I had set my alarm for 7.00am last night but the pesky lone mosquito woke me up at 5.00am and again at 6.00am. By 6.30am, I was wide awake. Oh well, I might as well wake up.
Yes it’s only Friday but we decided to make the long three-day weekend into a four day escapade by skipping school and work! The bags were all packed last night, the girls are excited and we are ready.
We are at KLIA now, waiting to board. Yay.
I finally gave in to buying sunnies for M2 recently. Amazingly we went on a shopping mission and even M1 bought new sunnies. On top of the cool shades, both girls now have new swimsuits. Why?
We are going to the beach! Yay.
I know I said not too long ago, no more trips until after M1’s big exam. But the coming three-day weekend is too tempting to resist. We reasoned the trip will be a good breather from all that studying (for the girls) and work stress (for the adults). Plus it will be a good family bonding time. After a good dose of sun, surf and sand, everyone will come back recharged and fresh.
So, get them sunnies out, we are going to the beach!
This trip, the two wake up calls are not too bad – 6.00am because firstly, RPGC is near the hotel and secondly, the tee off time at Bukit Besi is not that early unlike past trips, the wake up time was an un-Godly hours of 5.00am or earlier to allow long journeys.
I have had fun with the group. Time sure flies when one is enjoying one’s self. I detached myself from my virtual games (Candy Crush and Farm Heroes), my read (Jennifer Probst) and focused on friends and my golf. I even detach myself from my girls but with faith that they will do what they are required to do: study.
Anyway, today is our last day and by sun down, we will be home and all will be back to normal.
It was a long day yesterday. Anticipating a long journey, we had to wake up at 4.30am to ready ourselves and at be at the Club by 5.30am. Everyone was prompt. By 5.50am, the 44-seater was on its way. Traffic was smooth and within an hour, we stopped for breakfast.
I thought it was a wee bit early to have wantan noodles but ate some anyway. The rest of the journey was clear. No heavy line of crawl and no masses leaving the city in exodus, our timing estimates to overcome traffic had us arriving at Royal Pahang Golf Club two hours early! But we could not tee off early because there was a shortage of buggies.
We decided to take things easy and not rush; going off only whenever a buggy comes in. In the end, I think everyone enjoyed their golf outing and had a leisurely paced game. Then off to dinner at the restaurant which was a madcap mess. They mistook us for another bus-load group and gave us their reserved tables and almost served us their food! Well, it wasn’t our fault when they asked if we came with the bus? Yes, we did but how would we know they had another group with the same exact details? Bus, booked tables… Oh well. We survived the madness and ordered our fare and had a good spread.
After checking in, everyone turned in to recover and ready for today; it will be a long journey to Bukit Besi Golf Club for the game. Today is also our country’s independence day, so I take this opportunity to wish my country, “Happy Merdeka Malaysia!”
After my last golf trip to Kuching in July (the third for this year alone), I declared no more golfing trips. Well, I lied.
Roping hubby along, tomorrow I travel with a big group by bus to the East of the Peninsular for a short 3D/2N outing, playing three rounds of golf. Unlike the previous trips of at least 4 days, this is considered short – just 3 days.
The girls are pretty happy with us being away for we won’t be constantly breathing down their necks to prepare for their exams. As it is, M1 is sitting for her trial exam (it started yesterday) before the real big SPM exam in November, while M2 basically just have to catch up with constant revision.
While I don’t have to worry about them as the maid can take care of them, I just hope they can remain focused and prioritize what it important without getting carried away with distractions when the study police is away.
Dang, it felt good to slumber in my own bed this morning and not having to wake up at 4.45am, 5.15am or 5.30am. We were delayed half an hour to take off from Kuching Airport yesterday. On a high at the airport, we congregated for the final time and I gave my last speech for the trip. Everyone’s happy so I can conclude that we had a successful trip; evidenced also by the many compliments pinging away in the WhatsApp chat group. There may be some disgruntled occasions or misunderstandings but these did not mar the overall sentiments.
So I now sit in bed and ponder about what’s ahead in the day for me. Work. What’s that?
