Beautiful Hokkaido or Northern Island

Coming down Mt. Isola with visibiity perhaps 3 meters at most.

Every year for the last 3 years, my family have taken a ski holiday for over 1 week each time. In 2010, it was Daemyung ski resort in Korea, in 2011 it was Tomamu in Hokkaido, Japan and last year 2012, it was in Rusutsu, Hokkaido. Hokkaido or Northern Island is the northernmost island, sparesly populated and subject to extreme cold weather as early as October. It is also home to 16 international, world class ski resorts and is famous for its 'powder snow'.  

My 2 sons, Noel and Andrew, with their snowboards 

2012 winter snowfall was extremely early and heavy, and by early December, much of the resort we were in was in meters deep of snow. How lucky we were ! Anyway, the Rusutsu resort is known for its many intermediate slopes as well as advanced slopes, and my wife and I were treated to an adventure of sorts (we are experienced beginner and intermediate respectively) when we mistakenly went up the highest mountain on the first day of skiing and had to ski down at least 5km of slope, which took us easily 1 and a half hours ! 

Stark and Beautiful Scenery in Winter

My teenage sons are keen snowboarders and they too, enjoyed the powder snow. The softness and compactness of the snow makes it very enjoyable to ski plus the fact that the snow is so soft and powdery gives one a sense of daring, so we tried the intermediate slopes which, in Korea would rank as advanced or black piste level. 4 days of skiing is equivalent to burning off calories  while running one full marathon of 42km, let me assure you. Additionally, one uses the arms to coodrinate and push through rough terrain as well as move forward on flat ground. It gives me a full body workout.  

Chirashi or Rice Bowl complete with Miso Soup and Sapporo Beer 

At the end of each day, we invariably eat Japanese or Hokkaido special dishes such as Chirashi (or rice bowl) with seaurchin eggs, salmon roe, steamed prawn, Japanese cucumber, chawamushi or steamed egg,miso soup and topped with the best dry Sapporo beer.

        Oishi !   Delicious as I would say. I still have very fond memories of the ski holiday.  

Singapore - AFF Champions for a record 4th time. Bravo !!

                                         AFF Suzuki Cup 2012 Champions - Singapore 

           The pundits predicted that Singapore's National Football (Soccer) team, headed by Raddy Abrahamovic would not make it past the Qualifying Stages, well, the so-called experts were so wrong again. All of us who had put down the Singapore Lions as being old has - beens relying on foreign born players to win games for us have to eat humble pie and shut up. The Singapore Lions won the 2012 Asean Football Federation Cup for a record 4th time. Congratulations to the team !! 

          Coach and Manager : Ratko (Raddy) Avramovic
  
         Goalkeeper : Mohammad Izwan bin Mahmud
  
         Defenders   : Daniel Mark Bennett
                                 Baihakki Kaizan
                                 Jumaat bin Jantan
                                 Moh'd Shaiful Esah
                                 Moh'd Safuwan Baharudin

         Midfielders  : Hariss Harun
                                 Mustafaric Fahruddin
                                 Shahdan bin Sulaiman
                                 Shahril Ishak (Captain)

         Strikers       :   Alexander Duric
                                  Fazrul Nawaz
                                 Moh'd Khairul Amri

Shahril Ishak winning Most Valuable Player of the 2012  AFF Suzuki tournament 

         I am an armchair critic, and supporter, so I have my share of eating humble pie. But as a Singaporean, I am proud that once again,the team defied all odds and beat the higher ranked ASEAN teams in the following manner : Singapore is ranked a lowly 154 out of 195 teams worldwide, below that of Vietnam,Thailand and the Philippines.

    Round Robin Stage
   ------------------------------
a) Malaysia (the Old Enemy)  : 3 - 0   away.    What a great start to humiliate the Tigers at their Home Turf.   Sharil Ishak, Captain Fantastic hit a brace (2) and Alex Duric the other.
Alexander Duric, I must add is an amazingly fit and skillfull 42 years of age ! 






b) Indonesia : 0 - 1 away. Everyone came down to earth. So we lost, the last game wamaybe just a fluke ?

c) Laos :  4 - 3. What a thriller, after going down 2 - 0, the boys had the guts and talent to score 4 goals on the trot, and hang on to win 4 -3.

    Sharil Ishak (2), Khairul Amri and Hariss Harun were the heroes. 


    SemiFinals  vs Phillipines
    -------------------------------------

a)  Philippines   ; Away 0 - 0.   Home 1 - 0.   Scorer of critical goals Khairul Amri scored a cracker. What a crucial goal !

