Lunch today was at the Curate. The place was well decorated and the selection of food was good. They are fully booked for lunch and dinner till Sunday.
Good to see a mix of people of all races dining here. Surprisingly lo hei is not a big thing here or at least not with the Chinese tourists. Didn’t see any table doing this. Maybe it’s a Singaporean thing and a very clever way for restaurants to make money at CNY by pushing yu sheng!
Tonight’s reunion dinner of sorts was at the Nobu.
Not much of a crowd and it was typical Nobu food. Service was good. Apparently they have no japanese chef currently as their chef went to Bangkok to start up the Nobu there.
Of course if this was Singapore, all the restaurants would be packed for reunion night with poor service and high prices!
https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1AAeomYAaE/
A very nice post put out by the CDC. Just saw this. Well it’s been 17 years now… looking forward to our next Club 100 dinner on 13 February.
Somehow the festive atmosphere in Kl just seems so much better. There is a lot more vibrancy, colours and more people walking around, buying things and generally enjoying themselves.
I see a lot more tourists in kl nowadays and even though it’s nearly CNY, I see a lot of Chinese tourists who are obviously going to spend their holidays here. Restaurants are also packed and the shopping centres are looking very colorful and festive!!
Also came across a drink in a supermarket I only last saw when I was in primary school. Used to enjoy it then! Then it was only the orange flavored one. Don’t recall a pink! Wonder what happened to Kickapoo, sarsi and ice cream soda which were my other favorite drinks!
PS
Was walking in KLCC on the first day of CNY. Every single shop and restaurant was open, even the Chinese restaurants. Completely different from what happens in Singapore.
Was watching YouTube yesterday and came across a CNBC news article about a new Chinese AI called Deepseek. It was launched only this month and it was apparently developed in a few months under a budget of $20m. On some of the benchmark tests it performed better than the current US ones such as OpenAI, Gemini and Perplexity and it’s open sourced. It was also built entirely on the reinforcement learning model ie without any human involved in the training process.
The various people interviewed in the article expressed shock at this development because the thinking had been that the Chinese were about 2 years behind in the game in AI, having had a late start in AI and without having the benefit of the latest hardware due to the US ban.
So I downloaded Deepseek yesterday and explored it by asking it very general questions.
I first asked how it functioned. I then asked it what was the concept of karma, the lessons behind Hindu epic Mahabharata and what was so good about morning. I also asked if Remains of the Day was a sad story.
The wonderful thing about Deepseek is that it sets out its thought process in great detail and that is so fascinating to read and mind boggling! In fact reading the thinking process is more fun than its final answer.
Now I must see how I can use this more effectively in other areas rather than just ask general questions to test it.
PS
As I write this today on 28th Jan, US stocks took a beating after understanding the implications of what Deepseek has achieved. Nvidia down a lot.
I have been drinking Chinese tea for a very long time. I can’t remember who or what got me started but I do recall I drank long jing tea for at least about 20 years. Long jing is Chinese green tea freshly plucked and lightly roasted. I used to drink ming jian long jing which is the first pluck of the spring season. Every May I would purchase the fresh tea that had just been plucked that year and would buy sufficient tea to last the whole year. Used to drink tea in my office and it was my morning ritual making tea for many years. I remember being told it had a high level of antioxidants.
It was only much later I learnt that Chinese green tea was not good for the stomach if drunk regularly for too long and was cooling for the body. That explained why I was always cold.
I have now started drinking puer both raw and roasted. I drink tea because I enjoy making it and slowly sipping it. I also enjoy buying tea and tea pots and I think I have too much of both.
A friend invited me to drink some very expensive raw puer today. It had been kept for 22 years and leaves are from an ancient tree. I think I could feel the difference in the quality, although not sure if it is subconscious since I was told it’s a rare and expensive tea. Let’s see if I can sleep tonight since I drank it at about 4pm!!
Last night was our annual NWCDC workplan presentation and CNY lo hei at the One Farrer Hotel.
This has been a highlight event for the CDC for years as it brings together all the councillors, resource persons and advisers for an annual gathering.
Of course it was not just about eating and merriment. We had to listen to and approve the work plans of all the standing committees and the overall financial budget.
Great to meet friends and share New Year greetings!!
Had 2 separate coffee sessions with 2 colleagues who wanted to talk about how to advance in their careers and in the firm. Not sure why both happened on the same day.
I know one colleague from the time he joined us as a pupil some 14 years ago. The other colleague joined us some 4 years ago.
Sought to give both of them the best advice I could muster. Talking to them made me realize how different and difficult the world now is compared to when I started working.
When I joined the firm, I remember my boss telling me that all I needed to do was to work hard and put in my best effort. I was told not to worry about finding work because we were flooded with work.
Now the firm is so much bigger and it has become important to market oneself both within the firm and outside the firm to find work for yourself and for your younger colleagues. There is so much competition out there and it’s harder to find good quality and good paying work. Specialisation, which I never had to do, is now critical. Billing targets are also high because costs have shot up so much.
Hope my pointers were useful. ..
Later had lunch with a former colleague who is now an in house counsel. Talked about the difficulties faced by career mothers and school choices. She needs her 2 boys to speak English and French!!
Had lunch with a colleague and a doctor friend at our current favorite indian restaurant.
Adjourned thereafter to have ice cream. Had a long and serious discussion about the quality of our health care and prices of health care services in Singapore, the state of our property prices and other sensitive topics. Surprised that there was so much commonality in our views.
Just when we were finishing our ice cream at Three’s a Crowd (yummy coconut ice cream) another colleague Haq walked in to have ice cream as well!!
Today a few of us gathered to celebrate the birthday of Dr Teo Ho Pin at Chamoon Hot Pot restaurant at Scotts Square.
As a group we have been meeting regularly for the past few years since the end of covid to celebrate each other’s birthdays.
We got to know each other through the North West Community Development Council. Allen Ang and I were councillors there and Crystal Teng and Mei Ling were both General Managers when Dr Teo was the Mayor there. All in all, we have now known each other for about 22 years!
Always a lovely occasion to catch up and share stories.
daily musings 