This morning was breakfast with a group of good friends I have known since 1979. We met in ACJC and we were a part of a cell group. We were very close then. However after JC we didn’t meet much. Lina Wong left for the US to study there and eventually married there and still lives there. Glacy and Yin Yoke and I were also busy with other things.
Pictures from this morning
We now make it a point to meet at least once a year when Lina comes here to visit her mum, usually during CNY
Amazing that we have been friends for about 46 years!!
Breakfast was at Sonders. The food was good and we had the whole place to ourselves.
This picture was from last year’s visit All 4 of us are in this picture taken in end 1979 at Sentosa
I had a lunch scheduled today and so at 8am I messaged him to confirm the venue. He then informs me that he is feeling unwell and can we reschedule to next week.
I had another lunch scheduled for tomorrow and I found out from his colleagues that he was having stomach flu. I had to message him and he confirmed that he was sick and whether we could reschedule.
Wonder why people aren’t more proactive when they are not feeling well in rescheduling their meal appointments. These were fixed some time ago and I had to turn down other appointments because these had already been scheduled.
Guess sometimes common courtesy and decency cannot always be taken for granted…
I was driving slowly across Serangoon Road at about 630 am this morning and I saw some devotees carrying kavadis walking on the road surrounded by a crowd of people. Today is Thaipusam.
It’s on for a full day and the devotees walk from Perumal temple in Serangoon Road to Murugan temple in Tank Road. It’s actually a very long walk. Some walk carrying pots and others carry kavadis with their bodies and tongues pierced. On top of this, some pull a chariot. It’s quite an amazing sight for an onlooker.
When I was young and staying in Queenstown, my parents would bring me to watch the kavadis and we would walk along the streets and in particular visit a Sivan temple on Orchard road. This temple no longer exists and on it now stands the Dhoby Ghaut MRT station.
It’s always a festive occasion and good weather is important for both the devotees who walk the distance, their families walking with them and the onlookers.
I had a friend who messaged me earlier this morning sending Thaipusam greetings. He was helping out distributing food from 10pm yesterday to 2 am this morning and was going back this evening to walk the entire route again.
So wonderful to have volunteers like him helping to make the event a success!
A colleague and very good friend just informed me this morning as I was having coffee at Joe and Dough that she is expecting identical twins in August!
She already has a daughter now aged two and soon it will become a trio. Good for them. I also know the husband and he’s overjoyed though he is currently skiing in Japan!
We have had many talks in the past about education for her daughter and if Singapore school system is the best. Now she will have to contend with providing education for 3. And the challenge also will be to manage her growing family and the demands of a challenging practice.
Today was the consecration ceremony for the Sri Siva Krishna temple at Marsiling.
I had made a small donation to them to help them complete the construction of the adjoining hall some 2 years back. Pleasantly surprised to receive an invite last week to attend their ceremony today morning.
I had to park by 715 am and walked barefooted for about 200 m to the temple. Although the ceremony was only scheduled at 9am I decided to come early as I was worried about finding car parking.
About 10,000 people were present and since the temple is in Marsiling GRC, the PM came as the guest.
They had so many volunteers helping out and they were on hand to hand out water to anyone who needed a drink. Well organized!
Lots of cars entering the car park and people waiting to enter the Hall but the crowd was well managed. I managed to park my car fairly quickly and although there was a long queue waiting to enter the hall, the line moved quickly.
Tonight was also the night I had tickets for Sunset Boulevard starring Sarah Brightman at MBS. I had bought those tickets some time ago but I had to give that up cos I really wanted to come for this.
A 4 hour concert. He sang a few songs himself but what was amazing was that he stood on the stage for the full 4 hours. At the age of 82! Sometimes I wonder what I would be doing if I get to the age. Some people do have remarkable lives
I felt that the sound at Star Theater for the 2018 concert was better. The instrumentation then was also better. I think they were better rehearsed then. Also the songs then were more familiar to me. Also the last concert featured some very established singers like Mano and Chitra. This time the quality of the singers was rather average.
Still, apart from the songs I was not familiar with, the other songs were the ones I know and like and they brought back good memories. Good that “machanai parthingala” from Annakili, the song that made him famous from his first movie was performed.
Strangely we are seeing more illnesses everywhere nowadays. More respiratory illness, heart related ailments and cancer.
Recently a well known actress died in Japan whilst on holiday due to respiratory illness. Only in her 40s. I hear many cases of people dying of heart attack or suffering a stroke or getting cancer. Did it have anything to do with catching Covid or the vaccines we took? Guess we will never know.
Yesterday I discovered that 2 people I know have cancer.
One is a Indonesian client and friend since 2003. She is doing a scope today and awaiting results though my doctor friend thinks it’s highly likely that it’s cancer. We will see.
Another friend was a fellow board member. He used to be an active golfer. He went for surgery for his spine as suggested by his doctor at NUH. He didn’t really need it but he thought it would improve his golf playing. Now he thinks it was a botched operation. He was suffering quite a bit thereafter. He was on morphine for about 9 months and he is still in pain. Yesterday he told me he now has stage 4/5 prostate cancer.
Sigh. Has something happened since 2020 I wonder….
Tonight was the meet and greet for Illayaraja. The event was organized at the One Farrer Hotel. His concert is tomorrow at the Singapore Expo.
The last time he came here was in 2018 for his concert at the Star Theater. Then I was also present at his meet and greet. That time I also fortunate be to able to catch his rehearsal.
I first listened to his song from the movie Annakili in 1976 which was also his first composition. The songs that he composed for that movie made such a huge impact then on the Tamil movie industry and he followed up with so many incredible songs. His heyday was from 1976 to the early 1990s. Although he still composes, the quality and effect of the songs is not the same anymore. But of course he has a huge body of work which comprises many amazing songs. His concerts usually features the songs from that era which are ever popular.
Actually the last time he was here, I also managed to have dinner with him thanks to a friend who knows him well.
These are the pictures from the 2018 concert and meet and greet. Will post the new ones for today’s event soon.
Now for the pictures from this year’s meet and greet!
Last night Eurokars Auto hosted a BMW CNY dinner at their new premises. This was the first time they were doing a sit down dinner here and it was a huge success.
The event kicked off with a lion dance to usher in the New Year followed by a sit down dinner. The menu was well planned. Every single dish was good and the catering was by Peach Garden.
In addition, they had a calligraphy artist who was on hand to write out auspicious phrases for the guests.
To me, a pleasant highlight was the feng shui talk by Master Ken Koh. Well presented, no hard sell and captivating. He clearly was a master in this area.
I was fortunate enough to be seated next to the lovely Charmaine Kwee who also happens to be the Group executive director of the Eurokars Auto Group.
Today was CNY lunch with a friend, a client and a fellow CDC councillor.
The venue was Empire Hot Pot, my suggestion. We decided to skip the usual CNY set menus and lo hei and ordered a la carte. The food was good. I was rather surprised considering the packed restaurant and the mediocre quality usually to be expected around this time. I did the ordering and the quantity of food was just right.
Most of the conversation was with his wife who is very health conscious and has a great interest in living healthier and longer. She plays golf, does stretching, pilates, intermittent fasting and sleeps early and wakes up early. This together with all the right supplements recommended by Dr David Sinclair!!
Both of them are Club 100 members and will see the at our annual dinner next week.
daily musings 