Wednesday 20 May 2015
Lessons learnt from my amazing round of golf:
I am now playing my golf of handicap 6 thanks to a famous victory one fine Saturday afternoon at Limuru Country Club in the Standard County Golf Series where I emerged overall winner out of a field of almost 200 golfers. My photo recieving the winner's trophy even appeared in the local dailies as a factual confirmation that I had done it and the many congratulatory messages both from my golfing and non golfing friends suggested that they were mighty proud of my achievements!!
Non golfers stop right here as the jargon is about to flow fast and furious!! Every year I assign myself a handicap target to achieve in my golf. The lower the handicap you want to play off the more difficult it is to attain that target because you need to spend more time on the chipping green and putting green simply because the sharper your short game around and on the greens is the easier it shall be for you to score points, play better and avoid expensive mistakes……………something that all golfers are well aware off!!
However many golfers do not assign themselves an annual handicap target so they go on playing tournaments and friendlies hoping to shoot a good score and play a great round and somehow reduce their handicap by sheer luck which is mostly a fallacy since if you need to get somewhere you need to set yourself a target and then consciously work towards achieving that target. Many golfers also go straight from the changing room to the tee and do not warn up or do any practice which is a big disservice to their golf game………and handicap.
My handicap target for the year 2015 is a modest 5 handicap (down from 7 handicap at the start of the year) which is quite achievable given that many of my scores while playing of handicap 7 have been mainly within my buffer zone of 34 stable ford points or 74 stroke play points hence my handicap did not vary much for over a year within handicap 7 or 8. My analysis of my game made me realise that playing two handicaps better was well within my reach and all I needed to do was find out where my mistakes were and correct them.
So on that amazing Saturday, having studied and analyzed my game and having figured out where I was going wrong and determined to prove that I was right in my analysis, I shot an amazing 13 pars, 1 birdie and 4 bogies for an amazing 75 gross points and 40 stable ford points with a 1st nine of an excellent gross level par score and three dropped shots on the 2nd nine. As someone commented, if it were a professional tournament I would have qualified for the second round based on my score of +3!!
Common mistakes amateur golfers often make thus retarding their ability to reduce their handicaps include too much body and foot movement during the swing, over or under clubbing, taking your eyes off the ball, cutting your swing particularly when chipping, using too much strength, the wrong grip and posture, the wrong attitude, using the wrong length of clubs for your height, opening the club face on the strike etc. As they say, "golf ne thwingi"
!!
My mistake was somewhere within that general mix of mistakes that I have mentioned above. However, details are not important given that everyone has a unique style of swinging, putting and yes even temperament and they are the only ones who can accept and correct their mistakes so as to improve on their handicap.
While I am happy with my achievement during such a big tournament, I still have a ways to go to get to handicap 5 (my actual handicap is 6.2) and I need another big win of 40 stable ford points or better (or 68 gross or better on stroke play) to achieve this which is not impossible, after all I have shot a round of 42 last year off handicap 8 and emerged overall winner in another big tournament having dropped only two shots in the process.
So that was that and I look forward to accomplishing my amateur golfing handicap target of 5 for the year 2015 as golfing to me is a way of life and an important source of exercise and a healthy lifestyle and needs to be given the respect that it deserves.
The people you team up with in your four ball also play a big role in sharpening your golf game when you are playing well so kudos go to the guys (you know yourselves) who played with me on that Saturday because they were supportive of my efforts, did not offer unnecessary criticism or advise and let me get on with my game and at my pace even when I fumbled on those three strokes on account of nerves!!
As for the non golfers who choose to read to the end.....poleni sana if I lost you somewhere along the way, but you had been warned!!!Just decide to take to the course and see what all the excitement is about golf and you'll be hooked.
Thursday 14 May 2015
Cheating Death
A few weeks ago I almost went to keep my maker company, which tells me that I shall live to a ripe old age as I have always intended to. It all began like all incidences innocently enough!
Tired after a hard day’s work during which I had skipped lunch on account of the amount of work I had to push through my desk that day, I stumbled home more hungry than tired. It was one of those days where my house help doesn’t visit so no dinner had been prepared. So it was me to prepare my dinner this evening or have a date with my maker on account of starvation.
Now one of the lesser known skills that I possess is that I am a great cook particularly anything meat related and I constantly experiment with all kinds of ingredients and condiments both fresh and packaged. I have even told my colleagues at work that one of the reasons that I don’t invite them over for a meal is that once they taste my cooking they shall seek permanent refuge in my house to the chagrin and annoyance of their husbands, boyfriends, wives and girlfriends!
