2012 - China and FIP Amsterdam

Jane, Sylvain and I went on a bus and ferry tour of Amsterdam which incorporated the Windmills, Marken and Volendam. As Greg had been to Amsterdam before, he was not interested in this tour. We hopped on a bus near our favourite McDonalds and our first stop was the Windmills of the Zaanse Schans (Zaans Museum). The weather was not very kind to us, and it drizzled all day. However, we didn’t let that stop us. We were able to view the inside workings of one of the windmills, all of which are still active mills. The mills were all built sometime after 1574. We wandered the surrounding countryside which was very lush with plenty of sheep. After a short walk it was back on the bus to Volendam ( well known for its old fishing boats and the traditional clothing still worn by some residents) where we had an early but much wanted lunch in a lovely café/restaurant.   After lunch we boarded a ferry for a ride across the Gouwzee to Marken.   This fairly large body of water is relatively s...

Having left China on time following the International Seminar in Chongqing, Jane, Sylvain and I arrived in Amsterdam approximately 0700h, made our way through immigration, customs and baggage claim before finding a taxi to take us to our hotel ( red circle on the map, previous page). We knew it was unlikely we would be able to check-in due to the early hour, but had to go somewhere with the bags, and the hotel was where I had arranged to meet Greg who was riding in from Haarlem. Well, we were able to check-in, but our rooms were not yet available, so we waited around in the lobby and caught up on emails, etc.  Greg arrived about 1000h and after stowing his bike and bags in the storage room, we all went exploring.   Our first job was to find the Metro to buy transport tickets for Jane and Sylvain (I had pre-purchased two five-day tickets for Greg and I).   After initially heading off in the wrong direction, we eventually orientated ourselves to the map and foun...

  Hotel in red circle and Conference centre in green circle

It was an earlier than usual start this morning; we were off to the Dazu Rock Carvings made up of five clusters of carvings dating from the ninth to the 13 th centuries. We visited the Baodingshan Rock Carving situated 15 km east of Dazu, which is 127km west of Chongqing (about 2 hrs of driving). We were so early in fact, that we had to miss the usual breakfast.   Never fear though, our trusty leader had arranged for the hotel to package a breakfast for us which we ate not long after we left Chongqing. The Carvings are on a grand scale, have a notable aesthetic quality, are very diverse in both secular and religious subject matter and provide evidence of the amicable combination of Buddhism, Taoism and Confucianism. On the 4 th December 1999, the Dazu Rock Carvings were declared UNESCO World Cultural and Heritage. The inscription on the List confirms the “exceptional and universal value of a cultural or natural site which requires protection for the benefit of all humanity”. ...

On the second day of the Seminar there were four presentations – all in Chinese, therefore the four invited guests were excused from attending.  We visited the displays instead. At a brief MEPS meeting held on Wed 26 Sep 12, just before the MEPS-Biochem Signing Ceremony, it was agreed that a small MEPS working group, consisting of Jane, Wendy and Sylvain, should convene on Fri morning whilst the Seminar continued in Chinese. Once again, Zheng-yu used his exceptional organizational skills to secure a small conference room for us to meet to discuss Disaster Response Management Planning. It is clear that there is a need for information on preparing individual pharmacists in all areas of practice to manage in their situation when an emergency strikes. Guidelines are required to help national authorities and member organisations develop comprehensive national plans. They need to consider the response from a more global point of view (community, hospital, industry etc.) related to an int...