Caryl

Don't bother ringing Telecom. They knew they had a fault and had to keep answering the phone which slowed down their fixing the problem. They need more than one tech (or a second person on the phone :lol: ) Now have 18 gluten free cupcakes cooking. One of the kids in Kelly's class is gluten intolerant so made this batch so he can share in the festivities. Last year the gluten free cake was actually more popular than the "normal" cake! It was delicious. Joe it sounds like you need to go and live at Insectile's house

We just celebrated our 35th anniversary with Chinese takeaways :thup: What about a family picnic in the park? (Assuming it isn't raining for once in Auckland)

I have 30 red velvet cupcakes sitting on the bench waiting to have their cream cheese icing added. Today I will be making a dozen gluten free chocolate cupcakes to go with them. My daughter has her last day of school (she has resigned and looking for work in ChCh!) so have done a 'shout' for her class and the staff. She had final assembly last night and said she scored 2 kisses, 2 hugs and 3 butt grabs (all done in good taste of course )

I have heard of many fish that ended up bent sideways but I do not know of a cure.

I was going to suggest poking one too When in doubt, poke it :thup: (Unless it looks like something that will object to the maneuver)

Some are not as bright as others?

Can be genetic, caused by poor nutrition when young, injury from a fight, or old age. Is it bent up or sideways?

Will dohoho but it will have to wait until Wednesday, unless I have time to do it after work tomorrowowow

It was a know I wanted though, not a ho ho ho 8) Or should I have said "Does anyone knowhoho?"

You must have a really small screen! In the end we had takeaways - chicken and cashew nuts, dried rice with pork and sweet and sour fish. All very yummy :thup:

I have a lot of pond snails and I am wondering which species they are. I know they are of the Lymnaea family and thought they were Lymnaea stagnalis but these appear to be found in the northern hemisphere and grow up to 7cm. Mine don't get that big, 3cm would be the largest I think. Anyone know? :dunno:

Too hot for toasties! - plus I said I wasn't going to cook on our anniversary and Grant is so slow at preparation we would be eating around midnight (assuming he gets home at all). I have set up the stock trough to put snails in from the main pond. This means they are easy and quick to gather next time someone does a run to ChCh and is willing to take them down for Donna's turtles. We have so many snail eggs on the underside of the lilies that we will not run out of snails any time soon. Yes, they are snail eggs as they look different to goldfish eggs.

Can't decide what to have for tea tonight. Too hot to cook (besides which I had already said I wasn't cooking today), can't be bothered dressing nicely to eat at a restaurant, can't decide what sort of takeaways :dunno: Thought I'd get a gourmet pizza from the supermarket but they only had two and neither were 'gourmet' enough to pay $13.00 for. :roll:

Hang on a minute! Joe, were you not once really interested in pigeons yourself? Did your dad not get involved as a result of your interest? Did he not spend many hours, and dollars, building bird aviaries in the backyard, not just for pigeons but for your other birds? :dunno:

Wow! Just watching Joanna Lumley's Greek Odyssey on TV1. She visited the 4th century theater of Epidaurus and Nana Mouskouri, showing how good the acoustics are, sang part of Ave Maria. She still has a wonderful voice at 78. You youngin's probably don't know the name but Nana Mouskouri has sold nearly 400 million discs worldwide, recording about 1,500 songs in 15 languages on 450 albums. She has more than 230 gold and platinum albums worldwide, making her a candidate for the best-selling female recording artist of all time.

Thanks. Just discovered the traditional gifts are coral or jade so don't bother suggesting we set up a marine tank people! A married couple in their early 60s were out celebrating their 35th wedding anniversary in a quiet, romantic little restaurant. Suddenly, a tiny yet beautiful fairy appeared on their table and said, "For being such an exemplary married couple and for being faithful to each other for all this time, I will grant you each one wish." "Ooh, I want to travel around the world with my darling husband," said the wife. The fairy moved her magic wand and, in a flash of blinding light, two first class tickets for the Queen Mary II luxury liner appeared in her hands. Now it was the husband's turn. He thought for a moment and said: "Well, this is all very romantic, but an opportunity like this only occurs once in a lifetime, so, I'm sorry, my love, but my wish is to have a wife 30 years younger than me." The wife and the fairy were deeply disappointed, but a deal is a deal, so the fairy made a circle with her magic wand and, in a flash of blinding light, the husband became 92 years old. The moral: Men might be ungrateful idiots, but fairies are... female.

We have spent the day doing nothing much. Very enjoyable. Have just remembered it is our 35th wedding anniversary tomorrow so trying to get the enthusiasm to do something to celebrate it :yaw1:

How long are you away for? Many fish can survive up to 2 weeks without feeding. It depends on tank, species, stocking levels and filtration. I have no experience with fish feeders but the ones I have seen have sat on top as I have heard people say it is important to keep the food dry or it clumps and jams the feeder. Not sure if they are moisture-proof enough to go under a fitted lid but I assume there are some that do so.

Time for another update since this pond was started in Feb 2006. Here it is today... As you can see, the lilies and oxygen weed have grown well... And yes, there are fish in it, about 50 odd I think...

You need to join the Photography Club and go on their outings.

Grant says you can borrow his macro lens (EFS60mm USM) if you want as he knows you will be careful with it. He has a Canon 450 and he thinks it will fit the 400. He also has a 75 - 300mm telephoto lens that came with the camera but he got a better lens so you can borrow the other too.

I am turning into the Crazy Cat Lady! We now have all 3 of our daughter's cats here (temporarily I hope - as is she!). Charlie Bucket was finally caught this morning (he disappeared from his old house) and is roaming about sniffing but will hopefully settle as he realises the other two cats are here... Denny Crane settled in immediately. In fact, I don't think he realises he has moved! :slfg: And Pickles is his usual nervous self. He comes in to eat then disappears (unless it's raining then he sits on Kelly's bed)

Our power was recently off for 7 hours and I had no problems whatsoever. A lot depends on how heavily stocked your tank is, the size of the fish, and the amount of plants etc. Do as David R suggests and you shouldn't have any problems.

I know people in the local photography club (ie the Pres and Sec) plus Grant has a few extra lenses for his Canon. What sort are you thinking of? Of course, I doubt many photographers would be willing to lend an expensive lens to anyone, especially a teenage boy, no matter how much they claim they will be careful and can be trusted!