Singapore Airlines screwed us

All this while I thought Singapore Airlines (SQ) was one of the most respected and professional airlines in the world. Today made me change my opinion.

My wife and daughter were to travel on SQ to India for a vacation. The tickets have been booked for more than a couple of months and the open tickets that I had for us have been endorsed by the Singapore Airlines city office.

The flight was supposed to be at 0730hrs this morning. When we walked into the airport this morning at 0600, the first thing we saw was the flight to Mumbai had departed -- Yes, DEPARTED -- at 0547 hrs! That's right. 0547hrs!

I had checked the tickets myself and knew that the time mentioned on the tickets was 0730hrs.

So we went to the customer service counter and protested. And we were told that the flight schedule had been changed!

What was the point of taking our contact details during the booking if the contact details were not going to be used to inform us that our flight had been rescheduled?

After a few embarrassed moments for the SQ staff, the supervisor came and "apologized" for this mistake from their side. She also said that we would be put on the next flight which was at 2030hrs. The flight at 2030, we were informed, was full, but we were assured that we will be given seats on priority. After I inquired about the priority, we were told that they would check us in right away for the evening flight.

So we now have confirmed seats for the flight in the evening and "as a token of our sincere apologies", we have USD100 vouchers for in flight shopping.

As if that makes a big deal. My family would rather be back in India with the rest of my folks.

No matter how much people criticise India, let me tell you one thing. In more than 10 years of flying around the country, this has never happened to me in India. Firstly, there have not been too many schedule changes. And the few that have been, I have always been informed at least 12 hours in advance.

For a developing country like India, delays and changes have to be expected. It will take a while for India to reach the professionality levels of the developed countries. But this is definately not expected from a reputed airline like SQ.

What happened today was totally unacceptable. Not only does it inconvenience my family, as they will land late in the night as opposed to the planned for morning arrival, it significantly shakes my confidence in Singapore Airlines as my choice of airline.

You see, I too have been booked on SQ for my flight into India in July. In my case, the booking will be more than 4 months old. I am not at all sure if they same thing will happen to me. And as opposed to my family's 2 month vacation, I will be there only for a few days. And my trip has been planned to the exact dates. Any change and I will miss out. This is just what I did not want.

This is the first really disappointing experience I have had since I moved to Singapore.

Rock N Roll Hall Of Fame inside ... WHERE?

I was getting out of office to get back home. You see, tomorrow morning my daughter and wife are going for a whole two months vacation to India. So I wanted to take them out for dinner before they left.

Luckily, I got a cab as soon as I got out of the office building. The moment I got in, I noticed something I had not seen in any other cab in Singapore.

The whole front of the cab was full of people from the Rock N Roll Hall Of Fame. Name one and there was the picture. The Bee Gees, Jimi Hendrix, Pink Floyd, Kenny Rogers, Bob Marley, ... the list is endless.

And then he had over a hundred CDs on spindles which he would pick and choose to play.

For the first time in Singapore, I was listening to great music inside of a cab. And I had this really passionate-for-music cabby to thank.

Super duper 15 minutes from offie to home.

I thought I was good at this

Ever since I was little, I knew my mind worked differently when it came to music.

I could recall bits of music which I had heard a long time ago, remember songs which I had heard years ago, associate bits of music to songs very quickly and if I knew a song, I would recognise it within the first few seconds. Even now, if I cannot recognise the song as soon as it has started, I have never heard the song before.

Now I know one more person who has the same uncanny ability for music. My own daughter!

I always knew she had an ear for music...you can see from my earlier posts about her taste for music (really good one too) and her favourite songs. But yesterday she took me completely by surprise.

I was in one of my moods where I play DJ using my iPod and I play songs which fit my mood through the evening. Yesterday, I was playing songs which my daughter hadn't heard before.

After a while, when I was pooped dancing, I switched to Kenny G's "Songbird". It's a great song and has been one of my favourite instrumental songs.

As soon as I put it on, my daughter pranced up to me and said that this song was on the "Robots" movie soundtrack. I was half way into trying to convince her otherwise when she explained.

