The Covent Garden......

14th August 2009

After the visit to the Tate museum, we walked along the Southbanks embankment of the Thames to cross the river on Waterloo Bridge and headed for the Covent Garden, London's equivalent of KL's Central Market. There was a hive of activity there and this place is definitely a popular tourist spot of London. There were street performers, craft stalls and many restaurants and pubs for eats and drinks. And at one restaurant a lady soprano serenaded the diners to love songs of Puccini.....

Leicester Square....not that crowded...

perhaps a reflection of the economic downturn..

the Trafalgar Square....a stage being set up for a concert....

dinner at Chez Gerard at Covent Garden....

After dinner we completed the night with a theatre-drama, "Taking Sides", a courtroom intrigue of a American military prosecutor of the German Philharmonic Conductor who was accussed of being involved in the Nazi persecution of the Jews...

A day at the Tate Gallery of Modern Art...

the Waterloo Bridge with the London Eye in the background..

14th August 2009

With only one day in London, there was not much that could be done to explore London. Pakdokter's partner suggested that we visit the Tate Gallery of Modern Art which should easily take a whole morning. We took the 'underground' from Bayswater which allowed us to hop off at the Temple Station from where it was an easy and pleasant walk along the Thames riverbank to cross the 'Millenium Bridge' in front of the St Paul's Cathedral to the Tate Museum.

the Thames riverbank with the Waterloo Bridge and
the London Eye in the background..

walking along the embankment on the Southbanks of the Thames ....

the BlackFriar's Bridge...
one of the many bridges across the Thames..

the 'Millenium Bridge'...a modern bridge across the Thames ...
linking the St Paul's Cathedral to the Tate Gallery...

on the bridge leading to the Tate Gallery..

St Paul's Cathedral seen from the Gallery end of the bridge..

from the balcony at Tate Gallery...

The Tate Gallery was a massive museum that introduced to pakdokter rudimentary understanding of Modern Art. There were 2 exhibitions for which one has to pay an entry fee - one on "Futurism" the birth of modern art by a group of artists from Italy and the other an exhibition on the works of a Scandinavian artist Per Kirkeby.

Pakdokter found the video presentation on the development of Modern Art to be the most useful and comprehensive. Apart from the 2 fee-paying exhibitions, the rest of the museum exhibitions were available for viewing free of charge.

A transit in London....

the Heathrow Express at the Paddington Station...

13th August 2009

The flight on Malaysia Airlines from Kuala Lumpur to London was full that no one in his right mind would have imagined that we are in a global recession!

Pakdokter had not gone to London for quite a long time actually. The last time pakdokter went there, it was to visit pakdokter's late mother-in-law ( 'Mum' as pakdokter would address her) after she had successfully undergone a thoracotomy ( a lung resection surgery) for a primary cancer of the lungs. That must have been something like 15 years ago......Mum lived for another good 10 years before finally succumbing to a different cancer of the intestinal tract.

This trip, enroute to Edinburgh, to visit pakdokter's daughter Raena, and to experience the Edingburgh's Summer Arts Festival, we decided to make a transit in London. We were lucky that pakdokter's brother-in-law's flat at Bayswater was available for us to put up at.

The flight from KL to London was a long 12 hours journey and pakdokter hardly slept and managed to finish reading an interesting book by an Egyptian writer in one sitting. And pakdokter must admit that the service on Malaysia Airlines was commendable with tasty warm meals and the usual choice of drinks.

Heathrow Airport was not as busy as pakdokter had expected. The recession must have greatly reduced the number of travellers as the queue at the immigration was not as long as during pakdokter's previous visits many years ago. And the Heathrow Express took us only about 15 to 20 minutes to reach the Paddington Station in London at a cost of about RM100 per person.

From Paddington Station, it was a short 15 minutes walk to our flat.

view from the balcony....
Porchester Terrace with the Hyde Park to the right..

It was quite a sentimental experience, actually, to be back at Bayswater. During pakdokter's first trip to London, way back in 1978, for pakdokter's honeymoon, it was at Bayswater where we spent the month or so in London. The Peter's Court flat at Porchester Road where we stayed at still looked the same and it brought back many sentimental memories to pakdokter.

The Queensway still looks the same except that there is a more definite 'presence' of 'Middle Eastern' communities in addition to the originally mostly Oriental populace of the district those days.

Queensway....

'halal' meet on display at the foyer of Whiteleys on Queensway..

a typical English pub on Queensway...

Peter's Court at Porchester Road....

Staroba-Asas Inter-Alumni Game 2009...

9th August 2009

This annual event was held at the Peransang Templer Golf Resort. About 80 golfers took part in the game, played on the basis of a best-ball stableford format between the two pairs representing the different alumni in each flight.

the Peransang Templer Golf Resort with the signature Bukit Takun

in the background...

pakAriffin, pakIzani, pakdokter and pakAmran...

narrow and tricky par-4....

pakAmran at the tee....

another view of Bukit Takun....

Pakdokter partnered PakAriffin Hamid who drove down from Pasir Gudang ( where he is based) to play for Staroba. The ASAS ( Alumni Sekolah Alam Shah) pair was made up of pakAmran ( handicap 14) and pakIzani ( who came down from JB) who played to a handicap of 21. Pakdokter's handicap was 23 and pakAriffin played to a handicap of 17.

PakAriffin was still recovering from an abdominal surgery he underwent 2 months ago and as such was not able to play his usual game. Although he drove the longest drives most of the times, he came in short in the short game. Pakdokter was helpless to face the onslaught of the ASAS pairs especially from pakIzani, who although played to a handicap of 21, scored at least 9 pars and many bogeys......

