Tuesday, March 27, 2007

Colonialism Nots Dead, It's On A Golf Course

Some of you may have heard that the LTTE now officially have an airforce, consisting of two home made planes it must surely be the world's smallest airforce. Considering they are up against Kfir Jets and the likes, the rebels surely must be hoping for an upset on the scale of Ireland beating Pakistan or Bangladesh beating India in the World Cup Cricket. Many of you may know that I am a big cricket fan. Some of you may not realise that for the past three odd weeks and for the next four weeks I will be living in a state of perpetual lethargy. The games are on at a good time here in Sri Lanka - they start around 7pm, just after work and The Simpsons, and finish around 3-4am. So obviously, the only thing that is suffering from all of this is my work... meanwhile, the streets of Sri Lanka (and Bangladesh) are buzzing with an amazing vibe. According to the BBC, the only sort of street rallies currently allowed in Bangladesh considering all the political strife is that relating to the ellations of the Bangladesh Tigers. And the only reason for that is the police are joining in the same street celebrations. Sri Lanka is not quite at the same level, but if you don't know how many runs Sangakara made or if you don't know who's wicket Murali took - you ain't worth your salt!

On the weekend past, a dozen of us travelled up to Kandy to play some cricket, many of us blury eyed from watching Sri Lanka beat India the night before (and what a game that was!). One of the good things about Sri Lanka, is that people work in all different sort of positions.. and Richard a.k.a. The Jelf works for a tourist company, and he definately came through with the goods this weekend when he organised the golfing trip away! So off we went, in convey with a jeep and a mini bus...

Lara, Andy, Martine and Katrina.. all wondering "When the F*%^ are we going to get there!?". A three hour drive turned quickly into five.... but it was worth it. The gold course is set on a huge piece of land next to Lake Victoria (a large hydro dam actually):


First stop on arrival? Check out our challete's on the golf course and tuck into a quick beer before we hit the practice fairwair.


The practice fairway.. not a bad view. Below (out of sight) there were buffalo we were aiming for.. completely unsuccesfully I must add. But in the picture, if you squint and tilt your head, you can see my ball flying into the mountains....


Sam (left) teaching Andy (right) how to hit a ball. They're both about to leave Sri Lanka in the next few weeks, so best they get an ass whipping sooner rather than later.


After we hit our 150 balls, two guys ran around picking up the balls.. in the meanwhile, we decided to play frisbee with the bucket lids. Martine takes safety very seriously!


That night some of stayed up until 3:30am to watch Australia beat South Africa. But that was not going to get in the way of the big day. At 10am, we were ready and raring to go. Sam, me and Andy and our three caddies.. and out of sight were our two ball finders who spent much of their time digging around in the bushes and rough looking for Andy's ball. :-)


The Glory Shot. A 100 yard, par 3, 4th hole. In the background you can see the tee off area, and this was the outcome with my 8 iron. Like a Tiger!


Poor Andy, on the same hole he had a bit more to go on his second shot.. say about 100 yards more.


Thankfully, my caddie had a handicap of 5 so he could give me some tips on the green.


Meanwhile, some of the girls decided to sit by the pool and lap it all up.. Ali who is currently staying with me while she is doing some research, welp she is from England and got fried as one would expect of the English when they see something resembling a big yellow ball in the sky. Her knees are still in pain...


Some of the others played tennis under the floodlights.. me? Nah. I will stick to badmitton.


Overall, it was an awesome weekend. I shot 100. Sam beat me on 99, taking the honours on the last hole. The bugger. Andy, well even with his caddie throwing the ball for him, he still got 135. The other group had about the same amount of luck as Andy. Fantastic weekend though. I felt like a real colonialist with my caddie and ball finders.. now I know what it's like to be a Tiger!

I haven't written in a while, so I thought I might just put up some random photos from previous weekends down south.. this is when I did some big game fishing. Unfortunately, the largest fish we caught was Nemo. The beach was quite nice though.. Unawatuna.








Peace, Love, and ex-Colonies

B.

4 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

Hey mate,
The question is: Did you raise the bat when you holed out on the last shot of the day to bring up your ton??

Cheers,
Tatters

1:47 PM  
Blogger Byron&Emma said...

Haha.. Obviously, I am still a novice at this whole Golf thing. I think I threw the club at my caddie when I sunk it, knowing I had lost by one shot coming into the final hole with a lead of 1. I gave him a good tip though: put some ice on the bruise.

B.

7:54 PM  
Blogger Dirty Flamingo said...

I see you stopped by my fabulous amateur food blog. HA!

That's fabulous that you'll be back for a bit. When will you be in town????

--adriana--

2:53 PM  
Blogger Byron&Emma said...

hehe.. sure did mate! Will respond on your blog so you get it :-)

For everyone else, be in Melbourne for two weeks from easter onwards. Woo. 1 more week!

6:59 PM  

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