Pak Abu's Golf Breather

[ Left: Beatrix Potter's original Peter Rabbit illustration]

My elder daughter Ann is on sick leave today. Her sinus has acted up again, she is having a slight fever and her voice sounded thick over the phone.

But I managed to persuade her to come around for a late lunch. She turned up about three, bearing a surprise present too.

A month back she had asked me for my list of "To Buy" books and I had given her a couple of titles by Bill Bryson not available the last time I visited the bookstores here in Damansara.

I had read previews of both and had set my mind on buying them; Bill Bryson's African Diary, about Bryson's travels in Kenya, and Made In America, his take on the evolution of the English Language in the United States.

What I didn't know was that Ann took the trouble to place an order for the two titles with Borders Bookstore at The Curve.

The books arrived last week and she collected them over the weekend. Thanks Ann, that was very thoughtful of you.

Wonder of wonders, Pak Abu is taking a one-day break from golf today. He had been golfing daily for 15 days straight, which I thought was stretching it a bit.

Just the other day, while running an errand in Kelana Jaya, he took a tumble on an uneven pavement. Luckily he wasn't injured.

He really had me worried then. I thought his knees had given way due to fatigue; fortunately it was just a miscalculated step.

We rarely watch movies together, be it at home or in the cinema, simply because I am not hot on films (unless they are eerie stuffs like ghost stories and such).

But yesterday I cosied up to the man a bit (just to keep him company, he he), watching Miss Potter, about that famous author and illustrator of children's books, Beatrix Potter.

The movie was filmed against the backdrop of breathtakingly beautiful Lake District in northwest England, while Beatrix Potter was played to near-perfection by that talented actress, Rene Zellweger.

I think boredom really set in for Pak Abu today. He watched The Other Boleyn Girl and Pride and Prejudice in quick succession.

I can't wait for Tuesday to arrive - he's better off on the golf course for sure.