Lunch with Nicolas Hayek

Yesterday was quite an unusual day for me. I was badly affected by the sudden rise in temperature here. I made me sleepy and lethargic all day long despite my rather heavy schedule. The cups of coffee I gulped down didn't help either.

I also had the longest drive ever to Zurich - two and half hours when it should normally take just over an hour. Friday afternoon traffic! Fortunately I made it in time for a concert which I will write about in my next post.

I attended lunch with some colleagues (I complained to Aisya who organised it why was it held on a Friday when I should be at the mosque!). Our guest of honour, and sitting next to me was Nicolas Hayek. He was the President of Swatch Group AG (also called as Swatch Group Ltd.). He was the one who played a decisive role in the recovery of the Swatch Group with its watch brands Swatch, Blancpain, Omega, Longines, Rado, Tissot, Certina, Mido, Hamilton, Pierre Balmain, Calvin Klein, Brequet and Lanco. Apparently the strategies he developed in the early 1980s led to the success of the entire Swiss watch industry and regained its leading position worldwide since 1984. Hayek is also listed in Forbes list of the world's billionaires!

The Lebanese-born Swiss came across as a pleasant, interesting and articulate man of 81 years old, so full of zest and ideas. He was wearing four watches, two on each hand, complementing two Swatches with two other expensive brand watches. He was quite taken up with my watch - I was wearing a 1966 gold Omega Constellation in leather strap; I bought it in an antique market in Zagreb three years ago. I told him I collect old Omega watches in gold and he liked that, Omega being one of the brands in his stable. He talked about some of the spokesman for Omega like George Clooney and Nicole Kidman. Interesting! I should have asked him about Aiswarya Rai (for Longines) too. We also talked about Roger Federer, whom I thought showed a lot of modesty when he openly cried having lost to Nadal recently but Hayek thought otherwise! Federer was above him in the list of world billionaires and he jokingly said the crying incident should put Federer below him!!!

The man was interesting and knew everything! I threw in a few subjects and he had a view on all of them, very succinct ones too. It was indeed an interesting meeting and I was glad to have met the man and I look forward to meeting him again. I also asked him if I wanted to buy one final watch what brand should I buy (the director of the Watch Museum here told me a " Patek Philippe") and he unhesitatingly said an Omega. But my dear Mr Hayek, I already have five Omegas.....

The Olive Tree

If I am asked to choose only ONE tree for my garden, it will be an olive tree. Alas, olive trees do not grow just anywhere or in any climate. And certainly not in Malaysia .

I am not particularly fond of olives, but the olive tree is something else for me. Long before I ever saw one, an English colleague Elizabeth, who was working at the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) office in Hanoi at the time I was there used to tell me about her big old live tree in her country house in Todi, Italy. I developed a fascination for the tree listening to her stories about it.

Later when Elizabeth returned to her HQ in Rome, I too was transferred to that eternal city and I finally saw an olive tree (not hers though) and I fell in love with it ever since.

The olive tree is indeed special and has may significance. An olive branch is a symbol of peace. The tree live to hundreds of years, the old trunks making interesting formations. Its trunk and root can be made into many useful objects. The trees can be pruned to maintains its size and the older the trees get the more fruits they are likely to bear. I like the friendly branches and especially the leaves with their two-toned furry surface.

Nowadays the olive trees have become ornamental, grown in big terra cotta pots and used as decoration.

When I arrived in Lima, Peru, I did not like the house I inherited and immediately embarked on a search for a new house. I inspected some 20 houses, yet in the end settled for the very first house I saw. It was extremely well-designed and practical and had a nice garden each in front and at the back and was very well–furnished since the landlady was an interior decorator. But above all else, it was because the house was situated in an olive park, with many old trees that originated from the time of the Conquistadors (the Spanish introduced olive trees to Peru). In fact in the house high-walled gardens there were three very old, shady olive trees with beautiful rustic trunks. The landlady told me that the trees were protected by the local authority and she would sought their advice if she wanted to prune them.

In the second year I lived in that house, the olive trees had a record abundance of fruits. But you cannot eat olive fruits raw, they must be picked or pressed for their sought-after oil. My cook Leonor and the housemaid Hacinta would pick buckets of the black fruits that had fallen to the ground, or pluck them from the branches. Leonor soaked this in brine or salted water until they were pickled. And for the next few months I saw them, especially Hacinta, endlessly enjoying the pickled fruits, which she strangely ate in buns!

The olive oil is obviously good for health. Unfortunately for cooking Malay food, it just does not work!. Try cooking Malay food with olive oil and you will find the taste complete gone wrong.

