Day: December 22, 2006

It’s 32 days now since my last dive. And since then, I’ve been plagued by cold, flu, sore throat and mild fever, not necesarily in that order, but it’s been coming on and off. The funny thing is whenever I go diving, I feel fine. The moment I enter KL and its surrounding areas, I’d fall ill. Perhaps it is due to the fresh air at the islands versus polluted and dusty air here in the Klang valley.

If things go well, next week I’ll be playing golf with my usual kaki‘s again. We were playing almost every weekend in 2003. It’s usually the five of us: Shaking Lee, Daddy In The City, TNB CEO lookalike, Walking Vibrator, and I. TNB CEO lookalike would of course leave after the first three of nine holes (depending on where we were playing) as he would have to rush home to take the wife to buy flowers in Sungai Buloh. The usual gang would be the other four. The last real game we played together was at Monterez on December 31st, 2003. After that Walking Vibrator and I were most of the time stationed in Langkawi, while Shaking Lee and Daddy In The City would be hurrying to ship unfinished products to Langkawi for Walking Vibrator and I to pass to the client, Penjejak Awan, who was then working for another company. For the record, Penjejak Awan was offered VSS in the same year, joined us to market unfinished products, almost got Bangladeshi PR, then left to rejoin the company he originally worked for. I’m sure if there is another round of VSS, he will take up the offer, get the money, and rejoin the company a couple of years later. TNB CEO lookalike’s classmate’s wife did that too. Working for the same organisation Penjejak Awan did (albeit different subsidiaries), took up the VSS offer, stayed home for about a year, and now rejoins as a contract worker in the same company, earning slightly higher.

So the unfinished project took up most of our time and there was only once in between when we went to the driving range together to whack balls…not that we weren’t already doing the same then in the office: banging balls.

My last game of golf was with Chalky26, also in 2004…early April to be exact, at the Palm Springs in Port Dickson. We were at the 4th or 5th hole when I received an emergency call and had to forgo the game to attend to that emergency.

My golf balls, set and shoes have been picking up dust. The balls have been serious object of contentions between my younger son and daughter, and reason for the destruction of one of the coffee tables.

Time to hit the fairway again, and hopefully, a few other golfers each time I tee-off.

I went through my pilot logbook. The last flight I did was on the 26th August 2000. Over 6 years ago. It was from Sempang (Sungai besi airport) to R236 training area, in a Cessna 172.

I’ve flown the Bulldog B100, Pilatus PC-7, Cessna 172, Storch Experimental Aircraft, Zodiac Experimental Aircraft, RV-6 Experimental Aircraft, and the Buckeye (seen in James Bond’s “The World Is Not Enough”). I didn’t fly that much in 2000; I only clocked 17 hours and 36 minutes. The longest haul in 2000 was from Sempang-Ipoh-Sitiawan-Ipoh, second longest was Sempang-Ipoh and Sempang-Subang. Shortest flight with a destination was Sempang-Subang-Sempang to refuel the aircraft at Subang airport.

Record-wise, my longest haul flight was Alor Setar-Sempang. Second longest would be either Butterworth-Sempang, or Butterworth-Subang (vice versa), or Johor Bahru-Sempang. Those were done in the 1990s.

5 days after my last flight was my last skydive. That was done over Dataran Merdeka in conjunction with the Merdeka day parade.

2001 – I was busy windsurfing, fishing and jet-skiing, and did my third and last Malaysian record.

2002 – I was busy with the Indera Kayangan, Ketari and Anak Bukit by-elections.

2003 – I was back into golf after a 12-year sabbatical.

2004 – I was busy doing stupid things for the company, or was it doing things for the stupid company?

2005 – I was back scuba diving after a 10-year break.

Scuba is still the best and most relaxing thing to do.