Able Magazine

Last week a magazine I’ve never seen before popped through the letterbox… it’s called Able. What a very interesting read! There are lots of inspiring articles and stories about disabled peeps like Nick – some of them are even as gung-ho as him!!

I loved the article about “Crips don’t get pregnant, do they?” most of all, as it really highlights the way people look at families with disabled members. (I probably could have worded that better, couldn’t I?LOL). Why shouldn’t we have kids and lead a “normal” family life? I do think sometimes that we have that awful Victorian mentality here in Britain: Sex is still ‘dirty’ and a taboo subject, disabled people should be shut in a room and not spoken about in ‘polite society’ – now there’s a misnomer if ever I saw one! Polite society?!!

Anyway, if you get a chance to read a copy of Able, I’d recommend it as educational and entertaining – also a very useful source of information for families like mine… Well done the team who put it together. *Claps*

Calling Lady Anglers!!

Hello Ladies!

This is an open invitation asking any other anglers’ wives to come along and submit a guest post to me, for publication on my blog. There must be a few of you out there who have something to say/write, so why not do it here, on an already established blog.

I want to hear your views on anything fishing-related, including how you feel about your hubby’s hobby – whether it’s positive or negative; whether you fish or not; whether you’d secretly like to learn or have a go at fishing; anything you’d like to say…

So come on, leave me a comment, send me an email: admin@reels-on-wheels.org  Get in touch and have your say!

Filing is fun…. (NOT)

Filing is soooooooooooo boring. Three hours spent filing yesterday felt like a day in a mind-funk. How people can do that for a living beats me! I also managed to lose a month’s paperwork, but compared to a year’s papers neatly stored, I’m sure I’ll cope with finding that today.

On the fishing front, my man is camped out at The Manderson Trust trying to rid their No. 5 Lake of a rogue catfish – about 5 feet long – which in all probability weighs in excess of 70lbs. It has devastated the lake’s 1500 head of bream and we think it has a ‘mild’ case of “Rod Rage” where it has been hooked frequently, but never been landed.

After sitting there since Sunday, I asked Nick if he was bored and he said No! He says it’s a challenge… They have been devising strategies and tactics over the past 2 days and trying out all sorts of elaborate rigs, etc. I am very confident that if he can only hook it, he will land it. He is a very experienced Cat-man! The last Wels he landed (with my help!), weighed 165lbs, so I’m pretty certain this one’ll be just as much fun!

Speaking of beasties… look what we had to deal with over the weekend: An ELF in the bathroom and slugs bonking in the garden – not much point gardening when they’re reproducing on my lawn, is there? (Mind, that’s an assumption as I’m no biologist…)

   Yuck! Big isn’t it? About 4″ long (10cm).

And the slugs were as thick as my middle finger… ewwwwwww!

Family Fish-In!!

We had a lot of fun today – fishing!! DD made us get up at stupid o’clock to go to ElDorado where she’d caught loads the first time she fished with a pole (whip!); we got there early, tackled up and she went to sleep in the Bus till I woke her at 9am!! Alright for some, innit?!!

She set up and started fishing but didn’t get instant bites, like the previous time and all I could hear (being in the next swim, it was hard NOT to hear her) was, “Oh dear, my swim is dead, my fish are dead, my float is dead…” Moan, moan, moan! Like a good fishing Mum, I did my best to encourage her and she did try (my patience, bless her!), so I went over and plumbed the depth where she was fishing… when I adjusted her float, she remained unconvinced – until she caught the first orfe-let!!

I think maybe she thinks I’m a ‘proper angler’ now, because I DO know what I’m doing!! Anyway she proceeded to fish for the next 4 hours, almost without a break and managed to catch 100 fish!! Okay, they were all small – around 1-2oz – but she stuck at it and thoroughly enjoyed herself… Here are a few pics of her in sequence as she chooses the best maggots for the job; baits up; watches her float diligently; unhooks her fish carefully and then poses for the camera!

     To be perfectly honest, apart from the occasional ‘Barbie’ squeal when one hit her in the face on the way in (*grins*), she was a complete star and we were both extremely proud of the way she fished – bearing in mind she’s only fished properly twice this year!

I had a lovely 8lber on my new carp rod, which was given to me as a ‘first’ carp rod of my own, by Claire and Julz (from reels on Wheels!) and my baitrunner and bite alarm – also pressies from them, were fab! I’ll put my pic up tomorrow – wouldn’t want to steal DD’s thunder now, would I?

Wow! My DD fishes too!

OMG – strike me down with a feather… DD’s caught the bug too! We were at El Dorado again on Wednesday of this week and DD decided that she’d like to try fishing with a 4m whip. We thought it’d be easier for her not to have to cast on rod and line, get tangled, etc. etc. She took to it like the proverbial duck to water and caught 39 small orfe, rudd, roach during the couple of hours she fished… I think it was all about quantity that day!!

Having said that, she sat between us and I had a really good day, too. Some lovely carp and plenty of rod-bending action! They were slightly bigger and less frequent, but DD wanted to touch all those she saw us land and have her pic taken with them! My best was this 6lber…. and the following pics are of her!!

That’s a pretty common, innit? DD with a baby rudd…

And DD holding one of my carp!

Carping on…

When I posted last week about someone not being happy about the proposed Reels on Wheels safari, I unintentionally started a photoshop explosion on our forum!! Some of the members have been getting creative with their software programmes…

Here’s what Julz and Claire made me! I think it’s great, apart from the hairy legs

My apologies to the angler in the original pic, but this was too funny not to share!!

Miserable Monday…

What an awful day! So much for flamin’ June… where’s it flamin’ gone? After an intensive meeting this morning, I feel wrung out. So much information to absorb and so many bits of paper to sign – oh woe is me!

