A look back at 2015

2015 is a year of many events, the pace is slower, or I've made it slower. There were times to think and reflect, amongst the constant daily grind.

Trips included a Penang tripd in March, Bangkok trip in May, wine trips to Tuscany in May and Champagne/Burgundy in October, a business trip to Shanghai in July.

A few thoughts, that humans live on memory and experiences, time is fleeting, our bodies and mind fragile, monetary possessions transient.


We've witness the passing of Mr Lee Kuan Yew, whilst we camped  for several hours in the early hours, and mourned with fellow Singaporeans for a full week. It was either eternal gratefulness that our generation can reap the fruits which our forefathers have planted.


A hopefully yearly shot of the family.


My dad's 70th Birthday.


The passing of grandmother in May this year. Every Chinese Near Year we visited, and 2015 turned out to be the last.


And 36 candles were celebrated with the elixir of life, oysters!


A year of fabulous wine&dine with life long friends.




Continued practice/strive of Yoga.



The passing of our favourite cat Tommy, truly reduced me to my emotional core, and realised with more clarity on what 'really matters'. It was 1 week of roller coaster ride at the Vet, cat blood donors, transfusion, steriods, the beautiful passing, cremation, closure with the ashes of Mocha, Junior & Tommy combined and 'went home' together.

It was a very tearful farewell, but like Mr Lee Kuan Yew, it is indeed good Karma, or fate/luck, to be able to pass on with charm and dignity, almost at perfect timing, and indeed we're blessed.

Without a doubt, 2016 will be the continued journey, with each passing breath, heartbeat, to look for memories that take my breath away, with renewed friendships, new acquaintances and more.

2015 Singapore Airlines Singapore Formula 1 Grand Prix!

It's a double happiness, the 2015 F1, with one of my favourite sports (as a spectator), + bucket-list-worthy Rock band of all time - Bon Jovi, it was a no brainer to get tickets to the 8th edition of the Singapore Formula 1 Grand Prix! Check out the very first F1 in Singapore at the 2008's edition.

This time, on Saturday, we went for walkabout tickets and hang around Turn 7, the only potential overtaking spot on the whole track. It was a 34 degree night with extreme humidity. I've also 'let go' of my cameras and turned to a 'true fan' for the first time and just watching the qualifying. It's also a first which I had 'live' update via Fox Sports Plus on mobile (via subscription from Starhub). The 1 hr session used up 1Gb of data, which is pretty decent, considering a 'Kangaroo rental unit would cost $100?. It was off to Maroon 5, as the missus idolises Adam Levin. Sorry no images here as we stood against fellow fans like sardines for 45mins to wait for the band to start at 1120pm in a high heat/humidity environment. The concert was pretty good, with Adam showing his vocal poweress and the band mostly playing supportive roles.

 On saturday, I parked at Purvis street which was within walking distance to Padang Entrance 3, but it was a heck of a jam out of Padang towards esplanade underpass to Exit 3. On Sunday, the strategy shifted. Entrance 4 was right next to Padang and we parked at Funan and walk a very short distsance to the entrance! It was off scouting for a decent view, with Turn 10 here very near to the guard rails and cars passing accelerated out of turn 10 before a slight lift to slow for the right turning Turn 11! The Fox Sports Play stopped halfway at ~2GB total download and no matter what I did, the program won't no longer play. It was off for beers and freshments at the Padang while waiting (Seated down!) for Bon Jovi!

 Oh did I mention Ferrari broke Hamilton's duck of potentially 8 straight poles and drove Mercedes off the podium completely for the first time this year?

It was then Bon Jovi's turn, which started earlier at round 1020pm. The band immediately sounded fuller and better than Maroon 5's previous performance. Bon Jovi Live in London 1995 is one of the best ever concerts I've seen on DVD, though 2015 is 20 years passed and especially without Sambora, the Bon Jovi is a tad different. It was still a superb show, with many goose-pimple moments of watching a 'life long dream' fulfilled. I'm pretty much a bigger Cranberries fan or even Roxette's, but Bon Jovi to me is not so much a 'sing along' band, but a really Rock type of band. Special moments include the acoustic version of Saturday Night Live, showcasing Jon's voice to the fullest in a quieter song. Jon did miss quite a few high notes during the latter songs but I wasn't too bothered. Runaway (1984) in the encore, was really memorable, being literally their first ever hit single during a time when Richie wasn't an official member of the band yet. The finale Livin' on a Prayer is an fitting hit for this 'once in a life time' experience!

Finally we're back after the the 2008 and 2009's edition. 2010/2012/2014 were spent overseas and the other 2 years were spent watching the Telly!