"Remember when Ratchett is lying down and the robot is rubbing his back...just before his mother comes in, this music is playing" she said.

And then it hit me. She was ABSOLUTELY RIGHT! BANG ON!

Songbird IS actually played as a background track exactly at that time in the movie. The song is played only for a couple of seconds, but she picked it up instantly and associated it with the movie!

I stood there stunned and proud at the same time.

I guess this is what it means when people say the next generation gets better than the older one!

Isn't that a bit too harsh?

Michael Schumaker got penalized for "braking too agressively and excessively" at the final corner of qualifying, where he just avoided hitting the barriers and stalled his car, and was stripped off his pole position time and made to start from the back of the grid.

This made Fernando Alonso abort his hot lap which could have put him possibly on pole position.

The whole of the Formula 1 community has come out to blast Schumi for this "deliberate" incident. But nobody has stepped back to look at the incident.

Firstly, the worst that could have happened if Alonso made pole is Schumi would have had to start from second position. Big deal.

Secondly, all transmissions from the pit (radio as well as telemetry data) are available to the FIA. So if the team told him anything about Alonso's lap, it would be part of the recorded data and therefore made public. Since none of that was made, one can only deduce that the pit wall did not inform Schumi about anybody behind him.

And thirdly, it could have happened to anyone. People in F1 don't deliberately park their cars on curbs or go hurtling into walls. Last race, Montoya beached his car on a curb and could not get it off. The one before that, Fisichella took a long detour throught the gravel. So these guys are still human and can make mistakes.

Having said that, this is all water under the bridge. Schumi did start from the back of the grid. Actually he started from the pit lane and drove a brilliant race. Starting last on a track like Monaco where overtaking is definately not possible, Schumi was up four places before the first lap was over. He then got stuck behind Button for a while after which he pulled a stunning overtake coming out of the famed Monaco tunnel.

A single stop strategy saw him climb to 5th position. Had it been any other track. Schumi would have been on the podium. Monaco saw him land a little lower.

The unfortunate parts of the race were the retirements of Mark Webber and Kimi Raikonnen. They were both running 3rd and 2nd respectively and had driven brilliantly the whole race, but their car reliability left a lot to be desired and both came out of the race with engine failures. I really feel sad for them, despite the fact that I hate the Retard (aka Kimi). I am a fan of motor racing and don't like it when people who tried so hard have their engines choke on them.

So Alonso moves further away from everybody. If this trend continues, he is going to be world champion again.

I am hoping against hope that it does not go that way.

I really admire this woman

I am, of course, talking about Melissa Etheridge.

Melissa is probably on top of my most admired artist list and has been there for a while. She is the only artist of whom I have all the albums. And she is probably the most honest of them all.

When she writes her songs and when she sings them, you can feel all the emotions she has gone through while writing them. All her anguish, all her pain, all of the ecstacy she feels, she pours into her songs. That gives a very special quality, a Melissa quality, to all her songs. She stands unique in that aspect.

For someone who has been around for a really long time, to come out consistently with rock solid albums is really something. Her latest greatest hits collection is exactly that.

While there are quite a few songs that I felt ought to be on the album, but then it's a mark of her quality as an artist that she has far more greatest hits than can fit on a dual CD album.

You have to listen to "This is not Goodbye" and "I run for life", both of which are new songs which she wrote after recovering from breast cancer. You can feel all that she went through when she was undergoing treatment. "This is not Goodbye" is especially heart wrenching, where she is talking about the effect of her treatment on her partner and her promise that this is NOT goodbye. It is an especially great song. And it is typical Melissa. A fabulous straight-from-the-heart rendition with fantastic lyrics.

She is the greatest and I absolutely love her music.

Thank you, Melissa. You have made my life a lot better by letting me enjoy your music.

What a lovely gift

I just got a package from my pal in the US. As the story goes, he was strolling thro Macy's and saw a Manchester United T-shirt. He immediately thought of me (as you might have noticed from some of my posts, I am quite an outspoken ManU supporter) and he picked it up for me.

It's a great grey T-shirt with Man. United written on the front and it says Red Devils on the back. It's really a lovely shirt and a great gift for an ardent ManU fan.

