I Am Getting Old,

my memory is starting to fail me,

yesterday I gave a Latin name to a sterlet that I had seen at Kingfisheries in Croydon Road, Beckenham, and my memory failed miserably! I named the chap above as Acipenser rutheneus, wrong! it is of course the much rarer Acipenser gueldenstaedtii, commonly known as the diamond surgeon, it is a good job that Graham reads the blog and checks my latin names, I think this is the first and hopefully last clanger I will drop regarding Latin names,

moving on, in the afternoon we watched, K-19: The Widowmaker, the submarine, K-19, was the first of the Project 658 class, the first generation of Soviet nuclear submarines equipped with nuclear ballistic missiles, specifically the R-13 SLBM, the boat was hastily built by the Soviets in response to United States' developments in nuclear submarines as part of the arms race, as articles and the film show it went disastrously wrong, a much underrated film, if you have time it is well worth watching, as an aside the submarine used in the film features in this article,

on to our evening meal,

pate, salad and toasted bread for our starter,

'Cheers!',

our main course was a Chinese chicken curry with rice,

I feel another 'Cheers!' coming on,

I followed that with a sake or three, yes I know sake is Japanese and we are eating Chinese, but it seemed appropriate,

for dessert a frosted Arctic roll with strawberries and cream,

diet starts next week! we listened to music for the rest of the evening, then as the midnight hour approached we were off to bed.

First Thing In The Morning, As I Looked Out Of The Window,

one of the foxes, 

 was having a nap in the sun,

 not a care in the world!

 we had some good news also first thing, one of our shrimps had given birth, so down to Kingfisheries in Croydon Road, Beckenham, 

we wanted to give them a treat,

 and I remember from our last visit here, there was a shrimp food treat,

 and there it was on the counter, 

 Shrimp Enhancer by NT Laboratories, 

 whilst in the shop,

 I wandered out to the coldwater section,

 lots of fish in stock,

 including Koi carp,

 in the afternoon we watched a few game shows,

 then time for our evening meal, a starter of garlic prawns with crusty sourdough bread,

 'Cheers!',

 for our main course, pork and lamb kebabs with coleslaw, sweetcorn and a baked potato,

 another 'Cheers!', from me,

for dessert sticky toffee pudding with custard, delicious, then time to be serious, the daily 3 games of cribbage, I will not say who won, but Diana lost 3 - 0, we listened to music for most of the evening, but as one of the channels was showing a series of both Poirot and Sherlock Holmes we watched those, then for us we were off to bed.

Off To Pick Up A Few Fish,

on my way out,

 I noticed that the rhododendrons in the garden of Foxgrove Lodge,

 were putting on a good show,

 I popped into Kingfisheries to pick up a few small fish,

nothing special, just a few guppies, (Poecilia reticulata), harlequin fish, (Trigonostigma heteromorpha), neon tetras, (Paracheirodon innesi), and a few others, I must mention we now have 2 panda catfish, (Corydoras panda), they are so cute, all low maintenance,

 Diana was at work, so a meal by myself,

 starting with a prawn cocktail,

 followed by a chicken korma and a butter chicken with rice, I did not have a dessert, I was too full! I spent the evening listening to music and reading,

 I am now up to page 117 in the book Lanark by Alasdair Gray, the prologue now finished and the start of book 1, later Diana called so off to the bus stop, feet up for a coffee and a chat and we were off to bed.

We Were Out Of Water,

for our marine aquarium,

 so off to the shop past the church, but first,

 a look into the town hall, as an exhibition was being held there,

 by the Beckenham Photographic Society, what a treat, so many stunning photographs, it put my humble efforts to shame!

 on to the bus stop, The Cosy Kitchen now up and running, I called into Kingfisheries Aquarium and picked up the RO water we use to top up the aquarium and home I went,

 in the evening a sherry,

 followed by my evening meal and a few glasses of red,

as I read a few more chapters of Lanark by Alasdair Gray, whilst listening to music,

towards midnight Diana called, so a walk to the bus stop, returning home it was feet up for a coffee and for us next we were off to bed.

I Decided To Do A Little Maintenance,

on the aquarium,

 starting with a clean of the protein skimmer, and then the insides of the glass, I then had some really good news, a few months ago I started getting a pain in my left upper leg, eventually bad enough that it woke me up at night, so a few days ago I went to the doctors, where I was given an examination and with a printed out form told to to go straight away to the local hospital to have my upper leg X-rayed and a number of blood samples taken, results in 10 days, to say I was worried was an understatement, but 3 days later, today, I had a call form the doctor, nothing untoward was found, it seems that a number of nerves have decided for no apparent reason to make themselves felt, the x-rays and blood work showed no abnormalities, thank heavens for that! I have a rub jelly that hopefully will take care of the ache,

 so to celebrate it was off to the local supermarket,

where I stocked up with,

 several boxes of wine,

 in the evening it was time for a read,

 and a glass of sherry,

 for tonight's meal, a turkey salad, 

 'Cheers!',

 I then took a couple of photographs of the box fish, who has settled down really well, looking at me,

and side view,

 and here he is waiting for a feed,

between the regal tang and the flame angel,

 I continued reading Unlikely Stories, Mostly, but I have to admit I got a bit bogged down with Logopandocy, for a thesis of Alasdair Gray's work here is one by Bruce Graham Charlton MBBS, I decided to take a break from Alasdair Gray, and started another short story which I will make a separate post about, just after midnight Diana called to say she was on the bus home, so off to the bus stop, and in no time we were back home, where I gave her the good news about myself from the doctor, we had a quick nightcap and then for us we were off to bed.