My brother Sean will turn 51 this month. Whenever the opportunity presents itself he leaps off the wall of the pier in Knightstown on Valentia Island. It is the Atlantic we´re talking about here and, even in high summer, the sensation of jumping into deep water is something like having your balls rapidly immersed into a flask of liquid nitrogen. Continue reading
Category: Other bits and bobs
I guess at some time or another every one of us has found ourselves at shit creek with or without our paddles. Maybe some of us have even fished there. I think I have. From what I recall the fishing there was disappointing to put it mildly. Continue reading
On Wednesday of last week an old fishing buddy of mine, Norman Smith, passed away. It came out of the blue and we are all still shaking our heads and wondering what the hell happened. Yesterday I joined his family and friends for a service at the cemetery of Coín which was given by a lay preacher of the Church of England. I sat at the back of the room and, at the opposite end separated from us by a glass partition was Norman´s coffin. On our side there was a large photograph of Norman. In this picture he was looking particularly pleased with himself and why would´t he be? After all he is cradling an enormous carp. Continue reading
Our ancient dog Brutus had to be put to sleep yesterday. For several days his movements had been severely restricted and for the last 48 hours or so he was unable to get to his feet and spent most of his time sleeping. Continue reading
If you read this blog you will know that the thing is written by some bloke in the south of Spain and that it is largely built around the subject of fly fishing. This may well be true but the blog, for me, is the closest thing that I have to a diary and I am using it here to record an event which may have little significance for others but that means a great deal to me and to our family. Continue reading
I fished yesterday evening with Frank Huisman who is one of our graduating students this year. We teachers may not be supposed to have favourites, but of course we do, and Frank is not only one of mine but of pretty much all of his other teachers as far as I can tell.
One of the reasons we like him so much is that he´s very smart. He always gets A grades in his exams and, naturally, we teachers like to take credit for our input. The truth is he would probably have gotten the same grade if he had been taught by a cardboard cut out of mickey mouse. Continue reading
Around this time every year the school yearbook is put together and someone comes knocking at my door asking for my contribution. My area is Science Education and so the that will always be the focus. When it was done I sent a copy to my daughter Pippa who looked over it and said that it was, in her view, one of the best things I had written. She told me to post it on the blog and so, after giving it a little thought, I have decided to do so. Funnily enough I wrote this in the morning and in the afternoon the news came out about Trump pulling out of the Paris climate agreement. It seems to make it all the more pertinent. Anyway, here it is if you are interested……… Continue reading
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