Billy Joel was taking some Q & A in New York's Vanderbilt University when this happens....

He is one of my favourite all time Rock and Roll singers, together with Mick Jagger, Elton John and Bryan Ferry. Yeah, he's grown old and pudgy but this is video shows something amazing, a student watching Billy Joel perform at the Concert Hall, asks him whether he could play the piano to the tune of one of Billy's all time hits " New York State of Mind".  

Guess what, Billy said "yes !".  The man himself, the Piano Man decided to take a gamble with this unknown kid, and what you see is pure magic, bordering on joy.

I hope I could one day play the piano on stage with one of my music idols. That would be something !!

Michael Hollis, you have Seized the Day !

Remembering Hungary - 2008

                       Hand of St. Stephen, the first Saint who came to Hungary around 1000 AD

      We paid our first visit to Hungary the summer of 2008, spending 4 days there and had our friends Tibor and Tunde Csombordi bring us around the town. They are born and bred Hungarians so I was very appreciative of them spending so much time showing us around the city. It is a beautiful city, with a total of 11 bridges, and the city as was the rest of the country part of the USSR up until 1990 when the entire Soviet Union broke up. 

      Many of the states our countries are self autonomous, and there is great pride amongst the people. Budapest is actually 2 towns separated by the Danube River. Buda is the high ground or small hill whereby the old castle and the upper classes (in the old days, not now) lived while Pesch was the poorer side where the common folk lived.  

Russian inspired statues all around Budapest 

It is still relatively undeveloped as compared to many Asian cities, with their megaplexes and massive traffic jams. The Underground which was developed during the Soviet era is still utilised and the economy is still growing as compared to the richer Western Europe which has been experiencing very difficult times these last 4 years.  

                                   Tibor and Tunde our Hungarian friends, taken at the castle atop Buda

    We definately would like to visit Hungary in the near future and take in the sights of the old city plus Lake Balaton, which is the holiday area of the Magyars. I will put up pictures of that visit in another post. 

St. Stephen, whose statue is also very apparent around Budapest  

What do I think about when I am running ?

           Simple, "when is the damn thing going to end ?, Man, I am getting too old for this !  "  In actual fact, both these phrases hardly cross my mind, so no I do not think of negative things. In fact, after reading Haruki Murakami's fine book "What I think about when I think about running" I had an idea to post something similar, and shameless taking the title almost wholesale from his book title.

          I love to run, in fact I started being a running person rather late in life, as my parents had enrolled me in swim school at the young age of about 9, so practically every 5 times a week, I was at Mt.Emily public swimming pool from 5pm to 7pm, under the famous disciplinarian coach Mr. Kee Soon Bee and so we (my brother and I ) started swimming regularly.
  
         So, I never knew I had the talent to run, till about 18 when I was enlisted for National Service. Anyway, that is another story altogether.

        I am a rather lazy runner, but my marathon best times of 4 hours and 45 minutes while not great, are pretty decent, and normally in the top 50% of all runners. So, coming back to the running, actually, like Murakami, running helps my mind go into a void, or blank state.
After a long day's work, thinking of the problems and solutions, it is always calming and very stress relieving for me to unwind with a nice run, most times at a pace which I would call pushing myself, for at least 30 minutes. So, either I will run around my neighborhood, or hit the gym, East Coast Park or McRitchie Reservoir trails for my 'fix'.

       It is the one constant I enjoy wherever I am, the time is the constant 30 minutes to 1 hour, and I may be in another country, but I bring my Kayanos (running shoes) and hit either the gym or the nearby park if its not too late in the day. Chatuchak Park (Bangkok), Ren Ming Guang Chang (Shanghai), The Bund (Shanghai), The Rocks and Sydney Opera House (Sydney), Jardines de Tuilerries (Paris),Botanical Gardens (Penang), along the banks of the Nile (Egypt), pounding the road in Ho Chih Minh(Vietnam) , Wuhan (China),  Giessen (Germany), the others too long ago and not so memorable.

      I remember one infamous incident in Sydney in 2002, my family and another good friend's family were staying in Port Stephens just north of Sydney in a farmhouse for several days. So, one fine morning I decided to run the country road, for about 11km all in and take in the sights, waking up at 5am, I laced my shoes and headed out, after about 5 - 6 km down the country road, I came across the carcass of a dead black snake and decided to return back. Nearing back to the farmhouse, I noticed that the neighbours 2 Doberman Pinschers came out !   I know a little bit of animal psychology, so I exhibited no fear, and continued running at my pace, one dog gave chase, but since I was running away, he followed me for about 10 metres and after that, dropped away and went back to his house. 

     It was a close shave !   
  
      Do I think about more work while I am running ? Of course not ! A run is to me something as basic as breathing fresh air and being alive. I take in the scenery around me and am grateful that I am still able to pound the pavement with the enthusiasm of most people in their prime, in fact many people run out of necessity, I do it for the fun of it.  

     Aren't I lucky ?? 
      

Cars are now a luxury item in SG

                                        

        The recent measures passed in Parliament during the recent Budget announcement by our Finance Minister, includes new taxes on cars whose Open Market Value exceeds S$ 50,000. There will be an additional 180% or $18,000 for every $10,000 increment above $50,000 Open Market Value for the car. This will mean easily tens of thousands more for the big CC cars such as above 3 litres, as well as the branded European marques such as the BMW 5, 6, 7 series to hundreds of thousands more  for the SuperCars such as the Ferraris, Lamboghinis and all those fancy -nini name ending cars from Italy.