Grabbing my iPad and having my laptop as well, I needed to catch up with my games! The last four days, farm animals, candies and zoo animals were totally ignored.
I guess I have to balance my virtual work and real work.
The golf course turned out much better than the day before. The night before after much drinking to complement a satisfying dinner, suddenly a bet came on, pitting me for a match play against one of the elderly gentleman.
The stakes were high with the odds favoring me; dollar notes were slapped on the table loudly and the bets were on me to win outright! This level of confidence stems from the fact that I played extremely well on the first day against KGS.
The poor uncle; he felt betrayed by his buddies. What’s in it for me? I will pocket half the one thousand dollars pool money and the remaining half to be split among the ‘investors’.
That night I think both of us could not sleep. I know I didn’t; kept waking up every hour! Then at breakfast I learnt that neither did he! Hah!
The next day the battle was on and I had a massive headache from the restless night. But there’s no turning back. The show must go on as money has been collected already.
So to ensure that the game was exciting and fair, we each had a caddy instead of typically just one per buggy (unlike in Thailand). The sun was not too hot, I felt good and mentally strong. I started off with a bogey and a par but then blew the next two holes.
I must admit I wasn’t nervous, I was relaxed yet very focused but felt I made too many silly mistakes. I paced myself, remained focus and not be distracted by external elements.
However, by the end of the first nine, I was two down. The uncle felt good but I sensed he was mentally weak because he kept lamenting about his mistakes. While I made mistakes too, I did not harp on them.
The sun finally came out and it took the toll on both of us. Being two down and three to go, I fought back hard. And won the two holes to level up with one to go. With the Par 5 being the last and deciding hole, I was very cautious as my earlier Par 5s did not yield good results.
Both of us played the same strategy: laying up to cross the creek and landing our balls next to the bunker on the right of the green. Both chipped onto the green and one of us just had to hole out to have the outright win.
Luckily my ball was closer to the hole than uncle’s. His attempt rolled passed the cup and caught the downward slope and rolled away. I had my chance then! Seeing the line and drop, my attempt unfortunately duplicated the same of his. Eeesh. All he had to do now was to put it in and force me to make an error under the pressure.
But he missed! Ooh… My heart was palpitating. Now I had to put it in and claim victory.
My caddy lined up my ball and told me to go right of the cup by just a ball’s width. I took my time, addressed the ball and putted… and watched my ball rolled pass the hole by two ball’s width.
We had squared the stiff competition!
Such fun and thrill it was. Somehow both of us were happy and relieved that there were no losers from this.
So I leave Kuching with very good memories of this group golf outing. I made more new friends, bonded better with the existing friends and saw further improvements in my golfing ability.
I look forward to my next golf escapade and now head back home with happy memories.
Goodbye Kuching, thanks and it’s been fun.
It is our last day in Kuching for our final game, so an early morning wake up call is required. No it’s not 4.45am or 5.30am but in between, 5.15am. Rather odd but necessary for breakfast and the bus ride.
Yesterday the weather was extremely hot, the greens dry and the golfing conditions were not the best in comparison to the day before. I guess one can’t have it good all the time. But the company, the food and the camaraderie has been exceptionally good so this makes up for it.
Let’s hope today’s experience will leave us with good memories. Everyone is already talking about planning the next trip!
The bus was late. Eeesh. Golfers are the most prompt people when it comes to being on time. We were to play a friendly interclub game with the ladies from Kelab Golf Sarawak. Thankfully, the ride was not too long and in a blink of an eye, KGS appeared.
A little disorganized, we unloaded and got to the changing room. Then before we could even catch our breath and say ‘Hello’ or have a group photo with the host team, we were rushed to the tee box for a two point start at 6.54am.
I must say eventually, the company was great, the golf course excellent and the weather beautiful. One cannot asked for more.
The best part, I played one of my best game ever, coming in as the best nett player and the best player from our side.
I can conclude then that waking up at 4.45am was worth it! Would I do it again? Well, let’s have this never before achievement remain as a highlight and stay as a high for the time being. We have another game tomorrow albeit no more an interclub challenge and tomorrow is another day, another game.
Angieneering 
Remarks