It started out with a fairly inauspicious repairing of the Lawn Mower.
It progressed through to an equally benign storing my fishing gear.
It ended up being a 7-hour, Kronenbourg-fuelled mass purge, clean, reorganize of the Garage. Design on a dime, if you will. Design on less than that, actually. Design on bugger-all money. I am not quite sure where the time went (suspect into liver) but somehow we ended up at 9pm with about 1/10th the stuff we used to have, and a fantastic nook that’s all mine! Now I have a place to work on the bike, car, whatever without being in the way of anyone getting in and out. Finally anything we could want in the garage is easily to-hand and not under 6 boxes containing last month’s supply of irradiated Haggis or a dead water buffalo.
Last week I received my new Selle Italia Saddle and Thomson Masterpiece seatpost but it was 105 in the shade hence little opportunity to try them out for real. The weather cut us a break this weekend and I was able to take the Wabi out for a few hill sprints.
My posterior is happy to report an increase in comfort and ventilation from the new saddle, while the gorgeous machined seatpost enables me to really dial in the riding position. I chose to go for a post with no setback because my arms are long compared to my femurs and it really does slot you in nicely to a more aggressive riding position.
While I’m not a total weight weenie, it is nice to just be shading under 15lbs for a ride that cost $700 stock. The wheels, hubs, cranks are all still stock but I won’t be replacing / upgrading any of these until they fall apart. I need my commuter to be bombproof! Once again I have to give large respect to Wabi for making such a superb fixie.
The Kangal Dog (Sivas Kangalı, Kangal Çoban Köpeği) is a breed of domestic dog, and is the national breed of Turkey. Kangal, which weigh between 120-170 pounds (55-78 kg) full-grown, were originally used as a livestock guardian. It is of an early mastiff type with a solid, pale tan or sabled coat, and with a black mask. The breed is often referred to as a sheep dog, but it is not a herding dog, but rather a flock guardian. It lives with the flock and acts as a livestock guardian dog, fending off wolves, bears and jackals. The Sivas Kangal Dog’s protectiveness and gentleness with small children and animals has led to its growing popularity as a guardian for families as well, as it regards people as its flock and guards them with extreme devotion.
Do I ever want two of these sitting on my doorstep..
Simple things, like finding the perfect Sand Flea to use as bait make me happy. I’m not even very good at it, but discovering your own bait is a lot more satisfying than using a load of store-frozen malarkey. Even when the fishing is slow you can stay active in the perfect Outer Banks weather. Interspersed with appropriately regular liquid refreshments, of course.
What a great trip. We hit up both the HBBT and CBBT and threw back more than we kept. By all final reckoning the counts were over 100 Blues, Croaker, Skate, Flounder and 1 escaped Red Drum (we think, it was big). Herminio’s table looks ready for some ceviche, n’est-ce pas?
I wish I could have this playing in the background in my office on a large projector when times get a little crazy. I could watch it for a very, very long time. It is but a small sample of Taylor Bay on Providenciales, where we spent a sizeable chunk of our vacation for obvious reasons. You could walk out 100 yards and the sea would still only be thigh-high and crystal clear. As you can see from the video though you have to watch out for the gnarly winds, pounding surf and powerful rip..
While the beloved Canon was not with us on this trip to do serious justice to the colours and vibrancy of the island, we did our best with the trusty old Sony Powershot snappy portable. They do leave us with lasting memories and enduring inner happiness, but I think we both have plans to go back one day with a camera that really does perform a faithful reproduction of beach supremity. Let us hope that the islands stay unspoiled and wild until we return.
Our recent stay at Ballyhoo Cottage was just one week long but oh, what a week! I’ll be posting up some videos each day of the various sights and sounds that don’t really do justice to just how incredible an island Provo truly is. Most amazingly of all we had most beaches entirely to ourselves. Proof later, here’s a little taste of our cracking cottage right on, appropriately enough, Smith’s Reef.
Every so often you hit on that magical morning – everything is right. Cold crisp air, warmer water, mist slowly rising off a mirror-calm lake. You’re there for dawn and it’s just you and the fish. This morning was one of those mornings, I couldn’t stop catching 2-3lb Bass if I tried. No hangups, hooking up every fifth cast or so with aggressive pre-spawn fish who were hitting the Mepps #3 Agila like a ton of bricks every time. I lost count after about 10 or so but there was nothing under 1-2 lbs and some hogs in there. Even the 1 Bluegill I caught was a decent size and fought like a fury. You could see Bass hitting bait further down the dam and casting into the swirling water produced hits every time. There’s nothing like sight fishing when they are hitting the topwater and I didn’t want to come home. Gave up taking photos after a while just to enjoy the moment.
