Last year, only Sunny got it right. Manchester United won the first place. I got two of my predictions right: Chelsea for third and Spurs for fifth. I was too biased. This time I will try to be more objective. None of the other predictions offered by other blog readers got anything right.
This year’s transfer window is shut. We know who are the players in each team.
There are a few reasons why its tough to make predictions this year. First, new managers in Manchester United, Manchester City, and Chelsea. A good manager with good judgment and motivational skills can be worth as much as 10 points. Only Manuel Pellegrini is new to the English league teams and players. Jose Mourinho can update quickly. The Man U players will dither between doubt and faith, and the British media will relish putting Moyes in Ferguson’s shadow, Is Moyes good enough to lead them to silverware? We will see. Second, there are many new foreign players. If not additions to your team, reinforcements in your competitors’ teams. New players can make either a positive or negative difference. Tottenham has bought so many good players, they are almost a new team. Likewise Sunderland.
The teams with the most fearsome strikers are Manchester United, Manchester City and Chelsea. They have the clinical finish, the experience and can change a game even in the last minutes of a game. It is already tough to make predictions in normal circumstances, but with these additional variables, it becomes less predictable than ever before.
However this uncertainty is what makes the BPL more fun than any other leagues! Having thought deeply for ten minutes (haha), here are my predictions:
1st place: Manchester City – the squad is scary and the engineer will be able to put the pieces together and foster greater harmony
2nd place: Arsenal – will play with authority and a mean defence, but if a January addition of a special striker can be done, may even be champions.
3rd place: Manchester United – most of the time Moyes will be under great pressure, players disturbed by doubts and a certain Rooney.
4th place: Chelsea – some too old, some too young, and I don’t like Mourinho’s narcissism.
5th place: Liverpool – I want them to beat Spurs.
6th place: Tottenham Hotspur – if they are hit by injuries, maybe Everton will be sixth.
Please add your predictions in the comment box. Love to hear your thoughts.
A friend dropped by and handed a few free tickets to the Clash of the Continents tennis exhibition at the Singapore Indoor Stadium. Why not? I was on leave and had time to spare and had never been to one before. My wife, a neighbour and I arrived at about 3pm and managed to watch the tail end of the first match and the full match that pitted Japan’s and Asia’s No. 1 player with an Argentina player, once ranked No 10. The match was absorbing with a few light moments of entertainment though I wished there had been more intensity, more tension. Before I knew it, the match was over and two hours had passed. A few interesting things about tennis and me:
I picked up tennis when I was in secondary 2 in Swiss Cottage Secondary. There was no proper coaching so I picked up the game watching TV and reading books in the library. It was a poor way to learn.
It was a clay court and that meant preparatory work on the court before you could play. We had to even out the clay and had to drag a heavy roller up and down the court to flatten the ground. When balls were hit out onto the slope we had to climb a fence and search among the bushes for the ball.
I had a bronze medal from the national games. We played and lost to St Joseph’s and St Patrick’s and we had a walk over with either Beatty Secondary or Outram Secondary. There were four teams in the whole of Singapore. That’s why Swiss Cottage was third and I had a medal. 🙂
Nostalgia hit me today. We climbed Mt Kinabalu in March 2007. Agnes and I led a busload of youth and some of their fathers or mothers to climb this challenging but beautiful mountain. It was the second climb we organized for the church young people. It was almost disastrous, but the Lord in his grace and power, intervened and made it possible for everyone to climb. You see, permits to climb were given to quite a number at the Park HQ at the very last moment. The local tour agency had not booked sufficient beds but we had already booked our budget air tickets. The Lord was good and helped us through. Some miracles come only at the very last moment after you have kept faith in Him till the very end. I unearthed old photos from 5 years ago today and did this video for pleasure of nostalgia.
It was planned a year ago and booking began in January. It was far from the two videos we saw on YouTube. The Trans Gopeng Cameron trek looked like a long walk in MacRitchie Park merely requiring endurance and a steady pace. Yes we were going to stay overnight in an “orang asli” attap hut deep in the jungle and that was touted as the only hardship. The trek was anything like the videos – and we soon found out why.
Gopeng Rainforest Resort
We flew from budget airport by Firefly to Ipoh. The hundred-seater propeller-driven plane got us there is just over an hour. We were served peanuts or cake and some juice. The Ipoh airport was small but it was being renovated. David and Janice Foon welcomed us there and we went to town for timsum and bought some supplies for the trek before heading for Gopeng Rainforest Resort.
Do not be fooled by the name. It was no resort. Basic facilities in what was once a durian plantation. However the hospitality and the food made it feel more like a home stay. Warm, friendly, helpful and patient and close attention to everyone’s needs, David and Janice did their utmost to make the stay as pleasant as possible.
Trek began at dawn
The next morning we woke with the dawn, got ready, had our breakfast and headed out in the dark to the orang asli settlement from which we would begin our trek. It was about 6am and each of us had our headlamps on. We would begin early with the first day’s trek of about 18 km up and through the Kinta jungle so as to reach the hut before it gets dark.
The Kinta jungle
The trek is not a well traversed one so the tracks were not well marked out. Without orang asli guides we would definitely have appeared in the Sun’s morning papers, SINGAPOREANS LOST IN KINTA JUNGLE, or something like that. More than once we lost sight of faster team members ahead and had to stay where we were, and wait till the guides who were behind with the slower ones reached us. Most times we re-grouped to keep all 14 together.
