Right Man for the Right Time ; Never Ever Give Up !

                                             England's Greatest Prime Minister, the British Bulldog


         In life, there will be everyone's 15 minutes of fame. Some people keep that fame for decades, some never achieving anything noteworthy to anybody. Then, there are the truly great people who happen to rise to the occasion when crisis strikes an institution, a community, a family, an organization, a society or even a continent. During the 2nd World War, a little known Minister called Winston Churchill was thurst into the limelight and became Britain's only hope of survival. By sheer strength of character, the British Bulldog coaxed, cajoled, bullied, mocked, and rallied through sheer force of his speeches a people who were bombed day in day our by the Nazi Luftwaffe.

        He put up a brave front, and is renowned for so many famous speeches when all else looked doomed. The famous Battle of Britain was fought above the white cliffs of Dover, and south eastern London. Many young men, barely out of boyhood, died or were injured beyond recognition figitning against the best of the Luftwaffe. Many dogfight strategies were crafted by 'kill or be killed' where it was a survival of the most cunning, or luckiest.

      "We shall fight on the beaches, we shall never ever surrender this little plot of Heaven, this our England" was his famous rallying cry. 

      To that ends, he was the Man who stood up during Britain's darkest hour and never backed down. The modern world owes him and the millions of Allies who fought, were maimed and died for the just cause.

     Sir Winston after the war was a misfit in Parliament, his time to shine was rightfully during Britain's darkest hour. 

  

Family Bonding Time

At my Brother's Christmas party 2013

My 2 young Men 

         When I was younger, I was always wanting to prove something to myself. Now that I am firmly at the age to reflect about life, I feel I am very blessed in life by God to have the family that I have, the business I have started and am still struggling to bring it to a decent size, the friends whom I have interacted and made over the years, and country I was born and continue to live in.

        A quality family life is the most important facet of my life. It has provided my stability in the most mentally strenuous of times, as well as an assurance that whatever the future holds, there is always my family as my rock to help sustain me. My faith in God is also another unshakable facet of my life.

      Raising a family surely has its challenges, its ups and downs surely, but the rewards are immeasurable by any materialistic terms.  

     Daemyung Ski Resort, Dec 2010 with son Andrew, and friend Aaron Leung

Fantastic Udon Noodles in Shinjuku - Thanks to Google Maps and a Food Blogger named Fried Man

                                   
                            Street View ; picture taken from Jay Friedman blog, Sensational Eats

Its Great to be Young

                                                Eagerly awaiting for tomorrow am 


The vigour of youth, the nervousness of the old, the caution thrown to the wind,
The tremendous expectation of what is to come, visiting a land so far away,
With youthful eyes unfettered by life's ups and downs, 
The Boy who will soon become a Man.

Let him fly, let him try, let him fall, and let him crawl
For when he senses that what the world is at hand
Then and only then, I will say to him,
My son, you will become a Man.

Seize the day, for what it is worth, 
Carpe Diem, young Man
That day we will never see again.  

Kyubey - 2nd best Sushi in Tokyo

     

             Located on the 6th floor of Keio Plaza Hotel in Shinjuku district, this sushi is the famous  Kyubey. I chanced upon this 6 star restaurant when reading about sensational eats in Shinjuku from this renowned food blogger, Jay Friedman (Blog : "Sensational Eats")         The main outlet is located in Ginza, but this outlet has only been opened half a year, hence, the availability of seats. The best sushi in Tokyo goes to Jiro Sushi at Tokyo station, where all dignitaries are offered a chance of sushi heaven from Jiro, the master himself. There is an art film called "Jiro dreams of sushi" about his life and his 2 sons, and their very demanding and exacting craft. Food can only be considered an art when it has taken decades of painstaking training and repetitive drills to achieve the multitude of flavours exploding in the customer's mouth. 

The Japanese are very accomodating people, especially to foreign guests and visitors to their country, so when we just 'dropped in' to the restaurant unannounced, without even a forward reservation, when normally it would take 6 months or longer to reserve a table, I tried my luck and asked brazenly for a table. It was a stroke of good fortune, that being a rather wet and cold night, many regulars had decided to cancel, so we were politely ushered into the main dining room.

                                                               I am in sushi heaven



After the meal, I declared that this was the best sushi I had EVER tasted, such was the high standards created by the food artists behind the sushi counter. Every single piece was an art work, and the flavours cannot be adequately described in a blog post. I will leave you with the picture of a plate of sushi, which if, it was an art piece, would be comparable to the Mona Lisa. 

9 pieces of raw heaven 

Keio Plaza Hotel, Shinjuku

Artwork from Sydney Australia, the Rocks 2001

                                         Our seashell framed artwork from Sydney, 2001

      This beautiful piece of artwork, showcasing the seashells taken off some beaches in Australia was bought at the Farmer's market at the Rocks, Sydney, I believe in 2001.
I was there with my wife and 2 sons on a family holiday and we were enthralled by this piece which occupies the pride of place at our living room.

      The artist who was a Singaporean but now an Australian, is a very well travelled and weathly person, from what we could gather talking with him. He had met many Singaporean top ministers and officials by virtue of his family. 

      The piece depicts all the different seashells and pasted on a sandy background. It provides the viewer a very calming experience. 

Geccopaige (egg shell) artwork from Ho Chih Minh City, Vietnam

                                                           Fisherman Night Fishing

        I bought this painting after a trip to Ho Chih Minh city in Vietnam in 2008. It is made from crushed eggshells and then glued onto the paint board after which the painting is done, and a final lacquer finish is layered over it.

       I actually bought 3 such paintings and gave 2 away to my good friends in Hungary and Slovenia when I visited them that year.

                                          Outside the famous Rex Hotel, HCM City


      The factory is located outside the city, and the workers are all victims of the horrendous Agent Orange (chemical warfare) bombing of the Vietnam war, there are people with some degree of blindness, limb deformation and the factory is one way to get them out of poverty providing art pieces, and generating some earned income.

      This art piece has pride of place in my home, I forgot how much I paid for it, but the satisfaction gained from looking at the painstaking effort to create such a piece is priceless.