I thought I would regret shifting 850kg of decorative stone in a couple of hours on Friday afternoon, prior to my attending a charity fishing match on the Saturday.
As it stood, after a long hot soak in the bath I felt pretty good, but tired.
After falling asleep on the settee, I decided that it was bed time....9pm, 3 hours before my normal time.
Hit the sack, and slept up until 1am, I needed a pee, and then fitfully until 5.20am, just before the alarm. My guess is it was anticipation of the day to come that disturbed my sleep.
The match was at the Alders Farm complex, Great Brickhill, near Milton Keynes, and was in aid of the Willen Hospice. It is commemorating my old fishing pal, John Tipple's death from a brain tumour some 15 years ago.
Arriving at the venue at 7.15am just a bit earlier than the rest of the participants. and eagerly awaiting the Full English, the first disapointment was that breakfast would only be an egg and bacon sandwich!
I have to say it was probably the only disapointment,although it was very good, well apart from the fact that it drizzled down with rain from 10:30, the soaking through kind, and I was unprepared, clothing wise, not even a hat!
After all the intoduction we paid for our day tickets, and our "breakfast in" the on-site shop.
It was there I learned that I needed two keepnets, I had one, close to being thrown out, as I don't use a keep net generally, and the connecter on the top had broken, so not ideal for holding itself open to receive the catch.
So bought a new one for £40, as it turned out, it wasn't my only unforseen expense of the day!
And so to fish, 10 of us all old friends of John.
The walk to the lake was quite a distance, especially for us, well me, not expecting it, down a ridged steep mud slope, and around the back of another lake. It took me a few hits at making the journey arriving at the draw totally knackered after relaying my tackle from a partial drop off point, and stopping to pull up my trousers and to get my breath back.
I learned that I was the eldest, and at close approaching 70, I have to say my much younger fishing companions were not being very charitable to me.
Anyway, we started at 9:45, I had a common carp first bite, comments from adjacent pegs, of "oy you better not keep that up" the fish was about 5 pound and I bounced it off the old net.
1-0 to the fish.
I'd made up a few fish after making sure that the new keepnet was for carp, and silvers in the old net, dropped one more on the net ,which was probably 6 lb plus but continued catching , mostly on worm, carp, tiny perch and one bream.
Then disappointment started to get to me, as the drizzle carried on relentlessly, my hands were wet, and knot tying became a problem, and when will they develope a split shot that doesn't come off with every decent fish, or crimps the line badly if it's bitten on tighter. ...Come on Mr Dinsmore!
To cap it all my polorised prescription glasses fell off my legs in to the murky depths of the swim. Before anybody asks "what were they doing on your legs", I can't see to tie hooks with them on, they are for distance!
The unforseen expense hinted at earlier.
So, it was 1:30pm, I'd had enough, and was dreading the uphill walk back, so I packed all my sopping wet gear, and left the nets in the water for the 2:30pm weigh in.
It was even worse going back, and after a few stops to pull my shower sodden trousers up, and take a breather I made it back to the car...totally knackered.
So after a slow change from my soaked jacket,shirt and plimsolls, back down for the weigh in, in the coat and boots I should have been wearing from the start.
The top weight was close to 178lbs, followed by a 90lb, net.
My result doesn't matter, but I had at least two of the ten weigh in less than me, but we all weighed in.
My raffle tickets were pulled out 3 times, so I have a bottle of Bollinger, and some Latvian cherry brandy, which I may experiment with later.The third, I gave away.
All in all, a good day £300 raised for Willen Hospice, plus some topping up to come from the organiser Paul Scripps employers, Mercedes of Milton Keynes.
I suppose I learned two things about the day, the first be more organised about my tackle, and make my life easier for the unexpected, and the second that my heart must still be pretty good, even if the body isn't after two days of hard graft!
.
See you next time