Thanx a lot, buddy! Really appreciate it.

Scotty is paid for

After making only 29 putts in my last round of golf, I think my decision to change to the Scotty Cameron Circa 62 Model 1 putter was the right one.

I made 8 single putts, 9 two putts and only one 3 putt (mainly because I mijudged the break and ended up on the wrong side of the hole...incidentally it was again a hole where I was on the green in regulation and then did my customary three-putt). The putter saved a lot of holes for me and I made a lot of clutch putts for par.

If I look at the round, I had only 5 greens in regulation, but 7 pars. If you discard one GIR where I three putted, I saved par and scrambled up and down with single putts for 3 of my pars. I can count at least four holes where my putts for par or birdie lipped out and stopped a couple inches from cup. Had they dropped, my score would have been lower than the 87 that I shot.

But then, that's golf. So the round was 87. And I am quite happy with the round. Now I am back to my consistently-breaking-90 form. I am also hitting a lot more fairways (9 out of 14) and hitting a lot more greens. The chipping department is also getting a lot better. And the putter is showing the most improvement. So all in all, the game looks like it is on the way up.

Only thing that I know I am bad at is long lagging putts. When I sit behind the ball on a 30 footer, I have no idea how much to stroke the ball to get it to the hole. Because I have no practice for long putts, I am either way short or way long on my putt. This leaves a particularly tricky second putt for par (a lot of which I made during the last round. but not all).

Here's to a better game.

Bezu Fache is Opus Dei?

Nowhere in The Da Vinci Code does it say this. I know. I have read the book maybe a zillion times.

But the movie, recently released amid a lot of controversy, seems to suggest this. It also has Bishop Aringarosa calling Fache to suggest that Robert Langdon called and confessed to him that he knows the identity of the Priory Grand Master and senechaux and that he is going to murder them.

Looks like another movie which has hashed the story line from the original book.

I am not sure I want to watch the movie. It will not live up to the story I have in my mind.

The World Cup in Hi Def?

Yep...you heard me right!

Starhub here in Singapore is going to hold a trial of High Definition (HD) transmission beginning with the World Cup. The trial will of course not be only for the 4 special channels for the World Cup, but for other channels as well. And the trial will be on until the end of December this year.

The catch is that everybody will not be able to get it. To get this, you have to register on the Starhub website and declare that you have a HD capable TV (they even have a menu providing a list of vendors and models which are a pre-requisite to registration), that you are already a pay-per-view customer of Starhub (meaning you have subscribed for the 4 WC channels) and that you agree to pay a one time fee of around S$100 for the service to be activated.

Then you have to wait with bated breath and hope that you get picked.

I sure hope I get picked. It will be really great fun to watch the World Cup matches in Hi Def. The clarity will be awesome. And for certain other channels, even surround sound will be available as an option. So I can hook up the Hi Def set top box (here I am assuming that I am already picked for the trial...the optimist) to my home theatre amplifier and freak out.

I just hope I get picked.

Aaah...this is so helpless. I cannot do anything to get them to pick me.

My friends are great...

As soon as they heard that I will be alone in Singapore for a few weeks (my wife and kid are going on vacation), a few of them volunteered to fly down here and keep me company!

This is great!

So of the many weeks that my family is on vacation, most of the time I will have my friends around and so will not be alone at all. A week or so after my family leaves, a friend will land up. Then another week later, another one will land up and keep me company through the world cup. Another one will land up in the week of the finals of the world cup. And then another will come in after the world cup is over.

That is overwhelming for me and I really feel touched by the support of my friends. They are going out of the way to make my life better.

Ahh...I love my friends!

Drive, approach, putt ... EAGLE!

For the first time in my life, I felt what the pros must feel when they hit two solid shots to hit the green on a par 5 and then putt in for eagle.

I was playing the Singapore Golf Association (SGA) annual tournament (as a guest, of course) at Palm Springs in Batam. I was playing bogey golf until I came to the 6th which I triple bogeyed. So inwardly, I was thinking, there goes my round of bogey golf. But nothing would have prepared me for what was to happen on the 8th.

