CR 9-10 July 2006

Jimmy and I have been talking for a long time to arrange an overnight fishing trip together. Together with barbecue and stuff. Just 2 guys relaxing at our fishing spot. Errr, a bit "brokeback" is it? Aiyah, who gives a F*#k!

Anyway, we reached our secret spot in Tanah Merah and started setting up. Shelter, BBQ pit, etc. As it is high tide, so we took it easy and decided to just do some float fishing. Current is very strong and the float keeps coming back to shore so we just left it there.

Started BBQing, wah damn shiok! My wings are marinated perfectly and also sausages are something one cannot leave without during BBQ. Easy to cook and nice to eat.

Low tide is expected at 4am so we just ate, chit chat until 3am and we proceeded to move further down since the water level is low enough. Started fishing. Wah damn quiet the sea, maybe because it has been raining the whole of Sunday so water not very good and fishes are not biting. Worse still, fish not biting but damn a lot of insects biting us! Suddenly, I saw Jimmy starting reeling back very fast. I tot Ho Sei! Then up came a....

An ABL - Ang Bak Lo (Red Eyed Sea bass). Jimmy was disappointed cos he mentioned that if you catch ABL means other fishes are not biting as the water is cold and only such fishes bite. As I was very sleepy I decided to give up and go back to the car to chill. As we continue BBQing and chitchatting, suddenly felt raindrops, shit! Rain, so we rushed back to the car boot. As the shelter is hanging over the car boot, we decided to take cover there. The rain was torrentous! Luckily our shelter held. Soon we are really shack out so I moved forward to the driver seat to sleep while Jimmy crashed at the boot.

Woke up at 8+am. The rain has stopped, weather was chilly so decided to make coffee. Jimmy wanted to set up his net to put along the shore, hopefully to catch passing school of fishes. While he is doing so, I decided to continue with some bottom fishing. Happening!

Got my first catch! A grouper. Much bigger than I expected from my previous catches at this place. Should be about 400-500gms. Now the adenaline is pumping!

A good sized parrot fish! Eng kor! Should be about 800gms! What a surprise!

Then Jimmy cannot take it and immediately set up his rod to join me. For the next an hour and half, nothing, Jimmy got a few bites but keeps either getting snaged on rocks or line snapped. This is encouraging cos it means the fishes here of pretty good sizes! Then Jimmy hooked on one, as he is reeling in, ke keeps saying damn heavy damn big!

A golden trevally!!! What a surprise! Though size is smaller than he expected but this fish is a good fighter thus the feel like it is a heavy bugger! I never expected to land such a fish like this! If you have seen my previous reports, I got one from Singapore waters and it is about 3kg so I know how good this buggers are!

So it seems like the trip is not wasted after all. Then later we went to check out the net and saw fishes being caught in it. That's great! We pulled up expecting a school but only 3. Dunno what fish le but good enough size.

Overall quite satisfying trip. Will definitely be planning one more soon. Anway, just a pic to show you how we set up my car and the shelter.

So far, shoreline fishing, this is still one of the best spots. Of course, I won't reveal where it is. hehehehe....

Anyway, quite shack today. Never sleep much during the fishing trip and last nite went for Coldplay concert. Damn good! Definitely better than Oasis one. Then my wife has to go KL so got to fetch her to airport this morning at 6am!

Steam man! Need to get some rest! Ciao!

2 July 2006 - SKC Dog Show!

It is my bulldog's second show and after 2 months of show training, we are hoping that he is ready. Then a couple of days before, noticed that there are bald patches appearing on his body and it seemed to get worse. So saturday, brought him to the vet and found out he got Demodex! It is a kind of mite problem which is no contagious but is hereditary. There is no definite cure, the only way is for increase his immunity system so that the body can kill the mites off themselves! Damn! and the show is tomorrow! So after the vet, was advised by Carole to seek advise from a professional expertise. Very bad comments, saying his condition quite bad and so on and so forth. So we decided to go back to our show advisor so see since he is the person who imported the dog and been guiding us in the show preparation and training.

met him late at night and after viewing Julio, he said it looks better than he expected and he mentioned that it is possible to hide them with a bit of make-up.

So next day, went to Singapore Expo about 9am and was quite anxious.

The first show was by a Japanese judge. She seems to like Julio. Since Julio is the only Bulldog puppy so naturally it is a walkover to get Best Puppy in Breed.

However was a bit disappointed that we could not get Best in Breed overall as there is another competitor which is a mature Bulldog. And I heard that dog was awarded Best in Show before!