We’re going to Bideford tomorrow to meet the journalist who’s doing a piece on Nick, Reels on Wheels and the Buddy System for the Telegraph. It looks (fingers crossed), like we may catch a tiny break in the weather. The forecast for tomorrow is cloudy, with sunny spells and scattered showers during the afternoon… so not too bad.

I’m out to catch fish and now that we’ve re-spooled the reels and put black hydro on our poles, I won’t have to worry about losing any more decent fish – if I do, then I’ve forgotten how to play my fish and it’ll be down to me!

I’m sitting here at my keyboard listening to Pink’s new album – a present from my lovely mate Leeza, who’s never too ill to care what’s going on in our lives. She and her husband Stewart are both registered disabled and she really should use her wheelchair more than she does, but she’s a stubborn girl… (could be why we get along so well!!)

She and Stewart have been super supportive since day one of the Buddy Bus Road Trip and are crazy people. They regularly give out leaflets to their family/friends and  organisations they have connections to – eg. Dreamaway – a local charity which enabled them to go on their honeymoon shortly after they married.

To meet them, you’d probably think, ‘Nice people, a bit nuts, but nice enough!’ Well, you’d be quite right – they are more than a bit nuts, but the salt of the earth: The kind of people you really want in your corner if your back’s to the wall.

Oh well, come rain, come shine, bring it on! I’m going fishing – woohoo!

Woohoo!

What good day I’ve had!! Posted 3 lots of leaflets off to anglers, posted a surprise package to a friend, had a demo of the ultimate travelling fly rod set-up and then managed to Paypal enable all the items on the Reels on Wheels Shop!! Yay! Thank you Freewebs for uploading everything so quickly and making it all blonde-friendly!

So, there’s a Donate button on the front of the shop, the cards, caps and keyrings can be ordered online and I even have time to go and craft for a while. It must be the first time in a few weeks that I haven’t felt harassed or too busy to get away from the PC and just do something for me… what a relief!

The caps look like this, by the way:

Neat, aren’t they? We have had 22 posts from anglers who’d like to buy one, so we’ve ordered the first 50 and hopefully they’ll be delivered before Nick leaves home to go and fish the South Cerney National Angling Festival. Fingers crossed!

If you want to Donate to Reels on Wheels because you think it’s a good cause, but don’t want to purchase anything, please use the Donate buton on the website or the front page of the ROW Shop. Thanks for your support!

On the up and up again!

Well after yesterday’s low, Nick’s feeling good again. We had a lovely time with Nicola and Pete – it was good to see them again after such a hectic few weeks… she also opened one of her pressies and the card I’d made her! I think she was happy with them – she did love that card!!

The altered photocube went down well too, although I expect she’s wondering how I did it, as much as liking what I did – suffice it to say, some things are best kept secret!!

This is it, before I varnished it!! I used matt varnish, but glazed the top so that the Diana and sabbats were highlighted. This had to be my most ambitious altered project to date and I may well send Marina an e-mail to thank her for her inspiration – after all, I have been inspired by the images on her stamps to create some lovely cards and projects!

On a different note, I am so touched (we both are), by the generous gestures of the peeps on the Angling Times Forum who have pledged £70 so far to keeping the Buddy Bus Road Trip alive. With the £10 from one of the Auntys Forum girls, we’ll have £80 in the Reels on Wheels account, which is almost 2 full tanks of diesel! Woohoo!

I have begun a ‘hit list’ of companies to target on Monday again, asking for sponsorship. If anyone out there can offer suggestions or practical help I’d be very grateful. In the meantime, there are more forms to be filled in, more lovely cards to be put into the R.O.W. shop on Freewebs, some sewing to be finished and a couple of cards to be made for market tomorrow. I shall also be selling my Dragonfly Box to raise funds for Reels on Wheels and I think I know someone who’ll buy it!! Fingers crossed!

What a Wednesday!

I had a bad day yesterday and was determined not to have another one today. So, when Nick phoned to say he was coming home earlier than expected because of a thunderstorm, I thought I’d better do something. It suddenly dawned on me: What do we need to keep the Buddy Bus on the road, travelling the UK? Fuel. Diesel. Who sells fuel? Petroleum companies. Who did I phone? BP. Yes, I did a bit of online research to see how approachable they are (they’re global, so… big corporation calls for professional mind-set, right?) and found that they are very concerned about educationan and the environment.

I found the head office number and dialled. I told the telephonist that I’d like to speak to someone about sponsorship and she put me through. The lady I spoke to was so kind and warm; she encouraged me to tell her all about what Nick is doing and then how to apply to them about sponsorship (I’m after a Fuel Card). Then she told me not to be put off if they turned me down, as they usually sponsor their own staff when it comes to raising money for charities, etc. She said to tell Nick she admires him and not to give up! She also said, “Never say never!” So I sent BP an e-mail. I felt quite daring, I can tell you!

Then I sent an e-mail to a local marketing company who specialise in promotional leaflets, etc. to test the waters, including all the aims, goals, urls, etc. I also phoned Summerlands Tackle in Westward Ho to speak to Nick Laws about the Buddy Bus Road Trip and promoting it – perhaps by going to his store for a day and talking to anglers. Unfortunately, Nick wasn’t there, but they know about us because of Bideford Angling Club (thanks Stuart and Nielsen!) and my Nick can phone him tomorrow.

I got a lovely e-mail back from Mark Charman of Freebird Design by the time DH was home and they had a meeting this afternoon while I was at the dentist, praying for the treatment to end! Suffice it to say, I’m very happy with what I did today and am once more very optimistic about the future of Reels on Wheels.