I've decided we need to inject some culture and learning and stuff into this blog.
So from here on in, or until I get bored of running about the aquarium with my new camera phone, prepare for Charby's Friday Fish Of The Week! With a few hopefully unknown facts about fun Fish species.
Yeah!
First one! ! CLOWNFISH!


This is Daddy Nemo! Or more technically a Clarks anemonefish.
Anyway, if you can make out the red on the rock, they're baby Nemos!
Although this set never hatched either.
Anyway, Daddy Nemo does all the hard work of looking after the eggs and stuff, in this pic he's been fanning them with his fin to keep them aearated and then he nibbles dirt of them, really gently so its really sad to see all his work for nothing.
Mummy Clownfish gets to cruise about, chasing off anything that might attack Dad, the eggs or the aneomone.
What else is cool about the clownfish is that they change sex, which is fairly common in the fishy world.
They're all born as males, with a dominant female, a male and in our setup at least, with an Uncle (well I like to call him that anyway)
If the female dies, the dominant male then becomes a female and the uncle gets promoted to dominant male and so on.

So I think I've finally caught up on all the sleep that I've missed out on over the weekend!
Its been a funny old week so far, with a funny, but gory story, although its not funny in a way.
Basically a woman I know at the stables got her thumb bitten off and then spat out by a horse and then the first woman to pick it up then fainted and cracked her head open, gross I know but funny.
Today was my new conservation day and I spent most of it sorting out a Compost heap, I was quite enjoying it, happy as larry, reminding me of long ago days chucking up muck on the muckheap at the stables.
Unfortunately, its been about 6 years since I did that regularly and my hands have gone weak and soft and I'm now finding typing very hard to do so due to the MASSIVE BIG FUCK OFF BLISTERS on my hand.
OUCH.
Yes, just like that.
I've started to think about taking up another job in the evenings to save money for NZ. But yeah, I bet it just stays as thoughts and not bothering!
Oh! And HAPPY 21ST BRAT!

So my weekend?
Hectic! Great fun but very manic!
Thursday was a bit of a bummer seeing as I was trapped in work, and then half way through realised that I'd forgotten to pack my super-duper travelling toothbrush.
So once that little trauma was resolved I headed towards Derby, and met MH and her new little car Davy.
She drove me to the worlds greatest pizza shop and then we had a quick drink (well she had a quick coke) at Our Beloved Friary and then we drove to see STF, heard all about his new girlfriend (apparently he's not going to mess her about "Charlton I've reformed, I'm now just a loveable Rogue" He swore)
Drove back to Chadd where MH is currently residing, after a trip for old times sake to see the magic buzzing streetlight (5 years and still flickering and buzzing) and our old house!
Aaah I miss The House That Was Never Warm!
Then we sat up chatting for ages about all her Man Problems (There's three fighting for her, or three that she's interested in, you can never tell the difference with her)
Next day I woke early and toddled off to see H2, her baby was due on Sunday gone and I was a little worried about her dropping Bump while I was there, I warned her, that if Baby made an appearance, I'd ring an ambulance and do a runner.
Then it was a short toddle to the Eagle Centre and then on the train to Nottingham, where I met the Lizard, who is as cool as ever, so all I was worried about the other weekend is silliness!
She drove me to Sheffield so we could go to the big shopping centre there and eat Ben and Jerrys from the special Ben and Jerrys shop!
Then back home to meet her lovely but mental dog Wilf and then out to the pub before crawling into bed at a stupid hour again!
And again up at a random hour for a train ride home and then I listened to another poor performance by the Addicks before meeting a mates dad to get to Croyden.
(This really is turning into a Hyde-esque sized post)
I've never mentioned my mate K on here, I used to know him about 7 years ago when we were both taking GCSES together, but then drifted apart, anyone on one of my many trips to sign on, He spotted me walking down the street and resolved to dig out my phone number and get in touch.
Which is ace, now the thing about K is that he was a big Wrestling fan when we knew each other and he's still very into it now, and he goes to Wrestling School, when not holding down a responsible bank-city type job in Canary Wharf.
And he wanted me to go see his show, which was fun, and silly and a cool way to spend my Saturday afternoon.
So again I stumbled in at about 1am, which was the earliest night of the weekend.
Sunday I chilled mostly, helped me Mam paint the new Kitchen and then headed towards Greenwich to help E celebrate her 25 successful years on the planet.
Which was funky, lots of people from her work showed up and from my shop and I discovered I'd aquired the nick name "Granville" from Open All Hours. due to my incompetence with the till (although its still not slammed on my fingers)
So another late night there and then finally an early morning to get to work, in which I dealt with the Bad Druggie Shoplifter, radioed Street CCTV to save him after he unwisely chose to pick a fight with a girl. She was kicking his ass!
Later we heard over the radio, that he'd flipped and was running about with a needle in his neck and another in his hand threatening to stab the police.
But yeah, that brings me up to date with my weekend and I'm exhausted!

Oh man, its been a hectic week.
I've taken up a new volunteer position at an ecology park and i've spent today digging up bulrushes and wading in the river and pulling up bindweed.
Tomorrow, straight from work. I am going up to Derby to stay with MH, pop to Saddlers (God I've been more excited about going to that pizza place than anything else!) quick visit to see N and STF, before sleep, in the morning I'm rushing off to see H2 (Bump is ready to drop anyday now and I've warned her that once it does come I refuse to see her until its toilet trained)
Then I'm racing over to Nottingham to see The Lizard who is taking me to Mansfield for a night out, Saturday morning I'm getting the train back down to London cos I need to get to Croyden to see a mates show thingy and then Sunday I'm going on a pub crawl with E round Greenwich for her birthday!
Phew! I'm gonna be knackered!

