Master Fisherman

I'm under instruction to do a new blog on account of the mother-in law having a problem with the photo I posted of her last time. My lovely wife also instructed me about something to do with the photo's I posted of her, only the problem is, that after about 3 sentences in to this one sided conversation I may of tuned out and  didn't really hear weather she was pleased with me taking the mickey out of her constantly or not. She has a great sense of humour and I'm almost positive she said something like "Blah Blah Blah horrible photo's Blah Blah Blah Fantastic Blah Blah". Fantastic. So that's the Green Light Right. Right. Just in case your wondering what photo I'm talking about here it is.

Here's another for good measure.

"Please Sir may I have another".

No but really, with all the wet weather around lately we've been caught inside for a fair chunk of the school holidays witch as you can imagine with three boys it's been trying at best. This week though the sun finally came out so we set out for a spot of fishing. With the rain we have had the rivers and estuaries are full of freshwater and catfish, this isn't ideal. So off we went to the river mouth where hopefully there would be more saltwater than fresh. This trip would be short lived. We pull up Noah jumps out and instantly spot's the biggest meanest biker looking fisherman on the beach and proceeds to point his finger at him and in a way only Noah the "fog horn" can exclaims that "we aren't  fishing here cause that guy hasn't caught anything, maybe he doesn't no how to fish dad, dad he hasn't got anything dad!!dad!!! look DAD!!!!! ..........dad why are we getting back into the car dad dad dad". "No fish there champ". Once in the relative safety of our locked car speeding away from the incredible hulk, I did try to explain to him that we don't make fun of peoples inability to catch fish and especially don't point at people with tribal tattoo's all over there face. We did somehow manage to find a fishing spot away from the public and safe enough that I could let Noah out of the car. Kai got straight into the action landing some small ludrick (black fish) and a few small butter bream. Then blaze got on to a nice moses perch.

Meanwhile, Noah was growing impatient. Having seen both his brothers land fish and not wanting to be throw into the same basket as the man with the facial tattoos. He set about tying his own rig that he assured me would catch a large sting ray. 3 granny knots later he was finished.

I recon that's a pretty good effort for a 4 year old. He didn't end up catching anything but no matter, maybe next time. Just noticed looking at this picture of Noah how much he looks like his mum it's almost uncanny.

Hmm maybe not. Although I do see a bit of a food theme here. Look how small the ice cream looks with that big mouth, well darling that's why I married you "big mouth deep throat". There's still some resemblance though maybe this next picture will show it better.

"No Erin please don't eat me"

What the. Food theme again. Nah maybe Noah looks like me, unlucky unlucky.

Fishing was great as usual and on the weekend we did manage to go to Australia Zoo witch I will write about next time. Thanks to Gemma for the photos and to the Johnston family for being some of the most unphotogenic people I have ever seen.  

Becoming your Parent's???

Well after much therapy and reflection I feel I need to apologize to my beautiful Wife for all the sledging and horrible photos Iv posted on the blog Last year. Spending a fair bit of time with family over the last month or so has really helped me to understand that while we are all different we are in fact pretty similar (whether we like it or not) to our parents. Shock horror. So what I'm trying to say is, it's not Erins fault that she may not be the most photogenic person on the planet, some might say that our photo album resembles something out of a horror movie, due to some of the disturbing images of this wild beast the kids call mummy. That aside I did manage to capture the beast's I mean Wife's mother on Christmas morning.

HHMM... This is Sue, She likes long walks on the beach, scintillating conversation and sport. She is the reason. Umm Sue is the proud mother of 3 equally unphotogenic offspring and a pile of very cute grandchildren ( lucky for them they get there good looks from there father). She is on the right side of 50 (even if that's only for a short while). SINGLE.

 Anyway you can see what I'm getting at. We become our parents. Just looking in the cupboard this morning to fix the kid's some breakfast I was hit with an overpowering sense of dejuview as a mountain of 2minute noodles came avalanching down on me. I have in fact become my mum (and any of the 3000 men that could be my father). The food we feed the kid's. The way we tell them off (" wait till you have your own family ya little prick") ("when you pay the bills you can make the rules")("go ask ya father") OK the last one may be a bit of a stretch, I don't believe I ever heard that one, it was more like "that guy out there is your new uncle( for today anyway,) you do what he tells you I'm making dinner" (2 minute noodles no less). 

But for all the bad stuff we inherit there is also a fair bit of good stuff. Kindness. Chivalry. The ability to turn 6 cakes of 2 minute noodles into something remotely tasty.

Sometimes though I think as a parent you can teach to much. Take for instance Christmas this year, my eldest Kai being a very keen fisherman, I've tryed very hard to teach him everything my thousand or so uncles have taught me. Knot tying, casting, retrieving, putting bait on the basics pretty much. But teaching to much becomes to much that when on Christmas day the little beggar catches a bigger whiting than me.

Being the kind of person I am, I was not about to let this little smart ass who always complains about eating 2minute noodles all the time overtake his teacher. I changed his bait to a sausage no less. This would insure that I would catch a pile of fish and if he was lucky may catch his very drunk very hungry uncle Ben. (No it's not like that I haven't inherited everything from my mother, he is there uncle). That didn't happen.

This is our darling little noodle eater holding his bream that he caught on a sausage. Yeah on a whole sausage. No more fishing trips for him.

A week latter Blaze (he's the ripe old age of 2) gets in on the action with this stingray, caught first cast on a hand line.

I think the point of the story is, you cant help how incredibly disturbing you or your offspring look, but you can teach them Right, Wrong and a thousand different way's to cook 2 minute noodles.