life by Utada Hikaru.

Here’s the lyrics.

Lyrics & Music: Utada Hikaru

「ありがとう」と君に言われると何だか切ない
「さようなら」の後も解けぬ魔法淡くほろ苦い
the flavour of life, the flavour of life

友達でも恋人でもない中間地点で
收穫の日を夢見てる青いフルーツ
後一歩が踏み出せないせいで
焦れったいの何のって baby

「ありがとう」と君に言われると何だか切ない
「さようなら」の後も解けぬ魔法淡くほろ苦い
the flavour of life, the flavour of life

甘いだけの誘い文句味気のない毒
そんなものには興味もそそられない

思い通りに行かない時だって
人生捨てたもんじゃないって

「どうしたの」と急に聞かれると「ううん、何でもない」
「さようなら」の後に消える笑顔私らしくない 　

信じたいと願えば願うほど何だか切ない
「愛してるよ」よりも「大好き」のほうが君らしいんじゃない
the flavour of life

忘れかけていた人の香りを突然想い出す頃　
降り積もる雪の白さを思うと素直に喜びたいよ

ダイヤモンドよりも柔らかくて暖かな未来
手にしたいよ限りある時間も君と過ごしたい

「ありがとう」と君に言われると何だか切ない
「さようなら」の後も解けぬ魔法淡くほろ苦い
the flavour of life, the flavour of life

Lazy Saturday

Supposed to go Liseberg, but plan was canceled last minute. After doing my laundry, I decided to go shopping and had my lunch. I want to buy a jacket during their spring sales!

What a nice weather! Of course, I should not be at home.

I’m glad I’m staying in the shopping district in Goteborg. I conquered one of the small streets today. (I define small street as those where there’s no cars or trams)

When you are inside, you can’t see outside and there’s no tall buildings… hence I limit myself to walk straight.

There’s really nothing much to shop. Every 200 meters you see the same chain store. Common brands are H&M, KappAhl, Joy, Lindex, Wedens… Within walking distance, I saw 4 H&M and 4 KappAhl, 3 Lindex and 2 Wedens… Oh my god, it’s only my second saturday here…

Welcome Dinner-part 2

The welcome dinner was really enjoyable and even an eye opener for me.

Each of us is supposed to be in charged of some dishes, and I was assigned to prepare “starter” with a colleague. Besides starter, there’s main course, dessert and drinks, which is different kind of alcohol and beer. Luckily, that colleague had a recipe in mind and said he will take care of the ingredients. So at 630pm, we gathered at the project manager’s house and start to cook!

That recipe is really complicated. We took about 2 hours to prepare the starter. I’m impressed with the fact that all the guys are great cook. And the ladies helped out with cutting and washing. Ha ha, who says man cannot cook!

It was 9pm when we finally sat down at the dining table and start our dinner. The main course was moose meat with mushrooms, potatoes and some secret ingredients. The dessert was strawberries soaked in red wine. Unfortunately, I can’t drink. (I will become a lobster with just a few sips)

They have a really healthy eating habit. After the main course, the project manager suggested to go for a walk. So we took a stroll around the neighborhood. Along the way, we talked and played games. They are really friendly and fun loving. Fortunately, one of the female colleague, who is a Chinese, lived around my apartment and we went back together.

Looking forward to work with them. =>

Welcome Dinner

I’m looking forward to tomorrow gathering with my new project mates. Though I have not started work in the project, the project manager is holding a kind of welcome dinner cum project milestone celebration tomorrow. It’s my first outing with them and I hope to know more colleagues. Interestingly, there’s 2 Chinese in the company, excluding Singapore team, and one of them is working in this project. Yeah.

I need to search for the map to find my way there… will update about the dinner tomorrow.

Alternative to smoking

Disclaimer: This entry has no intention of encouraging smoking.

Do you know there is an alternative way of smoking? You no longer need to go outside to smoke. You are not exposed to lung cancer, though there may be other side effects… You can even smoke without people knowing.

The cigarette exits in the form of a bag, very much like a tea bag. It’s called snus, or tobacco ‘teabags’. Smokers placed that bag in between gum and upper lip. Apparently snus is popular in Scandinavian countries. Read more.

Special Laundry Room

Ok, I’ve been wondering where is the laundry room for some days before I met a neighbour who explain to me how it works.

There’s a system mounted on the wall (as shown on the picture above) on the ground floor of the building. This is a laundry booking system. Every tenant will have a security card which is used to open the entrance of the building. To book a laundry timing, just flash that card on the bottom left and you will be able to see the available timing and reserve it. One can only open the laundry door during that particular period. I’m impressed with this system! Unlike a common laundry room, like the one we have in NTU hall, this one ensures that no one can steal or tamper with your clothes when you are doing your laundry. In addition, there will not be cases when you go to the laundry and found that no machines are available. Of course, this can’t be implemented in cases when there are many tenants sharing the laundry room. =p

Boat Trip

Woh woh~ I took a boat trip with my colleague YH along the canal. And it was really fun! It was a guided tour so it was kind of expensive. Around S$30 for 50 mins tour. Some money are meant to be spent when we are touring.

You know why the boat trip was trip? Ha, cos we need to play hide and seek with the bridges.

Everybody squat down… be careful of your head.

Here’s some nice building by the canal.

This is the wet fish market.

Ericsson – One of the famous Swedish company.

Chalmers – Their Science and Engineering university in Goteborg. (like NTU)

During the induction, almost everyone graduated from Chalmers.

Going to cook my dinner now…

2 hours later.

Deng deng! This one looks more appetizing right?

hehe. I’ve got more ingredients now! I went to a wet market today and they sold different kind of vegetables by weight. So I can buy a little bit of everything. Yeah.

Sight seeing alone can be fun too!

The sun is shining brightly and I’m really surprised to see so many people on the street.

More nice buildings.

There are many statues in the town but this one is the most significant to me, because I used it as a landmark. For directional challenged people like me, I need to make a right turn after seeing this statue, if I’m walking to my office.

Guess what these statues are made of? What turns green when oxidized? hehe.

Because Goteborg is small, it is not economical to build metro trains. Hence, they have trams. The tram line helped me to orientate myself in the city as well. As long as I can see the tram, I will know where I’m on the map.

Goteborg used to be a busy harbour. So it’s no surprise that many people own a boat. There are a number of islands beside Goteborg, they like to spend their summer vacation there.

Walking further towards the central station, I visited the German Church. The exterior is not as impressive as the Vasakyrkan but the interior is superb.

Beside the German Church is another museum, called the Stadmuseum. It is equivalent to our history museum. Displayed the history of Goteborg, from the Viking age to the Middle Ages to present. But… no pictures in the museum. The Stadmuseum is quite a nice place to spend time in. The entry is SKR40 but if free for people who has the KonstMuseet pass. Most of the museums are inter connected. So we only need to pay once to visit all the museums. Singapore should adopt such system, this can greatly encourage people to visit all the museums!

Another museum… This time is Maritiman. Entry fee also included. I didn’t go in because I’m not really interested. No rush, I’ve got lots of time.

Just 100-200 meters walk from Maritiman is another attraction, Goteborg Operan.

I think I have covered most of Goteborg attractions near my workplace and apartment. Others include the neighbouring islands and the botanical garden, which I plan to visit in June, when it’s really summer.

Vasakyrkan Goteborg

The first destination today… Vasakyrkan Goteborg.

It’s a big church which is less than 200 meters away from my apartment. Can’t go inside but the architecture itself is majestic and beautiful!

 

This is the fence around the church. See the clover leaf? =>