Al Dente Spaghetti at Seta Milan Mandarin Oriental 2017

This was one of the most impressive eating establishments we have tried ever. And that says a lot to someone who is married to a Cantonese picky eater ! Well it did have a 2 Michelin star rating no less.

Seta Restaurant Mandarin Oriental has a waiting list of 6 months, so I was pretty lucky just to get a lunch on a Monday afternoon barely 2 weeks beforehand. We were lucky and very impressed as this restaurant is rated 2 Michelin Stars. The hotel is unpretentious and the restaurant even more so. So we got there right on time 1pm on 4th December 2017 for a truly unforgettable lunch. We ordered the Executive Set Lunch (if I recall correctly), for a total of (for 2) EUR 120 (S$ 200) but this is a small price to pay for excellent food, wonderful service and quiet ambience only top restaurants can achieve. 

There was 3 courses plus dessert, with a number of free dishes courtesy of the kitchen thrown in to impress these 2 'mid lifers'. And suitably impressed we were ! 

The spaghetti is 'al dente' or has bite with a single prawn, in tomato sauce, with a sprinkling of broccoli and something which looks like an olive (I am a horrible foodie, sorry). She says the spaghetti in many places lack the 'al dente'. Only in the land which gave us this pasta is it done correctly. 

Lamb Roulande 4 Dec 2017 

The Lamb Roulande also was exceptionally tasty, I recall it was very tender, flavourful without the gamey taste which accompanies lamb dishes.

The sweets were truly outstanding. Please take a while to feast your eyes on it. Breadsticks, and sauvignon blanc topped up the beautiful lunch almost 3 years ago in Milan. 

Lucky Non Foodie eating good grub. Shiok Ah ! 

Breadsticks, Ciabatta bread, Sauvignon Blanc , Garlic and Heart Choking Butter

Once this pandemic is truly over, we must go back for another memorable gastronomic experience. 

Mandarin Oriental, Milan

Via Andegari 9

20121, Milano

MI

Italy.

Sweets to end an excellent meal 

  

Our Response could be better to COVID - 19.

After the initial containment of the COVID -19 by shutting our borders, our leaders were slow off the mark to look into the most obvious (in hindsight) hotbeds of the community spread. In the dormitories of the foreign workers.

So now, we have hit over 30,000 cases. While most of them are mild cases, and only 20 remain in ICU, the fact of the matter is our leaders missed the opportunity to show the world that we had the disease under control. Several countries have shown that by stringent lockdowns, the pandemic can be halted. Australia, New Zealand, Taiwan and Vietnam are hailed as models for this disease control.

Singapore, well, we have to wipe the mud off our faces. We had the virus by the theoretical scruff of the neck, but did not give it a good beating. On the contrary, it turned around and gave us a good slap in the face. My 2 cents worth to our leaders as a loyal and disappointed citizen : 

Never be too complacent and smug. Speak well of your neighbours and your citizens and do not belittle them as 'xia sway'. It only makes you look like the 'xia sway'. 

Having been paid huge amounts to run the country, I think it is time to reflect whether truly you are deserving of that high pay. 

This video is so sad and yet so uplifting at the same time. Salute all the heroes featured here !

This video hits me hard, because it shows how it is at the end of some people's lives, it is no more about going with dignity, but in fact fighting for every breath taken, with no one beside them at their last moments.Just one plunge into a dark abyss. 

Is is so sad that so many people had to die needlessly, and in such as undignified way. It is more sad to see the bodies being stacked like in some supermarket or storage area and identified by their zones and height levels without any chance of a proper burial and grieving for their closest kin and loved ones.

It is so sad watching the morgue assistants handling body after body in a never ending wave of death. At the end of the clip, it shows the end for Dr Teddy Lee's father who was in the St John's Episcopal Hospital for 4 weeks and went downhill and finally his sad demise. He was the energetic 74 year old owner for the Sunset Deli who probably came in 40 odd years ago to find a new life in the U.S. of America. How can we possibly process and try to empathise those who have lost their families and loved ones after having done so much good for the people in society ?  Justice has not been served equally and creates tremendous unhappiness and inequality in the so-called  richest nation in the world. 

