England 2006

I have no idea how many Vikings that got their act together on this trip, but I think somewhere in the vincinty of 10 or 12. We followed the same success route as the year before, although with a small twist. This time the land of eng was chosen. Since several of our Vikings were no fans of either Liverpool (may their souls rest in un-piece) nor Everton we ended up in Southport, not to far away.

We did land with a bang and were met a very nice colleague of mine from Oracle. She drove some us from the airport, and also joined us for dinner. Later that night Southport hit us with a big bang. I was not only kicked out of one place, but was also denied entrance in one and kick out of another one. Southport is not my city, that I could easily conclude. The first place it was the shoes (see pics), no trainers … I tried to explain that these were hip in Norway, but no luck. Marshal ended up taking off his shoes, send Snippen out to hand them to me. When I put them on, it was all good … until the guards found Marshal without shoes inside. The guards were on us like tanks and threw us out the backdoor. The other two I have no idea what I had done wrong, but looking back at the pics, the skinny guy does not look sharp at all.

The courses the Vikings would conquer or get beaten on this trip was Southport Golf Links, Beacon Park and Hesketh. The first course I do not really recall, but looking at the pictures, I definitely showed up, and I have a wage memory of that massive bunker KlartSvar was struggling in. Beacon Park however I remember a little more details from. This, very nice, somewhat hilly, Parkland course was a little bit of a drive for us from Southport, but the friendliness here was exceptional. The Pro shop and the bar likewise …

We rented carts and I was actually assigned a crazy designated driver. Svennis Junior, that guy is a mental driver. He was speeding around doing slip and slides both on the fairway and in the ruff. When he announced a 360, I fell off the cart with video cam in one hand a bottle of red in the other. The cart was pubic hair from hitting … I rolled over and got up, not a drop of red spilled …. The Mental guy also introduced punishment for missing putts less that two meters. It was a whip with a long branch, hurt like broken heart.

Later on the round we HebbeLille parked his cart, walked over to tee off, and managed to put his ball straight through the bulletproof glass on the cart … Voltaren went back to refill his red, and late in the round he stepped up to tee off with his driver. I politely reminded him that the it was a par three on 135m, his prompt reply:
Check the touch on this driver …..

He did not hit the green 😉

Another one to remember was the beautifully decorated bunker that met us at the 16th hole. What a nice gesture Marshal

After the round we were (mis)treated with absint compliment of form the manager at the bar. Not a great idea to give to this gang of Vikings.

Hesketh golf course, where championship golf has been played since their early days, before the 19-century, was our next test. The course was nice indeed, but for some of us the Tee-off was a bit rough. Marshal decided to hit the drive at the tip of the club and let it drive right into the parking lot nearby. But he did not park there and he actually ended up playing one of his better rounds of golf at the prominent course.

We finished off our stay in Southport at very nice Indian Restaurant (ranked 4th in UK at the time of visit). The food was excellent and service too. We asked the owner if this was the only hot stuff he had, pointing to his Tikka Masala, and his reply was, I do have some other stuff we make at in the kitchen. He brought out some moonshine for us, but that did not convince us. Is that all you got? The manager was all smiles, went back to the kitchen and brought out the “real stuff”.

Another great trip came to closure. England was great, if you had shoes for the occasion.