Gung hay fat choy

I probably spelt that wrong but Happy New Year - year of the tiger. Very cool that it coincided with Valentines day so those red envelopes will be doing double duty in some houses.
I got Mr Nell four honey red gourami for the fish tank for his present. Me and Miss La also treated ourselves to two new golden mollies. Since they keep swimming in circles and seem very excitable we've called them Dizzy and Rascal.

Permission to write

Mr Nell and the belles are off to Malvern tomorrow for a few days. This means I'm free to do all the stuff that I'm way behind on - like cleaning - oh hum, and writing. I'm hoping for a really good writing weekend without having to worry about running out of bread or taxi-ing various offspring to their social commitments. Instead it'll be me and my computer and the fish.
Talking of the fish, we've lost all our loaches in the hot weather and several platys. My poor Angel fish, Angie isn't very well either. She has Pop-eye in her one eye and she isn't keen on the fishybiotics. Fingers crossed for her to make a full recovery so we can get the tank settled and get some more loaches. I miss them so much. Some good news though, we have a baby fish of indeterminate parentage, not sure if he's a Platy or a Molly.

Fish

We went and fetched some new fish for the tank today to replace some of our losses, so now we have three red Mickey Mouse Platys, Three Blue wagtail Platys and a strange whiskery fish which Miss La has called Mr Whiskers - hopefully he'll play nicely with the clown loaches. Angie the angel fish is decidely put out by the new arrivals and is guarding her patch of the tank. The clowns are watching from the pineapple house while Mr Molly is beside himself with excitement at the prospect of new females to flirt with.

Fish!

My angel fish - Angie - is very unpopular as she's eaten two of the neon's. We've also lost a couple of Platys and one of the red gourami with various problems. Hence our trip to the aquatics place today for more fish. Two pretty pale blue dwarf gourami to keep our lone blue male company, two kissing gourami and two yellow rainbow fish. Next weekend we're going to get some more Molly's. I want some more Platys but they were out of stock. The belle's are all very happy now even though Angie is already giving the powder blues the evil eye from her corner of the tank.
The library talk went okay yesterday, thanks so much to everyone who came and to Christina and the staff of Kings Norton library for making it such a lovely pleasant afternoon.
Writing wise I'm on target for this month with two chapters done of Crystal Clear and one done of A Scattering of Leaves. I need to do two more chapters of Crystal Clear to meet my schedule for this month and anything extra is a bonus. However as it's halfterm week I may not get so much done. I've also got a ton of work to do for this wretched course - quite how I'm going to achieve that I've no idea especially when I've nothing to use as a marker to tell me how high to pitch the work. I think it would be easier if my heart was in it but it's not.

Wet, wet, wet

And I don't mean the group. Everywhere around here is flooding. The drains are clogged with the falling leaves and the rain has been so torrential there are hugs pools forming across the lanes. I guess it's better to have it falling as rain rather than snow but I wish it would stop falling at all - at least for a few days.
We lost our lovely little black Molly fish the other day and Angie, my lovely but dim, angel fish ate one of the neons. We've bought some more rosy gourami to make up for the loss and another pretty lady dalmation molly for Mr Molly to add to his hareem.
Angie and Brad - the angel fish have been bribed with blood worms to try to stop them snacking on the three remaining neons while if the clown loach get any fatter they'll get stuck in the windows of their pineapple house.
If the rain keeps falling I shall grow gills and a fin myself.

This and that

Happy Father's Day.
My Dad and Mr Nell's dad seemed happy with their gifts this morning. Mr Nell is busy enjoying watching the wildlife on his new feeders so thats all good.
I'm a bit worried about my angel fish, Brad and Angelina. They may look pretty but they are the dumbest fish I've ever owned. They've both grown since I had them and look very lovely, languishing about the tank but they keep getting themselves trapped in a small space between one of the clumps of weed and the wall of the tank. Twice now we've spotted them looking wild eyed and panicky when the other fish have gone to collect food and they have been stuck. I think some pruning of the weed is called for since Brad and Angie can't seem to grasp that they can't fit in their old gaps anymore.
In other news Moonlit Romance and By Grace publishing have a great new forum for you all to hang out on. Best of all you can win books! GO HERE and register, chat and hang out. Lots of cool excerpts and stuff to read.

Bye bye baby

My beautiful Kia Sorento left for its new home today. Sniff. At least it's one of the items on my to do list sorted. My list is growing by the minute. Tomorrow I tackle the increasing mound of paperwork I have to fill out and post.
My fish are looking so much better - the fishybiotics are like a miracle cure. I'm so relieved, I hate seeing my animals ill.
In writerly mode I'm pottering on with Animal Instincts, I can sit a little more comfortably now providing I take my breaks so I should pick up speed again in the next few weeks. The first draft is almost complete, lamentably short if I keep to my original targets but I think I'll end up with a couple of extra chapters and I know I have several scenes to add in plus some emotional layering.

Drillings and fillings.

