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A good friend, Joshua, messaged me whilst I was on the plane to inform me that M Ravi had died.

I didn’t know him. But my mother did. And she was sad when she learnt that he had passed away. He participated in a Tamil dance competition when he about 12 or 13 organized by Christ Church School, where my mother was a Tamil teacher. He didn’t win but they were so impressed with him that they awarded him a consolation prize. Later on he became a relief teacher at that same school for about 4 months. That was when she got to know him better. She found him kind and polite and his students liked him and he would stay back after school to spend time and talk with them. He spoke good Tamil.

I have read his arguments he made to the Court before. They are well reasoned and good. Such a pity that he was afflicted with mental condition which at times might have affected his behavior and judgement.

Nevertheless, with lots of passion, he took up many cases for people who probably couldn’t afford to pay him any fees and he did his best for them, even when the cases seemed hopeless. And he put his heart and soul into the way he went about helping them, even at the expense of getting himself into trouble at times.

The outpouring of grief I see on social media and in the Singapore and Malaysia main stream media is a clear sign that people knew, noticed and appreciated all his good work.

A life well lived, albeit unfortunately short and flawed at times.

To round off the year, Krist and I decided that we should do lunch before the year 2026 starts. And since she is always comfortable at MBS, our lunch was at Mott 32.

We had great service at the restaurant as we had the manager of the restaurant, Benjamin, looking after us. As always, we overordered.

It was good catching up. She is going back to work at RWS in April after a long gap. Good for her. I think she will do well as that’s her forte. So the next time we will eat there.

We spent a bit of time talking about the recent Law Society issues, ST and it’s current defiencies and about young people generally. Both of us agree on all these issues.

I have always liked this Indonesian restaurant. They were at Tanglin Shopping Center, when that place was an upmarket shopping center. Eating at that restaurant was a treat. Food was good and priced well. Then of course that shopping mall became rundown and it was no longer fashionable eating there. Now that mall is no more.

Fortunately the restaurant later opened at Great World City and I think the menu is exactly what it was when they were at Tanglin.

So when my 2 younger colleagues suggested lunch, I picked this place. Works well since one of them is a vegetarian.

As always, I ordered their evergreen items like gado gado and tahu telur.

It was a fun lunch, reminiscing about the early days of the firm and how it grew to become so big. They couldn’t believe that there was a time when we didn’t have email and didn’t keep time sheets. They wondered how the lawyer would know how much to bill. Such good old days!! Also good to know that both of them have exciting plans for the year ahead.

Yesterday I had coffee with U-Zyn at PS Cafe at Dempsey. Nice location as it is surrounded by greenery. Also convenient and free parking. But the acoustics inside are bad. So it is difficult to have a conversation unless you want to be shouting.

Fortunately we could move tables to a quieter corner as it was not packed, otherwise I would have suggested moving to a different cafe.

I had my usual ginger tea with a chocolate dessert I shared with U Zyn.

I can’t imagine a flight delay of 13 hours due to snowstorms or sitting inside a plane on the tarmac and experiencing an earthquake with the plane violently shaking for a minute. Or having to come back on a different flight at short notice trying to get the tickets sorted out.

Well I am only glad I didn’t have to go through any of that. But I can imagine the angst and anxiety and anger when things like this happen.

I suppose ultimately holidays are a time to be together and relax and doing whatever makes everyone happy. Glad that his family enjoyed the skiing!

I have known Connie for almost 25 years now. I first got to know her sister and through her got to know Connie and her family, including her parents. Time flies. I remember when she had just given birth to her son and we were celebrating his first birthday. That boy is now 24 years old.

Her birthday was just over recently and today was my treat to celebrate her birthday.

She is still physically and mentally active and is happy and it was good catching up with her after all these years to find out how she and all the members of her family are faring. I think I have not seen her in about 10 years. She was showing me some of the old pictures which she has kept of her dad who has since passed on. Good memories of all of them.

A good birthday lunch at Jiak Khim restaurant.

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.