Crazy for...

Well will see if my memory is good enough to do this update, so much happened it is hard to keep it all in order as well!

I got back to the UK on Friday the 8th, unfortunately my hosts were going to be very busy on the Saturday and Sunday, so left to my own devices on Saturday and having not been able to arrange any meets for the day, I took off early from Amersham to spend the day in London town - no plan, just me, a camera and an idea that going to Greenwich might be nice at some point.
Luckily caught the Chiltern line to Marylebone as the Met line was shut - nothing changed since I lived here then!.

Arriving at the station, I decided to head towards the Embankment, so a couple of tubes later - and oh the joy of a still functioning Oyster card! - I arrived and took a wander up towards the London Eye across the river, first thing I found was the amazing Battle of Britain memorial, a superb piece of art and the start of a project for the day... all the photos are here

On reaching the London Eye it seems as if they have installed an "Extreme Pod" I guess for all those bungee jumping extreme sport type tourists...

During the day I came across some wonderful architectural displays, and some amazing "hidden" artworks, so what started as a stroll along the embankment turned into a hike all the way to Surrey Quays, then a tube to Greenwich Peninsular and the Dome, then another hike up to Greenwich Observatory.

Some selected images from the day here, more at the album

Indian(s), Golf and missing belly buttons

Well what a great weekend, got back to the UK on Friday and after paying a trip to Hings for Haddock, Chips and Mushy Peas - cant get anything like that here - spent an afternoon at the house and meeting the agent to discuss what needed to be done to bring it up to rental standard.

Then ventured up to the golf range for a first swing at a ball in anger, 60 balls £3 or 59.5 if you are Mr H... - I later realised that having said I never played I wasn't including time on the Wii, does that count... - After the range a little putting practice and then back to Chez H for a shower and get ready to go out. Half an eye on the Ashes test as well, was looking to be slightly disappointing after such a strong looking start.

Went out and had a wholly enjoyable evening in the company of Mr T; Mss B and Mr H; venue the Rajhastan - and my what a fab meal that was. It has been at least two months since Indian food has passed my lips and it was a joy to again taste the peshwari nan, Tamarind chicken and sundries.

Saturday met a friend over coffee in the morning and then the afternoon was the start of Mr Smiths Stag... Mr H and myself met up with Mr T; Mr F and drove (courtesy of Mr F) over to Wexham park club.
Found most of the other participants already onto their first/second drink and first/second meal by the time we got there. So ordered a beer - nothing "proper" on the pump, grrrr - and then a Roast Beef sandwich and fat chips, something else France lacks - Beer; roast beef sarnie and fat chips!

After some of the guys had hired clubs and we all payed our green fees, we headed off to the range or putting greens for some pre-match warm up. 20 Balls a £1 and not to many wasted ones!

Off to the course - after what seemed like a walk to the next county... we all arrived at the first tee, so the first group lined themselves up and started to swing at the ball, there was a lot of swinging and not a lot of hitting at various times in the day, but eventually they made it away, followed by the second group and then finally our four.
Well first clatter went fairly well with it staying on the fairway - not overly distant but at least it was playable. So ensued a very enjoyable 2 1/2 hours of 9 holes of golf, a little drizzle on the 6th - unless you Mr T who had a little drizzle on the 1st, 3rd, 4th 6th etc, etc. - but other than that a thoroughly enjoyable time.

Once we had all gathered at the 9th it was back to return clubs, make sure the beer was still okay and then plan to retire to Amersham for the evening.

Got to Amersham about 6.30 and went to the lovely Elephant and Castle, great pub and actually had people in it who could communicate and were not slumped over bags of post benefit cheque shopping, unlike Chesham at the moment.

Well a few well deserved libations and conversation - at least on our side of the bar - turned to the location of the barmaids belly button or even the existence of one, low slung jeans and a top rolled up, showing off an extremely flat and toned tummy if we are fair, and yet no sign of a belly button - inny or outy - so was it very high, very low or could she be a test tube clone...
After contemplating and deciding that it may well result in a slap if broached we moved of to the Indian restaurant that was booked... the numbers it was booked for seems to have gone astray during the booking process was it 8 at 10 or 10 at 8... whatever we all eventually made it around the table - Second Indian in two days and the opportunity to have the other favourite dishes, fantastic.

Food was great, company entertaining and a great evening was had by all, eventually replete and happy we made our way back to the Elephant and Castle - still no sign of it... - and had a further round or two of libations.

Then a weird thing happened a bell rang at just before 11... had we inadvertently stepped through a rift in the space time continuum? No Old Amersham has Old Licencing - to be fair it is very residential, so drinking up time and last orders were still going strong.

We then made our way home - again courtesy of Mr F. What a star!

A big thanks to all the organising committee and good luck to Matt - you surely won't need it... - and see you next as Mr Smith - no change there other than you might not be allowed out I guess...

Apparently the complex scoring, handicapping and general convoluted rules used means it could be several more days before the overall finishing positions are revealed... There may also be some pictures posted here if Mr T official snapper manages to download off his camera - hint, hint!