I was mildly confident in advance of the round, but I hadn’t swung a golf club even in jest for approaching a fortnight so expected to be a little rusty. Sadly, the warm-up to the round was less than ideal: the range was closed and I was a bit rushed in getting ready. On the practice green I just didn’t feel comfortable with my putting as the greens were so lightning fast, even though it had rained steadily beforehand and the ground was sopping wet.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, I made a very poor start with a blob on the first. This was despite an excellent drive straight down the centre of the fairway. As might be expected from a beginner like me, it was my second shot (PW from 80 yards) that proved my underdoing, with me topping it accidentally and sending it rolling way over the end of the green. A mis-hit chip back and three putt to finish completed a horrible blob on what should have been a comfortable par.

From there, things improved. Double-bogey on the second, bogey on the third and then it was pretty much bogey-golf all the way apart from a few blips here and there. I hit two pars throughout.

What was interesting for me was the manner of my game. I actually felt that it was the ‘best’ round of golf I’d played ever – in terms of my shotmaking and how I handled things – even though my score was still really poor. By that, what I mean is that I had a challenging round and often went wrong, but was called upon to play a range of different shots which I think I handled well. I certainly didn’t hit any ‘great’ shots but my average shot was better than normal. I did, however, make life hard for myself at times by taking a bad line on the approach to certain holes, on one occasion needing to play a punch shot to get underneath a tree (I hit the shot well, but still hit a branch and fell short).

GIR was poor (11%) but FIR was really pleasing – 86% – after I ditched my driver completely and used my 3 wood for every hole. I’ll definitely be using this as my go-to -driver from hereon in.

Highlights? Well, for me my driving was really pleasing, but my favourite shot came on the 18th. 150 yards out and between me and the pin was a massive oak tree. I managed to play a really tidy 7 iron over the top of the tree which finished on the fringe of the green – not accurate enough and not enough distance – but a tricky shot to pull off and one that I committed to and played well. Total score for the day was 99 which played perfectly to handicap.

Before the lesson I had some time to reflect on where my faults were and I think the biggest thing for me is that I just don’t have any power in my shots. That is to say: I can hit the ball with decent contact regardless of any flaws in my swing (of which there are many) and my shots are generally (most of the time) pretty straight, but I struggle to get enough distance on 7 irons and lower. As a result, Kent and Surrey GC really exposed that as a number of the par 4s are quite long and I found it nigh on impossible to put myself in a good position to hit GIR at any point. Often, I’d end up with an awkward PW from 50 – 100 yards out because my reach just wasn’t enough, even when I hit my approach shot well.

With that in mind I spoke to Chris and told him where I was struggling. Namely, three key areas:

• I’m not getting an acceptable distance on my shots, so taking on average 1 shot more to get on the dancefloor than I should
• Where I’m having to PW from 50 – 75 yards in, my accuracy isn’t quite good enough to get acceptably close to the pin
• I’m also struggling to get it close with long-range putts, meaning that I can easily 3-putt

All of the above combined means that I’m typically throwing away 2 shots on each hole – which is the difference between par and my score. That is: my shotmaking is ok but it’s the dotting of the Is and crossing of the Ts that’s letting me down in a big way.

Chris therefore set to work in filming my swing. This was my second lesson overall but my first with him. It’s fair to say he has quite a technical perspective on the game which I like; I’m a really data person who likes to analyse everything, which complements Chris’s physics-based approach!

The first thing he picked up on was almost an over-reaction to my first lesson at Chartham Park. There, David Hobbs had noted I stoop over the ball and had worked with me on my address position and posture. I’d certainly responded, but perhaps over-responded to his comments and I was bending my knees too much, resulting in a very low address position which meant that I couldn’t initiate a clean take-away on-plane.

Chris got me standing more upright and bending from the hips before bending my knees again. From there, he identified two major faults all of which were causing a total loss of power.

The first was the takeaway.

What I was doing was leading the club away by hinging my wrists very early. This had the effect of bringing the club inside the plane very early on and resulted in a really shallow swing – almost horizontal, round my back. The swing was led my the wrists and so although on the downswing I had power, it was only power stored in the wrists and my torso was offering very little in terms of recoil.

Second, at the top of the backswing (caused my the above) there was no tension or torsion in my body, so no stored energy to release. My clubhead was pointing off target and I’d not made use of the twist from my hips.

To remedy the situation, he worked on two key exercises with me.

The first was to try and force a much more outwards takeaway, taking the club away on the line of the ball more noticeably, almost as if the clubhead was really heavy and I was trying to push away against an invisible force to my right. In doing this, I needed to maintain the triangle formed between my arms and the club, using my left arm to drive the takeaway rather than the right wrist.

From there, the second exercise focussed on my backswing.

