Scintillating Match with Wolves the deserved winners ! What a time to be supporting them

3 strikes on goal, 3 goals ; this game speaks volumes of Wolves clinical finishing ; from the back to the front the entire team played like Champions of Europe ; on their day no team can come close to beating them.

The goalscorers, Matt Doherty, Diogo Jota and Raul Jiminez made it look so easy, but this team is ready to etch their names in glory for the history books. The entire team can walk right into any national team at this moment. Only Coady and Boly are not capped by their respective countries. 

Rui Patricio (Portugal)

Conor Coady (England)
Wily Boly  (France)
Roman Saiss  (Morocco)
Matt Doherty (Rep of Ireland)
Reuben Neves  (Portugal)  
Joao Moutinho  (Portugal)  / Leander Dendoncker (Belgium)
Reuben Vinagre  (Portugal  U21) / Morgan Gibbs White (England U21)

Adama Traore (Spain)  / Pedro Neto (Portugal U21)
Raul Jiminez  (Mexico)
Diogo Jota.   (Portugal)  / Daniel Podence (Portugal)

My guess is that they will win 8 games of their remaining 10 with only Chelsea (away) and Sheffiled United (away) being 'difficult' games. They potentially can end up with 66 points which given this season's very close league they can end up either in 4th - 6th position, an improvement from their 2018 - 19 great start at 7th in the league entering into Europe for the Europa League Cup. 

They also have a realistic chance of making it to the finals of the Europa League this year and if they actually  do win it ; I will buy another 3 - 4 team paintings !  

Kamoshita - A Revisit ; same great simple Japanese cooking

Fish Cake Oden

We had not been back to this superb Izakaya (Japanese Inn) place for more than 6 months, and our return was marked by eating and drinking some superb oden (Japanese soup) which is served according to your selection, (like Spanish Tapas) warm and cold. 

My wife and I had a total of 8 dishes ; some of which are shown above ;

a) Firefly squid with Yuzu sauce (below)

b) Warm Potato salad (below)

c) Smelt Tempura (below)

Firefly squid with Yuzu sauce 

It indeed looked like a largish grey fly and the texture was soft and not chewy. While it didn't excatly melt in my mouth, it had a little bit of the sea flavor which we found a little off putting. The Yuzu (yellow) sauce more than  made up with its tangerine and tangy sweetish flavour. 4.5 out of 5.

Warm Potato Salad 

This dish really stood out, we were really taken by the myriad of flavors, with potato salad filled with some ham (bacon ?) bits, small sprout leaves, butter and yuzu. 

5 of out 5 ; a top quality dish 

Smelt Tempura 

These small fish can be eaten whole, head, tail and all just like white bait or a cracker snack.It did my elevated cholesterol levels no good but what is there to live if one only lives by bread alone ?

Its crunchy, and flavorful, add the pink rock salt by the side for a superb entree.

4.5 out of 5. 

Smelt Tempura 

Warm Potato Salad

d) Radish Oden

e) Teriyaki Grilled Rainbow Runner

f) Boiled Egg

Radish Oden

Radish Oden.

A beautiful nuanced soup dish with very mild flavors. Good for cold evenings in Japan, not in warm and humid Singapore. But we loved it nonetheless.

5 out of 5. 

Water Cress with Fatty Iberico Pork Soup 

Water Cress with Fatty Iberico Pork 

The watercress was boiled for some time, and the pork was fatty, so the taste of the soup was absolutely yummy. So, the vegetable was tasty and not crunchy, same as the pork.

It seemed like a dish we could have easily made at home but probably with a different outcome :)

5 out of 5.

Teriyaki Grilled Rainbow Runner 

Teriyaki Grilled Rainbow Runner

The only dish which we felt was ordinary. The flavour was above average, though we felt that some parts of the fish were a little undercooked. The white radish, with the chopped spring onions garnished with a light soya sauce was a nice touch. Again not too sharp a taste.
4 out of 5.

