So Long Summer

The blanket is gone and the duvet is back on the bed, summer has well and truly performed its transformation into its cooler alter-ego of autumn. Plenty of breeze, storms, cool bright blue skies and yet the odd day of warm sun but at the same time clouds blowing over at a brisk pace and plenty of sharp showers. I've seen at least 4 rainbows, one being a bright double rainbow that most of Belfast seemed to spot it was very bright (sadly didn't get a photo of it though). Another was over East Belfast looking from Central station and was pretty awesome and vivid but I was on a bus and by the time I'd got off it was gone.

This one I took a photo of last weekend when my dad came to visit and we headed to see the Titanic museum which by the way was pretty good.

We ventured out and about a few times whilst my dad was here. I got my first taste of watching the Ulster Orchestra perform, it was good but I really didn't fit into the general demographic of the audience, still, I shouldn't judge a book by it's cover and I quite enjoyed it apart from the conductor pushing the limits of how many times he could walk off to receive a clap on the return. Once each piece maybe, but 3 in a row without any music in-between - I needed a protest sign from Father Ted! I felt more at home the next night when we were back at the Waterfront again, this time watching Jack Dee and his deadpan stand-up  Also in my dad's visit we squeezed in a visit to Armagh and the Armagh Planetarium.

There have been plenty more great memories this summer, it has been a very busy one. From our day trip to pretty Rathlin Island and getting soaked by the spray of some big waves to seeing the natural beauty of the Marble Arch Caves for the first time. We've shown visitors around Belfast that we know well and also visitors we didn't know so well (from another continent indeed). Watching the Olympics on TV, enjoying the odd date night to a new restaurant or the movies and saving for what turned out to be the surprise ability to afford a second holiday (mainly due to the cost of the holiday mind you), as Norngirl recently wrote, we're heading on a cruise to Italy for our anniversary in November. As they say, 'work hard, play hard'. Though not too hard, the year hasn't been that happy go lucky as Norngirl has been injured and having a tough time of it.

Moving into autumn and winter, entertainment wise there is loads happening, Sport is back (well except the NHL), new Red Dwarf, Dr Who and all sorts of other awesome TV shows, live shows, comedy and music galore. The festive period may just require a little creative budgeting, especially with trips to be made over to Yorkshire for Christmas with my family and also a relative's wedding to go to.

As you can tell, I'm quite looking forward to next few months - the usual politics and news excluded.

Sadly, yet, yet, yet again, my attempts at blogging have fallen by the wayside this summer but hopefully the frequency of posts should improve over the next few months as I hope to post about several of the things above plus anything else that might happen in the meantime. I would say 'I will' post more but looking at my blog's history, that has never really lasted long. So this time I'm not putting pressure on myself to update all the time, hopefully that way it won't seem like a 'to-do' and might instead be more of a 'I want to'. My hope being that I might re-find my bloggy shoes and walk a little further in them (these shoes are metaphorical by the way but if I were to have some bloggy shoes I think they'd have to cloggs because then I could ask people to pass me my blog cloggs and that kinda rhymes).

RIP Dean the Dancing Fish

As far as goldfish go Dean was quite the performer, thanks to the informative powers of the internet we found out 'he' was actually a 'she', but Dean didn't care for labels, a kind of a piscine Billy Elliot, when confronted with a beat and a dancing person in front of her tank, she would follow the lead and swim in time to the blob of human present. She might just have been seeking attention for more food and was just following the shape but we like to think she was feeling the rhythm.

Dean survived 2 house moves and swimming with 2 companions - the last few weeks of Buffy (my longest living fish) and Sam (her pet shop tank buddy) - to be honest she seemingly pestered Sam to death (probably just wanted to dance) so I didn't warm to her for the first while but she won me over.

During those moves and also all through her little fishy life, she was very relaxing to watch swim and probably brought our blood pressure down at some important times. A Comet goldfish, her tail was very long and white and shimmered like a streamer in the current of the water.

She was only still a young fish, approx 3 and a half years old, but alas, we knew she'd probably not live a really long life because Buffy and Sam both died of fish Mycobacteriosis (here is a link to a great article entitled 'Understanding Bacterial Disease in Aquarium Fish' by Myron Roth) and they were already in the same tank before we knew.

