This will probably be quite a short newsletter. I've been really busy recently (you know: almost working) and I've decided that I can't handle it any longer, and I've got to go fishing, or at least free myself up a bit and travel around Europe. Of course I fully intend to do both, and by Saturday the plan – and I never use that word lightly – is to be ferry-bound for the Netherlands.

My next official demo is at the end of October and so I've plenty of free time on my hands, which is great, especially since I've been over-exerting myself recently. Some mornings I even wake up tired, and that's always a bad sign I think. In fact some mornings I don't even wake up, so intense has been my workload.

The map

So I'm heading over to Germany, going to catch up with some friends, including Mike, before travelling through to France to drop in on Steve (Sexyloops is a real International gathering), and then on to Carlos and José in Spain. I'll spend some time in Spain, and I'm already looking forward to the truly fantastic saltfly action that I'll be discovering there, as well as the usual language difficulties.

Of course this may surprise some people, the fact that I just want to go fishing and not spend my life working. But I think it's only fair really; there are many people out there who would like a job and a mortgage. It's their “thing” in life; they don't want to have fun and enjoy themselves – life is far too serious for them, and a jolly good thing that is too, we need hard working people in this world, and I for one wouldn't wish to prevent anyone from working hard and having a job when that's all they really want in life.

“He's not a man; he's more of a God really”

Are they grateful? Well, I like to think so. If you are a hard-working individual, or ant even, and are grateful to me for giving you this wonderful opportunity to work hard in life and tie yourself up with a mortgage, or a girlfriend even, and wish to thank me, then please feel free to do so. You can email me at paul@sexyloops.co.uk

Imitation ants

Having just spent a weekend in London, I can't help being impressed by the place and the people who choose to make it the exciting hive of activity that it is. I'm pretty sure those guys know where it's at. And although they appear to behave like ants, they are not ants; they are individuals. Ants work together for a common goal and although they might not know why they work for that common goal, you can be pretty sure they're free to follow their own path and do their own thing.

“A flycasting God”

Well I'm not like that, I'm fine with it of course and think that it's great that someone or anyone can be contented with so little, but I wish to explore this world, myself and my relationship to it. I figure that's what fishing is about. In fact – and excuse me for getting a little “deep” here, but hey, this is a flyfishing site after all; we're all men of this world – I think that's what life's about, and flyfishing is discovering nature with a floppy stick.

The box

And you'll meet more interesting people. In order to get a kick out of living in a box you first have to anaesthetise your brain, conditioning yourself to forget that there's a whole other world here, and that's not very interesting. In fact it's the same as watching TV I suppose, hey maybe watching TV anaesthetises your brain in the first place; it wouldn't surprise me one bit.

“Based on the Tweed”

I reckon life's amazing, come on; it's absolutely fucking incredible – everywhere you look you see something so far-out, so wild, so fanciful… flowers, trees, things which fly, things which breathe underwater, mountains, seas, stars, tortugas, dragons, everywhere you look there is something waiting to be discovered… there's no trip like life itself.

The ditch

So that's why I'm going fishing. Not that I want you to think that I'm lazy, I mean I am lazy, and freely admit to it; but that's not why I'm going fishing.

“Andy Dickison”

But before I do so, this week I'll be transferring Sexyloops over to our very own server. We are now enormous. In fact we've become so incredibly enormous that we are literally forced to do some serious work – you know hard serious work – which comes as a complete shock to me, since I never actually work myself like, and Sexyloops just sort of miraculously comes together all by itself.

And I'll be visiting Sean to do this, probably Thursday, and during this time the Board will be closed.

I have some great content lined up for this week; including Ben's missing pics, and article by MaxG.

Hope you have a good one,
Paul :)