The Battle for Kampachi.....

No, this is not about an assault of an Edo Castle by the samurais or ninja warriors........but....


...this is about a battle for free lunch at the Kampachi!

Pakdokter's regular 'golf kakis' at the RSGC, the two Tengku Brothers ( not the Blues Brothers) challenged the two old men of the group to a Sunday morning game for which the loser will pay for lunch at the Kampachi Japanese Restaurant of the Equatorial Hotel in Kuala Lumpur. The elder of the Tengkus, the oil-baron by the name of PakAzman played to a handicap of 25 and the younger internet whiz-kid sibling, pakMuzafar, plays to a handicap of 26! Pakdokter now play to a handicap of 25 and the most senior gentleman of the group, pakHyder, plays to a handicap of 22. We agreed that for this 'battle royale', all of us will play to the same handicap of 24....

the four warriors, pakHyder, pakMuzafar, pakAzman and pakdokter...

We were the first to tee-off early Sunday morning. PakAzman came to the club at 6 am to secure the 7.06 am slot for the 2nd Nine of the New Course.

pakHyder was given the honour to tee-off first as he has the lowest official handicap...

PakHyder was first at the tee but for whatever reason only known to him he sent his ball into the out-of bound zone to the right. Pakdokter took it calmly and drove his ball slightly left but just about 5 yards short of the 100 yards mark well within the fairway. PakAzman, with his 'goliath' physique sent a hard and high drive but well short of pakdokter's. It was left to PakMuzafar, or Ya, as we fondly call him at most times, to make up for his elder sibling's bruised ego! But Ya only managed to drive about 10 yards short of pakdokter.

PakHyder was out of contention to help our partnership in this hole,and it was left to pakdokter to face the Tengku Brothers. PakAzman, still affected by a dented pride, sliced his second shot to the right well short of the green. His younger sibling, now under some pressure, pulled his shot and sent it into the left front bunker.

Pakdokter used a pitching wedge and lobbed a high ball to about 10 yards of the pin. Pakdokter could see the nervous tics on PakAzman's face even in the somewhat dull morning light. Ya came out of the bunker brilliantly but managed a bogey with 2 putts. PakAzman did a double and with no pressure, pakdokter took 2 easy putts to par and take the hole for our partnership.

If pakdokter were to describe the battle at every hole in detail as the first, then this post will become like an epic of the "One Thousand and One Nights". So suffice to say that pakdokter and partner were two-up at the fourth hole and continued the lead until the sixth hole. Poor pakAzman, he took a while to regain his nerves, sending most of his drives either to the left or the right. Lucky for him that his younger sibling, Ya, had a nerve cool as a cat, and he was able to match the more senior golfers most of the time.

lovely view of KL Tower and the KLCC from hole No. 6 of the 2nd Nine New Course...

Ya took 2 of the last 3 holes to enable the Tengku Brothers to end the 1st Nine square with pakdokter and pakHyder.

We were booked to next play the 1st Nine of the New Course but PakAzman in particular suggested that we change the booking to play the 1st Nine of the Old Course instead. He said that pakHyder's favourite Nine is the 1st of the New Course and he wanted to eliminate this advantage! PakAzman was really sounding 'desperate'!

Ya at the tee, hole No.1 of the New Course...

In the end we decided to play as the original plan after we both reassured the Tengku Brothers that they were good enough to actually match us.

Pakdokter hit a fantastic drive that split the narrow fairway facing the commanding twin-towers of the KLCC. PakHyder sent an equally great drive although about 20 yards short of pakdokter. The tense pakAzman sent his drive a little to the right but way behind the two of us. It took Ya to salvage their 'maruah' when he sent his drive about 40 yards ahead of pakdokter, right in the centre of the fairway.

These young 'guns' have to learn to manage their nerves! PakAzman sent his second shot swerving to the right and Ya overshot the green and almost went to the out-of-bound region. PakHyder sent a low shot that ran up to reach the green in two. And pakdokter used a 7-iron and sent a high lob over the front bunker from about 165 yards to fall on the apron and roll on to about 20 yards of the far-end pin.

