Tempus Fugit!

Has it really been almost 3 weeks since the last entry?  Ok time for a catch up (in brief)

Bad:
ManU lost the Champions League final to Barcelona, comprehensively outplayed even…

Bad:
Bike failed MOT, needed front tyre and complete new exhaust, coupled with the annual service - £815

Good:
Amy went to her “Supercar Driving Experience” where she actually drove a Focus ST and a Ferrari (Allegedly a certain David Beckham was the previous owner), and I got a good chance to play with the Nikon SLR.

Routine:
Work is much the same as ever, but with even tighter budgetary constraints, and more people (that you know) than ever leaving the company.

Bad:
New computer failed to wake-up this morning – it had been up and running / sleeping for almost 10 days prior to that.  Spoke to Tech Support at PCSpecialist.co.uk and after disconnecting all peripherals and resetting the BIOS (By removing the battery) it came back up.  Broke again latter once everything was plugged back in, but seems to be related to the Printer.  Bit more digging required there :-(

Mediocre:
Played 18 holes round Halesowen on Monday, in 27 degrees!!  It was one of those round where I actually played quite well, but my score was cr@p! You know, chip shots that almost land on the green and roll towards the hole, but land 1” short and roll back into the bunker!!

Misc:
Finished “Sword of the Shanara” on audio book, just started “King of Torts”

Just the three holes

It was “Rammed” at the golf club this morning, seems Tuesday AM is the ‘Seniors’ time on the course…  In the end I only played the 5th, 9th and 12th but was quite pleased with my driving, and my putting was spectacular!  If only I could get some consistency with my long irons on up/down hill lies!!  I know what I need to do, I just don’t always manage to.

Getting there

As the week progressed, call volumes have gently increased, and the boredom level has dropped and the temperatures, whilst still low are now at least higher than zero.

The one thing that has not got better is the traffic.  The road works on the Hagley Road have re-opened after their xmas break, and it is complete chaos again.  Even on the bike, the ride home is terrible, and a good 5 minutes longer than ‘Normal’, I just hope they finish soon.

Today is my first ‘Long Weekend’ of the year, and due to the remaining frost, the golf course is mostly closed, and it is forecast heavy rain for Monday!

Amy’s new handset arrived on Tuesday evening, and I requested the old number be ported, that is due for completion today, but the 3 PAYG SIMS that were supposed to be sent, were in fact SIM only Monthly contracts.  I had to call Orange and cancel those, and an now awaiting delivery of the re-ordered PAYG SIMS.

Managed to go Golfing

After several weeks of really wet Monday’s and another couple of weeks of ‘Man Flu’, I finally manager to get down the golf course today.

Given the 7 week break since I last played, I was quite pleased with how well I hit the ball, and the poor scores were mainly down to very tricky greens!  They are not very flat and the speed of the green seems to vary from one end to the other!

I only played 6 holes, as part of a four ball with three lads I met on the first tee, but by the time we had played that many (another two 4 balls in front!) I was starting to flag a little, and my back has started to tighten up already!

Best 18 hole score yet…

1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	HOLE
4	4	5	3	4	3	4	4	4	Par 35
4	5	9	3	9	5	9	5	7	56
10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	HOLE
4	4	4	4	4	3	3	4	4	Par 34
6	5	6	5	7	6	4	5	5	49

That’s a total of 105, and most of the damage was done on just three holes (3,5 and 7)

Latest Scores from HGC

I have now managed to get two 18 hole rounds in, and am still yet to beat Neil, but I am getting closer only a few shots in it now.

Scores below:

1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	HOLE
4	4	5	3	4	3	4	4	4	Par35
6	6	9	6	8	4	7	5	6	57
10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	HOLE
4	4	4	4	4	3	3	4	4	Par34
7	5	6	8	7	5	3	5	7	55
1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	HOLE
4	4	5	3	4	3	4	4	4	Par35
5	8	6	6	9	5	6	4	6	55
10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	HOLE
4	4	4	4	4	3	3	4	4	Par34
7	5	6	8	5	5	6	5	5	52

I really need to practice holes 3, 4, 10, 13 & 14…

18 Holes - Finally

This afternoon, I went to Halesowen Golf Course with Neil, and we managed to play all 18 holes! It's the first time I have managed to get round 18 holes on any course, never mind one as steep as Halesowen!!

It took us a little over Four and a Quarter hours , but we wern't in any rush, and did let two othe groups play thro'.

The scores were not too hot (Neil 106, Me 110) but we both managed to play some nice golf at times - it's just a lack of consistency that lets us down.

