Sunday 16 December 2018

Fed up with Brexit

I'll begin with the fact that I did not get a vote and had no say either  way on Brexit.

Mark Twain said something about " if voting ever made a difference, they wouldn't let us do it." 

Brexit is that case in point. UK establishment didn't want it to go that way, neither did EU. What's the point of a parliament now? Scrap it, cut the pretence of democracy and appoint the major generals (or more likely EU commissioners) to run the country.  They might actually divert some money away from London to where it's needed.

Monday 5 November 2018

Bonfire Night

The books that need to be in paperback are now in that format. It's been a long time since Fishing Trip came out in ebook form, but it has been with the wait for the colour plates.
The nice thing is that the Amazon publishing is truly a free service. Printing on demand seems so sensible. There's no wastage and books unsold being buried or sold at some discount store just to offload them.
The next novel is in the process of being written. It's a romantic novel. Well, that's the plan. I'm trying to adhere to the guidelines of the Hallmark channel and publishing house, which should be a feel-good book that anyone can read without offence.
The idea is to have it ready for submission in February.  If it doesn't get accepted then it can be reworked and relaunched with all the bile added that is being pent up without a pirate story to vent it into.
I'm not sure I want to do another pirate story. I thought that Protective Craft was ended permanently.
The Amazon paperback route is nice if there are colour plates inside. I may redo Teaching Overseas with them after I leave Kuwait and do another update.  The world of teaching and working around the Middle East has changed rapidly in recent years, and I'm not sure if education itself doesn't need a complete overhaul to fit with the modern world.
That sounds like the rant deserving of the bile building up.
And so, gentle reader, what has this all got to do with Bonfire Night?
Not much, apart from the date of writing, and the desire to throw things on to a bonfire, but as it's chucking it down with rain, it wouldn't burn anyway.  There is some lightning to make up for the lack of fireworks, but that's it.

Monday 22 October 2018

Back to Chatton - Fishing Trip 2018

Another summer vacation and Holly and I head up to Chatton Trout Fishery again for some fly fishing with Bob Smith.  She caught the sole fish on our last and her first visit and experience of trout fishing with a fly rod.  This time it was my turn.  It was a return to the adventure of the book Fishing Trip - An Introduction to Fly Fishing and Trout (Kindle ebook and now 5"x 8"glossy paperback ISBN 9781729146149 for £6.35, and hardback).  However, this was no early morning session.  It was a civilised drive in the late morning for a post-lunch start.

View from the car park
Bob was a little delayed in his arrival at the venue so Holly and I had lunch before doing about 15 minutes unsuccessful fishing before Bob arrived.  We saw a tiger trout swim past our feet a few times while we waited. 

This was the first Rainbow caught
The Fritz patterns I usually start with were not attracting anything.  
Bob arrived and we walked over to the upper lake at its far end where the spring enters into deep water. This was local knowledge coming through.  It had been a low hot dry summer to that point (as evidenced by the parched soil in the photo above), and the fish were deep in the cool fresh spring water.
Bob suggested a small hook wrapped around with copper wire.  Bang!  First cast and as the intermediate line began to sink past a count of 20, the fish hit.
So it continued, the line sinking deep with various pheasant tail nymphs, wire nymphs and olive nymph lures all sinking close to the reeds where the spring fed in.  All in all I had about 7 on and allowed them to come off the hook prior to landing to speed the catch and release process, (and avoid getting the hire car smelling of fish from my hands).
Holly had one on and lost it with Bob's help but he had a floating line and the leader wasn't really long enough to get down to the depth of the feeding fish.
We had a good session and all too quickly had to get back to home and farewell to a lovely spot where NO English (Environment Agency) rod licence (available online or at local post offices) is required as its part of the River Till catchment area feeding into the Tweed.