Wednesday, March 9, 2011

Tricks Of The Angler

It is quite normal to find more things in common than not within family members. Maybe that's because of growing up together within the same household; or something to do with the upbringing process. But my family is somewhat different. Most of my siblings grew up separately until when we were quite old. So it's very difficult to find anything in common between all of us.

Dad the playboy lives his life like there is no tomorrow. Whatever he can enjoy today, he will make sure he enjoys today. Worry about tomorrow when that time comes. Elsewhere in this blog, I've elaborated about dad quite comprehensively. I consider him a perfect definition of tragedy. I still refer to him as the playboy, although some of my siblings prefer Indianna Jones.

Dennis is the Mr Excuse of the family. Whenever he fails in anything—and he had had lots of those—he almost always has very good reasons for his failures. In fact, I think he is gifted as far as that is concerned.

Harry is my half brother who's not so easy to understand. I sponsored him for his degree in Estate Management. He's quite a bright chap, really, but sometimes I'm disappointed to see him wasting his abilities by letting time, and hence opportunities, slip away without doing anything. Although he's smart, I find it strange that he's always having a hard time trying to understand what Dennis is saying. Maybe it would help if Dennis doesn't speak too comically, I don't know.

I am the other weird one in the family. When I set my mind to achieve something, I'm willing to sacrifice to unimaginable extent to achieve it. Discipline is my god. And as you can probably guess, my siblings and their children would try their best to escape my lectures on the topic of discipline.

When looking at the men in my family, it will be very difficult to find anything in common among us. But there is actually one thing we have in common, and that is this—all of us enjoy fishing.

Well, last Sunday, Harry and Dennis went all the way to the Sepangar Bay to fish from the seaside. I didn't even know this until Harry told me about the trip on Monday. They reached the fishing spot as early as 8am and fished up till 4pm. With Harry having trouble understanding Dennis, only god knows how they communicated with each other throughout those long hours together. But they survived the day anyway.

Dennis, the born comedian of the family (without even trying to be one), had a flair with all the tricks as an angler. I have no idea where he learned all those tricks, but one can be mesmerized by just listening to or watching him demonstrating his skills.

And this reminds me of the time when we were still young; the time when we went fishing together with my cousin, Ah Boy. Dennis was trying to show off his skill in fly-fishing. Ah Boy was fairly impressed, up to the point when Dennis accidentally hooked his upper lip. So much for fly-fishing.

Anyway, maybe the water condition wasn't right last Sunday. Or maybe the weather wasn't right. Or maybe it was the high tide; or low tide. I can't really think of too many excuses—Dennis can do much better than me as far as this is concerned. But the fishes at Sepangar Bay were on a public holiday that day. So Harry, being the younger sibling, had to watch Dennis, the supposedly more experienced angler, using all his tricks to the fullest. Thankfully, however, Dennis did not hook Harry's upper lip. Even comedians learn from past mistakes, you see.

Dennis tried several methods of tying the fish-hooks. He also tried different types of baits; including life ones. Not to mention casting his line to many different spots in the sea, near and far. Harry, I can just imagine, was amazed to learn so many possible tricks of the angler. The one thing that Dennis forgot, however, was to apply sunblock lotion on his sensitive face and arms. So if you knew the colour of prawns when subjected to heat, then you would know what Dennis looked like on Monday morning.

Anyway, the trip ended like this. Harry caught an ikan putih of perhaps half a kilo size—ikan sesat, he said. And Dennis caught nothing at all. The tricks of the angler don't always work, you see. But if I were there that day, I bet I would have had a very good laugh watching!


8 comments:

Aesthetic Introvert said...

wicked as ever!

i think u left something in the fifth paragraph. "constantly looking for ppl's mistake", "family's geranto" and most importantly "the only uncle which we all expect BIG angpow".

paragraph two sangat LUCU sampai terguling-guling saya di atas lantai...(Laughing out Loud)...HA-HA.

Anonymous said...

Try lace WD40 on the bait. It works.

Cornelius said...

Sha,

Let me respond to your comment categorically.

1) I'm always looking not only for ppl's mistakes, but also my own mistakes. It's like playing chess, you see. One needs to analyse (post mortem) the game at the end even after winning it! For there are almost always better moves hidden somewhere in the game. So we look for ways to improve whenever we can, in whatever way we do.

2) I don't enjoy being the so-called family guarantor. And I don't simply bail out my family members when they're in financial difficulties. But yes, I admit I try my best to help out if I'm convinced that it's for a good cause.

3) Again, I don't enjoy throwing out hard-earned money in the forms of BIG angpows to my nephews and nieces. They get angpows only during Chinese New Year, and when they do well in their exams. Other than that, they will need very good reasons to get my money! I'm a firm believer of instilling the attitude of working very hard in life. When you work hard in school, you will likely get good results, and when you get good results, uncle rewards you lah. Don't live your life with the attitude of "cuma klik computer 2 jam sehari di rumah, pendapatan sampai 5 angka seminggu. Jom saya tunjukkan caranya!"

Pasal 2nd paragraph tu, jgn lah ketawa kuat sgt. Nanti kung2 dengar, mampus kita semua! Shhhhh!

Cornelius said...

Anonymous friend,

WD40, huh? Never heard of that before. If you were there last Sunday, I bet Dennis would've tried your suggestion! Desperation can make people do strange things.

Aesthetic Introvert said...

oh yaka bah? yg peliknya, CGPA xda pulak reward dia tuh. berhenti d spm dan CNY la tuh? alaaaa... x palah, tu mem"promote" extrinsic motivation n kids get gud results utk dpt duit dr uncle ja lah mengkali. very gud example is your aqil. anyway, kalau berkat usaha kami di bagi reward, apa salahnya.... kihx3... ^^

Cornelius said...

Sha,

Soal angpow tu waktu keci2 uncle can handle lah. Kalu sampai SPM boleh jugak. But beyond that kalu masih mau galakan jugak alamatlah kempis uncle punya poket!

Si Aqil belum dpt ganjaran. Dapat 8A sepatutnya uncle bagi RM400 angpow. Setakat angpow RM400 tu bukanlah masalah besar sangat. Cuma dia tu perlu mendapat didikan lain sikit. Dia cepat excited dan tdk faham erti kesabaran. Dapat 8A beria-ia ingatkan uncle sampai berkali-kali; malah minta bonus lagi tu! Bonus? Ingatkan ni lotto jackpot ke? Tiada kesabaran dan tabiat tamak perlu dipantau dari awal. Kalu tidak nescaya boleh membawa padah kelak! Jadi tpaksalah uncle ajar dia sikit pasal kesabaran. Kasi delay sikit lah ganjarannya!

Aesthetic Introvert said...

wah! uncle blum bagi lg pmr dia tuh?dia x dapat tidur malam nanti.dia post di fb tu hari. dia ckp at last dapat membuktikan kemampuan dia dgn org yg underestimate dia selama nih.so,i congratulate him la konon nya...salute dgn "kemampuan" dia.hiiii~

Cornelius said...

Apa yg dia buktikan? Dpt straight As apa guna kalau tiada disiplin? Sijil cuma utk kasi frame up cantik2 dan gantung di dinding, bukannya boleh buat jadi berjaya dlm hidup!