Non-fishing Stuff of the Year 2023

It’s been an interesting year in the Gilbey household to put it mildly, indeed I am rather happy to still be here talking to you and getting to spend what I hope is a lot more time with my wonderful family. It was a hard and stressful phone call to have to make to my wife from the back of an ambulance when I was in the middle of having a severe heart attack back in August. I didn’t know if I would see my family again, but at least the pain of the actual heart attack plus how filthy it is to dry-chew an aspirin kept my mind off worrying too much about the potentially worst consequences - which to be honest I’d have known no more about if the heart attack had killed me there and then. My wife is an awesome girl and she kicked into gear to get herself and our two girls back from a holiday on the Isle of Wight that same evening (sorry girls!). I know how lucky I am on so many different levels. Wow does coming through a heart attack like that put a lot of stuff into perspective, and also give one serious impetus to come back stronger and fitter and healthier………………

Which I have done and continue to do. My heart was scanned in hospital and I was then told that if I worked at it I could make more than a full recovery. But it doesn’t just happen. When you get that kind of good news you need to grab it with both hands and make it happen. I swore I would never even try and take up running because it’s not for people like me at all, but back in February I gave the amazing BBC app Couch to 5k app a go, and here I am now - with a bit of a break for my heart attack and not being allowed to run for a while - running a minimum of three times a week, never less than 5k per run, and the other day I managed to complete my first ever 10k. If you are a runner then it’s most likely all perfectly normal to you, but for somebody like me I will never lose the sheer amazement at being able to now run a “comfortable” 5k without any undue hassle. I am never going to be a fast runner, but I am really enjoying it and I never thought I would say anything like that. I have lost a good bit of weight, my wife and girls are getting ever more vegetables inside me without me realising, it’s SO much easier getting up and down the cliffs and scrambling over all kinds of ground for my fishing, and I actually rather enjoy pounding those miles with my sheepdog Storm who we continue to literally use as a sort of exercise machine. She is going to be 12 at Xmas and I hope we get a good bit more time with her. Anyway, enough of that, let’s get on with talking about the Non-fishing Stuff of the Year for 2023……………

Film of the Year 2023 - Extraction 2. The kind of film that most film critics hate, but a film which takes me back to the glory years of films such as Predator, Rambo II and Rocky IV. Over the top and very knowingly so, especially when your lead is genuinely called Tyler Rake, I thought that Extraction 2 was better again than the first film. Check your brain in at the door, crank the surround sound right up, and quite simply glorify in some insane action sequences and a plot which, let’s be honest, doesn’t worry too much about making a whole lot of sense. Unashamedly over the top and bloody good fun for it.

TV Series of the Year 2023 - The Bear Season 2. The final season of Succession was suitably brilliant, but I don’t personally see how television gets any better than The Bear. Season 1 was incredible, and I worried about how they might come close to it with Season 2. So instead they bettered it. I sat open-mouthed for most of it, stunned by the writing first and foremost, then secondly by how well made it was. If you have ever worked in a restaurant then The Bear will speak to you that bit more. The redemption episode is one of the most emotional episodes of a TV series that I can remember seeing, and the final episode was about as brave as it gets. Do yourself a favour, take out Disney+ for a month, and binge-watch both seasons of The Bear. Then watch them all again.

Podcast of the Year 2023 - Americast. I find America a fascinating country on so many different levels, not least the amount of fishing and wide open spaces such a vast country offers visitors like us. But I am also interested in a lot more from across the pond, and the weekly Americast podcast from the BBC is a really good summary of what on earth is going on over there. “The authoritative weekly US news and politics podcast from BBC News, Americast investigates the social and cultural issues that define America today”.

Fishing Podcast of the Year 2023 - The Lure Fishing Podcast. Big credit to Cormac Walsh in Wexford for this fascinating fishing podcast. He has kindly had me on a couple of times, but you can quite happily ignore those episodes and instead listen to a bunch of interesting anglers and angling related people talk about all things fishing and fishing related. A breath of fresh air and I take my hat off to Cormac for creating this podcast.

Album of the Year 2023 - Blackbraid II by Blackbraid. What is black metal today I hear you ask? This mighty album would be my answer. Catchy as hell, great production, the right mix of fast as hell and groovy as a groovy thing, nods to black metal of old and black metal of the future, plus a cover of the mighty Bathory song “A Fine Day to Die” rounds out my Album of the Year 2023. This is music to luxuriate in.

Book of the Year 2023 - An Honest Man by Michael Koryta. I have read five books by the US author Michael Koryta this year and they have all been suitably brilliant. I love a good thriller with strong human elements, and few writers I have come across mix suspense with such a sense of place, people and landscape quite so seamlessly. If I didn’t have to work and if I wasn’t addicted to fishing I could cheerfully read books for hours and hours each day.

Best Buy of the Year 2023 - Hoka Challenger 7 running shoes. There is a lot of me hitting grass, road, trail or mud when I am running, and these incredibly supportive and comfortable Hoka Challenger 7 running shoes are awesome for all of it. Go for one size larger than your regular shoe size. In some respects I have these shoes to thank for me being at home and not out fishing on my own on a lonely rock when I had my heart attack (I will refer you to this blog post exactly here rather than repeat myself). THE most comfortable shoes I have ever worn, to the point that I have given up wearing slightly crappy walking and hiking shoes/boots and invested in Hoka versions of those as well now. For sure I go through shoes and boots faster than anybody I know, but the moment my Challenger 7 running shoes start to give up on me I will gladly spend the same amount of money again on another pair.

Another Best Buy of the Year 2023 - Apple Air Pods Pro 2. It would be so much easier if Apple products were a bit crap, but they aren’t, and I am welded to the Apple ecosystem with laptops/computers for work, iPad, iPhone, Apple Music etc. You can now add these bloody good Air Pods Pro 2 in-ear headphones which just work so seamlessly and also provide really good sound. Not cheap because Apple stuff never is, but damn they are good.

Worst Buy of the Year 2023 - Camera Tripod Ulanzi MT-41. What a load of crap. I was after a new mini-tripod to live in my waterproof rucksack because my old one is starting to fall apart, and I thought this Ulanzi thing might do it for me. It’s about as stable as a one-legged, drunk, old fella, so I sent it straight back to Amazon for a refund and bought what I should have bought in the first place because it’s a bloody brilliant and a not very expensive at all mini-tripod, the Smallrig Mini Tripod Tabletop Tripod. Sorted.

A rather exciting Buy of the Year 2023 which will only mean something to you if you need to take a bunch of pills each day - A bit silly I know, but once they told me I would be on a number of different pills for the rest of my life, I went onto Amazon and ordered this rather exciting and wonderfully plastic “Viomicia Pill Box 7 Day 2 Times a Easy to Open Organiser with Push Button Pop Design Medicine Storage Large 14 Compartments Tablet Hold Vitamins and Medication”. That’s where I am at these days!

Can’t bloody believe this 2023! In 2020 my album of the year was the truly mighty “Endarkenment” by the UK’s Anaal Nathrakh, and I have been wondering for a while why there hasn’t been any new music by these maestros of mayhem. I found out only the other day that the main reason for this is because the principal writer of Anaal Nathrakh’s music has gone a bit stratospheric with this “phonk” music he creates under the name Kordhell. Over 150m views of the YouTube video above would suggest that Kordhell is attracting a lot more attention than Anaal Nathrakh, but if people would stop bloody listening to this phonk stuff we might get some more of the good stuff one day!