Golf

Golf is a funny game played with a set of 14 clubs and a tiny hard ball full of dimples. When I was a kid I used to watch golf on TV, most probably the US Masters Tournament, where Jack Nicholas, Arnold Palmer and Gary Player were fighting for the Masters Title. To be honest I do not have the slightest idea what I was watching, I was just impressed how the camera man can follow a small ball in motion. Par, birdie, bogie, under ….. these are all Greek to me but I like the vast area of open space, beautifully kept grass and lakes …… nice.
When I was a teenager, I got to know that golf is for the rich and old, so I didn’t bother to pay any attention to it. Later I got to know a rich man’s kid whose father plays golf and so did he. I was kind of a surprise why a young guy like him plays golf. One fine day he invited a couple of us to try out the game with him at the Ayer Keroh Golf and Country Club that his father was a member. We were not told to prepare anything so I went in my shorts, T-shirt and favourite sandals. He was in full golf attire and we looked like his caddies. Well, maybe that is his way of getting us in for a free game.
Once in the course we were each given a club and a ball. All I can remember it was kind of a frustrating trying to hit such a small with small headed club but I liked the vast greeneries and lakes. We had to walk because at that time buggies were unheard of. I enjoyed the walk and I have no memories of playing golf at all …… maybe I wasn’t able to hit it at all. I have no idea how many holes we actually “played” but it did not at all aroused my interest in golf.
It was after many many years that I was exposed to golf again. I was in my thirties and was having a  business dinner with one of my most important client together with a Japanese supplier and my Japanese boss. They were talking about golf and it was still all Greek to me then. Later on I was given a so called old set, it wasn’t complete and looks more like trash. By that time I realised that most of my clients and suppliers are into golf. So I decided to give it a try.
With no knowledge at all I went to the golf shop to just look around and have a feel of what it is like, wow!!! expensive. Anyway I bought a trainer ball, one of those plastic ball with a string attached to it and just starting whacking it. Just whacking the trainer ball is getting me nowhere, so I decided that I should get proper coaching. With proper coaching I guess I would be able to have a better basic foundation and understanding of the game better. My knowledge of golf is still like zero at that time except that one has to be a member of a club which was very expensive to become a member. I guess my decision to take up golf was to a certain extend the influence from my clients, suppliers and especially the comment made my big boss that I could be a nominated as a member to one of the golf club memberships owned by the company if I could play. With that in mind I invested in a basic golf lesson package.
It was not a easy decision to make and only after lots of thoughts that I decided to get involved in this funny game. After many hours invested in the swing, I only managed to get the ball air borne and the distance is pathetic. After completing my first basic course, I was invited to play a 9 or maybe 18 holes game which I do not have any memory at all because I was so busy either trying to hit the ball or looking for the ball. My host was really patient with me and he was one of my customer that really encouraged me to take up golf.
After many more hours in the driving range, it was still a frustrating time of trying to hit the ball and looking for the ball in the course, but it was getting a little better because my knowledge of golf was also getting better. Not all clubs manufacturer make their products in the same manner and there are actually clubs for players of different skill level. Guess what I decided to get a new set of clubs that suit me better and at the same time a refresher basic golf swing correction package. Wow!! that instructor really helped me put my swing together and I was really pleased with my own progress. From then on I was really playing golf, not just trying to hit the ball but really playing it and enjoying it. Sometimes still have to look for the ball.

My Scale Models

One of my longest lasting hobbies is scale model collecting. I can still remember what was the first scale model I had, a military Land Rover from Corgi. I was just a kid then and that land rover belongs to my cousin. When we visited them, I just kept on playing with it because I really like it. When it was pushed it made a noise like just like a Land Rover with off road tyres. No it did not have a sound generator but the sound is just natural to it. They gave it to me because they knew I really like it and I really clocked plenty of fun mileage on it. Hmmmm …….. wonder where it is now.