Then, the surprising thing is, since Julio is Best Puppy in Breed, then he is set to compete in Best Puppy in Group Stage, which is all the Best Puppy in Breed from the Utility group compete for the Best Puppy in Group. There were altogether 3 competitors, Julio, a Chow Chow and a Shih Tzu. Guess what? Julio got Best Puppy in Group!! This is a massive encouragement! Cos then he will need to stay the whole day to compete in Best Puppy in Show!

Anyway, there are 2 show going concurrently, one by the Japanese judge and one by an Australian judge.

Ok, for those who are unfamiliar with Dog Shows. Let me try to explain. Hope I get it right, else those show enthusiast will blast me! Dog show is like a beauty contest. Every dog breed has what we call a Breed standard, which is the best template of a dog for that breed. In the show, judges will based on their knowledge of that particular breed standard to judge and rate which dog is closest to that standard. It is subjective though cos there is no judge that is an expert in all breeds.

So the judging starts with the handler "stacking" the dog. Stacking means positioning the dog in its best standing posture. The judge will look for bone structure, shape and aligement of body, limbs, face, etc.

Next, the judge will look at the face closely and the teeth. Different dog breeds have different jaw set, depending on the function of the dog. If the dog is aggressive or shy and does not want to show their teeth, it is considered an disadvantage and points will be deducted.

Then the judge will feel the body for proportionment of the bone structure, limbs, etc. If it is a male, the judge will also feel the testicles for 2 descended testicles. Anyone missing is considered a fault as well.

Lastly, the handler will move the dog around the ring so look at the movement. As usual, different dog has different movement requirements.

So for the Australian judge, Julio only got Best Puppy in Breed. So as I say before, different judge has different opinions.

Maybe one of the reason is that the other bulldog competitor is already an adult and proven winner so sometimes judges doesn't want to take risk to award a puppy better than a mature dog??!!?

Anyway, it has been a motivating and enlightening experience so definitely you will be seeing more of Julio in the SKC shows in the future!

Below are some misc pics of him during the waiting time throughout the day. As you can see, other than those short time of showing, which is about 15-30 mins per show. Other than that, it is waiting and waiting and...

And more waiting....................................

And more waiting..............................................

and more waiting....................................................................................................................

Sorry for not posting for such a long time. Things has been a bit hectic since so no time to upload my fishing pics up to my PC. Though nothing much to brag about cos no opportunity to go boat fishing since the last one. But did a lot of onshore fishing and yes you know, SG waters are not that fantastic unless you have plenty of time to spare like more than 8 hours then maybe you can get a decent catch. Here are pics of 2 short trips I had, 1 at Punggol beach and the other at Tanah Merah.

It is such a small catch report that I decided to put them into one post. That week of June is the first week of World Cup and seems like nobody is working at all so that week I actually fished 3 times!!

Here it goes:

It was 12 June and my drinking buddy is off on that day so decided to check out Punggol beach as it is high tide so cannot go Tanah Merah. Above is his son, Cody, who got the first catch there. Pretty impressive! (Shit! I lose out to a small boy, how can?) Anyway, in total Jimmy and his son got 2 Frogfish and 2 other fishes which I can't ID.

Anyway, this is my first trip out together with Jimmy and his son. And all I can say is that it has reaffirmed my decision not to have kids! Man, he kept asking questions after questions every 2-3mins. How to fish properly? No wonder I got no catch! (Hope Carole doesn't see this, hee hee...) I guess he was bored as fishing requires patience and kids are lacking that. It's like Jimmy told him to watch the rod and if it moves, means there is a bite. So instead of watching and waiting, he moved the rod with his feet and kept shouting," Fish! Fish!" It is funny now to think about it but at that time, it was just noise to me..... Luckily there was another family and they had kids around his age so later part he ended up playing with them.

Anyway, I did not get any catch there that day, Suay! But earlier on, I went Tanah Merah myself and manage to catch a good size todak.

On another day that week, went to Tanah Merah Safra club, there is a breakwater there so decided to go and check it out. Spend about 3 hours there, very bad. No catch, there were buoys along the coast so was wondering if there is a net there. If so, then unlucky man! Confirmed no fish. Was bored so decided to do a bit of rock fishing along the breakwater. Not too bad, a lot of small action. Caught a baby grouper and a baby Ang Chor Ki, too small so released. Then to my surprise, actually caught an eel. Should be a baby. It was a surprise catch. No worries, the eel is also released after posing for photos!

That's all for now. Hopefully next week can have more decent pics.