Column | The Greenkeeper Writes
Published on April 14, 2020The Day After Part 3.
Nina left the room to bring his buggy – golf cart as the Americans would call them – to the front so that he didn’t have to walk all the way to the buggy parking area. So thoughtful of her. Just like his wife. “Oh shoot. Why did that have to come up?” he thought. He shook his head vigorously as if that would help to clear his thoughts. All it did was bring a searing pain to his back.
I needed to get my act together. My act. This is my department. My golf course! Roslan stood up. He needed to go into the golf course; his golf course. He needed to stay focused. “Where is my buggy?” he asked himself. And why do the Americans call them golf carts and why do we have to follow them? Why does the element Na have to be called ‘Sodium’ and not Natrium? K is ‘Potassium’ and not Kalium? Why is an American gallon 3.78 litres when everyone else’s 4.54?
Like many others nowadays, he found bad-mouthing Americans therapeutic even as he acknowledged that it was the Americans that made his job possible. Sure, the first greenkeeper 150 years ago was a Scotsman called Old Tom Morris, but it was the Americans who turned it into a profession. Old Tom Morris was also a golf pro and not just a greenkeeper. Maybe he couldn’t have supported himself on just the salary of a greenkeeper?
He walked out the door to find Nina waiting for him. “I’ll drive,” she said demurely.
He didn’t feel like arguing. “Just stop by the workshop and let me have a word with Ah Seng.”
Nina drove smoothly the 20 metres to the workshop entrance. He could hear Ah Seng before he could see him, and he couldn’t help but smile. Ah Seng was not just the best mechanic he had ever worked with but was also a good friend. Loud but competent, Roslan believed Ah Seng had saved him tens of thousands of Ringgit over the years.
“Roslan!” the shout came loud and clear. He wasn’t actually shouting, that was his normal volume that came from more than 30 years of working in a noisy workshop. “How are you?”
“Any problems, my friend?”
“Of course lah,” said Ah Seng while scratching first his elbow, then his knee. “After so long machinery not working, some idiot started the machines without checking. We got three ride-on mowers down. I was just opening one where I think there is an engine problem to see the damage”
Roslan frowned “What is wrong with it, you think?”
Ah Seng started walking into the huge hall where the machines were kept with Roslan trying to keep up with him. “Aiyah… that one has an engine leaking problem. Small gasket leak which we keep topping off every few days. After so long very little oil left and the idiot just simply started it without checking.”
“The other two machines?”
“Brakes! The parking brake was left so long, it jammed. Now the machine cannot move,” said Ah Seng.
Roslan was afraid of that. Machinery kept in storage for long would have problems with battery power loss and for some of the older ones, leaking engine oil and just like cars, if you leave them on park or the handbrake on too long, the plates just fused together. He sighed. “Everything else okay?”
“I think all the machinery cannot be started on Day 1” said Ah Seng “We had to jump-start some and some with the manual gear we push start.”
Ah Seng leaned onto the engine section of a front-deck rough mower. Roslan stood watching, arms akimbo, not really wanting to know but knowing he needed to know more. He was about to tell Ah Seng to give him a full report later when he happened to glance outside the hall.
He saw one of the new younger operators chatting with Nina. They looked the same age and he felt a pang of guilt. Or was it jealousy? He wasn’t sure. He couldn’t be sure with anything when it came to his feelings. You could be sure of your work and your turf, but you couldn’t be sure of your heart?
He turned and saw that Ah Seng was looking at him. “Careful boss,” said Ah Seng.
“What?” Roslan was embarrassed. Did Ah Seng see his expression when he was looking at Nina?
“Careful you are going to step on the leaking oil!”
“Oh…” said Roslan, lightly stepping to one side. Grateful he didn’t step on the oil and grateful Ah Seng didn’t know. Or pretended not to know.
“But one machine escaped all damage. Our most important machine too. So, there is at least one good news from the workshop,” said Ah Seng.
“Really?” asked Roslan, brightening up “Let me guess; Azmi? The sprayer?”
“Ya lah. Azmi. I am not sure he guessed about the lockdown or he sneaked back in after the lockdown, but he jacked up the sprayer then put bricks and wood under it to save the absorbers and tires. Then he released the handbrake. He also removed the battery connection. He even put a pan under the engine to catch any oil leakage and…” Ah Seng paused for effect and waved his index finger at Roslan’s face, “He filled up his tank. I don’t think he knows why, it was just his good habit but in the case of long storage and it has been raining for a few nights; if the tank was empty, the cold temperature would cause condensation in the tank and rust the tank or contaminated the fuel.”
Azmi was one of his best operators, younger than most of them but not yet married, probably in his late 20s. He liked Azmi. Azmi was the one he saw talking to Nina.
“You removed your battery connection from your wife’s car ah Roslan?” asked Ah Seng, now walking out of the hall with Roslan.
“No. I was told for new cars if we removed the battery, some of the car’s settings may get damaged”
“That’s right, a very old car can, but a new car with the radio lah, the computer lah or whatever, don’t remove the battery”
He wished Ah Seng didn’t bring up his wife. Now he was beginning to feel guilty again.
“Okay Ah Seng, I gotta go. Give me a full report later.”
“Okay boss”
Roslan slowly walked to his buggy and nodded at Azmi who wished him a “Good morning.” He didn’t bother replying.
“Let’s go,” he said to no one in particular as he sat in the buggy, eyes forward.
