geronimo

Does anyone know the whereabouts of a shop that sells second hand digital cameras. Tried a few pawn shops but no luck. Thx in advance.

It's my birthday today, 56 and being an English teacher for half those years, I finally have to post this for all to read .....

Lose - to misplace something, to not win a contest.

Loose - ill fitting, not tight

This is not so much a rant, more a lesson for those who seem not to know the difference.
Almost on a daily occurrence do I see these two words misused. Please try to get it right, in some situations the misuse could actually cause a major misunderstanding ......

Hi all,
My name is Paul. I've fished "Gnow nam" or shadow water as it's known to the expats, at least 50 times over the past three years, catching seven big cats (over 50 kg) and countless others including a big carp. Anyway I took three good friends down there yesterday (Mon 14th March) for a day out, promising them a good days sport with the possibility of some big stuff!
All these guys are seasoned anglers and we began with a thirty plus Catfish (Blah Buk as they are called in Thai) then during the course of the day we caught seven more fish. They were all Sawaii averaging 20 kgs and of course my friends were overjoyed. To myself these fish are not so impressive (wouldn’t bother taking pictures) but when you think about it, catching  freshwater fish in excess of  40 pounds is really something!
We lost a couple during the day and at about 2pm, as we prepared to pack up, I mentioned it was a shame we didn’t get a real biggie, then one rod screamed away and one of my friends took it.
I knew immediately that it was big as it was running slowly but surely towards the far left of the lake, taking about 75 mtrs of line and it was still going!
The guy who had the rod had fishing in his blood (he once owned a tackle shop) and he was doing it all right. When the fish wanted to take line, he let him take and just held the rod, taking line whenever possible. After 20 minutes of this, the fish had turned and was now motoring steadily down the middle of the lake heading for the central area (we were fishing halfway down the left side). The Thais fishing nearby said this was at least 45 Kgs and I was in agreement.
The tackle was a 10 ft carp rod with a Penn baitrunner with 200 mtrs of 40 lb line and this set up had stood up to the big ones I’d caught here earlier so I wasn’t concerned about the equipment.
After a while it was clear that the fish was making a run for the small gap that divides the two sections of the lake. If it made it to that point we’d lose it so my friend began walking towards the fish taking line as he did this and then slowly walking backwards. This was repeated a few times yet he’d made no ground on the fish as it continued its determined run towards safety!
Suddenly I looked down at the reel and saw to my horror that the line had been completely stripped out and all that was holding us was the knot around the spool! I grabbed the rod from my friend and ran towards the fish winding furiously as I went. I walked the fish back and continued making up line on the fish. Then I handed it back to my friend who was doing an admirable job of holding the fish to this point. I was bloody knackered after just ten minutes so god knows how he was feeling!
After 90 minutes the fish had managed to get into some overhanging trees on the far bank and between us we managed to coax it out of there yet it still wanted to get through that opening! We turned it a couple of times but it always seemed to be able to continue its unrelenting pull. While all this was going on I had been gradually tightening the drag on the reel to make it harder for the fish to take line. I’d gone as far as I dared with that and the rod and reel were really under great strain all the time! Then we noticed that the reel handle seemed to be loose (I checked the locking nut and it was tight) which indicated a problem within the reel mechanism! Then we reached the end of the line twice more and again we managed to save it! By 1 hr 50 minutes my friend and I were very tired and we hadn’t made any ground at all on the fish, when we lost it. The line had given between the feeder and hook. By this time all the locals had gathered and they said this fish was 75kg up. We never actually saw the fish, just the swirls when he turned.

The Penn reel is in need of repair (as are me and my friend) and we all went home a trifle sad but happy in the knowledge that we’d given it everything we had (literally) and that we’d been part of such a mammoth fight!!!!
We plan to return soon although we realize that nothing can compare to that fish and it is “The one that got away” story that will live with us all for the rest of our lives!!!!!

I have been trawling the net, looking for video of UFO's that are genuine. This is the best I've found so far. Anyone else with any?