Author: CMR.sg

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!

My first Indian meal of the year was at Erode Amman Mess, together with Harish, Kim Beng and Kelvin Poon.

I know Harish eats well but Kim Beng and Kelvin can give Harish a very good fight. We ordered 4 set meals together with a chicken, mutton and fish order. They tried and ate everything, including the yogurt, gulken, rasam and ghee. Much better than me. I didn’t have any of these extras. And they enjoyed the food very much. We rounded off the meal with a coconut payasam. Fitting end to the meal.

Pity that’s it’s not a place where one can chat after a meal. Also they don’t serve coffee or tea. I suspect they do that because they want you to eat and leave fast.

The lunch buddies met last night, courtesy of San, at this restaurant. This was arranged at very short notice as he said he would be away in Saudi for a month and wanted to eat Chinese food before he left.

I know I have been here a long time ago, although I cannot remember the food or the occasion then. This restaurant is in a teochew club and it serves traditional teochew food ie the color of the food was mostly brown and fried and with lots of organ parts. Not really my cup of tea but it was great to catch up with friends at the start of the year. Notwithstanding my own views, the restaurant was packed and not a single private room was available.

The food arrived very fast and we were done eating in about 45 minutes. Efficient and maybe that’s because they want to clear the table for another round.

Learnt more about Saudi and the business environment there from San. The other topics of conversation were about cars and watches, national day awards and getting Phds.

What a pleasant surprise yesterday afternoon! I was at the Tangs basement food court for lunch. I ordered my food and I noticed a familiar looking face at the next table. I thought it might be Tang Wee Loke but I wasn’t sure as I haven’t seen him in many years and I didn’t think that he would be having lunch there on a Sunday with his wife.

But it was indeed him. I first saw him in 1997 or 1998. He was running UOB Kay Hian and I was introduced to him and a broker, KG Loh. They were doing a placement for a client of mine, Advanced Systems Automation, and the boss Jimmy Chew called me that afternoon to go over to Allen and Gledhill’s office to vet the placement agreement. I still remember the commission fee of 3% for Kay Hian.

Thereafter KG Loh became a good friend and I have caught up with Wee Loke many times over the years.

Still a very nice start to the year to meet up with someone from a long time back and still be able to talk and reminisce. He looks good for his age. I told him that I only wished that I could be as fit and healthy as him when I am 79.

Yesterday afternoon the news everywhere was that that US had sent its forces into Venezuela, a independent sovereign country and abducted the President and his wife to stand trial in the US. This after a period of blockading their ports and confiscating their oil from tankers and bombing shipping vessels on the grounds that they were involved in smuggling drugs into the US.

By all accounts this is shocking. The ostensible reason given was that he was involved in drugs and arms dealing but that surely is lame. How can a country justify invading another country unless it is in self defence? How different is this from the Russian invasion of Ukraine, which the US then condemned? What moral ground does the US now have to make any comments about what other countries do when this is the standard they have set for themselves?

This must be in recent memory one of the most egregious things the US has done. This is far more egregious than their interventions in Vietnam, Afghanistan and Iraq, none of which ended well for the US.

It has been condemned by many countries so far, and rightly so. Singapore has not said anything yet but will surely have to take a stand soon. One cannot have big powerful countries using their military might on flimsy excuses to use military force on another smaller country.

And the US says it will run the country in the interim. Even more shocking. Was it for the oil or some other self interest? What justification can one have to send your forces into another country and then run it?

Another new low for the US. I wonder where this country’s standing and reputation will end up after this.

The working year started off with an early morning launch event at Punggol 21 CC. Once again it was the launch of the latest tranche of CDC vouchers.

Surprisingly it was a pleasant drive to Punggol CC. No traffic on the roads and a highway that brought me straight there and with ample parking to boot.

They launched these vouchers during Covid with the best of intentions. One to help Singaporean households with some form of financial assistance. Two to help the heartland stores where these vouchers are spent by boosting their sales. Three to speed up digitalization as the vouchers are now in a digital format. But now that Covid is over, I sometimes wonder if this is still needed. I suppose people are now used to the vouchers and look forward to it. So it is difficult taking away something that people now expect. I know my mother does. Also it is still a way to boost sales at heartland stores, otherwise they may collapse. Especially with the Singapore JB link looming ever closer.

A short event lasting under an hour, but it was a good opportunity to meet friends and the GOH and Mayors to wish them a happy new year. And just as well it ended early as I had a lunch at 12pm at Great World City.

My first community event of the year.