stevetheangler

Plans of mice and men as they say…

Weather has not been enticing on the days I’ve felt fit enough to want to go out and vice versa really. I’ve not been feeling too bad really on the days I’d have wanted to fish but just a general lack of energy and bloatedness really … and it seems that for a greater part my pool waters have been frozen over too going by reports I’ve been reading on the local fishing forums…

I *WILL* be back out there shortly but now another delay has been put in place in that we’re seeking quotes to pave an area of the garden at the bottom of our land that has become overgrown over the past 2 years or so… It was initially a veggie patch in the day of my parents which Liz and I continued with for a few more years … and then turned into a sparse shrubbery – sparse in that annually we’d add a few more plants but had still not completely filled the space. I later added a breeze block contained compost area, mainly for worm cultivation, and then planted three fruits trees a couple of years ago. Also we’ve always had a privet hedge as a back fence since back to the late 50’s… but that hedge (now 8’+ high) and the tidying/digging over of the shrubbery is now too much for me to do following my operations of 2019 and 2020 and so we’re looking to get it dug/flattened/paved, a new shed installed on it and the   the hedge taken out and replaced by a 7’ fence… Then, some time in the future, we intend to get our current shed demolished and the area that it stands on also paved over. The old shed is timber framed (rotting now) with walls and roof of asbestos panels that my Dad put up when we moved into the house in 1959. Due to the asbestos content it would need specialist removal of that material which we thought would be expensive (£1000’s?) but perusing the council’s web site it seems that removal of 10 bags of asbestos (20Kg per supplied bag max … so up to 200Kg) cost just under £150 so probably can be done for that but would be no more than £300 it would seem … however we need to ascertain exact weights and other restrictions in fuller detail. Anyway, paved shrubbery area (inc fitting of a side passage gate which I have but needs posts installed and gate hung) firstly … then new shed … then old shed removal … then paved old shed area to be done in that order :) but whole caboodle likely to be done over an 18-24 month period. We’ve had 4 quotes so far for the initial paving and hedge removal … 2 reasonable and 2 for over double of those from firms that obviously don’t want to do the job (ie neither measured up and just quoted from thin air and the dearer of those turned up in the dark at 1745 without even a torch). Hopefully the initial paving/hedge rfemoval/gate fixing will be completed within the next weeks or so … we’ve been told it’d be  2-4 days for the actual work to be done..

However, in the meantime, we’ve booked a couple of holidays for 2022…

The usual camping week at Skipsea Sands in May…. and our October break which we used to do via the Sun Holidays £9.50 scheme. However, we’ve not booked with the Sun this time… started to collect the vouchers but then noticed in blurb that the breaks were, for the most part NOT £9.50! OK, a few breaks, at certain sites, at certain times are £9.50 but those are for the least wanted camps at the least wanted times basically. Probably down to a case of supply/demand due to the rise in ‘staycations’ induced by Covid… so the Sun hols are now priced in 2 basic tiers with different prices at locations at different times. The lowest tier starts at £9.50 on the cheapest dates but then on the next range of dates it rises to £19.50 … and then rises again for the next date range, etc. The prices for 2nd tier locations START at £29.50 per break. And as the breaks must be bought for a minimum of 4 persons regardless of actual number it gets very expensive! For our dates which previously cost us around £130 for the week it would now cost over £300!

Anyway, our usual October break we take in Burnham-on-Sea, Somerset which is not available via the Sun anyway this year …. and if booking personally via the site itself is only available via what they call ‘Simply Somerset’, the way they operated during Covid … just accommodation, NO bars, restaurants, entertainment, swimming pool, etc although the fishing pool is available … but on researching we discovered that the Haven site in Burnham is fully open – with ALL facilities (swimming, nightly entertainment, etc) available AND at the SAME price … and also has 2 fishing lakes with 40 pegs … and is closer to the Wetherspoon’s!! LOL! So this October we’ll be in Burnham per usual but on the Haven site.

A couple more ‘outings’ booked too … April its ‘The Big One’ angling show in Stoneleigh for which we had tickets for the 2020 show but that got cancelled but tickets were valid for the 2021 show which was again cancelled and the tickets are valid for this year’s 2022 show… and we’ve booked our places at the 2022 Shrewsbury Folk Festival held over the August Bank Holiday.

ALSO… we were notified in the club’s annual newsletter at the start of January that the club secretary (35 years a member, 22 years the secretary) was standing down from the post due to ill health … and then less than 10 days later we were informed of his passing on :( His funeral was yesterday actually … I wish I could have attended but I was unable to…

SO… that’s it for me … fingers crossed to be able to get to the water’s edge again in February.