Down-to-earth truths about being a diplomat

Footprints on Foreign Shores - Tales told by Foreign Service Officers Edited by K P Menon; 233 pages S$25 (Sales proceeds go to Dyslexia Association of Singapore)

WHEN Kenny Chan was stationed as a diplomat in England in the late 1970s, he was once given a seemingly small and easy task: Buy a tin of Ovaltine with honey for then visiting Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew's breakfast the next day. The catch is - the order came in the middle of the night, when all the shops were closed!

Through persistence, some quick thinking - born perhaps out of desperation - and sheer luck, Chan - to his great relief, which he still feels to this day - managed to get the requisite beverage. The story didn't end there. Chan later learnt that Lee didn't have the Ovaltine with honey the next morning. Go figure.