Climate Change effects is Real... and Deadly to us all

The devastation and chaos caused by the 2 hurricanes Harvey and Irma which literally destroyed properties, homes, hotels, beaches, people's lives and not to mention the upheaval of the flora and fauna of the Everglades, the cities of Houston, Fort Lauderdale, Miami, Tampa, Naples and many other small suburbs causing hundreds of bilions of dollars in damage.

Climate change is real, global warming is real and everyone must do their part to heal mother Earth. It is so painful to watch the hammering the poor Caribbean islands have taken and  the island of Barbudos is wrecked.

Every country must do its part to reduce its carbon footprint NOW. We may well leave the world in a much worse shape for our children and our grandchildren. than when we set foot on it. 

That would be a monumental disaster for humankind. 

Wolverhampton Wanderers - Championship team with European flair

          9th Sept 3.00 pm and Wolves notch another win that makes it 4 out of 6 league games played, 1 draw and 1 loss to the top team Cardiff City. I notice that team manager Santos has introduced many European players who prefer to build up the game from deep inside the defence and then play their way towards the opponent's goal. This is reminiscent of the European game as compared to the wingers and crosses of the English game.

         A 1-0 win at home courtesy of Diego Jota makes all the fans happy. It is my wish to watch at least 1 match (maybe 2) one day. The Chinese owners Fosan Group have made a coup signing a top class coach in Santos. He is the 'special one' who will finally bring this team to the Premier League. The coach Santos has brought in 3 top class Portuguese players namely Jota, Neves and Cavahlero who bring the much needed passing, speed dribbling and counter attack which is trademark of European flair. 

         I wait in anticipation ! 

1 month target ; lose 2 kg ; run 64 mins for 10 K

After my run, a quick shower and all changed up for the day at the Swim Club 

I have set myself another 2 targets ; weightwise I aim to lose 2 kg by September and 3 kg by the end of the year ; that means 73 kg by year's end. A lot of the 'bad stuff' has to go ; the white wine after dinner, the chocolates,snacks and the rice. I am trying intermittent fasting, which my cousin introduced to me, whereby after dinner (normally 8pm), my next meal is targetted to be 12 noon the following day. This gives 16 hours of fasting and forcing the body to use up the stored fats. 

After the Run

As the suave looking 50 year old model said, the process of achieving the ideal body shape is 70% diet and 30 % exercise. This is a revelation to me, but as I analysed my past exercise routines, it dawned upon me that he is 100% correct, as the food intake is the main entry point into the body, feed it perhaps below the 2000 kcal level and exercise more, and I am on my way to losing the kilos. In the early weeks and months, it will be mainly water, but my regimen includes cross training like karate training, walks and of course the runs. I am only at 20 km per week, I hope to increase it to 30 km, that means 1 10K and rougly 4 x 5Ks. The issue is the body is no longer young so recovery takes longer but I am determined for 1 last hurrah.   

My pathetic time 

I believe that when I lose the 2 kilos, my running will get faster, and hence my timing will drop to below 1 hour (if I can do 55 minutes I will be over the moon !). 

The other thing is that all this training and exercise process tweaking should lead to some reward, so I intend to sign up for either the Paris Marathon and 1 other marathon by middle of next year.

Seize the Day 

Take this Money and Shove It

Cool Living in Parchinburi, Thailand ; Artisan Coffee in airconditioned comfort after a hard morning's 10K run  

A very successful friend of mine, has this very insighful piece of advice to me. He has managed companies with thousands of staff in a nearby foriegn country, and has had to deal with countless of issues and stresses while he was the CEO. He decided that at the ripe old age of 54, he decided to retire, in early 2008. 

The subprime crisis hit in Autumn 2008 and institutional banks,trading houses, merchant banks were swimming in massive losses and thus started the great (US) Financial Crisis. My friend's timing was perfect, leaving at the top of the 'game' with a decent cash pile and he headed back home to Singapore.

I have known him for almost 10 years and recently over lunch he had this message to me : aim for a financial target,once you have hit it and you calculate that its sufficient, prepare your exit and do it.

