It is with great sadness and shock to have learnt the passing of Derek. Believe or not, I was thinking about Derek in January and my eye was twitching for a couple of weeks and couldn’t make out what was wrong with it. At hindsight, I think it’s probably a sign telling me something had happened to a dear colleague and friend.

I remembered fondly his last visit to Singapore when we had a team buffet dinner with him and he couldn’t believed his eyes the amount of food the ladies could stomach as the food order never stopped. It was during the dinner that he fell in love with Chinese tea and expressed interest in getting some where I played tour guide taking him shopping in town the next evening.

I am also forever in debt to his kind words and assistance when a huge favour was asked of him and I’ll never get to repay the kindness. He was such a lovely and caring person and my deepest condolences to his family.