I think I got away with it!!

With the world in turmoil it seemed sensible to take advantage of a golf trip while I still can. This one was to Brittany, an area of France I had never been to before. It soon became evident why!!

Living in Plymouth, it was always easy to hop on the ferry to Roscoff or St Malo and after an overnight crossing you were there. We never did though. So trying to get there from Scouseland was interesting!!

Ideally a flight to Jersey and a short hop on the ferry to St Malo would have been ideal, but the ferry and flight times did not dovetail so that was ruled out. No body fancied driving to Portsmouth so we needed to look for other flight options.

Rennes was the nearest airport ot our golfing destination but to get there we needed to fly from Manchester to Skipal and then to Rennes, hey ho! So five intrepid explorers set out with five sets of golf clubs and 5 suitcases. At Rennes, the travellers arrived as did the golf clubs, but only two or the suitcases appeared. "We will deliver them tomorrow" the lady service rep said. 

In the meantime it was into Decathlon to get some essential playing kit, and into Dinard Golf Club to buy some hugely inflated tops and shorts. Let the games begin.

This tornament, The Roberts' Cup has been played for a number of years on a home or away basis against six French chums. I took the number 12 shirt s few years ago but this was my first away gig. The company is first rate, the course was very testing and enjoyable albeit we played it three times, and a good time was had by all.

The French retained the Cup, bandits, but we will be prepared next year to win it back. So on being deposited back in Rennes we had to stay one night in an AirBnB before our flight the following day, and we found ourselves in a Toxteth highrise area which the Uber drives described as very bad but we had a good run ashore in rennes town and arrived at rennes airport unscathed only to be reunited with our baggage from a few days ago.

It all got on the plane at Rennes, but you've gust it, only 4 sets of clubs arrived in Manchester. They were repatriated the next day so all that remains is for the airline to pay for the extra clothing we needed. They have agreed my clam so I am just waiting for the money to hit the bank account.

I can see a return trip to Brittany in the future it certainly is a beautiful part of France coupled with the history from WW2, but we won't mention the war!! 

Lost and found

I never know where the time goes as I struggle to keep posting on here. Nearly two months have past since my ambassadorial announcement but I have no personalised golf bag picture to post yet. The frontispiece is on its way in the post apparently.

Most of the last few weeks have been hectic for SWMBO as her mum went into hospital for a 'big C' operation. It seems to have gone well but SWMBO and her sis have been sharing caring duties in Formby leaving me home alone.

So I have been golfing and more golfing, but then, disaster. I think I left my car unlocked one night and blow me, one of Birkenheads finest on a speculative mission for pocket change stumbled upon my golf clubs in the boot of my car. Sunday morning and they were gone!!

PC Plod is not really too bothered with minor theft these days, they just give you a crime number for insurance reasons. That should have been good for me as I have loads of insurance. Not so, though. The golf specific insurance only covers you for critical hours. That is from the time you leave your house with the clubs, until you return, so I was buggered there. The house contents insurance has a supplementary cover for valuables away from the home, but I do not subscribe to that, and the car insurance does not cover theft from the vehicle, full-stop. So that was that.

One ray of sunshine, however, involved my golf bag. That had my name on it, and did not represent a sales opportunity, so the tea leaf dumped that in a neighbours garden and I was able to retrieve it. That saved a few bob in replacement charges.

I now have a new set of irons, some old clubs from the shed, and await my new driver which should be here sometime this week. I got some good deals so the replacement cost has not been too high. I will just have to switch the heating on a month later this year!!

A big shout out to ForeGolf in Chester too. Their man spent 90 minutes with me in the trial facility trying different makes of club with different lofts and shafts. If the driver I have selected goes as well on the course as it did there I may be single figures next season.

Saturday past, SWMBO and I back to backed Halloween parties, firstly with the ankle biters at number one daughters and then at the golf club. I think our outfits went down well, although I was unsure whether I was a Draconian character or an Elvis impersonator!!

