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'.

Closest the planet Mercury will be to Earth

Taken poolside Feb 26th 2019 ; Weather is a perfect 22 deg C. 

I am in Doha right now and in the newspapers are reports that today 26th February 2019 is the only day in a long while where the planet Mercury will be closest to Earth.

Called the Red Planet, I wonder whether we can view it from the naked eye. As it is near the desert area, I am quite optimistic that there will nary be many tall buildings or lights which will  be an impediment to viewing such a phenomenon.


I try to make time to experience life even while on the road. With the new experiences, I gain a greater insight into how life is on the 'other side' so it gives me paradigm shifts and new insights to viewing life as I walk this path. 

Carpe Diem. 

Staying Positive

Thankful for health and wits 

This blog post is to just remind myself that there is plenty of things for me to be thankful. We tend to take so many things for granted in life that we forget actually how far and how much we have progressed.

As a country, Singapore has made it up to the first world, in a short span of less than 30 years, since 1965. So while there are still many people struggling, the plight of the poor is never a constant because there are opportunities for the youth and the adaptable to rise up the jobs ladder.

We must always be nimble enough to go out and make good our lives. As I write, I am in Middle East sourcing for new business to take my company forward, hence  the need to have boundless energy and drive to see through the vision.

The struggles of the past have only given me greater resilience to take things in their stride and move ever upward and onward.

This way, I can stay positive and with this mindset pursue the aims I have set out for myself.