76 days ago
Gary Newman is on a fishing holiday in China hence his absence from this site. But he has just posted this photo of his first big catch, a 77 lb 12 oz black carp.
806 days ago
Pro tem there are no articles from Gary Newman as our man is in Uganda doing his day job as a fishing journalist. Anyhow, he has posted this photo he took of David Lenigas wallowing in the AIM sewer, I mean, of the wildlife diversity spotted as Gary tries to catch a fish. I invite you to supply a suitable caption in the comments section before midnight tonight. Do not hold back.
1214 days ago
The day is looming when I must consider my New Year’s Resolutions. It is no great shock in that my top few are all to do with being a little bit, no a lot more, healthy. Spending those last couple of weeks with Dad and his death, covid, the second big lockdown here in Wales, the new baby and now Christmas have not been good for my health. The large Christmas jumper given to me by my mother in law is a little tight. I am all too aware of what needs doing. I am 53 in two weeks time and I have a one month old baby so I need to up my game in the healthy living department. It is all very well me considering plans for wind down and retirement but you have to live long enough to get to spend more time with your children and goats.
1233 days ago
You may have noticed that Gary Newman is not filing a lot of copy. His wretched and pathetic excuse is that he is on his day job as a fishing journalist and is out in the field, or, to be precise, the seas offshore Kenya. And in case you think anglers always exaggerate when it comes to size here is our man with a sailfish he caught earlier…
2184 days ago
The new words are being learned thick and fast now. I cannot remember from days gone by how much a 19 month old should be speaking but the Mrs and I agree that Joshua is very clever. We disagree from which side he gets the "very clever gene" but you, dear reader, know that it is mine. Not all words sound quite right. Joshua's fave character in his favourite TV show and book, is Gorguan, or as you might say Gordon in Thomas the Tank Engine.
2184 days ago
Once again no fish were in the slightest effected by my fishing. That is no shock but the Mrs, myself and Joshua enjoyed our week by a lake in sub 10 degree Sweden, about 20 miles from Gothenburg, where the Mrs used to work and knows a lot of folks.
2560 days ago
Having explained to the nice lady who runs my favourite restaurant here in Kalamata why I had to turn down a free ouzo she expressed great sympathy about the plight of a man with type 2 diabetes. And thus, having finished my grilled octopus and black eyed peas and mountain greens, I was presented with a bowl of soup.
2564 days ago
As one heads down the Mani towards Kardamili, the village one on from Kambos is Stavropigio. It has just a few more Brits than Kambos as it is, objectively, a bit prettier. I am thus happy to stay in plain old Kambos. As one leaves our neighbouring village a small turning off the main road to the right is the old road to Kardamili. There is now no practical reason at all to use this road and more or less no-one does.
2564 days ago
After my sedentary Easter Sunday I was determined to make amends with a perfect display of type 2 diabetes virtue on Bank Holiday Monday and thus having skipped breakfast I picked up my car and headed out to the Greek Hovel. There were wildlife encounters as I explain here and that must have seen me sweat off a few pounds. Indeed my 36 inch trousers are not very obviously starting to fall down. I must, every now and again, hitch them up to spare my blushes.
2570 days ago
Yesterday was a day of two halves. First the good type 2 diabetic. Raw oats and a small banana for breakfast was followed by a fishing expedition. The Mrs and i walked to a small deserted harbour about a mile away so that I could put the rod borrowed from our host, Bjorn, into action. No kidding, he really is Bjorn from Sweden.
2572 days ago
The main purpose of this holiday is for the Mrs to meet up with a series of her friends from her time when she worked as a sociologist here in Gothenburg. Not a lot of people know it, but the Mrs is a fluent speaker of Swedish and is thus, as I write, yakking away in a wine bar in town about the evils of capitalism, Trump, patriarchy etc etc etc. Meanwhile, myself and, almost seven month old, Joshua are in a small rented house on a small, very windy and bloody cold, island somewhere out to sea.
2614 days ago
I have mentioned my Godfather Vicious in another context elsewhere, that is to say his tendency to fall for lesbians, something that has somehow passed on to me. During our time at Butterwell farm Byfield when I was a young boy, Vicious was in a "between lesbian phase", that is to say his wife who much later became a lesbian had left him as a fresult of his own naughtiness, but he was yet to hook up with the mother of his daughter who then left him for another woman.
4142 days ago
Labour MP Paul Flynn was not on my radar until today when he tweeted out to the 5,699 imbeciles who follow him: “Hunting toffs are livid. They thought they were above the law that they manipulate. Vote for compassion with your cheques to RSPCA.” That says it all. For Flynn it was not the “inedible” he was trying to protect but the “unspeakable” who he wished to persecute, driven by nothing other than class envy and hatred.
The RSCPA describes “foxy woxy” as one of Britain’s best loved mammals. I remember it as the vermin who killed our chickens and geese when I was young. Foxy woxy killed not just one to eat but would leave a trail of destruction if he entered the coop. Foxy woxy is a vicious killer. Roach and perch yanked out of a canal are not vicious killers but they suffer what cannot be a pleasant experience (for them) purely to give (predominantly) non toffs pleasure. Flynn and the RSCPA have not campaigned to ban coarse fishing.
Personally I would ban neither. But then I am not a twisted individual driven by class hatred. Revolting bigot that he is, Paul Flynn is just that. And as it happens Wilde was wrong. Foxy woxy is edible. If anyone manages to kill one please send it to me at Real Man Pizza and I shall cure it and cook it and invite readers of this blog up for a special meal. Wild was also wrong about those who hunt. Drawn from ALL classes they are and were generally decent folk. Unlike the tossers that are Paul Flynn and those who run the RSPCA.
For the record: I have never fox-hunted in my life. I do fish. And I would say that I am comfortably middle class. Certainly not a “toff.”
