My Perfect Weekend with actor Lim Kay Tong
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Lim Kay Tong, doing his morning exercise on his stationary bicycle.
PHOTO: COURTESY OF LIM KAY TONG
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Who: Singaporean actor Lim Kay Tong, 71, returns to the big screen in The Old Man And His Car, home-grown director Michael Kam’s debut feature premiering on Nov 28 at the Singapore International Film Festival. The film follows Hock, an elderly widower preparing to migrate to Canada, who finds himself increasingly reluctant to part with his vintage Mercedes-Benz sedan.
Lim’s career spans five decades across stage, television and film. He appeared in local director Eric Khoo’s 1995 movie Mee Pok Man and played the family patriarch in the TV series Growing Up (1996 to 2001).
He is married to Singaporean food writer Sylvia Tan and the couple have one son and two grandchildren.
“I’m a creature of habit and I like routine. The only excitement I get is from my work as an actor. The unpredictability comes from that, but I guess I like to cocoon myself in some kind of routine.
I usually get up between 6 and 8am on a Saturday if there’s no filming. Throughout my career, we’ve had very early morning calls, sometimes 5 or 6am, so I’m quite used to it. It’s in my DNA somewhere.
The first thing I do is either go on the exercise bike at home or go for a walk. We live close to the Rail Corridor, so that’s convenient. That’s usually about an hour and a half.
Then, I come back and make some juice for my wife and myself. I hardly ever take breakfast, just juice.
After that, I sweep. We haven’t had a domestic helper for over 10 years and I’m a bit obsessive about it. That takes another hour and a half. By the end, it’s almost lunchtime.
I used to skip lunch, but since I married Sylvia 40 years ago, I’ve become a foodie. I research eating places to try out, and then we go for lunch on Saturdays. After that, an old habit from national service kicks in and I’ll catch a nap.
On Saturday evenings, we’ll probably go for a walk. If we want greenery, we go to Botanic Gardens. If we want an urban landscape, we head to Marina Barrage.
The highlight of my evening is Sylvia cooking at home. She has written nine cookbooks, so she can rustle up anything. One of my favourite dishes is lor kai yik, which is originally a Cantonese dish that the Peranakans adapted. It’s reddish in colour with chicken and pork. She also makes the best babi pongteh I know.
Lim Kay Tong in the film The Old Man And His Car.
PHOTO: SGIFF 2025
After dinner, we wind down by watching current affairs on news channels CNA, CNN or BBC, and then catch a few episodes of a drama before going to bed at about midnight.
We’re watching House Of Cards (2013 to 2018) starring Kevin Spacey on Netflix. It’s compulsive viewing. I like all the political machinations that go on. You can almost believe all that stuff does happen behind the scenes and the venality of it is a sight to see.
I also binge on rugby because I used to be a rugby player. When the season is off in the Northern Hemisphere, the Southern Hemisphere starts, so I get it all year round.
On Sundays, I get up fairly early to do the usual exercise and sweeping. Then, we go to mass at Church of St Mary of the Angels in Bukit Batok because Sylvia’s a Catholic. I’m not a believer, but I respect all religions.
We go to church with our grandchildren – a girl and a boy aged 12 and 10 respectively – and their parents. Weekends have become particularly important for me over the last 10 or 11 years because we get a chance to interact with them.
After church, I usually pick a place for us to have lunch together.
Sunday afternoons are spent wandering around buying food for the following week and then gently winding down. A tipple is also part of my life, so wine, and sometimes gin or whisky. That’s part of my ritual as well.
Thinking back, I realise the weekends have this pretty set routine unless I’m working. Then all the unpredictability and surprises pop up. But that’s how I like it.”