Since I had screwed up the 6th, everybody else had the honor to tee off before me. So one by one, I saw the guys in my group hit the left sloping rough by the fairway. As I stood on the ball, it was the first time I really felt comfortable and knew it would be a good drive. It surprised even me.

My ball soared straight down the center of the fairway and settled to 170mts (187 yards) from the green. The drive had been a mammoth 345 yard one, straight down the center of the fairway!

When I reached my ball, I knew the lie was very good and that unless I screwed up, I could reach the green in two. The second shot requires a carry over a lake which runs along the right side of the fairway and almost runs to the green. There are bunkers running all along that side of the green to trap people who "go for it" from where I was.

I took my 5 iron, made a few smooth practise swings and then reminded myself that this was my 5i yardage and that I did not have to hit it hard and aggresively to get to the green. A smooth swing would be enough.

The moment I hit the ball, I knew it was good. It didn't waver even a little bit, held the line straight to the green , dropped in the center and started to roll towards the flag. The ball stopped 8 feet from pin!

Most of the other guys were struggling to get on the green and almost all of them were on the green in four, and way further than where I was in two.

So I looked at the putt from every single angle and decided on the line going an inch to the left of the cup. Scotty stroked the putt and a second later, the ball had dropped in.

EAGLE!!!!

This was the first intentional eagle of my life...and the second ever. Though the first was a lucky shot where the approach on a par 4 went straight in the hole. This one was immensely more satisfying. A perfect drive, a perfect approach and a fabulous putt. A 2 under par for the hole!

Aaaaahhhhhh! What a feeling, I tell you. I remember very little about the round in general yesterday, except the fact that it felt like walking on air. I felt so good that I almost drove the green on the next par 4 and then parred it!

And to cap a great day, I won a 2 year membership to the SGA!

I need to go and claim my membership today.

The only time I forgot to keep count.

Yesterday was a disaster!

After playing the fabulous 83, my confidence for the game was at an all time high. Yes, I had managed to hurt my wrist a bit, but it did not feel serious. So I ignored it. It had been hurting for the last couple of weeks, but it did not affect my game on the weekends. I did not take a weeks rest into account.

As I prepared to play the AIA-SCS Charity tournament at the Tanah Merah Country Club's Tampines Course, I did not feel the pain as I stood on the 7th tee box, the starting place for our group. But I did feel it as soon as I teed off.

So to avoid putting pressure on it, I weakened my grip and held out on releasing the club thro impact. And predictably, my ball flew right. Again and again.

To make a long story short, it was a disasterous round.

To make it worse, I hit trees twice in succession on the back nine, thanks to my slice and somewhere during the ride to my ball, I lost the will to play. I have never felt this before on a golf course, but the fight just went out of me.

I played the rest of the holes half heartedly and came back with a pain that I carry even today. Yeah, my hand is sitting wrapped in crape bandage and hoping that the as-little-as-possible movement will give enought rest so that the hand is ready for the SGA tournament on Saturday.

If it doesn't heal, I will most probably not play. There is not point in slicing away and ending up with a humiliating round.

I just hope it heals. And quickly.

Watching a legend LIVE

I watched Billy Cobham Live here in Singapore!

Yep...the legend of Jazz was here performing his Culture Mix tour. And I had tickets for the show. And it was a great concert. The music was overpowering. So much so that I closed my eyes during the concert and almost felt like I was floating.

And when he finished a non-stop two hour bouquet of music, we gave him a standing ovation for more than five minutes and forced him to come out and play again. And play he did. And he chose to play Snoopy's Search! It was a great ending to a fabulous show.

Sigh!

But here's the messed up part. The Esplanade hall was only 10 to 15 % full! Billy played to practically a skeleton audience.

I am not sure a legend deserves that.

And another bone I want to pick on the booking system is that I was allotted row L as the "best seat". But there were whole rows empty in front of me. That seriously pissed me off.

But the music was more than these niggles and I came back a happier man.

A great show.

What a round...

If I knew how this round would go, I would have played it twice!

