Author: CMR.sg

Took this train to Munich from Frankfurt airport. Was told it’s a high speed train but it’s not. Most of the time it was about 120km/h and it slowed down many times. The trip was delayed too.

It left Frankfurt airport at 1135 promptly. It was supposed to arrive in Munich at 1512 but it only got in about 1550. Rather annoying.

The German trains cannot compare to the Chinese HSRs. Those are spot on in terms of punctuality and are much faster. Also the Chinese are much more security conscious when it comes to trains. They check and screen all bags brought into the station. They also check your identify before you are allowed to board. Germans didn’t check luggages before entering the station and neither did they check identity before boarding. Hmmm..mixed views on this.

Comfort wise it was alright. A bit bumpy at times but otherwise ok.

Today I took a flight to Frankfurt. It was on a A380.

I have not taken a long flight since Covid. Before that I used to fly regularly and in fact used to look forward to flying.

Perhaps it is because I am out of practice? I found it tiring. I was bored. Didn’t sleep much, which is probably because it was a day flight. Didn’t feel like watching a movie as well.

The entire flight was full on every single class. Flying has really picked up!

The upper deck was just suites and business class and I pity the crew. Non stop service.

I have to say the plane looks dated. These planes have been in service for some time now. I used to love flying on this plane. I remember going on this to New York via Frankfurt and I will specially choose this plane when going to London. I thought they were retiring the A380s but apparently not.

Last night I had dinner with Michael. He is the owner of Dejade in Mandarin Gallery. He was here for a brief visit and he suggested dinner.

I first met him years ago when I visited the famous Canton Street in HK looking for jade. I visited a shop owned by his parents and met him and his brother there.

Over the years I have met him and his family at various jewelry fairs in Singapore.

Some 2 years back, he decided to open a shop in Singapore to diversity from HK, which was experiencing a huge exodus of people then. I remember visiting his shop on the opening day. I bought a green Jade bangle that day to support him. I have been wearing this bangle ever since. I paid a very decent price for it and it is a purchase I have been very happy with since!

This morning I saw a report that stated that this year alone some 11,000 millionaires have or are expected to leave the UK.

This for a variety of reasons. The primary ones being higher taxes targeted at the wealthy, a general clouding of the economic prospects for the UK and a lack of incentives to generate wealth there.

I was surprised seeing these kind of numbers. These wealthy people are generally the ones who purchase higher end properties, thereby contributing to stamp duty revenue. They spend money and consume more and therefore contribute to the tax coffers, pay income tax and employ people in businesses they operate. If they leave, wouldn’t that have a huge impact on tax collection. By imposing a higher tax burden on the wealthy to collect more revenue it would have the exact opposite effect of driving them away and thereby leading to lower tax collection.

Countries everywhere are trying to attract the wealthy and here you have a country shooting itself in the foot by driving them away! I always regarded the UK as a wealthy nation. Beautiful stately homes, gardens and tops in art and culture. Who will support any of these if the wealthy abandon the country?

But the UK has been making a series of disastrous decisions recently, starting with Brexit, so perhaps it is not at all surprising.

Yesterday morning, a participant at this year’s NDP parade collapsed and died during the rehearsal.

He was 47. That is sad in of itself.

But what surprised me was how it was reported.

There was no mention of his name, no details about him or his family, no interviews with anyone around him to note whether he felt unwell before he collapsed or said anything, why he wanted to participate in NDP, his health condition or the weather conditions at that time.

Of course the rehearsal continued, notwithstanding his untimely and unfortunate death, and everyone must have enjoyed the show later that evening.

But is this what we are about? The individual is irrelevant in the context of the bigger picture, a must have grand parade to showcase our “talents” before our VIPs and audience? Downplay the death and instead focus on how everyone had done their best to revive him after he collapsed?

In today’s weather conditions is it fair to ask people, including children, to spend hours out in the sun for months to rehearse for a perfect parade lasting 90 minutes? Is a parade still important in today’s world? Fostering patriotism is good but are there better ways than this? With increasing temperatures and humidity are outdoor parades and rehearsals still healthy? Most people are there to see only the fireworks anyway. Would watching fireworks instil patriotism?

Sometime after Covid, five of us, who knew each other from our NWCDC days, started meeting once a month for lunch. The group comprised Dr Teo, Vincent Chong, Sim Chuan San, Michael Lau and myself. We set up a chat group under the name “lunch buddies”.

We have not met as a group for quite some time for a meal.

Recently Michael had to undergo surgery for his right eye. He suddenly saw floaters and had blurred vision with flashing lights. He saw an eye doctor who recommended immediate surgery. He has had a detached retina. It’s been about 2 months since the operation and his right eye has not recovered at all.

