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The weekend following the trip to Spain for Fiberfib, with Anna away in the south of France, Jabs and I got an invite from Andy P to head up to Gleneagles, where he has been working this summer, to join him for a round of golf and a cheap stay at the hotel. Well, it seemed stupid to refuse, so we organised a fleeting trip up North for a bit of sport and luxury.

Of course it wasn't all easy as we had to make the 14 hour round trip over two days. Started with an early 6am wake up Saturday morning and getting to Kings Cross to make our 8am train up to Stirling - where Andy was to pick us up. Armed with a Frappuccino (my new vice) and an arm full of papers, we settled in for the long trip - which went surprisingly quickly, though we had our afternoon round to look forward to and take our minds off it.

Driving into Gleneagles itself, it is quite impressive. It has 3 and a half golf courses (the half being a 9-hole par 3 course) and the hotel is an impressive site. After much deliberation and discussion, we had decided to play the PGA Championship course - which hosted the Johnny Walker Championship only a month earlier (so it was in top nick) and is the venue for the Ryder Cup in 2014. To play on such a course was too much of an opportunity to miss. The Kings Course is a more classic Scottish Links Course and looked pretty good too - there is always next time!

Having not played golf in something like 2 years I was not only rusty but also a little unprepared. Luckily, Andy was able to set us up with all the goodies - the hire clubs (gratis) were brand new top-of-the-line Callaways (they replace their hire clubs every year!), balls, tees, etc, and a couple of carts to boot. He even managed to rustle up a foursome - Stewart, a Londoner he meet on a golf trip and who plays at Gleneagles often. The only thing Andy couldn't sort out was the weather, but more about that later.
So standing on the 1st tee, despite the beautiful views, there was some trepidation about the golf that was to come. Not only that, there was pressure on a little wager between Jabs and myself for a dram on Scotland's finest later that evening in the hotel. And to be honest, it was pretty rough over the first 9 holes. Though not helped by some sabotage from Jabs on the 2nd tee, timing his camera click with the top of my back swing. So after the front 9, and too many 3-putts than I want to remember, I had the unfortunate total of 54, just proving my rustiness and also the difficult of the course (you do not want to find the rough!). However, fortunately for my wallet (more of that later), Jabs was finding it just as difficult and I had a comfortable lead in our little match.

But things were about to make a turn for the better. Putting my tee shot on the par-3 10th, I pulled off what was a pretty impressive sand-save (if I do say so myself) and notched up my first par of the day. And this was just the start, as I then managed to give myself sinkable putts on the next two holes for birdies. Unfortunately, though I was finding some form tee-to-green, my putting was still lacking somewhat, but I still managed to pick up another two pars, making that 3 on the trot and even par through the back-9 at that stage.

But this wasn't to be our day. Scotland, like the rest of Britain, having not seen any rain for about a month, decided to try and make up for it in one late afternoon. We were determined to not let it get the better of us, and though getting thoroughly soaked, we played through another couple of holes, though the quality of golf was definitely slipping. However, it was on our 14th hole we decided we needed to let the weather win. Jabs, playing an approach shot into the green, had the club slip in his hand and managed to somehow thread the ball between Andy's face and the windscreen on the cart parked just to right of where he was playing his shot. It was hear that we decided that a couple of beers in the warm clubhouse sounded pretty good. Making the most of the facilities, we showered up and headed up to the bar, where we watched the rain suddenly let up and the last bit of sun come out! Though there was no way we could have continued as the course was quite water-logged.

So we hatched some plans for a curry in the town before heading back to the hotel for the receipt of my prize dram. It was our drams that caused us some shock later that evening as we settled in at the Hotel bar. Having recently purchased a bottle of Dalwhinnie for £25, we were somewhat surprised to find out that our dram of the same whiskey at the Hotel was a whopping £11.50. After some quick (and unnecessary) calculations we worked out they were making some mark-up.

The Hotel itself was impressive and wasn't lacking of much. Of course, I had to scare my room with this scary man, but apart from that, it was interesting to think that just a year ago, Tony, George W and the rest of the boys were lolling around the same place. Getting our slightly foggy heads out of bed the next morning, we didn't know that the best was still to come - the breakfast. There wasn't anything that was bad - the juice, the coffee, the fruit, the eggs, the Scottish flat bread, the sausages - but what really stood out was the black and haggis pudding. I should have smuggled half-a-dozen of each as I have been remincising ever since.

After a sizeable breakie, we used our last hour or so to have a wander around the impressive ground of the Hotel (in beautiful sunshine of course) - which include a hedge maze and a falconry.

We then had to jump back on the train that morning and arrived back in London on that Sunday evening. So a heady trip for a round of golf, but well worth it despite the weather. Was great to catch up with Andy again, who is in fine form and enjoying is time up north. I got a little bit of the golf-bug back and may even contemplate a return trip to get 18 holes next time.

For some more pics, click here.

