The road to Augusta

 So after more than two years of trying, Cookie and I are in Atlanta ready for the golfing adventure of a lifetime.

Goodness me though it was still a nightmare!!

Firstly hurdle was the lateral flow test to be taken within a day of travel and needed to be observed. The lady operative was great but Zoom went down or froze during the test sending me into a panic! We got there in the end and my six day isolation justice as I was negative. It was the most stressful thing I had experienced since leaving work

So off to the airport  where the first senior moment kicked in. It was 10:15 and the board showed the Atlanta flight gate had already closed. More panic until the Virgin girl pointed out I was going to New York and onward from their!!

Second senior moment as Cookie rang to say he had got to the airport and forgotten his tickets passport and vouchers and was now going back to meet his wife half way with said items. Would he make it back in time?

Next challenge was that my ticket would not let the check-in desk allocate me luggage. That got sorted as apparently we were booked on three NY to Atlanta flights later that day.

Cooke arrived in time and we settled into the flight. After two hours there was a medical emergency but luckily we were too far out to turn back but more pleasing was that the passenger did not need resuss.

We landed fine. She was taken off by medics and we gigot to homeland security. I get the red light so get whisked off to the naughty boys step for a 45 minute watch and wait. Still don't know why but given we had a 6 hour stop over it killed some time!!

So after that all the other delays were routine, and 20 hours later we got to the hotel. So let's see how the golf goes today!!

The Birkdale Divot

Golf party's continued over the last few weeks, with the Royal Birkdale dinner on Friday. Some clubs have traditions which they continue to uphold at these events. Woolton for example always serve pheasant at their St Andrews dinner, and Formby always have the first cut of the local asparagus crop at their dinner in May.

As far as Birkdale are concerned, there always have the Birkdale Divot on the menu. In the past this has been a stuffed mushroom about the size of a child's hand, but this year it was served as a canapé  in the pre-dinner drinks reception.

At dinner I sat next to the ex-Captain who presented Mark O'Meara with the Claret Jug at Birkdale in 2000, and a gentleman who imported fruit into the uK. While he is long retired, his son still runs the business. One of the speakers at the dinner was the Lady Mayoress of Sefton. She was short and sweet, as was her speech. The new Birkdale Captain spoke well, and then it was left to the Captain of the R & A to say a few words. The poor man is a farmer from Fife, and not a natural when it comes to public speaking. May he be like a good wine and improve with age.

Next week is the final formal away day as it is the Leasowe dinner, then follows my farewell event on the Saturday.  The year group have a gathering at Royal Liverpool on 18th March and my final day in office finished on 19th at about 4pm. Two long but very enjoyable years then come to an end and normal service can be resumed!!

I managed to fit a birthday into the last week somewhere and have recollection of happy birthday being sung a few times. Tempus Fugit.

Fields of Green

 Today the BBC web-site had interviews with Danny Care (England) and Sam Warburton (Wales) in which they ranked the Six Nations stadia. Their order was:

1.  Cardiff
2. Twickenham
3. Murrayfield
4. Paris
5. Dublin and
   
6. Rome

That is fascinating and from a players point of view they see little of the 'weekend experience' where we have often commented that the game is often the low point of the celebrations. My choice would be this:

1. Dublin
2. Rome
3. Twickenham
4. Paris
5. Murrayfield
6. Cardiff

Almost a reverse order. Interesting.

All wind and bluster

They say a week is a long time in politics and so it seems at the moment. It was not many days ago that Bonking Boris was knee deep in Partygate, with the police calling and a swell of opinion increasing towards him facing a vote of no confidence. In the blink of an eye he was then thrust centre stage as the new Vlad The Impaler appears  on the block,  surrounding Ukraine with every last Russian storm trooper he could find. Then blow me down, even that was pushed off the front pages as Britain was bombarded by three mega storms in less than a week. First Dudley with its eerie Brummie wind tone, then Eunice fresh from the 1920's and a bit of  a flapper followed by Franklin, a true moaner if ever there was one.

Now I have long supported Bonking Boris as regular readers will know. This was based on sound evidence from his time as Mayor of London. I lived there under his regime and he was renowned for his ability to surround himself with clever people who basically ran the Capital while he opened things, had photo shoots and took centre stage when it helped team Johnson.

The mess the capital is now descending into under the control of Shere Khan just re-enforces the job he did. Knife crime and teenage murders are increasing, the transport system is creaking and its flagship Elizabeth line is well behind schedule and over budget. I still think it should have been called the Elizabethan line, so as to role off the tongue a bit better....like the Metropolitan or Northern Line.

Finally Khan has thrown a grenade under the bus which is the Metropolitan Police by sacking Cressida Dick and not having a suitable replacement lined up. London faces some tough months ahead.

