It was a pleasant surprise when I received a text message from Yim that our Banana Golf gang will be having a dinner gathering on Friday 4th July. Even though I have an appointment on that afternoon, I tell myself I must attend since I have not seen them for decades. Fortunately, I was able to make it in the very last minute. On the contrary, Jackson didn’t make “the cut” due to back pain. We truly missed him and prayed that he will be back to his best form soon.
The dinner was held at Ruyi Restaurant, Bangsar Shopping Center. The main highlight of the dinner was a 2.5kg Black Emperor fish, specially brought in by Winson from Kuching. Thanks very much to Winson for his thoughtfulness and generous contribution, i have a chance to eat this fish for the first time. According to him, this fish tastes much better than Empurau, which is way overrated.
By any dinner standard, it was huge for the table and very well prepared by the chef, although it was just steamed but coupled with the sauce; it tasted simply excellent. Even the scales were fried with salted egg mix with other flavoring ingredients to become another side dish!
As usual, dinner for the Banana Gang cannot go without getting high on liquor. Although I cannot drink due to my health conditions, the few just drank a mixture of whisky, brandy and Chinese white wine just like me drinking Chinese tea; this clearly shown that they must have drink regularly over the years.
I think my assumption is correct that they are not "high" at all after so many glasses, few of them even stayed back and enjoy their karaoke, singing their hearts out. My "tapek" to these guys..:):)
At the gathering, we also found out that I am almost 15 years “younger” than the youngest member there. Truly happy to hear that:):).
The gathering also brought back a lot of memories of those days we played golf together, where I remembered in every game we have to “compare cards" after the round, since everyone bets against the rest of the players.
During major outings, we have tournaments that award trophies and cash prizes for the Champion and 2 runners up. Eventually the Champion will have his handicap cut by 2 strokes while the Hcp of the 2 runners up will be cut by 1. And those who played 4 over his hcp (hope I remember this correctly) will have his hcp adjusted up by 1. This is to make the game fairer and more challenging so that there is a chance for the other players to catch up, while the winners have to work extra hard if he wishes to win again.
It was also recalled that in one of those games, the loser had to finish 1 bottle of beer at end of each hole!!! I am sure you can imagine the scenarios after a few holes!!
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Fond memories.........
If anyone has any idea where and when the following events were held, you are most welcome to send the details to me .......
ChiangMai Golf Tour - 18-22 Dec 1996
Bangkok - Dynasty Golf CC
Hua Hin - Springfield Royal Country Club
Hua Hin - Palm Hills GC
Bangkok - Pine Hurst GC
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1999 - Vietnam Song Be GC ...
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1999 - Vietnam Dong Nai GC