Rather than hinging early at the wrists, leading with the left arm meant that I could hinge the wrists at a later point in the backswing. What I was instructred to do is focus on my right elbow, which previously had become a little ‘flappy’ and caused the shaft to point off-target. Instead, I am now pulling my right elbow close to my torso so that my biceps are at equal heights at the top of the backswing, rather than letting my right shoulder raise up. The effect is that I now have a straight (or almost straight) left arm and fully twisted torso, both of which are loaded with the weight and energy of the backswing and which I can release via the ‘skimming’ downswing stroke – which we’ll work on in a later lesson.

So, for me, the two key things to focus on are ensuring that the takeaway is smooth, slow and on-plane….and then when I get to the top of the backswing that I hinge my right wrist correctly and keep my right elbow close to the body to ensure that the arm folds correctly and the club points to target.

With that done I hit some balls and found it quite difficult to embrace at first, but I’m sure practice will embed it into my natural swing. For those I did hit correctly I noticed an amazing difference of perhaps 30 – 35 yards on each club; previously I was hitting the 6 iron 130 yards whereas now it was 165 without roll. Shots felt smoother and I can see it really making a huge improvement, although it’s going to take some time to get used to it.

Anyway, a good lesson following a poor round, with a noticeable progress in my skillset even though it’s still very early days. Patience is the key and I am going to work hard to practice what I’ve been taught.

Fridays for me are ‘work at home’ days, which means that I’m lucky to have a full hour and a half’s break in the middle of the day to myself. This time, I ventured down to Edenbridge (which is about 5 minutes drive from my house) to use the range at the Kent and Surrey Golf club. And how pleased I am that I did!

Kent and Surrey is – by a cat’s whisker – the closest club to me in our neighbouring area, but the driving range has been siphoned off into a separate business run by Chris Lightfoot; a PGA professional, instructor and someone who is passionate about turning the range into a profitable enterprise.

Aside from being possibly the nicest chap you would ever wish to meet (he even carried my buckets of balls to the range for me!), the range is in good condition and I spent a nice amount of time hitting some short irons there. That said, it was so windy that you couldn’t really tell how well you were doing. 200 balls later and I’d got quite tired, but felt my swing was working well – I’d spent time slowing it down and trying to keep my legs more stable which is as much a mental thing as physical (focus on keeping the base still, don’t collapse the left leg).

That evening, I had more time to kill so ended up at Bromley Golf Centre for another 200 balls. This is by far the nicest range I have been able to play on – it’s open nice and late – and again I really felt that things were starting to click. In particular, my new 5 wood is proving to be a really comfortable club for me and I’m sure that I’m going to get good use out of it, given how difficult I finding my 4 iron to strike well. Even with little effort, the fairwood wood gave good distance and very little dispersion.

So, overall, a good golfing day but looking forward to getting out for a round soon.

In other news, I’ve now lost a full stone on Weight Watchers which is coinciding with a marked improvement in my performance; whether it’s causal or just related is open for debate, but I’m feeling a lot fitter and that’s giving me confidence to play golf with more determination.

Video extras de pe ultimul album al austriecilor de la Edendbrige, intitulat Solitaire.  Beneficiind ca de obicei de performantele vocale deosebite ale Sabinei Edelsbacher, acest video are ca bonus ninjas. Everybody loves ninjas. E greu sa fii original in acest gen symphonic-power metal, dar sunt trupe care isi fac treaba foarte bine si Edenbridge este categoric una din aceste trupe.

I visited Old Buckhurst garden in Markbeech, near Edenbridge in Kent (http://www.oldbuckhurst.co.uk/index.html). The garden opens several times a year as part of the National Gardens Scheme (NGS). If you like visiting other people’s gardens then I recommend getting hold of the NGS ‘Yellow book’ for your area. Under the scheme, people open their gardens and charge a small entry fee which goes to charity. There are often plants for sale and home-made cakes to be had too! You can search for gardens open near you on the NGS website: http://ngs.org.uk

Anyway, Mr and Mrs Gladstone have a lovely garden that’s right up my street. It’s full of perennials and it’s not too tidy, if you know what I mean. The garden is about an acre in size, enclosing their old farmhouse. I like the fact that the different ‘garden rooms’ look like something the average gardener (me) could reproduce at home.

I particularly liked all the different clematis they had growing up walls, through shrubs and over pergolas. I want to introduce more clematis to my garden, so I was pleased to see a variety of clematis that are flowering and looking good right now.

There is a little plant nursery area in a corner of the garden where I had a very interesting chat with Mrs Gladstone. I asked her for advice on plants for my shady white bed under the apple tree and she was really helpful and knowledgeable. She made a few suggestions and I bought a few plants: a white oriental poppy (I have a couple of red ones in the garden already that I grew from seed a few years ago); a white malva; a Solomon’s seal; and a white foxglove (as my attempts at growing these from seed never seem to work). None of them cost more than £3 each (bargains!). Will let you know how I get on with these…

I love the way that gardeners are so generous with their time and knowledge. Mrs Gladstone really couldn’t do enough for me. She even looked up the name of one of her clematis and wrote it down for me, along with pruning and feeding instructions (which I hadn’t asked her to do).

