Top Golf at Chigwell

At the weekend whilst Tina was catching up on some sleep me and the kiddies decided to head over to Chigwell for our first attempt at Top Golf. The drive over there brought back many memories as I drove past my old Nan Pugh's road and then Hainault Park which we visited many times in our child hood.

We timed the visit perfect and managed to get a box straight away (assuming we went on the ground level, the upper boxes where was a wait of 5 groups). The set-up is pretty cool where you all over your own basket of "chipped" balls which you scan before striking and then get points based on distance and accuracy to the various flags. Holly was given her own set of Junior clubs to use and then within our box there was a normal and light weight set of clubs for the adults to share.

Holly really struggled initially and didn't score in the first round for about her first 10 or so goes. Brandon had a mega slice in the first round which took some adjustments to correct, but by our second game he was hitting some decent shots. Josh was actually pretty good and despite no warm up swings he would often hit the ball pretty straight and a reasonable distance (until he started messing around doing one handed overhead swings he had seen on Tik Tok!).

Anyway I ran away with it smashing them all in the first game. The second I decided to spend the first half of the game going for distance and hardly scored anything due to hooking the ball really badly. Holly was scoring more consistently in the second game but it was Brandon who ran away with things as he really started getting in to the swing of it.

Holly enjoyed Top Golf and has been asking to go gold for ages, but she did struggle to score initially.

Despite poor tekkers Josh hits the ball preet well.

Brandon took a bit of time to make some adjustments to lose a really bad slice.

The power of the big man in action.

Holly perhaps wasn't dressed appropriately for the activity in hand!

Brandon got better and better as the game went on.

Brandon gets the win on the second game with a score of 67.

But Joshua possibly could have won if he didn't mess around doing one handed swings.

Me and the kiddies at Top Golf.

Lovely day out, nice lunch, good fun - just a tad expensive for what it is!

London Stadium - Monster Jam 2023

Around 6 years ago now we took a long weekend to Cardiff in Wales staying in a caravan as part of a trip to watch the US Monster Jam show. The boys were somewhat younger back then and Holly was too small to enjoy the show, so it was just me and the boys whilst Tina entertained Holly. Ever since then we have been waiting to go back to a Monster Jam show as a whole family and this year we was fortunate enough to accomplish this as the 2023 show was being held on the sacred West Ham football pitch at the London Stadium.

Things have certainly changed with the boys since Cardiff. Gone are the days of buying them some popcorn and a soft drink, now it is super expensive ciders and hot dogs!!!!! Joshua seemed really uninterested in the show from the outset and just looked like he wanted to go home to play GTA. Brandon enjoyed it and me and him had some good petrol head discussions. Holly was a little bored at the start when we was waiting for the show to start, but she soon started enjoying it once the roar of the Monster Trucks deafened the stadium.

The format was much the same as Cardiff with the trucks all racing in pairs during a knockout stage for the first half of the show. This was won by the new Iron Man Monster Jam. After this there was a skills event where each truck had two attempts to pull off a skill. This was where the OG Monster Trucks came in to their own with Grave Digger performing well and just being beaten by Maximum-D. Then the final round each truck has 2 mins to just "send-it" freestyle and the audience votes scores on an App. Again the OG trucks proved their prowess on the freestyle with my favourite Megladon along with Maximum-D and Grave Digger showing the new trucks how it is done.

Two or three trucks tried the elusive back flip and all ended up trashed and being towed off the arena. Megaldon also ended up scrap after finishing it's 2 min freestyle run upside down on its roof. The OG "El Toro Loco" was a bit of a let down throughout the show and neither me or the boys were really impressed with the new breed of Monster Jam's which included Black Panther, Spiderman, Iron Man and Thor. Clearly these themed trucks have been brought in to bring in a new audience, but to be honest I would have rather seen Zombie, or Monster Mutt myself.

Our beloved and sacred West Ham football pitch is unrecognisable for the Monster Jam show.

Boys were too busy drinking their cider to pose for a picture.

The show starts and the OG Grave Digger leads out the noise.

My favourite and pick for the day - Megladon.

The new breed of Monster Jam - Black Panther, Spiderman, Iron Man and Thor.

The OG's - Maximum-D, Megladon, El Toro Loco and Grave Digger.

Megladon is drawn in heat one against Maximum-D.

All lined up and ready to start.

The one and only Grave Digger getting some air time.

El Toro Loco looked fantastic, but definitely had an off day.

Grave Digger was pipped to the post by Iron Man in the final of the racing.

Great shot of Megladon hitting some air.

And another.

And more, yes this is my favourite truck so lots of pictures.

Maximum-D leaving it all out there with a back flip in the freestyle round.

Another Magladon picture.

Maximum-D put on a great show as always.

Megladon performing an end over and driving on it's front wheels.

Grave Digger went on to smash the freestyle and win the Championship for the day.

The champ.

Suppose I should show some pics of the new breed - here is the Spiderman one.

Holly's End of Year Picnic

Despite working nights and not getting enough sleep, Tina made a top effort to attend Holly's end of year school picnic and even managed a smile for a picture. Unfortunately it fell on a day when I was in the office and that meant I couldn't be there myself. As you can see from the clouds and Tina's fleece, the hot summer days have abandoned us slightly - but at least it stayed dry.

Everyone says these two look so much alike, I just can't see it myself.

A very tired Tina spending some quality time at the school end of year picnic with Holly.

Joshua Awarded for Effort in ICT

It is not often I get to write about academic achievements with Joshua due to his general laziness and lack of effort. So you can imagine my surprise today when he came home from school with an award for effort in ICT given to him at the end of year assembly. Apparently all of his mates and himself were equally shocked when his name was called out and the head of year thought they had made a mistake and went up to check the name in the certificate in case they had the wrong person. So whilst we should be proud of this, the reaction from his mates and the head teacher kind of says everything really.

Brandon's Year 10 Options Confirmed

Good news for Brandon last week with confirmation of his Options for going in to Year 10 and he has got all 3 of his first choices which were Statistics, ICT and Geography. Never in any doubt that he would get his first picks, but nice to have confirmation. Now the hard work begins and he can hopefully go on and smash his GSCE's over the next 2 years.