Tamarind Springs

Sunday, 3rd June 2012

Pakdokter decided to venture out to the opposite side of the city for dinner and finally decided to go to the Tamarind Springs at the Taman Tun Abdul Razak residential district. The restaurant used to be the clubhouse of the nearby Menara Indah Apartment but has been taken over by this enterpreneur who turned it into a very rustic dining establishment. It has a very 'jungle' feel to it - one has to walk downhill along a passage through thick 'forest' before reaching this lovely restaurant with Asian decor now serving IndoChinese cusine at the upper floor called the 'Tamarind Springs' and Malay-Thai cusine at the lower deck outlet called 'Mandi-Mandi".

We tried out the 'Mandi-Mandi' platter - a selection of the chef's starters made up of long deep-fried crab-sticks, sotong dough-nuts and mussels cooked with basil with dipping sauces for the crab-sticks and sotong dough-nuts.

For the main dinner dishes - we had ricw with steamed boneless fillet of seabass Thai-style, barbeque tenderloin beef with Thai dipping sauce, kerabu paku Malay style and soft-shell crab served with slices of red apple.

It turned out to be a great 'find' for us. The lychee and mint frappe was great to temper the spicy Thai sauces. So was the lemon grass tea. Pakdokter could not take any more dessert - Raena had a delicious set of 'tako' and pakdokter's partner tried out their bowl of red dragon-fruit cubes served with ice-cream.

Johan's Home-Coming Lunch @ PutraJaya

 above - Johan's residence @ Putrajaya and

below his elder duaghter

Sunday, 3rd June 2012

Johan, pakdokter's nephew, is a diplomat, whose recent posting was with the United Nation's Office in Geneva. He had just returned home early this year after a 3 year stint in New Zealand.

A home-coming lunch was held at his residence - a lovely semi-detached triple-storey house provided by the government for its officers.

Pakdokter had not revisited Putrajaya for quite a while and was quite impressed by the residential development there. The residential precints were well planned with wide roads and generous space and ground between the rows and rows of houses. There were many high-rise apartments of good-quality ( judging from their external appearences). Government officers in Putrajaya are a lucky lot. 

Week 1 of June with the RSGC Sunday Buayas

Sunday, 3rd June 2012

The group managed to get 14 golfers to make up 4 flights today. Pakdokter had to play in the 1st flight as there was a lunch to go to in Putrajaya. Some old members of the Sunday group who returned to play today included Mohd Shahezan and Adam Aziz.

Pakdokter played with Ismail Shariff (18), Syed Izuan (23) and Amerul Fares (14). We played cut-throat starting with a 15-5-5 wager with auto-double on the 2nd Nine and all fringes included. This ensured that we all took our games seriously or else the damage would be high.

Syed Izuan, who had not played with us @ RSGC, was the 'buaya' indeed. He 'out-drove' all of us most of the times. He returned a score of 44! at the 1st Nine of the Old Course. Pakdokter only managed a 48 but cut the losses by capitalising on 3 fringes - one for the 'birdie' at the par-3 hole 4, one for the 'sandy par' at the par-3 hole 7 and for the 'double par 3'.

Pakdokter won a little from Fares but lost by a small margin to Syed Izuan and Ismail.

Pakdokter played poorly at the first 5-holes of the 2nd Nine Old Course. By then pakdokter was 5-down and game over with Ismail. Not wanting to give up - pakdokter opened a 'new frame' against him and squared him on the 15th and 16th hole. The 16th should have been a winner for pakdokter - it was a 2-feet downhill putt for a par against the rest who had  already putted for bogeys. Pakdokter firm putt grazed the lip and went down by the hole by 2-feet. Luckily pakdokter took the 17th from Fares and Syed Izuan and went into the 18th with the game already won against Fares, dommy one against Ismail and Syed Izuan. All of us teed-off well at the 18th. Pakdokter's 2nd shot grazed the top of the mid-fairway bunker and stopped at the 115 yards spot from the pin. Ismail sent his second into the left green bunker. Syed Izuan hit a long second on to the green but it rolled over to the top right rough. Pakdokter hit a beautiful 3rd with a 9-iron and the ball landed 2 feet below the pin and rolled up 2 feet above the pin for a fast downhill putt. Seeing pakdokter was going for a par, Ismail had to ensure his sand shot will get close to the pin - but his effort was too strong and the ball ran fast and past the pin and green to the other side of the green. His fourth from the rough also went way past the pin. He finally putted in for a 6. Syed Izuan had a chance against pakdokter. But from where he was - if he chipped in too weak the ball would roll down back towards him as it was a steep uphill chip to the pin placed at the edge of the steep slope. And he did just that - chipped in rather weakly and the ball rolled down the slope back to the apron. His 4th was better - went up the slope but about 6 feet on top of the pin for a downhill putt. Musa, his caddy, was great in giving him the correct line. The firm putt sent the ball straight into the cup - if not it would have gone past and probably out of the green. Pakdokter must putt in for a par - a bogey would square Syed Izuan at this hole but would still give him the match. Pakdokter putted in after the ball scarily rolled around the lip of the hole before dropping in. So pakdokter squared the match against Syed Izuan but took the dommy for 2 balls. Pakdokter had lost 4 balls to him in the 1st Nine but because it was decided that we 'auto-double' into the 2nd Nine - so we both shook hands for a 'sun-shine'. Against Ismail pakdokter would have lost easily another RM100 if not for the last par at the 18th. In the end pakdokter only went down RM7.50 to him - losing in the first frame, took the 2nd frame and the buy as well. Whatever losses against him in the 1st Nine was mostly cancelled out in the 2nd Nine.

