Tuesday, September 25, 2007

Happy Bday Schweets!

3D Photography...a special gift for the special one : )

Thursday, September 20, 2007

Ramadhan Golf

Two bad shots equals a birdie..thats what happened to me at RBGGC ystdy afternoon. It was at one of the par 3 holes where i hit a bad tee shot using an 8 iron and it bounced around the hill and bushes and landed 30 feet to the pin. Tried to do a hit and run shot but topped it and the ball ran fast across the green along the line hit the pin and it went down the hole...there you go a Birdie!.

It must be one of the fastest 18 holes ever played as we finished 18 holes in exactly 3 hrs! Started at 330, finished the back 9 at 530 and started the first 9 at 5:35 and pin down the last ball at 630 at hole no 9. It was amazing how fast we played and how good the game turned out to be. I myself got two bogeys and par while a fren of mine got 4 par`s straight.breaking his personal record...his personal best. There was almost an incident when y hghness accidentally hit a bad shot and the ball flew straight to my buggy and crushed the buggy window. I was stunned as i felt the vibration through my teeth. Thank god...its the buggy not me..lesson learnt..always keep your distance and stay behind. Better safe than sorry!

We break our fast at the golf course with one 100 plus shared by 3 people and had a proper meal an hr after that at the restaurant nearby. It was mighty tiring but it was mighty fun too...will do this again hopefully Wednesday next week, so boys better keep the schedule empty!

Monday, September 17, 2007

Battle of the bulge

5 days down the road, the bulge is still not showing any sign of "tuhusness". Figured out the kueh malaya, mee goreng, kutumayang, bergedel, cendol, ikan sambal, nasi lemak for Sungkai need to stop or at least phased evenly if i am really serious about losing weight this puasa. It all came to me when i had my shower yesterday and figured out my tummy size is not much different from a 5-month pregnant mommy haha. Taking a step back.. the last time i jog was probably 5 -6 months ago when i first found out that i had an active thyroid condition. At that point of time i was thinking no point i go exercising as my metabolism is going nuts and the best remedy is to enjoy it by eating lots and lots of food and lots of golf. All the sins from the past are now catching up quite quickly and its hitting me where it hurts most...my 2 big W`s..weight and waistline haha.

Tried jogging this afternoon and was quite surprise with myself as i can go on for almost 2.5km non-stop. My muscle seems to be ok but good luck waking up for Sahur tonight. As for puasa my first day was horrible as i had this gigantic headache all afternoon and it continued to the night. Must be due to the system shock and shows how addicted was i to sugar. I think i have found a solution to it..4 kurmas for Sungkai and Sahur...it helps..try it!


Latest addition to the TF family

Just arrived today!

Thursday, September 13, 2007

Its Ramadhan again!

Time do fly by fast these days..all that i know its puasa already. Last year`s puasa i remembered that i lost quite a lot of weights and this unusual phenomenon seems to continue in raya and months after that. Till the end of year i must have lost around 10 kilos and went to hospital for check up and found out that i had an over active thyroid situation..get some medication and boom...gained back all the lost fats in no time including an additional bonus of 4kg hehe.

This year i`m determined to lost a few and already devised some plans to achieve it which includes golf during weekdays and weekends during the fasting month. The golf courses are offering some mouth watering deals on the weekdays with some crazy discounts for 9 holes in the afternoon. I however knew that all this extra time is a luxury at the moment and things will change very soon in an anticipation of a big change in our life in the coming months. : )

I also wonder how my brother is keeping up in his Army training during this fasting month...he went to UK last week to continue his training in Sand Hurst and must have started the 6 weeks intensive course this week.

Last but not least well done to GC to break his personal records in RBA last week with six pars and a score of 90. Wish you a lower handicap in the next DRM tournament haha

Saturday, September 8, 2007

Another Birdie!


Added another birdie to my golf career history at the 17th hole Mentiri GC. Hit a good 200m drive from the blue tee and had 80m left to the pin, took out my pitching wedge and hit a solid shot and it landed few meters away from the tee and finished the hole with a nice slow putt. Wish playing golf was always that easy.

Wednesday, September 5, 2007

CRASH BOOM BANG!

All bubbles will burst, what goes up must come down, what goes around comes around. Well these words seems to perfectly describe whats happening at the world stock market today. I always have the interest and curiosity on this subject but do not have the brain, guts and money to put my nose into it. Well, i guess thats for the better as billions are lost in the stock market as we speak (blog). Decided to divert a little bit from golf talk to a bit more serious topic for my own benefit and who knows might be for the benefit of the readers too.

