Caught on the boundary

Our trip to Barbados is nearing the end. We have tried to pack too much into the week really as a relaxing vacation and four rounds of medal golf are mutually exclusive!

The Tamarind hotel has been fine. It's on the Platinum coast at Payne's Bay and has received good reports from SWMBO. That is what I had hoped, as my first choice, Discovery Bay, had her complaining about all the poor TripAdvisor comments. I changed without telling her and she is still none the wiser and is now less likely to take TripAdvisor as gospel! She doesn't  follow this bog so it's just our little secret readers!

We have had a few new restaurants to try out. The Cliff beach club was at the high end and was very enjoyable experience. Starlets and Zuccio were good as was the food in Cariba, it just lacked any atmosphere. Finally a mention to the Sea Cat, a rum shack type fish restaurant which was very good and reasonably priced.

The weather has been great, and better than expected which was ideal for the golf. Four rounds of medal golf is the game the pro's play every week, but for mid handicap players it is tough and unforgiving.

I started with two rounds of 92 at the Barbados golf club and Royal Westmoreland which after handicap was 2 x 78. I lost five balls which cost me 10 shots and had me mid- table in my handicap flight, 14 off the lead. The pro's always call Saturday moving day as it proved to be for me. I hit an 84, net 70 around Apes Hill, to put me one off the lead going into Sunday.

It was probably my greatest ever competitive round of golf culminating with a birdie 4 on the last hole and a gross 39 for the last nine holes. I was actually 4 over par for the final 10 holes. I was drained at the end of it, but had had great encouragement from my playing partners,  Duncan, Jessie and Diaz. They all appreciated how much it meant to me.

Sunday arrived and I quickly learnt how golf can gain revenge. I was in the last group out. We had caddies and I had no friends. I did not realise how exhausted I was from the previous day, so after hanging in there for four holes, a 12 at the next put me out of contention and contributed to a 'no return'. As it happened somebody came out of the pack with a net 64 to win it. I had my moment of glory thouh so now need to translate the form into some solid Summer golf. It's Walton Heath in Surrey on Friday and a  big Virgin Atlantic Knock Out at Wallasey next week.

I will post some pictures from the presentation night with Sir Gary Sobers tomorrow.

To finish on a lighter note, I am having the house painted while we are away, SWMBO doesn't know about that either. I hope Argyle green is to her liking!!

Alphabet soup

I was taken by this amusing article by Oliver Pritchett in a recent Daily Telegraph post. Clearly the positively correct police have missed a trick here.

Something must be done about the international alphabet: the one that goes Alpha, Bravo, Charlie, and so on. It is disgracefully inappropriate and it perpetuates sexism every time it is used – by airline pilots, mini-cab despatchers and people at call centres trying to spell your name.

It is totally unacceptable that this alphabet features only one female name, Juliet, woefully outnumbered by Charlie, Mike, Oscar, Romeo and Victor. If that is not bad enough, there’s the blatantly paternalistic Papa.

It’s significant, of course, that Foxtrot and Tango are two dances in which, traditionally, a man takes the lead. Then there’s Golf, a male-dominated sport and one that must fail most inclusivity tests.

I am also unhappy about Alpha and Delta, as they are likely to make people feel excluded if they weren’t fortunate enough to study Greek at school. Alpha may also suggest “alpha male,” of course, while Bravo smacks of un-called for triumphalism. Uniform, meanwhile, has a whiff of distasteful militarism.

Roger that!

The alphabet is also in the news now that the Royal Mint has produced a new set of ten pence coins featuring on each one a letter depicting the best of British. The selected items are as follows:

Each letter represents iconic things or place in Britain

• A – Angel of the North
• B – Bond…James Bond
• C – Cricket
• D – Double Decker Bus
• E – English Breakfast
• F – Fish & Chips
• G – Greenwich Mean Time
• H – Houses of Parliament
• I – Ice-Cream Cone
• J – Jubilee
• K – King Arthur
• L – Loch Ness Monster
• M – Mackintosh
• N – National Health Service
• O – Oak Tree
• P – Post Box
• Q – Queuing
• R – Robin
• S – Stonehenge
• T – Teapot
• U – Union Flag
• V – Village
• W – World Wide Web
• X – X Marks the Spot
• Y – Yeoman
• Z – Zebra Crossing

It's as easy as ABC

Ground control to Major Tom

A first is chalked up by the blog as I publish one from outer space. Well, 35000 ft in reality from the bubble on a Virgin Atlantic jumbo. We have exit seats to boot so even the premier economy passengers are looking enviously at us.

We are returning this year for the Sir Gary Sobers festival of golf, as I try to improve on my mid-table finish last year. Gordon Greenidge, the West Indian opening bat is in my handicap category so there is an incentive to do well.

I have watched Paddington 2, the movie, on the plane and was interested that they used the Kilmainham jail as the backdrop to his incarceration. It also featured in the original Italian Job, and we did the tour when we were in Dublin for the rugger some years ago.

We are staying on the West coast this year to save time on the golf course transfers. Forest round is Thursday and there is rain forecast. Just like home.

OAP

Wow, March has just flown by. It started with an almost significant birthday as I reached the ripe old age of 65. I only celebrate when the year ends in zero, but I was coerced into a family do, as much because the grandkids like to blow out the candles.

So, we all sat down in The Refreshment Rooms for a Sunday lunch as luckily my birthday fell on a Sunday. We all had a good time, everybody enjoyed themselves and I am a year older. Tim came up for a few days from London sans children so we were able to have a few drinks as well which was good.

I applied for my pension to the DWP as you are asked to, but nothing has arrived, so I had to call them. They told me some applications had gone missing at about the time I applied. Lucky I rang really as they clearly have no check and balance for these sort of eventualities. The pension is paid in arrears, so I should get it as expected in a day or two.

March has also provided a couple of Six Nations rugby games. We travelled to Paris to see England fail to beat France, and we were at Twickenham for the anti-climatic end game against Ireland. In both cases the matches were the low point of the weekend . We stayed at The Farmers Club in Covent Garden as way of a change for the Ireland game and it was good to escape Twickenham after the match and enjoy a few drinks elsewhere.

Unfortunately we had two Chinese meals, which, coupled with the birthday celebration and a trip to Paris has stalled my weight loss campaign...couple of pounds added on this month!!

The beginning of the golf season has also stalled due to the bad weather, so my scramble to get six qualifying cards into the Virgin Atlantic golf competition and win a goodie bad, has been delayed somewhat.
Hopefully I can get it all done by Monday. There is a trip to Vegas as the prize for the best golfers this season so I must use the golf lesson presents I got wisely!!

Easter has now come and gone. It was a quiet one this year, with a bit of gardening and jovial evenings out to crown a pretty good month.

I have embraced Twitter now so you can follow me here if you want to, although at the moment its not too interesting!!
Just click on the Twitter follow button top right and after that I don't know what happens!!