.......one green bottle.....

Yeah, yeah, I know there should be ten....and it's brown not green....but you try thinking of 650+ song lyrics for blip titles.

One single, solitary bottle of San Miguel....returned from last night's feast by Pat....and a good job he did too.....because I'm not going out tonight....D is out with V and B isn't feeling too good....so it's me....at home....on me tod......much to the Boss' annoyance.

Last night when I went to bed around 1.30 the sky was clear and it was bloody cold. When I looked out of the window this morning after 4 and a half hours sleep....the sky was leaden and a stiff breeze was blowing.

Picked up Shaun and then met up with Ian, Roy, Sam and Tommo and we set off in convoy, when we reached the M66 it was beginning to rain and the wind was increasing....by the time we got to McD's for breakfast the wind was stronger still and the rain had turned to hail.

Quick sausage, egg and cheese bagel and a coffee and we continued. We arrived at the venue, drew for pegs and proceeded to set up for the match.....about 20 minutes into the 1 hour prep time there was a splash to my right.....Dave had got off his box and it had promptly blown into the water (a fishing box probably weighs between 10 and 15 kilos).....Dave had grabbed one of the legs as it went but the combintaion of the weight and the attached umbrella being half full of water and half full of another 60mph gust of wind was threatening to pull him in too!

He was helped out of the edge of the pond and his gear retrevied, but everything was waterlogged including his tackle bag and his bait...he assured us all he was fine and we continued preparing.

At 10.00 a.m. I called the "All in" and the match started....at 10.40 Dave packed up...he made the sensible choice ...we fished on for 5 hours in torrential rain (and even sleet at one point) and winds gusting between 60 and 80 m.p.h and averaging about 30 m.p.h.......two umbrellas got destroyed by the wind...three poles got broken (about £100-£180 to replace the broken section) and everything and every body got wet. I was the only person to sit it out for the whole match...the others either packed up early.....or went to sit in cars to warm up (the temperature was 4 degrees C, but the wind chill took it below 0) or walked around the pond totally fed up.

At 3.00 p.m. I called "All out"....the winner had 6lb....and it wasn't me......but everything was soaking....the umbrella (obviously), the rod, the bait tubs, the seat box....in fact the wind was so strong it had even forced water into the seat box so two of the drawers were full.Every item of clothing I had on was waterlogged....and I mean every item....even down to the trolleys!

I was so cold I couldnt press the button to unlock the car....and I had to put a towel on the drivers seat because my arse was so wet....even the money in my wallet was wet!

I dropped Shaun off and flew home....to be greeted by The Boss, Daughter,
S & H, YH and Charlie...who had all been out for lunch and were snuggled up toasty warm.

Straight upstairs, stripped off, into the shower, dried, changed, unloaded car, put wet gear to dry and wet clothes in the washing machine....and then it stopped raining and the sky cleared! Bloody typical.

I don't think I've ever been colder and wetter, in fact I'm still feeling cold now....as my Dad would say it went right through to the bone.

I must be certifiably insane!....and I'm never doing it again....not in this type of weather!

Das vidanya moy padruga.