As the Tengku Brothers were both going to get a bogey at best, pakHyder putted to about one-and-a-half club length of the pin and pakdokter did better with the putt leaving the ball at a distance of only 1mm longer than the club length. However pakdokter was not offerred a 'give' and was asked to take the putt. To give the 'boys' a little excitement, pakdokter pulled his putt to miss the hole slightly, knowing full well that we would pour cold water on their excitement shortly as pakHyder would not give away his putt for par! And so did he....

We were again one-up at the start of the 2nd Nine.

And not to bore you with so much details, pakdokter can say that the game was evenly matched until the last hole. We were square with one hole to go and only the stamina of the younger bodies probably helped the Tengku Brothers to claim victory and a free lunch after that. And all the fight came from the younger Tengku, whose club handicap is 26 yet could return a score of 90!!!

Pakdokter and pakHyder can proudly say that we brought out the best from Ya....

lunch at Kampachi was great...






and we decided that we will battle it out every 2 months and assault the Shangrila, the Mandarin, the Marriot etc etc...

What? One year already.....?

How time flies.....pakdokter suddenly realised that it has been a year now since this blog first came into being.

Scrolling through the pages, pakdokter also discovered what a hectic year it had been! A fair bit of travelling and , for sure, lots and lots of golfing!...

Pakdokter wrote in the first post that, in retirement, pakdokter wished to improve pakdokter's golf handicap, catch up on reading and perhaps try out a little bit of writing. Looking back, perhaps pakdokter did achieve some of the KPIs pakdokter drew up for himself. Pakdokter's golf has improved, some of the books pakdokter read were commented on in this blog ( there were others which pakdokter never managed to finish!) and the only evidence of productivity in terms of writing were the regular posts in this blog. Pakdokter must admit how envious pakdokter is of PakZaid Ibrahim, pakdokter's old time buddy, who wrote two books during the past one year and has now started blogging himself! PakZaid's blog can be reached at http://www.myzaidibrahim.wordpress.com/.

To pakZaid, pakdokter would like to wish him 'welcome to blogosphere', and judging from the 20k hits within the first 2 or 3 days, pakdokter is confident that pakZaid's blog will be 'one to watch' this year.

Pakdokter must admit that writing ( and writing regularly at that) is a good mental exercise. It kept pakdokter's 'head' active and complemented the physical well-being achieved from the workout on the golf course and occasionally on the threadmill.

Many people wrote blogs as personal diaries but open to the whole world to read. Many blogs are political and social commentaries. Some use blogs as marketing tools.

Being the stupid (goblok) person pakdokter is, 'pakdoktergolfblog' started out as journals of pakdokter's golf escapades with the different groups of 'golf kakis' that pakdokter associate with. But of late, on some lonely moon-lit nights, riven by melancholy, pakdokter discovered green-shoots of creativity from the depths of pakdokter's heart. So hopefully, in the future, pakdokter may post products of some attempts at 'creative writing' which pakdokter has been deprived of due to pakdokter's years of professional commitment to keeping as many people (including pakdokter himself), sane!

Maybe, in a year's time, pakdokter will publish a memoir, maybe.....

Sawasdee.....

The Royal Bangkok Sports Club came to play in the return match of our annual interport game this weekend. The Thai contingent had played a game against the Royal Selangor Club at the Kajang Hill on Friday and had combined this trip to also play the RSGC on Saturday and Sunday for the Erawan and the Seladang Cups.

The first round played on Saturday afternoon unfortunately had to be abandoned due to a heavy downpour. Pakdokter partnered his regular buddy, pakHyder, and played against Mr Manas, the Thai ex-Commisioner of Customs, whose partner was unfortunately unfit after the previous day's game against the Selangor Club. Although Mr Manas played well to a handicap of 12, pakdokter and pakHyder took advantage of our high handicaps of 24 and 22 to match our opponent in almost every hole. By the time the game was abandoned after 13 holes, we were already 3 up and was hopeful of contributing the winning points for the RSGC.

