The STAROBA Masters 2009....

The STAROBA Masters 2009 was postponed from December 2009 to this date due to some unforeseen circumstances. A full turnout of 72 golfers took part in this stroke-play game held at the Nilai Springs Golf Course.

Pakdokter had had an overdose of golf the past 10 days or so, having played 4 days in a row during the Chinese New Year break and 3 more days in a row starting last Friday. With the weather being as it was ( it's a heat-wave season now!) pakdokter was feeling quite exhausted even at the beginning of this championship.

Pakdokter played with batchmate AK (Ahmad Khalid) who pakdokter played with every Sunday at the RSGC. The other 2 players in the flight were Said, 2 years our junior at school and Ariffin who was 6 or 7 years our junior at school.

Apart from the championship itself pakdokter partnered AK in a matchplay against the juniors. AK played to a handicap of 12, Said 15 and Ariffin 16. Pakdokter played to the 'proud' handicap of 24.

In the 1st Nine, pakdokter's pair was more or less slaughtered by the juniors. Said was in his element, scoring 1 birdie and a few pars. Pakdokter contributed nothing to the pair and AK was somewhat off-form. We went 3 down with 2 to go, but having lost the 1st Nine, made amends by getting even on the 'buy'. So we lost 3 balls there.

As losers we opted to 'double up' for the 2nd Nine. And AK came back with his game, delivering an escalation of 4 pars in a row! The juniors must have got quite rattled. They came back but we went 2 up with 3 to go at the 16th hole when pakdokter finally came back and scored a par at the par-5 island hole( the other 2 sent their ball into water and Ariffin missed his par after pakdokter holed-in for par from 12 feet away....yeeeea...) which gave us the game for the 2nd Nine. With game over, the last 2 holes were fought for the 'buy' and we were square on this.

So the 'senior gentlemen' proudly walked back to the clubhouse with our heads held high, taking home 3 balls with us.....

The 'Masters' was won by one of the junior golfers ( apologies...pakdokter forgot his name ) who played to a handicap of 23 and returned a net score of 66!.....

Congratulations...

pakdokter, Said, Ahmad Khalid (AK) and Ariffin.....

Fancy Learning How to Cook Fine Dining...?

Pakdokter and partner decided to walk to the nearby KL Hilton 2 weeks ago for dinner. And pakdokter's partner saw this brochure and decided to sign up for this monthly cooking workshop conducted by the chefs of the hotel. For RM160 each , the group of about 20 ladies ( a maximum of 25 places were available on a first-come-first-served basis) were given a demonstration (and many tips) of how to prepare a 3-course Valentines Day Dinner. After the workshop, all the participants had the 3-course set lunch with a glass of wine thrown in as well. Not bad for the price......

Pakdokter has already had one night of fine dining at home when pakdokter's partner decided to practise what she learnt from the workshop....

The Way Things Look To Me....

A book on how a family struggled to cope with one of its young siblings (who suffered Asperger's Syndrome ) upon the death of their mother who was the principal carer of the 'special' child..

In pakdokter's practice, there is a common encounter of similar stories of families becoming destabilised upon an the demise of one of its pricipal parent . It's like reading one of pakdokter's case files actually.

Dinner for Two....

Pakdokter's maid had to return home to the Phillippines for a month due to the passing of her eldest brother. So pakdokter and partner had to take over many of her duties which we had taken for granted for so many years now.

Pakdokter had bought this 'high-tech' looking tajine from IKEA about two weeks ago and decided to go back to pakdokter's little culinary skills instead of eating out every night.

this is the 'tajine' pot from IKEA'

left over low fire in pakdokter's kitchen

to allow its contents to simmer for 30 to 45 minutes..

'Tajine' is the signature dish from Morocco and the traditional 'tajine' is a claypot utensil that may come in fancy decorative patterns. Pakdokter marinated two pieces of chicken keel with mango and lemon chutneys ( which came from Kerala ), crushed garlic, cinnamon powder, mixed herbs, a few dollops of honey, salt, pepper and splashes of olive oil. For the orange colour, pakdokter threw in a few strands of 'saffron' which pakdokter bought and brought back from Kerala also. And a fistful of fresh dates which had dried up after being left in the fridge since the last Ramadhan month was thrown in for a good measure of Middle Eastern/North African flavour. Pakdokter had forgotten to buy mint and coriander, so they were missing from the dish. And to add an oriental fragrance to it, pakdokter threw in a piece of a star anise and some cumin as well.

a beautiful traditional claypot 'tajine' from Morocco...

