Called upon Derek for tea on our second day in Johore Bahru . He is 95 years old !

He is still lucid ( thank god !) as we were able to have a conversation with him . He does have short lapses of memory but he is aware of this . For instance , he would be telling us about his man servant who comes from Flores who looks after him and then he forgets what he was saying . I reassured him as this is fairly common but his mind works just fine . He was able to give me directions to the tea place .As usual , we had tea and cake at the Lavender . I was really happy to see him .

The next day , we took a bus into Singapore . We met up with my cousin, Liza  ( she is my second cousin actually as her mother and my mother are first cousins ) in Queens Street Bus Station in Singapore . We have kept in touch over the years because our mothers besides being cousins were good chums . Her late dad is one of the nicest persons that I ever have met . Even my dad says so and my dad does not attest such statements so easily .Her father  is Singaporean of Javanese descent and was a PAP ex- MP for Geylang  due to his work as a trade unionist in Singapore.

Liza is a better tourist guide than Ati haha . We had a walk around Kampung Glam but another hot day !

I did not know that Sg has royalty but maybe descendents of Sang Nila Utama , the founder of Sg ? I had promised to meet my other Sg friend Yaacub and his wife , Keiko for lunch . We had yummy nasi bryani & Sg murtabak ( got more meat in the murtabak than the murtabaks in KL ) at Zam-zam restaurant  suppose to be one of the oldest restaurant in Kg Glam.

I knew Yaacub and his wife Keiko from my Miri days as they were living in Bandar Seri Begawan as Keiko was working with the Japanese Embassy there . I had stayed with them in Bandar for a couple of times . So they are old friends and was great to see them again  looking so well .

After cake & coffee , we took a grab car to see the Jewel. Told Liza , lets get a grab as just too hot to be walking around .

Huge shopping mall in the Jewel too . We were glad to be in the mall as its lots cooler with the AC hahaha. By then, it was already 9 pm so we got a cab back to Queens Street to get on the bus to Johore Bahru . Said my good-byes to Liza   with the understanding that I will come again to Sg to either go to the Esplanades for to watch a teatre show or tea or both !! Haha

Overall, this trip had been productive as I met all the friends that I had intended to meet and did tasks on my check list of things to do for the Muar house.

I need to regularly visit the Muar house as a few more items that needs correcting by the contractor to sort out . Maybe I will write on this in my next blog !