Tag Archives: golf

Getting Fitter

19 Jun

Life under RMCO has become quite enjoyable, although it is worrying at the same time too. There’s hardly enough work at the office to keep me busy, so I end up playing more golf to pass my time to balance all that cooking and cleaning. Then there are the DIY houses to finish up on days when I am neither in the office nor the golf course.

Last weekend, I managed to walk 18-holes on both days, carrying my bag with ten clubs. Then on Tuesday, I played 18, using the buggy at the Lakes course and walked 18 again on Thursday at the Hills course.

In between the golf days, I went into the office twice.

The coming weekend is without a doubt another two rounds of 18 carrying my bag. Yes, I am getting fitter and very pleased about it.

 

Tags: , , , , , , ,

A New Activity, Part 2

16 Jun

M2 and I were aghast at the challenge ahead with my DIY home that arrived first. All the furniture pieces are so tiny!!! What have I gotten ourselves into?

Checklist of all items to construct my mini 3-story bungalow!

The mess working on the kitchen chairs

I had to put aside finishing up the Monument piece to focus on this. So the two of us worked on my house at every opportunity available. But it has been slow because cooking and cleaning the real house takes priority over fixing up the toy house. Don’t forget, there’s all that golf to play too during the weekends. The DIY home was merely to fill up any free time available.

Props are tiny beyond tiny!

However, there were days we didn’t look forward to the daunting task because the pieces were so minuscule to handle especially the props and materials. Half the time at such close proximity, I had to remove my glasses to see better. But I felt we couldn’t abandon the three projects just like that simply because things were tiny.

Everything here was so hard to glue! See the size in comparison to my glasses

Clips to hold and to hold down the fabric after applying glue

At times, I had to use a clothes peg when working with fabric to hold the pieces when applying glue. And the clothes peg also doubled up to hold the material down to bind with the glue. If I didn’t do this, I’d end up with all the glue on my fingers instead! And it’s rather time-consuming because the glue needed to dry before we could progress further.

When the second shipment arrived, M2 moved on to fix her house, whilst I concentrated on mine. And both of us agreed that hubby will not fix his house up because the parts are way too tiny for him to handle.

The incomplete first floor of M2’s DIY 2-story home. Check out the books on the bookshelf!

Once the two of us have completed our homes, we’d work on his together.

Tags: , , , , , ,

Sleep vs Sun

12 Jun

Morning golf is always a challenge, especially when I have to wake up at 5.30 am. It gets tough when the night before was a restless one, and it’s usually the case. I don’t know why. Pre-game anxiety?

It’s always a debate on sleep versus the sun for me. An early tee-off means less sleep and a late tee-off, more sun (and heat) to deal with. Sometimes there’s also rain to contend with regardless of tee-off time, but rain is not the main thing.

Our regular weekend group generally prefers early morning golf. But these days, it is not easy to book an early tee-off at our golf club because of reduced slots. With the CMCO in place, tee-off times are ten minutes apart instead of seven minutes, and this has reduced the playing slots available.

The early slots are gone very quickly if we’re not fast enough to book ahead. Pre-MCO days, we usually tee-off at 7.15 am, but these days, we’d be lucky if we can even get the 7.25 am slot.

This past weekend, we played at the Lakes course on Saturday on a single-player single-buggy basis following the CMCO guidelines. Not the earliest tee-off (8.45 am for me, and 8.55 am for hubby), I thought I’d have the sun and heat to deal with. Luckily it was cloudy and cool, and I had a good game.

The next day, it was a different story. The flight registration for my tee-off at 8.25 am was muddled up, and I was not updated, so this flustered me. Then I misplaced a flight mate’s membership card. Not a good start. Sigh. Thankfully hubby found it before my flight headed to the tee box.

And my woes didn’t end there. The sun was out full force, and I lost focus as the heat got to me. At Hole 13, Par 3 with several houses flanking the hole, I pulled my ball into the backyard of one of the homes, something I’ve never done before! Yikes.

Then I dropped my Maruman Conductor utility club cover somewhere along the walk on the fourth nine on the Hills course. Sadly, I can deem it lost unless someone found the cover and kindly returned it. Boo hoo hoo. On the last hole, I launched my ball into the ditch in front that wasn’t even in play. The putting was terrible, the short game was off, and my flight mate even hit my ball wrongly. You could say I didn’t have a good round.

