Author: CMR.sg

A fitting end to 2025. Lunch today was at Li Bai restaurant at Sheraton Hotel with Mr Liang Eng Hwa.

I have known him since 2002, when I first met him at Buona Vista. We were both young then and volunteers there and Lim Swee Say was the MP. Since then, Mr Liang has done well. He became a five term MP this year and has done much for his residents. And he speaks up in Parliament quite a bit in his capacity as GPC chair of Finance.

Over lunch, we spoke of many things; the economy, cost of living, state of the world, employment situation, US China tensions. A rather sobering discussion. Closer to home we talked about how we can help the fresh graduates get their first job. With the advent of AI and a slowing economy, companies are cutting back hiring and also trimming their workforce. This has made finding jobs for them difficult. We also talked about how we can help special needs residents to find some form of meaningful employment. Lets see if these plans can be put into motion in 2026.

The food was good. The restaurant is a bit out of the way but this restaurant has it’s own set of regulars. I remember our first ever meeting to discuss starting Club 100 was at this restaurant sometime in 2008.

At the next table was SMS Janil Puthucheary, who was lunching with his wife and son. Wished them a happy new year as well!

By chance, on my last day in Bangkok, I decided to try a Chinese restaurant in Bangkok, just to check out the quality of the Chinese food here and I am glad I did.

This newly opened restaurant in Central Park is huge and beautifully done up.

A very extensive menu, with whole day dim sums, seafood, duck and other regular Chinese food items.

They are open the whole day from 1130. I went there at about 4pm and so there wasn’t that much of a crowd. But such good food and at reasonable prices.

I do worry for Singapore. What does it have to offer? Poor choices, expensive prices and sub standard quality of food and service. Here I had so many choices of great coffee, different varieties of food, good service and all at decent prices. I can understand why so many people, especially Europeans, choose to retire here.

Another new shopping that opened just recently in Bangkok. I visited this place yesterday and it is a huge mall right next to the river.

The impressive thing they have done is to mimick the street markets and food stalls, so characteristically Bangkok, on the ground floor. So you get the feeling of being in a outdoor narrow street market when you are actually in an air-conditioned mall. And thiswith lots of sitting areas, which is a bonus.

The shop decors, especially those on the first floor, are impressive. Gentle Monster and its sister company that does perfumes, Tamburins, have hugely impressive shops there. They attracts lots of people who just stand there and take pictures, just like I did too!

This mall has lots of branded shops, Michelin starred restaurants, local food and local products.

Well worth a visit, if nothing else, just to appreciate the effort in putting up such a well planned mall.

I visited Central World on Thursday. A huge shopping center but I found it a bit messy and too much for me. Lots of food but in terms of quality, I found the food at Siam Paragon to be better.

Yesterday I went by to the Jewellery Trade Center. Surprisingly rather quiet and then I found out that most of the shops were closed for the upcoming year end holidays. Pity. It is 5 floors of shops and a huge 55 floor office complex, almost entirely comprising jewelry showrooms and their offices. Still I managed to get an Indian Alexandrite ring about 1 carat in size for a surprisingly good price.

Thereafter it was off to the nearby Central Park, a newly opened shopping complex. Not a big one but as always lots of cafes and restaurants.

I find it amazing how many good cafes and restaurants they have in each shopping complex. All with comfortable seating and good service. No wonder so many tourists pick Bangkok as one of their choice destinations.

I didn’t think I would be here for Christmas, but here I am.

I haven’t been to Bangkok in ages. I must last have come here at least 8 or 9 years ago. I think it was with my colleagues, either a firm or department trip. I remember staying at the Pullman then on that last trip.

There was a time when because of a matter, I was coming here once a month for several months. On those trips, I stayed at the Hyatt Erawan. I don’t know why I stopped coming to Bangkok but now I cannot imagine why I would have stopped coming here.

Yesterday I went to Siam Paragon by train. Very convenient. The place is huge and even after about 6 hours there, I don’t think I covered even half the place. It is huge, open spaced with so many different products you never see in Singapore.

But the highlight of Bangkok must be the food. The food halls and restaurants are fantastic and so well priced. Multiple classy cafes, lots of desserts and great Japanese food.

