Raena Finally Got a Job...

the above pictures from Graduation Day at Heriot Watt in 2008...

Pakdokter's daughter, Raena, studied Actuarial Science at the Heriot Watt University in Edinburgh, which she completed in June 2008. She went on to study and complete the MSc in Economics from the Edinburgh University which she finished in November 2009.

After a long break and many applications, she finally landed herself a job with Standard Life, a British Insurance compnay, in its office in Edinburgh.

To Raena, welcome to the 'working' world.....and pakdokter wishes that you will get to experience a fulfilling journey into the next phase of your life....

graduation from Edinburgh University in 2009....

Nice Seeing You Again, Zahari..

Zahari was a colleague of pakdokter at the Department of Psychiatry of the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Malaya way back in the late 70's and early 80's. After pakdokter left the department for private practice, Zahari stayed on for a short while more, teaching and practising Clinical Psychology at the university.

He must have found the academic life at UM then not fulfilling enough that he resigned and went back to the UK where he completed his doctorate and became a certified psychoanalyst.

Today, Zahari works for the NHS ( National Health Service of UK) in London as well as offer private sessions in psychoanalysis. He also supervises psychoanalytic and psychotherapy trainees - his supervision is recognised by the Royal College of Psychiatrist of the UK.

After so many years, pakdokter managed to meet up with Zahari again when he returned 'home' recently to celebrate his 58th birthday.

It was great to see you again, Zahari. Zahari's wife,Barbera, is an educational psychologist.Their lovely daughter, Safiah, is half-way through A-Levels and plans to read Philosophy at Cambridge. Their young and handsome son, Rory, is at boarding school, and intends to study Law and go into politics. He promised pakdokter's partner that we will be invited to the No.10, Downing Street, when he moves there.

Pakdokter told Rory that when he becomes the PM of GB, it will be another milestone in our "Malaysian Boleh" list of achievements...

pakdokter has already got

the future PM of GB's signature

in pakdokter's guest-book...

"Malaysia Boleeh..."

Readings in Ramadan...

With no travel and less golf in the month of Ramadan, pakdokter took the opportunity to catch up on one of pakdokter's few 'passions' - reading.

The book above is somewhat like one of the many books in the series of "........for Idiots" titles. Easy to read, the stuff it writes about are things which most of us probably know already. Anyhow, pakdokter found it still useful as the chapters are short, almost in 'notes form' sometimes, that pakdokter could easily sustain pakdokter's attention to the end before getting distracted by other things..

Chua Kok Yee is a great story-teller. And he is a Malaysian. The 22 short stories are not only interesting but also easy to read. Maybe our Minister of Education should make it compulsorily available in all our school libraries. Our students can easily relate to the Malaysian settings and Malaysian characters unlike pakdokter who had to imagine what England is like when reading Enid Blyton and some other writers during pakdokter's school days.

Kalau nak budak-budak kita 'improve' dia punya 'English, suruh lah mereka baca buku-buku macam ini.....

A book pakdokter would recommend psychiatric residents (trainee psychiatrists) to read for an insight into the thoughts and emotions of someone who was interned in a psychiatric facility for 20 odd years! A beautiful love-story between Ossayne (the son of an exiled Ottoman Sultan who set up home in war-torn Beirut) and Clara, the lovely Jewish girl whom he met in Paris when both of them were involved in the clandestine revolutionary movement against the Nazi. After marriage and a brief stay in Haifa, he had to return home to Beirut to look after his stroke-stricken father only to be seperated with his wife and later his new-born daughter, Nadia, by the Israel-Arab war which made it impossible for them to be in touch. He broke down into a psychotic?/depressive illness and his evil and scheming brother, in order to deprive him of his share of the family fortune, incarcerated him in a 'psychiatric home' for 20 years or so until the civil war in Beirut forced everyone free and out of the 'home'. The 'saga' of his daughter who through the help of fellow underground 'comrads' of the Nazi era had helped her get into contact again with him in the 'home' and triggered his recovery from the despair of a near suicide experience and the final re-union with his wife at the location in Paris where they had earlier first met made this story a great material for a fantastic movie.

