Fishing Frenzy

It could be I'm getting old or my bed hates me, but I'm waking up in the morning with a sore left shoulder and today my neck is stiff too. It's very frustrating as it is sore to lift my head straight. If I was to pull the fishing tackle out and head for the water today, I fear that fishing would be quite painful instead of what it should be, which is relaxing.

Angling is an opening for anyone to be able to spend some quality time by oneself, consider where life is going and what can be amended, what is going nicely and what isn't. One has so few chances to be by oneself and I honestly believe that could be a source for a build up of unwanted stress. For instance, I work at home, my wife has also been at home on long term sick leave having after getting breast cancer in April 2010. The good thing is that because I am at home, I have been able to help her, transport and be with her when she's been getting chemotherapy and radiotherapy and then afterwards when she's been getting the side effects I can look after our 4 year old.

However, the flipside was that, particularly during the radiotherapy, which was every weekday, I wasn't able to settle to doing any work. After the drive to the hospital and back, which was at least a ninety minute exercise, then driving Will to school, having some lunch, getting Will again and coming home, there was barely a period of an hour or more until late in the day when I could actually get down with doing anything which clearly meant that any thought of taking the fishing tackle out of the garage and doing a bit of fishing was all but impossible. This increases my stress levels lots, with little opportunity of taking a decent break.

What is occurring now is that things are clearing up. Chemo and radiotherapy is finished, and my wife is looking to head back to work on January seventeenth which is very exciting. She will have to have an intravenous herceptin treatment every three weeks but there are no vile side effects from that. So, because she will be fetching Will from school on her way home every day, it could be that if I wanted to, I could have a few hours of an afternoon doing some angling at one of the nearby canals. I do have a need to get some new fishing tackle before I can do anything, as well as get a rod licence and become a member the Birmingham Angling Association to be qualified to fish the canals, but maybe I can get everything sorted out by the time she goes back to work.

Whether I can spend an afternoon fishing of course, will depend on work and whether I can do enough done in the mornings to be able to leave it and swap the computer for the fishing tackle. Perhaps Friday afternoons will be the easiest to justify, but at least since I work for myself then I will know whether I absolutely can afford to bunk off.

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