Our guests were entertained to a buffet dinner at the club's function hall and a Cuban Duo provided the entertainment which included a display of salsa, merenge and machata? by two couples of accomplished dancers. Of course, we could offer nothing in comparison to the cultural feasts our Thai hosts gave us in Bangkok!

Sunday morning was almost ideal for golf. The rain on Saturday afternoon had a cooling effect to the air unlike the unbearable hot and humid Saturday afternoon before the rain. Pakdokter and pakHyder's partnership played against Royal Bangkok's Simon Hirst ( Shell Thailand and Laos) and Peter Burke ( who has been practicing law in Bangkok for the past 15 years). Simon played to a handicap of 15 and Peter, 18. Pakdokter and pakHyder again took advantage of our higher handicaps to match our opponents all the way. We were 5 up with 4 to go and were glad to contribute 2 points to our team.

After a few beers at lunch, Simon whispered to pakdokter that at one stage of the game he felt like walking out of the match for he felt that we had cheated on our handicaps! Although he later testified that he was only joking, pakdokter could 'professionally' sense the bitter 'emotion' which was only partly masked by the tranqulising effect of the Tiger beer....

Pakdokter was lucky to have brought along his pocket camera as it was a nice day for some shots of the city skyline from the fairways.

pakHyder could not beleive that he struck it short at this par-3 hole No. 4 of the Old Course.

Simon Hirst trying to get it close to the pin at the par-3 Hole 4 of the Old Course..

Peter Burke got his ball about 4 feet from the pin but unfortunately was beaten to the prize by another Thai player who was closer by 2 feet...

Pakdokter was caddied by his regular, Mr Mohan, who was indeed very helpful in the selection of clubs and reading of putting lines. We decided to take a picture of ourselves with pakHyder's caddy, one Mr Lingam, who attracted our attention from the fact that he was wearing a pink lady's cap with a fancy pair of dark-glasses to boot! Upon our enquiry he told us that the cap was given to him by a Japanese lady golfer for whom he regularly caddied, and she insisted that he must wear his cap all the time! He is terrified that he will be scolded by her if she were to find him not wearing her gift.....

Simon, pakHyder, Lingam, pakdokter and Peter's shoulder....

aah....a better picture of the foursome with Lingam and his 'pink' cap...

RSGC won the Erawan Cup and drew in the Seladang Cup. Next round will be in February or March of 2010. Karp kun kap.

Paula....

Jangan heboh ya!......Coretan ini sebenarnya bukan tentang seorang cewek pakdokter yang bernama Paula...... Ini cuma satu komentar pakdokter tentang satu lagi buku karya penulis terkenal dari Chile, Isabel Allende.

Minggu lalu pakdokter ada bikin sorotan tentang buku terbaharu Isabel Allende berjudul "The Sum of Our Days". Buku berbentuk memoir itu di tulis dalam format bicara Isabel kapada puteri nya, Paula, yang telah meninggal dunia pada tahun 1991. Isabel bercerita kapada Paula tentang apa yang telah terjadi kapada keluarga mereka sejak kematian nya 15 tahun yang lampau hingga ke saat terkini. Isabel berkebolehan menulis subjek yang kelihatan begitu 'simple' dalam bentuk cerita yang amat menarik...

Pakdokter amat puas dengan buku itu lansung terus tergerak untuk membaca karya-karya Isabel yang lain. Lalu terus pakdokter gelidah khazanah dan kamar buku pakdokter dan waduh! kedapatan 4 lagi naskah tulisan Isabel yang sememang nya sudah pakdokter beli dulu tetapi belum lagi di baca kecuali buku pertama Isabel "The House of the Spirits".

Buku berjudul "Paula" ini di tulis Isabel dalam masa setahun ketika beliau sentiasa berada di sisi Paula yang tidak sedar kerana berada dalam keadaan 'koma' akibat penyakit 'porphyria' yang di deritai nya. Buku ini sebenar nya satu kisah riwayat-hidup diri Isabel dan asal-usul keluarga nya ( autobiography) yang juga di tulis se-akan-akan cerita-cerita asal-usul diri dan keluarga nya itu bagai di bisikkan ke telinga Paula agar dia mendengar dan terhibur lansung mungkin bangkit dari keadaan 'koma' itu.

