Category: General

Yesterday evening I went up to the Razer offices for a meeting.

I have only been there once before, when they had just finished their construction works and they were about to move in. I remember discussing with Min then as to whether I wanted to rent premises there.

Now the place is fully operational and it is buzzing. So many people working there, mostly young and in black t shirts. And the whole place looks nice in their traditional black and green decor.

The meeting was with Min, Wei Pin, Bryan and U Zyn regarding a Project Ace. It was an interesting idea and concept but I had so many questions which I felt were not quite thought through. I think the whole idea is still in it’s very initial stages and it needs to be looked at carefully from all angles especially from the risk and the investor perspectives.

Just glad to have been there to offer my preliminary thoughts and to catch up with friends!

I was walking in KLCC yesterday and this Chinese lady came up to me and said hello. She looked very familiar and at first I couldn’t place her. Later I realised that I had met her at Scotts Square in Singapore and she was in the jewelry business. Her name is Liya and she worked for an auction house in China for many years before she came out to do freelance work.

She was with 2 other people and she suggested coffee nearby to chat. She introduced the young man with her at Fan Wen tian.

He is just 25 and is an artist. They showed me his portfolio of works, which was really impressive. He must be doing this full time and must have been doing this for sometime. They were in KL to decide whether they wanted to open a gallery/workshop either here or in Singapore.

I spoke with him and then found out that his father is a famous calligraphy artist in China, Fan Guo Qiang. He is national level artist and is a full professor at the 2nd highest rank.

Wen tian is a pianist and a singer as well. He has appeared in Sing China and he plays the piano very well although he had never learnt music. He listens to a piece and plays it. He gave me a demonstration of his playing on the piano at KLCC and when he played so many people stopped by to take pictures and record his playing.

He invited me to Qingdao, where he resides, to visit his gallery a d meet his father and see his father’s works. This is an invitation that I will accept.

Yesterday was Thaipusam and I was in KL. So I found out that Thaipusam is a public holiday in many states in Malaysia. And from the news reports they were expecting about 2 million devotees and tourists at Batu Caves in KL alone. And there are also big celebrations in Johor, Penang and East Malaysia.

Today’s newspapers had extensive coverage of the celebrations throughout Malaysia. To me it is always surprising that Malaysia in many respects is more multi racial and multcultural than Singapore. They have declared that day as a public holiday, something Singapore has not done.

I finally managed to convince U Zyn to come and take a look at Anyara today.

He was already driving up to Malacca and he kindly agreed to come up to KL to meet me and then drive up to Semenyih.

So this morning, I came up to KL by flight and he joined me for breakfast at Kenny Hills at KLCC. After he had a hearty one, he drove me to Anyara.

I am glad he was impressed by what he saw. I felt it was some form of affirmation or confirmation of how I felt when I first saw this place and my own decision to purchase here. Even today when I was here, I still feel that this will become a great place to live once people complete building their houses. It is just so peaceful, clean and beautiful.

I was invited to their anniversary dinner last night at the Shangri La. And as a company they have done well. Started off as a very small construction outfit in 1966 to now a group with 3 listed companies under their belt. They have been enterprising in being able to partner with major international players to tender for big construction projects.

I have known Francis Koh, their CEO, for a very long time. Have done so much work for him and worked with him and his team on so many matters. A very energetic and enterprising man.

Happy to have been invited to be apart of their celebrations. The only only one comment I had was that the dinner started so late. They had so many preliminaries such as a lion dance performance, 2 speeches, a logo launch and birthday cake cutting that by the time the first dish came out, it was already 815am.

I had to leave early as I had some very pleasant task that I wanted to attend to that evening.

Last night was the annual NWCDC workplan and budget presentations and lo hei.

This time they did it at Novotel at Stevens. Good central location, expensive car park and the catered food wasn’t great.

Still it very good catching up with the Mayor and other grassroots advisors and councillors.

The presentations were good and there are many new programmes planned that will be more targeted and effective in reaching out to our residents. Quite a bit of time was spent talking about Jobs Nearby, the latest CDC initiative. It is a good programme and the government is pouring lots of money and effort into this. With the finances in place, now to plan with the team and make it work well for the residents.

Last night was my first lo hei for this year. And it was on the occasion of the NWCDC Mayor’s Network session.

This time it was held at the Houne at Clark Quay and was very well attended. I saw many new and young faces with many more women represented at the grassroots level.

This event is an opportunity for the CDC to inform the grassroot leaders on what has happened last year as a form of a report card and what to expect this current year. I have to say that there is so much funding available to the grassroots to plan meaningful activities for their residents.

And there is also so much money going to support the less well off, especially those living in the rental flats by way of rations, vouchers and precooked meals. I sometimes worry that this pool will only continue to grow bigger with an ageing population and that those in this pool continue to remain dependent on such help continuing ad infinitum. There has to be a way found to break this vicious cycle of poverty and poor education.

Am now en route to Singapore. I left KLCC at 830am. I will arrive at Changi airport at about 1230pm. Home probably at about 1pm. Clearly driving is faster.

Anyway interestingly, on my way to the airport, the grab driver told me he stays in Semenyih. Without traffic he says it will take about 45 to 50 minutes to KLCC but with traffic, it can get bad. That’s because of the single lane roads there and unmanned traffic junctions. And he was very excited when he heard about the new bypass road. He wanted to know how soon it will be up and running.

But he also said that that area is a peaceful and quiet area with many malay kampongs around. I do wonder how life for people in that whole area will change after this.

This afternoon was the launch event for this new 4.3 km by pass road that will connect Semenyih, where Anyara is, to the main highways. With this connection, the travel time from Anyara to KLCC will be about 25 minutes.

This is expected to substantially increase the value of the land prices in Semenyih, much of which are malay kampongs.

The launch event, which was originally scheduled for 22 January, was well attended and KHK had clearly put in a lot of effort in preparing for this event, especially the setting up of the huge tentage for hosting the event.

The Malaysian PM, Selangor CM, Hannah Yeo, another minister in the PMO, the Chief Cabinet Secretary and several other dignatories were present.

The program started off with a malay dance performed by young children. This was then followed by a short speech by a KHK representative and then there was the PM’s speech.

With the official segment of the event over, tea then commenced in the nearby tentage. I managed to get near the PM but couldn’t get close enough to take a picture with him or get him to autograph his book.

But still I managed to meet several owners who have purchased land in Anyara. They seem very nice and I think Anyara will turn out to be a nice community.

I was just walking around KLCC at about 130pm when I realized that I was hungry and needed to eat. Surprisingly the restaurants there were all quite busy during lunch time and so I decided that I shall have the set lunch at Nobu nearby.

The service at Nobu is always good. The section where I was seated was cold and they kindly switched off the air-conditioning for that area.

They have different set lunches but I picked the one costing RM 190. The starter was the yellowtail jalapeno, main course was sashimi and sushi with a miso soup. Fresh and nice! The dessert was really good.