Lack of activity on the Blog as usual indicates hard-pressed time at work! However just wanted to say how fantastically well Annika played to come second in the Singapore Skins Game. The weekend she is playing in the ADT Tournament which is really the last tournament of the season. At the moment in round 1 she is through 7 and -1, Laura Diaz finished at -3 is the current leader. I have some bets on this one - Sophie Gustafson, currently at -1 and still out on the course and Catriona Matthew not doing so well at +4 through 15! Anyway there is till a lot of golf to be played!

My tech article is now up on the Foxpop website and the link below takes you straight to it!

http://www.foxpop.co.uk/Jornada/solutions_01.htm

Annika is not playing on the LPGA this weekend - instead she is playing in a "made for television" Skins game in Singapore called "Tiger Skins". She is up against Retief Goosen, Jesper Parnevik and Liam Chih Bing (a Eastern Tour player), should be interesting!

A fairly busy weekend with a work commitment taking up nearly all of Saturday! However there will still be some time to taste some wine and I'll post the info later on in the weekend. Also I want to "plug" another book - "Buddha Da" by Anne Donovan which is an excellent first novel written by a Glasgow Girl! She is a work colleague of my friend Sandra Malcolm who's book I shamelessly plugged a week or so ago. Anyway Budda Da was a finalist for the Orange Prize and has just been named a finalist for the Whitbread in the First Novel category. An excellent Glasgow book in the tradition that Jeff Torrington started about 10 years ago of good, entertaining Glasgow literature, excellent story-telling and accessible to all. No mean feat for any Author! Good luck with the competition Anne. Details of the book can be found at

http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/1841953385/qid=1068838690/sr=1-1/ref=sr_1_2_1/202-3843833-1051010

Fantastic news - Annika has won the Mizuno Classic for the third time on the trot with a record (-24) the nearest rivals were Si Ri Pak, Grace Park and Sophie Gustafson on (-15). 24 under par for 54 holes is nothing short of amazing! Even more impressive is the fact that she had no bogeys and no three putts for the 54 holes and no fairways missed on the final round! Good solid result also for Laura Davies who finished on (-9) tied for 13th place. Highest Scots were Mhairi McKay and Janice Moodie both at (-5) and tied at 32nd place. Catriona Matthew disappointingly was tied at 56th place with (-1). Which I can only say was a lot better than I managed over 9 holes today in the mist, rain and gathering gloom. Although there were some good shots off the wedges, and the occasional good tee shot!

I tried the second of the NZ pinot noirs - Dry Gully 2002. Although drinking well now I am sure it will be outstanding in another couple of years - the trick is to be able to keep it that long! It has a lot of ripe berry flavours and is full-bodied. Some of the other NZ pinots that I have tasted have tended to be in my opinion rather "thin" and unappealing even after a good few years in the bottle. Good French pinot from Burgundy have become outrageously priced in recent times and because of the rather archaic form of AC in this area it is often difficult even for those experienced in wines to be able to pick the best ones! Dry Gully is made by a family owned winery, where the vines are hand-tended and organically grown. A lot of the cultivation and pruning is done by hand. French barriques are used, which are smaller barrels than the norm so there is a lot more contact with the wood that in larger barrels. Good light tannins. Thoroughly recommended and can be obtained from my good friends Robin and Damon at SWIG - see link below!

I am delighted to say that Annika is back with a bang!! She is currently leading the Mizuno Classic in Japan by two strokes from Grace Park. Annika - the best Golfer in the world bar none - is going for three-in-a-row with this tournament. Let's hope she is successful, helping her to end this record breaking season on a high. Real Time Scoring for this tournament is available on the LPGA web site http://www.lpga.com/.


Also I want to recommend another book, written by a very good friend of mine - Sandra Malcolm.

Old Scotstoun & Whiteinch

Author: Sandra Malcolm
ISBN 1 84033 266 2
Price: £7.50
48pp


These two densely populated areas of Glasgow have seen some major changes over the past 100 years: the building of the Clyde Tunnel led to the demolition of numerous tenements in Whiteinch, whilst virtually all of the heavy industry ranged along the Clyde in this part of the city has now vanished. Included among this selection of pictures are such unlikely subjects as Balshagray Farm and a group of thatched cottages at the corner of Anniesland Road and Lincoln Avenue, both now long-gone. There are also views of Barclay Curle's and Yarrow's shipyards. Pictures of vehicles made by Albion Motors (once located in Scotstoun), as well as numerous views of the trams that served these districts, plus a picture of an early bus and two railway photographs provide coverage of local transport. Elsewhere the changing face of Victoria Park is contrasted with the streets of solid tenements and sandstone villas that still make up much of modern Scotstoun and Whiteinch.

A really interesting book, especially for those who are familiar with the area. It can be purchased from the publishers web site www.http://www.stenlake.co.uk.

No golf this weekend - too many other things to do and the weather was wet and windy - which of course may have helped if the wind was right to left! Speaking of golf - congratulations to Laura Davies for an excellent finish at the Nine Bridges tournament in Korea - tied in second place at -9, other good European results were Suzann Peterson (she just gets better and better) tied at sixth place at -7 and the ever consistent Catriona Matthew (Scottish, don't you know), at eleventh at -4.
The tech article is still on the drawing board - but I did manage to try the Akura Pinot Noir. I really must revisit all my prejudices about pinot noir in general - but especially about NZ pinots. This is a really good wine. Lots of classic pinot cherry and soft red fruit flavours. It has a really silky smooth taste with a slight touch of spritz on the palate. It is matured in oak with 60% of the oak being new. A really excellent wine now and I think would keep for a few years. Highly recommended! It is available from SWIG - see the link below at a cost of £16 per bottle - excellent value. Next weekend I'll let you know how the other pinot measures up.

I have purchased a new book on HTML programming - so expect a few changes to the Blog!