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Last night was the performance of this very well known piece by Czech composer Dvorak at the Esplanade by the SSO. This piece was first performed in New York in 1893.

I remember hearing and playing the melody from the 2nd slow movement of this symphony years ago when I was playing in my school band, probably when I was in secondary 2. I loved that melody. It was only much later that I heard all the 4 movements of this symphony. One of the rare symphonies where all the 4 movements are memorable with beautiful and captivating melodies.

The guest conductor was Kolja Blacher and he did a very good job coaxing a very impressive performance out of the orchestra. The tempo was good and the playing excellent. No surprise therefore that he was given a standing ovation.

This has always been one of my favourite classical music pieces and I am glad it turned out to be an evening well spent. I didn’t care much for the 2 pieces they played before the intermission and so the hour long wait to hear this was well worth it.

I do find the audiences here a bit annoying; constant coughing and fidgeting during the performance and clapping in between the movements..sigh.. also some were in t shirts and shorts…

And surprisingly, I met so many people there I know.

I have heard of Hongqi for some time. And I knew they were starting to do ev cars. So I was glad when I found out last year that Eurokars would bring this car to Singapore.

It was launched at the motor show last week. Since I was in KL, I missed it. So they very kindly arranged a viewing of the car this morning.

It was the Chinese left hand drive version and I was told that there would be some differences with the final version coming to Singapore.

The car looked gorgeous and I can’t wait to test drive this. Fingers crossed that the drive is as good as how the car looks!

Now the dilemma. To switch or not to switch.

Once again it was time to celebrate yet another birthday. This time it was Dr Teo’s. He turns 66 and will soon be a grandfather of 3. How time flies.

I first knew him sometime in 2003. He was the Mayor of NWCDC and I had just been appointed as a councillor by him. I didn’t know him at all. Over the years I dare say we have become friends and he entrusted me with many appointments and initiatives, for which I am truly grateful. We have also travelled to Dubai and to Russia, just before Covid struck.

Our dinner last night was at Jia He restaurant at Farrer Hospital. The moment I arrived, the manager, Veronica, started berating me about how I haven’t visited the restaurant in about 2 years! That is true. I used to go there a lot but for some reason, which I now can’t remember, I just stopped.

The food was good and the restaurant made it a point to prepare something special for the birthday. Very nice of them.

I had a belated birthday lunch, courtesy of Kaling, today. We had planned this lunch sometime in December but we couldn’t find a common time to meet. All of us were traveling. We finally had our lunch at Milos, at MBS.

I have never been here but I was impressed. This is a Greek restaurant specializing in seafood. The 3 course set lunch is $68 with a good selection of appetisers and mains.

I had a tomato salad and the fish of the day, both of which were good. The dessert was a Greek yogurt ice cream. Kaling also ordered some prawns, which were excellent. It is therefore no surprise that the restaurant was packed.

We spoke of many things but the 3 that stood out were philandering men, in particular fathers and the impact it has on the children, children who assume and behave as if they are entitled to the wealth of their parents as of right and old people and how vulnerable they are to family members or mistresses who “persuade” them to change their wills.

The first one is a state of affairs not just specific to wealthy families and is one that has existed throughout mankind. I have seen this happen so many times and have always wondered whether humans were ever meant to be monogamous or whether monogamy is a quirk of religious ideas. Increasingly it is not just the men who wander.

The other 2 are clearly rich people’s problems and in Singapore these problems will be become increasingly acute.

We were there for quite a while and it was such a lovely afternoon. Always enjoy such sessions!

I left Kl yesterday morning at 10am. Although I had a full 100% charge, I was still a bit apprehensive. When I was going up to KL, my gauge initially said I wouldn’t have enough charge to reach KL. Strangely this time when I started driving, the gauge showed that I would have 18% left when I reached the Tuas checkpoint.

Anyway a very uneventful drive with no traffic jams at all. Very smooth. A good friend had suggested that I charge my car at the Ayer Hitam ev charging hub.