June: Of 28th SEA Games and NBA Finals

What an NBA 2015 finals! I was a huge fan from the 1992 Bulls era, till it faded a little in the post Jordan era, followed only a tad of the Kobe/Shaq or the Robinson/Duncan era. June has always been a fond memory of mine as it's a period of NBA, with several mornings glued to the TV. Being rather flexible with my time, I followed game 5 and 6, and this young chap Stephen Curry was electrifying when the time matter with ultra fast crossovers, clutch 3 pointers and left handed lay ups.Golden State was a truer team and the self-declared 'I'm the best player in the world' - Lebron James; when asked why should the Cleveland Cavaliers win the championship.

Till the 2016 season, I love this game!

Prelude: The 28th sea games were back to Singapore after a 22 year wait. I remembered Joseclin Yeo literally carrying the Singapore team on her back in 1993, with ultra super exciting relays with the team trailing after the 3rd swimmer and Joscelin Yeo lighting up the pool with her power being the anchor and catching up with other teams and finally winning in the final seconds. I guess swimming its so ultra exciting compared to say the any sprints up to 200m, where anything longer on the track, it's difficult to have such to and fro type, even for relays as they loop around an entire stadium. In 1993, Joscelin would turn fulfil her destiny from being a sports girl/woman of the year to the 1993 SEA games most bemedalled swimmer of 9 golden shiny medals. Fast forward to 2015 and an almost brand new generation of young athletes have taken over the leadership from Joscelin and crew. It's also an era of rebirth for Singapore with a new National Stadium in a spanking Sports Hub, a totally transformed Marina Bay area, world class performing arts venue - Esplanade. We are 8 years into the iphone/smartphone era, making this the very first games with several (i think 8) channels on simultaneous live-telecast on Toggle.sg. This SEA games was truly memorable, with a setting of SG50, a brand new stadium, the opening was in jeopardy of being pale by comparison as it had a completely boring middle section, ending with a very heartwarming final torch relays with several parent/child co-carrying the torch, with a heartwarming final torch bearers Fandi Ahmah and Irfan Fandi doing the final honours of lighting the cauldron. I had hair standing up on my forearm for the salute, and memories of the 2015 YOG came flooding back with the torch carried on water and being lighted in a tornado like spinning make-shift cauldron on the floating platform.

A golden games: I was glued to the telly every night after work, with Swimming finals having majority of Singapore swimmers taking to the top step of the podium, and a majority of games were won in record time. (where previous records were mostly set in 2009 in the 'fast suit' era). The top swimmer was Joseph Schooling, a teenager about to turn 20years of age, a beast, gladiator, smirker-a-tad-arrogant-deserving true blue Singaporen son. Schooling blasted to 9 gold medals, in every single event he entered, ala Joscelin Yeo in 1993. Other notable mentions in the pool were Tao Li (queen of sprints in the backstroke / fly, Ting Wen, Zheng Wen (king of backstroke)).  Other uber games were the Female Netball finals against Malaysia which had me on the floor (off the edge of my chair from minute 1), and cheering and shouting at my telly everytime Charmaine Soh makes a shot. Yet more games included Silat, Bowling, sailing, canoeing. Not worth mentioning in the same sentence are table tennis and football.

Kelly Latimer: One of the most welcoming host, Kelly's persona makes you feel like you're in her living room. Similar to Paula Abdul (Formula 1 @ Star Sports, (now Fox sports), Kelly is pretty, articulate, asks the correct questions and handle the pace of the interviews and nightly 1hr summary at 1030pm with poise. Countless athletes were interviewed and it's amazing how young there are (or how old I'm getting compared to the ever-green nature of athletes.

Summary, a wonderful 84 gold haul for Singapore and a prideful couple of weeks!

Lea Salonga in concert

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_7Fy9nzRgVw

A top rate performer, I was so glad to catch her at her prime life, in the best of all settings: Esplanade concert all All her hits including pop songs (all of me, 1D, Grenade, etc), Disney's (Mulan's reflections, Aladdin's a whole near world, musical, Miss Saigon, Les Miserables were sung. Other top hits including Let it Go as well as Wicked as well as several of her personal favourite songs found their way on the song list too!

Lea's realm is decisively musical, holding notes with precise power, clarity and endless tone. Giving Idina Menzel's Let it Go and Wicked a run for it's money, Lea didn't surpass, but offered a her perspective instead. It's a clear reminder that practice is critical, given that All of me wasn't done as perfectly (it was her second time performing it in 2 days).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fRXWgCOX6Rc

Time stood still when she belted out her hits from Miss Saigon and Les Miserables, what a singer! For A Whole New World, she asked a participant from the 'Philipine  - My Voice' as a co-singer. He did really well I thought, in the first few sentences, but was completely blown away when Lea opened up, such power, control and grace!

