Welp, it was time for me to return to England and check in on how Ol Blighty’s been doing for the past six months. As always, it’s still there, the Brexit chaos was in full force, and there was work to be done. I started my trip in the suburbs of Birmingham, which is the second biggest city in England (London being first). My day job’s office is in a small business park that’s about as plain as you can imagine in what might be the flattest part of England. That said, it kind of reminds me of home, so at least it’s comfortable for the week.
Olton Golf Club – Solihull, UK
Fortunately, one of my English co-workers is a massive golf guy. Whenever I’m over there for work, we go to his club on Tuesday night for this social event (I’ll explain that some other time). It’s good catching up with the lads (see what I did there?) and sharing our tales to get up to speed on what’s kept us busy for the past six+ months. This particular club isn’t that old – it was only established in 1893. It’s a really neat course, but sadly I haven’t been able to play it the last few trips over. If you make your way to Solihull, England, I’d say check it out!
On this particular evening, Liverpool FC was playing Bayern Munich in a Champions League match so there was a pretty good buzz in the room. It was great having a good ole English football match on and sharing some lager with some golf boys.
Following the golf club, I went to dinner with said co-worker. We went to this Japanese place in “Solihull City Centre” (so English of me saying “Downtown Solihull” that way). I had a Ramen bowl that I’ve unreasonably put on a pedestal ever since. Anyway, the point is, following our dinner I came across a claw machine. Maybe you know it as a crane game? I’d seen these machines in this place on previous trips and kept them in the back of my head. Some people can’t turn down a bet, I can’t turn down a claw machine. It’s not about the prize, but more putting this a$$hole of a game in its place. I will not be defeated. £3 of coins were burning a hole in my pocket. At £1 a play, I was in. After only two attempts, I was happy to report my conquest back home. My daughter has never been more proud of me and probably never will be.
The Belfry
Yes, that Belfry. On my previous trip over, I played the Championship Arden Course at Forest of Arden Country Club which has held some significant European events in the past. It’s a neat little track, but it was during this round that I found out that The Belfry was just down the road. The Belfry Brabazon Course hosted the Ryder Cup in 1985, 1989, 1993, and 2002 as well as lots of excitement and drama. Needless to say, I planned on making sure I made it out to The Belfry for some golf on my next trip. Good thing I came prepared following the guidelines of this post.
We played the SLOWEST round I’ve ever played in England. I thought this country prided itself on fast play? The group in front of us were absurdly slow (like 2-3-holes-behind slow). We got all of the important signature holes in, but ran out of daylight. Frankly, the course itself was pretty underwhelming.
The signature 10th is a super cool hole with visual appeal, but easy to manage. I had the most absurd and undeserving par in recent memory on it too. Whatever, looks the same on the scorecard. There are a few other cool holes, but otherwise it’s easy to tell that this place hosted the Ryder Cup because it could accommodate a ton of people, supporting infrastructure, and is easy to access. Either way, it was fun to add another Ryder Cup course to my list. I had fun with my co-worker and it’s always good to play some golf in England.
BrewDog – Birmingham, UK
This was my last night in town for work, so we went out as a team in Birmingham City Centre (man, so English again, don’t get too impressed). Long story short, I found out Birmingham had a BrewDog a few years ago and fell in love. Now that’s just where we go when I come over, and it’s great. Nevermind that the place is simply cool, but it has a more familiar “feel” like a bar I might go to in Chicago so it’s comforting after a week being a fish out of water.
We had a good time, drank some great beers, ate some wings, and shut down the bar. As I was saying goodbye to my Brummie BrewDog friends (yes, they know me because it’s not every day a gross Chicago accent rolls through there), a guy next to me started asking the bartender if a beer on tap was made with “Citra hops.” No one I know over there cares or knows what a Citra hop is so I knew he wasn’t from England. I turned and said as much to the gentleman and asked where he was from. He said, “Hamburg, Germany. Where in America are you from? And please, let me buy you a beer.” My two new German friends and I took our beers and finished the evening with my group before hopping in our separate Ubers.
Return to Readman
If you read this site regularly, or follow our social media, you know we’re close to the Scott Readman Concepts crew. Well, I’m not going to make a trip to the United Kingdom and NOT see everyone over there. On Friday, I hopped on a train from Birmingham and made my way down to Bristol. After a long week, it was comforting to step out of that train station and see my buddy Scott waiting for me.
I always get a kick out of my first few hours with the Readman & Co group. We usually make a stop of some sort to pick up food or beverages (on this trip I got a massive Red Bull to wake up) and then head to SRC HQ. This time around, I walked in, said hello to Emma, and we sat down and I was issued my itinerary for the weekend. (Not really, we just discuss what’s in store for me for the next couple of days.) This is usually when I see new SRC products or ideas in the works, find out what projects I’ll be working on, and some of what will be coming home with me. Close friend of the team, John Butler, had also dropped in. It was great to catch up with him as it had been awhile since I’d last seen him.
After chatting for a bit, I walked over to my accommodations, which are literally right next door. This gave me a chance to freshen up, do a little work since the Chicago office was now awake, and gather what I needed for the rest of the night. I made sure to bring the most important items of the trip – the pairs of Levi’s I brought over for Scott. Apparently Levi’s are as coveted as gold bars in England!
