1 october 2012, ryding the wave

After a long break: the words "european" and "inspirational " in the same sentence, as europe monumentally come from way behind to win golf's premier event, the ryder cup. Uniquely, ryder pits those two old world titans, the us of a and europe, against each other, and I have always been warmed by this very rare non-political instance in which europe is enthusiastically embraced across the patch as a national identity. I am not one of golf's bigger fans, but yesterday as I went about my business, entertaining and feeding my sister and family for lunch, ferrying the kids to and fro, looking after my mother, doing chores and then crystallising an analysis of stockport town centre's future, I dipped intermittently into what became a great drama unfolding during the latter part of the day. Maybe it was a bad night's sleep because I drank too much coffee, but I was almost in tears with the emotion of it when I listened to the triumph on the radio in the morning, with seve looking down and all that. Wonderful.