the best angle to take a nice photo in Singapore.

Eurovision '05 !

Eurovision '05 was held in Kyiv (Ukraine) this year. This very popular song competition/festival in Europe is a big music parade. Contestants are voted by other European countries people. This year singer Helena from Greece won it with her "My number one" song (listen here). In the photo, Helena (right) and last year's winner Ruslana from Ukraine.


Last year Eurovision was held in Istanbul (Turkey) after Sertab Erener(Turkey) won contest 2 years ago.

Below are the photos of few contestants from different countries;


Natalia from Russia;


Vanilla Ninja band from Estonia;


Nox from Hungary;

Yeah, I definitely need to get its CD when I go back to Turkey! This is real Music parade!

special request by Claire; another version of below photo ;) (she thinks it looks more happy?)

Guests from Singapore; (left-to-right) Jingwen, Shin, Claire, Jane, Yicui, Sherina and yours truly.

Technology behind Google.

Google... Super fast search engine! Have you ever wondered what's behind Google technology?! Well, answer is hmmmmm...... pigeons! You don't believe me, then read it yourself!

Turkey U-17 (under 17) national team won European championship beating Netherlands team in the final. It looks like Turkey football has big future and will surprise more adter their success in getting bronze medals in 2002 World cup. Having lived in Turkey for 6 years and being Turkic in race, I am happy for this success! Avrupa Avrupa duy sesimizi, iste bu Turkun ayak sesleri... :)

Chesea manager Jose Mourinho got "the Best Manager of the Year" award, Chelsea player Lampard got "the Best Player of The Year" award, and Chelsea Goalkeeper Petr Cech got "the Golden Gloves" award for least conceded goals. This year is my teams' year :).

Barca champion! Finally after 5 years Barcelona F.C. became champion of Spain. Well, this is one of my 3 favourite clubs (Galatasaray, Chelsea and Barcelona). Go go glory Barca!

Treasures of Asia-1; from Taiwan National Palace Museum

It was about to explore cultures, values and history of other countries, that was one of my goals for these traineeships. So here's the first section of my explorings about treasures of Asia; unique collection of Chinese treasure from National Palace Museum of Taiwan (here). It has unique collection of Chinese treasures, callygraphy, paintings, jade, bronze, buddhas, wood carves, seals, etc. The size of the collection is such big that it takes 32 years to display all the items when items are replaced/switched by different ones 4 times a year. Of course, there are exceptional items that are displayed permanently. Almost all treasures are from the Forbidden Palace in China.

Jarmo's gallery

My Finnish friend Jarmo (Singapore AIESEC knows him well) has a great talent in taking realy good shots. Here is the link to his gallery, I am big fan of his photos. Jarmo, hope you don't mind if I download few of them ;).

"artist"

check this link! real art of computer drawing, no comment, just watch.

Forza Galatasaray!

Galatasaray has won the Turkish Cup 2005! Great job, yellow-reds! Galatasaray is one of the 3 biggest clubs in Turkish championship, and the richest in all kind of trophies. 15 Turkey Championship cups, 14 Turkish Cups, 1 UEFA cup and 1 Super Cup. They play their games in Ali Sami Yen stadium, which is known as a "Hell" for other teams.


This year is club's 100th year anniversary, so Turkish Cup is just nice, and hopefully after 3 weeks Gala will get league championship too! In Turkish Cup final, they beat current league leaders Fenerbahce with historical 5:1 score! Its best years were between 1996-2001 when Gala was shaking Europe and winning matches against Real Madrid, Milan, Arsenal, Dortmund, Roma,etc. , and winning UEFA Cup (final: Gala 4:1 Arsenal)


and Super Cup (Gala 2:1 Real Madrid) in 2000.


They got rated top club (Real Madrid was second) in Europe by IFFHS. Those days team was managed by Fatih Terim who later became coaches of Fiorentina and Milan.


Team had big stars like George Hagi, Popescu, Hakan Sukur, Emre, Taffarel, etc. Mario Jardel, Frank de Boer, Christian, Felipe are among other big stars who played in Galatasaray following years.


I am happy that I could see golden days of my favorite football club and that legendary Galatasaray team,


and I hope that more is to come. After 2001 there was a big drop in team's performance due to team changes, many big players retired or left. Today's squad has big names like Hakan Sukur, Conceciao (from R.Madrid), Song, Mondragon, Hasan Sas and Hakan Yakin. Only today team is getting better back to its winning days, this time with George Hagi as a manager/coach.


And this Cup is the proof of it. Go CimBomBom (Galatasaray's nickname)!

Victory Day!

Being away from home, I'm forgetting our holidays... Happy 9-May! Victory Day! Victory over fascism, when Soviet soldiers took Berlin from Hitler. My grandfather was there... He went till Berlin, and he was also caught by the enemies and put to a camp. At the end of WW2, he returned home safely. His medals are still in our house... He was only one of the kyrgyz warriors who protected our country and people from common enemy.


Being part of USSR at that time, many kyrgyz people went to the war to fight against common enemy, so it's our history, and our victory too. Jenish mayraminar menen! S dnem pobedy, druzya!

Weekend with Sharon.

Sharon was in Taipei. My dear reception officer in Singapore, Sharon, came to visit this weekend. Besides all those common tourist visit places ( like CKS memorial, Danshui, Nat.Palace Museum, Beitou Hot Springs, Shihlin night market, Taipei 101 observatory, etc.), we got outside of the city and went to Keelung and Jioufen. Keelung is a port city on the very north of Taiwan. After some time consuming seafood lunch, we took boat to Keelung islet which used to be Japanese Naval base during WW2.


Nothing much there except tunnels (probably built during the war, guide was talking in Hokkien :)), island walk paths, fresh wind and beaches full of stones. Tour was short, so I didn't have chance to climb to the top of the island.


After that, small seafood ice-cream(!) desert.


Next destination was Jioufen, a small village on the hill from where there is perfect view of sea, Keelung harbour and Keelung islet.


I like this place for its market where they sell delicious snacks (hard to find them in Taipei city), all kind of Chinese arts, sculpturres, martial arts stuff, etc. and price is also very reasonable. Nice dinner on the balcony facing the evening sea view completed the day.




It was so funny to hear Jane n Sharon talking Singlish.

Blue is the color...

I support the Blues, no secret. They were outstanding this year, they got Carling Cup, they got English Premier League Championship last weekend (2. one after 50 years!), and now they are on the way to get Champions League Cup. Superb performances by my favourite player Lampard, Terry, Cech and others were the main factor.

Terry was voted Player of the Year by all players in a league,



Lampard was voted as the Player of the Year by all fans of English football.


But the biggest credit goes to Jose Mourinho, Portuguese coach of Chelsea, and of coz we shouldn't forget who built this world-class team - Russian billionaire Abramovich.



Chelsea is growing to one of the strongest clubs in the world both financially and as an on field performance. Recently, they signed giant sponsorship with Samsung, so from next year, we will see "Samsung mobile" on their shirts instead of "Fly Emirates".