All will be revealed in Friday's post.
In the meantime, tell me your best (and worst) fishing story. I have a copy of Career Mums (that's it, on the right) and a set of fabulous Ninjabread Men cutters for the best anecdote.*
*Game of skill. Winner chosen by me. Entries close 7pm (AEST) Sunday May 27, with winner announced Monday May 28. Would be great if you followed me here or on Facebook. Thank you.
Oh! I actually have a fishing story! When I lived in Japan some dear students of mine wanted to take me fishing, after I'd told them my grandfather had been a fisherman. I guess they wanted me to experience the Japanese style. They drove me out to a fishing spot which was a tiny river which had been dammed into half a dozen small sections; then they went and told the guy we were there, he came out with a bucket of live fish and dumped them into our two-metre-wide section of the river. We fished, and unsurprisingly, caught several fish each within half an hour. There was a handy barbecue spot opposite the "river" so we had a feast. The only useful skill I did learn was how to gut a fish using only chopsticks. True story.
ReplyDeleteThat is such a great story that I think you've scared off all the other potential entrants... no other bites. #boom #tish
DeleteHa ha. And I don't even especially want half the prize! I have already read Career Mums (my neighbour's copy). But I just couldn't resist the chance to tell my fishing story. People don't often ask.
DeleteOh. Not to say that Career Mums is not an excellent prize because, of course, it is. (And although I had pretty much got that stuff sorted, my neighbour has used it as a bible.)
DeleteLOL. Okay. If you win I will give the non-Ninja portion of your prize to someone else. Tell your neighbour that I'm very pleased to hear that she found it useful. :-)
DeleteI love fishing and thank my (long-gone) grandparents for that passion. I am now sharing my love of it with Mr 8...and he has taken to it, literally like a fish to water! My fondest 'fishing memory' is my grandparents taking me and my young brother to Narrabeen Lakes...all the way from the 'burbs of Bankstown to Narrabeen Lakes by public transport...what an adventure. I still remember that was the time my brother caught his first fish...a tiddler of a bream that had to be thrown back...but I can still remember his absolute JOY of catching his first fish. I hold that memory tight because sadly my brother died probably 12 months later...but I have a gorgeous picture on my loungeroom wall of two children paddling in water...and everytime I look at it it reminds me of that day and all those happy memories come back!
ReplyDeleteI was determined to have games at Ashleigh's first birthday party. Who cared that she had only just turned one, that there were few other children present, or that those that were were more interested in practising crawling than playing games?
ReplyDeleteI had stuck some fish cut-outs to a blue sheet, and made a 'fishing rod'. I invited the kids to 'fish', then sat behind the sheet ready to tie prizes to the fishing line when it came over.
Except... it didn't. The kids just weren't interested. Only one older child managed to do it, and when I tied a book to the end and called out 'You've caught one!', he yanked it back with such force that it hit him in the head and he started screaming. Another younger guest then managed to wrap the fishing line (string) around their wrist and we had to cut it off.
ooo i want those! hmm...fishing story... we'll I can only remember ever going fishing once. The big plan was too catch a bunch of beautiful fresh fish to feed a dinner party we were hosting at our campsite at Prevelly Point, near Margaret River in WA. We were young and naive and actually thought this might be possible even with our very limited fishing experience. Of course we caught nothing. But we couldn't go home empty handed so we drove into town to the local fishmongers with plan B in mind....buy a bunch of freshly caught fish and pass them off as our own hard work : ) When we got the fishmongers he only had frozen fish left...um...ok. So we brought two amazing looking local snapper and then spent the next two hours defrosting these suckers in the late afternoon sun on the front bonnet of our ford falcon station wagon...consuming many beers in the process. We rocked up the campsite with such youthful swagger, a bottle of champers in hand to celebrate our amazing achievement. We feasted on these amazing fish cooked on an open fire with fresh damper and many bottles of the finest wine. It w as one of the best dinner parties of my life and no one ever questioned the veracity of our fishing expedition. We were the heroes of the night. That was over 15 years ago... oh to be 18 again : )
ReplyDeleteWhen I was a kid, we would spend summers at our fishing camp on the Gulf of Mexico. The camp is still in the family (although over the years it's been knocked down and rebuilt a few times by various hurricanes), and we usually go fishing there when we visit the US. A few years ago, I had the pleasure of taking my own kids there with me when my family spent the week between Christmas and New Years at the camp. It was pretty cold, but we managed to fish every day and caught a few speckled trout. Although the actual fishing was fun, my favorite part was sharing the experience for the first time with my girls while reliving my own childhood. Gold!
