Stevie G

Tut...tut...tut...

Xmas '08

Well, Christmas Day has been and gone for another year. I think I'm going to have to build an extension for all the presents Cillian got!!
All went well on the day and Liverpool go into the new year top of the table.

So a very good Xmas it has been.

Bring on the new year.

Blogging

Have to get out of this. Blog a couple of times in a day or so and then disappear for a few months. Early new years resolution is to blog more often.

Have a look at this.

A Draw

After bossing most of the match it could be looked at 2 points lost rather than one pointed earned. But a point away from home against the 2nd best team in the group is not bad.
A win in Anfield in a fortnight's time will all but guarantee Liverpool's participation in the final 16.

Not so bad

Atletico Madrid 0 Liverpool 1

Another Robbie Keane goal puts Liverpool 1 up away from home.
Although there was a hint of off side we'll take it

Very Busy

Howya now!!

I know the posts have been lacking of late but I've been very busy between work, college, stag weekends, weddings - not to mention family life and golf.

I'm into my 6th week of the ACCA lectures and they're going well. Exams in the first week of December - so looking forward to them.....

A couple of friends got married - not to each other - which meant two Saturdays in a row. One local enough and one in Eniscrone in Sligo. Two very good days were had. Then after the two weddings there was a stag weekend in Sligo. We played the Darren Clarke designed course on Saturday morning. Very good course but as you'd expect the weather was awful and we came in after 18 holes wetter than wet.

So the last weekend and this one are relaxing ones. Nothing major to do so all good.

Hopefully this is the start of regular posts.,,,,,,.......

A Bad Round

After my recent good form on the golf course I took a couple of weeks off. Well, I say "took off", but in actual fact as to anyone who even looked out a window in the last 2 weeks, let alone go outside, will tell you it literally started raining and didn't stop.
So with a 2 week break from playing I headed out on Friday evening to blow off the cobwebs - as it was President's Prize weekend in the club.

As I hadn't played for a bit I was expecting the standard to be pretty bad. But to my surprise I played really well, shooting 2 over for 12 holes. So instead of dreading teeing it up in the Presidents the following morning I actually thought I had a chance - How wrong I was.

To be fair, I played reasonably well - but in patches. Now it definitely didn't help matters that it was bucketing down. I not going to go into the detail of it but let's just say that a 3 triple bogies and a 10 at the 10th was the death of my round.
Before yesterday I hadn't gone over 90 shots for at least 3 months - yesterday's score was a lovely 99.

Absolutely awful. Awful.......Awful..

Come on Paul Hession!!!

Athenry man Paul Hession runs in the semi-final of the 200m in Beijing today at 2.25pm.
With a small bit of luck he'll progress to the final - his gold medal.

Cillian

This picture was taken yesterday evening. He's getting big and tall. And he's now walking!!!

Yesterday

I managed to get out for 18 in yesterday's competition. Despite it blowing gales out I managed to keep under my new handicap, 16.
Shot an 85 which gives me a Net 69 - which should be good enough to feature.

2 weeks in a row - I feel my head getting bigger and bigger.......

New Driver - Taylormade Burner

Just a quick note on my new driver, a Taylormade Burner. I have the 10.5 with regular shaft.
I'm really loving this club, Bar an odd loose one I'm hitting it really well.

Long may it continue!!

A Good Bit of Progress

Over the last couple of weeks my golf has come on a lot.
While I was on a weeks holidays I managed to get out a good bit and it really paid off.

Last Sunday, in very bad weather, I had 39 points. While I was a little disappointed after the round mainly because of a blow out and three doubles in the last 7 holes, I was happy with the 39. It was good enough to get me second place - the winner also had 39 points but he had a better back 9.

Out I went again on Monday only to shoot my best round ever - a 78, playing off 16. ( I got cut down from 16.5 to 15.7 for my second place ).

Due to my unbeaten record for the club I was asked to play for the Connaught Shield team. We were playing Beana on Tuesday evening. Once again I kept up my unbeaten record winning on the 15th but unfortunately we were bet overall, 4 - 1. Disappointing but what can you do.

So I'm really looking forward to the next couple of competitions - The Christy Kelly Memorial tomorrow and the Presidents Prize in a couple of weeks. Hopefully my form will continue.

Taking it easy

A couple of decent results

After the disappointment of going out of the Pierce Purcell I was delighted keep my form in single competitions. While probably leaving a few points on the course I finished in 4th place in one of the golfer of the year comps.
Then last weekend finished joint 2nd, (3rd on a countback), in the Ballinrobe Golf club am-am.

Playing this evening so hopefully can keep it going.