Strange Weekend

Well... !

Friday was our 16th wedding anniversary, and I had a table booked at 'The Bucklemaker' in town for 19:30, planning for Carole to look after the kids for us.  Then on Saturday we would be going to Blackpool with Alex and Josh as (an early) 10th birthday treat - He is now tall enough to ride 'The Big One'.

Friday morning started off quite dull, and even rained for a short while, but once it stopped - I nipped off to the golf course (My Monday rota day had been moved to Friday due to the Bank Holiday).

Unfortunately, whilst out on the course the weather really turned, and it was baking hot and sunny - and me without a cap (or any hair!) to protect the top of my head...  Result: By 17:00 I felt really lousy! Spent most of the next two days lying down or sitting on the toilet.

Not all bad tho'

The meal has been re-scheduled to the 23rd (Kids are away that weekend anyway), and Blackpool to the 30th.  Turns out Josh didn't really want to go - he does not like the 'big rides'.

Finally - Man United beat Wigan 2-0 to retain the Premier league title by two points over Chelsea - YES! 

By this morning I was feeling quite a lot better, and yes I was off work again!! So I didn't need to cancel my on the course lesson with Jon. I played four holes under his watchfull eye, and the good this is that I now have a degree of consistency with my wayward shots!  This at least makes it easier to correct them.

In the process I did manage to hit my best ever driver shot - some 200 yards absolutely up the middle of the 2nd fairway.

It was very warm out there again today, but at least this time I took a bottle of water with me, and purchased a new cap to protect my head.  I was wringing wet by the time I got back to the clubhouse, but felt better after a shower and change of clothes.

As I sit here, I am starting to feel a little delicate again, so may go and have a lie down as soon as I have finished.

Has it really been a month..

... since I last posted here?  Good grief, time flies when you are having fun!

'What's been going on?' I hear you cry, well not a lot actually.  Currently decorating the lounge, in advance of a new painting - 'A Moment of tranquility' by Mark Spain

Ceiling and woodwork has been painted, walls have been re-papered with textured paper, and one wall has actually been emulsion'd to finished colour.  Still not 100% sure on other wall's or curtain colour, so some work left to do yet.

Apart from that, not a lot... Tidied out my CD collection for a recent 'Car Boot' sale, sold about 100 CD's - still *way* too many left really.

Not too much time off from work, but work itself has been pretty quiet.  That's the 'end of financial year' effect - it's either completely mad, or deadly quiet, depending on wether there is any telecom's budget left to be spent before April!

Took a day trip to see Lofty one day, he is now separated from his wife, and filling for divorce.  It's the happiest we have seen him in years!

Have been spending quite a lot of time on Photoshop, working my way thro' the tutorials in Matt Kloskowski's "Layers - The complete guide to Photoshop's most powerful feature', and a couple of online training courses ay Lynda.com.  I have been really interested in the area of 'retouching' and now need to get the camera out and take some good pic's on Amy and Alex so I have some material to work on!

The Beta version of Lightroom 2.0 is now out, and I have taken the opportunity to start from scratch again withLR.  I started importing pictures into LR before I really understood what was going on, and as such - it was always a bit of a mess.  Lets see if I can do better this time!

Golf has been a bit thin on the ground in March, every time I had a day off, the weather was terrible.  Never mind, with the clocks going forwards, evenings are fair game again now ;-) - at least they will be once the decorating is finished...

Almost Over

Hehehe, Humbug eh?

It's almost lunchtime on Christmas day, and almost over for another year.  Just the trip to both Mom's to do now, a few more pressies, and then we can relax.

This year there is a definite 'Golf' theme to my collection of received goodies:

• A Digital Golf Pro electronic Caddie
• A Golf Mug / Coaster
• A Golfing Book - "Play Like a Pro"
• A Golf Towel to attach to my bag
• A Box of 12 Srixon AD333 Golf Balls
• 12 Month Locker Rental at Halesowen Golf Club
• A Greg Norman 'White Shark" Tee shirt
• Two tee shirts from 'Golfino'
• "Long Way Down" The Book
• Chanel Allure Homme Stinky Stuff
• A Bottle of Wine
• A "Magnetic Therapy" Bracelet
• A Long sleeve shirt
• The obligatory pair of slippers
• and not forgetting: The pack of pants!

Kid's are happy watching "Mr Bean's Holiday" on DVD, Amanda is in her element organising the lunch, and I have spent a pleasant  morning on the PC listening to Katherine Jenkins & All Angels between assorted Xmas songs.  So far quite a good day.

