Mandyworld

Not so much fishkeeping as fish-losing.

I am new to fish keeping. Not so long ago I purchased on ebay a very nice tank and went about setting it up as it said in my book. I thought that if I just followed all the instructions, everything would go smoothly and I would have a beautiful tank and very happy fish. I have discovered it is not that simple. I have since spent hours shopping at local and online aquarium stores looking at fish, cleaning stuff, treatments, food, etc. I have joined fishkeeping forums and subscribed to Practical Fishkeeping. It is in fact one of those hobbies that sucks you in. It's quite complicated and there in lies the challenge. I fall for it every time.
So anyway, I naively went about setting up my tank. I won't bore you too much but basically I used tap water which around here is very hard and has loads of nitrate in it. The hardness means I now have a high pH and the nitrate has caused loads of algae. I am sorting this out gradually with water changes but it's taking a while. In the meantime I went ahead and got my first fish. They are zebra danios. Small, cute, friendly but most of all hardy and should withstand the odd beginners fishkeeping whoopsie. Or so I thought? They seemed very happy, I was just starting to get attached when one of them ups and disappears. It's just gone. I keep expecting a little fish body to float up from behind a plant somewhere, but nothing. I've checked the filter and he couldn't of jumped out as the lid is too tight. The only thing I can think is that one died and the others ate him. But in 12 hours! How hungry are they? Maybe I bought Piranhas by mistake. Maybe I shouldn't put my hands in there anymore...

Lost and confused

It has come to my attention that this blog isn't really about anything. It was going to be a photojournal but I never seem to have the time to take many photos so it has just become a very infrequent and probably rather boring diary. I have to admit that my life is somewhat like this at the moment, not boring as such but definately lacking in direction. I seem to be chronicly busy getting nothing done. So, time for a plan, I am good at making plans. The execution of said plan can be a bit woolly but I'll get to that later.
I have several 'jobs' all of which I do 'part time':
1. Mother to 2 year old. (I like to think I'm good at this.)
2. Housewife.( The house is a pigsty and we never have any clean clothes!)
3. Showjumper. (One week this is all I do then the next week I think I might give up. I can't make up my mind.)
4. Photographer. (I never seem to have the time for this but I'd love to do more.)
5. Fishkeeper. (I have six fish and an algae problem!)
There are also loads of things that I would like to have the time to do but haven't yet started. I'd like to get out in the garden and learn how to be a decent gardener, I'd like to make my own curtains and do some knitting and I'd like to do some ballet again. Oh, and at the moment I am really getting into cooking. I've been on a bit of a serious diet and now that I am starting to eat properly again I have a bit of a passion for food. I'm working my way through Jamie Oliver's new book. Yum!
I don't work as such, so I should be able to do all this shouldn't I? Maybe I just need better time management. Maybe I should just concentrate on one thing at a time. Maybe I should just give up on some of this for the moment.
So what is this blog about? Oh, I don't know.......I guess just me, off in Mandyworld, doing my Mandy thing. So, here's the plan, it's a diary, about all of this. Read it, don't read it, comment or not, I will continue to muddle my way through life.

Amazing Grace

I just wanted to let you know how Grace, my neice is doing. She has been allowed home for the weekend and I just had a call from my sister to say that she is doing really well. She is talking more and more each day and eating really well. She isn't able to walk yet but this seems more due to the fact that she is still quite weak rather than anything neurological. She has of course had a stroke and I think there are bound to be a few problems associated with that but hopefully Grace is young enough to be able to work around those problems so that they don't affect her long term. Julie said there was a moment today when Grace was watching TV that it felt like it could of been back in November before the nightmare began. I am so happy for them all. I think we can all be very thankful that we live in a time when a child who gets that ill can make a recovery. Tommy's and GOSH we owe you.

Kitchen Safari

Ijust found this really weird spider in the utility room so I took his portrait. I looked him up on this site and he seems to be a walnut orb weaver. Apparently usually found under dead tree bark, here he is on my tack cleaning sponge. I don't know what that says about my housekeeping! They are supposed to be quite common but I'd never seen one before even when I have been rooting around in dead tree bark.

I put him outside where he belongs. Now I feel like there's things crawling on me.