     Additionally, the 2 additional items which the car buyer has to be concerned, has halved. That is the tenure of the loan (how long the loan period is allowed) and the percentage of the car's price which the prospective buyer can take a loan from the bank or finance company. The tenure is now dropped from 10 years to 5 years, hence this means that the buyer has to cough up much more in that shorter period of time. The loan amount is now at most 50% of the car's purchase price. So for the Toyota Corolla Altis with the recent COE of $70,000, the sell price is S$ 120,000. Hence, the buyer now has to fork out $60,000 in upfront monies and take the remaining $60,000 in loan repayable over 5 years. So that works out with compound interest to S$ 1,400 for 60 months or 5 years. The interest rate will effectively double to about 3.5 to 3.88 % from the current 1 to 1.3 % as the lenders (banks or finance houses) have to make the money they loaned to the buyer (in interest) in half the allowable time. From 10 to 5 years.  

      Well and good is my initial reaction, the Certificate of Entitlement will definately drop, in reaction to this latest measure to cool COE prices. Its so expensive to own a car in S'pore nowadays I wonder and sympathise for the new family who aspire to their set of wheels. Perhaps they will need to take Public Transport or the taxes occasionally, like in the past. If one has plenty of funds then it is in fact good for them, as the COE prices will come crashing down, or will they stay up ? Many people have been waiting to change their cars and they may still be able to plonk out cash to buy their 'dream' cars.

      Cars will be a luxury item, and hopefully the COE prices will come down. Its silly to spend so much on cars anyway.    

Give Denis Rodman the Peace Prize

                                                The former wild child of NBA with N. Korean
                                            Supreme Leader Kim Jong Un at a basketball game
                                   

         Stranger things have happened, such as the tragedy in S.Africa, with Oscar Pistorius shooting his girlfriend during Valentine's day, but that is for the courts to decide whether it was premeditated murder, manslaughter or a really unfortunate and tragic mistake.

         Denis Rodman, the clown and very talented former NBA rebounder, took the world by surprise by visiting North Korea and making buddies with the Supreme Leader, Kim Jong Un, the son of the late  leader Kim Jong Il.. 

          Given the latest developments by North Korea in shooting 'satellites' into space, the world is nautrally very concerned about Armageddon, or all out nuclear war. Hence, it is indeed a great thing that Denis (a 'brother" in black American terms) made the effort to reach out to this isolated leader, who obviously is a great fan of Rodman and NBA. He used his celebrity status to maximum effect hence showing the world that Kim is like all of us, an ordinary person who enjoys basketball,football and meeting with his 'pals'. We are all equal under the eyes of God.

         For this act of friendship (or comradeship), I recommend  Denis to receive the Nobel Peace Prize. He has lowered  the threat of war by a great degree. 

          "'Its looks like the start of a great friendship"'   -   from the film Casablanca. . 

          Seize the Day. Live long and Prosper.      

Chinese New Year 2013 Saints '78 Reunion

Left to Right (front row): Michael Chong,Gurdeep Singh,Albert Hong, Me, A. Surendran,Dr. Chia Boon Tat, Faisal Alsagoff

                                  Back Row : Chew Ping Nan, Paul Ezekiel, Sunil Sabnani

            Yesterday Friday 22nd February 2013, we arranged a 'lo hei' or Prosperity Lunch at my NUS Society Club premises at Kent Ridge, It was a hale and hearty affair, with 10 of us Saint Andrew's 'Old Boys' of the graduating class ('O' Levels) of 1978 making the effort to meet up, reconnect and build social connections again yesterday. The efforts to reconnect and link up were catalysed by us having our 50th year celebrations last year (2012) and also the school celebrating 150 years in existence. We had  2 days of festivities, one for us 50 year old 'boys' in the school compound, and another, on the next day at the Westin Stamford Ballroom where there were over 1000 old boys, girls and their spouses.   

            Organising our 50th year 'joint birthday party' and being alive was very well coordinated by 2 'brothers', Surendran Apparo and Chew Ping Nan. It was very well attended by over 60 'old boys' and more than 10 teachers.  (Yes, we are getting old, but not yet !). Kudos go to Surendran, Ping Nan, Albert Hong and a few others who had the Saints old boys coming from all over Singapore, Malaysia, Australia, Indonesia and even New Zealand (yes, Peter Khoo is THE man). Please visit my earlier posts put up in September 2012 for writeups on that memorable event.

          Coming back to yesterday's lunch, we had the obligatory 'Yu Sheng' (fish slices) and 'Lo Hei' (toss for prosperity), 8 courses and lots of banter about everything and anything current. It is indeed very heartening that the 'Saints Spirit' is still burning brightly after all these years (35 to be exact !!)

       Up and On !!   

  

Latest book on LKY's Insights of China, US and World

             February 2013 will be the release of this latest book by Singapore's worldwide respected visionary statesman, Mr. Lee Kwan Yew. Turning 89 this year, he has always been a brilliant analyst of world events and never minces his words in other words, 'telling it like it is' on topics ranging from social engineering, baby boomer trends, modern day democracy versus socialism and most importantly, a seer into the Chinese Government's positions. As prime minister of Singapore from 1967 till 1989 (32 years), his achievements in developing Singapore to a world class metropolis are second to none. 

        Some of his taglines are quite like soundbites, I quote this interview he gave Time magazine a few weeks ago. Quite brilliant.

       On dictators : " In a dictatorship, you chop heads, not count them"