Candidate's World Tour - First Leg.

Occasionally, I join those crazy masochists who inflict upon themselves the painful pleasure derived from playing the game of golf. Under normal circumstances its resticted to holiday activity - which is my excuse for the difficulty I encounter propelling the ball in its intended direction. My ambition, as yet unachieved, is to complete 18 holes in less than 100 strokes.

So day one of the 'Candidate's World Tour', which coincided with a big birthday of the candidate's wife, was spent playing the 2010 Ryder Cup course at Celtic Manor Resort, near Newport. It's seriously long and spacious - a 'stadium' course with plenty of space for spectators. Rather fortuitously, my normal strategy of playing a 7-iron off the tee worked out well. All the traps set to catch the first stroke of proper golfers, were comfortably within range of my second. There's a fair bit of water around, but easy to avoid by anyone playing with my lack of ambition. Managed to par one hole though, and I'm looking forward to watching Tiger bogeying it next year.

The 2010 Clubhouse is something else. Would like to have dined there, but we were booked into the Crown Restaurant in the main hotel. Very posh indeed. No doubt George Galloway (who said as much on Question Time last week) would have snarled contemptuously through curled lip that such costly activity was typical of how only Tories can live. Truth is that this special day was a birthday surprise for Mrs D from our four children, and I just happen to be her spouse and driver.

Was very tired (from the first 18 holes) and quite emotional (from the 19th) when Radio Wales rang me about a possible interview for GMW about how dangerous cows can be to people out walking their dogs. This followed the tragic death of a lady the previous day, when it was reported that she was 'attacked' by a herd of cows. Don't know, but I suspect the cows were attacking the dog. I know quite a bit about this subject, having been attacked by cows myself, though never in danger of being killed. They can be very dangerous creatures - particularly some of the continental breeds. My father was once very lucky to survive a savage goring by a bull. He was saved by two of us who ran a big risk by attacked the enraged bull with wooden poles. There is an important difference between the sexes. Cows are driven to attack by a maternal instinct, while bulls are usually driven by a sexual instinct. What was very interesting that the BBC needed to know where I lived, my ethnicity and whether I had any disability. Seems this is now standard procedure. Quotas to fill I suppose. Anyway, other more significant stories led to me being dropped, which allowed a welcome lie in next morning - and needed preparation for the next leg of the Candidate's World Tour.