Vegas & The Aftermath - Diary

[tikay]

I see Rookie still has what it takes.

Congratulations to Ben Collins who won the Newcastle 25/50 last night.
Ben beat the 240 entry field to win £11,190!

Thanks boo.

I did not click who Ben Collins was at first, but the penny dropped eventually. He does not seem to have aged a day, & it must be the best part of 10 to 15 years since I last saw him. 

Does he still have an interest in greyhounds?  Seem to recall him & Aisling had a few greyhounds in training.

PS - You OK mate?

Click to see full-size image.

[tikay]

A few other tv series along the crime / gangster genre
Boardwalk Empire , Godfather of Harlem , Gangs of. London and Peaky Blinders

Hope you are well tikay 

I'm grand ta Craig.

Where are you these days - still in China? All good with you & yours?

[tikay]

Since last update I've been down to SPT Brighton, had a lovely 3 days down there & bumped into all the usual suspects.

Sadly, whilst there, news came through that Dave Barnes had passed.

Was able to spend a little private time with Jen Mason, Tal, Neil Channing & plenty others besides, including Pink Bandana Man. Sorry for poor quality photos, but when he landed at my table I could not stop staring at him. I KNEW I knew him but I could not place him. It took several hours before I clicked. We had a great catch-up afterwards, what a pleasure to see him after all these years.

Click to see full-size image.

Click to see full-size image.

[tikay]

I worked my way through all those suggested TV Series. Think there were 7 or 8 & it seemed that most of them were on different platforms. I've got Sky, Netflix & Prime, but these days you need Paramount, Disney, Apple & God knows how many others. So it starts to get expensive.

Eventually I decided to start with "Kin". I watched 4 or 5 episodes, but it never quite grabbed me & I sort of lost interest.

This was partly because something else started that absolutely blew me away....

[tikay]

The Rise & Fall of Boris Johnson was beyond stunning.

We've all lived through the Boris phenom, but until you see it condensed into 3 or 4 hours of dedicated, well-researched TV documentary, it's hard to realise how bad it all was.

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It made me think about another recent political documentary, "State of Chaos", Laura K - who I like very much - looked at the Theresa May/Boris/Liz Truss trilogy.

Click to see full-size image.

Just breath taking.


How on earth did these things happen? How did Boris get away with it? How did Ms Truss manage to get grown ups to vote for her?

Then add in Trump, maybe Brexit too, & you end up wandering "wtf"?



I recently said that "Top Boy" was the best TV I've seen in the last year, but on reflection, I've got to throw those two political docus in the mix. If you have not seen them, do try & watch them, they beat any tv thriller hands down. 

Unbelievable Jeff.

[Ironside]

I worked my way through all those suggested TV Series. Think there were 7 or 8 & it seemed that most of them were on different platforms. I've got Sky, Netflix & Prime, but these days you need Paramount, Disney, Apple & God knows how many others. So it starts to get expensive.

If you have sky you get paramount for free

[tikay]

Golf is taking up so much time too. I'm totally smitten.

But it's SO damn hard. I go to the Range almost every day - sometimes twice a day - & have lessons once every fortnight. And I'm still absolutely hopeless. This is not false modesty, I'm thoroughly hopeless. And I've played at least once a week right through the winter.

I AM improving - or at least, getting less worse - but only at a glacial rate.

Make no mistake, it's embarrassing to tee off with a bunch of mates & flunk your tee-shot, or top your second shot. I could die with embarrassment, self-esteem blown to bits. Luckily, the folks I play with (mainly bookiebasher, JAKALLY, typhoon & Paul are the blondes, plus the Jacket Potato Baron) are all very very tolerant, patient & understanding with me.

Despite all that, I still adore every minute on the golf course. And yesterday was as good as it gets, the sun shone, & I actually had a BIRDIE, and a Par, & only two blobs. That's as good as it gets for me.

I have to confess that the birdie had more than a touch of good fortune.

1) It was a "short Par 4", 290 yards. One of the few Par 4's I can reach in two. (I'm very "short" off the tee).

2) It was on a Temporary Green so in fact it was, obviously, quite a bit less than 290 yards. Call it, maybe, 230 yards or thereabouts.

3) Decent tee-sot, left me a simple approach, maybe a 70 or 80 yard chip.

4) Absolutely thinned the chip & shouted to my ball "STOPPPPPPPPPPPP".

