12 February 2011 (Saturday) - Shopping



A restless night – I mentioned yesterday that my back was playing up. It was painful overnight, and I woke at six am and spent over an hour trying to actually lever myself out of my pit. Once up, I wasn’t going to risk getting back into pit so I quietly made some brekkie. One of the (many) disadvantages of having a parrot as a lodger is that one tiptoes around the house in the morning desperately trying not to wake said parrot.

I have mentioned over the last week or so about how I need to power my sexy new telescope. With a set of eight batteries lasting for half an hour (at best), and mains power not being available where I’m going to be astronomising, we set off to the telescope shop for a power pack. I have heard I can get similar things cheaper in Maplins, but last Sunday Maplins had their chance and they blew it. Power packs in Halfords (for starting cars) are huge compared to my one, and although it wasn’t cheap, by the time I’d bought the necessary cables to connect up to my mount, it didn’t cost much more than Halfords.
Also this one comes with a handy compartment in which I can store the leads.

On the way home ‘er indoors TM suddenly slammed on the brakes: she’d spotted a sign to an aquarium and reptile shop. Did I want to have a look? Anyone who knows me knows I have a soft spot for anything with scales, so we had a look-see. Lost World Reptiles in Sittingbourne is a new shop to me, and they had some really nice iguanas and tortoises. The nice lady showed us the leopard geckoes which all looked well cared for. Admittedly it’s some years since I’ve been active in the reptile hobby but their animals all seemed rather expensive to me. For all that I love them, I’m not going to spend over four hundred pounds on a royal python.
Next door to the reptile shop was an aquarium shop. They had some super fish, and some rather cheap Koi. In a few weeks time when I reactivate the pond for this year, if I need to re-stock I will certainly be going to Sittingbourne for the Koi.

Being in a fish and reptiles frame of mind we came home via Bybrook Barn to have a look-see at their fish. Much the same as ever. And then I saw they had a parrot section: Norwegian Blues (like the parrot who’s currently lodging with us) were up for sale at just under one thousand pounds. I couldn’t believe the price. By the time you’ve bought a half-way decent cage, getting a parrot would cost over fifteen hundred pounds. Fifteen hundred pounds for a very noisy crap generator (!)
Since we were in the area we popped into the American Diner for a fry-up. Very tasty! And then home via Jeys Pets and Exotics where they were selling royal pythons at seventy quid each. There’s no denying I was seriously tempted to get a couple.

Once home I cleaned out the parrot (again) and set about the ironing before falling asleep in front of the Steptoe & Son movie on UK Gold. And then it was round to Matt’s for a game of cards. “Daddies Little Angel TMjoined us tonight for her first go at Texas Hold ‘Em, and did reasonably well – far better than most newbies. I do like a game of cards – must do it again sometime soon. And this time I’d like a hand of Omaha Hold ‘Em…

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