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This is the 3rd time I have come to Beitou.

Lovely mountainous area with white sulphur hot springs about 45 minutes from Taipei city.

There are a number of resorts here with their own hot spring baths in the room and they are very popular in the winter months. These white sulphur hot springs are only found here in Beitou and in parts of Japan.

I try and visit Beitou  once a year for the hot springs. Whilst here, I discovered a very good Michelin starred Chinese restaurant. Simple and good and they don’t over stuff you with their set meals. This time I noticed they have also added a la carte menu items.

Beitou used to be a popular place for the Japanese before the Second World War. They used to live here in large numbers, built japanese style houses and operated hot springs. So they have many well preserved houses and gardens here.

Even now there are many japanese style houses they have preserved well and operate as museums.

Also saw more cherry blossoms!

This morning I found out that Glenn Knight had passed away aged 80.

This man was the first director of CAD, one of the most feared organisations in Singapore when I was studying law. Every one had heard of him and he was acknowledged as a top lawyer. He was even handpicked by LKY to act as counsel in a few matters. He was a larger than life character during his time.

I had the chance to interact with him once in 1986. I was on a PSC scholarship tied to the Police Force and I wanted so much to be able to transfer it to the CAD. I spoke to a few people about it and eventually Eleanor Wong, who was then working at the CAD, arranged for me to meet up with him. I cannot recall where it was but it was at a function. I was introduced to him and had a brief chat with him. He was friendly and he readily agreed to my transfer but PSC refused to release me and so I never went to CAD to work under him.

He then got into trouble in 1991. Some speculated that it was because he started an investigation into LKY’s brother Dennis Lee Kim Yew and Oei Hong Leong in regards to the shares of UIC. That was his downfall. The case against him appeared to be a totally contrived one. Later that year Richard Hu as Finance Minister made a statement in Parliament that the SES had investigated and determined that there was no insider dealing in UIC shares.

At that time this happened, he was the President of the ACSOBA. He decided to step down and his VP David Wong Chin Huat asked me to be on standby in case there was any trouble at that upcoming AGM. That was the year I joined the OBA. Fortunately nothing happened that year and the next year I was co-opted by David Wong into the MC. That started my involvement in ACS.

He was a pale shadow of his former self after that. He suffered both physically and financially. I know Tan Sri Tan Chin Tuan helped him out quite a bit during that difficult period. Many of his friends who used to hang around him in large numbers also disappeared when he was facing difficulties.

Even when I bumped into him in the later years, he looked weak. We exchanged greetings but didn’t say much as I didn’t have much in common with him but it was always a pleasure for me to see him and greet him.

I last saw him at the 2024 ACS Founders Day dinner, one which he made a point to always turn up for.

Rest in Peace Glenn.

I arrived in Taipei last evening. Always a lovely city to visit. Nice people, clean streets and very good food. Not just good but very reasonably priced.

It was cool/ cold when I arrived but since I haven’t been able anywhere cold for sometime, it was a refreshing change from the hot and humid Singapore weather!

They have great cafes,  vegetarian food and now Korean food and am looking forward to that today!

Everyone tells me about their great street food. I have till now not visited a single night market. Let’s see if that changes…ps nope… Didn’t go

Cherry blossoms are slowly coming out….

I was on the plane en route to Taiwan and waiting for my lunch when I came across a documentary ABBA: Against the Odds on Kris World.

It’s an examination of their years between 1974 with their winning song Waterloo at the Eurovision Song Contest and ending with their final album Super Trooper. It focused on their rise to fame despite the fact that many people initially put them down for being a cheesey pop band, especially in their own home country Sweden. Their various albums and tours were covered showcasing their successful Australia tours and the final Wembley stadium sold out concerts.

ABBA was a group comprising 2 sets of young talented couples very much in love who produced great songs for the world to enjoy. The music was amazing and the lyrics, especially those of their later songs were thought provoking reflecting on what was happening in their own lives during that period. The 2 female voices were beautiful.

It is also a study of how their marriages came apart as a result of the stresses of fame, success and traveling. Since their split neither the 2 guys as songwriters or the 2 girls as singers achieved the same or any level of success. The 2 guys wrote a musical called Chess. It had some good songs but it was totally confusing as a musical and it didn’t do well at all. I cannot recall anything else they have done.

Even now,  after all these years,  the songs sound great. Truly evergreen and they have stood the test of time.

I never had the opportunity to see them perform live since they had disbanded in 1980. Fortunately someone put together the musical Mamma Mia which features many of their songs. I have seen this musical a few times and have always enjoyed the live show. It was subsequently made into a movie. The  movie was also good though the singing in the movie could have been better.

I will always remember listening to ABBA songs in the car which were on a cassette tape when my father used to drive me back to my army camp on Sunday night in 1981. There were very few English songs my father knew and liked. ABBA was one of the very few.

Wonderful memories!

Pritam Singh, the Leader of the Opposition was convicted of 2 charges of lying under oath.

Everyone I know so far is of the view that this prosecution appears to be politically motivated and the verdict was timed to come out just before the GE to discredit the opposition. They ask how the court can convict someone on the basis of the evidence of a  woman who has admitted that she is a liar without any independent evidence.

