Chopsticks

I have talked before about walking in the footsteps of giants, although the quote was actually from Isaac Newton, who said he could see further than others by standing on the shoulders of giants. Anyway lets not lets good blog entry be spoiled when poetic licence is at play!!

So as I was saying, I have talked before about walking in the footsteps of giants, be it on the same sports fields or golf courses as the worlds greats, or through commercial or business opportunities I was lucky to experience, but now I learn of the opportunity that the giants have of walking in my footsteps, albeit that they will be small ones!

In June of this year the UK, probably still lead by Boris, will be hosting the G7 conference. The location which has been chosen is the Carbis Bay Hotel complex just outside St Ives in Cornwall. Now it was not exactly a 'Cider with Rosie' experience for me, but it was the regular Summer holiday location to which I went with my mother and father for a number of years.Mum was in her late 30's  and Dad in his 40's and we went in the same week each year. 

Now I always thought it a co-incidence that the same families were there each year, but of course I now know that's what people did in those days. That way the same children were there to play with and the parents could have  a cracking time after we had all gone to bed. The hotel always put on a theme night for them and they took all the gear they needed to dress up for it. I remember them as beatniks one year and I think pirates another.

The hotel has back stairs for the staff to use for room service and house keeping and we used to play in and around those stairs all the time. It also had a piano on which we all learnt Chopsticks.

During the day we would be almost exclusively on the beach where the cricket battles were hugely competitive and surprisingly low scoring. If you lasted an over you were doing really well. The surf was often up and we had great fun in the sea when the red flags were not flying

We stopped going in the early sixties as I went to Senior school and the kit list and other expenses meant we could not afford both. Such were the sacrifices parents made even in those days.

So to see the resort put on the map in such a high profile manner is a real surprise, lets hope the World leaders appreciate the facilities as much as I did! 

Metal Ox

 Here we are in 2021 locked down once more. The vaccination programme is due to reach a significant level by the 13th February. It is interesting that as far as the Western world was concerned the virus started in China during its year of the rat, and in February we enter the Chinese year of the Ox.  Not sure what the significance is but just thought I would throw it out there!!

The time between Christmas and now has been somewhat low key as I suspect it has been for everybody. Lockdown has made it a tad more challenging as I can't use the golf course now so will have to embrace Joe Wicks  and the online spinning classes. Why was he not even nominated for SPOTY?

There are interesting anomalies within the regional lockdown guidelines. I can play golf in Scotland but cannot go to church. The opposite is true  in England of both. There is talk of Wales relaxing the golfing rules shortly leaving England and Northern Ireland still excluded.

I have just been to Tesco as we re-introduce our ten day shopping windows. The store had more staff picking home delivery than it did have normal punters which was a big change from last year when the queue stretched half way across the car park. There was plenty of stock although  few  gaps existed for toilet roles, porridge strangely and bird seed!!

Still it's done now so hopefully I can just stay close to home now. It is a pity that the new car can't have a run out but it is bedding in well and I am working out all the bells and whistles. I now have some admin to sort out then the lockdown list will e as follows:

• scan all old photo's in and make a few photo books
• move Atmosphere from VHS to DVD
  
• put the decorations in the loft when the new loft lights arrive
• floodlight the garden
• find useful tradesmen for routine home maintenance
• repair the holes in the garden golf net
  

So that should get me to February when my new golf trolley arrives and I can get back to hitting balls in the net. The vaccine in late February would be the icing on the cake. Fore!

 

Vroom Vroom

 I have long said I would drive my 5 series into the ground and not be too concerned how the body work looked. It has done 125000 miles and seemed good for the same again. Then things took a turn. The air con packed up and needed a new compressor. The boot lid would not respond to the key any more which was indicative of a loom problem and finally the car started losing power under pressure. A best that was an exhaust fault and at worst could be a gasket or interventions failure.

My recent experience with Williams in Liverpool  as documented here, did not fill me with confidence so it has become time to trade in and move on.

I decided to use the used car department of the Chester dealership, Hallowell Jones, and see what they could offer. We had met Mr Jones at St Andrews last year so I felt a bit of empathy there.