Keindahan buku Isabel ini adalah dalam cara begaimana beliau bercerita tentang asal-usul diri dan keluarga nya. Terasa se-akan-akan kita di hiburi Sheherazade di-dalam Hikayat Seribu Satu Malam yang teragung itu. Begitu lah berbakat nya Isabel Allende, setiap watak dan setiap hari dalam hidup nya di rungkai dengan cerita-cerita yang amat menarik...

Buku-buku Isabel Allende telah di terjemahkan ke dalam 27 bahasa di seluruh dunia, kecuali Bahasa Melayu. Maklum lah agak nya Dewan Bahasa dan Pustaka terlalu sibuk menerbitkan buku-buku ulang-kaji subjek Pengetahuan Agama, Sejarah, Matematik, Sains dan lain-lain untuk anak-anak sekolah dan Institut Penterjamahan Negara pula entah apa yang diusahakan mereka.....

Harus mungkin sudah kedapatan terjemahan di dalam Bahasa Indonesia.....ayuh nanti pakdokter ke Jakarta dan coba mencari nya!

buku 'Paula' terbitan tahun 1994 telah usang di khazanah buku pakdokter....namun kebolehan daya-bercerita Isabel tidak akan pupus di makan zaman.....

malam yang sunyi...

malam yang sunyi....
aku tersendiri...
menyepi..

siang yang panas...

hari-hari yang ganas...

aku tercari-cari...

erti hidup dan mati...

pasti aku terus tersendiri...

malam yang pasti sunyi...

dan siang esok nya mungkin panas...

ganas...

dan ngeri...

apakah bisa aku tercari...

dan mengerti....?

My Mother...

My mother would have been in her eighties if she were still to be alive today. She died in her early forties when I was only in secondary two of the boarding school in Ipoh. I was only 14 or 15 then...

How little I remember of her! I must have repressed most of my thoughts and feelings about her as I do not think that I went through the whole processes of grief when she died. She never told me that she was sufferring from cancer ( of the breast), and the whole family conspired to keep that information a secret from me ! I guess they all knew that I was a sensitive boy, an emotional kid who was still struggling to get used to being away from home.

It was my mother who first broke down at the time of seperation when I was left to be boarded at the residential school. Until then I was quite oblivious as to how painful a seperation could be. For months I used to weep in bed every night, missing my family and more specifically my mother. I would get very excited during every term break and my mother would never fail to cook my favourite dish (laksa kedah) during every holidays. And two or three weeks later, when the term break came to its end and it was time for me to return to the hostel, I would loose my appetite and become withdrawn and down again. That was what my elder siblings said about me..

My mother was a talkative lady with a warm and friendly character. With her short and rounded physique, she was the opposite of my asthenic and introverted father. My mother must have married very young, as my eldest brother is now already if not almost already seventy! So, she must have married in her late teens if not early twenties...

She bore the eleven of us in the family including a pair of twins who unfortunately did not survive the Japanese Occupation. And my mother did a great job of bringing all of us up to what we have become today...

She was always up early every morning and breakfast for the whole family would be on the table by the time we were up for school or whatever. I remember my regular breakfast would be a plate of fried rice some times eaten with a few fresh green chillies and dipped in thick sweet soya sauce (kicap), the fired rice was usually cooked from the balance of the rice from the dinner the night before. Only my father would have his two half-boiled eggs and toasts with his coffee.

On Saturday or Sunday mornings my mother would take me to the market to help her carry the basket of vegetables, fish or chicken that she would buy. And as I became familiar with her selection of food, whenever she was unwell to go to the market, I would be sent to do it with a list of stuff to buy. I would sometime help her out in the kitchen, picking the husks out from the rice, cutting the vegetables, cleaning the fish etc. As such I did not feel akward about helping out in the kitchen even up to until today. In fact, more often than not, nowadays, I am the one who does the marketing and sometimes the cooking for my family! It must have been my mother's influence..