Another discovery this Ramadan! Bahaa Taher is a great story-teller from Egypt. Originally written in Arabic, the English translation is such a great read that pakdokter wonders what it would be like in Arabic. This politico-historical-romance set in the desert of Southern Egypt has stirred up pakdokter's interest in the history and antiquities of Egypt once again. It brought back memories of pakdokter's safari into Southern Tunisia and visits to Luxor and the cruise up th Nile river many years ago. The story of an Irish woman's obsession of locating the tomb of 'Alexander the Great' whom she believed was located among the ruins in this down south oasis drove pakdokter to want to view the movie 'Alexander' once again.






Typically Japanese. Minimal. The story of a man whose many siblings suffered the unfortunate deaths by suicide. Believing they were all the result of an inherent genetic factor in the family's blood, the main character in this story was determined not to have any chidlren of his own.....

The 'Sting (II)' at Karawaci...

Friday, 6th August 2010

The group left Bogor early Friday morning for the 2 hour trip to the Imperial Karawaci Golf Course. PakRoslan, the tour director and ex-captain of the SGC has always been a steady and good golfer. He plays to a low handicap of 12. He was often on the winning list whenever the club organised any tournament. On the bus, the confident pakRoslan offerred to bet against everybody on the tour at 100,000 rupiah each! He said he had made the 'calculations' and 'risk assessment' with his 'financial adviser' pakAli Ariffin, and was sure that at worst he would loose to 7 players and win against the remaining 7 thus not risking anything at all from the bets. And taking into consideration how he managed to beat even pakdokter, on the second day ( although only until the last hole) despite giving pakdokter so many strokes, in his current form most of the rest would be 'chicken feed'.

pakRoslan 'selling' his ideas to get everybody to agree to bet against him....

What the heck....The whole busload of us agreed to risk our precious 100,000 rupiahs.

Surprise, surprise.....pakRoslan came home with only 24 stableford points! He lost to 13 and squared with pakK J Djoel who also came home with 24 points. PakRoslan's loss was 1.3 million....

On the quiet over lunch, pakdokter asked pakRoslan what happened......

He said it was difficult to play with people who have yet to acquire adequate knowledge and practice of golf rules and ethics! He got quite worked up when his opponents stood directly in his line of vision at the tee or when he was 'putting'. And many many more little inappropriate behaviour like this aggravated his 'cool' and destroyed his game.

His flight mates were pakAzman, pakTgfarith, pakAli Ariffin - his financial 'schemer'....(is there such a word?..)

Pakdokter felt bad because two of the guys on the flight were pakdokter's buddies from the RSGC. Without asking pakRoslan who the culprit was, pakdokter apologised to him and said that actually pakdokter has been trying to teach these guys things like golf rules and good golf ethics over the years, but some people need time to learn......

Poor pakRoslan....but he said he did not mind it that much. He could accept the losses....

pakAli once owned a company listed on the Main Board

after selling out he retired to be a full time golfer

as a hobby he trades forex

and on the side-line he advises finance to people like pakRoslan

and speaks of an 'Ideas Bank' with concepts like

a 'kanker-free' smoke can'

(like a Coke can from which you inhale nicotine like smoke for same effect)

that do not affect fertility or cause impotence

to replace cigarettes

which can be refilled like the "Touch N Go" cards....
at the petrol stations, 7-Eleven shops etc etc..

you should be teaching at Harvard, pakAli...

Well, pakRoslan, let pakdokter tell you this. Pakdokter had studied your temperament and games over the years and has learnt your weaknesses. This scheme was not just pakAli's bright spark..it was hatched together with pakdokter. We knew you were going to play with pakAzman. And for your information, pakAzman is actually a guy who is well-informed about golf rules and golf ethics. Tak kan lah after years of playing golf ...still tak tahu...

But he was 'instructed' by pakdokter to play 'dumb' and to upset your game....heh heh heh....

Next time you play with pakdokter....you better watch out!

And don't ever trust your 'financial schemer'.........

The Massacre at Karawaci...

Friday, 6th August 2010

Our original plan was to play at Cengkareng near the airport but that would demand us to wake up at 430 am! Hey....'we are on holidays man..'.

So the ever resourceful PakRosli Khan and pakRoslan negotiated to play at the Permata Sentul again as our first day's game was affected by the heavy downpour and we had to play the second half of our game in a less desirable pitch condition. However, Permata Sentul was hosting a charity golf event that morning and although they tried to accomodate our 4 flights, the cost would have been rather prohibitive.....