Obviously our pair lost to this superior team.

However we took comfort in the fact that other pairs from the team took the championship trophy. The Staroba team beat the ASAS team 12.5 points against 7.5 points.

Congratulations......!

Semalam di Batam (11).....Indah Puri Golf Resort..

7th August 2009

The 'Golf Amal' was held Friday morning at the Indah Puri Golf Resort, which was located by the sea facing Singapore and Bintan Island. The tee-off was at 10 am, to give time for the contingent of golfers from Singapore to arrive by ferry which left Singapore that morning.

Almost 100 or so golfers took part in this game, most of them were people in the oil and gas industries. We were all given the official tee-shirt of the game to wear during the tournament as well as a tube of Nike golf balls and the official golf cap from the sponsor.

This annual charity event have been able to raise at least USD100,000 each time and the monies raised were donated to the schools on the island to equip their libraries with books and the school with furnitures, computers etc.

The Indah Puri Golf Resort is a newer golf course than the Southlinks, and being by the sea, often times the strong inland winds came into play.

'green' tee-shirt and white cap from the sponsor....

pakYannies, pakMaulana Rosli, pakSheikh Kamal....

pakSheikh Kamal, pakChan S T, pakdokter and pakMaulana Rosli..

the apartment-hotel at Indah Puri...

pakSheikh Kamal...

all of us scored a par at this par-3 hole..

pakdokter at the tee...

after a bad game.....

a massage at the half-way hut....

what a luxury......

pakChan hitting out of the bunker...

.oil-rigs under construction or repair at sea...

Pakdokter played with PakMaulana Rosli, pakSheikh Kamal and pakChan S T from Lloyds Singapore. Chan studied naval architecture and is responsible for the classification of ships and barges for his company.

PakSheikh Kamal again outclassed all of us with a brilliant game which probably would have put him in good contention for a winning place. But as we had to leave early for Singapore by ferry, we could not wait for the results and prize presentations ceremony.

The trip by ferry from Sekupang Pier to HarbourFront in Singapore took a comfortable 1 hour. We then taxied to Budget Terminal at Changi to catch the 10 pm Firefly flight to Subang.

Semalam di Batam (1).....SouthLinks Golf and Country Club...

6th August 2009

Pakdokter was invited by Maulana Rosli Azad Khan to play a game of 'Charity Golf ' at the Indonesian island of Batam, south of Singapore, organised by Maulana Rosli's company which has a fabrication yard there, servicing the oil and gas industries of the region.

Flying to Batam from Kuala Lumpur these days has been made easy since the 'Malaysian Community Airline' - the Firefly - flies direct several times a week from Subang Airport. It took just about an hour and a half to reach Batam from Kuala Lumpur.

As we flew in to land at the Hang Nadim Airport, pakdokter could see that Batam is essentially an industrial outback, and to pakdokter's understanding,many of the industries have been set up by companies from Singapore which capitalised on the lower land and labour costs offerred by Batam.

Although the island is as large as Singapore, it has a population of about 1 million. Its main city is called Nagoya, and from pakdokter's hotel window, the city looks like Kota Baru in Kelantan some 20 years ago.

street market seen from the hotel window...

After checking into our hotel at the Panorama Residency Hotel at Nagoya, pakdokter, Maulana Rosli and Sheikh Kamal decided to play a round of golf at the Southlinks Country Club, located just about 20 minutes drive away from the hotel. Southlinks is the one of the oldest, if not the oldest, golf course on the island, and the appearance of the clubhouse itself is testimony of its age.

Being a week-day afternoon, there was hardly anyone else playing golf that afternoon except for another 4 or 5 flights of golfers from Malaysia who came in an hour later.

pakdokter, Maulana Rosli, Sheikh Kamal and the caddies...

Southlinks is a fairly flat course with many lakes all over the place. One has to deal with the water in almost every hole. From the blue tees the course measured 5875 metres and although pakdokter managed to par at the par-3 holes, the water traps destroyed pakdokter's game at the other holes resulting in ascore of 56/58. Even Maulana Rosli did not play his usual game. Only Sheikh Kamal was steady with 6 pars to boot with a score of 45/44 playing to a handicap of 16.

Pakdokter's caddy was a girl from Medan called 'Dedek'. She is a Roman Catholic, but every time pakdokter's ball was shanked into the lake, 'Dedek' would exclaim " Astaghfirullah.....".

Hearing this, Maulana Rosli told her that if pakdokter were to put the ball into water again at the last hole, she should next say....." Innalillaahh......"

We met up with associates in the oil and gas business from Jakarta as well as Pertamina officials that night for a dinner at the 'Harbour Bay' seafood restaurant to be followed by drinks at a 'live music' lounge at one of the entertainment clubs of Batam.

'Kawin sudah tapi nikahnya belum, pak...'

Farid Redza, one of pakdokter's regular golf buddy in our Sunday morning golf group at the Royal Selangor recently went to Jakarta for a business trip and managed to squeeze a game of golf at Bogor in between his tight schedule. He came home completely enamoured by the golf courses of Jakarta as well as the caddies who accompanied him during the game.

At the drink-hut mid-way through our game today , Farid recollected to pakdokter his small talk with the caddies which pakdokter promised to post here as a quotable quote.....

The girls told Farid ( who by the way is quite 'ganteng'..) ......" kawin sudah tapi nikah nya belum pak..."

'Apa beda nya kawin sama nikah...?'

" Ooh...nikah kan pakai surat.....kawin pakai 'urat' saja pak...."

pretty maids all in a row...