It was my mother who taught me how to read the Koran. She would everyday devote the time between Maghrib and Isha to teach me how to read the Koran. Being a good student, of course, I had no difficulty mastering the skill. Furthermore, the only newspaper that was subscribed in the house was the Utusan Melayu. So that also helped in my mastery of the Jawi. But the daily contact with my mother over the Koran-reading sessions was an important aspect of my relationship to her which cemented the mother-son relationship.

My mother was a model of responsibility, loyalty and love to the family. She was there to see the whole lot of us through life but unfortunatley she did not live long enough to see all the fruits of her labour.

What I Talk About When I Talk About Running...

What I love about holidays and travelling, apart from the trip itself, is that it gives me time to catch up on my reading. The past month saw me travel to Japan for 2 weeks for golf and for family time with my son and subsequently for a short golf outing with my high school buddies to Indonesia. And during that short period of time I found myself to have finished reading 3 books ! A sort of a record for myself.

I have bought another of Murakami's books some time ago but have yet to read it, but this one caught my attention before my trip to Japan. A short and simple book yet very fascinating as it allowed me to get a glimpse of Murakami, the person. The introvert writer, the university student who ran a jazz bar in Tokyo before he gave it up to go full-time writing is also a marathon runner, having participated in more than 20 marathons in different parts of the world. In this book he wrote about his thoughts as he ran the long distances. He also describes his preparations for the runs and what what he has to endure to keep himself fit for the marathons. Such determination and perseveration are probably equally necessary for writing.....

Murakami will be the pakdokter's model to help achieve this year's sets of objectives in golf........

Pakdokter was introduced to Isabel Allende by pakdokter's partner's friend, Harriette, from Sweden who came to stay with us in 1994. Pakdokter found the book, The House of Spirits, very absorbing. And of course, pakdokter had also bought the DVD of the movie starring Jeremy Irons, Antonio Banderas, Meryl Streep, Glenn Close and Vannessa Redgrave, all of whom are pakdokter's favourite actors! The Sum of Our Days is Allende's latest book written the year (2007?) after her daughter, Paula, died at the age of 26 from ?drug complications for a treatment of pnuemonia due to the underlying porphyria which she also sufferred....The book, which is a memoir of Isabel's life, is in the style of a communication to Paula, keeping her abreast of the goings-on in the family intertwined with memories of family events from the past. In the process, I suppose, Ms Allende had helped herself work through her grief from the loss of Paula. Although a memoir, the book is first-class story-telling, which is Allende's gift...

Isabel Allende's uncle was the socialist leader of Chile who was democratically elected as President until the USA decided to topple him by assisting a coup-de-tat led by General Pinochet. This forced Ms Allende to emigrate , first to Venezuela then, ironically, to the USA. She was a journalist to begin with, and the discipline from the demands of a journalisitic career had been useful to enable her to produce almost one book a year for the past decade. Looking through pakdokter's library, pakdokter discovered that there are 5 of her books already there on the shelves waiting to be read!

Ridzwan Zafir is one Malay who rose to become one of Singapore's top beaureaucrat. This is his autobiography and pakdokter picked up this book because of an interest in finding out how a Malay could make it in meritocratic Singapore. Pakdokter finished the book with further conviction that if you are good and at the same time you work hard at it, you will be recognised, no matter where you are.

Of particular interest was pakRidzwan involvement with MENDAKI and MUIS, two organisations which looked after the interests and welfare of the Singapore Malays and Muslims. Through pakRidzwan's leadership, the Singapore Government channelled direct aid to the organisations by giving dollar for dollar contribution for every dollar that the bodies can raise with their own efforts! Both organisations have millions in their coffers and carry out many broad-based programmes for the benefit of their community.

The Staroba Medan Masters 2009 (1V)....

