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!