Well, firstly, I took one last photo of the 30 litre in place.

I laid everything out and ready for the big transfer. I lined my lounge floor with plastic bag liners, had buckets of old water from the 30 litre, plenty of towels and paper towels at the ready.

I started by cleaning the 60 litre in the bath and washing all the bits and bobs needed to go into it.

I then removed the plants and rocks from my 30 litre, leaving the fish in there believeing that an emty tank would make it easier to catch them!! Oh how wrong could I be, but more of that later! I then transeffred my fish to the bucket and removed almost all the media gravel from the 30.

Then, once the 60 was clean, I arranged my rock from the 30, 2 real plants that came with the tank, one plastic plant and the media fro the 30 into the new tank. I then used the sponge, no squeezing, from the 30. I then used the new fueng shey shoo pebbles to lay onto top of the media.

I then chased the fish round the 30 to get them into the bucket. I had already filled the bucket with water from the 30 and placed a plastic plant and rock from the 30 into the bucket. Now I am sure that there is a knack to catching fish quickly with a net, but I failed to find it and catching the Oto as a task in itself. Once I had completed that, I left the 30 to settle so that I could gently transfer the remaining water.

I emptied the space out ready for the stand and the new tank.

I then carefully transferred the water from the 30 and the water that I had stored n containers into the new tank. It was a delicate and very long part of the operation!!

Then I carefully chased the fish round the bucket until they were all counted and in the new tank!!! Again, I failed to master the catching of fish with a net from a dark bucket, but I got there with patience and some calming talk!!!

Then I transferred the water from the bucket back into the 60 and proceeded to walk backwards and forwards form thre kitchen for at least 10 miles whilst I slowly topped the 60 up with a further 21 litres of treated water.

Then I just had to watch, sit and wait for it all to settle down enough so that I could see inside the tank and check that there were no leaks and that the pump and heater were all working ok.

All in all, it took three hours with about 40 minutes of preparation to complete the task.

On Sunday morning I swapped my original rock from the 30 for a new rock that came with the 60 as the colour suited my room and the tank better!!!

As you can see by the pictures, the tank settled very nicely overnight and looks very clean and very sparkly!!!!

I have to say that the whole task went very smoothly and was a lot easier than I had imagined. I am glad that I got everything ready in advance and had it laid out over my floor as it made life much easier.

I am very happy with my new look tank and very excited about having real plants. I am going to add 3 more Oto next weekend and then let things settle down again.

I am tempted to add maybe a few more community fish, but I will see in a few weeks. I am just so happy that my one and only Oto survived and my baby Nemo the second. Oh, and I may add another real plant so that I can get rid of the plastic one!!!!

I am well and truly addicted!

I saved money to get my car through the MOT.

She sailed through so I had some money left over.

I was going to be all good and put it towards bills and food and boring stuff.

This morning, I was really naughty.

Today I agreed to buy a second hand 60 litre Biorb.

It is the size up from my current tank.

It comes with the stand and everything.

I am going to keep my 30 litre, as one day I hope to rent somewhere a bit bigger so that I can have 2 tanks running. Or, of course, I may meet a rich man and live in a huge house or something!!!

This is the first thing that I have bought myself since I bought the 30 litre in July last year.

I am not going to beat myself up about it, though I may feel guilty until I collect it!!!!

How very naughty of me, but I have to say, I feel really good!!!!!!

Jaco - still catching up but hope all is well my lovely. Hope job is exciting...... XXX

and I will try to update later ot tomorrow as it may be a bit busy here!!!!

I am fine, had a quiet long weekend, due to waether, but it was very nice.

I got lonely towards the end, but I can through it ok!!!!

After today, that is it, I am off till next Wednesday!!!

I am strangely excited.

I have a list as long as my arm and alot of it is to do in the flat, so who cares if it snows?

One more day then 6 days off.

Honestly, I feel like I have won the work lottery!

I hope to have photos galore and lots of updates for next week.