I came across a pizzeria which is really great! Supposed to be one of the top pizza joints in the world. I ordered the marinara and it was good! They only have one size and it’s large. Cost me $17.

A very good day indeed. Since I am now here, am looking to go to a different mall every day.

A good friend, Joshua, messaged me whilst I was on the plane to inform me that M Ravi had died.

I didn’t know him. But my mother did. And she was sad when she learnt that he had passed away. He participated in a Tamil dance competition when he about 12 or 13 organized by Christ Church School, where my mother was a Tamil teacher. He didn’t win but they were so impressed with him that they awarded him a consolation prize. Later on he became a relief teacher at that same school for about 4 months. That was when she got to know him better. She found him kind and polite and his students liked him and he would stay back after school to spend time and talk with them. He spoke good Tamil.

I have read his arguments he made to the Court before. They are well reasoned and good. Such a pity that he was afflicted with mental condition which at times might have affected his behavior and judgement.

Nevertheless, with lots of passion, he took up many cases for people who probably couldn’t afford to pay him any fees and he did his best for them, even when the cases seemed hopeless. And he put his heart and soul into the way he went about helping them, even at the expense of getting himself into trouble at times.

The outpouring of grief I see on social media and in the Singapore and Malaysia main stream media is a clear sign that people knew, noticed and appreciated all his good work.

A life well lived, albeit unfortunately short and flawed at times.

To round off the year, Krist and I decided that we should do lunch before the year 2026 starts. And since she is always comfortable at MBS, our lunch was at Mott 32.

We had great service at the restaurant as we had the manager of the restaurant, Benjamin, looking after us. As always, we overordered.

It was good catching up. She is going back to work at RWS in April after a long gap. Good for her. I think she will do well as that’s her forte. So the next time we will eat there.

We spent a bit of time talking about the recent Law Society issues, ST and it’s current defiencies and about young people generally. Both of us agree on all these issues.

I have always liked this Indonesian restaurant. They were at Tanglin Shopping Center, when that place was an upmarket shopping center. Eating at that restaurant was a treat. Food was good and priced well. Then of course that shopping mall became rundown and it was no longer fashionable eating there. Now that mall is no more.

Fortunately the restaurant later opened at Great World City and I think the menu is exactly what it was when they were at Tanglin.

So when my 2 younger colleagues suggested lunch, I picked this place. Works well since one of them is a vegetarian.

As always, I ordered their evergreen items like gado gado and tahu telur.

It was a fun lunch, reminiscing about the early days of the firm and how it grew to become so big. They couldn’t believe that there was a time when we didn’t have email and didn’t keep time sheets. They wondered how the lawyer would know how much to bill. Such good old days!! Also good to know that both of them have exciting plans for the year ahead.

Yesterday I had coffee with U-Zyn at PS Cafe at Dempsey. Nice location as it is surrounded by greenery. Also convenient and free parking. But the acoustics inside are bad. So it is difficult to have a conversation unless you want to be shouting.

Fortunately we could move tables to a quieter corner as it was not packed, otherwise I would have suggested moving to a different cafe.

I had my usual ginger tea with a chocolate dessert I shared with U Zyn.

I can’t imagine a flight delay of 13 hours due to snowstorms or sitting inside a plane on the tarmac and experiencing an earthquake with the plane violently shaking for a minute. Or having to come back on a different flight at short notice trying to get the tickets sorted out.

Well I am only glad I didn’t have to go through any of that. But I can imagine the angst and anxiety and anger when things like this happen.

I suppose ultimately holidays are a time to be together and relax and doing whatever makes everyone happy. Glad that his family enjoyed the skiing!

I have known Connie for almost 25 years now. I first got to know her sister and through her got to know Connie and her family, including her parents. Time flies. I remember when she had just given birth to her son and we were celebrating his first birthday. That boy is now 24 years old.

Her birthday was just over recently and today was my treat to celebrate her birthday.

She is still physically and mentally active and is happy and it was good catching up with her after all these years to find out how she and all the members of her family are faring. I think I have not seen her in about 10 years. She was showing me some of the old pictures which she has kept of her dad who has since passed on. Good memories of all of them.

A good birthday lunch at Jiak Khim restaurant.