Saturday, July 29, 2006

Off to Jakarta...

for work.....nahhh...golf, bro ,golf or better known as golop there. Will be there till Tuesday nextweek. Oii yoo...4 days of golf. Bisa pengsan Pak!!

Friday, July 21, 2006

Of ASTRO-Philip Masters, Negotiation, Phone Negotiation, British Open and Tiger Woods

Yesterday was busy..nope...let's go with hectic. I woke up early in the morning. Too early...like 5 am. I was to be at "Palm Garden Golf and Country Resort" by 7 am, for a 7:30am tee-off time.. ASTRO-Philip Masters golf tournament. Gotta be out of that place by 2pm.... 2:30pm; a tender negotiation with a customer. Told my guys to change the nego time from 10am to 4:30am a day before that ; but 2:30pm was the only slot. Shessh....

I played quite well. 9 pars with 2 birdies. Played to a handicaped of 8. That's was at 1pm. After a quick shower I went for a quick lunch...gotta stay for a while to see if I got any placing. At 1:50pm, I gotta chance to look at the results, "bodek" the tourney officials la. My name was not in the top 5 A-Medal. Yikes!!! All the other players must be very good with their golf swing or the only other explanation was they were good with their pencil. Knowing that my name was not anywhere in the prize-list, I sped off to my intended nego place. At 2:15pm, 15 minutes before the intended time, I got a call from the customer , postponing the meeting to 4:30PM. Double Suck...

Gotta spent almost 2 hours at the customer cafe. The nego went okay. No major problems. Got the deal... During that nego session, I kept missing phone calls from another customer... the phone was on silent mode.. Called back the other customer, and talked for about 45-minutes on the handphone..settled.

Later at night, I was there, watching TV, to see Tiger Woods, paired with Nick Faldo and Katayama for the 2006 British Open Golf Tourney. On the 1st hole, Tiger bogeyed....up to the 14th hole..Tiger was 2 under; not that impressive considering the leader was at 6 under.. it was late..around 1:30am..3 holes to go; don't believe Tiger was "in-the zone"; turned off the TV, and then went to have some zzzzz...

Woke up..check the internet..and on the last 3-holes, Tiger made 3 under..birdie, par, eagle. Damn, I missed that!!!!

Tuesday, July 18, 2006

PTGC annual golf championship 2006

Two days tournament. Stroke play. Saturday and Sunday. 1st day I played quite well; 1 under my handicap. I was just infront the championship flight on the 2nd day. Played with two of the slowest golfers that I've ever played in my entire golf life. Hampeh!!! It was hot, humid, and the worse was waiting 2-3 minutes everytime this two golfers were to hit the ball...come to putting, it's worse. Our flight were so slow that the flight infront "zoom" 2 holes past us. In the end, I did okay..but can be better. No excuses though. Got 8th placing on Gross score. Did not win but at least I played under the gross category not net;... that itself was an achievement.

Friday, July 14, 2006

Tanjung Puteri Resort, Pasir Gudang, Johor

I had a chance to play at "Tanjung Puteri Resort" in Pasir Gudang, yesterday. Zowie!!!! What a place to play golf. 3 full 18-holes ....not 3 9-holes, but 3 immaculately maintained 18-holes. The fairway is so good...so green..so beautifullll. The greens are pretty good too...a bit too slow for my liking.

I'm full of envy of those lucky Johoreans and Singaporeans golfers who would have a chance to play this course regularly. Played decent; scored 83..11 over; not bad for a first timer.

Monday, July 10, 2006

An interesting coffee-break

I was having a coffee-break with a few of my friends, when this "bapuk" came into the "mamak" stall with her ...errr... his friend. Immediately out of curiosity; my head turned following his footsteps. My friends were all giggling;

" aisay Golfer Melayu, lu tengok apa?"
"Tak da pa; saja gua ada sikit fenin"

A friend of mine, who sat with his back at the "bapuk" turned his head to check out the "she-male".