Then, comes the uplift. It is so inspiring to see the true heroes in every country, the healthcare providers ranging from the nursing assistants, the ambulance drivers, the morgue assistants, the staff nurses and finally the ER doctors who fight this deadly pandemic day in day out. They are physically, emotionally and mentally drained at the end of the day trying to fight through medical means for the lives of each and every of on those who come in through the ER doors.

Ethical, moral and logistical problems stress them because they have to face hard and very painful issues, they are limited in manpower, medicines, PPE, beds, and have to make critical decisions so many times a day. Do they save the 95 year old or the 42 year old if they only had 1 spare ventilator and even though the 95 was there earlier and needed it more urgently ?

It is so uplifting and motivating to see the blind patient being wheeled out by the head nurse to his family member, that he can go home and he is still so positive and happy that he recovered from this COVID - 19 disease. Of course the recovery can and is terribly long and arduous for many people, as it not only affects the lungs, but the brain, the heart and kidneys too :(

The virus is a terrible bitch.  

Humanity is such that when we come together as ONE people not Americans, Chinese, Asians, Australians or Europeans and cooperate with our shared know how for finding effective vaccines, best possible treatments and recoveries  we can and must surely overcome this pandemic once and for all.

Human race has overcome countless viruses and bacterial plagues for thousands of years. 

This is one tough disease but it will be beaten. Medicine and technology have improved by leaps and bounds over the last 100 years. 

The Black Death in the 14th century killed perhaps 40% of Europe's population before herd immunity developed some 3 years later , this one will pass and I estimate perhaps 1% max of the world's population will succumb to it before a vaccine is truly universal and effective is found and administered - thats a huge 70 million. 

SBC TV Debates 1984 ; Semi-Finals ; NTI vs NUS

This was my big moment as the first speaker for the proposition, the motion was 

"that the introduction of Non-Constituency Members of Parliament will strengthen the democratic processes of Singapore" 

We were against the heavyweight NUS team which comprised  of (currently) , a Deputy Public Prosecutor and a full parliamentary Minister.  Those days, as undergraduates their team comprised of 3 law undergraduates and a medical undergraduate.Then, we were all engineering undergraduates who (by implication) could not converse our ideas well. 

The format of the debates were as such below :

Each speaker had 4 minutes, and the Proposition started first, so I stood up to speak in front of 200 odd people in the studio. The Opposition first speaker then stood up to speak.And so it went on like this.

After the third speaker, the debate was open to the floor for anybody who was present to stand up and say his piece. Their final speaker a certain Vivian, then had to wrap up the debate for the Opposition and the final speaker was our 4th speaker Jaspal Singh, following which there would be a recess of 15 minutes before the judges verdict and the winning team was announced.  

Our team were ousted though we tried and did our very best. It was not to be.

Have a listen to the younger me, 36 years ago. (Reality check !) 

What is Success ? Are you a success ?

You need Grit, Pick Up after Massive Failure and Get On with Wiser Eyes.

This endearing picture above shows a little boy standing on the beach, with his hands clenched on a fistful of sand and staring determinedly at the photo-taker. He has a look of determination on his face, which seems to say "come what may, I will overcome". 

Well, it is only partly true, in my book. Having been running a business as well as raising a family, for more than 20 years, we should all look at ourselves and ask point blank, 

Is my life a success ? 

I recall playing the board game called  "Careers" or  "The Game of Life" whereby the playing board represents Life and one goes out to achieve a total of 60 units of either  

a) Fame ( become a celebrity)   

b) Money (be a tycoon) 

c) Love (Hard to define this person, but I guess someone who is in Love).  

If only life were that simple.

Money, 

For almost everyone on this planet, with the exception for a few lucky souls like Royal families, and scions of billionaires, is very important to everybody. There are many people who have worked and slogged and made a pile and find that at the end of life, a certain emptiness. A lack of creating a footprint for others to follow. So while Money is important, the endless pursuit of wealth will leave one devoid of empathy, or concern for one's fellow man. I find these never ending pursuits of the so called 5 Cs quite disturbing in our rich and plentiful Singapore. For those who are not familiar, the 5 "C"s young people strive to achieve without a thought for anything else : 

a) Condo 
b) Car  
c) Country Club 
d) Career 
e) Cash

All these have to do with material things.  Young and not so young people strive to drive the latest sports car or status car offerings, while the women carry the latest designer handbags and sport the 3 karat diamond rings. They may offer satisfaction, but only for a short while, before the yearning for something bigger or better or flashier. It is like hunger pangs which once fulfilled satisfies for a while before the yearning to make more comes along. 