The next piece is a Sky Hawk fighter jet when I was in primary four, off course there were many other stuffs in between which is not worth mentioning like plastic figurines, vehicles and others. The Sky Hawk fighter jet was a self assembly plastic model kit. One of the rich kid in my class brought it to school to show off and it instantly caught my attention. After all the “huu haa” my classmate offered to buy me one if I can come up with the cash. Well after a month or so I managed to save enough from my pocket money without spending a single cent for that whole period. It cost me just below RM5.00 I think and that long to save for it. Later on I found out that a shop in then Newcome Road called CY Chang were selling these models.

Every time whenever I passed by that shop I would spend time admiring at all the models that were on display to lure people like me. I can still remember those state of the art train models by Hornby, they all look so real with a whooping price tag to go with it. Well I guess I can only dream about it because not only because of the price but also the space needed. Anyway it was much later in my life that I was able to realise this hobby after the Sky Hawk.

Most of the models I had - only a few - then were war aircraft including the famous B52 and Mustang. I had a couple of battle ships and an aircraft carrier too. The B52 was really large and when there is a breeze, the propellers would turn. It fell a couple of times from its stand because of strong breeze and I had to repair it a couple of times.

Then came the Japanese Model kits, mostly of automobiles and some are even powered by battery. One of the model that I really spend lots of hours detailing was a Datsun 240Z by Fujimi. It was like the 240Z was THE car at that time and the model is really detail with engine. Then came the motorbikes by Tamiya and I had a real big collection of it but the one I like best is the Honda Super Cup or commonly known as "cup chai".

Most of these plastic scale model kit cannot last long because they are very flimsy and our weather here is not kind to them. As of today only a few of the plastics models that are still with me, most of them needed repair and still in the box when I transported them back to Malacca. Maybe one of these fine day I might just take a look at them.

Not long ago, actually about 10 years ago while I was killing time in the Atria Shopping Centre in Damansara Jaya, a display model shop caught my interest. I was really impressed by the collection of highly detail metal die cast model they had. By the time I left the shop, I was sure I would like to start my own little collection. Yes, yes, yes, I know I can only stare at it, push it around and make some engine noise by myself – V-R-O-O-M-Mmmmm……I was happy with my buy and I guess this is the part of human nature that is not logical only understood by capitalist.

One fine day like 10years or so ago, I decided that the time was right because there was a sale in Metro Sungei Wang Plaza and I got my very first die cast model, a Ferrari 550 Maranello 1/18 scale by Bburago. Slowly and surely one after another started rolling in.

Metal die cast model are much more robust and so far all those that I acquired are still with me almost in the same condition when I got it, never driven on the road before …… hehehe!!! A little dusty though.

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Want to go for a spin? You chose the ride and I’ll push, you make the sound ya!!! …….. Vrooommmmmm ……………..

