Another reassuring win for Wolves ; Wolves 1 Burnley 0

                         The players celebrating Raul Jiminez's fine strike at the 61st minute 


The Wolves were very impressive from start to finish, however their fire power at the front needs some more clinical finishing. They could have easily made it 3 - 0 with close calls from Willy Boly, a sitter missed from Leo Bonatini when he was given a free shot at goal as well as Raul Jiminez missing another almost certain goal with the goalkeeper out of position.

That said, Jiminez secured the 3 points when it mattered and with a sublime strike out of reach of the very impressive Joe Hart who is England's reseve goalkeeper. Kudos go to the Man of the Match Matt Doherty who was relentless and tireless in an ever dominant midfield who outplayed Burnley in every aspect in this department. 

Rui Patricio kept a second successive clean sheet, this testament to Wolves fine defensive back 3 of Boly, Conner Coady and Ryan Bennett who look to be set for an England call up very soon. This makes it 3 wins on the trot, 1 from the Carabao Cup (Sheff Wed away 2-0), and 2 in the Premier League (away at West Ham and Home to Burnley)

Now, they need to seal the deals when it matters.    

Next week they play Man United. I'm looking at a major upset for the Reds with the Wolves again gunning for max points based on their flowing skilful play in all departments. 

Prediction : Man U 0 Wolves 2

Farewell my Captain - Jerry Schlaghek ; we had great times together !

Cincinnati Native Dr. Jerry Schlaghek 

      It is with great sadness that I announce the passing of my friend and one time mentor from the school of hard knocks, Jerry Schlaghek. Jerry passed away yesterday 8th Sept due to a stroke and never recovered according to his son Ben. :(

     I knew Jerry through work when we were attempting to sell technological improvements to many a manufacturing company in Singapore in the late 90s till 2000. Though the times were hard then, we had a ball of a time and many stories or pronouncements by Jerry were and still resonate with me now. Here are a few and I quote 2 

1. Cancer is big business.

2. I have a cure for AIDS 

    A humble and brilliant man, Jerry was in one word, a maverick. 

    His run ins with the big corporations and frustrations with the US bureaucracy led him and his company to Asia. I handled Jerry's products for about a year and a half 2008 till 2000, until I decided that the core business of our environmental chambers had recovered to the extent that I needed to focus back to the mainstream livelihood, that of selling environmental test solutions that our paths diverged.

    The last night when we had a magnificent dinner with our host Mr. Hong and his business associates including Jerry will remain with me forever. It was indeed an unforgettable evening.

    I recall distinctly one presentation we had with Seagate, whereby I did the initial show and tell of our week's results using then advanced technology to find out the cold  and extreme hot spots. These would give the production manager an early indication of the immediate failure which in circuit tester would catch, but more importantly the latent failure which would take weeks or months to happen. 

    This would be the selling edge for this technology especially for the prospect of predicting field failures before they happen and sending these latent failures back to rework before they hit the customers and when that happens, the field recall would be totally disastrous.

   As the presentation went on, the Senior Director was not impressed by my 'show and tell'. I did the best I could with as much information I could garner from the data. She asked just one question : "So what ?" and my presentation went down the tubes.I would have been red faced if I was not dark skinned ! 

   Everyone in the room was stunned, all the 10 staff there,and our team of 5 were also shell shocked. Out of the blue came the calm and reassuring voice of Jerry detailing and more importantly explaining all the intricacies and highlighting the strengths and of course the limitations of the then advanced technology.

  He gave a magnus opus of the first principles of the technology as well as where the solution would lie. By getting more and more products tested there would be a stable test bed of data from which the absolute failures would be screened out and the latent failures could be red marked and sent for rework. That process would be the next phase where the vendor and the customer needed to work together to settle the framework to determine which 'passed' and which was 'marginal pass require rework'.

  The meeting ended well, with us continuing to persue the end goal. A first in Asia order for their revolutionary product.

 

We did not succeed, but his fervor and joie d vrie was infectious. 

Rest well my Captain. We had fun while it lasted.   

      

Thoughts during Hard Run 28th April 2018 Saturday 10.20 am

2013 SC Marathon with 10 m to Go ! (throwback photo)

These random thoughts went through my mind during a tough run on Saturday 28th April, I wanted to record them down for posterity to remind myself and my readers the number of emotions and thoughts flash through my mind. 

The net takeaway is that : "Running makes me feel alive !"

Another Year Another Marathon ! 

So here Goes :

Body pushed to the Limit

Sun's Incessant Rays on my skin  (in caps for effect)

White Shades Cover my Eyes and Brows

Headwind Pushing my body 

Press On ! I say ti my 55 year old frame, 

On the return leg I will have tailwind ! 

Each km the pace is incessant

6:54,6:35,6:45 the numbers run through my head

Average pace : 6: 36 / km

Fastest pace : 5 : 25 / km

HR goes up from 72 to 161 to 171 

Cadence of 83 ; maximum 88

I feel I am 25 again as I rush pass 

The strollers,the casual runners, the prams

Kids on tricycles, elderly on a jaunt.

Time stands still..God gives me the third eye :)

Everything is crystal clear.

I reach the 4km mark.

Pumped out of air.

I stop and gaze at the azure blue sea.

I walk to the nearby toilet for a pee break

See some guys on a corrective work order

Donning black polos and their silver tongs

One guy gives me a wan smile.

Still Smiling at 42 km 

The return leg is On !

I push again like there is no tomorrow 

My heart goes beating like crazy

Average heart rate of 172 and max of 180.

