Done and Dusted

I don't play golf, and I don't watch golf, but I like sports journalism so I read enough about it to know some of the names of the leading players, the major events in the calendar, and a bit about how the sport is organised. For two years now, it has been riven by internal conflict because Saudi Arabia paid some of the world best golfers tens of millions of dollars to leave the professional structures under which they played in Europe and US and, instead, play in a new competition funded by the petro-state

Today, in an announcement that has come as a complete surprise to all the players, administrators and journalists involved in the sport, the leaders of the European, US and Saudi organisations have announced that they are joining forces in a single body

There will be obfuscation, spin and veneers of probity, but the reality is that Saudi Arabia has today bought world professional golf - all of it. Overnight, without any consultation, professional players (many of whom have been vociferous in their loyalty to the existing organizations and passionate in their condemnation of the oil-funded breakaway) find they are now part of a sport that is run and funded by the Saudi state

Given my disinterest, I'm not sure why I find this so breathtaking. Something to do with the power of money, I think. We all know that enough money can achieve almost anything, but it is not often that it is demonstrated so clearly, brutally, shamelessly and brazenly as this. I suppose it's a bit like a public beheading

We spent the day doing what I said yesterday we would do. We now have a large white food-grade container almost full of honey. Its capacity is 40kg, but we don't have quite that much; a good haul, nevertheless. I tested it, and the moisture content is very low - below 16%. That and the low temperature meant it was viscous, making it hard work to spin the extractor and persuade the honey through the filters. Some of it had already started to crystallise in the comb; some of the crystals come out with the extraction and help to block the filters too. Oh what a sticky and fiddly time we have had! You might say it was a bit frustrating, but not as bad as golf