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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.

Discovered this gem in Upper Weld Road by accident sometime in the third week of December.

A friend had suggested lunch at Serangoon Road and he had asked his PA to pick a place. She went on the internet and chose this restaurant. Both of us didn’t know this place and we arrived there around 1220 and to our dismay it was packed inside with a huge crowd waiting outside to get in. My friend attempted to pull some strings to cut the queue but with no success. Later I found out that the restaurant had just opened on 12 December.

Since then I have been there a few times now with various friends and the food is wonderful and reasonably priced. Even had my pongal vegetarian lunch there.

Was there having lunch today as well. Hope they maintain their standard of service and food!!

Unfortunately I think my friend who had initially suggested this place still has not tasted the food here-(

Visited the exhibition again at Suntec City. Some of the artists who have been here a week are returning to China tomorrow although the exhibition itself will run till February 2.

Managed to get a silhouette image done by a famous Chinese silhouette artist.

Purchased a beautiful inside glass painting of horses. This is how the snuff bottles were painted

Also bought some beautiful hand painted coasters.

Met up with national calligraphy artists.

Visited the Spring in the City exhibition at the Suntec City.

They visit around CNY every year bringing tea, tea pots, Chinese art, porcelain, silk and various other beautiful things from China.

I have been visiting this exhibition since the 1990s and when I first visited them they used to exhibit at Raffles City. Over the years I have bought tea pots, ceramic pots and art from them.

Top quality artists with beautiful items and well worth a visit. I drank tea, chatted with some of the artists and  bought tea, tea pots and carvings.

Am going again tomorrow!

It must have been sometime in September 2003. I had to go to Jakarta ( I had not been to Jakarta till then) to meet a client. I arrived at their office and was surprised because their office was filled with artworks everywhere… the lobby, the walkways and the meeting rooms. This was something I had not seen in Singapore. For me this was the first time seeing so many original artworks up close. They were huge and beautiful and when you see such beautiful works it captivates you and  makes an emotional impact on you. I kept looking at the artworks and my client noticing my interest, introduced me to the world of art by telling me about the artists and what they were depicting in their art pieces. I remember seeing pieces by Affandi, Srihadi, Hendra Gunawan, Arie Smith and Li Su Ji. Later I had an opportunity to visit their homes which were likewise filled with art all over. I realized that having such beautiful art pieces in your home not just enhances the aesthetics of your house but also your life because you are looking at such a beauty everyday.  I slowly learnt how to recognize  artists by their style of works.

For my birthday that year they gave me a small Arie Smith and that started my journey of collecting art. I started visiting galleries in Singapore and overseas,  art exhibitions all over the world and browsing catalogs of art auctions. I have since collected about 160 art pieces by artists all over the world. Indonesian, Chinese, Indian, European and Vietnamese.

Interesting times were when I  bought pieces that were being auctioned off when Lehman Brothers went bust; collected pieces by Sai Hakuseki (not knowing that it was Qi Baishi) seeing Wu Guanzhong to authenticate a piece I had bought at a gallery in Beijing and meeting Takashi Murakami.

Also fortunate to have been able to collect signed pieces by Charles Schulz, Muhammad Ali and Hanna Barbera.

Soon I learned that the problem of collecting art in Singapore is our climate. It’s humid and when I started displaying art at home, spots appeared on the artworks. I had to restore these pieces and now all my pieces are wrapped up in a warehouse which is climate controlled, temperature controlled with no light. I never even see them–(

At some point in time I am going to have to start thinking of what I do with these works. Do I find a place to display them where they will not be damaged or do I just sell it off.

Sad story of my collecting art in Singapore.

Visited Art SG at MBS today. Once a year event which has become a “must attend”event for art lovers in Singapore.

Perhaps tomorrow I will talk about how I learnt to appreciate and collect art. That was in 2003. First time I visited a client in Jakarta at their office which was filled with beautiful art pieces. Indonesians appreciate and collect art and they support their local artists. Something not common here.

Anyway onto the fair. Interesting but not impressive. But still a good way to spend half a day seeing a huge variety of art from artists all over the world.

Some highlights as follows+)