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

Group A - Greece v Russia  (1-0) The Great Greek Bailout! If only they could do the same for their economy. They came as minnows but they edged out favourites Russia in an amazing show of defiance. Russia will be leaving  disappointed for they have shown great hope. The Russians are now left with rebuilding for the World Cup. The Greeks showed us that life's battles and victories do not always go the strong and swift. They were tough as nails and they scored! Now Germany awaits them. Interesting to see if the Germans could break them down.  Group A - Poland v Czech  (0-1) Who would have expected the Czechs to bounce back the way they did after that crushing 1-4 defeat by Russia? Poland did everything and threw their all to try to wrestle a win over the Czechs but to no avail. The Czechs topped their group and will now face Portugal in the quarters. Group B - Denmark v Germany  (1-2)  Germany has not defeated Denmark for 16 years and has ...

Give a man a fish and he eats for a day. Teach him to fish and he will sit in his boat drinking beer all day. When you do not know what else to eat and wanted a simple yet healthy meal, go for fish soup or fish porridge. There are some very popular stalls at Newton, Toa Payoh, Whampoa, Queenstreet, Amoy Street and you can even find good ones in the heartlands and the best fish to me is still the Batang fish (or Spanish Mackerel). It has no fishy smell, is sweet and juicy with a great texture but they are costly, easily fetching from $5 to $8 a bowl. Not only that. You won't get big chunky slices no matter how generous the hawkers.  Fisherman by profession is a tough life. You may think they get lots of dough for their catch but they offload them to wholesalers for auction and then they got to the market. It's not like they can get Michael Jordan or Tiger Woods to do the adverts and pay huge amount, thankfully no. Therefore, a better way is to get your own fi...

The very first time I had food from No Sign Board was at a food centre at McPherson at the Jackson Place. They had one of the best if not the best chili crab. Buying two huge crabs for take away would set you back by about $50 but they were really yummy and mind you, you have to wait for at least half an hour if lucky. This place of course is no more. The business has become a popular chain of restaurants. I had the opportunity to try this one at Vivo City. No Signboard actually has a signboard. The ribs were good. Coffee ribs. We had some fresh vegetables with mushrooms and toufu. Sweet and sour pork was pretty good too. Oats prawn. Actually I just need the oats. Steamed Garoupa is always good but these good stuffs like some fish, crabs, lobsters, etc. like to come with a "Seasonal Price" which can be quite frightening. I am not sure if I can tell my boss for some months of my work, I would like to charge a seasonal price. Like the fish, stormy...

Can you imagine yourself taking a one month sabbatical to be at Polkraine - I mean, Poland and the Ukraine to be at European soccer's pinnacle? Europe is in recession but look at the crowd at the stadiums. In a tournament like this, all you need is to peak at the right time for six matches and you can be crowned champions! Even if you have the money you may not have the time or vice versa. Ah! If only West and East can have a bit of each other. The tournament for Euro 2012 has kicked off with little surprises.  What was it like for the first matches for every team? How may they proceed from here? Group A - Poland v Greece (1-1) My Prediction: 1-0. We were expecting Greece to be ultra defensive but the Greeks were not and took the game to the host Poland. There was plenty of drama in this opener as Greece's Sokratis was unfortunate to be sent off for two yellows then Poland had their goalie sent off but the resultant penalty was saved by the replacement goalie. 1-1 was ...

Scams have been around since there were humans. These scams can only increase in various forms or new methods. Some have been around for ages but yet there are people who still got conned. People can get conned for various reasons - some out of kindness and others quite often out of greed. It is not right for kind people to be taken advantage of. It not only makes me want to puke but it makes me angry. That is the only reason why I had chosen to talk and write about it. Many people think that only ignorant people or seniors fall for them, you are dead wrong.  Nigerian Email Scams In the UK, average victims are conned of 50,000 pounds while in the USA, over $1 million per day. They send out emails en masse to individuals, businesses, charities, learning institutions, government departments. Some victims were known to be held for ransom, killed or ended up with suicide after losing everything. It may simply begin with an email to you claiming it was from a civil servant, a famil...

Any man can be a father but it takes only one special person to be a Dad! It is easier to become a father than to be one.   A man who does not spend time with his family and children can never be a real man.  Fathers must love their children unconditionally.  To be in our children's memories tomorrow, we have to be in their lives today - this is the slogan for "Dads For Life!" Please read my previous article on fathers: http://gforce-guru.blogspot.com/2011/06/honour-thy-father-mother.html And a previous tribute to fathers: http://gforce-guru.blogspot.com/2010/06/tribute-to-fathers.html A truly rich man is when your children run into your arms even when your hands are empty. Blessed is the man who hears gentle voices calling him father. Even the poorest man can can give his children the richest inheritance.  He didn't tell me how to live; he lived and let me watch him do it - Clarence Budington Kelland.  The father who would taste the essence of...

I used to tell people that in Hong Kong, there are no bad wanton noodle. Of course there are the famous ones but you can virtually walk in to any shop and have good wanton noodles. They give nice soup, nice noodle and solid wantons. It is as if the prawn in it is jumping out at you and in Hong Kong, their wanton noodle has not char siew (BBQ pork) nor do they offer a dry version. Only all soup. Here, we don't get this type of wanton unless you are at a restaurant. Don't get me wrong, they can still be delicious but their sizes are often pathetic. Okay, okay, maybe I should use the word petite. There is this coffee shop near home where ownership has changed a couple of times and then someone took over and did a better job. I saw this new wanton noodle stall helmed by a relatively young guy and business was slow and we chatted since he was resting while I was eating. He told me he used to work as one of the chefs in a restaurant but decided to come out on his own. ...