An enlightening Nobel Prize Laureate!

Donnerstag, 16. Juli 2009

I've just returned from a lecture given by the NP Laureate of 1991, Prof Richard Ernst, and was very much treated to a wonderful feast of the brain and soul. What an enlightening enlightened speaker! Crossing disciplines such as Buddhist philosophy, intercultural (Sino-Tibetan) history, art, chemistry and painting, he beautifully fused sciences and arts into a memorable tapestry very naturally in simply expressed English.

His lecture started by threading the ancient sources of colored paints and their enrichment of the Tibetan palette into the broader panorama of the fascinating Tibetan painting and its expression of Buddhist philosophy followed by the spread of Buddhism in the stories on the thankas, to the use of science and chemistry to restore and interpret the age of the thankas and paints, and finally reaching the 'nirvana' of how science could be injected into art and vice-versa to give 'soul' for service to humankind. It was the emphasis on spirituality peppered with the childlike scientific curiosity which I enjoyed very much. I am very glad that I went to the talk.

On top of the whole pleasurable experience of coming face-to-face with the first Nobel Prize Laureate whom I have met, I was very much struck by his gentleness and humility. He didn't make me feel like I was a fool at least! Then I wished all those big-ego academics had come to say 'hello' to him.

Unlike many others who arrived with their digital cameras, I went without any idea of how the man would look like, what his background was...I wonder now why I was so 'unprepared'? I am glad though that he gave me his card with his address and contact numbers at ETH. Well, at least that's another 'earthly connection' back to a slice of this wonderful lecture. He really made me think of my dear Swiss friends...
*I pray that I will be able to visit them next year in Davos.

BBQ & Home Parties

May & June 2009: U-san has returned to Sing. for a short while. A younger colleague tagged along so that he could be 'trained' by U-san in this new equatorial market. A and I were invited to their BBQ party at F-san's, another more senior colleague's home.

We arrived 30 minutes' late after picking up some good fruit in Holland V. A. had guessed that his Japanese friends would not have fruit but rather sake, shochyuu and perhaps, wine. I'd wanted to get a light yummy strawberry shortcake at Bakezin but changed my mind.

A's choice finally turned out to be excellent as we looked at the food that was being prepared for us when we arrived:

We chatted more than we ate, then at the end of the party, took another picture in remembrance of this 'male' 'carnivorous' get-together:

A. didn't mind 'starving' - he thought that the company was more important. I was never a BBQ fan... so when R. (U-san's wife) called us over to her place for dinner with F-san when her husband went to Osaka, I was glad it was going to be at her new rented apartment.

Mmm...I really like her apartment. It overlooks the Pasir Panjang Wharf, is cozy and has a reasonably sized swimming pool. I recall coming to see the showflat but did make any pick. It's not a freehold-property, anyway.

I 'grazed' and 'grazed' on what was before me on the table. They were all delicious.
R. served the appetizer which I like to prepare for my own gatherings but added ham rolls:

She revealed her 'secret': easy ingredients and dishes- that means, dishes that can be prepared the day before (see first picture above). A classic example was her beef tataki:

Next, chirashi-zushi. This is common enough, but use real salmon:

Then the cabbage rolls with minced beef which can be cooked hours before as well:

Oh, we were all gluttonous! R. pulled out the last course. It was a very 'browned' almond cake that she baked; F-san gobbled two notwithstanding! The muscat tea from Japan was exceptionally fragrant and ended our night very memorably.