Category: Uncategorized

Last Saturday as I was having dinner, a good friend texted me to inform me that his mother had just passed away. He was on a holiday and once he was informed, he rushed back to attend to the funeral arrangements. His mother was still young, in her early 60s and had just recently been diagnosed with cancer. Unfortunately it was detected late and it had spread all over.

In that state, the chemotherapy or radiation weakens the physical body and the immune system and any infection becomes life threatening. So I always found it strange when my oncologist friend says people don’t die from cancer but from infection. But didn’t the cancer result in the infection becoming the cause of death?

Earlier this year, my friend and former partner at the law firm died at the age of 61. He was diagnosed with an aggressive form of prostate cancer in December 2023. He initially responded to treatment but then the cancer spread and the infection killed him. Again he had never been for any medical tests. It was only when he started having back pain that he went to see a doctor. By which time it had started to spread.

Many years back, another good friend, also at the age of 60 died. He was at a dinner I was at, with his wife, and the oncologist at the table was talking about cancer and some of the symptoms of colon cancer. He quietly realized that he was experiencing similar symptoms. He went for a colonoscopy the next day and was diagnosed with stage 4 cancer. He died within the year.

I am told cancer will eventually affect one in three people. Currently I think it is one in 10. And most forms of cancer, if discovered early, are treatable and non life threatening. But many people don’t want to go for testing because either they don’t know such tests exist or think it’s a waste of money. Some don’t want to know or they think the tests are not accurate. But if it is a matter of cost, should the state subside the tests? Would it be a better long term investment to identify and treat cancer early? Should people be educated on the existence of such tests or educate them on symptoms to look out for?

Ultimately it will be up to each person to do what they think is best for them but the eventual consequences fall on the family members and caregivers when things go wrong. They end up worrying and bearing the physical and financial burden of looking after a patient when a cancer is diagnosed late.

Last night I was at a farewell dinner for the outgoing Indonesian Ambassador Pak Tommy, hosted by my good friend Prasoon.

It was a cosy gathering of friends and several other ambassadors to say goodbye to a good friend at ShangriLa. There was the Mexican, Canadian, Cuban, Denmark, Finland, Indian, Kazakhstan and Norwegian ambassadors present at the dinner.

Over a sumptuous meal, we talked about Indonesia and its prospects and how its political situation is so different from that in Malaysia, the rise of islamist politics in Malaysia, the situation in Bangladesh and what may be the election outcome there next year and of course China and the US.

As I sitting across the Kazakhstan ambassador, I had the opportunity to learn much about this country as well. I didn’t know that more than a million Germans, who were living on Russia at the start of the German attack on Russia during WW2, were thrown out of the country and they eventually settled in Kazakhstan.

Pak Tommy has also written a book, entitled Call me Tommy, and he presented me with an autographed copy. That was very kind of him and he said some very nice things in his farewell speech.

I wish him well and a happy retirement. He is still young and I am sure he has many more years of doing good.

I wanted to show how this massive Christmas tree looks by day and night. Strange that the Christmas celebrations in Malaysia, especially in all the malls, seem more extensive and elaborate than in Singapore. KL is certainly vibrant and buzzing. Bukit Bintang is choc a block with people.

Tonight I watched the ballet performance of Nutcracker by the National Classical Ballet of Moscow with a live performance by the Malaysian Philharmonic Orchestra. A performance appropriate for the Christmas period.

I was wondering how they were going to have the ballet with the live orchestra as the MPO stage would be taken up by the dancers. Then I realized that the first few rows of seats can be dismantled to accommodate the orchestra.

Well I am not a great ballet fan but I did enjoy the music, which I am familiar with. Can’t say the ballet performance was staggering but that’s the nature of Nutcracker. Rather simple and parts of it repetitive. Unlike Swan Lake. I read that even at its premiere, the audience review for that performance was mixed. It is not a serious ballet since it involves children and Christmas.

Today I tried this brand new Korean restaurant which has just opened at TRX.

This restaurant is already in operation in Singapore at the Mandarin Gallery and is doing well and I glad that that they have now opened in KL.

I arrived at 1045am, 15 minutes before it opened. Already it was more than half filled. And to their credit they had started seating people by then and taking orders. By 11am it was full. I am told it has been packed every single day since they opened.

The menu is the same as that in Singapore and the food was good. My spicy herbal chicken soup cost me less than $20.

As I was coming to Bangsar today, I decided to explore what food options were nearby, other than the nasi lemak place I tried the other day.

This restaurant caught my eye as it had very high ratings. It is a chain but their Bangsar outlet just opened recently.

I decided to walk over and try their chicken soup in a coconut. It costs RM 13. I liked the soup. They have other soups as well but this had the most positive comments online.

At about noon the restaurant wasn’t as packed as I thought it might be. Perhaps it is still early and a weekday.

I also rather apprehensively tried their traditional red bean soup. At most places it is either too sweet or watery or both . To my pleasant surprise this was neither. I enjoyed this one.

And very good service as well. Next time I shall try their chicken rice and porridge.

This morning I was at Bangsar. Whilst I was there, I told the shop owner that I was happy to come to Bangsar as there are many food outlets I can choose from for lunch. He then remarked that there was a famous nasi lemak shop that has just opened nearby.

So I walked over there after my appointment. After a 15 minutes wait, I got my table.

Strange name for a restaurant but since this place is open 24 hours, one can understand why it is called night owl. It is part of a chain. I think they have at least 8 outlets now. Apart from nasi lemak, they also have many other dishes such as roti canai, chapati and various mee dishes. The nasi used is basmati rice and it was good. Cost Rm 11. I will recommend this place anytime. Am told it is packed in the evenings and night.

KLCC is just so pretty in the night. Their central park with colourful dancing fountains surrounded by buildings all lit up make for a very pretty sight.

No wonder every visitor to KL wants to come down to KLCC. Good foresight all those years ago to create this place out of nothing. I am told it was just all plantation land with little value. Out of that, to build the then world’s tallest building, a park and a world class shopping center with a beautiful concert hall all at the same time in the 1990s was clearly visionary.

This morning I met up with Clement Wong, an architect. He seems to be the one person most involved in the planning for Anyara Hills, although there are 5 other architects on their panel.

I had a good meeting with him. I gave him my thoughts on what I would want to have in the house and left it to him to propose something. I was rather open ended in my wish list. Perhaps I am hoping to be pleasantly surprised by the outcome.

We visited the actual site to look at what the orientation of the house should be. Lots of potential but still a work in progress and I think it will be some months before the final design is worked out.

Anyway I am in no hurry. I need the bypass road to be constructed and the club house and its facilities to be built, which I suspect will be another 2 years. Also I don’t want to one of the first to finish construction and end up staying in a construction site with other houses starting to build.

After that meeting, I then took 2 shots from outside the show house to capture the current views. I must say that I was impressed by my own pictures of the views. Whoever is going to own the show house will have amazing views all the time.

Later the staff there took me to lunch nearby at Restaurant 52, an apparently famous family Chinese restaurant which is always packed. A very local place. Food was decent.

I arrived in Kl yesterday. Since it is the school holidays now, I decided to fly here.

Not sure why but I was on the 705am flight. So a very early morning pick up and had to wake up at 430am. But a good flight as it left and arrived on time and I managed to try the new lounge at Terminal 2 along the way.

From the KL airport, the traffic was surprisingly smooth and I was not caught up in any traffic jams. I arrived at four seasons by 940 am.

An otherwise uneventful day. I was told it was raining heavily the day before and there were traffic jams everywhere. So lucky choice of the date.