My SRC Project
When I sat down, Scott was excited to show me a new idea he was working on. It was a Damascus rectangle he stamped up and painted as a test. He had a second one that was blank, but had a hole drilled in it by the aforementioned John Butler. Scott explained to me that this was my project and would be would be a keychain when it was done. As usual, Scott intended for me to stamp this thing, but listen, hanging around Scott is intimidating when it comes to freestyling designs and actually stamping them. He’s just that good and you don’t want to embarrass yourself. Naturally, Scott got a crazy idea and stamped it out in no time. The rest would wait until tomorrow.
A Night at House Readman
Apparently there is nothing remotely close to graham crackers in England. As such, I was asked to bring a box over for my English “mates” to see what they were. So I brought that box over, we picked up a bag of marshmallows (they were the size of baseballs), some Cadbury Dairy Milk (milk chocolate bar), and headed back to Scott’s house. Once I arrived I received my annual tour of bedrooms from Scott’s children to see the latest updates in their toys and decor. From there, I went on to build some Legos for them as well.
We then had dinner courtesy of Scott’s wife, Ellen, and sat around the kitchen area chopping it up and yelling various song requests into Alexa. This routine continues for the rest of the evening and we all inevitably think our song requests are either the most hilarious or the most profound in the world. I should also point out, Alexa hilariously struggled with fairly easy-to-understand English accents. My smooth American Midwestern-neutral accent was clutch for translating song requests into “real” English for Alexa.
After dinner, I fired up a burner on the stove and put on a master class in making S’mores. If I’ve contributed nothing else to society, I’ve introduced S’mores to the people of Bristol, England. Not gonna lie, a S’more with Dairy Milk instead of Hershey’s is no joke. Following approximately a thousand S’mores, a couple of drinks, and John Denver songs courtesy of Alexa, it was time to call it a pretty late night.
My Last Day in the UK
After a long week of work and running around, I look forward to Saturday morning at my apartment in the Bristol countryside. I finally get to sleep in! After a good night’s sleep, I woke up, got my act together, and the SRC kids were already at work at HQ. When I got to HQ, Scott and Emma had Only Fools and Horses playing on the computer and were hard at work catching up from my distraction of arriving the day before. After a few quieter hellos due to being exhausted (we’re too old to even fathom staying up late these days), I sat down and got to work on my keychain.
About halfway through my paintfill work, John Butler popped in again. This time delivering the “clip” for the keychain and inspecting my work. John and I then went down an American culture rabbit hole as he has kids living in the States. After a good few hours of trying different paint colors, not liking them, removing, repainting, cleaning up, I finally finished. All that was left to do was to soften the edges which I did when I returned home. Since my trip, Scott has completed more of the Damascus keychains and you can find them on their site here. They’re pretty sick so check them out.
I had seen the putter above on the SRC Instagram quite awhile before my trip alongside five other putter heads. All of them looked really nice, but this one particularly GRABBED my eyeballs. When I got over to the UK, this was really the first time I had seen a finished IKB1 and this one certainly didn’t disappoint. Let’s just say, we made a few ridiculous trades between the SRC crew and myself and the putter head came back to America with me. You can read that review here if you want.
As I’ve stated before, poking around the SRC shop is always the best. At the least, just to see what crazy new ideas Scott or Emma have come up with. (Shout out Chicago flag on the wall, btw.) It’s especially fun to stop by the work bench and see the “in progress” putter heads and whatever else is being stamped or ground.
That picture above just shows you how Scott’s brain works. I don’t know how he does it, but the work is always impressive. One particular putter on the bench really caught my eye this trip. While it’s not my usual style, I found the “Play Time” putter below that was still in progress and totally blew my mind. Maybe it’s a bit crazy, but it’s a brilliant piece of work.
Whoever gets their hands on that putter will own what is easily one of Scott’s biggest efforts and will have an extremely unique design.
I’ve mentioned in another post that part of the Bush family I come from used to own a place called the Upton Inn which is nearby SRC HQ. For my last night in England, we went there for dinner along with Ellen Readman and Emma’s parents. Nothing crazy, just a nice meal talking about the usual random things you do at a dinner table. That was the best part of it. It didn’t feel like a spectacle for the touring Yank, but more like a routine get together amongst friends and family.
Following dinner, Emma’s parents returned home and the rest of us made our way to Oldland Village Club. This is where I was first introduced to Snooker and became the legendary player I am today. On this particular night, the place was packed with an “assorted crowd” watching what was essentially a one-man band playing the hits of the 50s and 60s. A quick update – I’m actually still absolutely terrible at Snooker. We eventually grew tired from our Snoooker efforts and finished the night at Scott’s quietly yelling at Alexa for a few more songs. I eventually made my way back to my apartment to get two hours of sleep before heading to the airport for my trip home.
Final Thoughts
My first part of the week when I make these trips to England feels like a marathon from the second I get on the plane. Don’t get me wrong, we make the most out of the week between work and after hours, but it’s a grind. Once I get down to Bristol and get around “normal life,” everything finally starts to feel more settled. We just do normal things, hang out, have a good time, and make the most of our 40 hours together until whenever next time is. The reality is, it may be a year or more before we can do it again, but whenever that next time is, we’ll fall right back into it like we’ve never left. It’s not remotely about the golf at this point. It’s about the relationships and experiences together, and I’m grateful to have these people in my life even if they are 4500 miles away.