Happy New Year

To be honest I'm not sure if it's a happy one or not. Here at home everything is good and we have had a fairly nice holiday season but I think for everyone else it has been a real mixed bag. We seem to get one bit of good news and then one bit of bad. It's a bit of a rollercoaster really.
The main thing is that Grace is improving and is off the ECMO machine now. She is back at Tommy's but unfortunately it seems that she has had a stroke at some point during her treatment. She is awake now and her movement is improving with physiotherapy but she hasn't spoken yet. They don't really know to what extent the stroke will effect her but have said that they don't think she will get away completely symptom free. My sister and her husband have been amazing. You can read Julie's story here.  I will warn you, it is a fascinating but harrowing tale and some what terrifying for anyone who has children. Thank you to everyone who has been praying for them.

Not so Merry Christmas

My neice has been transferred to Great Ormond Street hospital and is now on a machine called ECMO. I once saw a child on ECMO while I was doing my physio training and it is a pretty scary thing to see. My sister is holding up, although understandably having panic attacks every now and then. I wish I could do something for them. The only thing I can do though is pray and in my own way I'm doing a lot of that.

Time flies

Well, I have finally found the time to update this blog. There just doesn't seem to be enough hours in the day most of the time. I have way too many hobbies, interests and commitments which doesn't help.  I think I have a plan to sort all that out though, more on that later. For now just a quick update on everything in Mandyworld.
We are now living in our rented house down near Dorchester. I love the house and the area but travelling back and forth to North Dorset to see people is a real pain. James is finding it even harder especially seeing as we have now bought another house to renovate back there. I think we will probably only stay here until September and then look for another rent further North.
Emma loves it here too. She has a very busy social calendar with playgroups, music classes, swimming and 'helping' with the horses. She is very nearly talking now and learns a new word nearly every day. Her favourites at the moment are 'arry and Dumbledore.
Balu, the horse, has been a bit wild since I moved him here. The hacking is great, but not being schooled has completely gone to his head and I ended up having quite a nasty fall a few weeks ago. I hurt my back and couldn't ride for a few weeks. I'm back on now and I've booked in for a few lessons
but I am seriously rethinking my riding plans.
My latest hobby is my fish tank, of which I am very proud. It hasn't got any fish in it yet but I have planted it up and once the filter has matured a bit I can go and buy some fishies which is very exciting. Emma has had a fish passion ever since Finding Nemo and has been helping me set up the tank. I know she'll love the fish.
I've also been on a pretty serious diet. It's called Lighterlife and it's a bit drastic but I'm very pleased with how it's going and I'm very hopeful that this is the last diet I will ever have to do. So far I've lost 2st8lb.
Anyway all my trivial life crap pales into insignificance compared to what my sister is going through. A few days ago her daughter who will be 3 in January was admitted to hospital with pnuemonia. Currently she is in the intensive care unit at Tommy's. Today she has shown some slight improvement but is still very ill. I won't really feel better until she is off the ventilator. My sister has been amazingly brave and I can only imagine half of what she has been going through. All my wishes and prayers are with them at the moment.  Family is so important and we all take each other for granted. It is sad that it takes something like this to remind us where our priorities lie.
I'll try to do better and keep you updated.

Super organized

It's less than one week until we move house and I have time to blog! I'm totally weirding myself out. I like to be organized but usually I run about like a headless chicken juggling lots of different shaped balls, basically lurching from one disaster to the next. Yet, I'm pretty much completely organized for this move. OK, so I've called in lots of help, I've got the full packing service, a cleaner coming to do the house after we've left and Di looking after the horse while we move, but still. So what the hell else is there to do I hear you ask. The answer is I don't really know but it is very disconcerting not to be in a total packing panic. I keep getting the feeling like I've forgotten something, like I've left Emma at the supermarket or something........(don't worry, she's in bed)
I've been playing with Google Earth, it's amazing. If you haven't already take a look. The scan of this area is not brilliant but I was looking at where I used to live in Quantico, Virginia and it's amazing. I could pick out our house and school and even the stables where I used to ride. I also looked at Namibia where we went on holiday and you can see the red sand dunes at Sossusvlei and the seal colony at Walvis Bay. Awesome!
Speaking of riding, Balu is a bit better. He is off the painkillers and although not 100% he is quite a bit better. I'm able to ride him okay on soft ground. I think I'm going to change farrier when we move and get the vet to look at him at the same time. Annie's going really well. She had three mentions and a big picture in the Horse and Hound this week after winning 2 Area International Trials. That's basically the biggest class at national level. She and Tim seem to have clicked now and should hopefully just get better and better. It sounds like they could have done with her out in Aachen where the showjumping team are having a terrible time at the World Equestrian Games. Well done though to Zara Phillips who did really well to win the Gold medal in the eventing. It was quite sweet, she was cried buckets when she realised she'd done it. Ahh, I bet the Queen welled up too!

