Dante Aligieri - Divine Comedy

Stalactites in Guilin Cave 

The Poet Dante Aligieri in his magnus opus Divine Comedy writes about a man who followed an angel into the 9 caverns of Hell, I listened to the audiotape with interest and can conclude that this guy has an overreactive imagination, but it makes for good reading and listening. He also lists the 7 deadly sins which are considered worth an eternal damnation. They are :

a) Gluttony

b) Pride

c) Lust

d) Envy

e) Sloth

f) Greed

g) Wrath

Of course these are all the human emotions which sometimes we are not aware of. The logical mind in me would raise the following doubts ; 1. When you are a child, you would not know that these are evil, and if you had the misfortune of not having parents, or a broken home, or worse still being caught up in armed conflict, then your actions cannot be faulted, if to save your life. Can they ?

2. We see all these acts in many forms in society today. The streets of USA are a battleground of wrath and anger for an innocent black man being choked to death at the hands of the Minneapolis Police force. So, do 2 sins make a right ? Obviously not !

3. Prideful people are everywhere, show -offs, greedy people, people who eat till excess and the list goes on. How does a person know where the limits are in life, if he so unfortunately ends up with the 'wrong crowd', born in a place of armed conflict and he or she has to do any or all of the above just to survive. 

I would say, that we must keep all these emotions under control. However, circumstances sometimes override our emotions that we may be caught up in a 'Fight, Flight, or Fright' situation and wrath unfortunately gets the better of us.

To err is human. But to forgive divine.

One More Time this Year End ; I have 3 more left in Me.

Woody Boogie

Woody Boogie - Baltimora. 

Athlete Test Chamber Doha Qatar

Test Chamber for 1 Athlete and Observer. 

Its over 3 years since my company QRA International embarked on the international sales route to promote the Athletic Chamber. To date, we have done reasonably well and the first one outside of Singapore is as shown above. This chamber was fabricated and installed under 5 months for use to simulate some extreme weather conditions like desert, or cold and dry conditions for purposes of scientific research for athletic conditioning as well as sports rehabilitation for athletes.  

Test Conditions are from 10 to 50 deg C and relative humidity from 30 to 90%. The products under test are highly conditioned athletes, and hence we need to put in CO2 scrubbers to remove the CO2 expelled from these athletes once they start doing rigorous exercise in these chambers.

The chamber in Doha Qatar is able to perform some very extreme conditions such as 

18 C 40% rH 

20 C 50 % rH

40 C 40 % rH

50 C 50 % rH

The control panel 

The purpose of installing CO2 scrubbers is to reduce the amount of CO2 in the chamber to an acceptable level. For some this is 2000 ppm or parts per million when using the chamber for 1 to 2 hours. The sizing of the scrubbers is critical based on number of athletes, observers as well as the intensity of the exercise being conducted in the chamber as well as the test condition. Most chambers need to be able to run at 18 C 40% rH. and to take away the CO2 speedily enough so that the CO2 level does not reach levels which are considered hazardous to the people using the chamber. 

For those interested in this technology and field, we would be most pleased to take any enquiries worldwide. Please do visit : www.qra.com.sg and for further followup, please send sales enquiries to  qrasales@qra.com.sg or mark@qra.com.sg

Our friendly and professional sales staff will be happy to oblige you with a quote once the specifications are determined at your location. 

We must get on with life ; Football, Sports, Dining, Socialising and Travel

Two of my favourite all time Wolves players Adama Traore and Raul Jiminez 

We are only at maybe the 30% point of this global pandemic. However, the COVID 19 lockdown fatigue has begun to set in. Already, people are out and about buying food, doing groceries and running in parks, on the roads and trying to get back to some normalcy in life.

Governments the world over have to struggle with this conundrum. Once the curve is flattened, then what ? Let business operations and society try to get back to some kind of normal routine.

Its been almost 2 months now, of the Circuit Breaker. We have had not been able to go to school, to work sites, to food and drinking establishments, to our gyms, clubs, yoga, personal training sessions and to socialise. We do it all in the name of the greater good and to break the cycle of transmission.

Slowly, the Government is allowing schools to reopen, some 30% of businesses can restart with SafeEntry and social distancing measures in place. It has been tough, but I always remind myself that this is for the betterment and health is at the top priority of us all.

However, the economic 'hit' from this lockdown has yet to fully impact us on a daily basis.

Al Dente Spaghetti at Seta Milan Mandarin Oriental 2017

This was one of the most impressive eating establishments we have tried ever. And that says a lot to someone who is married to a Cantonese picky eater ! Well it did have a 2 Michelin star rating no less.

Seta Restaurant Mandarin Oriental has a waiting list of 6 months, so I was pretty lucky just to get a lunch on a Monday afternoon barely 2 weeks beforehand. We were lucky and very impressed as this restaurant is rated 2 Michelin Stars. The hotel is unpretentious and the restaurant even more so. So we got there right on time 1pm on 4th December 2017 for a truly unforgettable lunch. We ordered the Executive Set Lunch (if I recall correctly), for a total of (for 2) EUR 120 (S$ 200) but this is a small price to pay for excellent food, wonderful service and quiet ambience only top restaurants can achieve. 

There was 3 courses plus dessert, with a number of free dishes courtesy of the kitchen thrown in to impress these 2 'mid lifers'. And suitably impressed we were ! 

The spaghetti is 'al dente' or has bite with a single prawn, in tomato sauce, with a sprinkling of broccoli and something which looks like an olive (I am a horrible foodie, sorry). She says the spaghetti in many places lack the 'al dente'. Only in the land which gave us this pasta is it done correctly. 

Lamb Roulande 4 Dec 2017 

The Lamb Roulande also was exceptionally tasty, I recall it was very tender, flavourful without the gamey taste which accompanies lamb dishes.

The sweets were truly outstanding. Please take a while to feast your eyes on it. Breadsticks, and sauvignon blanc topped up the beautiful lunch almost 3 years ago in Milan. 

Lucky Non Foodie eating good grub. Shiok Ah ! 

Breadsticks, Ciabatta bread, Sauvignon Blanc , Garlic and Heart Choking Butter

Once this pandemic is truly over, we must go back for another memorable gastronomic experience. 

Mandarin Oriental, Milan

Via Andegari 9

20121, Milano

MI

Italy.

Sweets to end an excellent meal 

  

Our Response could be better to COVID - 19.

After the initial containment of the COVID -19 by shutting our borders, our leaders were slow off the mark to look into the most obvious (in hindsight) hotbeds of the community spread. In the dormitories of the foreign workers.

So now, we have hit over 30,000 cases. While most of them are mild cases, and only 20 remain in ICU, the fact of the matter is our leaders missed the opportunity to show the world that we had the disease under control. Several countries have shown that by stringent lockdowns, the pandemic can be halted. Australia, New Zealand, Taiwan and Vietnam are hailed as models for this disease control.

Singapore, well, we have to wipe the mud off our faces. We had the virus by the theoretical scruff of the neck, but did not give it a good beating. On the contrary, it turned around and gave us a good slap in the face. My 2 cents worth to our leaders as a loyal and disappointed citizen : 

Never be too complacent and smug. Speak well of your neighbours and your citizens and do not belittle them as 'xia sway'. It only makes you look like the 'xia sway'. 

Having been paid huge amounts to run the country, I think it is time to reflect whether truly you are deserving of that high pay.