Golf X Four

Instead of just the Tuesday weekly competition at my golf club, this week it was Tuesday and Thursday. My goal last year was to have a round of under 100. My lowest was 102. This year I've been hitting more like 110-115. However Tuesday I played a blinder – 95. No idea how it happened, it was just my day. Thursday normal service resumed – 105. I came second overall.

Friends Valerie and Jonathan invited me to join them Friday at the Helen's Bay Golf Club open. As I walked Paddy Friday morning, I wasn't feeling the love for another round of golf, the third in four days. However it was a gorgeous day and the views were great, so I had no regrets.

Helen's Bay is on Belfast Lough, which you can see from the first tee. The event sponsor was Cosimac, which makes quick-dry robes for after you swim. Given the popularity of Helen's Bay for open water swimming, it was a good marketing move. Below is the first tee box, with the coast behind the green.

Here is Valerie waving to mom. Mom was round this course a few years ago with Helen Baird, who drove the buggy. Helen was Lady Captain last time we visited.

Saturday I focused on cleaning the house, gardening, sorting out my gas bill, going through mail. Sunday I played another course, Massarene, with the Ballyhackamore Golf Society. Valerie was in the foursome I played in. Here we are on the hardest hole on the course, which they planted with flowers to compensate for the misery. Massarene is on Lough Neagh, which claimed two of my balls on this hole! There was a strong cross wind that just took your ball into a marsh.

I played well enough on the two away courses, 28 points at Massarene and 30 at Helen's Bay, using Stableford (36 points means you are playing exactly to your handicap, anything lower you are overshooting, anything higher, you are beating your handicap). Tuesday, the day I shot 95 in a stroke competition (not Stableford), I would have had 44 points. Tuesday's round means my handicap fell from 29 to 26.6. If I don't improve, it will go back up.

I really enjoyed Sunday's round at Massarene, partly because I'm off Monday for a bank holiday weekend. Being out all day on a Sunday and then facing work the next morning isn't ideal.

The only other news of the past week was Patricia and I went to see Johannes from Strictly Come Dancing. Here we are with the poster:

The show was fabulous – he had a cast of 10 dancers and two singers, all very talented. The first half was more tied to the music and dance of South Africa (spears, shields, loincloths). The second featured more ballroom dance styles and some mod 1960s and disco styles. JoJo is one of these people who radiates joy, in addition to being a talented dancer, and funny, and kind, and modest. He's just a lovely person and the sold-out crowd were vocal in their love for him. The costumes, the choreography, the music – it was all just pure fun.

Today is bank holiday Monday. I'm trying to do as little as possible. Not easy for me, but my goal is, at some point, to crack open a book. After I walked Paddy this morning, I bought more plants, so there will also be gardening.

4pm update: I've vacuumed, mopped, mowed, weeded, watered plants. No rest so far. But I made an appointment for a half hour massage at 4:30 pm. Excited about that!

26-29 May