Another 9 holes

Only 9 holes again today, Partly due to the fact it was pretty cold out there, and partly down to advice from the hospital physio who advised me to stop when my Achilles started to get sore.

This time, I stayed on the holes around the clubhouse, avoiding the steepest holes on the far side of the course.  Several of these are holes I have never played before, so some element of 'Learning the hole', so a 51 was quite pleasing - being my best 9 hole score at Halesowen - even if I did make a mess of the last hole!

1	2	3	13	14	15	16	17	18	HOLE
4	4	5	4	4	3	3	4	4	Par35
4	8	6	6	7	4	4	5	7	51

3rd round at Halesowen

Only 9 holes today, the weather was mild but a bit misty at the start, but as time went on, it started to get wet. Having started without full waterproofs, gave up after 9

A couple of holes were new personal bests, but 7 and 9 are proving to be difficult, I am having a real problem with hitting long(ish) irons on an uphill lie... Ah well, at least it's a topic for my lesson this weekend.

1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	HOLE
4	4	5	3	4	3	4	4	4	Par35
6	5	6	4	7	4	8	6	8	55
10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	9	HOLE
4	4	4	4	4	3	3	4	4	Par34
-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-

Oh Bugger!

After last night surprise snow, looks like my proposed golf round is off today.

2nd time around HGC

Managed to play 12 holes today. Having switched from a 'Trolly bag' to a 'carry bag' certainly helps around this hilly course.

A couple of the scores were *very* pleasing, but several holes were let down by just one wayward shot, that ended up costing 2 or even 3 to recover. The 7th and 8th especially seem to be causing me some problems.

Overall, I am quite pleased with 54 for 9 holes, it is 10 shots better than last week!

1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	HOLE
4	4	5	3	4	3	4	4	4	Par35
4	5	7	5	6	5	7	7	6	54
10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	9	HOLE
4	4	4	4	4	3	3	4	4	Par34
7	8	7	-	-	-	-	-	-	54

First time around HGC

Only 9 holes played due to time constraints, and several of the holes poor scores were partially down to me trying to work out where the flags were!! The rest of them were down to me getting to grips with the ball hardly ever level with my feet!!

It may take a few attempts to get my score back to the low 50's again!

1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	HOLE
4	4	5	3	4	3	4	4	4	Par35
5	8	8	5	9	4	9	6	9	64

So a rather disappointing 29 Over Par...

Halesowen Golf Club

Well, I've gone and done it! - I've just joined Halesowen Golf Club.  Not the greatest time of year, you may think, but it does have it's advantages.

1) Membership is from April to April, so it's not such a large initial outlay for now. 2) It will be a lot quieter around the course over the next 3 to 4 months, so I can potter around without too much embarrassment.

Not Getting Any Better

This weeks golfing trip was to Himley again...  It was a little on the cool side (10 degrees!) and we were racing to get finished before it got dark...  Ok excuses over!  We were both dire!!  Every Tee shot put us in trouble!

1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	HOLE
4	4	4	4	4	3	5	4	4	Par36
9	5	6	7	7	5	6	9	5	59

So 23 Over Par...

I did at least manage a draw with Neil!!

Getting Better

Warley again on Monday afternoon. After a good session at the range with the Driver, I was feeling quite positive and apart from a couple of scuffed shots from the tee at the 6th and 8th, and some difficult long grass on the 8th it was a very good round - one of my best to data...  And I even managed to get a par on the 9th!!

1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	HOLE
4	3	4	3	3	4	4	4	4	Par33
6	5	5	5	4	7	7	9	4	52

So 21 Over Par...

Still managed to loose to Neil by one shot!!

All Change

Today I submitted 30 days notice to cancel my Membership at the Gym, thereby saving me in the region of £600 per year.  I also requested an application form for joining Halesowen Golf Club as a member, costing approx £650 per year.

That is not including the joining fee, which you actually pay over THREE years, and only covers WEEKDAY usage.  Full membership to cover weekends is an extra £150 per year, and given the limited chances I would have to get out to the golf course for any length of time in a typical weekend...

I am also considering letting Alex join, that's £120 for the years - 7 days, so I could go with Alex on a Sunday afternoon etc, and caddy for him over a few holes??  Not too sure about that yet tho'

Return to Warley Woods

After a few games at Himley, we returned to Warley this afternoon.. some very wayward tee shots on my part, but much improved approach play.

1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	HOLE
4	3	4	3	3	4	4	4	4	Par33
8	5	6	4	7	8	5	8	7	58

So 25 Over Par...

On the plus side, I actually beat Neil by one shot!!