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| Yes that is ACTUAL sun |
My dad LOVES the golf. So it is ironic that a few days after i book us a trip to St Andrews, we discover that the VERY SAME WEEKEND, the Irish Open is being held in Newcastle. He was devastated, but being my dad, he does not like to show his devastation. So instead, i suggested we visited Newcastle before the Open took place and we ended up holing up in the Slieve Donnard. Which is not a bad place to be holed up at all. We did not plan to stay, but when we got there my dad was so carried away with all the photographs of Rory McIlroy that we checked into the hotel. No luggage, no toothbrushes, nothing. But it was GREAT fun. This is the view from the room - we did not get the seaview, but the course view, which was far better, of course.
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| Here we see everyone getting ready for the open |
It has been a long long time since i had been at something like this. I think the closest i have gotten in recent years was possibly the Balmoral Show. Yes, i know. But in the past i had taken part in several of these things as a civil servant. It is interesting to see it really hasn't changed much. There was lots of marquees and signs and really, a surprisingly large media centre. And hoardings. And trucks. They are expecting 20,000 people. I hope Newcastle has done a traffic plan. I think the golfers are arriving by helicopter.
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| Oisin looking good |
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| We had adjoining rooms |
It was most interesting this hotel. First, it is a very nice hotel. Really, it is. The brickwork, the dining room, the view...the grounds. Then the artwork. Most hotels have this completely bland artwork in the rooms, but not this hotel. They had proper artwork. Really nice linocuts of scene around Newcastle. I wanted to go into every room and ask the guests if i could look at the pictures. The place was immaculate. They had cleaned it to an inch of its life. If there was ever a time to visit Newcastle it would be now. The place was buzzing. In Lidl, we had to get some toiletries, everyone was so happy. There was a painter who was buying two six packs of Carlsberg, who was chatting to the cashier who was obviously a mate of his at the checkout. The painter was covered from head to foot in paint and it looked like he had been painting continuously for the last six weeks. It felt SO NICE to be around such happy people.
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| Our bedroom |
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| Ghin post shower... it was warm enough for us to feel sticky! |
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| We head for dinner |
All the grass had been cut to resemble a golf course. People were mowing lawns which had been already mowed. It was very funny. All the bedding plants were new as well. I wonder why it is, that when people have the opportunity to plant real plants, they always choose the ornamentals? The other day i was having a mini rant about the use of ornamental plants. What is the point of ornamental plants? They have such little wildlife value, they just sit there all year round, looking more or less the same, and they are such a bitch when you are composting them. Then they are mostly impossible to kill as well. Sigh. It is dreadful becoming old and angry.
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| A rare non selfie shot of me |
I wondered about the history of the hotel.Looking at it i said to my mom it was either a mental institution - like a sanitarium, OR i was purpose built as a hotel.Don't be stupid, my mom said, it can't have been a hospital. Well, i said, in the past people used to be sent off to take in the airs, so it makes sense. It turns out it was a purpose built hotel.
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| Fourty-five years of wedding bliss |
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| Oisin thinks about juggling knives |
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| The hotel from the dining room |
I love eating but i do not enjoy set meals nor buffets. Because it just seems pointless to me. To be that full.
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| I have to say these sculptures were all over the hotel |
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| Sculptures of people flinging themselves about |
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| This was very funny - the boys doing the same thing |
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| Ah, the Mourne Mountains |
The quality of the beach at Newcastle is extremely suspect. That no one really swims here says it all. Still it does look very nice...
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| My dad, still trying to get the shot of the boys jumping off the statue |
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| One more time... |
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They put this fence up around the beach... now people in the hotel cannot get to the beach.
It was very funny... the boys tried to get to the beach and they could not...we had to leave the hotel to
do this. It is sort of an inverse snobbery.
Normally in Asia they cordon off the beach and the hoi polloi can't get in. |
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| Open skies |
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| Breakfast at the Oak dining room |
There were about 200 things to eat at breakfast. Pastries, cold cuts, porridge with whiskey and bread and a whole Ulster fry. The coffee was amazing and the staff were so nice. My parents spent the entire time telling me how nice everyone was. I said, yes, i know. One of the great things about living in Ireland, that people go out of the way to be nice to you.
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| Oisin managed to drag himself down for breakfast |
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| They are so cute |
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| Le familie |
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| After breakfast... |
After breakfast i said to my dad, you wanted to take a photograph - what is it that you want?
Well i would like to have a picture on the golf course.
Which is closed.
Yah, so can we go to the pro shop.
I call up the concierge. What's the craic with the golf course. Can we get in?
Well yesterday they told me to get off the course because if i was injured the insurance would not cover me. (I see that Health and Safety mania is alive and well in Newcastle, its a golf course, FFS, not Kilauea.)
So we can't go onto the course.
You can try, but it is closed... the hotel and the course are different entities.
Sigh.
So i say, i can see the entrance to the club from my room. Can i walk there?
Yeeees... but i think it is closed.
Is it? OK, thank you.
The words blagging your way in enter my mind... for my dad... yeah, Why the heck not?
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| At the entrance of the club |
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| Rory who? |
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| I had no idea that a Duty Free could sponsor a golf tournament |
The world of golf is a very strange one. The landscape of the golf course is completely artificial. The grass is so short that it looks like it has been gone over in a No 1 shaver. I really don't think much wildlife exists on it. I did see some bees buzzing over some trefoil which had been overlooked. Apart from that, this pristine, sterility was mostly prevalent. I hope that one day there will be a trend towards natural courses, just like there is a trend towards natural pools now.
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I told my dad that if anyone asks you, just say that we are going to the proshop
The truth is that if you act like you belong, they will think that you belong |
The best shots are on my dad's phone and when the expedition was over he was so happy. I said to him, even if you did attend the Open, you'd not have managed to get all those shots. So it was a great trip to Newcastle which looks fantastic and my dad got the hotel staycation with the boys which he wanted.
Next week, St Andrews.
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