As thing worked out there was a vehicle in stock which fitted my requirements at a reasonable price. So it is now sitting on the drive and I am a boy racer!!

It is taking some getting used to. It is the first automatic I have owned and the interior packages have moved on a way since I was in the market eleven years ago.  Front and rear cameras are there to help and I have an app on the phone from which I can lock or unlock the car and track it if it goes missing!

So at least there is something more suitable now sitting in the Captain parking space at the golf club.

There's a clue in the name

 The BBC Sports Personality of the Year has always been a must watch Christmas event in our household. I will admit that as the Beeb have less and less live sport to show it has become a bit less enjoyable than it used to be, but there has usually been a good list of candidates for the big prize. We will just ignore the fact that Ryan Giggs managed to win it one year. That's a bit like Danny Willett winning the Masters!!

There always used to be silly sports challenges which audience members would participate in even if they were not up for the grand prize, but those little off piste diversions seem to have disappeared too.

This year, though, we are in a very strange place. as has become the trend, the six major prize winners have been announced beforehand and I am now doubting whether I really wish to watch it, particularly as Lewis Hamilton, the contestant with the least personality, is favourite to win it. I am not sure though whether Stuart Broad or Ronnie O'Sullivan might run him close in a grey man competition, unless that is, Keir Starmer is in the running.

OK,  Lewis is world champion for the 'n'th time in a minority sport which is boring and monotonous to a large part of the population and, yes, I know golf is probably tarred with the same brush, but if he is best of a bad bunch I really despair.

Tyson Fury must agree with me as he has withdrawn his name from the competition, although whether the BBC have noticed I am not sure.

Joe Wicks read out the nominations, he must have been thinking that he had done more this year to win it than the nominee's themselves. And what about Major Tom, He has scooped up most of the awards this year, walking round the garden must have counted as an endurance event as far as he was concerned? Jordan Henderson  will get the Northern Powerhouse vote, but I would like to see Hollie Doyle win, as she has the profile and  all the current attributes of a 2020 success story, just don't get me onto the 'Lewis Hamilton for a Knighthood' campaign

Neeeoooow!

In a land far, far away

FLOW  came home with a packet of Christmas themed face masks yesterday, and it go me wondering which ten items I would put in a 2020 time capsule  for discovery by aliens in 100 years time. So, in no particular order, with some personal and some pandemic wide:

• Christmas themed face mask
• Deliveroo backpack
• Ventilator
• Zoom user guide
• COVID test kit
• Ordnance Survey map of Wirral
• Golf Ball
• Hands, Face, Space publicity poster
• Home schooling guide
• Bat soup recipe

 That should keep them busy trying to work out what on Earth happened all those years ago.

We just need to ensure that the 2021 capsule includes a vaccine phial  and a plane ticket to a sunny destination, fingers crossed.

 

 

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.

Kill the witch

When I was working, I travelled a fair bit in the car. Simon Mayo Drivetime was a go to radio show to listen to on the way home. I remember he had a three word Friday phone in, curry for tea, lawn to cut, beers to drink and so on. It is interesting that American politics under Donald Trump  has adopted a similar parlance.

If you cast your minds back to 2016, he had a right old go at Hillary Clinton, her e-mail usage and tax disposition. The chat was there almost immediately, Lock Her Up, Lock Her Up. When Trump was likely to be up before Congress and be impeached we heard Kill the Bill, Kill the Bill although that was also associated with efforts to overturn Obamacare. 

When  Ruth Bader Ginsburg sadly died, there was a debate about whether the incumbent President should replace her or wait until after the election. Fill the Seat, Fill the Seat cried all the Republicans. Now in the midst of one of the nastiest Presidential campaigns ever we are hearing the fairly standard Four More Years, Four More Years chants at most Trump rallies, but as he looks to project himself as a tin pot African state  dictator akin to Idi Amin or  Robert Mugabe we hear chants of Stop the Count, Stop the Count.

Not to be outdone the Democrats counter with Finish the Count but it is a syllable too long to really resonate like the Republicans.. I am sure they will come up with something once Joe has crossed the line though, USA, USA, USA seems to be quite a popular one.