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

Spring has come to Singapore! While many countries have the four seasons, Singapore has only three - hot, hotter and the hottest. In Chiangmai and Bangkok, Thailand, temperatures came down to 2 and 15 degrees respectively. Friends in Suzhou and Beijing, China told me it was as cold as minus 5 to minus 8 degrees. Even in Singapore, we are experiencing the most windy and coolest period this time of the year where it is actually spring during the Chinese Lunar New Year. Sitting in an open space for food and a couple of cold beers after a golf game for an hour or so will make you feel so chilled by the last 15 minutes. In many other places, the breeze has been gentle but incessant and one could feel it brushing against your face while standing by the window gazing out watching life goes by. It brings back fond memories during the childhood days gazing towards the playground watching others play. Those were days when Chinese New Year ( CNY ) means a lot to look forward to. The ...

About 50 years ago, in Redwood, California, a man named Karsten Solheim, a General Electric engineer had a problem with his putting and could not find a putter to his liking. So he designed and built a putter for himself. It was an unique putter which he called the A1 and which makes a distinctive "ping" sound at impact thus the Ping Golf brand was born. He started selling his putters from the backyard of their home. Some years later, Solheim went on to unveiled an inspirational putter which was so iconic that even today all the major golf brands has one design modelled after it. The Ping Anser was created and enjoyed by millions of golfers around the world today. It was originally named as "Answer" but due to the limited space on the back toe of the putter which could only accommodate 5 letters, the "w" was dropped and it became the "Anser". When he first got the original idea and inspiration, the only paper he could find was a 78-rpm slee...

Handicap It is not about ordering frog legs then watching the frogs being pushed out from the kitchens in wheel chairs. Golf is the only game in the world where you play without an umpire. It has to be honest. It is also the only game where you can ind ulge in with competitors bigger, taller, stronger and more skilful than you that's where the handicap comes in. It is totally and is the most equitable sport. Have a tennis game with Roger Federer, a race with Lewis Hamilton, a race in the pool with Michael Phelps, etc. and you get the picture. A golf handicap is important as first and foremost, in anything that one can indulge in, what is of paramount importance is always safety. Even if you consider other sports like fishing, rock clumbing or bungee jumping. The handicap is also a kind of licence to play the game and at some golf courses determine whether you could just play on a weekday only or including a weekend. It can also help you to get some extra helpings i...

Mirror, mirror on the wall. Who is the one with the Golden Ball? Once in awhile, comes a genius of a soccer player who whenever a ball is at his feet, you expect something special to happen. I was indoctrinated and soccer crazy when I was at Victoria School since the school A, B and C teams are usually in some kind of semi-finals and finals. We watched our teams played in our very good school field where even the National Team used to train where we watched our famous 1977 Malaysia Cup winning team trained under the eagle-eyed late and legendary Uncle Choo. Then the highlights of the 1970 World Cup "The World at Their Feet" captured my imagination at the time they were ushering the 1974 World Cup. That was where I embarked on a journey of acquiring soccer knowledge with dosiers of Eusebio the Portuguese Black Panther, the world's best goalie Gordon Banks, the great Bobby Moore, the unstoppable and thundering shots of Bobby Charlton, the first and ever world cup h...

300 (M18) Ratings***** 300 starring Gerard Butler is a spectacular movie with stunning visuals and must not to be missed. The epic graphic novel by Frank Miller spills your screen with the blood, thunder and awe of its ferocious battle violence and a very intense blend of action sequence retelling the ancient Battle of Thermopylae depicting the titanic clash in whcih King Leonidas and 300 Spartans fought to the death against King Xerxes and his massive Persian army.  Rated M-18, it is a battle still being told today of the Spartans fighting abilities, bravery, tactics and how they overcame great odds. All people who aspire to overcome great odds and in need of inspiration for victory and courageneed to watch this movie. While before this historical event, all nations would meekly surrender, they were later inspired by the Spartans and fought the Persians. Such a good movie can be had for only S$6.95 and can be found at Laser Flair outlets if you have not already seen...

Teaching & Education Less teaching and more learning. In the western world, children ask plenty of questions and teachers engaged them as an interaction. Here, teachers ask you to shut up and don't ask so many questions. In our time, many students got slapped on their faces and knocked on their heads and even pinched at the waist umpteen times so much so that we may have lost our original look and mind and if you go home and tell your parents, you get another dosage of the same.  Many could still not recite A-Z in primary one compared to today's children who are literate way before P1. There is no doubt that we have an excellent education system, result-wise churning out students who could ace their exams. But is education just about grades? Or is an overall development into a more than decent human being capable of independent thinking instead of through rote learning? we certainly have the IQ but how about our level of EQ?  Sad to say we score poorly in this ar...

Forgiveness Our human heart and condition are built on unforgiveness. We are sensitive to many things and yet insensitive to others in everything. We only consider our own feelings because our soul residing inside of us could feel the pain when we hear or see something we do not like. It is funny when the other fellow has mud on his face but the fun is different when the mud is on yours. Isn't it true that we offend without even knowing or bother to be careful and feel offended by something that is not even there.  We never remembered when we hurt others, try counting and you wouldn't even recall. Now try to remember who has offended you - Wow!! The names pour out like an internet search with pages of contents. Some of you may even keep a black book to blacklist people. Some organisations has managers who keep a record of wrong doings. How does a staff feel good when it felt like someone is watching to catch you making mistakes or take a wrong step?  What about t...