RIP Kettle the Shubunkin....

I just found one of Rowan's goldfish dead on the bottom of the tank....

They're not quite two years old yet, though I'm personally amazed they've lasted this long.

However, there's a slight element of guilty feeling on my part; I decided last week to buy a new, bigger tank for them as they're adult now and looked to be finding the old tank a little cramped. The cashier at the petshop tried to disuade me from buying the tank I got, which was merely a larger model of their original tank, citing new protocols stating that all goldfish tanks should have filters built in. I explained that I'd been keeping them quite well in their original tank for nearly two years, and she put her hands up in surrender, her expression very "Whatever, you ignorant pet abuser." *sighs*

So the fact that, a week later, one of them's dead? Yeah.

Le sigh

Now I have to tell Rowan when he gets home this evening.

Ah nostalgia....

I bought myself a new stereo a good few weeks back, when the Leckwith ASDA store opened. At the time I thought it was a bargain; radio/cd player with cassette deck, for £20. Turns out it was just a new budget range, but it's all good. When I finally brought it home from Mam's this morning, I was looking forward to getting to listen to my tapes again for the first time in probably a decade.

(As an aside, I took my old stereo to the tip just yesterday - after seventeen years of loyal service...*sniff* Got that thing for my thirteenth birthday - my very first CD player - and it survived getting shoved off the side of a chest of drawers by theives the Christmas before I turned eighteen.)

It's a very odd little machine, where the speakers are concerned. They're only connected to the main unit by wires, rather than the usual jacks, and you have to pass the wires through these clip things to make the connection. I guess it stops you using someone else's speakers, or upgrading them - which isn't all that fair if you think about it.

Had some teething troubles initially though, as no matter what I tried I could not get any sound. I even tried plugging in some headphones, incase the speakers were faulty, but still nothing. So I called the helpline and explained, and they told me I could take it back to the store for a replacement. Since Leckwith's the other end of the city, they agreed I could take it to the Pentwyn store near me, so off I went on the bus. Managed to exchange it no trouble, brought it home, and yay! Worked right off. I must have had a faulty unit the first time.

I've spent half the evening listening to this tape and that, and I've come across some old tapes I'd forgotten I even had. There was one in particular where I'd gone through an ex's sountrack CDs and copied them to a cassette (I wasn't as familiar with music files then, and I don't think MP3 players were even around); I have tracks from Labyrinth, Due South, Friends and the Buruengee (sp?) battlesong from LeXX (remember that?) I also found the tape alryssa sent me, with a copy of the Alien Nation theme song on it! That was cool - I need to get that on MP3 sometime.