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

ENGLAND Ouch!! To all you England fans. Naturally, most in Singapore and this part of the world follow the England team closely due to the exposure of live TV coverage of the EPL. Now the EPL is a highly competitive league but it is made for TV soccer with a tempo different from other leagues or international soccer.  In my last article, I gave you insights that if you have read, you know I was largely correct. I could have taken half of Hodgson's salary and maybe do a better job. Haha. I got to watch only two England matches in the qualifying stages versus Russia, the second half versus Wales and some highlights versus Slovakia and read a few pages. England is out of Europe twice in a week. Wow! I told you that Joe Hart is error prone. Not sure if he had been playing his FIFA 15 or 16 on his Play Station too much and late into the night like David James once did. When I saw him in action as a young lad on loan to Birmingham, I knew this guy was very good. Hart epito...

ENGLAND Ouch!! To all you England fans. Naturally, most in Singapore and this part of the world follow the England team closely due to the exposure of live TV coverage of the EPL. Now the EPL is a highly competitive league but it is made for TV soccer with a tempo different from other leagues or international soccer.  In my last article, I gave you insights that if you have read, you know I was largely correct. I could have taken half of Hodgson's salary and maybe do a better job. Haha. I got to watch only two England matches in the qualifying stages versus Russia, the second half versus Wales and some highlights versus Slovakia and read a few pages. England is out of Europe twice in a week. Wow! I told you that Joe Hart is error prone. Not sure if he had been playing his FIFA 15 or 16 on his Play Station too much and late into the night like David James once did. When I saw him in action as a young lad on loan to Birmingham, I knew this guy was very good. Hart epito...

Many may not understand the true meaning of curry rice as I have experienced it. It is not just curry and rice. We call it ''kali png''. I have written about the wonders of this food before with the very first experience as a child. I used to live with my paternal grandparents at Kim Keat Avenue while my maternal grandparents lived in Jalan Kemaman along Balestier Road. There were occasional Saturday mornings where my paternal grandma would bring me all the way to buy packets of curry rice at this place called Raymond Market. I did not even know the name as grandma have only said it in dialect which after recalling along time back thought it sounded like "Raymond Market". A school friend who read what I wrote communicated with me to confirm that there was Raymond Market indeed. It could probably be demolished and the Whampoa market and hawker centre is probably where it stood. At the time, this curry rice stall opened from the morning. The aroma of freshl...

Firstly, Roy Hodgson's selection for the England squad. The first thing is for the British press is not to build up false hope and the players not to think they are better than they really are. Confidence is good but not arrogance. England Goalkeepers - Joe Hart, Fraser Forster, Tom Heaton. For the first time since a long time, England finally have goalkeepers of quite equal abilities. Remember Ray Clemence, Peter Shilton and Joe Corrigan? Joe Hart will probably been number one with his experience and this season he was at times brilliant saving City. Fraser Forster was a giant when he was with Celtic not just physically but remember how he single-handedly stopped Barcelona? He continued to be very good returning after a long lay off from injury to Southampton and played as if he never left. He could replace Hart any time.  Unfortunately, Jack Butland was injured late in the season for Stoke and could not be selected. He was up to then, the best goalie in the EPL statist...

Recently, I read that our OBS (Outward Bound School) will be revamped to the tune of $250 million and moved to Coney Island and I shuddered. Why Coney Island? Why not $25 million? I mean $250 million is a lot of money! Well, it could be the land costs but still too much and I can't figure it out.  I thought OBS is there to prepare and train ruggedness, leadership and to instil toughness, so some poles and ropes and whatever is enough. No? Why do we need everything to be state of the art? Can the money be put to better use? I am concerned for Singapore and her future and when I see things happening now, we could think how this would lead us to the future. After all, the future starts the day after today. There was once I read about us engaging a professional company to run a contest to give a solid name to Marina Bay and we ended up with the winner calling it "Marina Bay". Then recently, when they closed and revamped Compass Point, they held a contest to rename the sh...