Round And Round Went The Bloody Great Wheel

Well, what a couple of years that was. I retired in August 2016, just in time to start caring for my wife, who had been diognosed with Lung Cancer. As she ran out of steam I was gradually introduced to the delights of housework, washing (erm, which button do I press?) cooking, (how do I turn the oven on?). I had happily let Heather do all the domestic stuff all our married life and now I was getting a lesson in just how selfish and stupid I had been. Caring for someone is a lesson in humility. Finally she became totally bedridden as she became paralised from the waist down and life became daily visits from carers and nurses, to whome I will always be grateful for the way they treated her. Heather finally passed away in June last year with me and my two sons sitting beside her. Today would have been her 67th birthday and I will be taking some flowers to where her ashes lay.

Because of all of the above everything else took a back seat. I had been in the process of working on my EDP, which would allow me to become an official assessor for casting instructors. I had qualified for level 1, which allows me to take CI assessments, but had only done a couple of the requirements to qualify for my L2 (MCI assessor). I finally got there in March this year, so now I can test CI and MCI.
This year will be about getting on with my life. I have just returned from The EWF event in Germany, I went to the fly fishing show in London in March and a testing event in Reading the same weekend and it is a wonderful reminder of what its like to be surrounded by fellow instructors, most of them dear friends. Along with BFCC events I will be also going to Iceland in July ( the ‘once in a lifetime’ fishing trip I promised myself when I retired. In September I am going to Bali for a wedding, October is Austria for more testing. There are also trips to Wales, Cumbria and, maybe Scotland planned as well. My year is filled with good things to keep me occupied.

I have been surprised at the number of people who have asked me to write more often so am going to try and do just that. Stand by for the odd rant, plus, I hope, some humour and entertainment.