He has given me much financial advice over the years and they have all been proven correct.

I left the lunch a very thoughtful man.   

  

Mike Posner I took a Pill in Ibiza - cool song with a strong message ;

            This song has a strong social message and talks about the high life of a pop star figure who got addicted to money, sex, drinks and all the trappings of the fast life.

Loneliness, sadness, depression and an emptiness results when his star fades, and the money runs dry. Fame and money is fleeting

He advises all who want to be like him, he sings : 

"You don't wanna be high like me,
 Never really knowing why like me
 You don't ever want to step off the roller coaster

 And be all alone

You dont want to ride the bus like this
Never know who to trust like this
You don't want to be     
Stuck up on that stage singing (2)

All that I know... are sad songs...   
Sad songs                                       "

Pork Ball Noodle with Soup ; worth a Michelin Star in my book

In this little block 727 at Clementi West Street 2 on the ground floor is this pork noodle stall called Hua Chun. Unfortunately there is no English name on the sign but it is right in the middle of the small coffeeshop and it serves AWESOME Pork Ball Noodles. 

The elder gentleman (presumably the father) does a great job every morning tossing the noodles in the boilling soup while the son and daughter - in - law, prepares the soup and the ingredients. 

They have 2 sizes ; small for S$ 4 (EU 2.5)  and large for S$ 5 (EU 3.0). I normally opt for the small noodle and there are verious types of noodles. The skinny one (like spaghettini)  is called Mee Kia, the flat yellow one (like fettucini) is called Mee Pok and the round yellow one is called Sit Mee.

Voila ! Le petit dejouner cest magnifique 

The presentation is quite unique and the soup with all the ingredients, crab stick, a couple of fish balls, pork balls, minced pork, an egg, lettuce, spring onions and toss in some shallots for garnishing.

For me, I have tasted many Bak Chor Mee (Pork Ball Noodle Soup) in this Island Food Paradise and this is got to be at the very top in the Pork Ball Noodles category ; the noodles are cooked in 3 - 4 minutes with rapid tossing in the boiling water, so if there is a queue of say 5 people, expect to wait at least 15 minutes as each person may order more than one bowl. Some people order for their office colleagues or family, so they will 'tar pao' or take away in clear plastic bags.

Nothing beats the Bak Chor Mee eaten freshly cooked Al Dente and firm to the bite. 

You can choose 'spicy' with chilli oil, pork lard bits (the fitness and purists are pooh poohing upon reading this), sesame oil and some light soya sauce for seasoning. 

Shiok !!! 

Michelin people have not tried this stall I am sure !  

   This is the stall above in the centre of the small coffee shop at Block 727 Clementi West Street 2 

So much uncertainty ; N. Korea, Hurricane Harvey, Floods in South Asia yet life ,it goes on

Everyday, the main stream media floods us with well, once in 1000 years hurricane and floods in Houston, Texas, hurricane Pu Dan in Hong Kong which killed dozens in Macau, Shenzhen, rains in Bangladesh ; the bad news is coming fast and furious.

Today N. Korea upped the ante and test detonated a nuclear bomb. Everyone near and far have emotions ranging from panic, incessant fear, mildly concerned to total indifference to the latest test from the Hermit Kingdom.

Learning never ends ; keep up or slip down 

We need some stability in this totally unpredictable world where the incumbent US President has threatened to pull out of the Paris Climate Change Pact, close up the borders by putting up a physical wall with Mexico and all of us are seeing the White House as a mega episode of "the Apprentice".  

Here in Singapore, the economy is growing at an pretty slow pace, growth in sectors is very uneven, people are grappling with the disruptive technologies displacing traditional jobs with artificial intelligence, big data, driverless buses, drones and Fintech to name a few. Workers in their 40s and older face greater risks of being slipping into obsolescence if they do not go for retraining and learning new technological skills, such as studying coding languages and going for financial basic lessons, growth investing and have proper financial planning.    

We are facing headwinds of change and people still seem to be stuck in the '90s.