Way's World

Sunday, 30 October 2005

I had a driving lesson...

but it wasn't in a car.

I went out to Iford Golf Centre today with my Dad & my cousin, Tim - they're both keen golfers, whereas I'm not a fan of the game at all. The driving range however seemed like it could be enjoyable...

As you can see, Iford have an under cover driving range which was ideal, as it was raining quite heavily. We each bought a bucket of balls and found three bays next to each other on the first floor of the centre.

Last time I went to a driving range you had to manually place each ball on a tee, but here you pour your bucket into a hopper and it feeds one ball at a time onto an automatic tee - no bending involved whatsoever! Tim gave me a few pointers, but other than that I just whacked the hell out of each ball - it was great fun, and I actually managed to get some half decent drives in every now and again! I even bought a second bucket of balls, so I must have been enjoying myself...

It was a great way of killing a couple of hours on a Sunday morning, and very therapeutic. It's also probably the most fresh air I've had on a Sunday for a long time!

Wednesday, 05 October 2005

How much??!!

As I mentioned in my last post, Perfect Alibi are playing a 15th anniversary gig in Southampton. My mate Rob sent me text yesterday asking if we were still going, so I said I'd look at getting tickets booked over the internet.

I clicked on the "buy tickets" link on the Southampton Guildhall site and it took me here. The tickets are £15.00 regardless of where you sit or stand, so it seemed straightforward enough. I said I wanted two tickets and clicked through to the payment page... where I was told there was a booking fee of £2.25 per ticket.

Now, I understand that the ticket agency has to make money, but really... If I picked the phone up or turned up at the box office, I would have to speak to a real person (thereby costing the company money in wages and so on), but by booking online I'm doing all the work myself!

Anyway, such is life, so I accepted this charge and carried on through to the next page, which asked how I was going to get my hands on the tickets. I was given two options - have the tickets mailed to me by registered post (costing a further £5.00), or alternatively I could pick them up from the box office... for just £3.00!!!! I was gobsmacked! I was being asked to pay to turn up and collect tickets that I'd ordered myself! They've got to be kidding!

Today I had a word with a rep at work who works in the Southampton area - he's going to stop by the Guildhall and buy two tickets for me with cash - saving me at least £7.50... what a palaver!