Manchester City vs Wolves Tuesday 24th Oct ; What a Matchup !

Top of Premier League versus Top of Championship teams.  This is the penultimate game of the season for me ;  I will watch it live on TV ; that is for sure !


As a fan with renewed optimism for my boyhood club, I am relishing the prospect that Wolverhamption Wanderers have the chance to play against the top of the Premier League in the Carabao or League (4th round) Cup. Manchester City with all their expensive signings will be playing at home, and Wolves record for their away games is at an all time high, only having lost 1 away match all season (that to Sheffield United) ;  

The play by Wolves is a very continental and flowing ; so if the teams employ the 3 - 4 - 3 which is an attractive attacking formation with the powerful Portuguese front line of Jiota, Bonatini (who is on fire at the moment) and Cavalero, we have a team of world beaters.
Jota has scored 7 brilliant goals, Bonatini 9 and Cavalero 4. 

Midfield of Siass, Neves, Doherty and Douglas is very strong ; Coach Santos knows that all games are won in mindfield, so the Midfield 4 are really clicking well and stringing passes together. Romain Saiss is apparently the top passer of the ball in the Championship.  

Defenders such as  Miranda, Coady and Batth form the defensive trio, while they can lose their heads sometimes, have an able goalkeeper in John Ruddy.

Saturday's 3 - 2 win against Preston North End resulted in 2 scrappy on field goals and 1 penatly while Preston had 2 good goals scrambled in before the final whistle.

In the substitutes, they have Bright Enobakhare, Helda Costa and Alfred N'Deave who have all scored on the pitch.

All in all an excellent team with an excellent visionary coach in Santos.

Bring on Tuesday 24th !!! 

Fat Cow 17th October 2017 - Camden Medical Centre ; My Review

The beef literally almost melts in your mouth ; such is the marbelling of the meat 

Last week, a friend and I tried the Fat Cow restaurant at #01 - 04 Camden Medical Centre.

While we tried to reserve a table for 12.15 pm at the last minute, the 'Chope' app on the phone only gave us a time slot of 1.30 pm. Undaunted, we tried to gatecrash the lunch venue anyway and the front desk lady was kind enough to arrange a seating at the Kaiseiki style counter with about 10 other guests even though we had arrived at 12.20 and the reservation at Chope had indicated that there was no more seating available.

We ordered the Wagyu Beef Bowl with a side salad, and I was pleasantly surprised at the quality of the beef ; I would love to eat it every other week, but the cholesterol levels will not allow it, so I will keep this only for a special occasion, perhaps once every 6 months.

The meat was very tender, and almost melts in your mouth, and with the medium rare cooking on the grill, I dare say this rates one of the best Wagyu steaks I have eaten recently.

The only other steak comparable is the one at Mohammad Sultan Road, Bisteca, an Italian fine dining restaurant.

Flavourful and al dente chewy (not too chewy), the meat is prepared at the grill while you dine on your salad. The rice is typical Japanese sticky rice and with a slight flavouring of sauce, garnishing and a world best half boiled egg (Japanese style). Price per bowl : $50 ++.   

Verdict 

Food Quality         :  9 upon 10

Service Standard  : 9 upon 10

Ambience              : 8 upon 10

Total  :  8. 6 upon 10   (par excellence) 

Will I come again ; most definately.

8 km run in Dongguan China 12 Oct 2017

My run last week as recorded on the Polar M340 watch. Its a really functional device with heart rate monitor, GPS, activity tracker, steps tracker, split km timing and sleep tracker, in addition to telling the time. I would recommend it to those 'weekend warriors' who need a "Personal Kick yourself off the sofa trainer" like myself. 

Outside Dongguan Park 12th Oct 2017 

The coolest feature is of course the software where the owner of the watch can connect with other like minded individuals from all over the world who put up their runs to be scrutinised and dissected although most people would be very encouraging about each newbie's progress. 

