www.Go To The Mountain - Musings of a Potential Guru

We have a magnificent Sports Hub.  Singapore soccer needs a revival. If Liverpool have the Kops, Newcastle have the Toon Army, then I was a part of the famous Kallang Roar from the 70s. Today, it saddens me that when Liverpool or Manchester United play here, there were more fans wearing the foreign teams colours than ours. I read that a S-League Singaporean player wore Japan's colours when they played Singapore in a World Cup qualifier and got slammed in social media even as he explained that his son wanted him to wear that.  When Singapore plays as host to Thailand, Myanmar, the Philippines and even China, there were more of them than there are of us. What a shame! Well, maybe Singaporeans are too busy! So I decided to lead by example to watch Singapore play Syria at Kallang. Very impressive. Even the residential estates across and the skyline screamed beautiful! The silhouette of the setting sun made me wonder if our state of soccer are in that direction - just a glimme...

What an amazing week it was! Leicester City was last at this time last year but are now top of the table and their next opponent this week is second place Manchester United! Thanks to the hiccups suffered by Arsenal and Manchester City. Chelsea saved themselves blushes, Everton are in rampaging form, Tottenham are real title contenders, Liverpool are transformed in six weeks and look like Klopp machine running their opponents ragged. What a season this will be. Bournemouth v Everton - Bournemouth stemmed their bleeding of many losses by salvaging a point at Swansea and are now at home but having met and lost to Everton 3 times all in cup competitions, they host the Toffees who have lost only 2 times in their last 10 away matches and their recent goal spree and winning form - last time out with a 4-0 home thrashing of Villa must strike fear in any opponent. If Ross Barkley and Romelu Lukaku continued their red hot form, they will be hard to stop. It was so unfortunate that Callum Wi...

Nasi Briyani is a favourite for many. I have previously featured Taj at Mosque Street where they have additional dishes like chicken tikka, tandoori chicken, lassi (yoghurt drinks). A good nasi briyani, besides the long grain basmati rice, has to be fragrant and not oily. Taj does excellent briyani but their best briyani is the fish bryani. There is another crowd favourite at Beach Road, at a HDB block just behind the hawker centre where there is always a long queue. That one has a very good chicken curry. Very good too.  Then there is this one I knew but recently tried again after some time there is really as awesome. Dum briyani is cooked by using basmati rice with chicken or mutton marinated in awesome herbs and spices and is one the the most famous briyani recipes around the world now. And so I found myself coming to a favourite place of my youth when buying jeans and t-shirts at the Peninsula Shopping Centre (basement) and where I canvass for business as a sales perso...

The International Week is over, Spain cruised past England 2-0 even as the English cruised through their qualifiers. Meantime, in Singapore, we lost 0-3 to Japan. I am somewhat concerned with e trend of our local supporters and fans. When Japan played there may be more Japanese attending the match than Singaporeans. It is not easy for the Japanese to catch their national team play back home but then when Thailand, Myanmar, Philippines, China and whoever plays here, there seemed to be more of them than us. I am going to do my part. I got tickets to the Japan match but missed out due to other reasons. Now I am determined to go watch the Lions play Syria. Meantime, France had Germany beaten 2-0 in a friendly but many lost their lives to terrorists attacks nearby. Explosions could be heard inside the stadium. What a sad day.  Watford v Manchester United - Watford have no chance against United. Well that could just be an old statement. The Hornets are sitting just a point and ...

I used to walked past this place to and fro my car park. There was once a quiet food court here. It is a small and quiet park - the Duxton Park. Two years ago, I wrote about the Duxton Plain Park: http://gforce-guru.blogspot.sg/2013/06/duxton-plain-park.html There is a Bodhi tree here also known as the Boh Tree where Buddha once sat below it to meditate. The Bodhi tree has heart-shaped leaves. Now I have found even more reasons to be here. The quiet food court of old has been transformed by a few enterprising people into the "Essen @ The Pinnacle''. Essen is a name of a city in Germany in the Ruhr Valley and Rhine Rivers. It is also a German word which means to dine and eat. When I walked in, I immediately like this place. This is place where you can get restaurant food at much more reasonable prices. If you love French, you can get your duck confit, escargo, salads and many more here - get it from Garcons. Why do commando and  pilot badges always have t...

Liverpool finally won a match and avenged the team that caused them to lose the title. Chelsea continued with this year's surprising downward spiral. Arsenal dispelled some doubts. Leicester continued their fairy tale with bravery. Manchester United were once again dismal. Newcastle were unlucky. Manchester City were made to labour. Watford put on a gutsy shift to shock West Ham. Everton were stunning as they crushed Sunderland. Southampton were steady and assured.  Bournemouth v Newcastle - Both sides have only met 6 times in all competition with 2 wins apiece and 2 draws. The visitors have no won 10 of their last 12 away games. While the Magpies are getting a little better, Bournemouth have gone South. If not for the heroics of Stoke goalie Jack Butland, Newcastle would have won with a handsome margin last week. Bournemouth toiled hard to no avail and offer no answer to the Saints in game week 11. They have a 1 point difference so whoever wins go higher up. Dra...