Rings of white onions were thrown in as well as quarters of red tomatoes, green and orange paprikas and slices of carrots and orange-coloured zucchinis. Pakdokter also ran out of potatoes at home. And finally a cup of chicken stock was added to the pot which was left to simmer at low fire for about 45 minutes.

a 'tajine' dish from Morocco

this plain claypot 'tajine' is the common ones seen in Morocco..

The result......hmmm....not bad, quite a healthy sweet and sour dish with the fragrance of oriental spices. The chicken was juicy and tender and the marinade brought out a nice taste to the chicken which would otherwise be quite a flat-tasting meat. And the fragrant sauce was mopped up with toasted multiple grain bread....

Preparing the dish did not take more than 30 minutes. But the down-side was that after the meal, pakdokter had to clean up the dishes and stack them up to dry!.....

How pakdokter wished the maid was there........

How Come Pakdokter Never Saw This Book Before?......

This is one of the several books pakdokter picked up at the book-store in Fort Cochin. And what a book it turned out to be!

Pakdokter was initially attracted to the book by the eye-catching cover of a Kathakali dancer as well as its title. It turned out to be one of those 'un-put-downable' books.

Each chapter was woven along one of the many forms of 'emotion' expressed in the Kathakali dance, playing on the thoughts and emotions of the main characters of the story who were caught in the intrigue of an extramarital affair involving a visiting American musician (who came to Kerala to write about the Kathakali dancer) and the wife ( the dancer's niece) of his host whose own marriage was barren and devoid of affection.

Having just visited Kerala, and having also attended a show of the Kathakali dance in Fort Cochin, the book gave pakdokter continued fascination with Kerala.....

Anita Nair is indeed another gifted writer from the Indian sub-continent and pakdokter will no doubt have to go and look for the other books written by Anita Nair.....

Gong Xi Fatt Choy...

Sunday, 14th February 2010

What a year! Pakdokter woke up Sunday morning thinking that Gong Xi Fatt Choy would be on Monday.

The golf course was unusually quiet and not a soul of the usual Chinese golfers were to be seen. Pakdokter only realised that Gong Xi Fatt Choy was on that Sunday after meeting a few diehard golfers who joined pakdokter a little later for the tee-off.

With both children away and pakdokter's parents and parents-in-law having passed on, this festive day has somewhat lost its significance to pakdokter and partner.

'Mum', pakdokter's mother-in-law was a Malaccan Chinese of the Peranakan descent. And Chinese customs were practised in the family equally as much as the Malay and Muslim customs and practices.

A few days before the Chinese New Year, 'Mum' would have put up the red lanterns and leave the lights on the whole night - pakdokter remembers her saying that this would encourage 'good luck' to flow into the house.

On the morning of the Chinese New Year day, pakdokter's family would troop to Mum and Bib's house ( short for Habib - as pakdokter's father-in-law was commonly addressed by the grandchildren) for the ritual tea-serving ceremony. All of us would get a loadful of 'advice' from Mum and Bib as well as best wishes for the New Year. And Mum and Bib were always generous with their ang-pows - which they normally would advise that it be saved in the Amanah Saham or something like that......

Bib's famous quote was ' It's not how much you spend that counts, it's how much you saved.....'

a family photo during a Chinese New year circa ?1988..

Rastam serving tea to Bib...


Raena doing her 'tea' thing to Bib also....






they must be very happy with their 'ang pows'....

'White' Edinburgh....

Pakdokter's daughter just sent these pictures of Edinburgh blanketed or carpeted in snow....

Between the Assassinations.....

A book by Man Booker prize-winning author, Aravind Adiga. Pakdokter had read his first book, 'the White Tiger' some time last year, and was very impressed by his style and story. So this book was a welcome find when pakdokter bought it before the Kerala trip. What made it more fitting was that the fictional town in this book appear very much like a Kerala town which made its reading during the trip more enjoyable.

Between the Assassinations refers to the period between the assassination of Indira Ghandi and some years later of her son Rajiv Ghandi.

It tells about corruption in politics and about frustrations in a society with discriminations of status, class, religion etc etc....

Pakdokter must admit that Aravind Adiga's first book was a better read.

How I Caused the Credit Crunch.....

This book, written by ?investment banker Tetsuya Ishikawa, was left behind by pakdokter's daughter, Raena, when she came home for the holidays over Christmas. Pakdokter managed to read it during the holidays in Kerala.

