Paul Arden | Monday, 20 July 2026
I don’t know if it was three week’s of eating nothing but green curry, overtraining, late nights watching the rugby (not soccer, which would definitely have caused it all by itself), some old jungle juice, maybe the Chinese meal or the beer that accompanied it, but at one point in the late evening of last Monday, I came down with a blinding headache, of the like that I’ve never experienced before or want to again. I spent two days in bed and it took some more days afterwards to recover.
The other, possibly more interesting explanation, which my wife subscribes to, is that when partaking in the aforementioned Chinese meal, she told me a story of a friend of hers, who was “possessed” for some hours and I asked if she grew red horns out of her head, apparently I shouldn’t have done this, and the evil spirit entered my body in order to give me a blinding fucking headache and teach me a lesson.
Take your pick. Whichever explanation works for you, I’m back on my feet again and have been training. 5hr indoor bike ride on Saturday night and a short 40 minute run on Sunday. This week I hope to put in 15+ hrs. It’s 4 months to the Malaysian Ironman and so it’s time to get a lot more serious again. I have subscribed to a coaching plan but I haven’t actually managed to do anything on it yet to the letter. But still, it is inspiring to study the plan and look at what I could be doing, if I had a swimming pool and an elephant and tiger-free running trail here in the jungle.
The flycasting World Championships are coming up soon, next month. I have three fly casting athletes attending who I coach. I would love to have been there myself but the 500€ ICSF individual FU excess fee for athletes attending from non-affiliated countries, as well as the more than doubling of international flight prices passing over the Middle East, has made it impossible for me to attend.
I’m not a big fan of the direction the competition has taken. It’s considerably more expensive and lasts a week, which means pretty much two weeks with the long haul travel, which is a problem even for those of us who don’t have jobs. Still I hope it’s a success and attracts new casters to replace those of us who used to attend but now can’t afford it. Hopefully I’ll be able to attend again in the future when I’m a rich man. Maybe in about 50 years from now.
I did try at one point to generate interest in fly casting competitions here in Malaysia but I didn’t find anyone who wanted to take it seriously. Which is a shame because it only requires a small group. There was an “open” casting competition in Ipoh and I asked if I could compete but they said no!! Which was quite bizarre actually.
It’s been raining and the lake level has risen by about a metre. Still no snakehead babies, at least not around my current mooring. I am going to start looking more seriously again because this is big fish time of year. Most of my 6KG plus fish have been caught in late July/August. And perhaps because the Wet Season proper was cut short, just maybe the midsummer fishing will be great.
I have a couple of YouTube videos to edit. A discussion with Andy on being a redneck and building the Sexyloops Tornados in Texas. And a lesson 2 drills video with Nick. I couldn’t get this up last week, because an evil spirit without a sense of humour, gave me a bastard behind the eyeballs. But I should be able to upload one or both in the next days. So hang on to your shorts, it’s all about to happen.
Finally, and most important of all, huge congratulations to Karel Novák from Czech Republic! I’ve been coaching Karel for years and when he said he would like to be a Certified Fly Casting Instructor I put him together with both Nick Moore and Rickard Gustafsson as part of their MCI training.
On Saturday Karel passed his assessment in France with flying colours. Very well deserved!! Great job all round!! And especially for man of the moment: Karel. Very well done my friend!
Have a great week and remember: Hantu Tetek is out there.
Cheers, Paul