Latest Entries »

Greasy Pigs

Filed under: Other bits and bobs — Leave a comment
April 15, 2016

It turns out that in the fería of El Sahugo, a town near Salamanca, they have a tradition of carrying out a “slippery pig” competition. This involves covering a piglet in grease and getting the kids to see if they can catch it. Whichever kid manages to catch the slippery piglet gets to take it home.

But then the animal activist people started making a big noise and claimed that the spectacle was “degrading to animals” and the town hall has been fined over 1500 euros and forced to ban the event.

Jesus! What´s up with these people? Is nobody allowed to have fun any more? Does everybody think the same way now? This whole story prompted me to make a brief poll of the views of my own students. I explained the background to this story and asked the student what they thought the right thing to do was. All but two or three of the 20 kids I asked just said “ban it” without a second thought. View full article »

Read More & Comment

Do fish play golf?

Filed under: Fish and fishing, Natural history, Other bits and bobs — 3 Comments
April 10, 2016

Perhaps it never occurred to you to ask this question but the answer, to the best of my knowledge, is no. Fish do not play golf. The question arose yesterday in my Science lesson with Year 7 and was in response to some interesting commotion taking place in the fish tank at the back of the lab.

First, let me tell you a little about the fish tank. It is about four feet long and has one pretty sizeable fish in there, a species of pleco. The pleco is one of a small number of common aquarium fish and I understand that our one is Hypostomus plecostomus, a nocturnal catfish which is native to South America but has been widely introduced elsewhere.There is also a bunch of goldfish which found a refuge in my tank when the school pond was drained for refurbishment. The pleco must be about a foot long and a lot of people have questioned whether it is a good idea to have such a big fish in a relatively small tank.  View full article »

Read More & Comment

Getting a fishing licence

Filed under: Fish and fishing, Other bits and bobs — 6 Comments
April 6, 2016

If the world were a simple place you would get a fishing license by going somewhere where these things are sold and saying “can I have a fishing license please?” And then having handed over the necessary fees you might expect to be able to walk out with the thing in your hand.

But things are not so simple here. This is Spain and, of course, Spain has elevated bureaucracy into an art form. View full article »

Read More & Comment

Back from the river

Filed under: Fish and fishing, Fishing reports — Leave a comment
March 29, 2016

I spent the morning digging out a septic tank and the early afternoon in a tussle with Spanish bureaucracy and so the few hours on the river were appreciated more and usual. There were a few barbel around but they they can sometimes be pretty jittery and today they were easily spooked. In the end I had to work quite hard for the three I eventually managed to bank. View full article »

Read More & Comment

Goats, helicopters and flying saucers

Filed under: Fish and fishing, Fishing reports, Natural history, Other bits and bobs — Leave a comment
March 27, 2016

There is a lot to be said for goats. They wander round in flocks ringing their little bells. I bump into them on the river all the time and yesterday after I was done fishing I followed a herd back to the car where we parted company. I don´t know how many there were and, frankly, I had better things to do than count the damn things. This is not an easy job anyway. They move around a lot and so you could end up counting the same goat twice or maybe miss one completely. This is a job best left to specialists, in my opinion, or to insomniacs who find the counting of ruminants helpful in ameliorating the stresses caused by sleeplessness. View full article »

Read More & Comment

Big fish in a small pond!

Filed under: Fish and fishing, Fishing reports, Folks I know, Other bits and bobs — Leave a comment
March 18, 2016

I heard from Dave Felce a little earlier today and he told me about a fine pike he caught. His words describe the circumstances better than mine and he was kind enough to allow me to reproduce his account below, together with a photo of the fish and its captor…… View full article »

Read More & Comment

Off like a bullet

Filed under: Fish and fishing, Fishing reports, Natural history, Other bits and bobs — Leave a comment
March 12, 2016

I had no time to go fishing yesterday but went anyway. I figured I needed to be home within an hour and that the journey to the river would take 10 minutes, then another 5 minutes to tackle up, and then another 5 to reach a broad shallow where you can find the odd carp. And of course the return leg would take just as long. All of this mental arithmetic was carried out on my way to the river and the upshot of it all was that I would have only a few minutes to try to catch anything. It didn´t matter a jot though. I was going fishing anyway. View full article »

Read More & Comment

Pippa´s Poem

Filed under: Folks I know, Other bits and bobs — 2 Comments
March 11, 2016

If you don´t want to witness the pathetic spectacle of some bloke gushing over his daughter´s achievement you better look away now……. View full article »

Read More & Comment

Me in my little red dress

Filed under: Other bits and bobs — 5 Comments
March 9, 2016

I was ambushed a few weeks ago by a bunch of women who made their way into my lab. They were on the lookout for some bloke with Celtic blood who could be coerced into wearing a dress onstage and taking part in an Irish dancing routine.

Why they should have chosen me remains a mystery. I have no co-ordination or grace to speak of ,and I am nothing to look at but I do tick the boxes as far as gender and genetic provenance are concerned. In the end I did what I always do when surrounded by domineering women; I meekly acquiesced to their demands. View full article »

Read More & Comment

Fishing report of 5 March

Filed under: Fish and fishing, Fishing reports — 2 Comments
March 6, 2016

Fishing is an odd business. Nearly every time I head out to the river I witness something curious and yesterday was no exception. As I was making my way downstream to ford the river I came across a suitcase and a couple of bags on the side of the river on the edge of a dirt track. And then I looked across to the other side where a man was walking across the shallows carrying a woman. Seeing no good reason not to wade across myself we met in mid river in water shin-deep and greeted one another before I went my way and they went theirs. View full article »

Read More & Comment