quick update

For our own records, really. Another bank holiday weekend – Saturday Pete went out on a 26m bike ride, while I tackled the ironing mountain. And beat it.

Sunday, I tested the fish tank, which we set up on 25 April – we deemed it acceptable, so went over to Frisby Aquatics to purchase fish! I’ve been in there a few times, buying tank chemicals and asking advice, and always been very pleased with their service, so we have determined we shall use them always, not least because they’re nice and local. They recommended that we start with one for a week or so, and we brought home a Siamese fighting fish in black, with a lovely blue streak in his tail. He was briefly named “Pteppic”, but we have, I think, settled on George as a collective name for the fish, singular or plural.

George seems quite happy in his tank, is eating his fish flakes, and entertaining Ron and Henry a treat :)

After settling him down, we walked into town and had lunch in the Handmade Burger Co. We had a meal there soon after it opened, and weren’t hugely impressed; I actually complained about my chicken being cold, and they gave me a refund which was quite impressive. They also gave us a 2 for 1 voucher, so we decided to give them another shot yesterday; they are much improved, but the service is still quite slow, and whatever they brought me in a mug, it wasn’t coffee! Then we went and saw Pirates of the Caribbean 4, which wasn’t nearly as bad as I expected – but it was far too long, and a lot of it was far too dark for my tired old eyes to see clearly. We were bad, and had both an ice cream (Ben and Jerry Cherry Garcia – om *nom*), and a large bag of Maltesers between us, and in fact we didn’t have any supper at all, we were so full.

Yesterday we’d planned to go for a walk on the coast, but it was chucking it down in the morning, so we didn’t. Instead we walked the long way round to the other side of the city, and back a different long way, purchasing a mop and bucket at the mid point. A rock and roll life, ’tis true. Before going out, we put a shoulder of lamb in the slow cooker, with aubergines, sweet potatoes and butternut squash, red onions, mustard seeds, onion seeds, garlic, ginger, chilli, turmeric, cumin and coriander seeds. And tomatoes, lime juice and coconut milk. Pete made some little fenugreek dumpings to accompany it and it was exceeding nice. Followed by strawberries and ice cream.

Last night was quite frenzied, discussing almost the same thing with *almost* the same people in three different online media – it got quite confusing, and my keyboard melted :) And that was it. Back to the grindstone now.

Mirrored from kestrel.org.

Henry and George

We have wanted an aquarium for ever, but have never had the space to fit one in. And when we were doing the work for the kitchen, it seemed like a really good time to knock out the fireplace, and then we realised that made a gap for a teeny tiny fishtank. I looked on eBay, and picked up a 25 litre one (really is tiny – 30cm cubed) for £12.50 from Beverley, just 5m up the road from us.

We bore it home, but we had to wait till the decorating was finished before we could start it off, and then it was another five weeks, nearly, before we could put fish in it. The day dawned on Sunday, and we sallied forth to our local aquatic emporium and spent the huge sum of four quid on a singleton Siamese fighting fish (just the one, Mrs Wembley, for another week or so).

The Tribe have taken *no interest whatsoever* in the tank since it went in. Not the light, not the waving plants, not a thing. But once that SFF went in, Henry in particularly was transfixed. He has spent hours sitting in front of the tank, dabbiting at the glass and trying to get at George (the fish). We have had to put a couple of bricks on the lid, because it looked dangerously close to coming off. The fish, thankfully, is unpeturbed. As far as we can tell. Inscrutable chap, Johnny Fish.

Mirrored from the Tribe.