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

Lately I have a fetish for fish. Anything fish. Steamed, fried, grilled and even crumbs or floss. Just like beef, you want your best beef not well done or the chef will probably give you one that is about to expire and give it to you well done. So you want your best fish steamed. Many of your best friends are all steamy too with some stoned. Zai Sun at Jurong East is well known to many so no intro is needed.  The thing you will notice is that fish is kind of expensive especially prize catch like Giant Garoupa aka as King Grouper or "Long Tan". Those of you who groups together are also grouper.  Isn't it a wonder that there are so many types of fish in the oceans and chefs and cooks across all nationalities and culture have honed their  culinary skills and expertise to give us the various ingredients and cooking methods to bring out the best in each fish. There are so many species of fish available for your selection all cut, sliced, packed and ready to go. ...

If Manchester City keep on winning it it their title to loose. Pep Guardiola in his second season has found the winning formula. He would not play his soccer any other way. He has this confidence and self awareness about what he is doing. He has the courage to admit his mistake such as in goal keeping with Claudio Bravo even as he shipped out Joe Hart. He sold some players and brought in what he needed and is already leading the red side of Manchester by eight points.  Manchester United could only win 1-0 at home to Brighton and needed Ashley Young to come to their rescue at Watford. Chelsea came back and held Liverpool then won narrowly hosting Swansea. Liverpool held Chelsea and won 3-0 away at Stoke.  Arsenal seemed to be back with vengeance. Having beaten Burnley away (1-0) they hammered Huddersfield 5-0. Nobody beats Huddersfield 5-0. Tottenham has suddenly been in a slump - held 1-1 by at home by WBA and lost 1-2 to Leicester City. Will they disappoint agai...

The good old days. Travelling back in time. Books and movies about time travel are often intriguing. Ours have no physical transportation, only memories. So when I recently brought a few friends together for lunch at Teo Heng, it was a special moment. For the younger generation, this Teo Heng is not a Karaoke. It is a Teochew hawker stall that harked back to previous generations.  When I started work, it was at Cecil Street, a street that runs parallel to Robinson Road and Shenton Way. You would not believe it if I told you that when I was at LKN Building and later GB Building, you come straight down from the office and you will find good hawker food right behind at the back lane. When you wanted to seek greener pastures, you have to walked further and you will find the original Lau Pa Sat literally translated "Old Market". I remembered dad was working at the now defunct Denmark House for a long time and my elder sis was at Hong Leong Building. They told me about Teo Hen...

After the international break, this week we start with a good laugh and not take life too seriously. It is one of the funniest moment in soccer that I could remember. Watch: http://www.football365.com/news/mainz-keeper-explains-how-he-mistook-penalty-spot-for-ball The soccer boss must do something about it like changing the penalty spot into a square or triangle. A triangle pointing towards goal may be good. Why didn't anyone thought of that before? In an era of soccer athletes, an iconic play-maker and true artist has retired. He will be remembered as an all time great. The maestro is Andrea Pirlo. He is adored by everyone as he is so recognizable and unique. Pirlo is for purists and he is not built for soccer. He is a  direct contradiction to what a soccer player should be like. Weak, slow and he almost never head the ball. You have never saw him sprint nor has he put in tackles but he is sublime and a genius. He belongs to the Brazilian team of 1970 and 1...

Raffles Place was a place I frequented even as a young boy and dad used to work there and would sometimes bring us over on some weekends for some nice food or hobby shops there at Change Alley. In those days, there were just a few shopping places in Singapore. Robinsons, at the time at Raffles Place was one of them. Eventually, Raffles Place became overcrowded. Too many people with small spaces. I like Tanjong Pagar. Not many goes there those days unless you are going to the railway station.  Every place that you go to frequently just like you were going home and only less frequently than home is your second home. It could be a work place, a watering hole for some or a favourite restaurant or club. Raffles Place is like Tokyo and Tanjong Pagar is like Nagoya.  Both places have changed especially so and most recently at Tanjong Pagar. Seasons changed, places change and people change. Time touches and passes all and none is spared. Even the architecture of buildings, st...

England won the European U-19 Championship with a 2-1 victory over Portugal (European Champions) in July their U-20 won the World Cup in June, the U-21 lost on penalties to Germany (again) in the semi-final stage in summer and now the U-17 won the World Cup in convincing fashion and a new star was born in Liverpool lad Rhian Brewster. Brewster scored back to back hattricks in the quarter-final in a 4-1 win over USA, again in the 3-1 win over Brazil in the semi-final and then in the final trailing Spain 0-2 they came back to win 5-2 where Brewster added another goal. Take nothing away from them, they faced the world's best teams and won!  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vfzsG5j_QOU (Rhian Brewster hattrick v USA) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d_2SnBy6CtA (RHian Brewster hattrick v Brazil) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tNpIU5chcfk (Rhian Brewster goal v Spain) The next question is not whether Rhian Brewster is the next Kylian Mbappe though Liverpool and Klopp must do a...

As you watch things unfold, you will actually learn many things about management, team work, values, psychology, attitude, organisation, opportunities, etc. Fortunes change all the time. In crisis there are opportunities. Some dreams turned into nightmares, others rise from the ashes. Why Mourinho dare not play like Guardiola or Klopp, why Klopp can't be more like Mourinho defensively. Why such a good team like Tottenham haven't won the title? In 2015/16, Leicester shook the EPL and the world. Last seaon Chelsea pipped them. This season, Tottenham have been as good, perhaps even better but have to contend with an equally highly impressive Manchester City. These two are the potential Champions in a 1-2 finish. While as I have predicted Ronald Koeman has been sacked by Everton, Slaven Bilic may be in danger next. Manchester United v Tottenham - Mourinho's United just do not play like a 300 million pound team. They struggled and were deservedly beaten by a very good Hud...