Hitting Utrecht and Den Haag

Sorry for not updating my blog. I was on travel again, hitting two different venues in the Netherlands. First, I had a technical workshop at the Game, Media and Agent Technology Laboratory, University of Utrecht. The workshop is related to the control strategy in automated human-machine interactions, robotic control, and some case study in space mission explorations. It was conducted by a group of scientists from NASA Ames Research Centre. During the case study session, we had a great opportunity to conduct one of the NASA space mission problems. For this task, I worked in a group to simulate the human robot instruction for Mars rover mission using computer software that was coded by us. One thing for sure, under a simulated environment, everything works perfectly. But in reality, there many things to be considered, even a single grain of dirt. Anyway, it was fun (as for a geek like me) and wonder what will happen if they (people at NASA) using my piece of software to control their space mission (ha …ha …ha apalagi meletop laaa!).

Left: The Utrecht Central Station

Right: Cannals .. (what makes Holland is famous for)

Left: The typical european sculpture (mcm corak awan larat di Malaysia kan..)

Right: houses.

Second, I was in The Hague (In Dutch, Den Haag ~ pronounced as Den Haakh). No more space exploration here, but I went to the Malaysian Embassy. Nothing much, I went there to submit my documents, - like the residential information, and etc. Since most of my works here are sponsored by the research grant from the Dutch research programmes, all our government has to do is, just to pay for my placement fee. It is indeed, a great deal to the nation (ermmm did i?). It was ages i didn't use Malay language in the Netherlands (i mean talking face-to-face), finally it was like .. a relief. To be specific, i met one of the staff, and he is a Kelantanese (, habisla kecek kelate, budu .. guano gakkk!). So, i had a simple but yet great lunch. Fried mee and rojak buah. It was heaven .. (come on .. considering my past two months, with Dutch lunch .. )

Left: Interior in our embassy.

Right: park bench .. colourful !

Talk about The Hague, some facts about it. The Hague originated around 1230, when Floris IV, Count of Holland purchased land alongside a pond (now the hofvijver) in order to build a (hunting) residence. After the Napoleonic Wars, Belgium and the Netherlands were combined in the United Kingdom of the Netherlands to form a buffer against France. As a compromise, Brussels and Amsterdam alternated as capital every two years, with the government remaining in The Hague. After the separation of Belgium in 1830, Amsterdam remained the capital of the Netherlands, while the government was situated in The Hague. It is like Kuala Lumpur and Putrajaya scenarios in our country.

The Palace of Justice (where our Batu Putih's is handed to Singapore) ... :-(

The Hague is also home to over 150 international (legal) organisations. These include the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY), the International Court of Justice (ICJ), the Appeals Chamber of the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) and the International Criminal Court (ICC). Talking about ICJ, it is situated at the Peace Palace, and also hosted hearing sessions regarding to the status of Batu Putih’s Island (Pedra Blanca), which is now officially belongs to Singapore (personally, a bit sad about it, but I don’t know why one of our ministers has said that it is a win-win situation. Gosshh, we are talking about our country’s pride here). Well, I reserve my comments. ;- (