daily musings

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  • Another Prasoon Session

    I met up with Prasoon for another chat session yesterday afternoon. At his favourite place, by the poolside at ShangriLa.

    It was such a warm day and I did wish I wasn’t seated outside but he seems to enjoy that place.

    We talked about Singapore, India, the US and Iran. Good to hear another viewpoint on world affairs. His views on how Iran has come out of this is interesting but not sure whether that is how it will play out in the end.but it is clear to all that Iran has come out of this stronger and the US looks like an idiot with every other country in the world, except Israel, pissed at them for having starting something that is having serious consequences.

  • Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban

    I just realized that even after all these years, there are many fanatic fans out there of Harry Potter.

    Initially the MPO had scheduled only one concert, which then became 5 because of the response.

    They came dressed in costumes and know all the dialogue to the movie. They laugh and clap loudly. Wow. Such fanatism.

    I am not crazy about the series so I can’t say I enjoyed it that much. Well now I know to avoid this series. They are going for a party, unlike me. For me it’s a concert.

  • PA Kopitalk with the PM

    This event was actually supposed to last Saturday. But then the PM had to travel and so it was postponed to today morning at Punggol One, in the midst of a long weekend.

    Plus I have to be in KL and so I am on the 235pm flight. Tight schedule. Event starts at 11, they have scheduled me for lunch with the public office holders at 1230 and I have scheduled a pick up from there to the airport at 115pm.

    Anyway..I arrived here at 1015 and met so many people I know with so many MPs and Ministers present as well. I had a good chat with Minster Chee Hong Tat on the ongoing crisis before the session and that was good.

    Good session and the PM talked for about 25 minutes on the current issues affecting Singapore and the world. That was useful. The questions from the floor thereafter were rather general. Apparently this is his first kopi talk at PM.

    It ended on time and the lunch session wasn’t that useful and I managed to take my car to the airport on time.

  • Club 100 Dinner 2026

    Last night was our Club 100 dinner at the Asian Civilisation Museum. Our 18th year. As always wonderful to meet so many people I know there. Some of whom I meet only once a year!

    I am really grateful to my committee members and the staff for the wonderful work they put in to make this such a success.

    This year we had SMS Zaqy as our GOH together with a number of current and former grassroots advisors.

    I was seated next to the current and former Mayors. Unfortunately Mayor Alex was rather unwell and has been nursing a cough for about 3 months now.

    It is always such a lovely event and the food and venue turned out well too.

    We managed our target of 750 members.

  • Shishen Hanten Lunch

    Lunch was here today, courtesy of U Zyn. The place is of course very nice but the food is very good too!

    The set lunch was so only priced at $58 but such good value for money and so fulfilling.

    Took the opportunity to pick his brains on AI and Claude. Now that it is installed on my phone and laptop, time for me to experiment and learn!

  • Policy Fairness and Compassion by K Shanmugam

    Yesterday I received an autographed copy of this book from the Minister. It was very kind of him to send me this and I am very grateful.

    I have briefly glanced through this book and it is a very varied and interesting compilation of various speeches, interviews and newspaper articles on a wide variety of topics. From reading his eulogy to his mentor Joseph Grimberg, it is clear that he meant a lot to Shan. I guess in life having a mentor always helps, that one person who is able to guide and advise you and often promote you.

    I also enjoyed reading the section on Davi vs Shan, since I know both of them and have appeared with them on opposite sides. Both are clearly giants in their field and that I can attest to from first hand knowledge.

    I did wish it also had a write up about his own life growing up, his parents, schooling and his legal career. Pity because I would have enjoyed reading that very much.

    Still it is good that he has put down in writing what he feels is important to be set out.

    He has contributed much to this country and I do hope this is not his swan song and that we still have many more years of his contributions.

    Good for him.

  • Friends Catch Up

    The 3 of us met up for lunch yesterday. We had a Japanese lunch at Marina One followed by some cakes. Although there are 4 of us in the chat group, Francis couldn’t join us.

    Interesting observation was that all of us are now retired as partners. Haq joined in 2006, Harish in 2008 and of course I have been here since 1995.

    How time flies. I was in the firm exco with Haq and Harish was my deputy head in commercial litigation department. All of which seems ages ago. We were all planning events and activities and managing our teams then. Yet amazing how time has also flown by so quickly. We decided that the only thing to concern ourselves with now is how to remain happy and healthy.

  • Shanghai Symphony Orchestra

    Last Monday, I managed to catch the Singapore performance by this orchestra at the Esplanade.

    This is the oldest orchestra in Asia and I believe this is their first visit here.

    They played to a packed audience, not surprisingly. I was pleasantly surprised and impressed by the quality of their playing. They were very good.

    The members were also interestingly almost all Chinese, and mostly young.

    From the time they played their first piece, which is written for them by Elliott Leung, it was clear that they were in a completely different league from the SSO.

    I liked that piece and it was followed by Tchaikovsky Piano Concerto No.1, with Serena Wang as the soloist. She is young and technically competent and the orchestra played well but somehow it didn’t hit me the way the first piece did.

    The second half was Rachmaninoff’s 2nd Symphony and it is a piece lasting a hour. I am not a Rachmaninoff fan and although I was sure the orchestra would have handled it very well, I couldn’t bear the thought of sitting through an hour of Rachmaninoff.

  • ShangriLa Tea Catch Up

    Yesterday afternoon was our long awaited annual catch up.

    We were part of a Christian cell group in ACJC in 1979/1980. We didn’t know each other before JC 1 and somehow we became part of a group. As a group we were close and we met almost every morning those days.

    Now since Lina Wong lives in the US, we catch up once a year. But it is so good catching up and talking as if we have never spent a year away! We talked about the people we know and about what’s happening in the world and in US.

    Now awaiting next year’s catch up.

  • Lunch with Flair

    I was invited by my friend Virginia today to have lunch at short notice with Flair Ren. Flair runs the business development for Alpha Square Group, a technology fund out of the US.

    An enjoyable lunch at Milos restaurant at MBS. Apart from talking about ourselves, it was good listening to Flair and to learn what are the worldwide trends in AI and technology. Also to understand the key differences between the US and China in entrepreneurship and why the US will always be ahead in innovation. The ecosystem of young and innovative people, the available resources and funding and the opportunity to make money or a difference in the world will be the key drivers keeping the US ahead.