Another little prick

 Everything seems to be moving on a pace now. The period between New Year and my birthday always seems to pass so quickly at the best of times. There is the clearing up after Christmas and the storage of all the decorations, then we fall straight into the 6 Nations rugby and usually attend a game or two and then before you know it the golf season is upon us and hope springs eternal.

This year things are suddenly different. The last time I went to a major sporting event was at Twickenham last March when England gave the Welsh a good seeing to. We had a last dinner out with friends Peter and Val, and then we were locked down the next day. we all know what the rest of 2020 was like.

Last week, however, i was fortunate enough to be called to Chester Racecourse for the first of my two Covid vaccinations. I was assured that if it went well I was entered for the 3:30 Novices Chase over 6 furlongs. It never got to that stage though as I had some interesting reactions which may have been related to an earlier cold I had, but as my GP said, we just don;t know all  the side effects at the moment. Mine were cold shivers through the night with a limited capacity to breath, and after the first night I thought that would be that but after a relatively normal Friday when alcohol was taken, I was wiped. out on Saturday and then confined to barracks on Sunday when my BP went through the floor. Still all seems to be back to normal now. Roll on Wales v England tomorrow.

As a present to myself I have purchased a new golf trolley. It is electric and it follows me all round the course unaided. I have called it Marvin.

Today was gloriously sunny so I took Marvin for a test drive over the Wallasey links. No golf was involved but I was pleased I gave Marvin a dry run in isolation as there were a few teething problems with the assembly and subsequent control of the trolley. All has been sorted and I can't wait to be back playing from 29th March. Only 32 sleeps to go!

Viewers and watchers

 The second round of lockdown is quite interesting here on the Wirral. At the beginning of October we had over 300 cases per 100,000 when the average in England was 23. We entered stage 3 with the rest of the City of Liverpool conurbation where the figure was almost 600 in parts, and at least enjoyed golf and having a beer, albeit one to a table.

Boris then saw fit to introduce the national lockdown but sweetened the pill in Liverpool by using the City to dry run the mass testing initative. It has been restricted to just the Liverpool City Centre but their figure has halved to less than 300 cases now, and Wirral is down to about 180. The National average is now over 200. Quite what will happen in a couple of weeks is anybody's guess but at least we can see some progress 'Op North'. If that means we can return to stage 3 and some people can get out and about more easily, then all well and good.

My golf is now restricted to the back garden ( don't you mean front garden...ed) and I was having a thrash with my SkyTrak when I became aware that Stewart Golf have launched a new remote controlled golf buggy. Bit on the pricey side I thought but on examining my SkyTrak usage I noticed that while I was playing golf I was less inclined to use the simulator so it was sitting there doing nothing for most of the time. When I got it for lockdown 1, I convinced myself that I would sell it on afterwards as they seem to keep thier value pretty well. 

So it was a matter of selling one to buy the other and research showed me that the Sky Trak  factory has sold out and there are no new orders until January, E-Bay here I come.

First basic error I made was not waiting until a special Black Friday selling offer was announced by E-Bay, but that turned out not to be too much of a problem as bids flew at me from all sides, most of which were to buy before the auction finished. I don't tend to do that, and with over 1000 people viewing and over 100 watching,  letting the auction run it's course was the honourable thing to do. All people have their price though, and when somebody made me a very generous offer and said they would pick it up next day, I weakened and closed the deal.

So, Mr Stewart Golf is coming to Wallasey next month subject to lockdown being lifted and I get a personal demo of their new machine. If it fits the bill and copes with Wallasey's lunar landscape then it will be utilised much more than the SkyTrak, and in the months ahead, who knows, the SkyTrak market may depress and I can buy another one.

So a bit of wheeler dealing even Del Boy would have been proud of. Cushty Cushty Rodders.