If anything good that came out of this terrible round of golf, it was the determination to walk the 18-holes carrying my bag with my 11 clubs. And I did it. For this and this only, I felt very accomplished.

Looking back, I’d rather forsake a little beauty sleep for an early tee-off, so I don’t have to deal with the heat and have unnecessary mishaps.

As the country entered its recovery phase on 10 June (CMCO is now Recovery MCO or RMCO), tee-off times have been revised and are no longer ten minutes apart. I hope the coming weekend’s 7.47 am tee-off on both mornings will result in better rounds of golf for me.

Tags: , , , , ,

This One Takes the Cake

9 Jun

Hubby’s baking skills have improved. He’s gone on to bake cakes besides bread, cookies and scones as well. He’s done carrot cake a couple of times already. Don’t forget there’s also the team effort apple pie and apple bread bomb.

The scones’ texture and taste were just right

I have to admit, I have gained a pound recently despite the vigorous weekend golf games. Maybe this is insufficient and I need to step up my exercise regime even more if I am constantly savoring all the baked temptations.

The latest effort is a sponge cake with a twist. M2 requested a Victoria Sponge and hubby obliged. But he didn’t want a whole Victoria Sponge cake because he felt that the jam filling would be too sweet.

So he improvised and instead of having a one-flavor cake, he did a half-and-half whereby one half had mixed berries for the Victoria part and the other half had Gula Melaka with coconut shreds. The second flavor was more suited to our tastebuds because the Gula Melaka was drizzled sparingly while the coconut shreds had hints of saltiness to counter the sweetness. Yum.

The half and half sponge cake

Such ingenuity as everyone was able to enjoy their preferred sponge cake without any guilt.

Tags: , , , , , ,

Almost a Pro

29 May

Our weekend golf games are routine by now. During this CMCO phase, we’ve opted to walk and carry our golf bags playing at the Hills course instead of taking the buggy. Some may say crazy but to me, that’s my outdoor gym right there and really good exercise.

I’m proud to say our stamina has improved and the past weekend we walked 18 holes on Saturday and 16 holes on Sunday. An increase in holes covered compared to the weekend before.

And both days, hubby baked in the afternoon. On Saturday, he made dinner rolls which turned out soft and fluffy. And on Sunday, ciabattas. On top of these, we did our tag team baking as well for yet another apple-filled effort.

First time making dinner rolls
Ciabatta was simply heavenly

Not a pie nor a tart, it bordered between an Apple Bread and a Caramel Apple Bomb. We had to combine two recipes because we didn’t have caramel and I didn’t want the outside to be too flaky. So a bread-like texture akin to dinner rolls instead.

Our version of Apple Bomb
Honestly, you wouldn’t know what these are

Turned out good. So did the ciabattas. Like the golf, the baking is almost like a pro too. And as always, I look forward to the weekend routine of golf and baking efforts by hubby.

Tags: , , , , , , ,

The Accidental Baker

22 May

I am bowled over that hubby dearest has taken to baking so effortlessly, like fish to water. I simply do not know where he gets his energy from.

Even after a round of golf, he can still bake whereas I would just keep things slow to a manageable pace. For me, it’s to cool down my body in this furnace of a weather and not sweat any further than what I have already shed at the golf course. But he just goes on.

Last Sunday, after walking 15 holes with me, we got home and two hours later, he whipped up a superb herb whole wheat loaf. And as if that’s not enough, he baked a sponge cake thereafter!

Sponge cake had coconut shreds topping

If you thought I helped in anyway, hardly… I just ate when they were fresh from the oven. Of course this encouraged the accidental baker in hubby.

And as he’s constantly at it, I have to exercise constantly too to balance my intake. The weekend golf games are scheduled already and I am pretty sure the accidental baker will bake after the games.

Weekday efforts: cupcakes, banana bread and mini scones

Tags: , , , , , , , , , ,

Golfing with Conditions, Part 2

18 May

It’s the second weekend in a row that we’ve gone to play golf. By now, golfing with conditions is not that bad, it’s for our safety after all. And it has become second nature to put on a mask whenever we are out and be mindful of social distancing.