So I arranged dinner with him and the group to catch up with him and keep up his spirits. I arranged it at the Palermo Restaurant at Keppel marina, which is near his place.

He says he’s prepared for the fact that his right eye may never recover. That’s bad cos he can’t read or drive now. His sense of perception has been affected and he has constant headaches because of the impairment in one eye.

I have since arranged an eye check for myself! We never realise how important eye sight is till its gone.

San couldn’t make it for the dinner.

Yesterday’s lunch was with the Wong sisters, Virginia and Valerie.

We had our lunch at Pulsii bistro at Tras Street. The food was decent and the set lunch was well priced.

I have known the sisters for a very long time. I first met Virginia sometime in 1998, I think. Later I got to know her twin sister. I have also met their mother who is, at least to me, a very happy and cheerful person.

Two wonderful hardworking sisters, one in finance and the other in property, who have been very good friends over the years. Both are very kind and helpful but they can, at the same time, be firm and will not tolerate any nonsense. I have been to Japan and Phuket with them years ago. They have over the years also introduced me to their friends, though I have lost touch with most of them.

We make it a point to catch up regularly and it is always an enjoyable two hours mealtime with them, talking about everything and nothing!

Both believe in very colourful dressing!

I went to his wake last night.

I had the opportunity to speak to his wife for quite some time when I was there. That was meaningful for me because I found out how it happened so fast and suddenly.

Pat had given me his initial medical reports when he was first diagnosed. He had a high Gleason score of 5+4. That is a very aggressive form of prostate cancer. He responded well to the initial treatment and perhaps that lulled everyone into a sense of complacency because, as I found out yesterday, he was only being monitored every 6 months. My doctor friends in private practice say that with a Gleason score like this, they would have monitored him every month.

Unfortunately the cancer spread silently and because he wasn’t being monitored, it was only picked up after he felt unwell and tired, by which time it had spread all over. All treatments they tried at that stage were not having any effect. They then tried radiation and that made the cancer markers shoot skyhigh. Finally they gave him blood transfusion to boost his platelet levels and then did a half dose of chemotherapy. That sent him into hospital and eventually I think because of the low platelet count, he suffered a stroke and became unconscious.

A life, albeit short, has to be lived well and meaningfully. And Patrick did that. His wife told me they went on 10 holidays in the last 12 months and they were in fact supposed to be on holiday in France when did this happened.

I am glad he enjoyed his time with his wife and children in the last few months.

Rest in Peace.

Yesterday morning I went to view this development.

I saw this development in a property supplement on Friday and called them up to arrange a viewing.

It was a 50 minutes drive from KLCC. But the place was nice. Some places just impact you positively and this was one such place. Quiet, serene, good air, fairly cool and from everything on paper a no brainier. It is very low density development and if all works out well, should be a beautiful one.

I gave them my budget and they showed me a a few lots. I settled on lot 153. Each lot is an acre and you can build your own house on it.

The designs and pricing provided by the architects for the houses also looked good. Good facilities provided. The clincher was the durian deal!!

Anyway put in a deposit this morning. Fingers crossed!

I saw a review of this book in the Economist. It looked interesting and I decided to start reading this.

This is actually an autobiography about Xi Zhongxun, the father of the current Chinese Communist Party leader Xi Jing Pin, and the early days of the Chinese Communist Party, written by Joseph Torigian.

I am still in the very early stages in the book but just some initial thoughts. The father was himself a high ranking CCP member. He staunchly believed in communism and started his activities very early on. By 14, he was already in prison for an attempted murder. It struck me how family ties mean very little to them. His father died of a broken heart when his son was sent to prison at such a young age. Yet that seems to have made no impact on him.

Friendship also means nothing to these party members as they are constantly plotting against each other and ratting each one out to gain influence and position for themselves. In fact friendship is discouraged as the party was worried that when they were together as friends, they will speak bad things about the party.

China seems to have been in a state of total chaos in the 1930s and 1940s. Each different region was governed by warlords, bandits, the Nationalistic Party and the Communist Party and each group was killing off the other, including innocent people. No wonder the Japanese went into China so easily. China at that time appears to have been a lawless country with many people having no food most of the time.

As for the Communist Party, there was constant infighting amongst the members, each one trying to outdo the other in proving how pure they are in their thoughts. There are constant purges and the leaders were forcing members to spend a minimum of 2 hours a day studying thoughts and principles to purify their thoughts and minds. There was a constant fear of spies and traitors in their ranks although they were themselves constantly sending their members out to be spies for them. The senior party members were often accusing people of being spies or not being pure in their thoughts and were then forcing them to reflect, repent and confess. So many innocent people confessed to false facts to just get out of this exercise of reflection and repentance. The party leaders were the ones to decide if your confessions are sufficiently sincere for this torture of reflection and repentance to end.

So strange. I wonder how much things have changed since then?