Trust is so fragile...

I found a quote about trust by Friedrich Nietzsche, a German classical scholar in the 1800s:

“I'm not upset that you lied to me, I'm upset that from now on I can't believe you.”

I can definitely relate to the second part of the quote, but the first? Who on earth would not be upset at being lied to?! Crazy, I would be upset all the way!!! FECKING LIARS!!! I can handle little white lies, especially when there is a good reason behind it, like protecting someone, etc. But big fat lies, NO WAY!!!

Sorry, just needed to let out steam! I'm fine now! On with my life! Signing out!

"Beginning is easy, continuing is hard."
dr.rin.79 | artist.mangaka

The worst is over... I think...

I think I'm finally getting over this bout of sickness... though I had to visit the doctor TWICE! Once was last Saturday just before my trip to Singapore and the second was yesterday when I was due back at work. I was in no fit state to even drive so my parents drove me to see the doctor. She had to give me a med cert for this week to recuperate. The rest was much needed because now I'm feeling much better, yayyy! She prescribed me stronger meds compared to the previous ones, which I think did the trick as well. Sigh, this is the second time this year that I've been sick and it's only February!!!

Anyway, being sick is totally boring and irritating, I am not the world's best patient, always whinging and grumbling. ;p So now that I'm feeling somewhat better but still on sick leave, I decided to do a drawing on the ol' tablet, to depict my woes of being sick as hell! As you can see below, the medicine I was given was YUC-KY! But of course, I had to keep taking it... ewww! And yes, my hair is as tousled and I'm always in my jammies - how to go out, I'm sick! :( Anyway, insyallah, I'll be better by next week and back to work for me! Wish me luck! xxx

"Beginning is easy, continuing is hard."
dr.rin | artist.mangaka

Back in the game!

Haha, I'm finally blogging after months and months of silence, other than the occasional message on the chatterbox (which happened to have been deleted, so I got a shoutbox instead, hehe!). Anyway, I can't sleep! I keep thinking about an issue that's been irritating me for a few months now and trying to figure out what's the best solution! I mean, it's Ramadhan month now (Btw, Selamat Berpuasa to all Muslims out there! :D) and getting irritated while fasting - not good! But what to do, what to do?! Usually, I'd confront the issue to sort it out, but things sometimes work so differently here. -sigh- Insyallah, a solution will come to light soon. At the moment, all I need is patience. Oh, and sleep, hehe. It's almost 4 a.m. - had to eat something before fasting starts, though I wasn't really hungry. Anyway, going to go crash now. Later, all! XD

"Beginning is easy, continuing is hard."
dr.rin | artist.mangaka

Photos: A little trip to Ruedesheim am Rhein

We decided to drive to the riverside town of Ruedesheim am Rhein this morning. But before that, we enjoyed the delights of Sunday brunch in the hotel we're staying in! I ate a lot, so there goes my diet, haha! ;p But it was worth it! And tonight will be sushi! Anyway, back to the original story, we set off to Ruedesheim, a quaint little town, though not so quaint today since it was hosting some motorcycle convention hosted by Harley-Davidson, haha!

Anyway, we parked beside the river and went for a walk towards Market Square, where the St Jacob's Catholic Parish Church is located. The architecture of the church is quite suited for the town. There were too many touristic souvenir shops for my liking, but ah well...

After the walk, we drove up to see the Niederwalddenkmal, which is located on a hill overlooking the town. It is a statue of Germania, which was built to commemorate the unification of Germany in 1871. One can get a wonderful view of the town and the Rhein River.

It really is a beautiful monument to behold. Unfortunately, some visitors who weren't very good at reading their own language ruined the beauty of it all. If you look closely on the second step in the second photo, there are the words "NICHT BESTEIGEN" carved into the monument, which means "DO NOT CLIMB". Even someone like me who only knows "nur ein bisschen Deutsch" could tell what it means. These lovely kids obviously took it literally, they weren't climbing after all, they were ONLY sitting. Well, dearies, how do you think you got to sit there in the first place?! Argggggh!!! And what's more, the adults who were with them ALLOWED them to do it! I remember when I and the SAT members (see two posts before) were told off (and almost reported to the Polizei!) for signing on the Berlin Wall at the East Side Gallery. There were NO signs telling us that we weren't allowed to do so, and lots... millions of signatures and graffiti already on it. It was an honest mistake on our part! But this... this obvious act of not following the rules irritates the hell out of me. I mean, it looked like the monument was currently being restored and they SIT on it! In Berlin, you get told off for doing something like what these kids are doing! Oh, a possibility may be that they don't speak German... Oh wait, what's that I hear... ohhh, they're speaking German! Grrrr! [takes a deep breath] Okay, I'd better stop ranting now, or else I'll ruin my mood for sushi tonight! So ja ne, minna-san!

"Beginning is easy, continuing is hard."

Day Trip to Leipzig and Dresden.

I can't sleep so I decided to blog about the day trip my parents and I went on to Leipzig and Dresden, both German cities situated south of Berlin. Even though these two cities were both part of former East Germany, there was such contrast between the present atmosphere of these two places! I really like living in Berlin, I guess because I feel it's a rather cosmopolitan city. As a result, my overall feeling of Germany is quite positive, despite the cultural differences in attitudes, etc. However, every so often, my bubble is burst when I'm confronted with news of the current Neo-Nazi movementand controversial attitudes of discrimination towards foreigners (the latter I know to be an aspect that may be present in all communities, to a certain extent).

