From Toilet Seats to Geopolitics

I had made notes a couple of times on what I intended to write since I uploaded my last blog almost a month ago, including a few flowing from two books by Kishore Mahbubani – Living the Asian Century, and Has the West Lost It? – bought from Amazon which arrived ahead of time and which I finished quickly, and at least one on the Presidential Election in the States with my prediction which proved correct. Then something extraordinary happened last Friday.

The seat of my private toilet had become unsteady for a week and finally the left hinge gave way during my morning performance.  I told Su and suggested buying a replacement seat and cover from a hardware store in Mei Foo. We then attempted to remove the old seat cover so that we could take it to the store to look for an exact replica. We tried with a few appliances including WD 40 and screwdrivers, but the right hinge wouldn’t budge, which left us with no alternative but to take a photo shot and record the measurements. It also meant that we needed a handyman to fix the problem. At the hardware store, we found that they carried only one-size seats, in either wood or plastics, and that they didn’t have a handyman. Su then recalled another shop nearby which appeared to offer services. We met a handyman sitting at the door. After some initial inquiry, he advised us that seat covers for TOTO – which is the toilet manufacturer – were model specific, expensive and only available at the dealer. He then said he would fix one for $350 or $600 for two. We took his card and contact numbers and left.

Back home, Su ran through her personal filing system and located the very receipt for the bathroom hardware issued in 2012 to Mr Chu who was our main contractor for renovating the Mei Foo flat. The receipt was issued by a shop on Lockhart Road and included the model numbers for both toilets. It was a huge find indeed. Su called the number and a young lady KiKi responded. She was ultra-helpful and professional. The two ladies exchanged contact numbers and confirmed that the goods were in stock. Su decided to replace the seat cover of her private toilet too because the hydraulics had gone. We then drove across to the shop, bought the merchandise, returned home and got the handyman over for the jobs. Ah Wing did a fantastic job, including replacing the flush button for Su’s toilet which had been somewhat oxidized. We were extremely happy with the process, which seemed to have run like clockwork and was completed in a few hours, and we thanked God that Su had kept excellent filing and that we had met a few helpful people along the way. We had thought of having some champagne but then settled for a red to go with the Chinese Yellow Cow slightly aged beef which was excellent.

Talking of good food, Su and I had been to a few pleasant meals and good restaurants in the past weeks, including the one we went last night at Lockhart Road which featured excellent Chiu Chow cuisine. It actually called itself Best Chiu Chow Restaurant and had a chef Mr Chan who had cooked for the late President Jiang and who had come to Hong Kong through the talents scheme. We also had another excellent lunch with a couple in another eatery featuring genuine Zhejiang food, which happened to be close to the hardware dealer on Lockhart Road I mentioned earlier, which had made it handy for us to locate it. In between, Su had continued to cook us good meals as I walked the Lai Chi Kok Park as part and parcel of my rehabilitation process. I met my bone doctor at a dinner party. He was satisfied with my progress, but cautioned that I shouldn’t rush it, for it would take time and I should take exercises continuingly.  Su had always stressed the importance of good and wholesome food, with plenty of good proteins and lots of vegetables. We took our friend to our friendly Japanese restaurant in Mei Foo where we always over indulged ourselves with sashimi and sake, leaving with the promise that we would return soon.

In the last blog, I quoted a diplomat saying that only a deeply troubled country would consider electing someone such as Donald Trump as President. A month down the world and now, the world is bracing itself for Trump coming back triumphantly as the next emperor and hopefully not as vengefully as he had promised. Geopolitics is indeed not an exact science; and politicians are never expected to deliver what they had promised. Mahbubani published Has the West Lost It? in 2018 when Trump was half way in his first presidency with the warning that notwithstanding the West’s immense contribution to elevate the human condition higher than ever before, if the West fails to recognize its interventionist impulses and recognize its new position or decides to become isolationist and protectionist, the West could be losing if not already has lost it.  He published in 2020 Has China Won? which highlight the historical and cultural differences between the two countries amidst the geopolitical contest. He had meant to do some book tours to promote the book, but then the pandemic came, and he did it on the internet which apparently worked. His latest book published in 2024 is meant to be his memoir and was based on his long years as a diplomat including his two terms as Singapore’s permanent representative to the UN and a former president of the UN Security Council. One of his key observations is that Americans never expected and hence were not prepared to lose the world number one position. Trump could brandish his MAGA slogan which indeed had worked for him, but it will be for the individual to prepare for the consequences. More importantly, there are 193 countries in the world, and China and America are only two of them.