Bamboo groves, streams and leeches
At times it felt like Bukit Timah Hill, but for a few differences. One is that there were many streams to wade or step across. Secondly, there were many giant fallen bamboos across our route and we had to bow low with our haversack to get under and through them. If we had known we would have done more duck-walking for our preparations. Third, there were leaves, bushes, branches and grasses stroking and brushing against your arms and legs as you walked through. Fourth, there were leeches. No matter how we prepared ourselves against them, no defence worked: leech socks, salts, tobacco leaves, covering yourselves thoroughly. Everyone yielded some blood to those thirsty Kinta leeches. We feared them before the trek began; we no longer feared but hated them by the time it was over. Fourth, whenever we came across bamboo groves, we smelt the pungent urine boundary markers of wild boar.
We had been training on Saturday mornings for months with several prolonged outings which I usually missed because of ministry commitments. This preparation helped everyone. Quite a number of us have crossed the 50 mark. Others are in their forties. And just one in her thirties and one in his sixties. We have been together for some years so we were harmonious. We trekked regularly so we knew how to listen to our bodies and maintain a comfortable personal pace. We called ourselves “Easytrekkers” because we were kiasi, kiasu, kiabor and were easy with each other’s differences and peculiarities.
Back to basics in overnight stay
Reaching the orang asli hut at about 6 pm while still daylight was important as there was no electricity at all. A bulky solar power machine was meant to provide electricity but now stood sentry next to the entrance, a silent testament to miserable Malaysian maintenance. There were no proper toilet and bathing facilities. Toilet was anywhere in the bushes where you can find privacy. Bathing were two taps at knee height out in the open. One was made into a temporary hut with temporary walls from plastic sheets, so that sanitized Singaporeans who must bathe, can bathe. I just wiped myself up with a wet towel, and powdered myself generously army-style, and got ready for cup noodles and eggs for dinner, and got into my sleeping bag on the bamboo floor. Tired as I was after 12 hours of trekking in the forest, I could not sleep as well as I had thought I would. It was the same for others. I was later to appreciate the exquisite comfort of the bed and the warm showers in Ipoh’s Regal Lodge hotel.
Second day of trek – two steep hills
Dawn came but too slowly. Breakfast was two cups of cereals for me -those convenient 3 in 1 packets. Then everybody got ready. My socks could not dry in time and were still drenched (and I had forgotten to pack that extra dry pair), so I was thankful when someone lent me her black knee high football socks. Too bad it wasn’t Arsenal; but any pair of dry socks, even Man Utd’s one is better than a soggy one. By 8 am everyone was ready to go.
The second leg of the trek was devoid of leeches as it was cooler and higher. But the steep gradients of the two major slopes we had to clamber were challenging. One hit us immediately after we began. It was a clear path the orang asli used to get to civilization to buy their supplies but it was a steep 70-80 degree gradient and went on and on like a staircase to eternity. Then it was down again and an awkward climb upstream using both hands and feet to negotiate up a rocky stream for about 1-2 km. The final steep climb was sandy and required all our hands and feet and trekking sticks and the hands of others. We felt such a sense of relief, joy and accomplishment when we finally reached the top: marked by a concrete cement boundary stone and a sign showing directional arrows of the two states of Perak and Pahang. We lazed there for close to 45 minutes, just enjoying the scenery, the cool breeze and fresh air, and chatting about the tough trek and nice weather. I was praising God and just eating energy bars and nuts and chlorinated stream water for lunch. I thought, The worse must be over. It should be downhill from now on.
What a wonderful world, what a wonderful God
After a good rest we moved on or rather downhill to a more developed Kampong Ubi with nice low cost housing along a road that led to the Bharat tea plantation. We would trek all the way to the teahouse atop a hill offering splendid panoramic views of the tea plantation. When we reached the tea house it rained heavily. We gave thanks to God – it was not co-incidental that the two days trek was marked by wonderful weather; nor that two persons, Dave and Choong, iron man and trail runner, were there to join the trek and be such a help to us all. We had a nice cup of tea, were picked up by David and Janice, who then took us to Tanah Rata for a delayed lunch of banana leaf curry rice and naan. Then it was to Ipoh where 3 star luxury awaited us. Frankly, after the hardship of the trek, any hotel would be a luxury. Any warm shower would be a bath in Paradise. What an enjoyable and challenging trek! What a wonderful world and what a wonderful God.
Trekking is a relaxing and refreshing form of recreation and exercise. It is not so vigorous like jogging nor too pedestrian like walking. There is that exertion that will make you perspire as you climb up slopes. However for the most part you trek at a steady pace. After two hours your shirt is drenched. The air is usually fresh and cool in the morning at Bukit Timah Hill and the sunlight hardly hits the ground as you walk most of the time under an emerald umbrella of branches and leaves. When completed you always felt good that you pushed yourself to get out of bed at 7am on a Saturday. As you ate your brunch, you felt gratified that you have had a gentle but long workout.
Rock trail
The Rock Path trail is off the bitumen main path from foot to summit. It is called thus because there is a steep slope of granite rocks that you have to climb and you need to hold on to vines as large as a bodybuilder’s biceps on your way up. Most kids would enjoy this stretch and find it challenging but doable.
Secret spot
The other day I chanced upon this lovely view from the top of the disused granite quarry. A lovely little grove that overlooks a quarry pond, and in the distance HDB flats. I did not know of this place until recently and not many others know of this place, so I’d like to keep it so.
Good company
Acquaintances easily form during and after this activity. There are those breaks when we drink, rest and talk. During the trek all kinds of pleasant and serious conversations take place. And after the trek, we eat at a hawker centre and chat about life, politics, and religion and…. the next overseas trek. The trekking group have been together for quite some time with departures and additions over the years. And they have gone several overseas trek every year. The last time I was with them on such a trip was several years ago in Nepal. Now I plan to join them on a rough Gopeng trail in Cameron Highlands. I find I need a goal to give me the motivation to be diligent in preparation. The benefits are health, recreation, fun and good company.