But back to Boris. He has had a very difficult term in office and is now fighting battles he did not expect to  be involved in. I agree he has made mistakes and taken decisions which have been somewhat misguided but he has deserved a few beers occasionally. Unfortunately for him Dominic Cummings appears to have been stalking him and storing up imagery by which to torment the PM at a time when Boris should be taking accolades for the brave COVID decisions he has taken, all aimed at releasing us back to normality as soon as possible.

He is a great fan of Sir Winston Churchill and now has the chance himself to take centre stage in the unified diplomatic process aimed at pushing back at Vlad before we find ourselves fighting another enemy from the East, this time the Eastern block.

Let's hope his initiatives go well otherwise goodness knows how much heating bills will be next Winter. I'm just off to put another  jumper on. 

Foxtrot Oscar

Its the awards season again. The Brit Awards were announced last night, and I always used to get the double CD with all the nominated songs on it, but that has gone by the board for several years now as most of the tunes are on Spotify or other download sites.

The Bafta award nominations came out last week, and yesterday we were greeted by the Oscars. They are led by Netflix 'The Power of the Dog' so SWMBO and I decided we would watch it. We may have got halfway through, maybe a boit less, when we reached the conclusion that it's entertainment levels were almost nil.

It does ask the question of the nominating panel as to whether they do take entertainment quotient into consideration or is it all a bit too lovie. The film Belfast does seem to be worth watching, but I am not sure about the rest.

We also spent time watching The Tinder Swindler and again it was a real struggle to feel we were being entertained by women narrating a story about how they had been conned by some chap on the Internet. we have struggled for two years to watch more than a handful of movies through to the end, and now almost play a game as to who would say ' Is this any good' first.

Hey ho, there are always classics to fall back on, so the actors can have their moment of glory at the Oscars and we can continue to search out the hidden gems which do appear every now and again. That's a wrap....

Where's Wally?

More about that in a moment, but first,

 2022 is upon us, and it has started with the selection of my successor as Wallasey Golf Club captain. Tony Davies is the gentleman to whom I will hand over in March. The selection process is a two meeting affair. In November 2021 the ex-Captains met without me to put together a shortlist of names for consideration and after some toing and froing we were presented with a shortlist to consider in a meeting before lunch s a few weeks ago.

After the dinner, myself and SWHBO drove to the new Captains home to offer him the gig. Luckily he said yes and he was then announced to the members at a presentation evening the following Monday. All a bit of cloak and dagger but huge fun.

Then, last Friday we had our annual ball. Three times it had been rescheduled and it was renamed The Frost Ball. It went really well, with a good Soul band, excellent food and good company. The only down side was that a few guests contracted COVID subsequent to it, but luckily nobody seems too unwell.

The following Sunday I then trotted off to Anfield with my cousin to see the mighty Bees take on Liverpool in their first league meeting for a long time..Brentford unfortunately were a bit off the pace, and while they had chances to put some pressure on the home side, they won at a canter. The day was not dissimilar to a rugby day, with a few beers before and after and the match really only being the reason to get out.

It's not Wally you looking for but two West London titans having their 15 minutes of fame on the Brentford FC web site, fan zone....

 

Good news to report is that my new golf net has arrived and I will be trying to assemble it tomorrow. The first attempt did not go too well as there seems to be a number of difficult operations which the netting does not allow to work, so i am waiting for the manufacturer to come back to me with some help.

So there we go, half way through January, the weather is glorious and I still have two dinners to look forward to. The weight loss programme will kick in in due course.  

James Nimmo (1954-2021)

As I have already outlined in previous blog entries, becoming a golf club captain in the Liverpool area automatically allows you to embrace 27 new friends, and develop a lifetime of experiences with them. Through time the group will diminish as people become ill, move away or fall out of love with golf, but there is always hope that those moments are still far away in the distance.

Sadly for the Visionaries we have already lost one of our own. News reached us a week or so ago that James 'Jim' Nimmo, our year group captain representing West Derby collapsed in the shower at home and despite best efforts of neighbours he never recovered consciousness and died yesterday. He was 67.

Jim was a true gentleman and one of the good guys. We had only known him for short of two years but we had all grown to love him and call him a friend. He battled adversity at his golf club and fought tooth and nail for the traditions and heritage of the place to be maintained, at a time when others had different ideas. These battles on their own made him waiver when he was offered a second term as Captain, however, with the knowledge that he could spend time with the Visionaries and enjoy golf away from West Derby, he agreed to continue.

He had some health scares last year but we all assumed the treatment he received had stabilised him, but that sadly was not the case. We will all miss his smiling face and charming manner. I was lucky to play early with him in his initial year as Captain, and then again recently when he showed off the progress West Derby were making  in tackling drainage problems, and re-routing challenges brought about by stray golf balls peppering the  neighbourhood. I played with him at Wallasey only three weeks ago and dined with him at S & A more recently than that. 

We, as a group, will discuss how best we can remember Jim, and ensure he stays in the hearts and minds of the Visionaries, but for now our thoughts are with Brenda, his partner, and his children.

Sleep easy Jim we will miss you dearly.