Anyway, the reason I mentioned this is because I believe we came across such attitudes while in Leipzig. I really did not like the place, the atmosphere just felt weird and tense yesterday. For example, we went into a cafe to have brunch and I felt we were treated somewhat differently, it was extremely subtle but it was there. I wasn't the only one who thought this!Maybe it's like a "small town" mentality, who knows! Whatever it is, it did not give me a good impression of Leipzig. Anyway, don't really want to talk too much about it, since it could all just be in my head. The only thing that I got from the visit was the interestingly designed buildings, shown in the photo below!

So next stop, Dresden! I was so glad to have gone to this city, being in Leipzig left such a bad taste in my mouth, that Dresden was like the delicious sweet that overcame that!Dresden celebrated its 800th birthday last year, I think. It's a beautiful place (with a friendly atmosphere!), well-known for its Baroque architecture, especially in die Altstadt (The Old City) where numerous monumentous religious buildings are situated, such as the Frauenkirche, Kreuzkirche and Hofkirche. The following two photos are of the Dresdner Frauenkirche, which is actually the largest religious building in Dresden. Hence, this city is one of the few places where the Cathedral is not the largest sacred building in a city. You can see my parents and Jun (the driver) in the first photo!

If you look closely at the photos of the Frauenkirche, you can see that the majority of the building is newer in appearance. The dark part is actually the original church but because of the bombings in World War II, many buildings in Dresden were destroyed. Therefore, projects are currently underway in order to reconstruct many buildings to their original state.

The next photos are of die Brühlsche Terrasse (the Brühlsche Terrace) which is built on the banks of the River Elbe. You can see the Hofkirche in the background.

Well, overall, it was an interesting and fun day, despite the initial unpleasantness.I got to spend time with my parents, take a break from studying for my viva and learn some news things about the world, hehe! I'm finally feeling sleepy, so I'm going to sign off now! Gute nacht!

Taking a step back towards adolescence...

Okay, last week I started school, today I got braces on my lower back teeth! Hence, the title for today's blog, haha! Seriously, I feel like a teenager, though I am heading towards the big 3-0! O_O Anyway, had to get these braces for health reasons, honest! I can tell you, they're not the easiest things to install, I felt like a specimen on an examination table! The whole procedure of getting the mould for making the bloody things, burning away excess gum with a laser (ewww!) and finally fitting them onto my teeth (two dental sessions) came to about 5 dental appointments over a period of almost two months!!! And what's more, it hurt!!! I know it's only meant to be a numbing sensation, but it damn well hurt like mad! I can tell you, I don't cry that often, but this time, I sobbed the moment I got home! So thankful to my mum and dad for coming up with a few remedies to ease the pain! I can't wait to get these bloody things off at the end of the year! For now, I am officially a metal mouth! (No offence intended to other braces-wearing people!)

The Ideal Customer Service?

Do you think this should be based on the principle that "the customer is always right"? Well, I don't it should strictly be the case. I mean, the important thing about good customer service is to be polite and calm, in my opinion. Sorry, it's just that recently something happened where the staff of a certain establishment was so rude, it's amazing that they even managed to get away with it! I won't go into details about what happened, but come on, is it so difficult to be civil??? Argh! If you can't be polite, you shouldn't really be in customer service! Even if the customer is being difficult and rude, the best thing is to be calm and civil, which would help diffuse the tension. But if you fight back, it'll just end up in a complete war, and you might end up losing your job!!! Anyway, my mom and I were not even being that difficult at the time, though I knew what we were asking of them would require a little bit more effort and patience on their part, but we were always gracious and kept apologising for the trouble. But nooo, they had to have their bitchy attitudes and kept frowning and almost blatantly ignored us! Grrrrr! I had to control my temper, but honestly, if this happens again and with the same people, I will not remain civil! I will most definitely give them a piece of my mind!!! God, I can't stand rude people!!! They're lucky I didn't lose my temper. It is not a pretty sight!

Anyway, that's my rant for the day, hehe! Hopefully, the next blog will be more pleasant! :P

What's the point?!

So once in a while, I get into this strange mood, in which I begin to question my purpose in life - something, I'm sure, everyone does at least once in his/her life. I guess the reason for my being in this mood is probably because of my Ph.D., which seems so never-ending! But I'm sure there is a light at the end of the dark and dreary tunnel, or so I keep telling myself. And hopefully, I'll see this light really soon.

So back to the original question - what is my purpose in life? I feel extremely restless. Why? Maybe because of:

1) where my career should be going (to chemically be or not to chemically be)
2) where I should be settling down (or am I meant to remain a wanderer of sorts?)
3) what I should do to make a significant change in this world (I feel so insignificant!)

Those are the major questions boggling my mind at this very moment. I'm sure at some other stage in my life, they'll be other questions to be figured out. I know I shouldn't worry about these things now, that I should focus at the matter at hand, my thesis, but I can't help it. So I decided to jot my thoughts down on virtual paper, it might ease my mind somewhat.

Anyway, just thought I'd share this with you. I welcome any advice you can offer. Danke for listening! Later!

[anime.character.of.the.blog: nakajima.youko of juuni.kokki]