I was suffering from the flu last week (still am) and we had a 6am start for golf on Saturday, so a quiet night was had on Friday, with a couple of beers and one cigar. I went for a Hoyo Epicure No 1 which was picked up in the airport at Luxembourg. They've got an OK selection at the airport and the cigars are good condition too.
The selection for international travelers is much better than what's available for those traveling inside the EU. I say this because I spent a good 15 minutes trying to decide what I wanted, only to be told I was looking at the wrong side once I spoke to the man. Left side for international flights, right side of EU flights. Judging by the amount of cigars on the right side, either the EU smoke a lot more cigars than their international cousins, or maybe Luxembourg caters for more internal EU flights than external.
Whatever the reason, it didn't take as long to make a selection on the EU side, due to the fact that there was bugger all there to choose from. Some Partagas and Hoyo's made it back to London that day. The Hoyo is a nice cigar, this one was good enough if a little tight. It never really got going and felt tight all the way through. It also needed relighting several times but a cigar in the garden, with my Dad was all that mattered, and the cigar was good enough.
We set off early on Saturday morning. I was up and about by 5am, not being able to sleep due to a one sided nasal blockade.
I got my Dad up around 6ish and we were on our way by 6:45am. The weather was good, with a nice breeze and lovely sunshine. Perfect weather for golf.
I won't go into the nitty gritty of how the golf went. All I say is that it was a storming victory for me and the biggest defeat of his life for my Dad. Maybe it was the clubs, once described by the Father in law as "ladies clubs" but my Dad said the clubs were fine, although he did come close to snapping them a few times. So with a 20 point gap on the last, it was game well and truly over. The Dad's golf clubs were on loan from James Bloor of http://wrenotherstuff.blogspot.com/
When we got home, we had a fry up and a pot of tea waiting for us. Lovely Irish sausages, pudding and bacon all brought over from Ireland and all eaten in a blink. After food, we were off to do a bit of sightseeing and walk off the food.
The sights seen and the food walked off, we dropped off the ladies and the baby at the house and myself and Dad legged it for a pint and a cigar. The venue was the Water Poet, which is across the road from where we lived for the first 5 years in London. A nice pub, with pool tables, TV's, nice ale, good Guinness and a large beer garden at the back, where they also do barbecued food. We found a table and set about enjoying the Guinness and I got my cigar going.
This time it was a new cigar for me, a Rafael Gonzales Coronas Extra, which was lovely. A full bodied Cuban cigar which tasted great and felt solid in hand. It did require a few relights but was pretty much perfect throughout, with a good burn and decent draw. Definitely a cigar I'll look to get more of in the future.
The rest of the weekend was lovely, we had trip to London zoo on Sunday, another sunny day so all in all, a great weekend.
I'm looking forward to September when we're back home again for more golf, more fry ups, more Guinness and a wedding so that should be fun.
Good news for those of you who were looking forward to the trip to Billingsgate and the magnificent seven cemetery. We've set a date so hopefully I'll have good story to tell sometime in the next three weeks.
Fast forward to this weekend and everything so far is going well, considering the weather. Two cigars so far, and if you've been watching the Open golf, you'll appreciate how much rain has fallen today. Not that this has bothered my man Miguel Angel Jimenez, who not only enjoys his cigar's in the rain, but also does his warm ups with a lovely looking Cohiba stuck in his mouth. What a man, and he's Spanish, the best kind. Here's the link to him limbering up. http://tinyurl.com/5wm36bq
So in honour of Miguel, I've had a Cohiba today while the wife was out shopping\babysitting with the 3rd batch of relations who are here to stay this weekend. Ciaran (Wife's brother) and Fiona (Ciaran' wife), and Ina (Wife's sister) are all here this weekend. Ina arrived over from Austria with 2 sticks for me which I'll report on in next blog. Ina is a champion blogger who can be found at http://socialbits.net/blog/
Another golfer who loves his cigars is Darren Clarke. Darren is currently top of the leaderboard on day 3 of the Open and as a fellow Irishman, I'm obviously cheering him on.
A quote from Darren's website..."my all time favourite cigars are Hoyo de Monterrey Double Coronas and I usually buy them in Harrods in London. Rotella's books are brilliant! Cheers, Darren."
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| The Hoyo |
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| There's Grandad |
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| The Gonzalez |
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| Donnacha and the penguins |
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