Feck

Another short break, this time to Newcastle in Northern Ireland, to play at the mighty Royal County Down golf club, so long regarded as the best golf club in the World. A club of such standing is clearly going to be a magnificent and tough track to navigate around, so on day 1 we thought we should employ local caddies to help us through our journey.

What we, nor they, could count on, however, was the storm of a biblical proportion which dumped on us during Thursday afternoon. By the 8th tee we were all absolutely saturated having been battered by 30mph winds and driving rain. We retired to the bar much to the relief of said caddies who confessed they had never seen anything like it before.

Day 2 arrived with thankfully no rain, but still with 30mph winds, and that was still a bit too much for me so I retired to the bar after 9 holes and left my three chums to battle the elements for another two hours. With hindsight what I should have done was move to the forward tee's on the holes which played into the teeth of the gale, but my brian was a bit mashed by then and the plan never got executed. It is a learning experience for next time it is 'only a friendly'.

The two days were great, and if an opportunity does present itself to go again, I will certainly be up for it, but might start on the 10th hole next time!!

Gary Player was in the group ahead of us, he managed 18 holes and is in his 86th year, so there is hope for me yet!!

Up in smoke

The annual pilgrimage to Lords to see the first day of the Ashes test allowed SWMBO and I a few days in London. We started with dinner in J Sheekey, the renowned seafood restaurant, and the n spent the next day sightseeing.

I was keen to see what had become of Battersea power station, so we started there. It has its own tube station terminus so getting there was easy enough, albeit we had planned the river taxi, but they did not stop there from the Waterloo side of the river.

The main turbine halls have been turned into a shopping mall and food court, a bit of a poor man's Westfield, without the same level of foot fall. I think they might have been better going down the outlet mall route.

The main attraction though is the observation pod at the top of one of the chimney's. You take two elevators and walk a few steps, and the pop out of the top of the chimney already in the pod. The views are spectacular and give another perspective on West London. You would still prefer the London Eye if it was central London you wanted a good look at, but the chimney tour is still worth the trip. The whole area is now built up with flats and hotels, one of which had a cool pool and bar on its roof.

After a light lunch in one of the cafe's we did manage to get the river bus back to Westminster pier, and hit the West End before the must have burger in Joe Allen at Covent Garden. The restaurant has moved now but has tried to maintain the basement dive vibe of the old site, and with a fair amount of success.

The cricket was disappointing as England won the toss in bowler friendly conditions but failed to take the three or four wickets they needed to exert their authority over the Aussies. This year was the 60th year since I first went to Lord's as a ten year old with my Dad. I am wondering whether enough is enough now, although it would be good to get my 50 year reward badge from Middlesex first, and I think I have three more years to go to get that !!

Gone for a Burton

 Burton Albion actually, and the ground where Plymouth Argyle clinched the League 1 title. They fought off Ipswich, Sheffield Wednesday, Derby, Bolton and Barnsley and put their Wembley defeat behind them to gain 101 points. It's the second time they have surpassed 100 points, a rare feat in any clubs history,

Well done to all concerned. Are Argyle the new Brentford and will Wrexham be the new Argyle. Watch this space.

The village bike

 Now we all knew one of those in our youth, and a bike enthusiast has been leading Wirral Council for some while. Even though she saw through a successful Labour result in the recent elections, there has been a coup within the party and it looks like she has gone from bike to bag lady.

I use the bike euphemism as cycle lanes are one of the big manifesto issues around which the local elections were fought. Labour has aggressively pushed through cycle lanes, many of which seem poorly thought through and badly positioned. There are more scheduled. 

The whole of The Wirral is also soon to be a 20mph zone which is focusing more anger and frustration towards the biggest party. They do not, however, have majority so in order to have a working mandate there may need to be someone trading with the Conservatives, Green Party and Lib Dems.

Can some of these travel oriented initiatives be reigned back? Let's hope so, and don't get me started on potholes...blimey!!

Cha cha cha

 When something as big as the Eurovision Song Contest is on your  doorstep you really should make the effort, and SWMBO and I did.

We first went to the fan zone on Tuesday and saw a fabulous hour hosted by the English National Opera with Russell Watson and the three tenors tribute band. Sonia popped in to sing her Eurovision song, and the whole ensemble finished with Waterloo complete with audience participation.

While there we spotted the terrace in the Matao restaurant had a good vantage point so we booked in for the Friday.

During the meal we saw Katrina without the Waves doing Walking on Sunshine then when we went into the fan zone again we saw Fleur East and Sofie Ellis Bexter. With Charlotte Church still to headline we cut our losses and headed home, getting on a bus before the rush started.

I called Finland and Israel as the standout acts so was hugely disappointed when Sweden came through to win. It stank of a fixed result given next year will be the 50th anniversary of aforementioned Waterloo winning it for ABBA and....Sweden. What a happy co-incidence.

Still Liverpool had a great time and made about £25m in tourist revenue. They put on a great show and showed the good side of the City. I just wish they could learn to stop shooting themselves ( and others!) in the foot as they did by booing the National Anthem soon after the Coronation. They expect Country wide respect on the anniversary of Hillsborough but can't seem to sit on their hands at other appropriate moments.

80 not out

 Significant birthdays are popular this year and none more so than my cousin Mike who turned 80 on Saturday. His 'do' was on Sunday to avoid a clash with his beloved Brentford FC, but in their wisdom the Premiership moved the game to Sunday anyway, so he missed only his second game in 50 odd years.

Whoever said football is a game for the fans is probably turning in their grave as I write.

Nonetheless it was good to catch up with other octogenarian as well as Mike's family and other friends, one of which, Mel, went to the first half of the Brentford game. He has Parkinsons and I was concerned how I would find him, but I was pleasantly surprised to find him as well as he could be.

SWMBO and I did the trip to London in the day, sharing the driving, which gave us back our Monday for an R & R day at home. Deep joy.

Home and hosed

 So the South African adventure finally comes to an end and we are back safe and sound. That was not always looking possible as I was caught up in a massive food poisoning outbreak. Snail pate was the probable cause of mine, but the load shedding programme which they have in place is more likely to be the culprit.

Two or three times a day the power is switched off and businesses and homes have to rely on generator power for anthing up to 4 hours at a time. There is now a widely held view that fridges are going on and off spasmodically and consequently some of the contents are being compromised.

The funding to fix the problem has gone missing, so the natives are getting restless and there could be a serious uprising against the government if the situation is no resolved.

Anyway, no great harm done, and a local doctor prescribed some medication to sort me out. He was Dr Ventner and had a rugby picture on his surgery wall. Apparently his grandfather toured Great Britain with the Springboks in 1931. He was F.D Ventner, a three-quarter who scored against Glasgow District.

The finl drive of the safari allowed us to click in with the final big 5 animal, the African buffalo. we also saw black rhino and a male lion, so all in all a very successful sortie to the Southern Hemisphere