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

During the international soccer break, Gareth Southgate got his break. First, he  introduced 3-4-3 formation for England and even as England lost 0-1 to Germany, they played a good game. Southgate may be less illustrious than others but I found him to be an intelligent manager. He amalgamated  the schooled, trained and available English talents from Chelsea's Conte, Pochettino's Tottenham, Guardiola's City, Klopp's Liverpool and Mourinho's United and tried a new solution.  When England took on Lithuania, he boldly played various players and dropped others. In came Michael Keane who is not even a seasoned international and plays for Burnley. Gary Cahill was dropped. Kyle Walker was again effusive. Adam Lallana will be a key player for Liverpool and England. He ran circles, was everywhere and made many telling passes often to his opponents' surprise and a midfield with him, Dele Alli and Raheem Sterling meant a future for a young England team which he is tryi...

I can't remember when Western food was first introduce to become hawker fare. However, I am quite sure that we have to thank our Hainanese brothers for it. Many of the earlier generation Hainanese have worked for the colonial masters as chefs and cooks, some even on board vessels and also in restaurants and hotels. The usual suspects of western food at hawker centres and coffee shops peddle mostly the standard fare of fish and chips, pork chops and chicken cutlets. The younger generation of hawkers are more flamboyant partly because Singapore has become more affluent and more upmarket. Western food is totally fine with me except that I could eat it every week let alone everyday. However, I find that our younger simply love it. Is it due to the fact that families seldom cook at home and there have been in influx of western influence as people travel so often these days?  I am sure you may know of "Collins'' who has 19 outlets island wide. I went to Collins quit...

WBA v Arsenal - The Baggies crashed at home to bottom team Sunderland (0-2) then went to Goodison Park and got trounced 3-0 but before that were going great guns. This signals trouble and a loss of form for Tony Pulis's team and it was poor preparation before hosting the Gunners who on the other hand after poor losses to Liverpool and Bayern Munich gave Lincoln a backlash of 5-0. You can't dismiss Lincoln for they have pulled off upsets over bigger and better teams before that. The last five encounters previously saw WBA won only once at the Hawthorns. Arsenal are in fifth and they have never missed out on qualification to the Champions League. It will spook them since they do now. The thing is that Arsenal have lost just once in twelve encounters with WBA and the host are suffering a drop in form as evidenced. There is nothing seriously wrong with Arsenal except that they lack a certain steel and could have been a tad more consistent. At the highest level, little things make...

I went to Bangkok in December because it is cooler and just a couple of hours away. Somebody asked me when was the last time I went there and I quickly said: "Last year." Then when I looked at my passport and I was wrong. It was only in June! So I shall give you a two-in-one update.  Such street stalls that dotted the streets are no more but were around in June. Bangkok authorities are cleaning up. In our first walkabout we stumbled onto something new. This cheese tarts that people queue for a few hours in Singapore was queue-free when they opened.  It is really very good. Would I queue for two hours for it? No way.  Bangkok has everything. I kid you not. Even special shoes! The famous Bangkok jam is an ever present. Recently reported and confirmed to be the world number one. Our dear host brought us to the usual favourite restaurant. They kept exotic pets there like chameleons and iguanas. Monkeys And even a baby crocodile. ...