26 July 2011 (Tuesday) - Good Bacteria

I was rather delayed getting off to work this morning. There are road works just down the road from my house. The gas mains are being replaced. Regular readers will recall me ranting about the gas main replacements down my road which took place from February through to July in 2009. And now, just two years later they have dug up the end of the road (again) to replace the gas mains (again).
Last time they just dug a ditch along the side of the road: this time they have closed off the entire street. So now if we want to get out of our road we have a ten minute diversion involving negotiating two sets of traffic lights.
I am reliably informed that the road works will take six weeks. They said that last time and took six months.

I was working at the hospital in Canterbury this morning: as is usually the case when I go anywhere at all, I log that place on Facebook. So I checked in on Facebook, I did my work, and then came home again. I was totally oblivious to the panic I’d set off. Lots of family and friends had seen that I was in the Kent and Canterbury Hospital, and had suspected the worst. (Sorry !)

On the way home I popped into the new Koi shop in Chilham to see if they had any ideas about my grungy pond. The nice lady suggested scrubbing out the ultra-violet light fitting, and seeding the filter with “friendly bacteria” (just like in the TV yogurt adverts). She also asked what I was feeding the Koi – apparently some of the cheaper brands of food are notorious for making ponds murky. And they also make ponds frothy.
Regular readers of this drivel may recall a blog entry back in March when I boasted how much Koi food I’d bought for fourteen quid. And I’ve commented before (several times) about all the bubbles in the pond.
That cheap fish food wasn’t the bargain I was hoping for.

And so home – via diversions round the road works. I’d booked the afternoon off work. Having had an 8am start, I was due to finish at 11.45am. I got home at 11.30am. Bearing in mind I’d started in Canterbury at 8am I decided that seeing I’d left home half an hour earlier than usual, I’d done my time. So I changed into mucky clothes and scrubbed out the pond’s light fittings (which weren’t overly grubby) and scrubbed the bloodworms out of the water pump, before adding my friendly bacteria into my filter. It was with a heavy heart that I then threw away all the old fish food – it seemed a waste, but the cheap fish food was clearly doing more harm than good.

I then showered the pond slime off of myself and checked my post. Last Thursday I mentioned that I’d found an electronic bite indicator on eBay. It had arrived, and I spent a little while getting angry with it. The advert clearly said that the thing was supplied with a battery: there was a picture of the battery on the eBay advert. I went through the packaging several times, but there was no battery to be found. So I called up the advert on eBay again to check: yes – definitely battery supplied.
As I fumed I fiddled with the power switch. And the power came on. The battery was already installed. Oh, how I laughed (!) The bobbins I ordered on Sunday had also arrived. I want to go test it all out now.
And then, seeing how I’d got time off work I did what I always do when I have time off work: an afternoon’s ironing.

Meanwhile over on Google Plus I have been added to the circles of Seiyad Ashroff Mohamed Infas.
Hello Seiyad Ashroff Mohamed Infas….

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