Happy Chinese New Year !!!

The Year of the Dog is going to pass by soon. As someone born in the Year of the Dragon, this past year had seen some turbulent times.

In little, almost unnoticable ways, quite a bit of bad luck has crept up on me. Yet, despite it all, I'm still happy. And why not !! There has been plenty of good as well - so it's a balance !!! Work has seen to it that blogging remains a second third priority - I've been so busy lately, it's incredible I still find time for my girl !

Year of the Boar promises lots for me, and I look forward to a sunny, fulfilling year ahead. Ups and downs, I'm sure I'll have, but I'll happily live my life with all that is thrown in my direction.

I have a bit more time on my hands now, for this week, so I'll try to make a few more postings. And procure some side income ...

*Thickens face*
*Prepares answers for marital status questions*

In the meantime, to all friends and bloggers out there:

Happy Chinese New Year !!!
春节快乐 猪年发大财 恭喜发财 年年有餘

Streamyx Down Lagi ... Hope to be back by Christmas 2007

I endured a multi-week downtime with Streamyx last year.

The signs are extremely encouraging that the same level of outage will happen to me again. I got a case created yesterday, but today, we're still nowhere close to even working on the problem.

I'm very proud to say that if my Streamyx access is back by Christmas 2007, I shall blog about it proudly as a Malaysian, as in a Malaysian enjoying World Class Service. I seriously hope my Streamyx access will be back by then.

What's the problem? Well ... the DSL light on the Aztech modem provided by TM is not lighted. That means no DSL connection.

Tried all the splitter tricks (bypass, plug out plug in again, plug in with different cable, plug in at different phone jack, etc. etc. et al). See if any of you wiseguys have a REAL solution.

For all you other innocent bystanders, if you live anywhere in Bandar Kinrara, Streamyx sucks there. Don't consider signing up until it becomes more stable. For the rest of you, feel free to comment on how long you think it'll take TM to fix my simple problem. My personal expectation is for a solution by Christmas 2007.

Jakarta not too bad now ...

While the news out there might be still pretty bad, just wanna sound out that Jakarta is pretty ok now - the floods have mostly subsided. It's no more in places we people would usually go to anyway ...

See? No floodwater to be seen .. actually, I saw some floodwater from the airport in, but it's now possible to travel from the airport to the city without passing any flood.

And JW Marriot in Jakarta rocks too ...

This is the complimentary tray of chocolate I get ...

Nice chocolates, and pretty nice bathroom.


See you folks back in KL ...

Thanks for the game ...

They say that in golf, you truly have a game for the ages. I agree.

For the first time in a few months, I walked on to a golf course and played a game. The combination of work commmitment, excitement of a newfound love, need for real rest, and lack of golfing partners all worked to restrict my playing opportunities lately.

So, when an old golf-kaki who's now based in Australia came to town yesterday and asked for a game, I knew it was too good to resist. Me, DP and EL playing together is great fun. Too bad DQ couldn't join.

This morning, for the first time in as long as I can remember, I dragged myself out of bed before sun's up so that I don't miss my tee off time. It'll be only the first time I'm going to Kajang Hills on my own, and I was kinda worried I would get my directions wrong, so I had myself there with plenty of time to spare.

***

The game itself is nothing to shout about - I played exactly like how I should be played - very out of practice. The long game isn't very long, which is generally fine. Because my short game bails me out a lot. But the short game never showed up today - chips and putts were really missing. I think if I putted a bit better, and chipped anything like I can, I'd lower my score by about 10 strokes easy.

The company was great, though. It's as if we're all still working in the same company, and have always been playing regularly. But that's not the case ... we only get to play together once a year if we're lucky.

I miss my old golf-kakis a lot.
I miss how we all look for each other's balls when someone visits the jungle.
I miss how we help fish balls out of the water.
I miss how we tease each other when we miss easy putts.
I miss how we would psycho each other at the tee box, and how we'll all have a good laugh when someone actually got affected.
I miss how we would normally drive over to Kajang for satay after our games. And end up with a belly of beer.

I miss you chums lah ...

Thanks for the game.