No foot, no horse

Actually it should be no foot, no horse, no money! My poor horse is lame again! Ever since I had Emma and he had a bit of a holiday I haven't been able to get him fully fit. Last summer he was diagnosed with arthritis in his right pastern joint and his left coffin joint in his front feet.
He had loads of treatment and I think we're managing that okay but then this winter he has had problems with his back and sacroiliac joint. I've taken him to the osteopath 3 times which seems to have fixed that but now his feet are falling apart. He has quite brittle feet and in the summer they always seem to dry out and literally fall apart. He has been going really lame after being shod and it's been getting worse each time, he's shod about every 5 weeks. He has special shoes because of the arthritis so I thought maybe these were hurting him. I got the farrier to try some others but this time he pulled away and broke 2 lead ropes when the farrier was tightening up the nails. This is so unlike him and I felt really sorry for him. It must of been hurting as the nails were going into his feet. Poor thing! He's on Bute at the moment ( that's like horsey Nurofen) but I've spoken to the farrier and this week we're going to try taking those shoes off and glueing on lightweight aluminium ones. In the meantime I've been researching the latest in feed supplements and hoof treatments. The Horse and Hound archives are actually very helpful.
Anyway all this is costing me a fortune but Balu is so sweet I'm afraid he has to have the best treatment I can get for him. I mean just look at that face!

By the way, Annie was 10th in the Welsh Masters today!

Holiday at home

Hey I'm back! My technology problems have been well and truly sorted but I've been really busy so I'm afraid this blog has taken a back seat. So for the news..
We've been having a sort of holiday at home the last few weeks. Lots of friends and family to stay and a kind of last hurrah in our house. The weather has been pretty good and we've got one of those over ground pools on the patio so it has been great just chilling out and enjoying the sunshine. It was great to see everyone and thank you so much guys for the really cool present!
I've got a new computer and some really cool photography software (Aperture) that I've been playing with. Like all these things it will be great once I've got the hang of it but at the moment I'm still learning what it can do. I have to say I know it's a bit sad but I just love my Mac, it's so pretty!
So now the weather has turned a bit cooler and we have to get ready to move, again! We are going to a very nice house that we're renting down near Dorchester. It's a bit further a way than we wanted but it's a lovely place and there's room for the horse and excellent riding ( I can't say that didn't sway me a little). Anyway, we're going to try life a bit further south ( only about 30 miles!) and see how we get on.
I've been trying to do quite a bit of riding but I'm having some trouble keeping Balu sound. He's having problems with his front feet and his sacroiliac joint so I'm trying to sort things out with the osteopath and the farrier. It's not cheap let me tell you. Meanwhile Emma has had her first few rides. I bought her a really cute tiny saddle which has a big handle on the front that she can hold on to and she loves it. Today she had her first trot. She looked so funny I could barely hold onto her for laughing. I'm sure she enjoyed it much more than the pony did. Jade (her pony) is very old and I think she thought she had retired until Emma came along. Photos to come soon.
Also on the horse front Annie has been going great guns. She jumped a fantastic round in the King's Cup, having an unfortunate 12 faults. It was on TV and it was so exciting to watch. She looked great and jumped the difficult parts of the course with ease. She's been going well since with lots of placings and won the big class today in Staffordshire. At the moment she is Tim's top horse, as Corlato is still out with injury after his fall in Portugal, so the pressure is on. I'm sure she can come up with the goods.
I have to keep you up to date with Annie now as someone else found this site by googling her name. Weird, I always thought I was talking to myself. Lauren, if you visit again say hi in the comments. It's nice to know that someone is reading this babble.