Today I had some pork chops that I was going to dry fry in a frying pan with onions, tomatoes, dhania and other secret ingredients (every chef has a secret recipe only known to them) and then add a dash of soy sauce at the last minute for the darkening of the meat and as a final flavoring. No “pilau Njeri” or that goulash so loved by my tribes’ mates comprising potatoes, meat, peas, carrots, cabbage and boiled maize thank you! All went according to plan and half an hour later I sat down to feast on a delicious dinner of pork chops and pasta.
Soon sated and the dishes cleaned I decided to retire to my sanctum sanctorum (which doubles up as my bedroom, my study and my TV room) to catch up on some reading and watch TV but not before filing the now blackened (soy sauce does that) frying pan with water and then leaving it on the stove to heat up so as to make the job of washing it up later easier after all the goo had dissolved in the hot water. Half an hour later I smelt something strange in the air but dismissed it as probably a neighbors cooking. A few minutes later I noticed smoke in my sanctorum only to realise that the cause must be the long forgotten frying pan warming on the stove.
Rushing into the kitchen I almost passed out due to the thick smoke emitted by the now dried our frying pan making visibility in the kitchen almost nil whereupon I stumbled blindly to the kitchen windows which I threw wide open as well as opened the backdoor for the smoke to dissipate after which I went and put off the stove and rescued the now useless frying pan whose non-stick bottom had melted and was the source of this thick clearly carbon laden smoke.
By now this carbonaceous smoke had spread to the rest of the house mainly to my bedroom which is next to the kitchen and so I had no choice but to also open all the doors and windows in the house to try and get some flow of air circulating to push out this deadly toxin of smoke that now permeated most of the house. Strangely in all this drama none of my neighbors appeared any the wiser to my misadventures that night which I can only conclude was due to the fact that I never panicked and did not start screaming wildly. Two hours later with all the smoke now cleared from the house, the possibility of asphyxiating in my sleep only a lingering thought and all back to normal save for a lingering smell of something burnt………...and the frying pan relegated to the outside verandah to be trashed the next day I went to bed.
Now, imagine for a moment that I had fallen asleep before I had realized that I had left something heating on the stove, there would have been only two outcomes, death by carbon monoxide poisoning or death from being burnt alive had the frying pan then heated up to an extent that it triggered a chain reaction of an exploding gas cylinder with the attendant mayhem.
The grim reaper came calling that day and my date with my maker would have been sealed save for the good luck that caused me to stay awake long enough to realise that all was not well!
Expect me to be around for a long, long time folks……!
Tired after a hard day’s work during which I had skipped lunch on account of the amount of work I had to push through my desk that day, I stumbled home more hungry than tired. It was one of those days where my house help doesn’t visit so no dinner had been prepared. So it was me to prepare my dinner this evening or have a date with my maker on account of starvation.
Now one of the lesser known skills that I possess is that I am a great cook particularly anything meat related and I constantly experiment with all kinds of ingredients and condiments both fresh and packaged. I have even told my colleagues at work that one of the reasons that I don’t invite them over for a meal is that once they taste my cooking they shall seek permanent refuge in my house to the chagrin and annoyance of their husbands, boyfriends, wives and girlfriends!
Today I had some pork chops that I was going to dry fry in a frying pan with onions, tomatoes, dhania and other secret ingredients (every chef has a secret recipe only known to them) and then add a dash of soy sauce at the last minute for the darkening of the meat and as a final flavoring. No “pilau Njeri” or that goulash so loved by my tribes’ mates comprising potatoes, meat, peas, carrots, cabbage and boiled maize thank you! All went according to plan and half an hour later I sat down to feast on a delicious dinner of pork chops and pasta.
Soon sated and the dishes cleaned I decided to retire to my sanctum sanctorum (which doubles up as my bedroom, my study and my TV room) to catch up on some reading and watch TV but not before filing the now blackened (soy sauce does that) frying pan with water and then leaving it on the stove to heat up so as to make the job of washing it up later easier after all the goo had dissolved in the hot water. Half an hour later I smelt something strange in the air but dismissed it as probably a neighbors cooking. A few minutes later I noticed smoke in my sanctorum only to realise that the cause must be the long forgotten frying pan warming on the stove.
Rushing into the kitchen I almost passed out due to the thick smoke emitted by the now dried our frying pan making visibility in the kitchen almost nil whereupon I stumbled blindly to the kitchen windows which I threw wide open as well as opened the backdoor for the smoke to dissipate after which I went and put off the stove and rescued the now useless frying pan whose non-stick bottom had melted and was the source of this thick clearly carbon laden smoke.
By now this carbonaceous smoke had spread to the rest of the house mainly to my bedroom which is next to the kitchen and so I had no choice but to also open all the doors and windows in the house to try and get some flow of air circulating to push out this deadly toxin of smoke that now permeated most of the house. Strangely in all this drama none of my neighbors appeared any the wiser to my misadventures that night which I can only conclude was due to the fact that I never panicked and did not start screaming wildly. Two hours later with all the smoke now cleared from the house, the possibility of asphyxiating in my sleep only a lingering thought and all back to normal save for a lingering smell of something burnt………...and the frying pan relegated to the outside verandah to be trashed the next day I went to bed.