The guys I usually play with were already at Batam, spending the long weekend there with their families. We couldn't go as my wife was busy on both Friday and Saturday. So I headed out on Sunday thinking I will find these guys waiting for me and cursing the late arrival of the extremely slow ferry.

To my astonishment, these guys had started without me and were already past the first six holes by the time I landed. So I joined them on the 7th tee box, and in my hurry to join the game, I did not warm up the way I usually do.

I was justly rewarded for not warming up. I hooked the ball into a marsh which surrounds the 7th green (it's a 160yard par 3). As I cursed myself for unnecessarily losing strokes at the beginning of the round, I took a drop and then nicely chipped on to the green in three. My putt, with the brand new Scotty Cameron circa 62 Number 1 I bought yesterday, lipped out and I tapped in for a double bogey. Not the best way to start a round.

The 8th is a huge par 5 which has a carry over water for the second shot if you want to go for the green. My drive off the tee was great, straight to the center of the fairway and 280yards. I was left with 220yards to the green with water all the way. The ball flew off my 3i and strayed just a tad left and so missed the green by just a few yards. I chipped to 8 feet from pin and stared down the ball for a birdie putt.

I have been besieged by putting problems where I would three putt even from 6 feet. I have been practicing, but I am nowhere near comfortable. I was hoping Scotty would help here.

The guys, knowing my game, started walking off the green as they have seen me miss short putts for eternity. I pleasantly surprised them by dropping the putt for birdie. The last time I made a birdie was almost a year ago!

So I finished the three holes at 1 over and was feeling quite good as we approached the 10th tee. What followed next took even me by surprise. So instead of boring you with intimate details of the entire round and a blow by blow account, I will just tell you what the stats were for the round.

I had:

• 1 birdie
• 7 pars
• 8 bogeys
• 2 double bogeys
• 5 single putts
• 11 two putts
• 2 three putts (My mistake in allignment, not Scotty's fault)
• 33 putts in total
• 8 Greens in regulation
• 7 out of 14 fairways hit (not my best statistic, but better than my worst)

I shot 83!

This is the lowest score I have shot to date and only the second time I have breached 85 (the first being my lowest score of 84...until yesterday).

When I went back to play the six holes I missed with these guys, I parred the first four and then bogeyed the next two. Those 9 holes were also the best 9 hole score I have ever played...playing 4 over with 40. I had finished the back nine with the guys with a 7 over 43. When I was playing the last 6 holes, I noticed that I was doing very well and that I just needed to play level headed to shoot low. I didn't think I would do better than that. Even if I had bogeyed the four holes that I parred, I would have made 87, my lowest score since moving to Singapore.

What a round, I tell you. I was walking on air the whole time.

And I should say this.

Scotty Cameron is God!

The feel and feedback the putter gives is beyond belief and is the best thing I have experienced after my R5. To think of it, I use the R5 only 14 times a round. I use the putter at least 30 times. Given these statistics, the putter is a far more important investment. Something that I finally came around to agreeing with rather than just saying it.

Hopefully, Scotty will do better for me in the next round.

I have Scotty by my side

I bought the Scotty Cameron Circa 62 Model 1 mallet putter today.

In all the putters I have tested thus far, this is the only one which made me feel completely comfortable, both with the feel as well as the fit. Even among other Scotty Camerons.

Just a look at the putter will tell you it means business. It's a great looking club and I just love the way the ball moves off the putter head. The impact feedback is unflinching and the feel is fabulous.

Have been putting on the practice mat I bought a few days ago and I love this club. Hopefully, the greens on which I play will also like the club and I will be able to make more pars.

Here's to a lower score.

This is the perfect morning

My wife has work today and my daughter has been invited to spend her day at a friend's house. Now, don't jump to conclusions...that is not what makes the day!

I dropped off my daughter to her friend's house in the morning (my wife had already left for work) and then thought about that I wanted to do.

I landed up at Wheelock place on Orchard road and then spent the next half and hour or so just sipping coffee and enjoying the sight of Orchard Road on a weekend. Then, I slipped into one of my most favourite places in Singapore.