So it was just a matter of letting Dean live out a happy fishy life as long as she could and on her own with just 2 humans and a TV as entertainment. We knew that sadly, at the first real signs of stress, would probably take over. It was just a matter of time. Whether or not a lost scale was the initial damage or part of the symptoms, it seems the first cold mornings of the year combined with a poorly timed water change were that little bit of stress to tip the balance and whichever disease it is did it's thing.

Fish Mycobacteriosis is horrible by the way, almost enough to put me off keeping fish. The initial symptoms are vague, mine tended to spend time on the bottom of the tank, followed by lethargy, followed by not eating, all the while, a sore tends to develop on the side of the fish, all these symptoms though can be other things, it's when the spine of the fish starts bending that it become apparent. From what I've seen first hand (though I've never used antibiotics) once you're at this stage it's game over. I sensed early that whatever the fish had was not going to end well, first we hoped it was just a case of swim bladder as she was still able to swim strongly in bursts when fed and per usual we gave her some crushed up unshelled fresh peas. That did seem to help and there was improvement for a couple of days but all it seemed to do was buy time. When the lethargy came back, we tried to use an internal bacteria infection treatment from the pet store but with no success. I don't like to give up on a pet but with this one, having not being able to do anything for the other two, I was going to do the right thing by the fish and euthanise it. Mercifully for both fish and me, she ceased to be very quickly overnight on the day I was calling it quits and inevitable, the final stages this time being a lot quicker than with the other two.

On the plus side, I can now do something about controlling the pathogen, starting by thoroughly disinfecting or getting a new tank and new equipment. I think I might hold off getting any new fish for a while though. I've had 6 fish (3 sets of 2 overlapping by 1 fish each time) in a space of 9 years without the tanks unoccupied. In that time we've also had 5 house moves and up-sized fish tanks 3 times. Longevity wise, the oldest fish lasted 5 years but I know I've not done everything as well as I could and maybe should have. Next time I'll test the water a lot more often and also vary the diet more, I think more regular but smaller water changes might be a good idea. I think I'll also reduce the amount of plastic plants in my tank and only buy those that are softer/finer. Ornaments-wise I think I'll keep it simple - something smooth and round edged in which the fish can hide rather than just behind things.

Dean seemed to have a happy life, not that she probably cared as she was a fish, but we enjoyed having her as part of our household. She will be missed.

A Ride on the Roosevelt Island Tramway

Time travelling back into our US adventure earlier in the year. On Monday 13th February, we headed from Brooklyn to Roosevelt Island so we could cross back into Manhattan. Roosevelt Island is a long, thin island (approx 200 meters wide and 2km long) sat neatly in the middle of the East River between Manhattan and Long Island, it's a small island yet home to over 9,500 people. With a huge bridge - the Queensboro Bridge - looming over part of the island, it does seem an in-between sort of place to be. We arrived on the island underground on the subway but our way off the island was via the famous Roosevelt Island Tram.

With the weekly MetroCards we'd bought to get us around the city during our stay, we'd been pleasantly surprised when planning our itinerary to find out that you can also ride the aerial tramway with it. Luckily the weather was dry and bright on the day we were there so we got a great view. However, before we hung out with a few other tourists and commuters 70m above the East River, we found some feathery friends enjoying the winter sun and stopped to watch them for a while.

The island seemed fairly relaxed compared to the bustle of the streets just the other side of the river but apart from the lack of activity on the streets we didn't see much else, we had a long day ahead planned, so we made our way into the station where we looked up and waited for the next tram car to descend.

After taking a seat we glued our faces to the slightly mucky windows and watched out of the window as the car lifted us up and over the river.

It was a nice view of the Upper East Side and Roosevelt Island

The downside to it is that it was soon over as it is just a short ride of approximately 1km, but the good side is that it is a really nice way to travel and takes you as far over land as it does over water.

The other station is a couple of avenues across into the city on 2nd Avenue which is fun as you get to drift over the roads and watch the world pass by below.

Once we'd arrived at the station we headed down some stairs and made our way downtown to enjoy the rest of our day.