This weekend is fireworks and the start of the Autumn rugby internationals. I look forward to meeting the S Club for the New Zealand game. Interestingly NZ are staying at our hotel in Teddington so I have some laxative tablets at the ready for their muesli. I will be happy if England win three out of four, but that is going to be a tall order.

Final point of interest, number one son is back in London putting finishing touches to his house before it gets rented out, we have booked to go to Geneva now before Christmas and hope to take number one grandaughter with us. It is all go at the moment, especially as we have just had a group staying with us for Airbnb.

Winter wedding in Scotland is the next trip to plan, so far I have got us to Inverness by 27th December but only back as far as Fort William. Watch this space.

Air today gone tomorrow

We have just packed off four lads who have been here for the weekend as our latest Airbnb guests. They were in Liverpool for some sort of Game Of Thrones convention. They were no trouble at all and departed after breakfast. A few more bob deposited into the SWMBO account and hopefully their feedback will be good to allow us to maintain our gold hosting standard.

Our guests seem to be falling into three categories. One, like the lad's , is people visiting Liverpool for an event, festival or concert. Two is people staying with us while they visit relatives who live locally, and thirdly is people working or participating in some sort of sporting event.

Sadly none in the latter category has embraced the midweek golf profile we were targeting when we set the enterprise up, and most of our attendee's are weekenders. Still we get to meet interesting people and enjoy being able to share the home now the kids have vacated the top floor. We had two NASA scientists staying with us last week while they popped over to the Isle of Man for the classic TT events.

Sadly we can't help the people who need rooms in Oxton for New Year but it would probably be easier to cater for than the 20 we are expecting for Christmas Day and the fifty odd for Boxing Day.

Four people for New Year? No problem!!

The Forth Bridge

Our house is a bit like the railway bridge, it really needs keeping on top of or it will go to pot. I have been eyeing the soffits and ornamental woodwork for sometime and finally decided it needed to be replaced or repairs and repainted. The roof could be looked at, at the same time.

So first thing was scaffolding. I knew it would take a bit of work and be pricey but if it is needed only once every 15 years then it's a small price to pay. The crew took it right to the top of the roof, so the painter and carpenter had no problem getting on with the task in hand and they worked well together to get it done while the good weather held. They even put the weathervane back and the 1871 year tag digits which had fallen off.

Then it was down to me! Firstly the windows which the cleaners can't reach had to have 15 years of grime removed so we could see out of them again, then I needed to remove a small forest from one of the gully's. I still have to do a bit of rendering and wait for a cloud burst to see if I have fixed the gutters, but all in all I am anticipating the scaffolding can be removed by the end of the month and the house can look it's best for the Autumn.

That leaves the interior to be smartened up, particularly on the top floor where our Airbnb visitors stay. We have a lady coming today for three nights and then a Corbynista arriving for the Labour party conference a bit later. Every little helps.

It is high, but I can see your house from here !

Swedish chef

I was delighted that Henrik Stenson won is first major at Troon last weekend. He has been one of a number of top European golfers who have not quite stepped over the line to win one, so it was well deserved.
Henrik has had some bad luck off the course too, most notably losing a small fortune at the hands of the West Indian con man Allen Stanford. Some might say £10m was more than a small fortune, so the golfing world was delighted when Stenson won the FedEx cup and 'road to Dubai' in the same year some while later to claim a cool £20m in prize money. The Open championship claret jug will be as equally important to him as his financial rebuilding process.

The Open was, of course, at Troon in Scotland.  It was ironic that on the Saturday of the tournament I visited my mate Figs after his recent stroke. He can get out of bed now, and is recovering some use in his left arm, but he is still not too good. The NHS physio sessions seem to have dried up as they clearly see no long term benefit in continuing them. It was to Troon that Figs, myself and others travelled in May 1989 for our Scotflog tour. We played Turnberry, Prestwick, Largs, Kilmarnock Barassie and Troon in a week, doing 36 holes each day!