109% above my supposed max.

I am feeling superhuman !

Calories burnt 410 kcal

I am running on empty

Did not eat breakfast just water and off I went

Average pace 6 : 58 per km on the back 4

Max 6: 08 / km 

I am tiring

Press On ! says my mind

ECP is pretty flat but my guess of a tailwind was a pipedream

Nothing, except hot air greets my lungs on my return

I am speeding from tree cover to tree cover

The heat is blistering now

Average Lap is 6 :57.8 per km

Best Lap is 6 : 41. 8 per km

The numbers are flashing like lights in front my my eyes

I tear off my running vest

I am short of breath

Hookahkay ! I am onto overdrive and running on plain adrenalin

Every laboured breath, every ache of my body, every bead of sweat

Sends me this message every time 

                                                "Today I am so alive !!!!"

                                                          Carpe Diem !!! 

West Ham 0 Wolves 1 ; first 3 points of the season away

Coach Nuno Esperito Santos is stamping his authority and vision on the Wolves team, they are playing as a compact unit now, with numerous goalscorers so there is no depending on just 1 player. A brilliant strategy and a very well balanced side. Let me highlight the goalscorers so far, in the 5 games (4 in the league and 1 in the Carabao Cup against Sheffield Wednesday).

Wolves vs Everton (H) ; result Draw
1. Reuben Neves
2. Raul Jiminez

Leicester vs Wolves (A) ; 0 loss 

Wolves ve Man City (H) ; result Draw
1. Willy Boly 

Sheffield Wed vs Wolves (A) ; 2 - 0 win for Wolves
1. Leo Bontatini
2. Helder Costa (P)

West Ham vs Wolves (A) ; 1 - 0 for Wolves
1. Adama Treoare 

This team has the potential to win the league, mark my words. Perhaps I should put my money where my mouth is ??? 

26 August SAFRA and Army Half Marathon

My first competitive run in more than 2 years, and what a layoff it has been ! I am all of 55 years young and still at a sport which is normally meant for young adults.Throwing that concept out of the window, I decided (together with the help of my 2 running buddies Timothy Lee and Ricky Ng) to make a 'comeback' of sorts. 

I had done and dusted 10 full marathons in the past 15 years and work and age concerns were on my mind. But hey, you only live once so the last 6 weeks was getting my overweight body onto the East Coast Parkway and just hauling the kms day in day out, 'just like the old days'. 

Wefie with some acquaintences of Ricky's prior to the start of the race

Last week was pretty hectic with a full workload, and then driving the roughly 20 km to the east coast park in the evening to run 13K, 10K, 10K rest, 4K and 15K just 1 week prior to the race. My body took it very well to be honest. So I am in better shape than I originally thought!

The body metabolism slows down dramatically after the '50s so I must be very mindful of my diet, reminding that wine, beer contain lots of calories, chocolates are a 'no no' and eating grilled foods, meats and snacks sparingly. An idle mind is a dangerous thing, so it is better to keep the body (and mind) active and then everything is in fine balance.

The night before the race, I ate more than usual (need to remind myself of this anomaly) and watched my football team Wolves, draw 1 -1 against the mighty Premier League champions Man City. Heading to bed at 9 : 50 was very unusual given the fact I had to wake up by 2 : 30 just 5 hours away. Anyway, I believe I fell asleep close to 12 midnight, so I only had about 2 plus hours of sleep. Fortunately I rested on sat afternoon, so had another 2 hours add ons.

Ricky picked me up around 3 : 15 and we drove to his condo near the start point. The usual banter and preparation was muted for me as I was just focussed on what I had to complete never mind the others. Finally at 4 ; 30 we were off ! 

I took on a faster pace than usual doing 6 : 30 / km speed and managed to keep that for the first 10K (63 mins) the second 10 K  I felt fatigue gaining the better of me, but I held on popping my GU Gels every 5 km. nearing the 15 km mark, I was preparing my 3rd power gel when I carelessly knocked it onto the ground. I had a foggy recollection that when I turned around another runner had stepped on it and so I said " to heck with it" and carried on. 

" I really need to lose that visceral fat" I told myself ! so there I was plodding away and taking in the kms, fortunately I was not down with cramps or any the worse for wear and tear, so on I went slowly for the next 10 K, I easily slowed down to about 8 min per km, hence the second 10 K I figured I did around 80 minutes 

The last km or so was the hardest, so I gamely plodded on and drank at the remaininng water stations. I finished at a pedestrian time of 2 : 38 : 9 though in hindsight I did not push it, as I had not run this distance in a long time.

Thanks go out to my lovely wife May for being understanding and letting me continue my hobby. She was a trouper and went to the market (every Sunday) with the maid to buy fish, meats, vegetables and otehr stuff. 

My 2 friends met at the end of the race and we all went and had a nice prawn noodle along Beach Road just to round up a perfect run !

I am back !!! 

25 Aug 2018 Wolves 1 Man City 1

An entertaining game full of incidents, world class save from Rui Patricio, an unlikely offside goal from Jiminez, Sergio Aguero's relationship with the upright and the bar, Wily Boly's goal which had a 'hand of God' aspect to it, Jota and Costa causing Kompany and company plenty of probolems, and Laporte's header equalizer.

All in all a first rate game by the men in Gold and Black, at Molineux no less, with 31,000 + crazy happy fans who were so pleased to deny last season's Premier League champions full 3 points and garner one of the most entertaining point of this season so far.

Come on you Wolves ! Show the world what you are capable of !!! 

Doha 16 - 19 July 2018