Now, imagine for a moment that I had fallen asleep before I had realized that I had left something heating on the stove, there would have been only two outcomes, death by carbon monoxide poisoning or death from being burnt alive had the frying pan then heated up to an extent that it triggered a chain reaction of an exploding gas cylinder with the attendant mayhem.
The grim reaper came calling that day and my date with my maker would have been sealed save for the good luck that caused me to stay awake long enough to realise that all was not well!
Expect me to be around for a long, long time folks……!
Wednesday 6 May 2015
In the nick of time:
Recently I have come to the realization that I got out in the nick of time! I got out in the nick of time from Nairobi due to my being posted to Nyeri early last year because it is apparent that things traffic wise have deteriorated quickly into what may be called a mini crisis of sorts in Nairobi our capital city which has been my working environment for many years.
People, of whom I am a witness as I leave Nairobi for Nyeri at 5.30 am on Monday morning, now routinely, leave home as early as 4.00 am so as to avoid the perennial traffic jams plaguing all the roads into the capital city. It is better after all to get to work early and then read your newspaper in the car or office then cool your heels in a traffic jam for two hours. Having been called to Nairobi for a series of meetings some weeks ago, it took me a good 1 ½ hours to my chagrin to cover a distance of 12 kilometers to my meeting a period which would ordinarily see me at Karatina at 7.00 am on Monday morning.
Things in Nairobi must be (as we used to say back in the day) ‘elephant’ because the decision by the county government to team up with the Central government recently to come up with strategies to unlock the gridlocks on the capitals roads and tame the day long traffic jams in Nairobi was long overdue in coming. At this rate it’s no wonder that all negative things associated with slow moving traffic like snatch and grab attacks by thugs either walking or on boda bodas is on the rise as are incidences of traffic policemen out to make a quick buck pouncing on unsuspecting motorists who have failed to buckle up (does one need to buckle up in 30kmph traffic?), are transacting business or are explaining to someone on their mobile phones why they are late for that all important meeting.
I am not entirely sure that the initiative to remove the five roundabouts along Uhuru Highway shall have the needed results given that past initiatives including installing traffic lights and CCTV cameras don’t seem to have worked at all in alleviating even a small amount of the problem. Millions have been spent on worthless initiatives that have resulted in zero progress. It would make more sense if the by passes were completed faster and then the heavy commercial vehicles rumbling along our highways would be forced to use these routes and decongest the traffic along Uhuru Highway which has to some extent been achieved along Thika Road during off peak hours.
But then again save for my wife and daughters and my brothers and their families who live in traffic choked Nairobi, I have little sympathy to the whining and cursing I see on the various social media forums by those inconvenienced Nairobians because “rudini counties” is my rallying call going forward!!
People, of whom I am a witness as I leave Nairobi for Nyeri at 5.30 am on Monday morning, now routinely, leave home as early as 4.00 am so as to avoid the perennial traffic jams plaguing all the roads into the capital city. It is better after all to get to work early and then read your newspaper in the car or office then cool your heels in a traffic jam for two hours. Having been called to Nairobi for a series of meetings some weeks ago, it took me a good 1 ½ hours to my chagrin to cover a distance of 12 kilometers to my meeting a period which would ordinarily see me at Karatina at 7.00 am on Monday morning.
Things in Nairobi must be (as we used to say back in the day) ‘elephant’ because the decision by the county government to team up with the Central government recently to come up with strategies to unlock the gridlocks on the capitals roads and tame the day long traffic jams in Nairobi was long overdue in coming. At this rate it’s no wonder that all negative things associated with slow moving traffic like snatch and grab attacks by thugs either walking or on boda bodas is on the rise as are incidences of traffic policemen out to make a quick buck pouncing on unsuspecting motorists who have failed to buckle up (does one need to buckle up in 30kmph traffic?), are transacting business or are explaining to someone on their mobile phones why they are late for that all important meeting.
I am not entirely sure that the initiative to remove the five roundabouts along Uhuru Highway shall have the needed results given that past initiatives including installing traffic lights and CCTV cameras don’t seem to have worked at all in alleviating even a small amount of the problem. Millions have been spent on worthless initiatives that have resulted in zero progress. It would make more sense if the by passes were completed faster and then the heavy commercial vehicles rumbling along our highways would be forced to use these routes and decongest the traffic along Uhuru Highway which has to some extent been achieved along Thika Road during off peak hours.
But then again save for my wife and daughters and my brothers and their families who live in traffic choked Nairobi, I have little sympathy to the whining and cursing I see on the various social media forums by those inconvenienced Nairobians because “rudini counties” is my rallying call going forward!!
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