Unfortunately, we had already cancelled our bookings at Cengkareng. So pakRoslan scrambled to book slots at Bukit Pelangi ( Rainbow Hills) in Bogor and the Imperial Karawaci in Jakarta. After much deliberations, we decided to play at Karawaci. We could tee-off at 9 am and would not have to rush to the airport since the course is a short distance away from the Bandara (Bandaraya Udara Soekarno Hatta)

PakAzman, with newfound and regained confidence after a reasonably good game at Rancamaya decided to offer his bet against pakdokter again that morning - to be based 'on the card' as we would be playing in different flights.

As a gentleman, of course pakdokter honoured the invitation.....

Pakdokter played with pakSirajudin and pakKhairunnasri. PakKhairunnasri was never much in the game. He was still probably struggling to find his 'balance' as this was his first trip out with the SGC. The battle royal was between pakSirajudin and pakdokter!

Pakdokter took full advantage of pakdokter's adjusted handicap ( now 28) , but to be fair pakSirajudin had his handicap adjusted upwards also. He normally played to a much lower handicap.....

To cut the story short, this turned out to be a most memorable day for pakdokter. Pakdokter not only collected from the two in pakdokter's flight but from several others ( including pakAzman of course) who had waged 'bets' based on the card scores.

Pakdokter came out third for the day ( with a score of 37 stableford points) with pakSalehudin coming home best with 39 points.

pakdokter collected several thousands from being third...

and 'campur-campur' colections from the others

over the three days, it came to 2 million or more...

not bad.......

Below are potraits of some of the

" Pahlawan-pahlawan yang tewas di Karawaci"

( 'tewas' in Bahasa Melayu context ya...)

(in Bahasa Indonesia, 'tewas' means 'killed or dead')

pakKhairunnasri...


pakSirajudin...

pakAzman..

pakAli...

pakTgFarith....

mau " Skali Lagi" pak.....

The Raid of Rancamaya...

Thursday, 5th August 2010

Instead of Jakarta, our contingent chose to stay in Bogor to avoid having to commute and suffer the traffic jams of the city. We were originally booked to stay at the Salak Heritage Hotel in Bogor, probably the best in town and well known for its 'old world' charm - much like our very own E&O in Penang or the Raffles in Singapore. Unfortunately pakEsBeYe was in town and all our bookings were cancelled due to the influx of dignitaries to this hillstation.

The Salak Heritage Hotel could only get a few rooms for us in Hotel Royal, a newly opened hotel a few blocks away and the rest were roomed at a so-called boutique hotel called the Papyrus Tropika - located some 30 minutes away at a location away from 'anything.' Even the town's taxi-drivers could not 'locate' the hotel.....

And the pesence of heavy traffic and security checks and posts at many corners of the town deprived us of the expected peaceful sojourn. And the heavy thunderstorm and downpour only made things worse......

What a nightmare!

And a nightmare it was to pakAzman. Next morning, before tee-off at Rancamaya, pakAzman approached pakdokter and confessed that he did not get a good sleep as he was tormented by 'nightmares'. And his right shoulder was also in pain most likely from a poor golf swing. And he requested to cancel our earlier agreement to a bet 'on the score card' - (the one who got the higher stableford points to take the fixed amont of winnings.....), since we would not be playing in the same flight.

Well, how can pakdokter not agree.....

In war, if one came across a wounded enemy shoulder, one would either just finish him off with a bullet in the head in an act of mercy or one could also haul him up to the nearest medical station. But pakdokter is pakdokter, how can pakdokter finish him off. So pakdokter took the human act of revoking our earlier agreement.

As fate would have had it, pakAzman played very well and came home gleefully with 34 stableford points! And pakdokter only bettered the previous day's game by a single point or two. And pakAzman regretted his decision to pull out of the agreement or otherwise he would have squared on his losses the day before and could go back to his 'bragging' days.....

And pakAzman also revealed then that after being woken up by the 'nightmares' the night before - he could no longer sleep and decided to do 'practise swings' in his hotel room. And that was the reason his game improved at Rancamaya.......

No wonder pakdokter was woken up from sleep at one point that night from some repeated 'booming' tremors.......

Honestly, pakdokter thought 'Ariel the Peterporn' was in town.......

pakNordin, pakSirajudin, pakDatukMarzuki and pakAli....
di kepit dayang-dayang mereka...

pakKamal Boediman Dharmawan.....
for once pakdokter got no attention at all....

pakKamal finally generously donated Aibah to pakdokter....