I’ll definitely be back to Old Buckhurst garden – maybe at a different time of year to see what other plants are in bloom. And no doubt I’ll be unable to resist the temptation to buy more plants I don’t really need, for spaces that don’t exist.

Main Performer: EDENBRIDGE

Opening Act: Dreamer & Lord of Symphony

Promoter: Semax International

Venue, Date & Ticket:

Jakarta, VICKY SIANIPAR MUSIC HALL, July 8^th 2010, ticket: IDR 95,000

Solo, GOR MANAHAN, July 9^th 2010, ticket: IDR 50,000

Malang, TBA, July 12^th 2010, ticket: IDR 50,000

Edenbridge terbentuk pada tahun 1998 di Austria, dan termasuk dalam kategori band yang mengusung aliran symphonic progressive metal. Sejak berdirinya sampai saat ini Edenbridge telah menghasilkan 7 album studio, 2 album Live dan 1 album kompilasi. Walau bukan satu satunya band metal dengan vocalis seorang wanita, Edenbridge memberi warna tersendiri di dunia music metal bersamaan dengan band dengan formula yang sama seperti halnya Nightwish dan Within Temptation.

Konser di Indonesia ini sekaligus akan dilangsungkan di 3 kota yaitu Jakarta, Solo dan Malang yang merupakan konser satu satunya di Asia. Tidak cukup sampai disitu, pihak penyelenggara juga akan menambahkan penampilan 2 band local sebagai band pembuka yaitu Dreamer dan Lord Symphony. Dengan harga tiket yang masih dapat terjangkau tentunya konser ini menjadi suatu event yang sayang untuk dilewatkan begitu saja.

Although I know quite a few of the WI members, I thought it would be a good opportunity to bring along some of my friends as I knew they had never been to anything like this before – and maybe they could be potential candidates to join the WI group too.

We all arrived about 10 minutes after the doors opened and there were only a few seats left at the back of the hall.  It really was a sell out event and there were some younger ladies there too.  The fashion show was great fun and our hostess, Angela, did a great job in informing us of the clothes available.  Although she couldn’t mention the stores you could buy the clothes at, there were some very easy clues for us to be able to guess.

After the show, the back rows of chairs were cleared away to make space around the clothes racks.  They were set up by colour which made the whole process of finding garments much easier.  Most people there went away with some great bargains and if your size wasn’t out then Catwalk Connections were easily able to order them in for you, with just a £1.50 postage fee on top.  I had decided that if my size wasn’t there then it wasn’t meant to be otherwise I could have ended up spending quite a bit.

The Friends of Edenbridge & Westerham CAB also hold similar fashion shows so look out for these in The Edenbridge Directory.  They are great fun (as I was promised), you can get some great bargains and money also goes to the groups who host these events so you’re supporting the community when you buy your clothes.  What a great package.

It’s a great exhibition and well worth a visit to view some of the fantastic work produced by local artists from around the Eden Valley (Kent). You can find out more from the EVA website at http://www.edenvalleyartists.com/latest/news23.htm

The Topfoto Gallery is open: Monday to Friday from 9.30am, Saturday and Sunday 9.00am – 2.00pm.

The exhibition will run until Thursday 1st April so you got to be quick to catch it. There is parking available directly outside Topfoto.

Crockham Hill, Kent

Not only do I enjoy doing the village distribution but my distributors also say how much they enjoy delivering the magazines – and they all agree, they know Edenbridge much better now even though some had been living in the town for years already.

Even if you don’t have a magazine to deliver – why not just explore a couple of roads near to where you live?  I’ve found all sorts of interesting things on my rounds, whether it’s a beautifully planted front garden which gives me inspiration as to what I can do in mine, or discovering a short cut to another road running in between the houses, or just stopping to have a quick chat with the people I come across.

After 4 1/2 years of delivering my magazines, I can be confident in saying that my mastermind subject would be the letter boxes of the TN8 area – I’m very well acquainted with them now.

Town Chairman Terri Scanes did the official unveiling of the sign and the Edenbridge Fairtrade Group were in attendance.

Town Chairman Terri Scanes unveils sign

whilst the rain continued...

Other activities taking place for the Fairtrade fortnight include: the BRIDGES Centre, Self Unlimited and The Old Eden who are all serving up Fairtrade specials on their menus, the Edenbridge Bookshop has a number of Fairtrade books on display and for sale, and local schools have their Fairtrade projects on display at the local Co-op.

Towards the end of the fortnight on Saturday 6th March (11am-1pm), there will be a Fairtrade Fayre at Rickards Hall (behind the Eden Valley Museum) where local Fairtrade businesses and community groups will have displays.  There will of course also be plenty of Fairtrade refreshments available.

As well as being part of the Edenbridge Fairtrade Group, I’m also proud to say that my business also supports Fairtrade so I’ll be exhibiting at the fayre too.

The Edenbridge Fairtrade Group

Shine, by Edenbridge

Shine is going to be my new favorite song for the next few weeks.