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I am back from Amsterdam. I decided not to do a post on this trip so soon due to the following reasons:
1) I have exams this coming thursday.
2) I will be back in Singapore soon, I wanna tell the story to my friends personally.
3) I haven't got all my photos, which are in han's harddisk. Have to wait for her to be back in Singapore in july! Argh
4) I have to get many of the places and food names in dutch right, have to confirm with Edwin and Joris.
5) World Cup is going on now.
6) I want to do a good one dedicating to the Dutchmen and friends.
Just a slight preview of this trip, the best trip I have in Europe. Not just sightseeing, but also the Dutch cultural immersion in only 4 days!
1) Red light district in Amsterdam.
2) Soft drugs coffeeshop in Amsterdam.
3) The Heineken brewery - where the bad (relative) influence of drinking is passed on to han.
4) Lovely coffee on the rooftop of the student house in Eindhoven - also where we attempted suicide.
5) Apple and Oinion shooting! - its a powerful weapon! I can't explain this, you simply have to watch the video clip.
6) The King's live guitar performance.
7) Being ferried on the bicycle by the 2 Dutchmen to the train station! - Someone find it sweet ~ *wink at Edwin and Han
8) 50km biking trip to Deltawerken Delta Works - Yesh, we cycled! quite impressed with han's endurance.
9) Cheese making in the cheese factory - where we tried the old and young cheese, also goat cheese.
10) Open Dutch Fisherman's village museum, where we had the best food - the smoke haring!
11) Experience with the traditional Dutch customes, walking sticks and the hood toys (not sure how to call them).
12) Rileena's Orchid greenhouse plantation.
13) Windmills! Lots of them!!
14) Lots of traditional dutch food.
15) Great beer drinking session! - although we missed out the drinking games.
See you all soon!
*By the way, this is a post that I do not have to crack my brain over what colour to use for the text.
Hi-Jack!!
If you are the PIC (Pilot-In-Charge) and your airplane has been hijacked. What would you do if they demand that you open the cockpit door or else they would start killing the passenger one by one?
Pilot A, for the sake of the passengers, surrenders to the hijackers' request, open the cockpit door and the plane was being taken over. Fortunately, no lives were lost after the whole incident. Is Pilot A a good pilot? Did he make a good judgement or decision?
Pilot B, on the other hand, replied, "Go on and shoot, you (the hijackers) are not getting in (into the cockpit)!" In the end, the plane landed safety, with passengers injured and some dead. Is Pilot B a bad pilot? Did he make a bad judgement, being stubborn?
In the position of Pilot B, in his point of view, his task is to bring the plane safety down to the ground and not surrender to threats. His beliefs, if all pilots are trained not to surrender to threats, there will not be any hijackers in the first place, when the hijackers have figured out that they can no longer threaten the pilots for the control of the plane even if they kill all the passengers onboard.
Both may be right or wrong. (Pilot A may be lucky as not another Twin Tower collaspe.) But without looking into the reasons and beliefs of Pilot B, he will definitely be easily misjudged by people. The stress that he has will be tremendous, not forgetting the psychological effect he will have to face in the rest of his career life.
Are people able to forgive Pilot B for the dead and injuries he has caused?
Are you able to forgive him if one of the deceased is your family member?
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Dreamliner, the LION of the sky flying to the HEART of the Netherland. Yes, I will be in Amsterdam for the next four to five days.
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A fact: Today, pilots have been mentally reconditioned to respond to any hijackers' threat against crewmember or passengers. For instance, if a captain is being notified through an interphone that the hijackers are about to kill a flight attendant or passenger unless he opens the cockpit door, he has to make the most unpleasant decision of his life and refuse to accede to the command. "Go ahead, but they are not coming in!" This is how the mindset and attitude of the pilots in El Al Israeli Airlines are being trained to adopt to. It is also one of the main reasons why the Airline hasn't had a hijacking since 1968 in spite of being regarded as a high threat target.
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Board the plane only when you are sure where it is heading. Nobody should judge the pilots' decision. =) Shut up if you can't get the facts right and see from their point of view.