    Finals vs Thailand
    --------------------------
a) Thailand : Home 3 - 1 Scorers Mustafaric (penalty), Khairul Amri's world class goal and Baikkaki Kaizan's 90th minute were the gems of the day.



                        
    Thailand   Away  0 - 1

   Singapore prevailed in the pressure cooker last game against Thailand to win the Cup 3 - 2 on aggregate.  In my opinion, the entire team were excellent playing as a team,strong defensively, as well as controlling play with their passing with flashes of individual brilliance when needed by their country. This is the hallmark of a Champion team. I am righfully proud of our South East Asian Kampung (village)  champions !!  

   AFF Champions 2012 !!  Lets work towards greater things Singapore Lions !! 

2013 - We survived the 'End of the World'

        
                                                      Santa for US President 2016 !
            
        Well first and foremost, everyone, Happy belated 2013 !! 

       Its been over one month since I put finger to keyboard, (used to be pen to notepad) but this the new means of communication, like it or not.There was some big 'brouhaha' last year when millions of people all across the globe started fretting about the end of the world as the ancient Mayan Calandar had finished its last predicted date, and as there were no more entries to the calendar, people started fretting that that was it, finito. People started beating their chests,looking at another famous astrologer,Nostradamus and finding all kinds of predictions,and trying to relate it to the date 23-12-12. 

        One funny analogy is that the Mayans couldn't predict the end of their own civilization, their entire city disappeared, leaving not a single Mayan citizen, but so many people had so much faith in the end of the world based on their calendar. This is truly astounding and pathetic.

        There are probably lots of people who believe in Santa Claus living in the North Pole as there were people in the days of old (in the 1400s ) who had no clue what lay at the end of the visible horizon, so assumed that at the end when the means of transportation of the day, the sailboat, reached the end, they would fall off into a bottomless cliff and die. 

       So since we survived the End of the World, shouldn't we be celebrating the Beginning of the New World ???   Lets get the world back on track and do some good.

My 5 suggestions to Restart the New World  (hey, since people are dumb enough to consider the End of the World, why not consider this small blogger's crazy ideas ?)

1. Change the Reserve Currency from the US dollar to the Chinese RMB. 

2. Change the Monetary system as we know it. Link all currencies bank to the Gold Standard 

3. USA to outlaw the NRA and consider amending the 2nd amendment, putting the vote to a National Referendum.    

4. USA to stop the QE Infinity nonsense and attempt to really bring down the budget deficit

5.  Make Santa Claus the US President. Since no human can solve the US's and World problems, an imaginary immortal giving out peace and presents for being good can't do  any worse !

    Happy 2013 !!     

No. 7

        The Standard Chartered Marathon on 2nd December was my 7th in total. I was not in the best of shape and had only minimal training. Added to that I had just turned 50, I had decided to run it, firstly to fulfill a resolution  at the start of the year and secondly to provide a decent finish to an erstwhile quite unsuccessful year where we had lost some key European product and the S E Asian economies were heading downwards due to the European and US crises.

        We had taken the right steps with new products as well as offering services for the local customers, but with the manufacturing sector in Singapore, Malaysia slowing this past 6 months, it has been tough on many small business owners including me.

        Back to the marathon, I started slowly, about 7minutes per km for the first 30km and maintained  it throughout. However, after the first 32 km, my will evaporated and the body started give me tell tale signs, although I had no muscle cramps, which was a blessing.

        So after 32km, it was a series of run and walk, for the last 10km, that effectively slowed me down. I had hoped for a sub 6 hour finish, but in the end, I told myself, health first, time secondary.

        My best time so far in the marathon (7 editions) is 3 times of 4 hours and 45 minutes.Will I able to do those times again ? I am confident that if I have the time and the training, I can and will achieve it.

        The oldest runner was a Mr. Faujah Singh, who is 101 years old. He started marathoning at 93 (!) so many a times, if a person takes care of his body and mind, he can and will achieve tremendous things with the proper diet, training and mental discipline. 

  

"We have a lot of work to do"

       

        When Mr. Barack Obama was reelected for another 4 years in November 2012, this was one of his key message statements to the faithful who voted for the Democratic Party over the GOP (Grand Old Party) Republicans.

        The USA has lost its mandate to lead the world economically, it can at best be an indicator of where the next 'Big Thing' will come but I think that Asia has its best break now to lead the world in cool gadgets and products, as Asia is where the mass consumers are. China, India, Japan and Korea have a combined population of over 3.5 billion with a middle class of easily 500 million to 700 million. Already popular culture is looking at the Korean Hallyou (or Wave) and PSY's Gangnam Style dance is insanely popular amongst Youtubers. (almost 900 million 'hits' at last count)

      First the Presient has to get both Houses to agree on raising taxes, else the Fiscal Cliff will impact the whole country if there is no agreement. The Government will then be forced to shut down, schools and public services, utilities and essential Government Ministries will be shut, and then the domino effect will hit the rest of the country. 

