From the sublime to the ridiculous
A day of contrasts. Of black and white. Good and very, very bad.Saturday began with a start at 05:30. I took an early tee time - a very early tee time (07:08) - as I was on airport duty around lunchtime, taking my youngest brother-in-law back to John Lennon after a great week with us here in Birkdale - a week of smiles and great craic. I hit balls and then hit the putting green all before 7am. The mist that greeted me upon arrival took me to Brigadoon or at the very least reminded me of a Ryder Cup morning start - circa 1993 at the Belfry.In case you were wondering; 85 (standard stratch probably 74, maybe 75). Long game great. 9 greens hit. Struck the ball v well. Another seven (triple bogey seven!) and four three putts (all from long distance - although that's not an excuse - I am being defensive but in my defence (!) I didn't miss anything inside six feet - that shows you how bad my long range putting was! Overall the improvement in my competition golf is marked and I feel a great score is just around the corner. As I write that I know that's what compulsive, drunken gamblers say about their next big horse win as they sit slumped in the bookies, but I know it's true.Saturday ended in my happiest place of all - at home with my girls. Ireland on the TV. Van Morrison on the sound system. Cold beer in hand. Red Sox vs Yankees. Heavenly. In between I visited hell. Well, the nearest thing we have to hell on earth in this part of the world. I went to Ikea, Gemini, Warrington.Thankfully this was a precision raid - one item to buy and homework done so I knew exactly where I was going and got in, got a result and got out as quickly as humanely possible. However, that didn't shield me from the worse of humanity - well, those with first world problems in any case. Huge queues. Raised voices. Crying children. Lots of domestic fall-outs. Some pushing. Clearly some poor queue etiquette. Carnage in the car park as people fought - almost literally - over spaces. The tension was palpable.I was happily only there around 15 minutes from start to finish but it was plenty of time to realise that this was the afternoon mayhem after the serenity of a morning at Southport and Ainsdale; after the Lord Mayor's show; the sunshine and the storm. As President Nixon said in his farewell speech to the nation - a great speech given the shadow of disgrace that rightly hung over him; ".....only if you have been in the deepest valley can you ever know how magnificent it is to be on the highest mountain."I plan to return to my magnificent golfing mountain next Saturday but I will give the deepest retail valley a miss if it's all the same to you.#ben2b40