The overall champion of the Staroba Medan Masters 2009...pakAlewi Ariffin












pak Hyder, pakZul Rauf and pakMazlan Salleh..














pakMazlan, pakZul, pakRais, pakdokter and pakFakhrunnasri...















pakHyder receiving one of the prizes he won....














pakdokter receiving the 17th overall prize for the 3-day games...












pakMazlan proudly taking his prize after scoring 47 stableford points on the 2nd day at the Martabe Golf Club. This broke pakdokter's record of 46 points achieved 6 years ago in Surabaya. ( pakdokter will not mention here what handicap pakdokter played to then...)

The two birthday boys during this trip....pakYuzer turned 56 and pakHyder became a young 62...

The Staroba Medan Masters 2009 (111)...Graha Metropolitan Golf and Country Club....

After the second game at Martabe Sejahtera Golf

Club, about half the entourage went to the RAS Spa for a round of massage to their tired body. Pakdokter signed up for a 2-hour traditional Javanese massage and slept through the whole process from sheer fatigue after 2 days of golf.

The third and final round of the Medan Masters 2009 was played at the Graha Metropolitan Golf Course, which was a short half-an-hour ride from our hotel. The Graha is a walking course, so pakdokter and pakHyder had no worries about this as we had been regularly walking in our own home-course at the Royal Selangor Golf Club.

The Graha is a relatively short course but in almost every hole, there is water that came into play. The fairways are generally narrow and slope steeply into the side waterways or lakes which demanded straight drives and shots all the time. The presence of cross-winds made it more troublesome all the time.

Pakdokter played with pakHyder, pakRahman and pakRaja Ramlee. After only managing a stableford score of 30 on the second day, pakdokter's handicap was again generously adjusted to 27 from 25. Having had difficulty with the driver, pakdokter decided to tee-off with the wood 3 and this helped pakdokter return a fairly good score enabling pakdokter to collect 37 stable ford points altogether.

The other golfers had great difficulty taming the

course and this helped pakdokter to be among the top-scorers of the day.

And of course, pakdokter was happy to collect a few hundred thousand rupiahs from the others....

The SGC Medan Masters 2009 ( 11) ...The Martabe Sejahtera Golf Club...

The second day of the SGC Medan Masters 2009 was played at the Martabe Sejahtera Golf Club. It was an almost one hour drive out of Medan through the country-side. The course is located in a somewhat remote country highland district.

Pakdokter's flight of pakAli Ariffin, pakWan Husin and pakZul Rauf was made possible after our request to play together was granted by the organising committee. We had played together last year in Medan and early this year in Surabaya and several times in our monthly medal competitions at home. So the committee understood that the four of us had many scores to settle!

Our handicaps were adjusted accordingly based on our performances at the Royal Sumatra in the first game yesterday. Pakdokter, who played to a handicap of 23 and returned a stableford points of 29 was given a handicap of 25 for the second day. PakAli who scored 36 points at Royal Sumatra remained at handicap 22 while pakWan Husin and pakZul Rauf were given handicaps of 25 and 24 respectively.

The Martabe Golf Course is somewhat shorter than the Royal Sumatra but it is challenging by its very hilly terrain and narrow fairways. Furthermore if you were to hit wild and sent your ball into the rough or valleys, forget about looking for your ball unless you aspire to tame the cobras!

If you play badly, then enjoy the scenery and chat up the 'girls'.

Poor pakWan Husin....he was completely off form that day. At the first tee from the 10th hole which required a drive over a lake in a deep valley he sent his ball into the bushes. He sent his second shot from the drop zone also into the wall of the valley and gave up on the hole. It was not just his bad luck because pakWan Husin was also pakdokter's partner in our on-going battle against pakAli and PakZul.

PakAli too did not play too well. Pakdokter wondered what he was up to the night before....

Some of the pictures here are evidence of how difficult it was if one were to hit into the rough. Both pakWan Husin and pakAli were photographed here braving the cobras and inspecting the vegetable farms ( as they put it...)

At the end of the day, we all played about the same standard of golf except for pakZul Rauf who helped his partnership destroy pakdokter's effort at damage control due to pakWan Husin loss of form.....


No problem.....a return match will be fixed at the Jakarta Open 2009 in July.....