All of a sudden; ..

" Oiiii!!!!! apa kacau-kacau ni...aku tak kacau ko orang; nakal macam setan!!!! kalo ko nak main ngan aku, cakap aje la!!!!"

Malunyer aku.....

I wrote this to my egroup in December of 2000...

"...and Daim says " RM8.00/share is a good price for the government to buy, based on a willing seller, willing buyer.. it's a real good investment, coz the MAS share value is a lot higher"

Well Daim, if it's such a good investment, why don't you just let your co. "Maluri" buy the "MAS shares" from "Naluri" at the same price?

We'll see whether you'll be singing the same tune , when it's YOUR CO.'s MONEY. not the Government's money doing such a moronic act of no economic sense whatsoever..."

Hey,hey,hey...the issue is getting hot again; very, very, very HOT and SPICY

Brendan Pereira on Monday: Government the big loser in MAS shares episode
10 Jul 2006
Brendan Pereira

NOT all wounds received in combat can be seen by the naked eye. One episode this week will have an impact on more than just the main actors named or involved.

It will test the already frayed lines of trust between the Government and the public, it will fuel paranoia, and it will cast doubt on the integrity of public servants and politicians.

Perhaps more than anything else, it will rock one of the cornerstones of governance anywhere: The willingness to take what the Government says or does at face value.

As a case study, let’s look at the startling allegations in Tan Sri Tajudin Ramli’s RM13 billion counterclaim against the Government, Danaharta and a host of individuals and companies.

In a nutshell, the tycoon is alleging that he was instructed in 1994 to buy a stake in Malaysia Airlines at way above the market price to help the Government avert a financial crisis brought about by heavy losses in foreign exchange speculation.

The way he tells it, he was a reluctant investor and only agreed to buy the stake for RM1.8 billion because he had been persuaded by the then prime minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad and former finance minister Tun Daim Zainuddin that he would be absolved of all liabilities if the job of running the airline became too onerous.

Tajudin also said he was assured that when the country’s financial health improved, the Government would buy back the MAS shares.

He had to keep the backroom negotiations secret because the market would have been spooked had word got around that such deals were being cobbled together by entrepreneurs and the Government.

In 2000, the Government bought the MAS shares at RM8 a share, 117 per cent over the market price.

Tajudin is taking legal action because the Government allegedly reneged on an agreement to protect him from losses and liabilities.

The merits of his case will be heard by the High Court on Aug 10, but the court of public opinion has begun passing out judgments like confetti at a wedding.

Some say it is a self-serving tale, a yarn spun by a man with his back to the wall; a man fighting to make sure that his money and companies are not taken from him.

Others pitch Tajudin as the victim and paint Dr Mahathir and Daim as the villains of the piece.

Their main point: That the once-powerful tycoon had little choice but to play the role of national saviour.

A variant of "ask not what your country can do for you but what you can do for your country".

Perhaps a less obvious fact is that the big losers in this whole episode are not individuals but the GOVERNMENT.

Not the Government that was in office in 1994 and 2000 but the institution — the branch of the executive.

Why? Because every time allegations and accusations are made on how business is conducted by ministers, senior government officials and civil servants, it:

• lowers the estimation of Government in the eyes of the public;

• turns more believers into sceptics;

• reinforces the belief among some Malaysians that little those in power say or do can be taken at face value; and,

• can cut the umbilical cord of trust between the governing and the governed.

Tajudin’s allegations are a stark reminder of how combat can leave a trail of unintended victims.

Sunday, July 09, 2006

Played like a champ today...

Alumni Golf tournament. Played real good. Really, really goood. Even scored 36 strokes on the 2nd nine. Par golf. Stableford points of 44........ 8 under. Won the ball-sweep for the second nine. OCB. Hoped to be the Medal A champ today;...... but the medal-A cut was 18. WTF... When the announcement came in for the winners of the day; I was placed 2nd. Lost out to an 18-handicapper. He scored 47 points. Shesssh.....