26 October 2018 (Friday) - Getting Wet


I slept rather well. I knew I was tired as the alarm woke me. That rarely happens. Over brekkie I watched this week’s episode of “South Park” in which Butters was selling vaping juice to the kindergarten kids.

I got myself organised and set off to my car. I came back for my watch and set off again. I collected the first fruit of my loin and we drove to Rocky’s café for second brekkie. You can’t beat a fry-up. And then on with the business of the day. Fishing!!
We’d decided to try Charlie’s Lakes today. You can see what we got up to by clicking here. "My Boy TM" likes it there. I’m not entirely sure. The place has more rules than you can shake a stick at. When I mentioned where we were going in the tackle shop yesterday no one had a good word to say about the place; or (more specifically) about the pedantic jobsworth attitude which prevails there. I don’t like the “don’t do this – don’t do that” which characterises the lakes, but "My Boy TM" says he prefers fishing somewhere which has that ethos. Apparently it encourages the serious angler and discourages the idiots.
I am reliably informed that I am neither serious angler nor idiot. I (apparently) am “borderline”.

We arrived, we handed over our money and were issued with landing nets. We were not to use our own, nor were we to use our own unhooking mats. We were to use the ones provided. I must admit this suited me. I got to try out an unhooking cradle (I liked it) and at the end of the day the car didn’t stink of fish.
It wasn’t long before we were fishing, and I had a rather good carp on the bank within minutes. And then another. And another. The fish weren’t huge, but on the light tackle we were using they put up a good fight.

Yesterday the weather forecast had said there was a twenty per cent chance of rain between mid-day and two o’clock. The heavens opened just after eleven o’clock. I got my brolly up, but my tackle got soaked. When the rain stopped it dried out somewhat, only to get sodden again in the next deluge.
The rain finally stopped at two o’clock by which time everything was wet through. Bearing in mind we were cold and our tackle was wet (and so was our fishing apparatus) we moved across the lake to a spot in the sun where we might dry out.
This wasn’t quite the brainwave it might have been. I found myself facing the sun and was blinded every time the sun came from behind a cloud. I did hook a *really* big fish, but it got away. That boiled my piss.
So I decided to go for quantity rather than quality, stuck a maggot on the float and went for the silvers. If ever you find yourself thwarted piscatorially I can heartily recommend sticking a maggot on a float and going for the silvers. I caught loads,

Eventually we dried out. "My Boy TM" had received orders from home, and so we packed up and came home. I left my tackle strewn around the shed in the forlorn hope that it will dry out, and I took the dogs for a walk.
For no reason that I could fathom Treacle kept going into the “sit” position every ten yards. Eventually she stopped; I wonder what that was all about?
Just as we got to the Hubert fountain the heavens opened again. Getting wet was certainly something of a theme for today. We came home, I gave the dogs their dinner, and with "er indoors TM" off to a works do this evening I went up the road to forage for my dinner.
Oh, I got cross.

 I thought I might go to the kebab shop and get kebab and chips. And as I would be sharing it with the dogs I would get an extra portion of meat. Kebab and chips and an extra portion of meat. How difficult is that? First of all the people in the kebab shop had a go at me because the meat portion comes in one size. Eventually they got the idea that I wasn’t asking for extra for free, but they couldn’t comprehend the concept of a portion of kebab meat with nothing else with it. I suggested I had kebab and chips twice, but only had chips with one of them. It was when they eventually made it clear that they would do this as a special favour to me (on the understanding that I should be eternally grateful) that I saw red. I told them not to bother and that I would get my dinner from the KFC. “KFC?” they asked. I pointed to the KFC over the road, went there, and waved to them as I walked in.
The people in the KFC had no trouble whatsoever with a Mighty Bucket for One and two extra mini fillets. As I walked out I again waved to the doom-brains in the kebab shop who were looking at me with the most blank of expressions.

We all enjoyed our KFC. I then sparked up my lap-top and started my latest Coursera course. Archeoastronomy. Rather interesting stuff. I found it rather ironic that I should be doing this on the last Friday of the month. Time was I would have been at the astronomy club on the last Friday of the month. I’m learning astro stuff again, but this time without having to smile sweetly at those who make no secret of their contempt for me…

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