Borders.

The most ideal way for me to spend my time is browsing books and reading them. I have realized that I can spend hours inside Borders checking out books and reading some of them without realizing how long I have been there. That was how I spent most of my morning...until my wife called.

So after she got off work, we met at Suntec and had lunch together in the food court in the basement (Great Indian fusion food) and then spent some time shopping for stuff which she will carry to India. Most of the time, we were just walking along, hand in hand...just like old times.

It's been a great day.

I didn't like the wild

It's Vesak Day today (or Buddha Pornima, depending on which part of the world you are in) and my daughter and I have a holiday. Unfortunately, my wife is busy both today and tomorrow.

So my daughter and I decided that we will play for a while at home, then quickly finish lunch and head out for a movie. I called ahead and booked us two tickets for Disney's "The Wild".

Both of us sat through the movie munching our popcorn and didn't find the movie the least bit impressive. Not that the animation was bad, it's just that there was not story. A lot of it was a-la-Madagascar and it looked like a story ripped apart from a lot of places and sown together. All in all, an extremely dull movie.

But great time spent with my daughter. A whole day! A rare treat for me!

The Return of the King

Or should I say The Kaiser!

What a superb performance put up by Ferrari and Schumi. He started from second position, tailed Alonso all the way, got more fuel on board than Alonso after the first pit stop, tailed him all the way again and then put a couple of lap record breaking blisters when Alonso pitted.

So strong was his performance when he was out (when Alonso can in for the second stop) that he came out a full second ahead of Alonso.

Oh, the joy! Finally the Tifosi are celebrating.

And they said that his win in San Marino was only because Alonso could not overtake him on the narrow track. Well, he just made everybody eat their own words, mixed with tyre rubber and dirt!

Way to go Schumi! We have always been behind you, even through the worst run you had ni your career. And we will be there until you retire. And we will still be with you.

How crucial is Schumi to Ferrari success is evident from the offer made by the Scuderia team to Schumi for an additional two years.

A whopping $85 MILLION!!!

And that will be justifiably so...when he wins his undisputed EIGHTH world championship this year.

Ferrari will rule!

Goodbye Highbury

Now please dont mistake me for an Arsenal fan.

As a matter of fact, I dislike the club and am glad they have had a terrible season this year. The only person who I just cannot get to disliking is Thierry Henry.

What can one say about this maestro? Simply put, he is the best.

His awesome power and his contribution to the success of Arsenal was on display at the final game of the season for them and the last EVER game played at Highbury (next year, Arsenal move to the Emirates Stadium).

Arsenal met Wigan for this final game which was tipped by a lot of pundits as "a game where Arsenal would put on a display". And the game most certainly didn't disappoint.

Arsenal needed to win the game and hope that Spurs lost their match so that they would get to fourth place in the League and earn Champions League qualifiers position. And win they did.

After a great first half where both teams scored a couple of goals each, it looked like the match would end in a draw. That's when the King of Highbury took over.

He scored a hat trick in this final match at Highbury to take the Gunners to a 4-2 victory over Wigan. As soon as he scored his third, he knelt and kissed the ground, an obvious gesture of the love he feels for the ground and the club. Highbury has seen a lot of spectacular matches thanks to this man and they would hate to see him go.

But there is a lot of talk of Henry going over to Barca after this season. A lot of people put this performance of a hat trick as the final league performance for Henry. Speculation about Henry joining Barca is rife and only fueled by Henry who has not yet committed to staying at Arsenal.

Will the King leave? Or will he stay?

Personally, I would love him to stay. Even if his being there helps a club that I despise. Just watching him is pure please (or terror, if you are watchin Arsenal play ManU) and I would love to see him continue in the League.

It took me almost 10 months

Yeah, I know it's a long time, but I finally did it!

I broke 90 for the first time since I came to Singapore. Shot 89 at the Tering Bay course in Batam, a course I was playing for the first time.

We started on the back nine and I played bogey golf for the first seven holes, missing par on two occasions with three putts on each of these holes. Just when I thought my putting was going to ruin the day, my putting stroke came back.

