General

Before I knew, it was nearly a month since I posted my last blog when I stopped short of saying that it seemed inevitable that the West would continue to decline; and indeed, since then, a number of friends had forwarded me a video on an interview on LBC with a Chinese official who, in…

Last week, an SCMP columnist wrote that “the sun has already set on the nation they call Great Britain” and questioned whether it (UK) is a failed or failing state. I put that to a young man my son’s age who had recently migrated to UK on the BNOer scheme and asked for his reading….

I found myself spending a weekend in Singapore with a few Masonic Brethren two of whom were accompanied by their spouse. Su actually booked my passage and hotel accommodation, but decided last minute not to join me because the programme wasn’t sufficiently attractive and the stay was too short for her purpose. Indeed, my activities…

I left off some ten days ago with the hope of writing something light.  Well, adjectives are always problematic, for what is light to one may be perceived by another as weighty, controversial, incomprehensible and probably irrelevant. But never mind. Let me try. I have been advised to abstain from alcohol while on the TCM…

Paul Wan who gave me unconditional approval to use the original photo he had taken of me for the cover of my first memoir humored me on my threat to write a sequel, suggesting that his experience of sequels – based on movie series – had been such that sequels normally couldn’t match the original….

Not surprisingly, my last blog attracted only a handful of visits, but included one who went out of his way to say something nice or polite and more interestingly who repeated the sentiments when we accidentally met yesterday. I had never intended to post anything too serious – it would require more reading and original…

I spent most of last week resting, but managed to have three lunches and two dinners with friends outside and two meetings at Zetland Hall, which was hardly vigorous. However, I was in the park only once and managed only one gym session. I need to work harder to prepare the body for the next…

I left off two weeks ago with an account of my battle with shingles. I had meant to post something else in between, something slightly more interesting, but there wasn’t a lot to write home about from where I was, unless I began to discuss China-US relationship which would take up a lot of time…

By now, some of you would have got wind that I had contracted shingles and had taken medical advice to avoid social activities and take as much rest as possible for a week, meaning to stay home and sleep as much as possible. My first close association with shingles was in July 2004 when Rosita…