      There is no turning back, if they do not do something on the massive debt and continue to print money, and raise their debt, while hoping for the economy to continue its anaemic growth, then there will be another tepid or mild expansion for the next  4 years.

       So, for the US to reduce the deficit and national debt, it first has to generate jobs. To generate jobs, the US needs to borrow more money to create the new (renewable and clean industries such as solar and wind, as well as expand its drilling for oil in Texas as well as Alaska. Once that is done, then jobs relating to the new industries can be created. But then it means incurring more debt, and hopefully these new industries will be able to export massively and reduce the trade deficit as well as pay back the debt. But the US is not the leader in renewable and clean industries (China and South America are), so the chances of the US being able to export its way out of the trade deficit and massive debt is slim.

     Unless the US finds a new 'champion' product or service which it can claim to to be the global first leader, it will be still stuck in an anaemic growth path, and debt will still be as high as ever. 

        

     

The foolish run today

       I will always remember this run today for a long long time. Today, as I was preparing for the 42km marathon in roughly 2 weeks' time, I decided to take a challenge and run with a new pair of Asics Kayanos (version 18). I decided to run the Sime Trail at the McRitchie Reservoir which is roughly 11km from start to end, 1 complete circle. 

       I am not a novice at running the trails at McRitchie, but as I finished the run, something so significant dawned upon me, that I decided to write this down for posterity. I finished work before 6pm and made a beeline for McRitchie reservoir hoping to catch the last rays of light. By the time I arrived and changed up, and started out, it was 6.30pm. I did the run which was in the jungle, and not uncommonly, I would see moneys, sometimes monitor lizards and the occasional snake. The first half went by quite smoothly. I covered 7km in about 42 minutes or so, at a decent pace of 6min per km. My new shoes were absorbing the shocks of the uneven ground made worse by the rains the past days. There are many exposed roots and its slippery,so one wrong move and you could end up with a twisted ankle or worse, a major leg or body injury. The trail is meant mainly for walkers and people with trail sticks frequent it.
Some weeks ago some trail runners were lost in the Reservoir for up to 9 hours, so its not without its risks.

         I made it to the 2/3 rd mark at about 7.05pm. The ranger station was closed and a sign said that the treetop walk was closed and not open to public after 5.30pm  I was left with 3 options a) use the Sime road, which was well lit and run the remainder 5 km back b) Head back the way I came, which was quite treacherous with the fading light or c) continue with the Sime Trail into the forest and reach the end by sheer foolishness and willpower. That meant running up 9 small hills in the trail which was pot holed, and had mud as well as broken stones placed over the places where it was too muddy. Tough choice. 

        I chose option c). Purely by 'gut feel' and not logic, when I could have chosen the easy way back and ran along the road to the start point.With the light fading, the trail I was quite familiar became a black or near black track, with the occasional light from the opening of the forest which let the moonlight in from the half moon. I was afraid, but chose to press on into the darkness. The trail had its ups and downs, and pot holes, which I had to FEEL MY WAY through. I was scared to be scared, not wanting to think of the consequences of a wrong footing or  going off the track. There were lights but I realised that they were fireflies in the forest. After about 15 minutes  of solitary running in the darkness, there was a torchlight and one runner came towards me, he greeted me, and passed into the night. I felt much more sure. There was another solitary runner about 5 minutes later who greeted me with a hearty "Hi" and I was so energised, I ran with all my might. It was going to be OK, although I had another good 15 minutes still in the black forest.

        At the end of the trail, the lights of the reservoir beckoned. My thoughts during the run were this :

1. I am a risk taker, that is why I decided to go into business. You are always thrust into the great abyss (black hole) of uncertain future but you must have the extreme confidence that you will overcome whatever comes my way.

2. Do not think too much about the what ifs, because, life is real short, and if you spend too much time thinking about things you will never ever achieve anything.

    My run finished rather unspectacularly by the reservoir's edge. I remember the words immortalised by the late Steve Jobs to the new Harvard Graduands.

   " Stay Foolish, Stay Hungry, Never Settle".

   Well, the first 2 I have achieved with 100% accuracy. That is why I am still making a living running my own business. I have never regretted a single day of it. Never settle means that I must aspire for better than what I have achieved today. That will only be known over time.

   Seize the Day my friends.   


     
    
    
             

Zlatan Ibrahahimovic Incredible Goal - what a gem !