There's a White Shark in Captivity!

One of the aquarists was telling me today, he got caught a few days ago in (where the hell is this place anyway? California?) and is in the Monterey Bay Aquarium, he's only the 2nd ever white shark to be captive.
And now you too, can sit here like I am right now, patiently waiting for a shark to swim past THIS camera and shrieking with excitement everytime a pissy little blacktip goes past

There has been a pesky sparrowhawk hanging around my parrots for a few days now. She sits down by the cage or on the roof and occasionally launches an attack on them, before being baffled by the wire preventing her from getting a tasty treat.
Of course my birds are equally unconvinced of the strength of the wire and keep running around screaming and panicking when it does launch an attack.
It bothers me it being around, it's already frightened one of the baby quail to death but neither do I want to destroy the bird, so I'm going out to buy a mock-plastic owl to sit on the roof of the cage to see if that encourages her to go away.

And I've scored a new volunteer position, I've quit Wednesday FishDay so from next week I can go volunteer at the ecology park near the Mill Dome, I can learn exciting things like tree coppicing, and weeding and building nest boxes and shit like that.
So it's something else that I can put on the CV as something I can do, rather than just being an unemployable zoologist who can kinda-just-about use a till in a shop!

And it looks like adventures might be heading my way, my drinking buddy Welshy is coming back to London, the Lizard has invited me for a night out in Mansfield. (lets see if it beats last times adventure, where I nearly started a fight with two men - how I LOATHE people groping me while I dance!) plus a weekend in Derby in the start of October to celebrate 5 years since starting the degree (how time flies!)
And another weekend, that I might mention to you guys later, I'm still pretty unsure of it at the moment.
AND a possible week in Scotland with TP and TJ!
Things are looking up!

My boss at the aquarium, always a happy camper bounded over to be as I sat on the craft table.
(50p per badge/jellyfish)
"What are you doing tonight?"
"Nothing, why?"
Get yourself a formal top, youre coming to the event tonight. Free bar, free ice cream, free chocolate fountain."
"I'm there! Just name the time and place"

It was like my wildest dreams all come true!

Shame the drinks were all champagne though, despite my best efforts to learn to like it, I remain revolted by it.

I had to go up to Pimlico today for a course in this promotion effort and take a test.
One I'd not be able to cheat for (hehehe) So I was pretty apprensive about taking it, but I passed, yeah me with a grand score of 87% (pass mark of 85%!)
The trainer taking the course was a prat though, he could tell that I was bored stupid and kept picking on me to answer things. Booo!
I dont like it when my lack of knowledge is exposed to the world. So I think we were both pleasantly shocked when I passed!! One more big exam and then I get my promotion I think, I hope!

And Steve Irwin died yesterday.
Being stung by a stingray is a pretty freaky way to go out. Most incidents where you end up getting stung aint fatal, but I guess it could have brought on a heart attack or something.
I was pretty gutted by this, I was hoping to see him when I went to Australia. You might not be so keen on his style, but he was so animated and in love with everything he did that you'd couldn't fail to get swept along with it all.
I remember seeing him in a show on Komodo dragons, big fuckoff man eating lizards and one attacked and chased him and as soon as he was safely away from it, he came out with the immortal line... "That was close... too close. Lets go back and follow them!"

"I've been a bridesmaid several times, and I can say with great authority that your job will be to dress in a dress someone else chooses for you and stand where they tell you. After your duties are done, you usually are forced to sit at a table facing everyone else in the room while they watch you eat and drink."
Oh dear God. I really dont think I'm the right person to be asked to be a bridesmaid. Still! Here's hoping he was very drunk and didnt mean the offer or I can wiggle out of it.
Our family gatherings are always great fun. We all meet up and go to football together, but other than that we only meet up for family dos like this.
Normally me and my brothers plan of action is to head to the bar and stay there as long as possible and get as drunk as possible in the quickest amount of time, which is probably common to all families!
Only as The Brat was driving I took it upon myself to do his drinking for him, which is fine in a crowded bar and you can get served without drawing too much attention to your drinking.
Unfortunately for me, I got Id'ed as soon as I went to the bar, as I didnt have ID to hand, I had to grab my Aunty G to "prove" I was over 18. So I now stood out.
Possibly going up to the bar 3 times in forty minutes also didnt help my cause, or my mother knocking the glass out of my hand (while I was still reasonably sober although I bet the bar staff didnt think so!)
Ah fuck it. I decided. Ive already made people think I'm an underage drinker, lets totally throw the bottle out and really draw attention to myself.
So by running across the empty dancefloor to request 5,6,7,8 by steps (again, there's no attempt to hide my love of cheese to dance to, I can almost SEE Flashy shuddering!)
And then doing some shameful dirty dancing with my Aunty G to the Grease Megamix. I think I did a pretty good job of drawing attention to myself, and fulfilling my mission of getting hammered.
Oh God I hope they were joking about the bridesmaid thing.

Oh and is it a bad thing that as soon as you walk through the door of your local chinese takaway they've handed your order over to the kitchen. I think I might spend a little too much time in there!

its M and s's engangemen t.
they asked me to be a bridemesaid by prixt. what the fuckiny fuck does a bridesmaid do?
they'll think twice one the drink has kicked in.
im taking my auntys on a pubv crwal.
fuck me. im cool;.