FiberFib 2006

FiberFib you ask? Stands for Festival Internacional de Benicassim, which is the music festival we recently went to in Spain. Benicassim is where it was held, which is on the coast about an hour north of Valencia.

First thing to comment on is - man it was hot! OK, it has also been pretty hot in London, but this was another step up again. The temperatures were consistently in the high 30s and the nights were incredibly warm. So we packed pretty light. Because of the heat, the music festival actually ran through the night, typically starting at about 7pm each day and going through to around 7am - with the big acts each night coming on at around 1.30am. This meant we also had plenty of time during the day to hang out by the pool and lay on the beach. But what it also meant was that there wasn't a lot of sleeping going on - I think I got the grand total of 10 hours sleep over the four days I was there!

The festival itself was very good. It didn't have some of the big names it has had in previous years and had quite a few old school acts (Madness, Depeche Mode, Morrissey). However, Franz Ferdinand were brilliant, as were The Kooks, who are my band of the summer. We also spent a lot of Friday night in the Silent Disco, which was classic. By way of explanation, the Silent Disco was a small marquee where you were given a pair of headphones as you entered. You had the choice of listening to two DJs as it was quite humourous looking around and seeing people dancing to completely different tracks. Even better was taking your headphones off when a popular song was played and listening to people singing to themselves. Here's a picture below of us in the Silent Disco along with a bit of festival action from Jabs and Fi.
Apart from the Festival, we also had a good time chilling out during the day. This usually took the form of laying by the pool at our camp ground (where we stayed in bungalows that in another country might be called a sauna - who builds with wood in Spain!); or heading down to the beach - where the Med was similar to bath water.

By the end of the 4 days the twelve of us were all looking the worse for wear and in need to a decent night's sleep and a good shower. We stopped off in Barcelona for a last top up of tapa's at a bar Anna and I found when we were last there in January, and eventually arrived back home at 1.30am. But it was all worth it as it was a fun trip.

For some more pics, click here.

It's a hot one!

Man is it hot over here, I've never experienced a summer like it. Sunny hot day after sunny hot day. More days than not are over 30 degrees and I could count the number of clouds I have seen in the past month on one hand (OK, that might be a bit of an exaggeration, maybe one hand and a thumb). Suppose to be the hottest day yet tomorrow, with the forecast of 36 degrees, but a 30% chance it could get to 39 degrees (which would be a record for Britain)!

Sunday Ramble

Well, with all this great weather, the crew decided to take off on the Sunday for a bit of a ramble down in the Surrey countryside. Shaz recently picked up a couple of books of country walks close to London and we are hoping to do a few while the good weather lasts.

Last Sunday it was the 15km walk from Gomshall to Guildford. Just an hour on train from London, we arrived in Gomshall full of energy and ready for a good day in the english countryside. With the sun on the backs, we rambled our way through gently sloping farmland and the quite impressive Blackheath Forest (being pine and fern, it was very reminiscent of NZ).

Of course, not country walk should be short of a couple of country pubs. First stop was about 4km in at the William IV, where I was able to have a couple of very good half pints from the Surrey Hills brewery, which was just down the road. Refreshed farm our liquid stop, we carried on to The Villages, on the far edge of the Forest, for a good little lunch out in the garden bar. Fuelled up, we headed out for the last half of the walk to Guildford. Arriving at Guildford close to 6pm, we were a bunch of very tired, but very happy ramblers. I'm looking forward to the next outing.

Fulhimbledon 2006



It is the one title Martina Navratilova hasn't won and the trophy Roger Federer covets the most - it is the annual Fulhimbledon mixed doubles tournament. Played on the same day as the final of another lesser known tournament (Wimbledon I think it is called), the weather was excellent and we all turned up in our best whites. With such famous past winners as Brad & Shaz and Mike & Iris, the 12 finely-tuned pairings tuned up ready to show their best tennis and take the title....

OK, OK, maybe most of us hadn't lifted the racket since the previous year and there were more Pims and beers being served than aces. But as always, it is damn good fun and superbly organised by The Tournament Master himself, Mr Thomas Flinn. The tennis was in fact all very sociable and many laughs were had. Special thanks goes out to my partner, Ms Anna, who played superbly and held up Team Posso throughout the competition.

Best dressed as always went Mr Simon Quirke, sporting a very english pink polo and a pink and navy vest that must have left him cooking. Here's a couple of picks of the crew as well.










At the end of the day everyone was very happy (which might have had more to do with the drinks than the tennis) and the coveted trophy was passed on to a new holder for another year. The big question is where will the tournament be held next year - Taupolimbledon maybe....

Canada's Most Wanted

This individual is consider unarmed and not very dangerous. He is known to have recently fled the city of London (UK), where he has been known to commit a series of transgressions, including the pilfering of matches, beer coasters, and pint glasses, not to mention late night ramblings around London and skulking in far off train stations. He is believed to be traveling across Canada in a van of a (as current) unknown description and is most likely to be seen in the vicinity of a KFC restaurant. Known alias: "Criggles".

If you have any information concerning this person, please feel free to add comments to this post.

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