Beautiful Canberra

Bessitkas 0 Wolves 1

Liang Bo - Hei Ye Zhong China Voice Finalist

Wolves back to winning ways ; after 7 games finally a win in the Premier League

Wolves have had the most cumbersome of starts, as they were first involved in the Asia Premier League trophy, which they won beating Man City on Penalties. They then played 6 (yes 6) games before the start of the Premier League proper for the Europa Cup qualifiers and started the Premier League beginning August. Its no wonder that their small squad of players are looking jaded.

I am thankful that finally they have gotten off the starting blocks with 4 draws and 2 losses before this one, they had better sharpen their game with the new guys being thrown into the mix. Leicester (A) Draw ; Man Utd (H) Draw ; Burnley (H) Draw ; Everton (A) Loss ; Chelsea (H) Loss ; Palace (A) Draw ; Watford (H) Win - Finally. 

Its going to be a long and tough season. And only the best, the most willing, the most talented and the strongest will survive. 

Neto, Jordao, Kilman, Cutrone are being given their baptisms and Gibbs White is a regular, we are going to stress test the team going forward. To rely on the ever dominant front 2 of Jiminez and Jota is frankly asking too much, so it was with much relief that Doherty scored the opener and the second was created by Gibbs White for Watford to concede and own goal.

Midweek there is the second game with Bestikas and the weekend will be super challenging with Man City in the oppostion. 

Game On ! Lets see what the Wolves are made of !!  

What a Chill Song - Sweet Home Chicago - Blues Brothers !

SA Old Boys Dinner 2019

Sat 7th September ; School Hall 

This year saw about 2 tables of our class of '78 attend the school dinner. We shared old jokes, old stories which we never tire of hearing and compared the different teachers who taught us. Yes, the 'old boys network' never dies. Its as strong as ever. 

Compared to the 'boys' in their 70s we are the young 'chikus' or the beige fruit which is common in the tropics. However to many of our children's generation, we are fasting approaching the young old. 60 would be the mid old.

Scary propostion, but what can we do ? We can never reverse aging but we can try to leave a good mark where we went before and hopefully our children and those lives we have touched can truly benefit from our experiences, failings and successes.

My form teacher Mr. Victor Wee

As the world is ever so uncertain, there are multiple challenges facing us in the near term. Climate change and the carbon emissions is ever imminent, if we do nothing and continue in this pace of 'development' with deforestation and ever more CO2 being emitted into the environment, we will hit the tipping point of an extra 2 deg C and we will be facing the awesome tasks of melting polar ice caps ; submerged cities and ever more unpredictable weather patterns.

Mankind has been the most successful yet most destructive animal on this beautiful Earth.

We must change our ways.     

Before the Flame Dies

At Raffles Place Robinsons, circa 1964 

Today I received news that one of my dear friends was gravely ill. I had not seen him for almost 6 months and I thought nothing was amiss when he sent me some Whatsapp message last month to meet for coffee, when I was on a business trip to Thailand. He is a Singapore PR and married to a local lady. 

Today he sent me a chilling message ; he was gravely ill and my immediate thoughts and prayers went out to his young daughter and Singapore wife. He is a very clever businessman and ventured into many industries from the music in the 80s to early 2000s to engineering and then finally dabbling in the food business. He is currently in Europe seeking medical treatment and my thoughts and hopes are with his doctors and his family for them to stay strong during this crisis. 

My post today is to reflect on how suddenly things can turn for the worse at any time, and then we rue the times we missed to truly live life. This was the prime motivation for me to start this blog and I am happy to say that 13 years on, I am still at it, writing my views on life from my perspective as a small businessperson in a small island, as a father, friend, colleague,acquaintence and a right pain in the ass to some people.

Carpe Diem in Latin means to seize the day. Everyone reaches the end of his or her life. Some go earlier, some later. No ifs, no buts and definately no perhaps.The lucky ones go in their sleep, many will have illnesses with which they have to battle to the bitter end. How we end is not in our control. It never was, and never will be. 

Before the Flame Dies

Run old man in the pouring rain
Gasp in Air again,again 
Climb each summit with every step you take
See the magnificence which He had to make

Take time to be with your beautiful bride
Think of the tasks you did side by side
Laugh at our earnestness, our inner pain
One day we will never be here again

Go afar and meet old friends
Lets reminisce and be young again
Chide each other for our childish views
Let them know that we were once young fools. 
  
Soak again in those glorious rays
That once we took for granted oh so far aways
Run, jump  crawl and slide
We were there first, by the by. 

Lets eat the things we had when young
Laksa, Kway Teow and See Hum
Visit the field where we had our fun 
Hantam Bola, boys run,run run ! 
  
As the Flame glows ever weaker still
Poise ourselves for whatever, we will
Hold our heads high, you, me and them
For we once ruled here, Carpe Diem !