Bet you can barely contain yourself now eh?!!!!

and I am so glad that I got up in a mission mood on Saturday!!!

I opened all the windows, pulled the worlds heavy shelving unit handmade thing into the middle of the room and started painting!

After the first coat, I mixed white and the darker colour together to get an off white to paint all the bricks off the fireplace.

By the time I had finished that, the shelves were ready for the next coat.

I was so lucky as the sun was out, there was a gentle breeze and everything went according to plan.

Whilst waiting for the painting to dry, I rewired my amp, CD player and speakers and that was the start of my downfall.

I then spent the rest of the day and almost all of the evening listening to my fave cd’s and having a right old boogie!!!!

Sunday I had a slower start due to aching neck and shoulders, but I did eventually get the room back together and all ship shape.

I did not get any photos as I need to catch it in the right light!

I am so glad to have got it all done, and that is it for me and decorating now!!!

Now I am looking forward to having Thursday and next Tuesday off.

Only using 2 days annual holiday and get 6 days off.

How could I grumble this week?!!!

Today has flown past.

I nearly bought a watch on Ebay.

I asked the seller for the size and it was as big as my whole wrist.

I have been laughing about it on and off all day.

Special hug today for Jacobite XXXXXX

I shall finish painting the lounge this weekend and hope to get some photo's to post up next week.

I also hope to bring some photos of Nemo the Second in too.

I am so excited, only working 3 days next week and 3 days the week after.

So on the way home I will be buying a bottle of cola as I am having a voddy, cherry liqueur and coke night, almost like an alcoholic cherry coke.

I just really feel in the mood.

Have a good and safe weekend.
X

It has been one of those weeks.

It does seem to have been going on forever!

It has been one of those weeks where nothing has or is really happening and maybe that is why it feels like it is dragging on and on......

I have tons of jobs to do, but I really do not feel like I have the energy to do any of it.

I have great plans for the weekend to finish the lounge and sort my messy hall cupboard.

The good news is that I have extended my Easter by taking the Thursday before and Tuesday after.

So I get 6 days off on the run but only use 2 days annual holiday which is great.

I just feel like some time out and I am going to plan so that I go out at least for 3 days so that I make some use of the time.

I feel a garden spring clean coming on as I want to get some gro bags and get some toms and plants going this year!!!

It will mean that you will all have to do without me for 6 days.

I may also look into having a phone line and getting online at the flat.

So, who do you use and how much it is?

It was 2 years ago that I saw Scooter and took him home with me!!!

It was through a friend of my ex, and he claimed to be allergic Scooter, who was called Fido then!!!

I took one look at him and knew that we were destined to be together. I fell in love immediately and I do not regret my decision.

So 2 years ago he was Fido and weighed just on 2 kilo.

Now he is called Scooter and weighs 4.1 kilo and has gone from 14 month old kitten to adult cat.

I am very lucky with him as he is so good and has such a lovely personality. He is a typical Burmese. His only downside is that he is not very photogenic!!!

I am so glad that I did take him as I would have terribly lonely when I moved out to be on my own.

To celebrate our 2 years together, here are a couple of photos!!

Whilst decorating my lounge, I had a small casualty. It was a lovely lamp that sits on my mantel that provides the only light in the room along with the fish tank.

I trod on it and something snapped and now it won’t work.

I was upset, but to be honest, it never really fitted the shelf that well and I was always catching it.

This morning I went to Homebase. I found the ultimate lamp.

It will fir perfectly in sense of the size and shape and was almost a perfect colour match to the walls.

I loved it upon sight.

I went to the till and the price came up as £4 dearer than the ticket. So off I went with the lady to show her where I had got it form and to prove the difference in price.

As we walked towards the lamp area, I noticed a small bargain shelf of lamps and lampshades.

There I saw the lamp of my dreams with a small fingerprint on the front of the shade.

It was reduced with a 60% discount.

I told the woman to stop, I picked up the seconds lamp, and headed back to the till.

Once I got back to the car, I took the shade off and simply turned it round.

