Sunshine, my goldfish, passed on this weekend. I thought his age warranted his own post to note his passing – I was in school and I think about age 16 when I got him, which made him about 10 years old. I was helping at the school fayre, working on the “get-a-ping-pong-in-a-jar-and-win-a-goldfish” stall; I thought the practice of selling goldfish at fayres barbaric but decided if it was going to run, I should be the one to run it. Suffice to say it made the biggest loss that year and wasn’t run in further years. We had several fish left over at the end – Ding’s friend at the time adopted about 20 and I adopted one or two (can’t remember). I suspect that of all the fayre fish, Sunshine was the longest lived.

He was a good fish.

Finally I am being educated. On Saturday last week (i.e. the 10th) we (mum, aunt, nan and I) went to Stratford-Upon-Avon (again) to see Merry Wives the musical (I jest not) and Richard III – two ends of a tone spectrum! Merry Wives was brilliant – had Judy Dench and Alistair McGowan in it and Alistair McGowan can sing O.O! Richard III was also brilliant but in an altogether different way – very dark with Jonathan Slinger as a particularly insane Richard. These histories get a little confusing what with everyone being called Henry, Edward or Richard but that doesn’t seem to distract from the attraction much.

Then (as if 6 hours of plays wasn’t enough), this Friday we (mum and I)returned again to see Henry VI part 1 (having seen parts 2 and 3 previously and of which Richard III is an unofficial part 4). The non sequitur was a bit confusing; I’d seen parts 2 and 3 in May after all. Then on a whim we (dad and I) went to see the last performance of Antony and Cleopatra in London on Saturday night – an attempt to spread the education dadwards. That had Patrick Stewart, Harriet Walter and John Hopkins (the old sidekick bloke from Midsommer Murders) and we were literally in the front row – very weird to see PS that close up having seen him on ST:TNG for most of my adult life (I know I saw him in The Tempest but that was further back and doesn’t have the same impact).

Hmm. So yes, me educated am. Plus I appear to have an automatic obsession with actors with the first initial J. Jason Isaacs, Johnny Depp, Julian Bleach, Jonathan Slinger – not necessarily all “oo yum” cases, but definite obsession, transient or otherwise.

Bleugh – work-wise it seems that the already rather paltry support network is evaporating further – time to keep an eagle eye on the classifieds?

I think I’m more impressed with it that Spocky was. I ran about taking photos, and Eek!ing, whereas Spock and Pumpkin watched it for a little while before wandering off bored. Even the snow sample I brought in to show them what it was like was sniffed twice before being completely ignored! Evidently not everyone is as enamoured with snow as I am…

Though having the back end of your car slide sideways while driving at 10mph and taking 30 minutes to travel 2 miles on the way to work was less fun…