After double bogeying the 8th, I parred the last to finish the front nine on a bogey 45. The back nine began with a par and the bogey golf look like it would continue when I hit a double bogey on the 12th. So far I was playing bogey and was determined to not screw up.

The next five holes were all played to bogey and I managed to par the final hole with a single putt. One short of bogey for the back nine and one short of bogey for the entire round.

That felt really good. What felt better was that I did not hit as many fairways as I usually do and hit far fewer GIRs than normal. Despite that, I save bogey, sometimes even par, and went about the round with only 2 double bogeys. I know I could have had a lot more pars, but I prefer not having more double bogeys. Also 33 putts for the round is not bad. Not great, but not bad either. Considering my recent putting form, it was great.

I hope to do better in my next round.

Tired as h***

I just spent the last ten minutes willing my body to type this :-)

That's how bad I am feeling right now. Really really tired. My body is complaining so much, my legs are hurting like crazy.

Why am I telling you all of this? Cause I am tired ... and bored. I feel like I am going to throw up. And I know I am not going to, but I am just going to go on feeling that I am. Yeck!

Maybe a massage will do the trick.

Maybe I'll go for it.

What a week

Or should I say weak?

To make a long story short, the week was made up of a small birthday celebration, a few days of under-the-weather health and a relatively poor golf game. Yep, that pretty much sums it all up.

You know, as you get older, birthdays don't mean as much as they used to. There are fewer friends around to celebrate it with and there are a lot of things to get done, work wise, on the day itself. So by the time you are home, you are dog tired and it really does not feel any different from other days.

But all credit to my beautiful darling to make the evening worthwhile. She had cooked a really eaborate dinner of some of my favorite things and my daughter made me a cute little birthday card. They made my exhaustion just disappear. After we had dinner and put our daughter to sleep, we sat around and chatted for a while. And then it was peaceful slumber. A deep sleep after a tiring, but good day.

On saturday, we were invited for dinner at my golf buddy's place. All of us, part of the four ball, were there with our wives (and me with my daughter) to enjoy "Dum Biryani" made specially for the occasion by my pal. A lot of Heineken accompanied the conversation, which largely circulated around the topic of Golf. What else can you expect from a bunch of golf fanatics.

What eventually transpired was a set of outrageous statements by the host, who also happens to be a single handicapper, suggesting that we should bet on birdies and that we didn't have the guts. Now I always play to make par or birdie, it's just that sometimes (well, most of the times) the ball does not want to go in the direction I want it to go. My last birdie was almost a year ago, so there's fat chance I am going to be on the recieving end of the Birdie bet.

So we suggested we up the stakes. $100 for every eagle made on the course. And then we went completely psychological warfare on this guy. We put on so much pressure on him that when we started the round, this guy was nowhere in the shape that he usually is. He couldn't take it.

And after a round of golf in the worst weather I have played in, I can up trumps with a round of 90...beating a single handicapper by a single stroke (he shot 91!). 6 pars, 6 bogeys and 6 doubles. Another symmetrical assessment on the putting performance as well. 3 single putts, 3 two putts and 3 three putts for a total of 36. My GIR and three putt saga continued for a bit, but not as bad as the last time.

So I made 4 less putts as compared to the last round and shot a score 4 strokes lower. What I found astonishing was the fact that I took only a single penaly last time while I took 4 this time. So I actually managed to play a lot better than last time to shoot 90.

What felt fabulous was my full swing. It felt completely effortless and smooth. Unhurried, yet powerful. I was consistently hitting beyond the 260yrd mark and was mostly on the fairway. This time, I hit 9 out of 14 fairways and had only 4 GIRs, but even then, I managed to hit a better score than last time. So all in all, a better game than last time and this time, I was confident that I could get back to the game I had when I consistently broke 90.

And I went back to my old Adams putter. I dumped my Odeyssey White Hot because I could just not get the distance judgement with it. The Adams mallet, I felt was a lot better. Only the next round will confirm if my opinion is correct.

So that's the week in perspective. Sorry for not writing often enough, but I have been feeling so sc***ed the last few days, I just didn't feel like writing.