Won the War, Lost the Battle

Well I managed to win my match yesterday 6&5. We played some great golf. We were only 2 over for the 13 holes. But unfortunately we lost our other match at home as well as two away, so the final result goes down as 3 1/2 to 1 1/2.

Disappointing to say the least.

Ready for off!!!

Don't ya just hate queues..

Look who just got their first car!!!

Match tomorrow

Playing next round of Pearse Purcell tomorrow. Zonal semi final
against Ouchtarard (spelling). Playing at home again. Match away at 2pm.

Fingers crossed...

It worked!!!

Just blogged directly from my iphone. Blogging on the go.

I know posts have been non-existing. But I will try and change it. If nothing else just to prove Donal wrong.

Golf's been going well over the last month or so. Made the Pearse Purcell team, national competition for 12 to 17 handicappers. Managed to beat Gort and Bearna (last year's Connaught Champions) so far. I won my two matches as well, 6&5 and 7&6 so all good.
Bought a new driver, the Taylormade Tour Burner. Hitting very well, so happy out.

Later

Test mobile blogging

This is a test to see if it works. If so maybe more posts.....

Later

Posts a bit slack

Hey,

Been a bit quite of late. Golfing for the year just getting going. Managed to get 5 full rounds in the last couple of weeks, with steady progress being made in each outing. Was asked to play for the Pierce Purcell team for the golf club. First practice is Monday evening. Am playing tomorrow morning as well. Looking forward to that, as long as the weather is decent. Played yesterday evening and the wind would nearly blow you over.

Have gotten into photography of late. Have always has an interest but decided to buy a decent camera over Xmas and am doing a good bit of reading into it - learning how to use the camera properly. Found a site if anyone is interested - Photography Ireland, The camera I have is a Canon 5D.

Anyway, that's it for now

later.

Saturday Fourball

Got out yesterday, despite the fairly terrible weather, to play 18 holes. Tees off at 8.40 and had to to contend with rain for the first 7 holes. But by the time we hit off on 8 it had dried up and remained rain free for the rest of our round.

Myself (16) and Ian (6) V Ronan (8) and Adrian (2). With not alot of golf played lately the odds were very much stacked against us. We had a great start when I stitched my second to about 8 feet, and while I missed the birdie put, the par with a shot was good enough to win the hole. With the second halved in pars, we won the third thanks to a birdie from Ian. We went on to loose the 4th and half the rest of the front nine leaving us 1 up at the turn - and also winning the first fiver.

We lost the tenth only to win the 11th and regain our narrow lead. Ronan had done well to get a par on the 11th after finding a bit of trouble off the tee. I'd had reasonably decent tee shot and had left my second just short of the front of the green. I went for a bump and run with my 8 iron but didn't quite hit it hard enough. I'd left myself a nasty 12 footer with a good bit of left to right in it. Ronan looked on in horror as in it rolled. With a shot it was good enough for the win.

It went back and forth until the lads took the lead on the 16th. After being up for most of the round we were now looking like we could be bet. On the 17th a par for Ian halved the hole and brought us to the 18th still alive.

All four of us hit, probably, our best drives of the day. All four were is great positions for their second. I was up first and pitched on. Over hit it slightly and it ran about 15 feet passed the hole. Not too bad considering I had a shot on this hole too. Ronan hit his in and it went short and right - but not much. He finished in the first cut about 10 feet from the pin. Ian hit his in and left it about 6 feet right of the hole. Great shot under pressure. Considering that Adrian was 1 under so far to think that we were still alive on the 18th green was a good achievement. He hit his in - came down about a foot from the pin but didn't check and ran about 20 feet passed.
I rolled my put up and narrowly missed the birdie but had hit it a little too hard. Ran about 5 feet passed. Ronan's put scrapped the edge of the cup but didn't drop - gimme par. Adrian's put was right on line but stopped about a foot short. Another gimme par. We had two puts to win the hole and level the match. Ian was up first. Hw didn't dwell on it too long. He decided on his line and hit it. In it rolled. I had the pressure free put and in it rolled too. Match halved.

Great result for us and very enjoyable day on the course.

Golfing Again

Got out for a few holes at the weekend. I really enjoyed playing. I've only managed to get out a few times since last September with the house move, weather and spending time with Cillian.

Only managed to get 9 in as the weather when we were heading out was pretty atrocious. Because it was so bad we started on the 10th but by the time we'd got to the 11th it had eased up a fair bit.

Didn't go too bad. Bogied the 10th, 11th. Doubled the 12th after knocking first ball out of bounds. Got another bogie on the 13th, parred the 14th, doubled the 15th, parred the 16th and 17th and finished with a bogie on the 18th. 8 over for the 9 holes so net level par.

Playing again next Saturday morning so am going to try and hit the range a couple of time before then.

Going Alright Again.....