I got the lamp of my dreams for £8.40 this morning.

What a great way to start the day!!!!!! I love a good bargain.

My goodness, what has happened?

It is manic out there this morning, so I hope you are all well and safe.

The cats just looked at me this morning and I knew that I had to make sure the litter trays were empty as I cannot see either of them going outside today!!!

I was shocked as you hear the weather and think, Pah, that won't affect me, it won't hit here.

How wrong I was, roads were littered with tree and I could barely walk to get to the car!!!

Good news is that I managed to paint the ceiling and walls of my lounge.

I will never do that again on my own in one weekend.

It was too much and this morning I ache and feel like an old lady.... creaking and groaning!!!

The flat looks like an explosion has taken place as most of the lounge is spread across the hallway, the bedroom and in the kitchen!!!

Have fun and brace yourselves against the wind!

One of the loveliest people at work is getting married today, well this afternoon.

He has arranged with another man here to ship us all to his reception tonight.

It looks like it is going to be a vodka night!!!

I must be good though as I am hoping to paint my lounge at the weekend and I have not even started moving the stuff out of the lounge!!!!

If my hangover tomorrow morning is between 1 and 5, then it will be all go.

Anything over a 5, and plans may be delayed but I have to hand over the step ladders next weekend!!!

I reamin optimistic and am really honoured and excited to be sharing in celebrating such a lovely event. They really are a great couple and I am so happy for them.

Let the vodka flow and the laughter begin....

Have a good weekend, no matter what you are doing.

Keep braced against the weather and keep smiling.

I am being driven mad by a problem in my flat.

Ok, so I got my ferrite rings because my radio and portable TV that use their own ariels suffer with terrible intermittant interference whilst on.

I put one on the mains lead to the fridge (as I thought this was the cause of the problem), one on the portable TV mains lead and one on the ariel mains lead.

I sat, I watched, and the problem was still there!!!

30 seconds of interference, 3.5 mins of fine reception, 30 seconds of interference and so the pattern continued.

So, I turned the fridge off, the interference still happened.

I turned the fridge and the fish tank off, the interference still occurred.

I took the radio to almost every plug socket in the flat, the interference occurred.

Now, I am abit dim about such things, but I thought that having these rings on the TV and ariel lead would have stopped the problem, no matter where the source was.

Can anyone throw anything else into what could be causing this?

Also, why does the problem not occur on the TV in the lounge that is hooked up to the roof ariel?

Confused and very frustrated, I just want to watch TV in bed!!!!

I hate mysteries that make no sense!!!!

The boys would not go out this morning and were curled up and asleep before I even left this morning.

I cannot help thinking that they had the right idea!!!

It was abit nippy round my bits for sure!!!

I hope that it warms up as I am wanting to decorate my lounge this weekend but I cannot have the windows wide open all day if it is this cold.... I will freeze mid paint!!!

Nemo the Second is thriving in the tank now so I will hope to get some photo's for you all. I tried last night but the batteries were dead as I had left the camera on again.... DOH!!!!

Hope you are all keeping warm.

Well, I have had a few days of stressful fish keeping.

I did my weekly maintenance on Wednesday and it all went rather well.

Then on Sunday, upon returning form my mothers, I noticed that the filter in my tank looked very blue and very clear.

On closer inspection, I realised that I had not fitted the filter correctly.

After loads of faffing about last night, it appeared that there was a small piece of media in the filter part of the Biorb that was preventing it from sitting in the unit properly.

I have now lost all my Oto’s except the smallest one.

I am giving up with trying to keep them. The suspicion is that my tank is just too clean for them!!! They are always too hungry and just do not seem suited to me.

I checked on the tank this morning, and I am pleased to report that the cloudy water has cleared, all fish and the last ever Oto are all happy and as they should be.

I tell you, this fish keeping can be very stressful at times!!!

There was no snow this morning here, infact it is the most beautiful morning though it is a bit on the chilly side!!!

I am also smiling today as I have been very flattered by someone being very kind and nice to and about me.