Another Weekend Slides By

Friday night saw a bit of excitement as Yu-Jin's school was having a sausage sizzle as a fundraiser. They also put on a couple on waterslides, which were really popular and our first stop, a train ride, abseiling setup, face painting, fairy floss and an entertainer. Yu-Jin's teacher put a bit of a dampener on the evening by calling him by another Korean boy's name. Not a bad show otherwise. We found some nice people that we could talk to and sat down with them to eat our hot dogs. Only problem was that a family we don't get along with, as their boy is an obnoxious bully (from very early on mind you), came and sat down with the people we wanted to chat with. Didn't that bugger up the night. We grabbed some fairy floss and headed off to the abseiling but didn't get a turn as they were about to pack it up to go home. Yu-Jin wanted to get his face painted but the lady ran out of time as she wanted to head to Western Force's inaugural Super 14 match. Let me tell you, Yu-Jin was more than a little disappointed. And it ended up ruining the whole evening. He left for home in disgrace.

I think that Miky moved this during the freezing stage.

It's nothing if not an original.

Woke up on Saturday morning with a very sore right shoulder. It felt like I had slept on it the wrong way or torn a muscle, something I have done before. I couldn't even lift my arm proplerly and was a bit concerned about golf set down for Sunday morning. Yu-Jin went to taekwondo in the afternoon and we went shopping during that time. We returned in time to see him catch a foot in the head during a sparring session. I had thought that his instructor, a 7th dan black belt, Australia's 2000 Olympic Head Coach (Taekwondo) and six times National Champion, was a bit past it but he can move when he wants to. Not that it was he that kicked Yu-Jin in the head. Spectators aren't allowed to interfere and we left it up to the instructor to make him feel better. Obviously the pain didn't last long and he was back into it quite quickly.

Sunday morning and my shoulder was still very sore. I put some shorts on, grabbed a 7-iron, and went outside to have a swing. I remember a golfer once said that if you could hit a ball 200 yards both hands then you could hit it 180 yards with one arm, that being your non-dominant arm. Thankfully I could swing the club without pain and surprised myself by not using my right arm too much at all. Hey, I play right-handed.

Out to Collier Park early and did some chipping which wasn't too accurate. Bad omen. Shayne rocked up and then I headed off to the putting green. Fairly out of touch there too. Shayne popped over to the car park to see where Joe was. As it turned out, Joe was just getting out of bed at that time and turned up just before we teed off.

We played the Island nine first. I shanked my first tee shot but it richoted from a tree into the middle of the fairway. My 6-iron went about as far as Shyane's driver. Looking pretty good if I can hit an iron that well that early on in the round. Shayne played a layup shot as the group in front of us were on the green and the flag was out. Unfortunately he hit it all too well and it ran onto the green. Shayne then hid in the shade until they left the green. They looked at us, looked at the ball, and looked back at us with a look of disdain. It wasn't me! Shayne parred the first.

After knocking it on the par-3 second off the tee and then 3-putting Joe rubbed it into me as the first 3-putt of the day. Joe put the first one in the water on the next hole. Anyway, it was a bit of a good tussle and Joe and I squared off at 46 apiece for the front nine. At one stage there was a group Corellas, very noisy Australian parrots, that descended on the course in almost plague proportions.

One of those Corellas.

Noisy buggers when they get into a large group.

I started the back nine off by shanking my drive into the same tree as last week and I had to take a penalty drop for an unplayable shot. Again. Managed to save it somewhat with an eight on that par-5. Joe started playing some really hot golf after that until 4-putting on a par-4 for a double bogey six. Not good when you are putting for par and I rubbed it in. Not that I had much to skite about as I overhit my drive, tried to chip back onto the fairway and just put it into a bunker and then 3-putted for a triple bogey seven. I parred the next hole after a brilliant approach shot, parred the next and bogeyed the last. Joe and I both shot 49 on the back nine to tie for 95 off the stick. My handicap, as it stood when I played, is 10 shots better than Joe's at the moment. So, he really beat me by ten shots on handicap. It was about 33 degrees when we finished and it was a strange back nine as we were nearly the only people playing. Maybe it was too hot or the fact that the final round of the Johnnie Walker Classic at The Vines was being televised live.

Collier Park Scorecard.

In the arvo Yu-Jin and I went to the swimming pool. There were a group of Africans there and as we walked past them Yu-Jin pipes up with, "Why are these people so brown?" and then followed it up with, "Are they Japanese?" It seems that our trip to Japan did nothing to raise the level of ignorance in our little Australian.