A simple and interesting book to read, it was a good attempt at explaining the complicated web and designs of financial intruments like the CDOs, the CDS etc etc which the young and smart alecks at the various investment banks created leading to the credit crunch and the global financial crash of the 2008/2009.

The book made an equally interesting read about the lifestyles of these high-flying bankers which made pakdokter turn green with envy.....

Pakdokter cannot blame Obama for going hard on these bankers, who despite the fall-out still think they deserve a fat bonus........

Snippets: some notes (and thoughts) on Kerala...

Pakdokter had done some reading on Kerala prior to the trip. And pakdokter was already aware of some of the basic facts about it like the high literacy rate, the communist ruling party and also about some of the outstanding sons and daughters of Kerala who have made a name for themselves in the international arena in their respective fields. With India now being recognised as one of the new economic engines of the globe, pakdokter was curious to see what developments were taking place in Kerala.

Economic development.

The brand new airport was the first testimony of the new Kerala/India. Of course this cannot be compared to the many flashy airports in Chinese cities. Chinese population size and economy are several times bigger than India. And China took off much earlier than India.But the signs of economic activities are there, obvious to the eye. The highway linking the new airport to Fort Kochi is under construction, but the pace seemed somewhat slow - pakdokter was reminded of the pace of the construction of our own East Coast highway during one of pakdokter's trip to Trengganu 2 years ago. The construction seemed patchy and not many tractors/machinery/workers seemed to be at work unlike the feverish activities pakdokter saw during trips to China.

Along the highway to the city, many new highrise apartments as well as shopping malls were under construction. Some projects looked like they have been abandoned (? a victim of the current global economic meltdown). But the developments in Kochi looks rather 'kelam kabut' - disorganised-haphazard, scattered all over the place with poor access to each of the development project.

Developments In Zhuhai and Shenzen, the two Chinese cities pakdokter visited last year were more well planned with wide highways serving the massive traffic volume.

Kerala ( Fort Kochi to be exact) requires massive development of roads and highways to cater to its increasing traffic volume.

And hopefully the city and municipal administrators will also pay serious attention to clear the city of garbage, litter and debris.

Cabs and taxi drivers

As pakdokter has earlier reported, pakdokter spent almost a whole day walking the streets of Fort Kochi. For comparison, pakdokter estimated that the distance covered must have been equal to the length of the whole of Batu Road in downtown KL then up to the business and entertainment districts of KLCC and Bukit Bintang!

Almost at every 5 minutes interval pakdokter would be approached by a 'bajaj' driver offerring to take pakdokter on a tour of the town, covering the whole of Fort Kochi, up to the Jewish Quarter and the spice centers as well - all for not more than 50 rupees ( RM 3?). Pakdokter had to turn them down politely as pakdokter was more keen to walk and take the scenery at pakdokter's leisure.

After being approached for more than 10 times plus the 'heat' from the temperature not much different from KL, pakdokter became slightly irritated and told the next 'bajaj' driver who approached pakdokter rather " firmly" ( hopefully not rudely) that pakdokter was getting tired of being harassed by them ( sometimes the same guy for 2 or 3 times at different parts of the town! The poor driver apologised - " Sorry Sir, but this is my job....I have to try to make a living."....in a tone which tugged at pakdokter's conscience. Pakdokter politely turned him down and said pakdokter actually still preferred to walk ( after all pakdokter walked 18 holes of the golf course sometimes 4 days in a row - no problem...)

Later in the afternoon, a bajaj driver who had approached pakdokter at least 3 times came over to pakdokter when pakdokter was about to reach back at the Malabar House. " Sir, can I drive you to that Emporium across the field, Sir, No charge, Sir! If you agree to let me drop you off at their door-step, then at least they will give me 1 litre of diesel for my taxi, Sir!" Pakdokter was honestly moved by his pleading but by then pakdokter was already too tired and was no more in any mood to look-see at any shop. What pakdokter wanted was a bottle of ice-cold Kingfisher and the bed! So pakdokter had to politely turn him down.

How different and how persistent these guys were from our taxi drivers at home!. Try asking any of the taxis waiting in queue at KLCC back at home.

" How much to KLSentral?"

" 25 ringgit! "

"Using metre how much"

" Mana ada pakai metre sini?"

KL oh KL....

Despite of the above Kerala and Kochi have many charms that made it a worthwhile trip. Perhaps, god willing, pakdokter may visit it again in 10 years time and see what came out of these developments!

But for now, pakdokter is looking forward to revisit the Golden Triangle of India in March 2010, having visited this region twice about 15 years ago. Maybe the development in that part of India matches what is happening in China......