Pakdokter played with pakKamal and pakRoslan. Both pakKamal and pakRoslan played to low handicaps ( 12 and 15? respectively) whereas pakdokter's handicap was adjusted to 26. PakKamal started out strongly with several pars and a lovely chipped-in birdie. It initially looked like pakRoslan was going to be the day's victim. But the 'ever cool' pakRoslan came back and was overall winner of the flight. Pakdokter took a few hundred thousand rupiahs from pakKamal, a portion of which then went to pakRoslan. In fact pakdokter's match with pakRoslan was only decided at the last hole. If pakRoslan had not got a 'par' for the last hole and pakdokter had only 'bogeyed' from a very difficult spot down a slippery fast green, pakdokter would, for once, collect a few hundred thousands from pakRoslan....

Bogor Retreat (I): Permata Sentul, the jewel of Bogor....

Wednesday, 4th August 2010

A group of 16 golfers from the SGC who suffer an ailment known as the 'ketagihan golof tegar dan kronik' decided to 'retreat' to Bogor for 3 rounds of golf before having to endure the expected 'severe cold turkey' golf withdrawal symptoms for the whole month of Ramadan. And of course, being the club's full time in-house psychiatrist - pakdokter was included in the contingent.....

Jakarta's Soekarno-Hatta International Airport appeared less crowded than in the past. It now has a new dedicated low-cost terminal. So pakdokter guessed that a large portion of the usual crowd had been diverted there....

While walking out of the arrival hall, pakdokter was approached by a 'stranger' who seemed to know pakdokter. At first pakdokter thought that he ( well it was not a she....) was an old boy of pakdokter's alma mater. But it turned out that he had been an ardent follower of pakdokter's blog.......wow! ada 'fan-club' juga ya....

lunch at the VIP Lounge/Suite of Permata Sentul...

First stop, back to Permata Sentul, where we played last trip in May.

Most of us thought that Permata Sentul was a great and challenging course and wanted to re-test our skills there. Furthermore pakdokter's posting of pakdokter's caddies during the last trip also made this course on top of the 'priority list'. The fact that the SGC local 'operative' in Jakarta, Dr Rosli Khan, has a good relationship with some of the members of this club also helped us get a good rate as well as priority bookings for 'tee-off' times. Our contingent was given the honour to use the VIP Locker Room as well as the VIP Lounge of the Club.

pakdokter and 'long-lost' friend pak Kamal Boediman Dharmawan..

from his looks you can guess that his grandparents had Tiong Hoa roots

his grandfather was a 'mandarin' on the Empress Hang Li Po Armada...

but caught with some indiscretions he was thrown off board at the Mallacca Straits

being a good swimmer he made it to land and roosted in Mallacca

pakKamal, the successful businessman grandson now runs 'operations' accross the Nusantara

from his name you can surmise that he is a very generous man...

he sponsors many unfortunate children accross both lands....

pakNorahim, pak KhairunNasri, pakTgfarith..

Pakdokter played in a flight made up of pakAzman ( arch-rival from RSGC), pakAli of the Upin-Ipin fame and pakMazarni.

As pakdokter had reported in the last post - pakAzman, who has been repeatedly beaten by pakdokter over the past few consecutive games - seemed to have sufferred , what in pakdokter's field is known as the PTSD....post-traumatic stress disorder! He could not take the trauma of the repeated losses and had requested from pakdokter for a 'temporary ceasefire' until he recovers his form, the 'truce' which pakdokter blogged here just now.

On second thoughts, with everyone else also pitching bets against each other, pakAzman changed his mind and agreed to a less than usual bet with the rest of us.

But poor pakAzman was playing with a 'mental' handicap. His 'drives' went all over, his pitches went too long or just an inch forward and he struggled badly throughout the game.

Well pakdokter and pakAli did not actually play great games but despite of this we still collected the small 'dues' from pakAzman. Only pakMazarni, despite an agonising 'gout' which decided to flare up during the game returned a relatively respectable score of 33 or 34 points. Pakdokter got 28 and pakAli about the same. PakAzman's score - well, let's say pakdokter has forgotten it...

pakAzman, pakAli, pakdokter and pakMazarni...

pakdokter and Fitri....
a great caddy with great 'lines'....

