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Today I completed my 1000th Wordle. This game was developed by a Welsh web developer and bought over by NYT in Jan 2022.

I was introduced to this by a good friend sometime during Covid. We were having lunch and she was playing Wordle. So I learnt the details of this game from her that day.

Initialy I wasn’t too excited about this game and I wasn’t consistent in doing the puzzle daily. Later it grew on me and it became something I would do first thing every morning.

Trying to guess the five letter word with 6 guesses can be challenging especially with some really difficult words like OZONE or MOTTO. Double letters and words having letters using Z,X,Q can make guessing the word challenging. I have a 98% success and am hoping to play till I hit a 99% rate.

Actually I sometimes wonder because there must be a limit to the number of 5 letter words there are. I know it’s not infinite. What will happen when they run out of 5 letter words? Will they recycle the words?

Today is Wordle no. 1491. I have done 1000 so it had been on for about slightly more than a year before I got on board. I will see where this ends…

Last night Liverpool won the Premier League Championship by beating Tottenham 5-1 at Anfield. Finally. It was the new Manager’s debut season and they won it. Good for them.

I have supported this team since forever. I remember even when I was in Primary school, supporting them. I was crazy about football then and would play it at every opportunity, whether at the badminton court at our flat in Margaret Close or at the semi grassy field at my grandparents” kampong in Sembawang.

Of course then there were no live matches on tv and you only saw prerecorded games on tv on the weekends or read the scores in the newspapers. The other source of football information was the UK football magazines. There were 2 in particular, Shoot and Goal. Shoot had more pictures.

Also I cannot recall why I picked Liverpool to support. Well I did and I have over the years.

I must confess I am not a fervent supporter like some others I know. I don’t get depressed or upset when they lose games and I don’t get euphoric when they win either.

I have been to Anfield once in 2016 but have not seen any games there.

Anyway they won this year. Good!

Yesterday I did a demo of this product. Its been out for a year but this was the first time I handled this product and tried it out.

It was a 30 minutes demo. I have to say I was impressed with what I saw. It can be used for work, gaming and watching videos and viewing photos in 3D format.

The immersive experience is good. All the movies, videos, NBA and football games in this format which I saw were mind boggling. The games in 3D are also impressive.

The current downside is the weight of the product. Because of its weight, it is currently recommended that you use it for about 30 minutes at a time. Probably the battery life has something to do with this recommendation as well. That therefore makes it impractical to watch a movie or play games which will need a longer run time. Also if you are using it for work purposes, 30 minutes is too short.

It is also expensive. It costs $5300 now. That would be beyond the reach of most people.

Also I think there is limited available content out there. Cannot imagine there being so much 3d and immersive videos and movies to justify buying one. There needs to be more widespread use of the product before developers create more content, videos and games.

All in all, the product is a good starting point. Potential is certainly there!

Today I was invited to a fund raising carpet auction for the Esplanade to fund their philanthropic efforts to reach out to the community. The carpets were from Lotto carpets and I was told they had done another charity auction for the Esplanade in 2015.

From the sale of proceeds of the auction, 50% will be given to the Esplanade.

There were altogether 38 pieces for sale. All handwoven in either silk or wool from different places. From Iran, Kashmir, Turkey and Central Asia. Beautiful pieces of different vintages and some signed.

Pity there was no crowd. Only 5 people turned up. I was told 30 people had signed up but didn’t turn up in the end. I felt sorry for the auctioneer. They had brought down all these carpets and had their staff there for so few people. I did feel the Esplanade could have organized this much better.

Anyway I bought a signed Ispahan and I am considering some Herekes from Turkey!

One of my happier achievements in recent times was the setting up of this Chamber.

Sometime during Covid in 2021, a good friend introduced me to the Mexican Ambassador to Singapore, Agustin. The ambassador was promoting trade between Singapore and Mexico and wanted to set up a business body to facilitate this. They had tried doing something for some time without success and now they wanted my help.

I came up with the idea of a chamber and managed to set this up for them in 3 months. We had a very successful launch of the Chamber at the Gardens by the Bay with MOS Alvin Tan officiating. I became the Advisor to the Chamber.

The chamber is now about 3 years and is firmly established with 160 members,which is quite incredible for such a young business chamber set up with a specific country focus.

During the last 4 years of the Biden administration, Mexico has attracted large investments, mostly Chinese. They have set up manufacturing facilities there to avoid existing and potential tariffs by the US. Another reason was to take advantage of the USMCA.

Of course the US has noticed this and there is quite a bit of pushback from them to crack down on this. Mexico is careful now and monitoring this to ensure that the rules of origin requirements are strictly adhered to. They are also careful in not attracting new investments from China at the present time.