This feature to 'relive' the run gives me the opportunity to analyse my fastest speed in km, the max. Heart Rate (177 which is pretty damn high) as well as elevation, cadence, average heart rate and it encourages the scribe in me to record my Run Diary in my own account, so that I a relive how I felt (from Awesome to Horrible) and then take it from there.

As I have put up 2 BHAGs, I had better put my money where my mouth is, so I am really fired up to  do a decent time for the Paris 2018. As I am in Australia in January 2018, I may very well take in 1 marathon (the Tasmania Cadbury Marathon which is held on  Sunday 14th January - I will keep this 3rd BHAG goal in mind).

So I have 3 months to get up to marathon shape ! 

Wolves move to the top of the English Championship (formerly Division 2)

         
         I have never seen such an attack minded Wolves side in all my years of following the team. It has exhibited class, tremendous attacking skill, great coordination and team spirit from the Coach Nuno Epserito Santos all the way to the substitutes. I will make the effort to watch the team play 3 games at home and away, soon.


      Diogo Jota's strike against Aston Villa makes it 1 - 0 at Molineux. An absolute stunner of a goal from the Portuguese striker on loan from Athletico Madrid. Sign him please ! 

        Leo Bonatini's goal to make it 2 - 0 was pure class from start to finish ; I am totally in awe with the skill level of the Wolves strike force leaving the Villa defender's all floundering in their wake. 

        So my visit to Molineux will be my second BHAG for 2017  - 18 and as the year is running fast away, I can only say that this opportunity of watching my boyhood team is probably once in 30 years, so I had better get my act together !



       

      When your team plays well, it is a Godsend, so I had better get my tickets ready to watch them play in the Premier league next season. Wolverhampton Wanderers, it is high time you had played up to your Founder Member status ! 

      There is the Carabao Cup in November against the No. 2 or No. 3 team in the Premier League. if Wolves can pull off an away win at Manchester City, then the skies the limit for this tremendously talented and hardworking team.

       Come on You Wolves !  

Crystal Jade Golden Palace

50 years ago today - Che Guevara's death

Ernestito Guevara - the Argentinian revolutionary fighter

50 years ago to this day, Che Ernestito Guevara the revolutionary fighter was shot and killed by Bolivian forces and CIA undercover operatives. While his face adorns millions of T shirts, no one except for the people who really knew what he stood for. 

For the current generation of young people, he probably is just an emoji representing everything that is anti-establishment (the current system and the bureacracy). Beyond that, he is just another global marketing brand label for the consumer industry.

What an irony. The person who was most against capitalism has his image emblazoned on everything from caps to T shirts, mugs, key chains and wallets.

We need a change in management

There has been much said about our Mass Rapid Transit System or the SMRT ; while the goal and tagline had been to make our system "world class" the sad reality is that it is far from that. Breakdowns and trains slowing or delayed for all manner of reasons has made our SMRT a much joked about service. Enough is enough. 

The frustration by the consumers are very fair, why pay decent money to get new and top quality trains only to have frequent breakdowns barely several years after the lines are fully operational ranging from signalling systems,trackside misalignment to water seepage (most recently).  The company is paying top dollar (over US$ 1.2 M) for top executives to manage a relatively new system but the screw-ups come fast and furious. The management while able to pinpoint the faults and enable alternative transportation quite efficiently still is unable to mitigate the regular incidences of failures and train delays.   

The root cause is the hiring of inexperienced people - at top dollar - to run the system. Much has been said by the people and their unhappiness is very clear whenever their are breakdowns and delays for a myriad of reasons. To expect or say this is 'normal' due to our aging system is nothing short of ridiculous. 

With this kind of pay, our SMRT can easily find top executives from anywhere in the world to clean house, ensure a smooth and reliable train system.

What kind of system do we have ?  Nothing to match the efficiency of Japan, Hong Kong, Taiwan and even Shanghai.

Its time to take stock and make some decisions.     

30 April update - the SMRT CEO has decided to step down ;