A bit of a milestone guys in my journey, as since starting writing about my drink issue I have reached two months of sobriety again. This is the point I fell at last time. But I am ok and indeed stronger now.

And that’s a big bit of it. Feeling stronger, better, fitter, slimmer, more clear headed, less cornered, free. And that’s a nice place to be. Days are more structured, I do more, I sleep better, I enjoy my morning coffee more and I am very glad not to be thinking about an alcohol high so much. So onwards.

It’s probably helping that I am having such a great time meeting wonderful people on my tours. I had an incredible group of Canadian teenagers who were across to do their sketch show at the Fringe. We went up Arthur’s Seat and had great fun. The kids were so inspiring, engaging, amusing, respectful and very good young people. Their teachers too were very impressive.

I went to their show which was excellent. They wrote and performed it all by themselves. And there was not one prima donna amongst them. They all had confidence and mutual respect. What an advert for their school and for Canada.

I had such a fun Singaporean group again on my food tour this week and they were hilarious. I love their way. There are no barriers amongst them and they have this easy sense of humour and childlike quality which is very endearing and makes for many laughs. This is an impressive country.

But oh America! Deary deary me.

Executive power is being exploited and unfortunately the constitution is not up to it. The pardon powers and the emergency powers of the executive, Supreme Court giving carte-blanche immunity to the sitting President. And now, John Bolton, being raided by the FBI! Ghislaine Maxwell purporting to be a credible witness for Todd Blanche! all while we are on the cusp of mass starvation and a genocide going on in Gaza. Lies and lies from Trump who now wears the most crass narrative on his immensely stupid-looking baseball cap, which says ‘Trump was right about everything’. It’s children’s playground stuff and staggeringly unbelievable that this has been allowed to happen in America.

God forbid!

It’s like being a passenger on a state of the art Boeing dream-liner where you have the most sophisticated systems imaginable and every technical facet has been covered to the nth degree. But there is just one thing the techs, the founding fathers, maybe didn’t consider enough. The trust you need to have in your pilots and your president. Without that everything falls.

Donald Trump is the pilot of the free world at the moment with his cohort of motley and very shady and underhand crew. Unfortunately we are in the air and all of us are onboard.

And I am not sitting easily.

‘God get me a train’

On a more positive note my man, Marco Penge, won the Danish Open last week and now has a chance of a Ryder Cup place. I saw him at the practice ground at the Scottish Open before he hit the media’s attention and he stood out from the others with his beautiful and powerful swing and I have been following and betting him ever since. I was lucky in that his wife was standing next to me at the practice ground that day and told me what his name was. He looks a lovely modest guy and he certainly has a lovely and beautiful wife.

I have now made my mark again on the golf scene in St Andrews after I nagged them to change their Old Course Ballot booking system for confirmations which they have now done. So I have now been instrumental in getting a safety net on the practice area, Tennent’s lager back on tap at the Dunvegan and will be lobbying now for no-smoking signs in the practice bays. The Links Trust must love me and I feel a wee proposal of R@A membership might not be a million miles off.

Fare forward passengers.

There are worse things in the world than playing golf. It has been a huge part of my life since way back to my early years. It probably got me into St Andrews University. It kind of defined of me for a bit and now at the ripe age of 63 I am more engrossed than ever with this game which is certainly doing no harm to my present job as a tour guide. Golf is big business.

Ok I was probably too obsessed with golf at an age when I should have been getting more out into the world and having more of a balanced outlook. But it is what it is and I have got rather an obsessive personality trait. And there are worse things. Much worse.

Alcohol for example. Yes as you all probably know, my relationship with alcohol has been rocky. A thirty year rollercoaster which I think I am just getting off. And it’s a relief.

I always remember being on a train journey in my mid-twenties and having this very interesting chat with this lovely elderly gentleman who was telling me all about his grandkids and his life. And I remember so distinctly his words to me ‘I wouldn’t preach about anything except alcohol’

This drew my attention then but I never quite got it as compared to how I get it today with the wisdom of age. This was heartfelt, experienced, true. This man had been through a lot.

And so have I now and I am in a happier place without alcohol at the moment. It feels good. There is nothing nagging me all day, preying upon me. That is such a positive. And long may it continue.

But oh the state of the world! America, Gaza, Ukraine, Donald Trump, stupid bewitched people. Liars, cowards, betrayers, fat-bellied sycophants.

Truth Social. Fake News. Madness on the streets of America. Children starving in Gaza and Trump turning a blind eye because I have a hunch that he wants his glory tower and golf courses and real estate Riviera more than a Palestine state and a right and proper solution.

But there is no right and proper in Donald Trump’s world. It’s all about show and the big game and shouting loudest and winning at whatever cost and by whatever means. His reputed 19 golf championship wins and very low handicap speak volumes. As any person worth their salt will know this is false. As any honest person will know what is really being enacted on the world geo-political stage. And it’s the biggest con of our lifetimes. And it’s being played out every second across the worldwide web and it’s a game-show farce, it’s poker playing with starving children’s lives. A deal at any cost. Because it’s seemingly all about the deal remember.