The last thing I did before leaving Lima was to plant a small olive tree in front of our office building. That was seven years ago – I wonder how the tree is today....

Rossana, the next time you are back in Lima please check it out. Keith can make some photos and sent them to me. Muchas gracias!

Australia

Today Australia observes a day of mourning for victims of bush fires that swept mercilessly through Victoria state killing more than 200 people. What a tragedy. My sincere condolences to the families of the victims and may Victoria rise again from the ashes!

A few weeks ago I saw the film AUSTRALIA . I liked it, though I thought it was a bit too long. The scenes between Nicole Kidman and the half-native boy was rather indulgent too – going on and on and on! Hugh Jackman was terrific and lived up to his newly-crowned title! Wonder how he will fare as host at tonight's 81st Academy Awards ceremony.

The film stirred memories my stay in Australia. It also made me think why till now I had not written anything about my time in Australia.

I guess it is because my stay in that country was short (and sweet), just barely two and a half years. And it was rather uneventful – everything went well and there were no controversies or stress at work. Most Australians I met have had some connection with Malaysia and thought well of our country. Australia hosted thousands of students from Malaysia and there was a huge and growing alumni of students who had studied there. And of course thousands of Malaysian have made Australia their home (and aunt of mine has lived in Perth for more than three decades with her entire brood). So there is indeed a strong bond between the people and between the countries. The Australian government and media sometimes have their very own views about Malaysia, but that's another story!

I lived in Canberra and it was like no other city in the world. It was clean and quiet, very spread-out and well-organised, a truly planned city with no clutter and bustle. Is was like living in one endless manicured park. A first time visitor might even wonder where the city was as there was no big commercial hub, instead convenient business centres spread out discreetly all over. Living in such an ideal situation risked being boring but I was never bored in Canberra although it took a while to get used to it in the beginning.

Having spent some ten years in Europe, it was quite a cultural shock coming to Australia. What struck me was what a young country it was (anything more than 45 years was considered antiquity). And the vast openness of the place – you could drive on and on endlessly to practically nowhere!

I loved the quality of life in Australia. The fresh air, the open spaces, the freshness and quality of the food, the excellent facilities and services, and the whole EGALITARIAN thing. I always tell people that my stay in Australia was the healthiest period of my life – no stress, no language problem, NO TRAFFIC JAMS, good television and radio, lots of books, music, art, films and theatres and the friendliest and ‘matey’ of people who says it as it is!

I made many friends and travelled quite a bit within Australia (which was rather expensive for me then). But I took every opportunity to spend my real holidays outside the country – which took me to New Caledonia (another subject to write about some time), back to Malaysia and to Europe. I did a lot of gardening in my big garden and I loved visiting the Australian nurseries and farms. The way the Australian cared about their environment was somethig I really admired.

Canberra is often the butt of jokes because of its quaintness and uniqueness. Prince Philip of England was reported to have referred to it as ‘the cemetery’. I guess if I was living in Sydney, or Melbourne or some other bigger and normal’ city in Australia my stay would have taken a different turn. But in Canberra it was as if I was under constant sedation. And I didn’t mind it really, for that period of time. And I am really looking forward to returning to Australia again and again when I retire to visit my friends.

Good on ‘ya mate!

Serendipity in Sri Lanka

Sri Lanka has lately been much in the news – and again for the wrong reasons. The ongoing conflict and civil war between the government and the Tamil separatist organisation has over the years given the country a very negative image and has all but prevented the country from attracting tourists and developing its tourism industry. Which is a pity as Sri Lanka is one very interesting country with so much to offer all within the confine of a small island.

In 1978 I spent an 8-day holiday in Sri Lanka with a friend, travelling through many parts of the island. It is one of my most memorable holidays.

We arrived in Colombo and checked into the Galleface Hotel which was a sort of ‘heritage’ hotel in the same light as the Raffles in Singapore, except it had not been properly refurbished then. By tradition we were not given a key to the room and there was always a dhoti-clad attendant outside our room, waiting to open or close our door as we come in or go out, and just be there as some sort of sentinel. I found it strange and a bit unnerving at the time.

The next day we decided to go to Kandy, the cultural and spiritual capital of Sri Lanka . It was a few hours train ride away. But for some reason the train was so full of people your could hardly move in it. People were on the floor and at every available space, even on the roof. An eager-beaver of a young man approached us and explained that Kandy was hosting a grand Perihara (parade) that evening for the inauguration of Sri Lanka’s Second President Julius Richard Jeyawardene. He offered me to be our guide and warned us we would never find our way in all that enormous crowd, what more an accommodation.

We declined but the young man kept himself stuck us. And he as right! When we arrived in Kandy, there was an endless sea of people and it was almost impossible to move around, what more to find our directions. So the young man Hassan, a Sri Lankan Muslim, became our guide.