Middle belle had a teeny tiny filling. She attempted to talk all the way through it and told the dentist that the sucker tickled. Youngest has lovely teeth but not necessarily in the right place, he assures me they wil move into position as she loses more baby teeth. She has a small jaw though so wil need a brace later. Eldest belle also had a filling as she has very soft teeth. This is inherited so not much we can do about it. She got a reprieve for another six months on the brace decision but judging by her squeamishness just for a tiny filling I'm not looking forward to it.
My GP has agreed to let me try going back to work - yay! I've promised to be good and do my exercises, take my painkillers and to use a stick if needed.
The fish are looking better after just one dose of fishybiotics - phew.
The sun is shining, the belles are rollerblading in front of the house and my lounge is still full of gorgeous flowers from my birthday.
My friend Michelle Styles - a fountain of wisdom and generally fab person - has some good words of advice for writing on her blog today. (Link is in my sidebar)

Fishy tails

One of my Platys has been bullied by his tank mates and has fin rot so he's in an isolation bag in the main tank being treated with stress coat. Poor baby.
I had a nice quiet birthday, had a lovely visit from my three year old neice armed with some flowers she'd chosen herself. There were even some heads left on.
Then I got a really super phonecall about a writing project. I can't say anything yet as I don't know if I can go public and it's nothing definite or paid for but it is something special.
Hip is improving slowly and I'm being very virtuous about sticking to my limitations. Mainly because Mr Nell is policing me and the belles are like a choral concience.

Be Afraid, be very afraid

We picked up the new automatic car. No, I haven't driven it yet - pease stop the clucking chicken noises at the back and remember that I am the same person who once crashed a Sinclair C5 into a tree.
I need a bit of time to play with the new toy and get used to using one foot and one hand. I still need to sell Baby, so remember if you want a lovely silver Kia sorento, low mileage and all mod cons then I'm your woman.
Mr Nell decided I needed cheering up so he bought me some new fish today for my tank. Two lovely little angels who I've called Brad and Angelina and a couple of silver gourami. The baby fish are still doing well and growing rapidly. It's funny watching the estabished fish asserting themselves on the new ones. The clown loach have whiskered the angels and tried to outstare them while the Gourami's have decided punting at the Platys then darting off to hide in the weed and laugh is a good strategy.
Writing wise I'm on c13 of Animal Instincts and I know a lot of what I need to put in the previous chapters to make them stronger. I'm also writing the big book, a little at a time as it's very different in feel and takes a lot of thought. The fact that I can't physically sit for long to type is another factor in my rate of progress.

Heads up

If you like M&B romances I was in Asda today and you can get three for £6.50. I think it's selected lines but what a bargain! Ideal for some pressies.
I'm feeling a bit blue today - not sure why - lots of things I suppose. The never ending wait to hear something on Charlie Darling - it's been 12 months now since they asked for the full ms and almost nine weeks since I was told it had been passed higher and the revisions had been accepted.
I've another funeral to go to next week for a much loved relative and still haven't heard when I'm to see the consultant or what the X rays showed.
On the bright side our two baby fish, Fishface and Babycakes, are doing well, they're almost half the size of the neon's now and we've spotted two more teeny babies in the tank. The two new ones are called Bart and Lisa.

Fishy

Update on the fishy babies. We have two, one is grey and speckly and the other is orange. They are both a centimetre long and are getting braver, swimming in and out of the weed and playing more. The grey one (Babycakes) is shyer, while the orange one (Fishface) is bolder and stays out longer. We have no clue as to the proud parents so they could be Platys or possibly Mollies.
I finished c4 of Animal Instincts, yay! I don't know how much I'll do this week with everything thats going on but I'm hoping I'll get some words down.
In other news I've lots of baby congratulations for my friends.
Angie - on the safe arrival of Isabella.
Sheila - on the safe arrival of Jefferson.
Carol - on the safe arrival just today of Nathan.

Sticky

Eating toast with honey at the computer is not a good idea.
In other news we think we may have a baby fish in the tank. At least Mr Nell and I have seen a baby fish - we haven't told the belles in case it doesn't make it and luckily because it likes hiding under a log they haven't spotted it.
Mr Nell is very excited about being a fish daddy so I hope it survives.
Still no news on Charlie Darling - sigh.

Fish

While we were at Chirk earlier this summer we lost our fish. Somehow in the five days we were away they went from being happy healthy goldfish to swimming with angels. We were all really upset. So, we decided we'd get some more once we had finished holidaying and could sort out the tank, check the filters etc etc.
Well, this seems to have morphed into rearranging all my furniture and looking at a bigger tank and buying tropical fish - sigh.
It also means La has set her heart on Sponge Bob square pants pineapple house and all the figures for the new tank. Shaggy wants a turtle ornament with glowing neon eyes and Boo wants luminous green gravel.
Yeah, we're going to have classy fish.
Altogether now - sing along 'he lives in a pineapple under the sea...'