So making money for the sake of money is not Success.

Fame

Some people want to be seen with the stars and crave attention. See all the famous Hollywood, Bollywood, JPop, KPop and HK stars. They make alot of money, have all the attention BUT have no private life. They have major crises, take drugs, gamble, have affairs and are afflicted with all or even worse problems than us 'nobodies'. 

As recently as last year 2 KPop idols, Sulli and Goo Hara committed suicide due to loneliness and depression as a result of leading the so-called 'perfect princess' lives which turned out to be lies. So sad.  

So, Fame as an Ends is also not Success.

Love

Ah, Love is always the one pure emotion. Yes, one can have alot of Love, but can we get by with giving Love to our loved ones and live on fresh air, love and music ?  Dream on Love is an emotion, so we all have the capacity to give and receive Love. 

So Love by itself is not Success. Having and Giving Love probably is one facet to leading a successful life though. 

So what does one do to achieve Success ?? First lets try to define Success.

In my humble opinion, first look critically at your own life. Identify what you want to change for yourself. It may be trying to improve your standard of living, your car or apartment, or even taking more holidays. Once you have identified and managed to achieve them, STOP. Look around you, there are many many more millions of people worse off than you. Why go on and on the merry-go-round of endless upgrading form HDB flat, to Condominium to House, to MASSIVE DEBT ?


GAINING OF MATERIAL THINGS IN LIFE IS NOT SUCCESS, ITS MEANINGLESS !!

SUCCESS IN LIFE IS  TAKING THE PURPOSEFUL JOURNEY.

IT HAS NO END POINT.

Living a purposeful life helping one's family, community, friends or religion without a thought for one's situation is a Success story in itself. But before one can start doing that, he must be financially secure and have relevant income streams so that Money and Family stability are not compromised. Here is where, everyone deviates or does not agree upon. What is Financial Stability ?? $10,000 ? $100,000 ? $ 1 Million ? $ 10 Million ? 

What's the Magic Number ?? 

That magic number depends on one's personal sense of comfort. A hypothetical example, take Mr. A : " I am 45, I have a flat, my kids have finished school and I take public transport to work. Wife is a good cook and we dine out at restaurants once a month. I have saved $ 100,000 for my next 5 years and can start to do some community work or help out in my Church outreach. Its time I gave back after having taken from others all these years. "

Very noble. I salute these people. These are the true Success stories in this dog-eat-dog world.

So, in the end, the church, temple and mosque helpers will say, "Doesn't matter. God will provide"  However, in many  circumstances, but there are many hard luck stories who have fallen by the wayside in the pursuit of the wrong goals and have relentlessly used or adopted these mannerisms in their daily life. I list them down, these are the 7 Deadly Sins.

1. Lust
2. Greed
3. Sloth   (Laziness)
4. Anger
5. Gluttony
6. Hatred
7. Envy

I would define Success as this :

Living one's own sphere of life, as being able to do what he / she wants, growing in character, and ultimately in helping others without much thought of one's well being. 

To get to that point, one needs to take stock of one's own life and be SATISFIED with whatever he already has, and not be green with envy that the neighbour has gotten a new and bigger car than him, or is going for holidays every 3 months while he has to slog just to pay the bills.

To achieve success, one has to have these traits or acquire these attitudes :

a)  Dogged Determination to reach the goal   40%
b)  Resilience in bad times   30%
c)  Vision to dream where he wants to be 30%

Seize the Day my friends. 

Life is there for Living. Don't Moan or worse Bad Mouth others. 

Don't be a whiner and whinger and drop out at the first sign of difficulty.

Be a Winner and Doer. 

Possess Grit, Resilience and Positive Mental attitude come what may.  

Set your goals, however small, achieve them and then help the less able.

That is Success. 

The Purposeful Journey - first written in June 2017

During my long and sometimes hard run today I thought deeply about life and the journey which each of us must take. To me, life is about taking that purposeful journey full of goals set for you either by yourself, or other significant people in your life, it could be your school (exams), spouse or partner (living together, starting a family), office (objectives, KPIs), friends and business associates, principals and most importantly,yourself.

