Into the deep

I popped along to the garden centre at lunchtime to get some fish supplies and some advice as Bongo appears to have a nasty ulcer and I'm feeling a bit out of my depth, fish keeping-wise. I went to the cafe and ordered a salmon and egg mayonnaise sandwich and then headed to the fish section while I waited for them to prepare it. By the time time I'd spoken to the resident fish expert and been shown some fish in a hospital tank whose ulcers had burst I wasn't fancying my sandwich quite as much as I had when I ordered it. I ate it anyway though. Pictured is one of the Tetras from the garden centre (as opposed to Bongo who is a Shubunkin).

In other news, we have a poultry farm of the indoor variety at the end of our garden. Most of the time we forget it's there at all but twice a year they spend the night slaughtering* chickens and last night was one of them. So instead of sleeping I spent the night listening to the sound of loud machinery, men shouting at each other, and chickens making harrowing cries of desperation. It's just horrid :(. This went on from 11 pm and until about 7 am. Please only ever buy free range! I'm not sure I can face making the chicken risotto I was planning for dinner now (the chicken is organic free range though!)...

British Hen Welfare Trust website

*That's what we assume is going on; it's hard to believe it could be anything else, going by the sounds.