We are one step away from acquiring Sam, the 9-month old beagle. I got the owners to take him to Elgar Road Vet, the vet who fixed up Tiger when he had Parvo. I'll wait for their call to see the verdict. If all goes well, we should be able to get the dog next week sometime. Which means I have to fix up the gate this weekend and any possible opening both dogs could escape from. It's all so exciting. But at the same time, I've promised my wife that I'll spend more time with her and not focus all my attention to the dogs. Hey, nothing comes for free. I'll just have to cope. Sometimes in life, we should take the opportunity to do what we want regardless of the consequences. Wish me luck!

My Christchurch trip was quite nice, actually. The weather held up quite nicely for me. Site work is really not my cup of soup, but these little trips away always help me put my thoughts in prespective and takes me away from the grind to think about what I want to do when I get back.

Anyway, the great news is that we (Polly, me and 2 other colleagues) won our company golf tournament yesterday. We play an ambrose format which means that we play the 'best positioned ball' on each shot. It's a good way to play, especially with beginners. We came in with a score of 73 gross, which was way under our collective handicap of 15-point-something. We won by one stroke - how's that for cutting it fine? I was called upon to pull out some tricky shots early on, and the others came through for us later in the game. It was a great day, which was capped off with a 'BBQ' at the Keg Restaurant. Lovely steaks, sausages, vegetable patties, salad, beer and wine. We got to take home a white and red Wynns Coonawara wine each. These are good wines. I also won the longest drive competition (wind-assisted!) and got a bottle of Shiraz for my effort. I think I must have driven about 280m, my longest ever (whilst still on the fairway). One of our team-mates also won closest to the pin on one of the par-3's. Heck, we swept all the prizes available.

This morning I had a good round with Eugene and a couple of members at the Yarra Valley Country Club. I'm now on my way to getting my own handicap. One of the members signed my scorecard. I'm also beginning to hit a lot better and more confident with those in-between club shots.

Looks like our wedding dinner will be held at the Renaissance Hotel in KL! Mum will be putting in the booking within the next day or so and it'll all be official. We've got 6 months to prepare for that. Oh and by the way, Polly, Tiger and I went to see a prospective 'mate' for Tiger. It was a 9-month old beagle named Sam, owned by a Korean family. Very cute fella, extremely playful and strong, solid dog. I am SO keen to get him, but Polly's still not convinced we should have another dog. My argument is that Tiger stays home all day and is bored to tears - he needs a friend. So, I'm going to lobby for him this week and I hope by the time we make a decision, Sam will not be sold yet! Wish me luck!