Hobby

In the Contest Form for the Toastmasters Speech Contest, there was a question asking for my hobby which I, without thinking twice, wrote READING and SOLVING PUZZLES. 

Almost everyone I know though, would assume that my answer would relate to some kind of sports. The Contest Chair was no different. 

I then explained to him, I can't live without sports. It is akin to the air that I breathe. I live, eat and sleep for them. But a hobby, it is just something fun that I do. I love crossword puzzles, kakuro, rubic cube. I love the smell of the paperbacks and now I am beginning to fall in love with the monotonous voices of the audiobook readers!  

As it was a busy week, I didn't give it another thought until I had a conversation with Tasha about Franco's retirement. 

Me: Tasha, we need to find Papa a hobby, PRONTO. Otherwise what is he going to do come June?  

Tasha: Ma, you have to start admitting the fact that Papa is NOT you. Work is his source of income, his passion AND his hobby! There is NO distinction! If you want to find Papa a hobby, find him a job! 

Me: What a sad existence! 😜 

How can anyone not fall in love with this kind of algorithm? 

Old Girls, Old Sport

Golf has become such a popular sport since MCO that booking for a tee off time has become a competitive sport in itself, except when you play with the dignitaries! 😛

Yes, I am the shameless beneficiary of this feudal system! Sorry to say but I love it when it works in my favour! 

With just one phone call, Tunku Anne managed to get us a tee off time, VVIP buggy on the fairway, the best caddies the house has to offer and the coldest room on the planet for our post game lunch! 

For most, she is the sister of the Yamtuan Besar Negeri Sembilan, but for me she is just a senior from school. She left TKC the same year I was born. Similarly with Dato' Sabariah whom I just call Kak Lang. She is exactly 20 years older than me! At 71 and still golfing, I have great admiration for her tenacity! 

Despite the age gap, there is something about ex-TKCians. There is a bond so strong and love so pure shared by us all. The feeling is just undescribable. I am just so lucky to have so many of them who brighten up my life in more ways than I can imagine! 

 

The Malaysian Sakura 

Here is to my Kakak-Kakak! 💖💖💖

Surfer's Paradise

 

When Ivy invited me to go windsurfing, the memories of my surfing days in Cherating and Hood River came flooding in. 

It was 1998 and I was just being seconded to manage the contract closure for Bombardier Inc, a Canadian Engineering company responsible for the driverless train for the LRT Putra line. The short stint turned out to be one of the best times in my life, thanks to my boss, Sarah and her husband Brent. 

Both of them are ardent surfers (even until now)! They used to spend most of the weekends driving back and forth to Cherating while we were working in KL and later on to Hood River when we were working in Vancouver. So it was only natural that their names and faces came flashing when I think of windsurfing. 

And so we went on a fine Saturday afternoon, to D'Saville Lake in Puchong. With Waze it was easy enough to locate the place but I couldn't find any ingress into the water. Turned out, you just needed to jump in and set yourself up in chest deep water which was fine for me as I am used to deep sea start for triathlon. However, it was definitely not a place for beginner! 

After a quick orientation, wallah.....it felt as if I have never stopped windsurfing! The venue wasn't exactly Surfer's Paradise but the feeling of being able to windsurf again was heavenly. 

Kiasu Me!

At the start of the year, Dr. Pui San and I met for lunch after not seeing each other for almost a year. I have a lot of admiration for her because she is very well read and vocal about her specialty - sports medicine. She is also one of the few doctors whom I allow to dry needle my hamstring! 

Since both of us are avid readers, the conversation revolved around the books that we have read and the learnings from them. She made a list of recommendation and when I was going to do the same, I realised that she had read all on my list even though some of them are newly researched and published material!

Me: How many books are you reading a week? 

PS: On average 2-3! 

Me: What? I am reading a book a week and I thought that I was doing very well for myself! How the h**l do you manage to do that? 

PS: Audio and e-book mostly. 

Ting! That is what's missing for me. The audio book! 

I got home, subscribed to  Blinkist and now averaging 2 books a week. Woohoo! Fiction on audio book while I am chilling and paperback when I need some inspiration. 

Kiasu me!

Competitiveness

Another 2 weeks before I can reclaim my Sundays. Till then it is a late lunch in our household to synchronise with Regina (that's Queen in Italian and that's Franco's pet name for me)'s work schedule. 

Today it was lamb chops with pasta which was yummilicious. I boiled some edamame so that there was some green on the table. I ended up eating the whole bowl by myself while Franco and Tasha sucked the bones dry. 

Conversation at lunch varies from Tasha's best friend to fake diamonds from Tiffany's but today it centred around golf since I had just acquired a new club membership yesterday. Of course, no golf talk is complete without some reviews of the performance of the caddies. After all they are the ones who make or break our game. Well...mine anyway. Tasha thinks that I am way too pampered to always be playing with a caddie. The only reason she normally plays without one is because she is too frugal to tip them! 

Anyway, I mentioned to Franco about how terrible the caddie at Palm Garden was. Tasha concurred with my observation as she missed a birdie and a par chances when we played there a few days ago (plus it is always good to blame it on someone else)! 😄😄

FRANCO: I like Nordin. He reads the line very well. 

ME: He is good but he talks too much. Maybe because we are both Kelantanese and he feels that he needs to constantly chat with me! I don't like chatty caddie because I need to focus when I play. That's why I like Manik. He is not the best but he ticks all the boxes. 

TASHA: Ma, you like him because he is as COMPETITIVE as you. He is always giving you hope for sinking the ball in the hole even when the chance of that happening is less than 5%! Not to mention, he will make you fight until the last stroke. Even when you are already winning, he has to make sure that you have a landslide victory!  Seriously! Who does that during a fun game? 

FRANCO: Babe....what's with you and getting people to be COMPETITIVE? Last week it was Kaarthi. What was it. He did 1 speech the whole of last year and now that he is mentoring you, he did 4 speeches in 1 day? 

TASHA: Yeah ma. You remember when we played last week. I was one up against you. Then Manik was cheering you on to make sure that you squared with me, which you finally did on the last hole. How both of you were high 5-ing when you managed to even your score. And that was against your own daughter!!! 

For the rest of lunch, Franco and Tasha took turns to be in the firing squad that finally left me unarmored! For the first time I was relieved that my break time was over. I reminded everyone to be quiet and hurried back to the desk to talk to my mentee in Turkey, a very COMPETITIVE national athlete turned coach. 

Yesterday's Gallagher's Challenge! 

  Looks like it is the story of my life!