Sausages

 
Recently I had the urge to make sausages from scratch, maybe it was the sausage meat that home minister made a long time ago after she returned from her vacation in the United Kingdom. She just made the meat without stuffing it into a casing and it tasted good but it was just like eating flavoured minced meat.
I don’t actually care for commercialised sausages because they are really boring. I eat it because it’s there and the only sausages that I did thought of wanting to eat were those from Euro.Deli until I made my very own – yummie!!!
First problem encountered is getting casing because nobody sells the casing here. Hmmm…… no casing, sausages not in casing just don’t feel right to me even though many web sites do have recipes without the casing. Like I mentioned earlier, eating sausages meat without stuffing into casing is just like eating flavoured minced meat. I guess I had to make it myself ……….. OK.
Did a lot of research both on and off the web, pork intestine was my bet because it is easily available and I had eaten like thousand of miles of it.  It is really nice to eat and the large intestine cooked with pineapple ..WOW!!! is really yummie!! which is a dish that only my mum used to cook.
Got my first length of intestine from Tesco and I cleaned it by myself which is my very first time. Hey, it is kind of a fun and real easy too!! Lots of salt inside out, that’s it!!
For the filling mix I consulted my best friend Google, there tons and tons of recipes for sausages and it was a difficult choice at first. After awhile with lots of imagination to the taste and checking what ingredients are available and Bratwurst was elected. With some modifications to the recipe, I proceeded to making the sausages manually …… yes all with my two bare hand.
Now the hardware, yes besides the usual kitchen hardware like cleaver, chopping board, mixing bowl ………. a special tool is required that is the sausage stuffer. Well I thought we did not have one so I improvised and made a very simple one and managed to stuff all the 1 kilo of Bratwurst. It wasn’t easy and my arms felt like they were about to drop out of their sockets after I finished….ouch!!
Wow!!! homemade sausages are sausages, they are really good and worth every drop of sweat, err……… no sweat dropped into the mixture in case you were wondering. Princess cooked a sausage meal with the sausages I made and it was really ………….. mmmm……. yummie delicious.
My mind was working on the next flavour of sausages to make immediately  after having tasted the very first one I made. People says that the cook usually don’t like to eat their own cooking, yes I guess they are just cook but Chefs will always love their own food and that’s me ……… hehehe!!!!!
I was also thinking how can I improve on the improvised on the stuffer.  Currently it takes like a whole lot of time and muscle power to stuff them. I was thinking of a giant syringe kind assisted by a some kind mechanical thingy to press the plunger …… then I remembered that home minister mentioned about some meat grinder she got like ages ago and it is not functional. I had a look at it and it is like a toy, all plastic and guess what, it has a sausage stuffer attachment …….. what a delightful discovery.
With the discovery of the stuffer, I started working on the next batch to test out the toy like thing and it worked!!!! Yahooo!! making the stuffing process almost breeze. From then on the mileage of sausage of different flavours just keep on increasing, one thing for sure they are all so yummie!!!!

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Check out Princess blog for her part of the action in sausage making and eating!!

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BACON

 

Every morning all around the world for a very very long time, there is definitely at least one person will be having bacon and eggs for breakfast, if not hundreds, thousands or even millions. Yes bacon, eggs and croissants is the king of breakfast, well at least to me is the breakfast of all breakfast. It must be real pork bacon or else it is just nonsense.
In the past I used to look at the bacons that were sold in the supermarkets but were more disgusted with them than wanting to eat them. Looks OK in the packing, super thin slices and lots of fats when opened, disappear when fried!!! This is what you get in this part of the world.
It was about a year or more ago that I first thought of making my own bacon since I wasn’t able to enjoy those store bought bacon like thingie which should be labelled as cured lards!!! I googled and was discouraged on doing so because of the many equipments and refrigerator space required. To make matter worse I was thinking of smoked bacon which means more equipment is needed.
Everything seems impossible then and had to drop the whole idea. The thought of having to eat store bacon is still a NO NO for me and the burning desire to have real bacon becomes silently stronger and stronger day by day. Then late last year home minister asked me about making bacon again while cleaning a beautiful piece of pork belly which she just bought from the butcher. With the pork belly in sight, the burning desire to have real bacon was really strong and I could just taste it!!
I started to google “Making bacon at home” and once again the same disappointing site appear on the screen. This time I am much more determined and search further ……... Dry cured bacon, WOW!! it is really easy to make with a bit of common sense.

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Self-made bacon is indeed a real joy to eat, it is super delicious and I can never get enough of it ….. yum yum!! Try it and you’ll never want store bought bacon anymore!!!!
Now I am thinking of self-made croissants …….. the King of Breakfast!!!

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My First Luffa

Luffa or petola is one of our favourite veggie except for my son ….. I wonder why????
My first attempt at planting this veggie was fruitless but the plant grew very well and I think it became a bit too much for the shared trellis and it collapsed after a storm. Yes initially there was no petola plant but when the pole bean did not make it, I replaced it with petola and I guess by that time when it was growing at it’s max, the trellis must have had worn out.
The next plant was planted on its own trellis which is of the teepee kind but this plant had to be destroyed because it was infested with hairy caterpillars.
The third plant was also planted on its own teepee trellis and it grew real well but no luffa. There were many flowers and mini luffas that just drop off. Anyway just decided to just let it continue growing since I had no new plants to plant yet.
Then one morning during my usual walk in the mini-farm, I was pleasantly surprised to see a portion of a luffa sticking out from among the leaves of the plant. This is my first luffa after more than three years.
In the west, luffa are usually left on the plant to grow old and dry up. They are then used as bathroom accessories. Here we eat it as soon as it is big enough for the table …… it was really delicious, my very first one, yum!! yum!!
It was already almost big enough for the table when I

