I guess that this one is going to be about my newsletters. You see I'm going through some stuff here in Spain and I find it hard to distinguish between life, my mind and flyfishing. I've started this newsletter in four different ways and either none have been right or they have all been right. Basically my life's a bit upside-down, or back to front, and whenever I get that feeling I feel a lesson in life coming on.

I was just going to talk about how beautiful Spain is, or about how much food they eat, or about contrasts in people and connecting or not. I suppose I'm going to talk about all of the above. I've also been offline for most of the week and have missed my “sexyloops fix” and so this is it.

These newsletters have been different in the past and it has been something that I have wondered about. I've talked about all sorts of things and the newsletter always seems to reflect how I feel at that moment and about whatever it is I'm doing or thinking about, or trying to stop thinking about.

An ex-girlfriend of mine suggested to me that I was merely sorting through stuff and letting go of it, which may be the case, but Sexyloops is a little bit different. There is a core community of regulars who I appear to know rather well, and can connect to in different ways; it's pretty neat actually. Anyway that's not it either; I don't know why I am doing this, only that it is what I do and I think or feel that I am supposed to put this stuff “out there” and that is all that matters really.

Actually this one is about different worlds.

Different Worlds

I once wrote a newsletter abouut my heavy involvement in the ecstacy world and about how I nearly lost everything (and did in some ways) and about how I released. That's one world. It's no more imaginary or illusionary than the 9-5 world, the Zen world of not thinking, the world of God, the world of energy, love, alcoholism, spiritualism… there are lots of different worlds.

Everything in your mind and therefore reality is whatever you believe it to be. God exists if you believe in Him. You can find peace by not thinking if you believe that not thinking is peace. Everything is energy and you can take energy from nature, although most people steal it from others. There is "something" if you see “it”. Problems are only problems when you think about them. You only exist in one world at a time (I think). And you can choose your world... and I think that is where I am now.

You might well be wondering what this has to do with Spain and flyfishing (like isn't it obvious?).

Flyfishing is a world. I don't mean the “I want to catch a fish” flyfishing (of course that is a world too, but more tied up with “the end result” world) rather the one I mean is the “I want to go fishing to find a particular state of mind” flyfishing, which may or may not be a heavy introduction into why we fish and whether we would want to do such a thing in Spain.

The Spanish

The other thing is that I am not connecting with the vast majority of Spanish people and I don't think that it's because we are different, although we are and we aren't, but rather that I don't speak enough Spanish and that the people who do speak my language do not “connect” with me – apart from one actually; but I kinda blew that.

And another thought is that maybe (on the whole) I just can't get into their world; I certainly don't feel their music like they do, and some people believe that the music you like reflects your soul. I always thought that right down underneath we were all one and therefore that there was a common bond. Maybe it still is like this but on another, deeper, level. In fact I am sure that it is so.

So if I can't go to their world I'll just have to go into one of mine: the flyfishing world that (for me) is becoming one with nature and just simply "being". And if that doesn't work I'll go spend some time with some trees – that's usualy does it, and I figure WTF these guys already think I'm weird by not eating meat.

So that is where Spain comes in. And thank goodness.

La Rioja

I have just spent five days fishing one of the most beautiful places on earth. Mountains, beautiful and unusual flowers, trees and fairly clear water. One spot we fished… well, we just spent most of the time looking and not fishing. I'm in Northern Spain, fishing the rivers of La Rioja - one of the finest wine growing regions in the world by the way.

I've been wined and dined many times over, in fact far too excessively in both departments (to be completely honest) and we have sampled some fantastic wines… one of which costs over 400 quid per bottle. Normally wine for me is something I buy in a cardboard box and so it was quite an experience for me to sample all these wines. In fact I got drunk on a number of occassions purely out of research of course.

Eating is a problem for me over here of course since the Spanish appear to have no comprehension of vegetarianism. Neither fish nor chicken happen to be vegetables, just in case you were wondering. And FYI beef isn't a vegetable either. It has caused problems especially so since they obviously like to eat and all the time.

About 25 of us were invited to visit the region on an “everything paid for mission”; I guess so that we can rave about it afterwards, write about it and encourage tourism to the area. Pretty forward thinking if you ask me; the government happen to pay for it all – which is nice, and without doubt the food (that I could eat), the wine and the place has been fantastic.

The Spain that I have seen so far is worth visiting for a fishing holiday; it's both possible and affordable and I shall be uploading relevant info over the next few weeks. Don't come here for size or numbers or free rising fish however… come here for the Spain experience.

Italian influence

Pozo from Italy is also over. He has the finest roll cast I have ever seen… want to see a one inch loop on a roll cast? Then this is the guy to watch. I met Pozo a few years back at the EFFTEX where he gave me one of his videos on the TLT flycasting technique.

Last year on the Bulletin Board I was asked about this method and for my thoughts. So I asked for a Pozo demonstration, to which he kindly obliged. I shall be writing about the TLT (short, 5-weight rod with a 1-weight line) as it certainly is of interest under certain circumstances, and Pozo was a great proponent of its virtues :-)

His friend Mauro Borselli is here too. Mauro is a truly outstanding fly dresser from Italy, what he can do with microchenille, foam and Velcro is just incredible.

This week and the front page

While I am away Steve is in charge of the front page. Last Thursday's page was outstanding and had a hoard of little mozzies floating around! Sean wrote to me during the week to say that he thought Steve “had gone mad BTW :-)”. The front page does appear to have that effect.

Steve has created a what's new box – and this will cope with the problem of what to do when we want to make several changes/additions in one day. There is an exciting holiday to Lapland opportunity (I'm going for a start) and the bulletin board has been taking care of itself.

Photo's follow and we should be back to something approaching a routine by the middle of the week. There is rather a large amount of mail to catch up on (sorry if you are still waiting for a reply – I'll try and clear this tonight) and of course I have to find a washing machine….

Have a great week :-)
Paul