Poor Khazanah Director, Amerul Fares, was our flight's sponsor today. Zulfikar who played in the 2nd flight had agreed to compare cards with pakdokter for a matchplay. He won in the 1st Nine but lost out in the 2nd - and pakdokter apparently lost RM25 to him. Anyway there was more than enough earnings from Fares to pay for that.

Syed Izuan in the end came out the winner for the week. His splendid score of 44at the 1st Nine earned him 23 stablefrod points and with 18 from the 2nd Nine - he was winner with 41 stableford points. So, next two weeks his handicap will be 21!

It was also an auspicious week for Syed Izuan - yesterday, in conjunction with the Birthday of the DYMM Yang diPertuan Agong, he was bestowed with the State Award of a Datukship.

So, Datuk Syed Izuan, Sir, this is pakdokter's and the rest of the Sunday Buayas 'Congratulations' to you.

Pakdokter looks forward to more outings with you - hopefully in the not too long a future, we no longer need to give you any strokes.  

A Good Start for June

Amran Hassan, Accenture IT Consultant, senior RSGC Sunday Buayas member, is in between jobs this month, and is on long leave before he joins Maybank IT Department. So he now has more time for golf and called pakdokter and a few 'independent' self-employed 'buayas' for week-day golf @ RSGC.

6 of us came this first day of June and pakdokter played in the second flight with Syed Hazrain and Tg Farith. Before we teed off, the guys in the 1st flight - Amran, Zulfikar and Ismail asked pakdokter to compare our cards after the game and bet on our usual format.

Playing from the 2nd Old - pakdokter, now playing at handicap 19 got 5 strokes from Syed Hazrain who played to handicap 14. Tg Farith played to handicap 19 as pakdokter.

Pakdokter played reasonably well at the long and difficult 2nd Old Nine - returning a score of 49 with 2 pars to boot. Tg Farith scored 47 and Syed Hazrain 48. However in the match-play format - pakdokter lost 4 balls to Tg Farith but scalped Syed Hazrain winning the match against him at the last hole. Tg Farith also took 3 balls from Syed Hazrain but had to leave for work commitment at the end of the 1st Nine.

Syed Hazrain doubled-up at the 1st Old Nine. We joined 2 golfers from Perth who came to play at RSGC that morning as a reward for winning a tournament in Perth sponsored by AirAsia and Tourism Malaysia. Kenny?, the younger OZ golfer played to a handicap of 6 and his father, Matt, played to a handicap of 20? Kenny was good, got 3 birdies and nearly missed a hole-in-one at hole-7 by a foot. For his winning of the Perth's tournament - they were awarded free flights Perth-Kul-Perth on Airasia, free nights stay at the Gardens Hotel at MidValley and golf games at RSGC and KLGCC. They will travel to Phuket next for more golf. What a life!

Pakdokter maintained good form boosted by the new-found confidence after winning the monthly medal last weekend. Syed Hazrain and pakdokter remained square at hole 1 and 2. Pakdokter went 1 up with a par at the index 1 par 5 hole 3 and stayed 1 up with both of us scoring a par at the next par-3 hole 4. Pakdokter remained 1-up at hole 5 taking advantage of the stroke there but lost the next par-5 index hole with a 7 to Syed Hazrain's par. Pakdokter took the next hole with a par but lost the 8th to leave us to fight for the match at he 9th hole. Pakdokter hit a reasonably good drive and used a 7-wood to send the second shot about 50 yards to the pin. Syed Hazrain hit his usual long drive but his second went into the bunker. The bunker sand being rather hard, Rain came out too strongly and second his 3rd to the opposite bunker. Pakdokter took an easy 2 putts for a 5 to take the match.

Pakdokter totalled 45 for this Nine. Could have been easily 43 if not for the 'double-bogeys' at holes 1 and 2.

At the lunch table - the other 3 were not even interested to look at pakdokter's card! Ismail offered to pay RM50 instead of calculating the damage! Only Zulfikar got away when he won the 1st Nine but lost out the 2nd.

Amran had to break his 'coin-box' to settle his losses to pakdokter

Handicap 19

Thursday 30th June 2012

What an auspicious day! Pakdokter signed up to play at the RSGC today and was pleasantly surprised that pakdokter's golf handicap has been reduced to 19. After so many years of playing to a handicap of 24, pakdokter's perseverance is finally showing results. For the record, pakdokter's lowest handicap ever was 22.

Maria's @ Damansara Perdana

This simple non-descript family restaurant was recommended by a relative of pakdokter recently when we talked about where to find good 'steaks'  in KL.  It was not a disappointment. It is a simple coffee-house type of a restaurant on the first floor of the high-rise block in this residential area on the outskirts of the city. The decor was simple, no pretense - but it offered chilled Black Angus, chilled Wagyu grade 5 and 7 and at prices quite reasonable.

Pakdokter ordered a simple plain pasta olio aglio to start - just pasta cooked in olive oil with garlic and chilli pepper. For the mains - pakdokter tried the Black Angus steak - medium done. It was served plain with no sauce - just as how a good steak should be eaten - and it was tender, juicy and tasty. Pakdokter's partner had the fillet tenderloin steak and Raena the beef sausages after starting out with a bowl of home-made soups.



Will go back to try the wagyu beef next!

RSGC Sunday Buayas on 27th May 2012

This Sunday only 3 flights of 9 golfers played including a new member, Anwar, who played in the 3rd flight.

Pakdokter played with Zulfikar and Faidz a.k.a. Jiv - and Zulfikar who played high stakes with Jiv lost a fair bit on his 'double up', 'new frame' and 'press' - all new golf betting lingo which pakdokter is slowing learning from these young guys.

Pakdokter nearly added salt to injury to Zulfikar who escaped with a scrape only at the last hole.

The week's winner was Ismail Sharif who played 1-under to his handicap of 16?