Hankley Common Golf Course - Farnham
Today Rob and I walked about 11 miles playing golf. We did not add a single mile to our cause. Although there are other forms of 'fun' we are experiencing in our real 1000 miles this felt much too much like real fun for it to be part of our campaign. What a fantastic day though. It seemed easy getting up at 5.30 for this one and driving 75 miles round the M25 to get there for the start. This is a charity day organised by AXA Framlington who are kindly donating the profits from today's event to our charity. Gary Duudman at AXA Framlington has been arranging a charity day at Hankley Common for 10 years now. It is always well supported by people in the City and Gary does a great job raising a lot of money for worthy causes over the years. We are immensely grateful to Gary and AXA Framlington and very appreciative of their contribution to our campaign for hope for people with MS.
The weather was amazing. Sunny but with one of those breezes that just makes you feel perfect. Rob and I would normally be playing golf at least once a week through the summer but 1000 miles has taken all our days and we have only played a couple of times this year as a result. The golf course is fantastic. Opened in 1897 it was then remodelled by James Braid in 1922. He designed Sunningdale and there are many similarities. Tree lined with the fairways shaped by heather and gorse. Pleasing to the eye from the tee and when you are on the fairway and immensely frustrating when your ball is in the middle of it. The advice learnt so many times is when in the heather play simply out to the fairway and get on with the hole. Anything more ambitious invariably puts you in deeper trouble. Probably similar advice applies in life.
We had hoped a friend Paul Tasker could join us. He had gone to great lengths to free up a day of his busy work schedule at Fujitsu to be with us. He had not foreseen that his vacation to Australia and Singapore would be extended by two weeks with his inability to return. Instead of returning April 20th the earliest he can get back now is May 4th as the ash keeps him in the queue of returning passengers. Instead we had Andrew Spier replace him. Andrew is Rick's son and at University in Nottingham. It was a great four ball. For some reason when there was confusion over what a ball 'leaking to the left' meant to Rick Rob took this as a signal that Rick was a great arbitor of understanding English statements. Somehow Rob saw Rick as the arbitor of what it could mean when you tell someone you are 'on the other side of the bridge'. Readers who have stuck with us will have remembered the difficulty Rob had understanding this statement when we were meeting up at Elstree Station. Finding someone else who has difficulty with a clear statement like 'it leaks to the left' gave Rob a soulmate to be able to share the agonies of confusion with. 
12 holes of golf in the morning and 18 in the afternoon, a wholesome lunch and traditional English dinner was enjoyed by over 80 people. Prizes given and Rob's thankyou speech well received by the audience. Fantastic support AXA Framlington ....thank you very much from all of us to you and all your guests.
Long drive home, failed to answer intelligently any of the three questions Karen asked me on return and fell asleep. Wonderful day.
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