I had never seen so many people crammed in one place as on that day in Kandy. Of course all the hotels were full but Hassan found us a room in one Mrs. De Silva’s Guest House at a very central location. What a relief. We were warmly welcomed by a most eager (must be a Sri Lankan character) Mrs. De Silva who promptly served us tea and went to great length to explain how Sri Lankan tea should be properly brewed etc. She sadly lamented that in the whole of Kandy she could not find the nail polish Cutex and wished we had brought her some! We were quite amused but entertained by the kindly Mrs. De Silva, who could hardly stop talking.

That evening, Kandy had it’s biggest Perihara ever with some 100 constituencies represented at the parade. An endless precession of decorated elephants, dancers, musicians and acrobats, fire eaters, you name it! It was quite an unforgettable spectacle of colours and sounds. Hassan sneaked us into the VIP stand and being foreigners, no one asked us anything! The parade went on till late into the night and as we went back to the Guest House, what remained on the street were endless miles of elephant’s droppings!

The next day we moved into the elegant Queen’s Hotel, another heritage sort of hotel. It was adorned everywhere with generous bouquets of anturium, a flower I like very much. We stayed on in Kandy for a few days and visited many places and saw many interesting things. Buddhism supposedly originated in Sri Lanka so there were many things to see related to the history of Buddha, including his relic (a tooth) at one of the temples.

Hassan got us a car and a pleasant young driver and thereafter accompanied us to various other important places in Sri Lanka – Sigiriya with its enormous rock with the ancient city atop it, Anaradhapura, Poolonarowa and others. And finally to Galle from which we took an interesting train ride back to Colombo, the train running along the coast, the railway tracks practically suspended above the Indian Ocean. At every stop young boys or girls would get into the coach and sing a very hurried song with an outstretched palm for alms, and quickly jump out as the train moved on. It was hilarious (the way they sang through the song) but sad at the same time. In fact most everywhere we went, children would follow us asking for alms.
On our last evening at the Mount Lavinia Hotel on the beach, I watched a spectacular sunset befitting all the other spectacular sights I saw earlier during my journey through Sri Lanka. At dinner the waiter asked me where I was from and when I told him Malaysia he excitedly pointed to us the dessert menu which offered a specialty, 'Malay Delight'!

It was indeed one of the most interesting and memorable holidays I have ever had. There were hardly any tourists yet despite what the country had to offer. I love the easy pace of our visits and the quaint places we stayed at. But the heat was something else. At every temple we visited, we had to take our shoes off and it was then like walking on a hot plate or a frying pan!

The word “serendipity” meaning 'the faculty of making happy and unexpected discovery by accident' coined by Horace Walpole originated from the original name of Sri Lanka, 'Serendip’ and it described the country aptly. It really has so much to offer and yet the country does not attract visitors as it should with all the problems it has been going through since the civil war started in 1983. I feel lucky to have seen the country before the trouble began.

Even back then, people asked me why I chose Sri Lanka for a holiday. My own family suspected I went there as an extension of pursuing my courses in yoga and meditation! Well it was really my friend’s idea, and what a great experience it was. Thank you dear.

I hope one day Sri Lanka will finally be able to open its door wide and free for the world to see all the beauty and wonders it has to offer.

Note : Where I am here today, thee are some forty thousands Sri Lankan Tamils who came as asylum seekers and have been granted resident status. They have integrated well in the country and are employed in many fields and seem to have gained the trust and confidence of the local people and authority. Their number may be growing with more family reunions and marriages with partners from Sri Lanka taking place .

Contemporary Hand-painted Batiks

Earlier on I posted photos of some block-printed and multi-waxed-dyed traditional Malaysian batiks on cotton. Here are some hand painted ones on silk, exclusively from the workshop of my dear friend Kartini Illias (they are my shirts actually!) of iKARRTINi Batiks. http://www.ikarrtini.com/

Kartini has been in the batik business for some 15 years and owns a ladies boutique and a men’s shop of only silk wares in the 5-star shopping complex the Suria KLCC under Kuala Lumpur ’s famous Petronas Twin Towers. She has also recently opened another outlet in the posh new Tang’s Pavilion at Jalan Bukit Bintang.

Kartini has one the years dressed many local dignitaries and visiting world leaders, personalities and luminaries (including Hollywood ’s Mel Gibson) with her batiks.

In June last year I invited Kartini to do two batik fashion show here and it was a runaway success with some 400 guests attending the shows. The beautiful summer weather on that day wonderfully complemented her clothes on parade.

