Hello again, mes amis!

Aaaah....'tis good to be back indeed.

Is it bollocks!

Still it was a fabulous week away in Spain, where a bunch of middle aged blokes left the cares of the world behind to play golf, drink, eat and sleep. In between there was the odd swim and sunbathe, and the festering remains of the World Cup to watch. Good job there wasn't any letching going on then :-)

I won the overall golf championship and picked up the Champion Golfer trophy for La Cala 2006. It was close though, and after starting round 1 on the Monday on Campo Europa we knew we had incurred a baptism of fire. All of us, barring The Major (now to be known as Lounge Lizard Larry) lost a host of balls by the 3rd hole (I'd lost 5 by this point) and all in all it looked like a frustrating and annoying weeks golf lay ahead. This appears to have been caused by two reasons though

1.) The course was new to all of us, and although I'd paired with Larry and a stranger called Hans (from Finland) we were all suffering. Only when Hans revealed himself as a member did Lounge Lizard Larry and me gain any advantage over the other three. 28 points from round one for me sounds OK, but bear in mind that 12 of those came from the last 4 holes (net par, net eagle, net birdie, net par) and suddenly a measly 16 points becomes a grand (ish) 28. Larry got 30 and won the day. Hans merely regaled us with stories of his drinking and shagging exploits from the previous night. Apparently he was a frequenter of Estart 92, or just Club 92 as its known. Apparently its the best "whorehouse" on the Costa Del Sol and a well known haunt of golfers. Well we've been to La Cala twice before and never heard of it. Still it was Ok because Hans explained he was getting his shagging out of the way as his wife was joining him the following week!

Errr....thats OK then Hans.

2.) We got absolutely battered the night before. We went to Biddy Mulligans in the village Cala de Mijas and basically drunk ourselves silly like the typical Brit abroad.

.......Nah...actually we did it with grace, style and some well observed humour.

And so we faced our duties everyday with unswerving commitment despite the 30 plus degree heat, the fabulous golf courses and the.....ahem...scenery. Dedication indeed.

And I discovered Magners, which made a refreshing change from Guinness which even cold can be hard to describe as refreshing in that heat. The thing is Magners seems to get your legs drunk way before the mind goes, meaning you can bullshit lucent conversation for quite a while, but when you get up to walk to the loo or the bar you end up staggering all over the shop. Weird, but fun.

Now off to think about things to write or comment on.........

Later, GrocerJack.