And we watch in utter dismay. The lies flood in like the tears of Palestinian mothers trying to keep alive their daily-dying children while American funded bombs fly overhead, and Israeli hostages are being unimaginably tortured in the Hamas tunnels. An almost 2 year long nightmare.

However I feel the tide is now turning. Like in the Reformation when a kindly 82 year old school master, Walter Milne, was burned at the stake for his beliefs about marriage in the clergy. A line had been crossed.

Yes. Enough is enough. The veil is being uncovered and it all stinks to high heaven. All good Americans must act now and get rid of this abomination of a president. Otherwise it’s the end of America. And who knows what else.

Be true to yourself. Let the truth come out.

It goes from bad to worse with some of our golfers. First Poulter beaming away in the Oval Office thinking he is clever and the big shot. Then Bryson joining Trump’s regime and now Lee Westwood claiming that he ‘thinks Trump is a nice person…’

Deary me Lee. Why?! Because you are a good golfer and this gets him excited and he invites you to Mar a Lago to play and is respectful to your family? On this basis you think he is a nice person. Have you not eyes and ears and some sort of brain? Some understanding of world politics and what is happening in the States? Do you know what this man is doing to the world order? Do you think he cares more about starving children than his plans for his future Riviera in Gaza? Trump a ‘nice man’? No. Come on Lee get a grip man.

It’s funny not drinking. There is a sort of detachment from others and their involvement with drink. I went past a friend celebrating his birthday and indeed bought him a drink. But I felt glad that I was not partaking. I saw the next morning only too clearly.

I was missing out undoubtedly on one level. But that’s not for me now. I can’t do that anymore. I am ok with that. I went for a swim in the sea yesterday and it was wonderful. Health is my priority now. Eating well and losing some weight. Yes I got a fright last time I was drunk on a few levels. It twigged that this was getting very serious for my system. It was alarming. I think this has changed me. But it’s been a culmination of a long, long series of falling. And that’s why it’s such a gradual process to get there. I think on average they say it takes 10 years to get there. It’s probably taken me 20 to get where I am now. Anyway onwards.

I played the best golf I have ever played the other day in a competition at Mortonhall. This is thanks partly to the wonderful teaching of Fraser Dunlop but also to my present sober state. I am a better me.

I just can’t believe the state of America though. The Epstein affair and Ghislaine Maxwell meeting with Todd Blanche and on her way to a pardon. It’s crazy. You wouldn’t believe this could happen. But it is. What a tragedy is unfolding.

Anyway keep your spirits up everyone and try and be true. It’s a critical time. We need true people.

On a lighter note I have got a ticket to see Paul Merton on Friday at the Pleasance and am really looking forward to it. Must try and get front row seat. I think he is funny, genuinely funny.

Fare forward passengers.

I see Dechambeau is the latest recruit to the Trump brigade. Oh deary me. Mind you he never looked the brightest spark in the box. I suppose he is good looking in the full-on American kind of way that Trump loves and admires above any sort of moral compass or possessing many brain cells (Pete Hegseth immediately springs to mind). So Mr Dechambeau now joins the farce of the present American government. More later but first to my golf.

It is truly getting there after my great lesson with Fraser Dunlop at Mortonhall. I just have to get my takeaway sorted and have adopted a Nick Faldo drill (Apologies Nick I should say a Sir Nick Faldo drill) I had this Damascene moment (no I should say Emmaussian now!) on the 6th fairway of the Old Course.

I am feeling rather proud of myself as I have made it to 5 weeks on the wagon and am in good shape. I have had the odd random thought about a nice glass of red but I have soon shut that down. I am eating well to compensate and doing more sea swimming. This journey is taking on more positives and I am reaping many benefits. I sleep great and people sometimes comment on how well I am looking. This doesn’t hurt the cause. I had a meeting with a counsellor the other day and that was positive. I still dream of being able to enjoy very nice wine at the right place and the right place. But that won’t be for a long time if at all.

On a very different note I now have a chance to play real tennis at Falkland Palace after playing golf yesterday with lovely Kevin who is the captain of the club there. I have always had an inclination to try this. It’s rather an antique game going back to the early medieval French court and was brought here by James V in 1530. Rum stuff.

But oh the world and Trump! Oh my goodness. It’s stunning that so many Americans have been so stupid and skin-deep and thoughtless and gullible to vote this guy in again. How on earth has this got to this stage? The travesty in Gaza! Ghislaine Maxwell on the way to a pardon to scape-goat Donald over Epstein! The duplicity is staggering and so blatant. It’s a clown show, an evil corrupt, mercilessly sycophantic regime with no soul. A Republican party which is lost to money and greed and outlandish levels of deceit. How can they do this? look themselves in the face, be parents of children? pretend and pretend and pretend in their smart suits and ties and polished lies. Cover-up shamelessly for an ogre. And turn their faces from starving children and this colossal injustice.

‘God get me a train and get me to Grantchester again’.