pakdoktergolfblog: January 2009

pakdokter at Nirvana Bali Golf Resort, Bali....

It's that time of the year again, when one looks back what the past year had been like and make resolutions for the coming year. I must say that last year I have at least accomplished my plan to play as much golf as possible although I unfortunately failed to lower my handicap. At my best, my golf handicap was 23 and at its worse it was 26!

I must keep my resolutions for 2009 modest. For starters I wish to achieve a handicap of 20 or below this year. And I have started playing more golf these days and engaged a professional caddy to boot. I have been regularly caddied by Mohan, a senior caddy at RSGC, who has been a caddy for the Malaysian pro Guna, in the Asian tours. I must admit that I have picked up a few tips from him and have improved somewhat especially in my short games.

So guys, watch out for pakdokter when we play next time. I may not be easy meat anymore!

My daughter gave a me a Christmas present of 3 books which I hope I will be able to read in due time. I have to control my compulsive buying of books everytime I go to the bookshops as I have so many of them on the shelves at home yet to be read!

pakdokter at size 34....

And last but not least I hope I will succeed in reducing my waist line from 34 to 32. I have already given out one big box of polo-shirts and pants with sizes 32 and below for my Filipina maid to ship home to her kampong before Christmas. Well at least I don't have to work as hard as Tony Fernandez whose target is to reduce his waistline from 38 to 34. Good luck Tony...

pakdokter at size 32...

Both Pakdokter's children came home for the Christmas and New Year Holidays. Rastam had a long New Year break and adding up his own annual leave allocation, was able to give himself a two week break from work. Raena on the other hand has a 3 week break before she returns to continue her next semester at Edinburgh University.

It was great to have the family together even for just a 2 or 3 weeks duration. The children were taken out every night to whatever restaurant they fancied. Of course what they wanted were the nasi lemak, Ipoh Chicken Rice, Mamak Mee, Chee Cheong Fun and Yong Tow Foo, the Peking Duck and what not. I suppose after a while you will miss the food that you grew up eating...

They both wanted a sunny beach holiday as they both came from a freezing winter. So we took them out for a brief holiday at Pangkor Laut. Lucky for them the rainy spell had improved and we managed to get sunny days for a change.

After the New Year's Eve dinner party which we hosted with a few close friends at home, pakdokter became sentimental and nostalgic about the past as one realises how the children have now rightfully become adults.

Here's my New Year greetings to all my friends and some family pictures from about 5 years ago...

2003

Touring Morroco during the month of Ramadhan..

Eid-ul-Fitri with Nediye Kadiri and family in Casablanca...

riding a horse-carriage in Marrakesh...
safari across the Sahara of Maghrib...

lovely sand-dunes of the Sahara of Maroc...

after Morocco we celebrated Christmas in Paris

and went on a night out to the Moulin Rouge..

2004

driving holiday along the Great Ocean Road during

one of Rastam's semester break from Monash uni..

great Australian countryside...

meeting up with Brian and a weekend at Barossa Valley...

a pose for the 'album' before moving on to Adelaide..

a quaint restaurant at the Barossa Valley, South Australia..
Rastam's graduation from Monash University...

2005

Rastam's 23rd birthday on 23rd September 2005

we visited Raena in Edinburgh in November and hopped over to Portugal....
lovely restaurant in downtown Lisboa...
the Algarve coast....a great golfing destination....
New Year's Eve in Seoul Korea December 2005
2006

pakdokter 55th birthday...Raena was in Edinburgh and Rastam was planning to work in Tokyo in October.
Raena was home for the summer holidays and were joined by Natasha and Neil from Melbourne for a holiday in Bali...
my partner's birthday and our wedding anniversary were celebrated in Bali while the World Cup 2006 kept us up all night long...
with Rastam in front of the Kabuki theatre in Tokyo, December 2006
at my partner's favourite boutique in Nakano, Tokyo, with the 'leng chai' designer and the cute salesgirl...

Happy New Year, at the Zen Bar and Restaurant in Roppongi Hills..

2007

Raena was home for the summer holidays...
and a short holiday at Tanjong Jara...
Rastam came home to celebrate the 50th year of Merdeka..

Merdeka! Merdeka! Merdeka!

2008

All of us met up in Melbourne for Natasya and Neil's wedding..

Natasya's Malaysian delegation to her wedding...

the gang of 6 who met up every Sunday morning for barbeque and swimming at our house in the 80's...Natasya, Rastam,Effendy, Raena, Jojo (Johari Ibrahim) and Brian (Johan Haris)...
Do you, Neil, take Natasya, to be your.....
Raena graduated from the Heriot Watt University in Edinburgh...
sailing to Pangkor Laut....
Christmas carols as we tucked in our breakfast on Christmas day...
loh hei ...loh hei.....yee sang to usher in the New Year..