After my last post I really didn't know what to think about Rafa. I would be known for my unrelenting loyalty to Liverpool regardless of whether it might actually be the case. I was one of the people who though Diouf was alright, I thought that Cisse would come good. I still think that if Kewell gets enough games under his belt he might actually get back to the player he was for Leeds. So for me to be doubting Rafa, even slightly, I wasn't sure where I was.

But this evening I think we're back on track. I put this down mainly to the fact that he hasn't changed the team much. The core has stayed. I still think he changes it too much overall, but he left Gerrard and Torres in the team. And we have reaped the rewards. We're 2 up against Inter, and have 4 league wins on the trot in the bag.

Long may it continue.

What to do???

Where has it all gone wrong? Has it gone wrong? I simply don't know what side of the line I stand on.

Rafa's arrival was heralded as the start of the return to the old days. Now I'm not saying that we should be winning title after title by now but we should be competing a hell of a lot more. Man Utd, Arsenal and Chelsea are them teams we need to be challenging - not Everton, Man City & Villa. But that's where we find ourselves.
It's hard know who to blame - Rafa, the new owners or the players themselves. The new owners obviously have an affect on the team. There loose comments can not have done much for morale at the club - but they have stumped up the cash for the players Rafa wanted. They have just sanctioned the £18m signing of Mascherano. But I do think the sooner they go the better. It' a pity Moores didn't have the cash to move the club along. There was a good chairman.

The players have to stand up and start to perform like we know they can. They've made a start - let's see if they can continue it.

I'm starting to loose faith with Rafa. I have a lot of faith in him but it is starting to diminish. While I admire him for sticking to his beliefs that squad rotation is the way to go he has to be able to see that Liverpool's best runs all occur when the team stays the same for as long as possible. I know keeping so many top players happy is tough but playing them for the sake of it is wrong. For me, the back 5 should remain the same. Pick your best 5 and let them play.
Trying to keep the 4 central midfielders happy is, in my opinion, Rafa's biggest problem. Obviously Gerrard is first name on every teamsheet. Changing the team to suit the others has cost us valuable points this season. I think Alonso should play. Mascherano and Alonso are of a similar type but I think Alonso uses the ball better. He can also put in a tackle as good as the Argie. Lucas is a talented player but ahead of the other three - I think not.

As long as Torres starts we will never do too bad up top but again I think he needs to decide who partners him and let them at it. The wingers, I suppose, are the most interchangeable but how can a player remain in good form if he plays well one week and then is dropped for the next game.

Rafa has to sort it out. Managing a top team is not easy - but if Liverpool don't improve dramatically by the end of the season then it most likely something he won't have to worry about.

Barcelona - Here We Come!!!

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One of my good friends, Donal, is getting married to Sofia in Barce later this year. Just got hotel booked so we're all sorted. All that's left to do is wait for it to arrive.

Gettin Big!!!

Soon be eating us out of house and home!!! Not to mention terrorizing the dog. Homer's gone into hiding.

Back in One Piece

We made it back without any casualties - well a couple of sore heads. Skiing conditions were great. Took a few pics with my k800i during the week. I left it till Friday to bring up the camera - and predictably the fog was out in force. Still managed a few decent pics. Here are a sample.

More posted on my Flickr page.

Later

Skiing

Nearly that time of year again, when we head for the slopes of St Johann en Tirol in Austria. Was sorting out all my gear last weekend and am now really excited. 9 days and counting!!!

Cillian

Cillian's been flying it lately. He's started moving under his own power - he's stared crawling backwards. Into any sort of divilment he can get into in. If there's something there that he's not supposed to be at then you can be sure that's where he'll be!!

Broadband

I got it. I ordered my broadband connection just over a week ago and was not surprised to be told I'd have to wait until 6th Feb for a connection.
By chance I connected my router to the phone socket to see if there was a light chance they'd have it connected early. And when I spotted it today the dsl light was glowing back at me. My 3MB line is up and running so I have no more excuses as to why the blog can't be kept up to date.

Got my golfing year off to a decent start Saturday week ago. 32 points - so overall I was happy. Played another 18 holes yesterday and to say the golf was up and down would be an enormous understatement. Playing again next week but am going to try and hit the range before then.

Skiing coming up. We head off the St Johann en Tirol in less than 2 weeks for our now annual ski fest. Am really looking forward to it. Maire is getting back on the skis this year and we have 3 first-timers so it should make for an exciting week. I've all the gear found so I'm pretty much set. Even collected the tickets last weekend. Austria here we come......

Update

Hey,

I know blog's been quite fir the past few weeks, ...eh months.
It's mostly down to the lack of broadband, but partly duw to a lack of 'couldn't be arsed' ness.

It will improve.

OK Donal?