The restaurant is practically the best Izakaya (Inn) we have tasted in Singapore, and it is indeed value for money. We only had a juice and an Asahi beer to complement our fine meal and the total bill came to $110 for 2 pax.

The closest MRT is probably Tanjung Pagar, and if you do drive, park opposite Maxwell Road Hawker Centre at the URA building along Kadayanallur Road. 

Kamoshita 
5 Neil Road  (shophouse)
S'pore 088806.

   

Bassai Dai Shito Ryu

Beautifully executed by a Japanese Master ; side view shows the stances,blocks kicks and punches perfectly.   

Bassai Dai - Bunkai

This is the application of the most recognised of all Shito Karate style katas. Called the Bunkai, it shows off the many one to 4 step of block and counter strikes in this most beautiful performed katas.

I am adding this as a technique reminder for today's class (1st March 2020).

Tottenham 1 Wolves 3 ; Dec 2018 ; can it be repeated ??

Footnote on 4th March : the answer is "Yes" !  Wolves emerged 3 - 2 winners in London on Sunday 1st March 2020.

What a glorious time to be a Wolves fan !!! 

Your Momma don't dance - Live from Daryl Hall's House 2016

Veteran musicians singing Kenny Loggins and Messina's classic Your Momma don't dance. 

While Loggins plays the lead guitar together with Daryl Hall (of Hall and Oates fame), the rest of the musicians are of world class standards themselves.

I absolutely love this (albeit slow) version of the late '70s classic played by masters such as these !

Bill Gates No Less Said This at a TED Talk in 2015

The key and sad point of all this chest beating and reflection is this, if the people in authority watch this and did nothing, it is indeed a calamity indeed. The fact that Bill Gates no less a person with great standing as a thinker, entrepreneur and philantrophist foretold of this calamity in 2015, (Coronavirus outbreak which is now a Global Health Emergency) and since then, there seemed to be little done globally.  Countries coming together and partnering to form some kind of international 'ringfence' or working together in this regard (to contain the outbreak) still seems quite disjointed or piecemeal. 

I am glad Singapore's response and readiness to act has been up to expectations.  We have learnt well from the painful lessons of SARS some 17 years ago. 

I know and pray that the world's epimediologists are working round the clock to a) contain the spread b) provide prompt and proper medical care to the sick and suspected sick and c) racing against time to find a vaccine. China at the epicentre, needs all the help it can from the world's medical community to firstly fight and contain the spread, and secondly bring it under control. The painful lessons of SARS seem to be recurring again, much to the whole world's anguish and concern. 

Some trends seem to emerge. (I call them trends as they are not yet fully verified as 'facts').

1. The virus is pretty contagious. It is air borne, possibly water droplets and even through tears.

> Latest Update (22 March) : To date, the disease is a GLOBAL PANDEMIC, with over 230,000 and over 10,000 dead. New information of the deadly virus :



2. People who have the virus are contagious, even when they show little or no signs and thus can be mobile and pass it to people they come into immediate contact with.

3. China has sent the genetic data of the virus to WHO and as a result some countries including Singapore have isolated and created the exact replica of the current strain of the Novel CoV -19. Their openness for sharing with the world this data is to be lauded. 

"If you know your enemy and its intentions, you can find the path to defeat it.  "

3. The death rate based on the number of cases in total, seem lower than the other more severe pandemics like SARS, MERS and Ebola. However, this is not conclusive at this juncture.

4. Thailand is the first nation at this point to 'cure' a patient who is 71 with a cocktail of 'flu vaccines, SARs and HIV. While this is excellent news, the combination is probably still too expensive and not easily reproducible at this point. Reference to this article in Fortune below link : 
   
https://fortune.com/2020/02/03/wuhan-coronavirus-treatment-thailand


5. We will beat this virus over time, the only critical issue at this point is to ensure that the Co - R (or rate of infections per cycle) is reduced drastically. The only way is to identify early the victims, give them the best quality medical care and facilities while the people they have come into contact should be kept under quarantine for further observation.

For Singapore, my guess is that most of the victims should recover, if not all.

For the rest of us  Lets Keep Calm and Carry On