During the course of my tenure as General Manager of the Royal Lake Club, I had to work closely with the then President, a prominent lawyer, and developed a great deal of respect for him for his straight shooting no nonsense style of character and management.

This cool dude is in his 60’s, rides a big bike and is fit as a fiddle, He eats healthy (read olive oil, wild honey and oats) and travels overseas on cases regularly.

So when I got to know last week that he had collapsed from a heart complicaton, was warded in a medical facility and had a stent implanted, it really shook me up. I was depressed, disappointed, despondent and disillusioned, feeling very helpless for his family.

He’s fine now and resting at home, but the episode has highlighted how bloody fragile life is. No matter how much precaution you take, how healthy a lifestyle you practice, when your number is up and the grim reaper comes for you, you have to go.

You may have noticed that I stopped posting your remarks some time ago. This is because you bunch are worse than the UMNO delegates when it comes to overreacting and misinterpreting things. Or maybe you purposely do it just to get my goat.

My post on Altantunya Shaariibuu was not meant as a joke. It was meant as a social commentary, a wake up call that such a horrendous crime can happen right here in Malaysia Nobody, male or female, Mongolian or Malaysian, deserves to be killed in such a despicable manner. Now can you lot please stop flaming me and calling me names?

Moral of the story? Life is short. Grab it by the throat and live it to the fullest.

A protégé whom I’ve sheltered, fed, allowed to use my car freely and introduced to friends, family and business contacts for just over a year now has grown too big for his boots.

To be fair, he did carry his weight earlier by running errands, driving and looking after me even better than my own family when I was ill We went through thick and thin together, sharing misfortune and laughter like brothers.

However lately he has developed a mean and sarcastic streak and managed to piss everybody off, resulting in a barrage of phone calls to leave him behind for future meetings.

Perhaps this story which I received forwarded via email will result as a timely reminder…

A wealthy old lady decides to go on a photo safari in Africa , taking her faithful aged poodle named Cuddles, along for the company.

One day the poodle starts chasing butterflies and before long, Cuddles discovers that he's lost.. Wandering about, he notices a leopard heading rapidly in his direction with the intention of having lunch.

The old poodle thinks, "Oh, oh! I'm in deep doo-doo now!" Noticing some bones on the ground close by, he immediately settles down to chew on the bones with his back to the approaching cat. Just as the leopard is about to leap the old poodle exclaims loudly, "Boy, that was one delicious leopard! I wonder if there are any more around here?"

Hearing this, the young leopard halts his attack in mid-strike, a look of terror comes over him and he slinks away into the trees. "Whew!", says the leopard, "That was close! That old poodle nearly had me!"

Meanwhile, a monkey who had been watching the whole scene from a nearby tree, figures he can put this knowledge to good use and trade it for protection from the leopard. So off he goes, but the old poodle sees him heading after the leopard with great speed, and figures that something must be up. The monkey soon catches up with the leopard, spills the beans and strikes a deal for himself with the leopard.

The young leopard is furious at being made a fool of and says, "Here, monkey, hop on my back and see what's going to happen to that conniving canine!

Now, the old poodle sees the leopard coming with the monkey on his back and thinks, "What am I going to do now?", but instead of running, the dog sits down with his back to his attackers, pretending he hasn't seen them yet, and just when they get close enough to hear, the old poodle says.

"Where's that damn monkey? I sent him off an hour ago to bring me another leopard!

Moral of this story?...

Don't mess with old farts...age and treachery will always overcome youth and skill! Bullshit and brilliance only come with age and experience.