ReplyDeleteNow if you had asked for a cool birthday story to use these I would have been in but fishing OMG OMG OMG OMG no no no. I cant do slimy, sqeeshy, eikey or things that wiggle. Enjoy your break er Fishing.
ReplyDeleteWhen I was about 12 we went for a family holiday at a very sleepy little fishing village. When asked at the local servo if we were going to be fishing my Dad joked "We forgot our fishing rods," (we did not fish!) and the lovely local offered us a chance to borrow his, including a child sized rod for me. We headed down to the pier (this must have been where everyone in town was!) and clumsily put bait on our lines and cast off* after a while I got a bite. And it was tugging on the line hard! I had never fished before and I was struggling to reel it in. The rod was bent over so far it looked to be on the verge of snapping. I called to Dad for help! "It's got to be a whopper!" he said and folks came rushing over to watch me reel this 'whopper' in. After what felt like forever I finally pulled it out of the water. It was tiny. So small in fact it had to be thrown back. And that is the only time I have been fishing. *I really have no idea if this is correct terminology, but it sounded good.
ReplyDeleteI don't have any fishing anecdotes to share, it's really not my cup of tea and I get the most awful sea sickness! My 5yr old is fascinated with sharks, last week he got me to print out a really scary shark picture and stuck it up in the lounge room and drew a picture of his dad with a big shark bite out his arm. His Dad was sleeping and he wanted to scare him when he woke up.
ReplyDeleteWe didn't fish ... We don't fish ... If we had i can assure you my story would be AWESOME!!! But my 3 year old son thinks he is a ninja! ;)
ReplyDeleteAllison, I already have a copy of your wonderful book, but I've been coveting the Ninjabread men cutters for my ninja-mad four year old, so I'll throw my hat (or my line?) in.
ReplyDeleteWhen I was younger, my dad would take us fishing often. We were encouraged to do everything ourself; bait, cast out, unhook the fish. He regretted that somewhat the day I swung my rod back to cast out and managed to hook him in the, um, crotch. Oops!
Two years ago my partner and I took his son and a mate on a caravan/fishing holiday to the Snowy region (NSW), in late April. After already loosing two lures, the young man snagged a third one in a bitterly cold river. His dad told him that he would not be buying any more, so if he wanted to keep fishing he'd have to go in and get it. So this 12 year old stripped down to his undies and walked into the freezing water to get his lure back.
ReplyDeleteHe succeeded, and as he got out of the water he looked down into his undies and exclaimed, "My nuts are blue!" As only a 12 year old boy would.
Use to go fishing as a family all the time when on holidays as a child/teen back in the 1980s at Port Vincent and surrounding areas in South Australia. My dad use to go out and collect cockles and all sorts as well.
ReplyDeleteWent to a cousin's wedding a few years back and the cousins were put on their own table. They had done the alternative of chicken or fish in front of people for the main course. I swapped with the cousin next to me as he's not a huge fish eater (and he'd take the chicken any day over the fish). Upon looking at the fish, he turns to me and says "I cant go past a fish shop or look at fish and not think of you and your dad boiling up a saucepan of cockles when we use to do holidays at Port Vincent. It's the one memory I have of our holidays together, 30 years later"
not quite a 'story' as such, but one of those childhood memories that I have of the times I (and my sister and brother had) with our cousins (amongst many others) and there is nothing that can take those sorts of memories away
I hope you are giving Mum's away not mine :-) x
ReplyDeleteOf course! x
DeleteYou are too funny, Coo!
DeleteThis one time my sister caught a sting ray... stop me if you've heard this one... x
ReplyDelete