Short and sweet this week, I am running low on inspiration (aka wine) and have left the charger for the lap-top somewhere ("yes, dear, I have looked where I last saw it"), so I am racing battery power here (45% and diving). Firstly, congratulations to Richard & Raymond for their Club Champs wins Also, congratulations to the Black Caps for winning the Test World Champs, despite the weather which did it's damnedest to scupper the whole thing. Thoroughly deserved, and not a power over in sight. In the golfing world, well done to Jon "Rambo" Rahm, on his US Open win, especially after his having to withdraw a few weeks earlier with a positive Covid test result, while he held a 6 shot lead. Apparently, he is a big believer in Karma, and felt that he knew that something good was going to counter the bad luck of his withdrawal. Karma, was clearly not in my favour on Wednesday, however, when I tried to duplicate Doop's driver-driver effort on the 13th and nearly put it in the lake to the right of the 14th tee. I am not entirely sure what I did wrong in a previous life, but I am pretty sure it cost me an albatross there, so it must have been bad (30%) I find myself staring at the power status, and I swear it looks like it is accelerating. Of course the one time I lose the charger, is a time when I need it. It is always feels like it is the things we need the most that we tend to misplace. Codswallop of course, we misplace stuff all the time, but we don't realise until we need it. The solutions would be either to not have as much stuff, or to have even more stuff so that we don't miss the stuff we have forgotten we had and can't remember where it is (or indeed, what "it" is). According to the good lady Pharmacist, I am of the latter persuasion (and I have to say, the large garage at our house might have had something to do with us buying the place), but I have always felt that it is then a rather nice surprise to find some little treasure, long forgotten, next to the thing that you were looking for in the first place (19%). While I am on the subject of percentages, I am going to have a little rant (apologies in advance) - why is it some commentators (usually sports) insist on the impossible? For example: "So-and-so gave his all there, he gave 110%, no-one could have asked for more!". This is a typical example of commentator hyperbole, and it irritates the hell out of me every time I hear one of these "experts" say something stupid like this. There is one pundit in the UK notorious for this abysmal behaviour, going up into the "thousands of percent's" (idiot, well he is a retired footballer). This is, however, impossible. All any of us can do is give 100%. The definition of 100% is that 100% is the whole amount. It is everything. The sum total possible, All of it. You can eat 100% of a pie, you cannot eat 110% of it. You can hit a golf ball with 100% of your power (good luck with that), but you cannot hit it with 120% of your power. They; whoever the hell they are, probably mathematicians looking for a bit of attention; they reckon that if we ever have contact with intelligent alien life (and the recent US files on UFO's have led to some interesting conversations on that matter), then the universal language to break the proverbial intergalactic ice will be mathematics. If, however, they let the numerically illiterate into the talks, any aliens smart enough, and technologically advanced enough, to find us having travelled across the incredibly vast distances necessary, will presumably just obliterate us in sheer disgust, all 1000% of us. Rant over (8%), sorry about that, not sure what came over me. Well the good news is that while the weather is decidedly English at the moment we have passed the Winter Solstice and we have had the shortest day of the year. Except we haven't of course (oh god, I feel another rant coming on - it's the same length as any other day, it is still 24 hours, it is the amount of daylight that is the least compared to the rest of the year). I think I need a lie down. Or another glass of wine. Probably both (though not at the same time) Stay safe, stay warm and dry, and play well Steve |