Room with a view

 Goodness me April has just flown by following the return from Augusta. Round 4 there was spoilt a bit by the storms which had hit earlier in the week, and the course was really quite slippy. I was surprised that it was open given the American approach to litigation and so on, but they must have had so many overseas visitors booked that they took the risk. Of the four courses it was the most disappointing, but that's not to say it was not a decent layout, it was just not shown off to its best.

At least our trip home was less stressed than going out although the trip from the car hire drop off to the terminal building was a bit hairy. we made the flight and that was what mattered most.

The months was peppered with bad and sad news, as first my long term golf partner George Stephenson, had a heart attack and at 87 years old one is never quite sure how he is going to be after recovery. I am delighted to say though that he has recovered and started to play 18 holes again, albeit less frequently. His resolve is a true inspiration to everyone, particularly someone like me who can get so down when the golf is rubbish. At the moment I think I left my game in the States but after comparison with the situation George was in, I now know I brought it back with me, I just need to find where I put it!!

The sad news came some days later when we learnt that our good friend Marion Figgins passed away suddenly but not unexpectedly. She had been mourning the loss of her husband 'Figs' since he left us a few years ago, and she was struggling to live without him. Her funeral is next week so we shall be attending that. They are the first husband and wife friends we have lost so that leaves a big gap in our lives and those of their other friends too.

Socially number 2 son and I went to Wigan to watch Argyle try for a play-off spot. They got a valuable point there but failed to finish the season off well, due mostly to injuries which left the squad running on empty. I then hit Manchester and the Ivy restaurant with a group of ex-work colleagues. The views from the rooftop restaurants are pretty impressive.

Then on Sunday the local village had its annual gardens open day, and on this occasion we were able to climb to the top of the bell tower for St Saviors church where we had the classic ' I can see your house from here' moment. The climb up and down the 99 stairs was not the best therapy for my arthritic knee though. Roll on August when I will be able to see a consultant!!

Other good news on the housing front came toward the end of the month when number 1 son confirmed he had completed on his house in France which is great news. He is between jobs at the moment so once that challenge is sorted out he should be well placed to enjoy his new environment.

So as we move into May, SWMBO is off and running with the Summer invigilator season, I have managed to progress to the 2nd round of two golf knock-out competitions, a rare achievement these days, and golf days are starting to occur at shorter intervals. We need to book a holiday togther so we have something else to look forward to, but we are struggling to know where to go but I am sure we will come to a decision shortly..

It's tough at the top.

That rings a bell

New month, new post, and it's not as if much happened during May?  Further developments after my little challenge in Barbados mean that I have detached the gel sack from the back of  my eye socket. In practical terms that means I will have 'floaters' which my brain will eventually allow me to adjust to. The good news though is that I will not get a detached retina in that eye as the potential pressure has been relieved by the tear.

SWMBO and I paid a visit to Hillside Golf Club when they hosted the British Masters golf tournament. There were not too many top players in the field so we decided to go to the pro-am day. It was chucking down so we only stayed a couple of hours, but it was long enough to see a very jaded Robbie Fowler stuff a few into the undergrowth. Liverpool had beaten Barcelona the night before, so drink had definitely been taken. In contrast Kenny Dalgleish sunk a birdie putt on the 4th as it Alan Shearer. Stuart Broad sliced one into the grandstand at the 18th and that signalled to us it was time to go.

The following weekend, 'Off the record' Dick and his wife  Gill came up for a couple of days to do the Oxton Secret Gardens festival with us. This is the traditional time of year when home owners throw open their gardens for people like us to nose around. It was a baking day and they must have made a goodly sum for the nominated charities. I do hope Dick and Gill enjoyed the trip. It is a fair old poke from their new home in Middle Wallop, or is it Nether Wallop? We were very pleased to see them.

Then last week we went to see Bill Bailey in concert at the newly named M & S Bank Arena in Liverpool. I suspect this arena will always be known as the Echo Arena, in the same way the one day cricket competition is still known as the Nat West trophy amongst the diehards, and the Santander bicycle system in London will always be referred to as 'Boris Bikes'. Whether that will change when he becomes Prime Minister is anybodies guess.

So back to Bill. There is so much talent bestowed on one man, it is criminal. His impersonation of Teresa May was brilliant, and his musical talent is so wide and diverse that every school child should be made to watch a video of him. We had a great time. This great time was then enhanced with a few hours in the flesh pots of Liverpool with number 2 daughter so that we got back home after 1am a little worst for wear.

Finally we had that greatly boring event which was the European Cup final. Nobody will remember it in Liverpool than anything other than a hugely one sided massacre of a poor team for London. Truth be told, UEFA go the final they deserved after making the teams wait three weeks to play it, it was like a pre-season friendly. Was it a penalty? In Europe possibly, in England, never, but the VAR boys were not going to throw their referee mate under the bus in the first minute. still it's water under the bridge, and we can now look forward to the start of the cricket season. Oh, hang on, that started six weeks ago!!  I am sure footie used to be September to April and Cricket was May to August, when did the calendar change?

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 !