I was feeling a bit low the other night so I turned on the telly to see if I could find something to cheer me up. Yes, I know that was a silly notion, and no, I don't know what's happened to the telly either.
However, I do reckon that part of the problem is that there are far too many disgustingly overpaid people involved in making the programs. Lots of genuinely talented people would jump at the chance at being a television executive for a fraction of the salary.
What makes television so poor these days is that it has all been done before. There are more channels than ever and us oldies have seen most things so many times we're at the point of absolute boredom. I've had more than enough of seeing stags rutting, boring badgers, or being shown sheep dogs being put through their paces and being spoon fed another box of hungry tits could finish me off. If it doesn't, my end will surely come when I have to witness a twit with a batometer listening to some unseen pipistrelle catching moths in the dark. Perhaps it's just time to come to terms with the fact that telvision is finished I may as well throw the idiot box out of the window. There again how would I get on without the weather forecast and Coronation Street. I knew I shouldn't have got started, but I'll just mention one more thing about the telly and wildlife programmes.
Why is it that so many people are involved in catching animals just so that they can be weighed and then have a transmitter stuck on them. The other night I watched in disbelief as some fool strapped a transmitter, the size of a house brick, to the side of a seal's head. The poor thing probably died of hunger because it couldn't catch any fish with that great lump of electronics tied to its bonce. It seems to me that many of these so called wild life conservationists are much worse than fox hunters. At least those people are being honest about their sport.
Here's an example of what I'm talking about. Close to me there is an area of wetland that is managed by some wildlife people and our local paper ran a lovely little story about how these people were painting a liquid onto the eggs of the wild geese. This substance made the eggs sterile so the eggs wouldn't hatch. The wildlife conservationist responsible said "We are doing a cracking job controlling the population of geese so that other birds can get a look in." Now excuse me numb nuts, but shouldn't you be letting mother nature sort it out.
I'd love to know why they need to stick transmitters on defenceless creatures? we are told that it's so that we can find out where they go for the winter etc. But we already know that, so what is the real purpose?
Right, let's get back to the fishing. There I was watching a program about Wales, you know the sort. Some overpaid presenter with as much charisma as a terminal depressive, tries to tell us something interesting that we haven't heard before and fails miserably. You can see the embarrassment on their faces as they trot out a load of guff we've all heard a thousand times. Take a tip from me, stick the box on mute and just watch the scenery, it's much better.
Anyway, I reckon I'm stumbling like a mountain goat in my efforts to get to the fishing so I'll bash on a bit. On the night in question one of the segments was about the Ffestiniog Railway and this brought back memories of a couple of fishing trips I once had to the lake just outside Blaenau Ffestiniog.
I guess it was ironic that a depressive presenter should be talking about a place that some have described as being one of the most depressive places in the world. Somebody once told me that the sale of tranquilisers and razor blades had been banned in Ffestiniog to remove temptation. If ever you find yourself there on the last day of your summer holidays, on a day when it's so dank with mist and drizzle that you can almost touch the clouds. A day when the torrents of water are gushing out of the mountain sides and conditions are so bad that you can hear sheep crying.
Well on that day you will realise what real misery is all about.
I'm glad to say that I've only been to Ffestiniog once when the weather was like that and thankfully it wasn't on a fishing day. To be honest though, I'd put up with quite a bit of drizzle to have the good fortune to live there for the rest of the year, because the place is stunningly beautiful.
Sorry, I've been on my soapbox again, banging on about stuff that I can't change. Now I've run out of time to do this post, which was supposed to be about my fishing trips to Ffestiniong. I need to do a proper job 0n the tale, so if you want to find out what happened and the fun we had fishing in Ffestiniog it will be the subject of my next fishing post and I will try to leave television out of it.
I'll leave you with a picture of Penmaenpool, which is not far from Ffestinog, to accompany the one at the start of this post that was taken in the same area.
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