There was improvement with this second outing as the legs held up without aches. I was more worn out by the humid weather than the walk itself and was sweating buckets. I came home almost two pounds lighter.

For two days in a row, I walked 15 holes each day and yes, I was carrying my golf bag with ten clubs. Hubby took the buggy and played 18 at the Lakes course on Saturday and walked 15 with me (and two other friends) at the Hills course on Sunday. Compared to the weekend before with nine and 14 holes over two days at the Hills course (not counting the Thursday game), this time there’s an additional seven holes in total for me.

Very good exercise is all I can say and definitely looking forward to the weekend again.

Tags: , , , , , , , , ,

Golfing with Conditions

15 May

So last week, we went back to playing golf. With the new CMCO now enforced, the Club has conditions to abide by to ensure safety for all.

Wearing a mask and having our temperature taken upon arrival at the Club are now compulsory practices. Golfers have to keep their social distance from each other, so no groups and after game drinks. This is the new normal until June and we’ll have to get used to these practices.

My first golf game after such a lengthy break was quite an experience. OMG, it was so darn taxing on the legs!

The Club has put in place two different guidelines for the CMCO phase: a no buggy rule at the Hills course and a single player per buggy rule at the Lakes course. I played three times, carrying my golf bag, at the Hills course.

I don’t use a trolley for my golf bag and it’s not so much the weight of the bag but the distance to cover on foot. Being confined to the house during the MCO period, the amount of walking I do at home is nothing compared to covering the length of nine holes at the golf course.

My legs felt like jelly and ached beyond belief after my first game last Thursday (it was a public holiday) because I walked so much suddenly. I was wishing them, my legs that is, to fall off my body to reduce the agony. Obviously it didn’t work and I ended up walking weird the next day to manage the nagging pain.

But before the pain could totally subside, the die-hard golfer in me played again over the weekend. Twice mind you as I walked nine holes on Saturday and 14 holes on Sunday! The nine holes was manageable but the 14-holes was quite a killer outing.

Thankfully I had the whole week to recover before the coming weekend games. Phew.

Tags: , , , , , ,

A New Extension

11 May

Well guess what? Our Movement Control Order (MCO) has been extended but with some modification from what it has been previously. This extension is until 9 June.

A week before Phase Four of the MCO ended, the government recalibrated the situation of the pandemic for the country with a Conditional MCO (CMCO). Basically this meant certain restrictions were relaxed but certain practices were still necessary especially social distancing, donning a mask and sanitizing.

The economy was opened albeit with conditions and we actually went back to the office last week, readjusting how to function with compliance to the conditions laid out. It’s weird to be back in the office after so long.

Other sectors opened too, like golf! We can go back to playing golf. Yay… but with conditions. Everything’s with conditions from now on and we have to get used to it.

Tags: , , , , , , , ,

MCO, Day 3

20 Mar

We have been under Movement Control Order (MCO) as instructed by the government and today is Day 3. I must say it has been good so far. I wake up when I am done sleeping. Then I have my tea at a leisurely pace because I don’t have to get ready for work to face the challenges ahead.

The number one worry-free plus point from this experience: no stress over the car next to our reserved parking lot at the office. The lady driver always, without fail, parks her car very close to our lot (and not in the center of hers) whenever she arrives before us, thus giving me very little room to get out of my car. A two weeks’ break from this daily annoyance is certainly welcomed.

We’ve been enjoying the comforts of home as I spent most of my time carving whilst hubby would be out in the garden tending to his plants. In between, I have been preparing meals and doing some light chores around the house. So domesticated. Hahaha…

My daily routine now: carving Whales

After lunch, I carved. And carved and carved. Then I would get dinner ready. The best part, we have been having pre- and post-dinner drinks more often than before. Whiskey, gin, wine and beer… we’re doing it all.

Then it’s Netflix all the way until bedtime. And this routine will be repeated day in, day out until the end of the month.

The downside from this partial lockdown: no golf until the end of the month as well! We contemplated taking walks in the evenings to address the exercise portion of our lives. Hmm… then again, doing house chores is exercising too.

The upcoming weekend may see a break in pattern or most likely not. Everyday feels like a weekend now. And so far so good, we are still sane.

Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

← Older Entries
Newer Entries →