Troon was the least memorable of the courses as it is a boring slog up and back down the side of the Clyde. It's a bit like Royal Liverpool in as much as it is memorable for it's lack of variety and apart from the Postage Stamp hole and the 11th it has no real stand-out holes. Quite why it is on the rosta I am not too sure.

I am also not sure who won on the day we played although I do know I hit the Postage Stamp in one and then four putted!

The trip to London to see Figs also allowed us to take senior scouse grandchild to tie up with senior London grandchild and they had a right old time together and managed to manufacture a sleepover at the hotel. It was the first time Sofia had spent the night away from her parents so that was a milestone she should now be able to capitalise on in the future.

We have also received good feedback from our Airbnb visitors so it would be good to get a few more bookings before the Summer is over and then build up a bit more next year. One of the local hotels has been brought recently so it will be interesting to see how that affects the area.

I feel like I have just played in the Open myself having played four rounds in four days this week. As a means of recovery I had a run ashore with some old work colleagues in Lytham yesterday. I really should have passed on the Limoncello, especially as it was the 100% vodka variety as favoured by James Martin, BBC chef and raconteur!

Air today, gone tomorrow

We have just said goodbye to our latest Airbnb'ers. They were visiting the Wirral to attend an evening wedding party at the local Riverhill Hotel. The hotel has been on the market for some while as the current owners look to move on, but its an odd shaped property with a dwindling reputation in the area. Hopefully they pulled the stops out for the wedding.
It was quite a flog from London for a few hours socialising and good for them to do it. SWMBO is quite happy to accept evening only invitations, but I am less keen. If I am not on the 'A' list then I am more than happy to give up my evening spot to somebody else.

This wedding was obviously very multicultural as the bride was from Op North and was marrying a Burmese groom, our guests were European and Oriental, and live in North London,  I did not like to ask the specific points of origin as that's a bit sensitive after the Brexit vote!!  They were worried they would not be able to understand either the bride or groom's accents!!

They were no trouble, and after a hearty breakfast I dropped them at the Mersey Ferry terminal so they could at least see some of Liverpool before they departed.

They are both graphic designers for computer games, and were very impressed when I showed them the games which the sons of Dick 'off the record' develop. I had not realised their big seller and cash cow, Bad Eggs, had made it into the I-phone app store, and with over 1million downloads it was certainly making an impact. Lets hope all the gamers buy lots of add-ons!

So now, like e-bay, we await their feedback with baited breath. A poor review is the sort of thing that can make or break a career in the b & b market.

Full English

Interesting how to take that by-line. It is related to the fact we had our first paying guests in our new venture as an Airbnb registered bed and breakfast establishment. We had three guests over the Saturday night who had come from Leeds and London to enjoy the entertainment on offer in Liverpool.

Paul, who booked us, was an Irish lad who worked as a band manager in the music business so they all trotted off to the Liverpool Psychedelic festival in the  Baltic triangle. He was spotting for new talent and they cruised in about 3am. We 'forced a full English. down him at apout 11:00 and they were gone by midday. Paul recommended I listen to two bands, Wooden Shjips and Moon Duo, so that's on my list to do.

They gave us a good rating so we are now up and running and looking forward to the next customers. None booked in just yet though.

As we trawled through the competition we found out that our close neighbours also do Airbnb at about the same price, but, with only one room to our three, we look to be the best for groups. We shall see.

Full English could also link to the dismal rugby later on the Saturday evening. I was physically drained even before the game, and dozed off so missed the first half ( never thought about ITV +1) but watching the second half I struggled to understand how England were in the lead. There was always only one winner in the second half and memories of Wembley and Scott Gibbs all came back to haunt me.

Anyway after Wales lose to Fiji and England destroy Australia the status quo will be restored. Hang on though, I think I am still asleep and dreaming!!!