Annual Golf Report 2018

I played more rounds of golf this year than in my previous 15 years combined. As I have two young kids at home and something lightly resembling a career, I’m calling this a resounding success regardless of any improvement (or regression) in my game. Despite the success, I wanted to recap the year, look at my game by the numbers, and see how my game has changed if it has changed at all.

AHA beer rankings - Obliterating Taste Buds since at least 2010

In 2011 I began ignoring the AHA beer rankings after it became apparent my walk in beer, and those of my AHA brothers, are following very different paths. After the better part of a decade I am confident that we will never find ourselves hand-in-hand through the flowery meads. I am sure of this fact as I sit here reading the 2018 AHA beer rankings, 7 years after the last time I looked, in pessimistically dulled expectation of little change.

Fall Golf and Lowered Expectations

It is now halfway through November and I have managed to maintain a weekly golf schedule despite our Northwest courses resembling a Louisiana mud pit. And even though November rain in Vancouver is downright oppressive, it has mercifully been dumping its load during the week and clearing up on weekends, allowing me to get out on the course regularly. This being the first fall I’ve braved the weather in hopes of a lowered handicap, I thought I would make a few observations.

Things I will miss about England

The time is fast approaching: in less than three weeks, I’ll be picking up my life in Oxford and moving back to the New World. After all my agony and misery and kvetching about life in England at the outset, I’ve quietly come to love it. People often ask me what I’ll miss about England, with that special wry English undertone that seems to smirkingly say, ‘if anything.’ Well England, there are a lot of things I’ll miss and none of them particularly more than others. Today, on the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee, I’ll celebrate this charming country by listing a few of the things that I won’t be able to replace when I return to my own glorious land.

Fighting Modern Aristocracies or What Occupy Wall Street is Probably Trying to Communicate

The Occupy movement has had a couple of months to organize and communicate its desires, thoughts, and solutions. While I still don’t think there is a coherent set of goals or grievances, and certainly no solutions, there is definitely a passion and belief that something isn’t right alongside general feelings of discontent with the proverbial Bogie Man. Because of poorly defined arguments and largely reactionary (read left wing) ways of communicating ideas, more conservatively minded folks, myself included, tend to roll their eyes when such a spectacle of complaining is set before them. To more traditional Americans, the answer to the 99% (see The 53% Tumblr page) is simple: try harder, work harder, pick yourself up by the bootstraps and quit crying to someone for handouts. But these differences can be reconciled in such a way that even the far right and far left can agree: a common hatred of Aristocracies.

Silly British Design: The Magic Roundabout

They can be found all over Europe and Europeans generally approve of them. To an American, roundabouts rarely make any sense, but in some specific circumstances, it is possible to see the cleverness of them. While weaving through vineyards in Southern France for example, the roundabouts keep you moving as traffic is generally sparse. This is not to say I approve of a road system that requires traffic circles, but for the zig and zag roads that span most of Europe, roundabouts often make sense. But then there are some situations where it just doesn’t work. Situations where adding a roundabout to a junction is kind of like trying to square a circle. A prime example of this exists in Swindon, England. It is by far the most ridiculous and yet oddly magical roundabout ever conceived. My description won’t do it justice, so below is the Wikipedia description of this roundabout.

Criminal insanity as a defence to wounds inflicted during rental process.

We’re in the process of renting a new flat. I’m also in the process of studying for two straggling exams, one of which happens to be on Criminal Law. We received our new Tenancy Agreement and were surprised to discover that it includes what effectively amounts to a £500 move-in fee. At the same time, I happen to be on the “Criminal Insanity” section of my revision. This prompted some timely considerations.

Roma: Great Food, Fantastic Wine and... Terrific Beer?

Our expectations of Rome were those of most people before they go: old buildings, great food, bold wines, long lines, crowded piazzas, and trains full of thieves. What I wasn’t expecting was to be able to find craft beers from all over the world served in the tiniest little beer cave surrounded by Italians watching football pretty much all day long.

Ma Che Siete Venuti a Fa was rated best beer bar in the world in 2010 on ratebeer.com. A quick peek at the top rated beers on ratebeer.com and it is easy to see why this bar topped the list: only one beer came in at 5%, the rest were hovering around 10% with a barley wine topping 15%. There were 10 or so taps with mostly beers from overseas and 3 casks, all serving near-as-made-no-difference ethanol. They also had a decent selection of vintage lambics that looked very tempting, but at 30 Euros a pop a bit too pricey. The bar itself was very cozy and not exactly sparkling, but fit the area of Trastevere quite well. I visited twice and both times the bar was packed with lubricated Italians watching football and crowding the doorway. All stereotypical fans present, complete with the guy in the corner yelling drunken obscenities at the TV. It was an interesting bar to sit and have a few drinks in. While it is obviously very well known around the world, it has somehow managed to remain Italian. So Italian in fact that tourists generally seemed uncomfortable and rarely stuck around for a drink.

Bleroni Cafe

Julianne and I stumbled upon Bleroni cafe in Jericho a few weeks ago while walking into town. It’s a quaint little cafe in a cute neighborhood with good food and great coffee.

The first thing we love about this place is the coffee. It’s probably some of the best in Oxford and it’s sold at a very reasonable price. Second, and more importantly, we can find an American breakfast complete with maple syrup. We were especially excited about this because maple syrup is impossibly exclusive in England. We can buy an equal amount of Scotch for less than the cost of tree sap. So with our American breakfast we get a big American style waffle, bacon (English cuts), and real Canadian maple syrup all for about £5 a plate. While not completely authentic, it makes for a much needed taste of home every now and again at the most reasonable price in town.