I tried it. I had 42% charge when I arrived there and in about 15 minutes, I had charged my car to 69%. It is part of a petrol station and so it is just a convenience store and toilets. Pity it is so near Singapore. Would have been better if this was at some mid way point like Ayer Keroh or Pagoh.

Last night was the MPO live performance of the brilliant, multi award winning movie Amadeus.

I remember watching this movie when I was in the University, sometime in 1984 or 1985. I watched it with my then friend at Lido cinema. I loved the movie and the music. Although I knew some of Mozart’s pieces then, it was through this movie that I got to know many of his works, especially the choral works and his operas. Over the years I have bought so many different versions of this movie in so many formats, the video, LD, DVD and finally the itunes version.

But yesterday was special because the music and chorals were live. The performance by the MPO was very good and it was synchronized so well with the movie. I felt the live performance enhanced the movie and I appreciated the movie so much more.

I can only imagine the amount of time the orchestra and the choir would have spent rehearsing for this one night performance. Especially since there are so many different pieces they needed to play. I remember the CD version of this movie was double disc.

I thoroughly enjoyed myself and am so glad that I snagged this once in a lifetime opportunity of seeing one of my all time favorite movies live, played by a very good orchestra conducted by their guest conductor, Benjamin Pope.

ps.. after the performance, I was clapping so hard that I lost my Indian Alexandrite ring which was on my pinky finger. Luckily I realised that it had slipped out and after a very anxious minute or so, I found it. Learning lesson.. resize the ring asap.

Since we were in KL for the concert, we arranged to meet at Culina for dinner yesterday.

We met at 7pm at the restaurant . The food was alright, unfortunately it was not up to their usual quality. I was a bit disappointed as the choice of place was mine.

Nevertheless, the conversation was great. We were chatting till the restaurant closed and we continued talking till 10pm.

Sometimes being outside the country with a change of atmosphere does lead to pleasant results.

As my MPO concert is tomorrow evening, I left for KL this morning.

I started driving at 625am with a full charge. Was at Tuas checkpoint by 650 am with 94%. Strangely when I set my navigation to KL from Tuas, my system told me that I wouldn’t have sufficient battery charge to reach KL. That was strange and hasn’t happened before.

I started driving and the battery performance slowly improved such that when I arrived at Ayer Keroh with 48%, my system showed that I would reach KL with 8% remaining. Anyway, I had a coffee at Starbucks and charged up to 80% with their fast charger.

Arrived in Kl at 1055am, even after a 25 minutes stop at Ayer Keroh with 60% remaining.

Another nice start to the year, when yesterday morning, all 3 of us were able to catch up for coffee at our Morning Grind.

It is getting increasingly harder to find time to meet. Before Covid, everyone would be in the office every day and it was easy catching up, either for morning coffee or an afternoon snack session. You could just walk around the office, see who’s around and go off with them for a drink.

So many things have changed since then. But the one that I think is a problem is that people are seldom in the office and even if they come in, they are certainly not in by 9am. And so such ad hoc sessions, that were commonplace are now rare.

So it was good that this happened spontaneously yesterday. We had so many things to talk about and so our session went past 1115am. And time flies. All 3 of us have now crossed 62.

I had to unfortunately break up our session because I needed to celebrate my mother’s birthday.

Today, January 7, is my mother’s birthday. She was born in 1940 in Arupukottai in Tamil Nadu, India. So that makes her 86 this year. She came to Singapore with my grandmother in 1951, when she was 11. My grandfather had come here a year before and bought an attap house in a village in Sembawang… Lorong Maha, off Jalan Ulu Sembawang.

Since my mother had been educated in India and could only speak Tamil then, my grandmother sent her to the Methodist Mission in Sembawang for schooling but they catered to students only up till they were 12. So she studied there for a year, and thereafter she, together with 3 other students from Sembawang, went to Ramakrishna Mission in Noris Road for schooling. They took a bus from Sembawang 13th mile to Tekka and then walked to Ramakrishna Mission every day.

After a couple of years there, she went to do her 3 year teacher’s training course in JB. Which was where she met my father, who was also doing his training there.

We celebrated at the Colony Restaurant at Ritz Carlton. Wishing her happy birthday and many more good years ahead!