Unfortunately I think this verdict is only going to anger many people and make the WP even more popular.

We shall see…

I have always been fascinated by Persian carpets. In the early 1990s, there used to be regular carpet auctions in Singapore on weekends by several dealers. These were held  in hotels and each auction would feature about 80 to 100 pieces. You would view the pieces on a Saturday and the auction would be on the Sunday.

So I used to view the carpets, talk to the dealers and attend these auctions for many years.  I learnt so much about carpets like the manner of weaving these wonderful carpets, the different styles, patterns and motifs of the different regions, the difference between silk and wool carpets and the difference between tribal and modern pieces. Some of them, especially from the Isphahan region were so beautiful.  Some were even signed by the master weavers. I believe these auctions ended about the time of the Asian currency crisis around 1997.

Over the years I have collected a few carpets and they have been in my storage for some years now.

Over the weekend, I came across an auction by a famous Japanese auction house of 2 Persian carpets which are really special.

These 2 Kashan handmade carpets are silk pieces and they were specially commissioned by the then Empresses Farah of Iran. They are signed and inscribed and were presented as a state gift by the Shah and Empress of Iran to the Metropolitan Opera in New York in 1976/77. They were presented on the occasion of the changing of the Iranian calendar year by the Shah. He decided that the Iranian year should commence from the time Emperor Cyrus started his rule in 559BCE instead of the then starting point of 622 CE. This was done in 1976 and the Iranian calendar year that year was suddenly changed to 2535. There was an uproar in Iran when this decision was made and it coincided with the general unrest that was happening about this time in Iran. The Government reversed this decision in 1978 and the Iranian year reverted to what it was pre 1976.

Each carpet has 720,000 knots per sqm.

These 2 pieces came up for auction in Japan and I purchased them. I had to pay more than the upper estimate for them but for such provenance I thought it was worth it. Never will I find these again.

For the record, in 1979, soon after this state gift was made, the Shah and the Empress were deposed and they fled to the US.

There was news yesterday that Syed Harun, who was a Nominated Member of Parliament, had resigned before the end of his term. The intense speculation is that he will be running as a PAP candidate in the upcoming elections probably in May.

There is some criticism about this news because it is said the NMP scheme was intended to identify independent and non partisan citizens to be in Parliament and speak their mind. It is said that having appointed them as NMP and immediately fielding them as a PAP candidate without any cooling off period might end up discrediting this scheme.

I do understand this argument. But I can also understand why a new PM would want the best people on his team. He would have observed them as NMPs and then decided that they are capable and that their hearts are in the right place and invited them to stand.  He would want to give them an opportunity to serve in a larger capacity rather than simply disappear after the end of their term as a NMP. Ultimately it is better that the best people are put up to serve. To not tap on them simply on the ground that they were once an NMP is like shooting oneself in the foot.

I must say I had the opportunity to meet up with Harun last November. I was given his name and I invited him to a dinner without knowing him. We messaged each other and he graciously accepted my invite. He then called me and suggested we meet for breakfast. That turned out to be a lovely 2 hour session. We met at a cafe in Kampong Glam. I enjoyed talking to him and found him sound, intelligent and a very likeable person. He comes from a humble background and he has a genuine interest in helping people. We shared similar interests and views on a range of topics. He is a people person, is likeable and would do well as a Member of Parliament and serve his residents.

Last night at our Club 100 dinner, I caught up with Robert Tay who worked with me some 20 years ago. He joined us as a pupil in 2003 and stayed with us for a few years doing good work. He left us after his son was born as he wanted to spend more time with his son. I remember him telling me that when he and his sisters were growing up, his regret was that his father was always so busy that he never spent time at home and with them and he did not want to be like his dad. His father was Dr Tay Eng Soon who was a Minister back in the days of LKY.

Even then Robert was IT savvy and he now works for the Government.

I introduced him to Foong Daw Ching yesterday and Daw Ching immediately remarked that Singapore should be so grateful to Dr Tay because he was instrumental in focussing on adult education and starting VITB, the precursor to our present day ITE.

Robert reminded me that when his son was born, he had brought him to the office and the boy sat on my lap in my office back in the days we were at the Bank of China office. He also sent me 2 photographs of that day! That boy is now in medical school.

How time has flown!

Tonight was our Club 100 dinner. It was at the National Gallery and this was the first time we were having our dinner there.

We have been around since 2008 and this is our 17th year of existence.

We have raised about $20 million and helped close to 200,000 households in the North West district.

Many thanks to all the donors over the years and to everyone in the organizing committee and the team at NWCDC for making this event a huge success!!

This morning was breakfast with a group of good friends I have known since 1979. We met in ACJC and we were a part of a cell group. We were very close then. However after JC we didn’t meet much. Lina Wong left for the US to study there and eventually married there and still lives there. Glacy and Yin Yoke and I were also busy with other things.

We now make it a point to meet at least once a year when  Lina comes here to visit her mum, usually during CNY

Amazing that we have been friends for about 46 years!!

Breakfast was at Sonders. The food was good and we had the whole place to ourselves.