Walk Tall

I played golf yesterday with my good friend Cookie. He called up to suggest we played and I was able to fit in. I then started thinking how long ago we had last seen each other, and it must have been nearly a year.
The thing about long standing friends is that you can just slip into their company almost seamlessly, regardless of the time between meetings. we certainly did not lack for things to talk about during our four hours on the course.
He did remind me, however, that I was once more delinquent on my blog, and one post during May and  none in June is certainly  poor form considering what we have been up to. 
That said, I played golf sixteen times in May, including a great week in the North of Ireland for the Causeway golf challenge. I met up with Chris Campbell and Chris Finden-Browne, friends from my IBM days, and much like yesterday with Cookie, the chemistry was still there and we had a great week. We played Ballyliffin in Donegal as well as Portrush, Castlerock and Ballycastle. I had a chat with Darren Clarke, the Ryder Cup captain elect, at Portrush as he parked next to me in his white BMW i8. Very impressive.
Chris C-F and I  managed to finish in the top 50 out of a field of over 600 so we felt very pleased with ourselves about that.

Liverpool also hosted the rendezvous of the 'Three Queens' on the late May Bank Holiday as Cunard celebrated their 175th anniversary. SWMBO and I saw them line up to enter the Mersey from the 4th tee at Wallasey golf club before hot footing it to Birkenhead to see them salute the Liverpool coastline. The Red Arrows then saluted them with a quick flypast on their way to Blackpool air show. Initial reports indicate the weekend generated some £22m for the local economy.

During June I participated in a sculpture workshop near Nantwich which took place over two days at a secret garden called Mount Pleasant. I carved a hand out of a lump of limestone and it now cradles a pot of plants in the garden. It was very gratifying to be able to produce something in such a short time, but certainly showed how much patience a sculptor needs to have to execute their art.

A couple of weeks ago it was the turn of the Oxton Society to take centre stage as they held their secret gardens event. I had hoped to have the 'S Club' in residence for that, but a combination of work commitments and event clashes meant that only 'off the record' Dick turned up on his way back from Scotland. We had a good craic and drank a variety of beers and red wine before he went off to Liverpool on the Monday to do some work.

Finally we took number one grand-daughter to London for number two grand-daughters birthday, a flying visit just for the day. Ava and Sofia certainly enjoyed each others company and it is a relationship we must continue to nurture.

And now we are into July where we have SWMBO's birthday to celebrate, our wedding anniversary and a leaving do for number two son, Kieran as he is off to a new school in September. He is moving from a 600 pupil all girls school with no Sixth form to a 1400 pupil mixed school where he can start to teach A-level. It means he will need to travel further so he is taking driving lessons, at last. I just stay off the road on those occasions!

The golf club are hosting the Carris trophy during the month. It's an event for U16 male golfers and is played over three days. It numbers Justin Rose as a previous winner.

So not much spare time to do any secret shopping or e-bay stuff, but certainly time to catch up with some more ex-work colleagues in a week or so in Liverpool for a serious lunch.Problem is I am on the 07:45 train to London the next day for the Lords Ashes test match.

In the words of Val Doonican, the singer, , who sadly died yesterday, I'm Gonna Get There Somehow !