Anyway there is a lot of interest in Mexico currently and how the tariffs will play out. Also Singapore is finally opening an embassy there this year, confirming the increasing importance of Mexico to Singapore.

So yesterday we had a breakfast meeting with Gerson (the CEO) and Luis (the President) from the Chamber to discuss what we can do at this time. We have decided to organize a business seminar towards the end of May and a trade mission to Mexico in December to coincide with the opening of the embassy there. We are also planning some activities to take advantage of the World Cup there next year!

Trump has used the term Liberation Day before. In an early spring day in the 1990s, Trump telephoned a consultant to his company and declared to her that it was liberation day that day.

According to the consultant, Maggie Haberman, liberation day to Trump was the first warm spring day when women stopped wearing coats and liberated their upper bodies!

It is amazing how a man who thinks and behaves this way has come to occupy the position he does today.

What does it say about the country and the voters who elected him twice, and the second time with an increased majority? What does it also say about the people who surround him and do his bidding everyday and parrot his message?

It makes you wonder what it now takes to become the leader of any country. Is competency even necessary? Does integrity or the lack of it make any difference anymore? Is a sense of duty and service even important? What is the value of a good education?

Makes me wonder what moves the needle for people nowadays. Do they just want someone who can entertain and make empty promises? Would just plain bald bravado with no substance get you all the way?

Certainly in the US it appears that way.

Today is nomination day for the 2025 General Election.

When I was younger, I remember the PAP would form the government on nomination day itself as the opposition parties did not have enough candidates to fight in every constituency. In face during that era, there were some PAP MPs who have never had a contested election. This started to change after the 1990s when the opposition started winning some seats in Parliament.

Now every seat is contested and some constituencies even see a 3 cornered fight.

The strongest opposition party currently is the WP and they have said that they will be fielding some 36 candidates. Everyone has been talking about the caliber of the new candidates they have introduced this time around. We shall see how well they do…

The first time I attended an election rally was in 1984. I remember getting permission to skip a lecture to attend a lunch time rally at Fullerton Square. The first time I was involved on nomination day itself was in 1997, when I helped out Lim Swee Say at Buona Vista. That was quite an experience to make sure that everything was done correctly!

The last election, I was watching the announcement of the election results with friends. This was after a Japanese dinner followed by durians. That was the year the voting was extended by 2 hours because of some software issues. There were huge queues in some places because of that. So the results came out really late that year. Hopefully this year is smoother..

I drove back from KL this morning. I left KLCC at about 1040am. Left with a 100% charge. Arrived back home at 240pm with 18% battery left. Very smooth traffic coming back and no jam at the Tuas checkpoint on both directions. So it looks like if you time yourself correctly, you can do a 4hr journey in either direction. So if you avoid the weekends and public holidays, it is quite safe driving an EV to KL.

It was just announced that Pope Francis, aged 88 died on Easter Monday.

This is sudden because the news recently was that he was recovering and he was seen in public on Easter Sunday in the Vatican giving blessings.

I am so grateful that I got to see him in September last year when he visited Singapore. He looked strong then and he undertook a fairly punishing schedule when he was here. I suspect now that he has passed on, Singapore may well have been the last country he visited.

Rest in Peace .

Today I read that Trump has prepared a draft executive order that drastically cuts down the size of the State Department. It proposes to cut down the many programs and initiatives it currently runs in many places and even the number of embassies around the world. It clearly looks like the US engagement with the world will be greatly reduced. With the reduction in engagement, its influence in the world and our region will certainly diminish.

For some time now, I could already sense many Singaporeans becoming anti US because of its position on China. This will when the US was targeting China and restricting high tech and chip exports to China. That was during a period when the US was actively engaging the world. Now with the negative reactions worldwide to the tariffs and to the punitive tariffs proposed against China and to the proposed diminished US engagement worldwide it cannot imagine what is going to happen.

I remember meeting the former US Ambassador Jonathan Kaplan and telling him on many occasions that the US should engage more with our young people to at least to explain to them their position on several issues and hear people out. Even then I could sense a lack of interest or drive in doing this. I myself cannot recall any occasion where they did any such sessions. Any engagement by them was only at the government level and its own US citizens.

I liked the Ambassador. Friendly and engaging with a smile always. But once Trump won the election, he resigned immediately. The post of ambassador is still vacant.

At the end of the next 4 years, I cannot imagine how the world and Singaporeans will view US. It is a bit frightening. We grew up with such a US centric view of the world. We watched their movies and tv shows growing up. Many have visited the US and studied there. We read and follow their media. We have seen them as the good guys in the world, going out and taking action against any negative forces out there. I thought that they will be a shield to any bullying or attack against Singapore.

That will all change. To what extent, I don’t know…