Will this be the end for the Army Half Marathon ?

I read with some disbelief that the SAF is calling time on the Army half Marathon in the wake of the recent training related deaths of several NS Men in the space of 16 months.

While each death is truly regrettable, I think, in my opinion hosting an event like the Half Marathon is an 'event' for many an NS Men's life and for many civilians like myself and my friends, it is a goal which for the better part, makes me want to wake up every morning to run and put in the km to train for that goal.

While I fully understand the rationale of standing down and relooking events in the light of safety and occurences, I think, that as an event, the Army Half Marathon is pretty well established in the common psyche of many of us 'middle aged weekend warriors'.

here are some pictures from last year's half marathon, and I am hopefully that this event will be restaged in the coming years.

  

Moving onward One Game at a Time

Now that the pressure of relegation is over, Wolves are sitting comfortably at 7th place 1 point over Watford and with 8 games to go, I must say that coach Nuno has done an exceptional job overhauling the team, the playing strategy and giving the 'boys' great focus and belief that they can overcome the best in Europe.

I hope and will follow the same guiding principles as exampled on the pitch with my work and focus in life. Never settle for less and push your limits (of course make sure that you are well prepared for the 'fight').

Watch the Chelsea game below, Wolves had barely 30% of the ball but when they had one clear opportunity at goal, they took it and scored. Chelsea had easily 8 - 10 but excellent defending and hassling their top rated players off the ball like Hazard, Higuain and Wiliam, David Luiz and Pedro kept Chelsea at bay for 92 minutes.

It took a brilliant long range strike from Belgium's top goalscorer in the Premier League to save the Blues the blushes from a so-called 'newly promoted team'.

The Liquidator - Reggae Song

This song is so cute and timeless, no wonder the Wolves fans have been using it as their 'anthem' of sorts to diss the auld enemy West Bromwich Albion and motivate the team to greater heights.

I never like to diss the competition having been very comfortable in my own skin and trying to motivate people with my own struggles in life.

So enjoy the song and lets move ever onward ever upward.

Associataion Bias - think about these subconcious linkages

 The Full Moon also gave rise to a lot of Mumbo Jumbo about werewolves and centuries of  ridiculous nonsense.

At the onset, this story is about why I hated eating Peking Duck and subsequently changed my association bias and now I love the dish. 

When I was young many years ago, I remember vaguely that I was once playing and fooling around during dinner at the Swimming Club (Harbour Room), my parents had ordered Peking Duck, which was basically roasted duck skin which was wrapped in a flour type pancake and with cucumber, Chinese parsely and then dipped into a sweetish black sauce for the final accompaniment.

So that was in the early '70s, and while my parents were having a nice sit down dinner, I was eating a bit, in between the meals,and playing catching. So when the Peking Duck dish came, I ate and continued playing. All I recall later was that I had some indigestion, and then threw up badly and went home with my parents all upset. I recall I had eating a whole range of condiments that day, such as chilli, soya sauce, honey and mustard all at the same time as a 'dare' and thought nothing of it. Eating that stuff may have caused me to feel unwell and throw up and not the Peking Duck as no one else had any indigestion or vomiting. 

This experience subconciously sat in my mind for the on - going 25  years till I was about 40 and wondered why I hated such a popular and tasty dish. It was the sweet brown sauce which triggered it and I had forgotten the association that when I ate it when I was 12 years old, I had a bad reaction and threw up and thenceforth I avoided eating the dish at all costs.

Why I am bringing this up is because over the years, I had hated eating the dish, Peking duck, and I could not bring myself to dig back into the recesses of my memory as to WHY I hated such a dish which had been and still is a fantastic iconic dish of many a Chinese dinner here and of course in China.

One day, I thought about it, and realised that I had indeed forgotten the association made between Peking Duck sauce and my stomach. So I went against my irrational fear and distaste and tried the dish. 

Voila! It was lovely ! All the bad experiences of vomiting and falling sick were erased. It was a lovely tasteful experience !

So the moral of the story is this, be aware of association bias. Especially irrational ones, for we are all guided by life experiences, and sometimes, bad luck or a combination of being at the wrong place at wrong time can affect you greatly so much so that you are forever scarred by it.

Back to winning ways ; Nuno dares to make changes and succeeds

The Wolves Coach Nuno Esperito Santos is an excellent tactician.  He does not like interviews and whenever he makes a committment, he really sticks to it.

So this last weekend, he gave the No. 1 goalkeeper slot to John Ruddy, one of my favourite players and big John obliged with a clean sheet against a rather lacklustre Cardiff front 2.

In addition, Nuno made major changes to the team for the first time in this Premier League season giving starting places to 4 other not first teamers and Boy, did they take the opportunity with both legs ! Let me elaborate :

a) Reuben Vinagre for Johnny Otto ; the Portuguese under 21 was a revelation in the left wingback position, and he had 2 good attempts at goal saved by the Cardiff custodian Neil Etheridge. All in all, he played a sterling game and was never caught off the ball.

b) Adama Traore for Matt Doherty ; this guy finally showed the world what he was capable of, his surging runs made life hell for the Cardiff back 4 especially Bennett and he has the pace, the talent and the brute strength just to run Cardiff's defence ragged. All he lacked was the final product of getting the ball to the back of the net.

c) Romain Saiss for Reuben Neves ; the G'affar showed everyone he was in charge by benching the talisman for poor performances the last 2 games and putting on the Moroccan hardman, Saiss. A very solid and determined defender, Saiss stopped everything coming along his way and never once let the other 3 defenders down. My personal Man of the Match.

d) Morgan Gibbs White for Joao Mouthino ;; this wunderkind has electric pace and was in and out of every midfield battle. Though he is light of build, his pace and through passes especially the lead up to the first goal were exceptional. He will surely be an England international soon. 

Caear crosses the Rubicon ; a great animation of the strategy of Julius Caesar against Pompey

Ba Sai Dai in Hotel Room

This is me in my hotel in Doha on Tuesday 26th February. The room given to me by the Holiday Villas was so huge (I estimate it to be easily 500 to 600 sq feet) it was equivalent to a suite.

I managed to move the table and perform this Shitoryu kata and keep my 'form'.