Lea also spent time to introduce each song, with such comfort and ease, and this was never surpassed in my visits to concerts. Yet another 'first' was a medley of dancing hits, where the audience was up on their feet, with Lea ending with Abba's dancing queen, owning it and wiping out any Abba or Kylie Minogue memories completely.

Lea touched based with her Filipino roots with an almost all Filipino band with her brother as her music director. She performed several Filipino songs much to the delight of an audience with significant numbers of the Filipino community.



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RGWC7icTM_E

Tuscany, of Sangiovese, Super Tuscans, and Chianina steak

A way over due post on the Tuscany trip. Planned amongst many, it was a trip for 8 pax, hardly easy to accommodate everyone. Here's a lunch stop in Parma, Ristorante Gallo d'Oro. The very best Parma ham I've ever tested! Not the least salty, these were mostly sweet like! nice bottle of castellardo to pair with it.

Our lovely Villa in Sienna. Way too cold to swim!

A little too cold for outdoor dining, we did have a very poorly made dinner and it was the only dinner for our week-long stay at the villa.

Yes, the drinking starts....

And the very next morning, the fight of the century between Pacquiao and May weather, and they had this FOC !(in italiant though), while in SG, we paid ~SDG$35 or so for Pay per view! brrr! And Pacquiao lost!! :(

Very touristy but still very post-card like, the city of Florence. our view during lunch!

 Lovely Barberas and Barbarescos.

Homage to my current favourite watch brand. The original Giovanni store in Florence!

Yes, I think the ultra rare time when I kept a paper bag..heheh.

Art is in the air, with street performers, opera singers lining corners in Florence.

One of the highlights of Tuscany is the Chianina steaks, costing 30-40 euros/kg, they're half the price as compared to in Singapore. We had 4-5 sessions of these in a week. Here Jolene knives the steak expertly.

The beautiful sloping vineyards of Tiganello.

 out of bounds to visitors, this was a treat for us.

 A short trip from Tiganello was the Antinori, a superbly giant

 Yes..I snuggled back a birth year bottle.

Pretty good 2012.

 A short distance from Tiganello was the Antinori facility, a boost of modern architecture what money can buy.

 A long bumpy trip to a cult maker, Trinoro!

An 'entry' cuvee but I really like this. Rose petals everywhere!

 One of the friendliest owner which allowed us to a private cellar and as usual, the boys would spend a ton on time on wine hunting.

A little steak overdose by now.

 An exceptional tour and history of Mastro Janni, pretty good juice too.

 Super simple lunch prepared by Mastro Janni.

 Mastro Janni and Podere Le Ripi are currently owned by Francesco Illy of the Swiss coffee company. The Amore Magia  Rosso is my favourite of the rasting.

 And every Farmer has their dog.

Francesco Illy has the plot with the highest density in the world, and it makes a out of the world wine, called the Bonsai.

 The generous Francesco Illy opening a bottle of his prized Bonsai.

 A 'last minute' stop was Biondi Santi. Elegance/long-live, never meant to be powerful. Very good indeed.

 My absolute favourite meal of the trip. Game of rabbit/Duck/wild boar! only 8 euros for the basic pasta!! We went back to this Trattoria in center of Sienna (only place we ate twice ).

 Rolling hills where at the top, stands Reddigaffi.

It was my favourite tasting of the trip, all the wines were good. The Bianco especially, which I almost finish half a bottle on my own!

 Never trusting Gallileo's experiments, a ticket was compulsory to exact the gravity experiments.

 But the view (and pants) and I forgot my steel balls and 1kg bags of feathers too, damn.

 Lame tourist spotted trying to 'lean' the tower.

The Tuscany sun, or simply the Mediterranean sun, when it hits the right angle, makes everything glow, here a lovely all white cat basking in the setting sun.

A place with 'everything truffles'. I was exhausted and didn't remember much of this meal.

Another wonderful tasting. Ornellaia! 

All the wines performed really well, 2nd best tasting after Tua Rita.

 The 2005 was ....delicious...

 And BBQ pork from Singapore did a wonderful pairing!

 Manicured gardens of the estate.

 A short drive to the beach for lunch.

 And it was Sa-ci-ca-ya after lunch...

 Spectacular rows of barrels behind glass doors.

 To be honest, the least 'wowed' tasting.

 A superbly easy * and homely restaurant.

 The Tuscan sun in all it's glory.

 And it was the end of the wine portion...it was onward to Florence for some last minute grabs before heading back to Milan--SG!

 Oh...last meal at my fav restaurant. And yes, we were CRAZY to order 2X 1.5kg slabs of MEAT... I was already RED with wine and beef for whole week, and moos could be hear from some of us.

 But...to die...with guts and blazing glory....and with two superbly drinking 1997s.... what's there to bemoan?

Special thanks to Mr Marcus Lai for arranging the most of the wineries. To all my friends. <3 forever.="" p="">