It all started in 2004 when US govt decided to increase its interest rate from 1% in 2004 to 5.25% in 2006. This increase has a severe impact on the lenders particularly the low income earners. At the same time the US financial market earned a big business from the so called sub prime mortgage. This basically means that any individual with a low/no income, poor credit ratings who owns a decent size home can make huge loans with the bank to pay off other loans or buy BMWs, sporty cars or live a luxurious life. The idea behind this business is that the houses in US will forever increase in value and bank basically has no risk in giving out loans provided that it is being backed up their customer houses. Well..as the macro economic theory goes..high interest rate, decrease borrowing, decrease investment, decrease value of asset. All of a sudden, the low income earners realized that they do not have enough money to pay the bank and the assets held by the bank as collateral is valued much lower than the amount that they have lended to the customers. CRASH BOOM BANG! A piece of advice you might want to reconsider your options of buying a house in UK or in US for now : ),

Tuesday, September 4, 2007

Long day

Spent almost 8 hours listening to presentations from the finance colleagues at our learning center today. Imagined missing breakfast in the morning, after having a late night watching TV, sitting in a freezer on a plastic chair that they usually used during wedding and listening to almost 6 hours of of finance presentations...yeah it was torturous. Actually it wasn't that bad...the presenters were quite good with their own style and charm. I have to ask lots of questions to ensure that i am awake and concentrate listening to the presentations. Some interesting points that i gather from the presentations:

1. We have the most expensive type of Oil product in the world ( TAPIS, SLEB)
2. Our pension income can only last to a maximum of 10 years of expenditure (annual expenditure of 30k). Message is better save now or die at 67 to break-even.
3. There are some huge business deal made on the golf course.
4. I want to be an oil trader!
5. Sometimes its better to go for a third party insurance than a full premium protection plan!

Monday, September 3, 2007

Sunday, September 2, 2007

The Geckos foot..secret revelaed

The secret behind the gecko's extraordinary wall-climbing ability is a unique quick-release mechanism that allows it to adhere strongly to a surface, but then detach with ease. Geckos get their adhesive ability from sticky hairs – called setae – that cover the lizards' toes. But the stickiness is unlike conventional adhesives, which either adhere weakly and detach with ease like Post-it notes, or are strong and hard to remove like duct tape. By contrast, gecko hairs adhere strongly and detach easily.

To find out what makes this possible, Keller Autumn, a biologist at the Lewis & Clark College in Oregon, US, and colleagues measured the force required to detach hairs from a surface, and how that force changed according to the angle at which it is applied.When the force causes the hairs to lie at an angle of about 30 degrees to the horizontal, they can resist enormous forces. "Geckos are vastly over-engineered," says Autumn. "One gecko could resist the weight of 130 kilograms." At angles of over 90 degrees, however, the hairs easily became detached.

Gecko adhesive is so effective that he believes it could one day find use in car braking systems. He calculates it could stop a car travelling at 80 kilometres per hour in a distance of just 5 metres, using just one third of a square metre of the substance

Intereting stuff eh...bye bye Brambo brakes and welcome to the "Geckos"!

The weekend continues...

On the same night we have to drive back to Lumut to attend my cousin engagement function. The groom`s family only appeared 2 hours after the agreed time. Everybody was tired, hungry and sleepy by the time they arrived...my nenek was mighty moody but in the end it all went well..my cousin is now officially engaged and its just matter of time before the parents gna get chuchus!

The weekend continues with another weeding the next day at JPPC. This time it is for our work colleague married to one of the big shots son. It was a beautiful but also a long wedding, we waited for at least 3 hours in the hall before we get to see the Bride and Groom...both of them look happy and beautiful in their wedding dresses and suit. The weeding is so grand...that my bos told me that it makes him felt like he wanted to get married again...told him its a great idea and he should run it through with his wife tonight ahaks!

The mum mum fiesta at my nenek in law place for the "haul" tradition before puasa..more food..except this time it was Indian food with Beriyani, lamb, masalas which led to my super fartness this evening! Here i am now blogging...and i know the same (if not worst) thing gna happen next week as people try to catch the last weekend for more hauls and wedding...fun fun fun!

Buzy weekend

Start off my weekend to play golf with the DRMers this week. Start off with a horrible 10 strokes on a par 4 hole but slowly gained back my momentum holes by holes. My driver was playing ball with me this week with lots of long and straight drive which contributed finally to my 3 bogeys and few doubles and triples. The battle ends with a relatively good score...my personal best of 113.

This time i was in the same flite with two SCM dudes, one a 14 handicapper and a veteran golfer. Thank god i am in the same buggy with Big Daddy cool @ Greencurry. Greencurry as usual impressed us all with his long magic draw shots. However despite the strong tee off...his bad chipping spell and "unlucky" putt still haunted him which has led to a score of 100..(supposedly 98 if not for the bad putts in the last hole). The 14 handicapper played to my standard in the first few holes and keep on telling us that this is not his standard and claimed that it was his worst game ever...whatever dude..i could have said the same thing! hehehe

The same afternoon we got invited to Empire for a golf clinic with the Pros..we got a Swedish pro and he pointed out a few tips to improve my slice and swing. Magically my swing does sound sweeter on impact and fly to the right direction. A few trips to the driving range and its just gna be a matter of time before i will be in the money list!