5) The ball scuttled along the ground all the way & finished a foot from the hole....

6) Tapped it in.

It counts though.

The Par was the other short Par 4.

And two blobs is a record for me, I usually have 4 or 5.

So, ever so slowly, I am getting there.

There's another side to it too....

[tikay]

I worked my way through all those suggested TV Series. Think there were 7 or 8 & it seemed that most of them were on different platforms. I've got Sky, Netflix & Prime, but these days you need Paramount, Disney, Apple & God knows how many others. So it starts to get expensive.

If you have sky you get paramount for free

Well I never knew that.Thanks Iron. You back home now bud?

[tikay]

The other thing with this golf bug is that i never imagined I'd be able to walk 18 holes. Last year I used a buggy, but it's not very social, & anyway, I'd rather walk.

So as I may have mentioned before, I got me a fancy dan electric trolley, it's got Sat-Nav & all sorts. And now I can (just about) manage to walk 18 holes.

I've never exercised and until my heart attack - 7 years ago this week - I smoked heavily, so it's all a bit of a miracle really.

I got myself one of those "Step Apps" & it's amazing how far I'm managing to walk. Here's my last two rounds....

Click to see full-size image.

Click to see full-size image.

Those two rounds were on the Moorland Course at Breadsall Priory, which is 5,835 yards off the Yellow tees when all 18 holes are in play. Currently 16 holes are in play. And somehow I'm walking 6.2 miles, which is about 11,000 yards.  I suppose the fact I'm somewhat "wayward" & have to tack up the fairway from left to right adds all those steps. There's always a silver lining, right?




 

[tikay]

Oh yes, one more thing.

I've become a full-on golf bore. Yes, I know, I know. I can't help it.

[doubleup]

I bought one of these

https://www.google.com/search?client=firefox-b-d&q=golf+divot+board

and if you can swing a club in your house (or back garden), it's the best golf gadget to have imo. The idea is to have the "divot" - where it strikes the board and leaves a mark - fairly straight and not to far behind the mark that represents the ball. You can even use it to practice chip shots - it's completely obvious that you would have thinned or duffed a shot. 

[tikay]

I bought one of these

https://www.google.com/search?client=firefox-b-d&q=golf+divot+board

and if you can swing a club in your house (or back garden), it's the best golf gadget to have imo. The idea is to have the "divot" - where it strikes the board and leaves a mark - fairly straight and not to far behind the mark that represents the ball. You can even use it to practice chip shots - it's completely obvious that you would have thinned or duffed a shot.  

Ahh, thanks. Quite expensive, on the face of it, but if it completely eradicates, I guess it's quite cheap really.

The annoying thing is that it's not every time, it's just occassionally. But occasionally is more than enough to spoil a good round or hole. In a way I'd rather be consistently bad, every shot, rather than just occassionally.

What a madly frustrating game it is. I sort of see myself as one of those Learner drivers we see on the road sometimes, & we just KNOW at a glance that they'll never be able to drive properly. It's the hope that keeps us going though.

Chip shots - despite the "good bad chip" that resulted in that oh-so-rare birdie, I'm usually pretty good at chipping & pitching. Like all of my golf game though, it's the lack of consistency that does me.

  

[typhoon13]

Was golfing yesterday with Leicester Tigers

I got you and Bookiebasher an invite and he said you was playing snooker

Good job the food and beer was good

[tikay]

Was golfing yesterday with Leicester Tigers

I got you and Bookiebasher an invite and he said you was playing snooker

Good job the food and beer was good

Noooooooooooo? Would love to have played. I'm either being whooshed or I've misunderstood something, I've not played snooker for around 30 years, & I was "free" yesterday.

That aside, great to hear from you Trev, you still making millions on the commodities?

[doubleup]

I think you will get one for £25- £30 on amazon etc, def no need to spend some of the prices on that link.

I'm a bit of a sucker for youtube instruction vids and the board is quite useful for trying out the ideas, and quite quickly working out whether they are going to lead to a more consistent strike.

I jut took out a 5 day membership of a nearby club. It is quite long though (in seniors terms) at 6800 yards from the back tees and was an open qualifying venue in the early naughties, but the main advantage is that I can put a few clubs in a pencil bag and play a nine holes. I think that is more fun than a basket of balls at the range.