Bogor was in the wet rainy season and our game was halted after one Nine by a heavy shower and thunder. With the comforts of the VIP Suite, we rested and heated ourselves up with cappucino or local coffee while some took turns to entertain the group with Karaoke songs....

That's life.....

A Truce Declared....

As pakdokter has reported earlier, since returning from Tuscany, pakdokter's game has improved quite considerably. The consistently good 'drives' at the tee boosted pakdokter's confidence and enabled pakdokter to return, more often now, scores of less than 100.

Unfortunately, pakdokter's improvement has become pakTengku's misery. PakTengku and pakdokter has a standing contract to play 'scratch' against each other at every game for an agreed amount from the past 18 months or so. And the contract stands valid untill the end of the year.

PakTengku has more often been on the winning side whenever he played against pakdokter ( more so during our overseas tours which he repeatedly bragged about ) and of course has been gleefully collecting his dues every time he played against pakdokter. Pakdokter could see how he relished playing with pakdokter because he was confident that every time pakdokter will 'sponsor' him his petrol for the day or whatever....

In fact, at one point he was so confident that pakdokter will never better him that he even said that he felt very 'sad' at having to collect from pakdokter every time we played.

Well, pakdokter is a psychiatrist! Pakdokter does not like to see people sad. In fact pakdokter's job is to make people happy.......

So, as fate would have had it, one weekend before pakdokter's sojourn to Tuscany, pakdokter (maybe by a the stroke of good luck!) won 11 balls from pakTengku. Well, that was quite a hefty sum. Pakdokter thought that pakTengku would now be happy but it turned out that he was quite sore! This was strange......and he told pakdokter that he would from then on be 'brutal' and 'have no mercy' on pakdokter at all times.....

Wow.....what a threat....but for pakdokter it was not enough to send pakdokter's hair to stand up on its end yet ......

during happier and confident times...

And to borrow pakTengku's often said statement....deep inside pakdokter thought " eh eh..this is cannot...pakdokter cannot allow brutal and merciless acts inflicted on pakdokter....."

Well, ever since pakdokter's return from Tuscany, ( and with the little 'tips' from the gorgeous instructress, Claudia, whose unforgettable remark was 'every time you hit good 'balls' you think of me oookkeeeyy..'.) pakdokter has been on a winning streak for the past 2 months and pakTengku has lost consecutive games with quite hefty damages every time.

And with every loss, pakTengku seemed to have lost not only more of his confidence but also part of his mind.....

It must have been quite unbearable for him that last week pakTengku requested for a 'ceasefire' from pakdokter. "At least until he regained his form" - he qualified. well, how could pakdokter be 'merciless'. No, no, it is never and not in pakdokter to be brutal. Pakdokter always operate in 'gentler' ways......

So pakdokter agreed to the truce to give time for pakTengku to regain his form although pakTengku's younger sibling did try to remind him that he thought there was a 'contract' etched in stone between us which would only expire at the end of the year.....

Well, Ja......pakdokter is not like the Zionist regime of Tel Aviv. Pakdokter has more, much much more heart than that.......

So a truce was declared........

coba kamu lihat keringat di kumis atas nya.....?

bisa???

Happy Birthday Ben Haron....

Ben Haron @ Abdullah Haron was pakdokter's classmate in medical school. He went on to specialise in cardiothoracic surgery and was one of the pioneers at the IJN (the National Heart Institute).

Today Ben celebrated his 58th birthday. He was a precocious and clever little boy , earning double promotions in his primary school years. As a result when he came to medical school, he was one of the younger ones in the class. And he continued to be one of the 'smaller' boys in the class. Ben was one of the resident heart surgeons at the Subang Jaya Medical Centre until recently and as of this August, is relocating to Johore Baru, the capital of the state where he came from.

Ben invited pakdokter and partner and some other friends to his birthday dinner at the "Las Carretas" in Subang Jaya. The food and drinks were great.

To Ben, "Happy Birthday and Many Happy Returns" to you and 'All the Best' in your new endeavour into Johore.

the 'little boy' was a little shy when Sandra planted a 'kiss' on his cheek...

'relax la' Dollah....

left: Fendi, Rajan, Sandra, pakdokter and pakdokter's partner..

right: Imelda, Ben, Stephanie and Ravee..

Stephanie, Ben and Imelda..

grilled scallop and tiger prawn was the starter

followed by the lobster bisque...

a tender and succulent roast of beef

which went down well with the 1996 Bordeaux...