I subsequently recommended her to my colleague in New Delhi and in late November she did a show in New Delhi and Mumbai each. Weeks before that she did successful shows in Beijing and Shanghai .
I wish you more and greater success in the coming years Kartini dear.

Note 22/2/2009: I have just been informed that next week Kartini's batiks, together with a few renowned Malaysian products will be launched in London's HARRODS and will henceforth be available in that landmark departmental store. Congratulations Kartini!

See video : http://youtu.be/HWOCV6_Okr8

Simeon Gonzales Ayquipa

Simeon, good luck and all the best with your exhibition in Spain. I will be in Alicante from 6 - 9 April.

These last two are hand-painted and waxed batiks on silk. When Simeon visited me in 2004 I sent him for a few days to Trengganu and while there he spent some time in a batik workshop learning and experimenting batik making. The above is a result of his effort.

Mrs Hetman's House

From 1988 to 1992 I lived in Warsaw, Poland for nearly four and half years in three different houses.

I inherited the first house from my predecessor and disliked it from the beginning. It was small and connected to another house and it was near the airport and I could hear all the landings and take-offs and taxiing of planes. I managed to persuade my HQ to let me move and I was out of the house within a month.

The second house was modern and rather luxurious by Polish standard. It was in a leafy neighbourhood, near a small, pretty round about. It had four floors including a spacious basement, and a nice garden with a plum tree that fruited generously in summer. A few doors away lived Poland’s most prodigious and celebrated film director Andrej Wajda, but I never met him!

I did not have a good rapport with the landlady though as I found her rather mean/stingy (in Malay we say ‘berkira’). During my two-years stay, I was once burgled while I was at the opera. The thief only managed to enter my bedroom on the 3rd floor and took away my cash, watches AND my documents! Strange enough my documents – passport, legitimation cards, driving license and check book were later wrapped in newspaper and thrown in somebody’s garden in a small town 50 kms from Warsaw. The lady who found it was kind enough to call my office and I gladly received my documents back.

When my contract was about to end the landlady asked for a preposterous 80% increase in the rent if I wanted to stay on. I duly submitted it to my HQ and was resigned to looking for another house as there was no way I was going to get that amount of increase approved.

But against all odds, I did get the increase approved. But the landlady was only willing to let me stay on another three months with the increased rental. And she had the audacity to tell me that she only wanted the three months rental to renovate her kitchen – which was in fact the worst feature of the house.

Well, there was no way I was going to let her have her cake and eat it too. I was determined to find another house.

As luck would have it, a neighbour diagonally across from my house one day rang my doorbell, introduced herself and invited me to visit inspect her house. More like her small castle I thought of that imposing house right at the round about, which was beyond my dream till then. Standing at a landing on the grand staircase underneath a huge glittering chandelier amidst an opulent surrounding inside the house, I remember thinking if only I could have this house.

I thanked her and said there was no way I could afford to rent her house. A few days later she rand my bell again and asked how much I could pay her and I quoted the sum that my HQ had recently approved. Next day she came around and said I could have her house for that rental, and added that she had the French, the Arab and a multinational company wanting to rent her house at a much higher rental, but she wanted ME to stay in her house.

So at the appointed time I moved into Mrs. Hetman’s house, just across the road. She and her adult son Konrad moved out only with their clothes, and their huge dog Bartek! She drove off in her big Mercedes and Konrad in his sporty BMW. And we were then in Socialist Poland! I was amazed at her wealth and her total ease about it at a time when the country was so poor and struggling. When I asked her why she did not take away at least some of her precious things like her antique porcelains, silvers and paintings, she told me to just enjoy and look after them. She said she was tired of living in and looking after that huge house after her husband died and with her chronic back problem and wanted to live in an apartment close to her mother in the town Lodz, some hours’ drive from Warsaw.

I remember thinking, was I playing caretaker or what, and paying for it too! I was also anxious that the house would not have my personal identity, but it worked out in the end.

A few weeks later, a beautiful little kitten fell into my basement washing room from the garden. He became my lovable pet I named Jing. And we lived happily in that opulent home for the next two and half years till my final departure from Poland.

A lot of things happened in Poland in those years I lived in Mrs. Hetman’s house. The Berlin Wall tumbled down, the Iron Curtain came crashing down and Communism disintegrated. I went through a rough time at work and most difficult emotional period of my adulthood.

But it was always good to come back to my very own sanctuary – Mrs Hetman’s grand, opulent house, which had taken a character of its own with a combination of my select personal belongings and Mrs. Hetman’s, and cared for lovingly by my loyal maid Irena who had been with me from the very first house.
Mrs Hetman, where ever you are today - Sto lat, sto lat! Dziekuje Pani bardzo!