Morgan's on the prowl, look out Tiger

After only his 4th competition, Morgan is on the Golf European Money list after coming second in the last junior competition of the summer at Parque da Floresta Golf Club. Although his 10 euro winnings is not enough to get him into Colin Mongomerie's Ryder Cup squad, he was absolutely over the moon to be in the prize money for the first time.

My friend Bob's youngest sister was 50 last week and she had a BBQ to remember.
Bob is the eldest of a large family originally from The Wirrall, Liverpool. Various brothers & sisters and their children came over from the UK and one brother, Brian came all the way from Australia to help "Our Cathy" celebrate.
Bob being "the organiser" had set up a pig roast for the barby and the fun was to kick off at about 4pm. We thought that we would give it time to "warm up" and arrived at around 4:45pm.
We had only been there a couple of minutes and hadn't even had time for a first drink when we were introduced to the pig roast. The pig wasn't up to saying a lot and looked pretty browned off with the experience as his master, "Carlos the roaster" was happily basting away. What hapless Carlos hadn't realised was that he had set his roasting equipment a little too close to the foliage of the adjoining garden behind a dividing wall. Still with no drink in hand, I asked, is there someone next door also having a BBQ on the other side of that wall", as I could see flames and plenty of smoke beginning to appear.
In a surreal moment from jokingly looking at the fire over the wall, we quickly realised that the whole place was about to go up in flames. Within a matter of seconds the tinder dry bushes was up in flames as everyone scattered fetching anything that held water. The nearest thing at hand was a number of large plant pots which of course had holes in the bottom and when filled with water emptied before we could get to the fire. A hosepipe was quickly found, but I could have peed faster that the water emerged from the end of the pipe.
Carlos the roaster with mobile phone in hand was by now dialing 112 and summoning the Bombeiros.
In between time, the flames were getting higher and higher, from somewhere, proper buckets appeared (without holes)as people filled them from the swimming pool and emptied them onto the flames. By now the fire has really taken hold and the buckets of water were doing little as people were unable to get close enough to throw the water due to the extensive heat.
Suddenly a large fire extinguisher appeared, followed by another and then another, just as the sound of the bombeiros sirens could be heard in the distance.
Wielding one of the extinguishers, Alan, a brother of Bob tackled the flames which were now over 12 foot high. Amazingly after a quick burst, the extinguisher did its stuff and along with the other guys wielding their weaspons, the flames seemed to be out and under control, only for the odd ember to simmer and relight. By this time a proper hosepipe with more pressure was on hand to dowse the remaining flames and completely soak the surrounding areas.

On the left a Bombeiros fire fighter, or is it a taliban terrorist, checking out the damage,

At this point the bombeiros cavalry were on hand just as the flames had been put out.
As you can imagine, Portugal being a very dry country (mostly) and is always on high alert at this time of year for any fires that become a problem. The next thing we know is that we have really hit the jackpot as there is a bombeiros helicopter above scouring the area immediately close by for any sparks that have blown further afield. The helicopter does a number of passes as he relays the information to the bombeiros guys below.
By now we also have a compliment of police who have arrived and are looking for those responsible.
Fortunately, one of the guests is solicitor Maria Dias who is quickly summoned to the investigation to help Cathy explain. This seemed to have a calming effect on the proceedings as the police were seen to be occasionally smiling, always a good sign but probably as they had handed out the fine ticket.

Hapless Carlos on the right, tries to explain to the Bombeiros why he put a pig roast with open flames next to dry undergrowth and over hanging trees.

By now its just after 5pm and everything is under control.
At this point, the man who always likes to be in control, my friend Bob, suddenly arrives at the party, wondering what all the fuss was about. The only comment he could make was, "I thought this was a birthday party, not a house warming".

Happy Birthday Our Cathy.