If you set you goal in life, you will just go with the flow and don't be surprised how fast time flies and before you know it, voila, you are middle aged, the kids have grown, and your nest egg isn't almost there (where had all the money gone), friends, acquaintences business partners have passed on and you are facing challenges in health, work, family, business and even the foriegners are coming in to 'steal your lunch !'.

Let me state, that this is my opinion of life, to make it your success, take the purposeful journey.    Only you be the judge of how successful you will be at the end of it. The end is when you take your last breath and close your eyes and you are no more. So I would state that the following values are absolutely necessary for you to bring along the purposeful journey :

1. Clarity of the mind 

2. Purity of the spirit

3. Set clear goals and Relentlessly Pursue these goals 

4. Focus on the process to reach those goals and work to continually improve the process    

5. Discipline yourself in mind and body

6. Sacrifice time, energy and sweat to reach in within a set deadline. 

It will never be easy, I have picked up bad habits along the way, so I need to shed these if I truly want to achieve what I set out to do. 

There are no short cuts - especially in life.

Seize the Day      

More 6 Adis Road Pictures and Memories

My maternal grandfather P.C. Wen with my brother (3 years old) 

This picture above shows my maternal grandfather PC Wen, sitting out at the driveway with my younger brother. The Simca is in the background and the main hallway of the house is also in view. The room to the extreme right in the picture was never occupied for some unknown reason, and the entry to the house was to the left up the step from where the car is parked. The house and the entire plot of land was easily 200,000 ft2. 

To the left of the house was where my mother's car was parked and behind it was some shed structure where the workmen would leave their tools and stuff, as well as the dog kennel and lots of overgrown bushes leading to a 6 foot fence. We had lots and lots of play time fighting with the neighbourhood kids, catching spiders, climbing the rambutan and papaya trees, riding our Chopper Bikes and general carefree mayhem of early childhood.

There was a Malay neighbourhood Kampung nearby up the road, and the houses lining up Sophia Road had plenty of colorful facades. The main road which was about 10 minutes walk was Selegie Road, and I would take the 111 bus to my school, St Andrew's at Woodsville when I was about 11 years old (Primary 6). The return journey would be from Woodsville back by Jalan Besar and I would drop off at Bencoolen Street. I would pass the 'mamak' (Indian Muslim) shop on the way back to the house and every week without fail I would save up my pocket money to buy the "Shoot !" magazine from the UK which would be full of colour pictures of my boyhood football team Wolves.   

I recall, in the early days, my father drove the Simca, then had a Mercedes E230 for quite a while whereas my mother drove first a Datsun 323, then a red Mini Cooper, a Mazda 626 and then an old E200 in her later years as I recall.

My father's love for the E230 (which happened to be my mother's ex-boss'es car Dr Eddy Ho) has indeed rubbed off on me. I used to drive the E230 from 2012 till 2017 and am full of praise for its roadworthiness and safety. His car was silver grey in colour which is just the way I like my cars too. 

2 Monkeys and a Simca

Life in the late '60s and early '70s were really carefree. We did not study very much, if at all as I recall. As expected, our Mandarin was atrocious and I recall always failing the 'ting xie' test or listening comprehension test (because I did not study at all) and would end up going to the front of the class and getting my ears twisted till they hurt and turned red (well, for a dark brown skinned boy, it still turned red). Our Chinese teacher was a rather overweight Mrs. Pang. That was in Primary 3.

Speaking of Primary 3, our class teacher was a Miss Ang who had a rather catty personality and dressed very much the sophisticated single lady. She made an arrangement with the taxi driver who (then) drove me to and from school to pick and drop her off from her house - as I recall. So she caught a lift from the driver who was all too happy to drive a pretty lady home. 

Our family when John was barely 1 and I was approaching 4

I had a rather large head as a kid, the front was protruding and my Mum used to call it 'mango head'. So while my head was large, my then puny body made me look a little weird.

I recall my parents taking me to a peaditrician, to get some sort of injection - I think it was 'placebo' actually on their part !

Only later when I started to stretch out (in terms of length), did my head seem more in proportion to the rest of my body.