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discover it and not wanting it to be taken by some pesky pest, I harvested it. Home minister made egg luffa omelette for dinner  ………. burrp!! yummie!!!

A Pineapple Tale

I do not normally eat raw pineapple in my homeland because 99.9% of the time it is sour and sharp. What I mean by sharp is that it irritates the inside of my mouth to extend that it causes cuts and roughness on the tongue. From a young age I learned that there are only two kinds of pineapples, the sour kind which is normal in size and the half sweet and half sour kind which is large. The large kind is called Sarawak Pineapple.
When I first visited Thailand, I was really surprised that their pineapple is 100% sweet and very nice to eat. Whenever I am there I would eat as much pineapple as possible because they are sweet and heavenly to eat. To-date I have not tasted a sour pineapple from Thailand ever before. Sometimes I wonder why nobody grew the same  species here or is it just a natural thing that pineapples in Thailand are always sweet.
Quite awhile ago, my wife’s aunt gave her a Sarawak Pineapple from her own garden and almost 90% of the fruit was sweet. It was a large fruit and with the help of our son she planted the crown. At that time I was very busy climbing the corporate ladder and was not at all interested in  planting. Over the years we had eaten the fruits of this neglected plant a couple of times and it was really sweet but it was getting smaller and smaller.
It was in June 2008 when we had one of the fruit from the original neglected plant offspring and I was forced decided by Home Minister to plant the crown of that fruit in the mini farm. After a year and nine months plus minus a couple of days we were

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rewarded with a two and a half kilo or five and a half pounds very sweet and yummie fruit. I am really glad that I was forced decided to plant it.
The crown of this fruit is now planted in a pot to be given to a very close friend of ours when she come visit next. I still have another plant in progress. The original plant will soon produce a new shoot for another awesome fruit soon.

Mini Farm Up-Date

Today my mini farm is almost two years old and it is maturing but is still very much an infant. In my first year of planting everything just seems to be easy except for the bout with sciatica which resulted from excessive extreme digging with the hoe which I broke the hoe stem. The mini farm then was like a mini jungle!!
After getting the mini farm back to looking like a farm, I started to get uninvited guest to feast on my produce, yes those damn pest of all kinds. Being a first time farmer, I just tried to cope with manual power to get rid of those pesky varmints. I had to destroy my angled luffa plant because it was infested with some kind of creepy hairy caterpillars …. yucks!!!!
In desperation I started googling for solutions and joined this very friendly and helpful forum web site “Garden Stew”. It is indeed a real nice gardening and social web site with lots of friendly and helpful members. I have benefitted a lot since becoming a member of Garden Stew and is happy to say that I have also contributed some to the www. This really make farming/gardening more meaningful. Just last week,  Frank the founder of Garden Stew drop by for a short visit and I was really honoured. I was the first member he visited since he set up the Garden Stew.
Last year towards end December till late February this year the weather was really hot and dry making it very difficult to plant anything. The produce from the mini farm was minimal and it wasn’t really tasty. This phenomena is not normal and some experts have labelled it as El Nino/La Nina. Well I guess if capitalist just keep on raping the earth, then ……… your guess is as good as mine as to which direction we are heading to.
Now the mini farm is aging nicely but have yet to attain a balance. Hmmm!! It is mini I hope it can establish a mini balanced eco-system so that those varmints can become food for the friendly inhabitants of the mini farm. Currently those varmints are more or less under control the very organic way and those delicious veggies are starting to fill up the kitchen and our tummies too!!!

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