Sparrowhawk's Journal

[Sparrowhawk]

Exotic Aquatic mayyyy have jump-started the idea! Haha! We'd be doing it a LOT smaller though.

They do absolutely amazing stuff over there! Kinda what sparked my interest in aquascaping. When we went there to get Falkor, I was just like "wowwww..." but thought I couldn't possibly achieve anything pretty with plants as I have a brown thumb out of water, but since apparently not killing anything in the last four months, am getting my hopes up. XP

[LittleBettaFish]

Don't worry. I am a fellow killer of plants. I find the tanks where my plants do best is the ones where I don't touch the plants and don't do anything but put the light over them for a few hours a day.

Adrian has some really top-notch scapes in his store. I love going in there and having a poke around. Only downside is that I just wish his store was bigger so there was more fish to look at!

[Sparrowhawk]

I haven't dared venture back since our last visit... I'm afraid that if we go there, we'll leave with empty wallets and arms full of awesome stuff, because I'll find it too hard to resist!

[LittleBettaFish]

Haha I banned myself from there until I get another job.

My mum picked herself up a pair of Betta macrostoma and I think I bought him out of his whole supply of glass hang-on thermometers last time we were in there.

I love his little dog Chewie. We get him out of his cage and I rev him up and around the store he goes with his ears back.

I like stores where you can go in and have a chat with the owner and feel like you aren't just another sale. Subscape in Richmond is another aquarium that has a lot of knowledgeable and friendly staff working there.

[Sparrowhawk]

Chewie is adorable!! ^.^

I like shops like that too, though I have to admit I always get really nervous, although it's a nice feeling to not feel like just another sale, as you said. I'm really bad with my anxiety in person with people I don't know well so I find it hard to conduct a proper conversation without it sounding forced. >.<

[LittleBettaFish]

Oh don't worry me too. I have bad anxiety (I just went to the doctors the other week and got a referral to someone who can help) and that is why I don't actually have a job at the moment.

Working as manager of a busy Subway store was probably not a good career choice for someone like me haha.

We sit and chat with Adrian for hours (my mum is into German Shepherds and he used to really like our puppy when we took her in so that is where it all started) and so I am comfortable in his store as opposed to somewhere like Coburg where you have to nearly be dead to be served and the service has gone really downhill.

At Subscape I know one of the girls that works there so it's not so bad and the owner is awesome so I don't get freaked out about going in.

I hate small talk. Unless I am talking about my fish. I always worry I am going to sound stupid as I can never pronounce any scientfic names properly. Although I've come to see that not many people actually can.

[Sparrowhawk]

Me too! Well, the main reason I don't have a job at the moment is 'cause I'm a carer for my grandma, but I feel a bit stupid calling myself a carer when she refuses to let me do anything... Hmph. But I haven't been feeling up to doing anything that involves too much interpersonal stuff for a long while.

Working at a goth clothing shop didn't help matters, haha! Was good while it lasted and suited my aesthetic at the time, but man, some of the people that came in were really really - sometimes creepily - weird, and I've seen a lot of weird in my time, being a part of the community I'm a part of now! XP

I just can't do the small talk thing. It always ends up being "So... Stuff and things?" I don't often get to talk about fish except on this forum, or if I corner my grandmother and blab at her for a while (muahaha!).

With scientific names, I reckon all anyone can reasonably ask for is an attempt at pronunciation. XP

[Sparrowhawk]

Ugh. Apparently I don't have any luck with crypts. All of mine have melted in the several days since scaping the tanks. Which is fine, now I have more room to plant stems, so whatever, haha! I opted to simply remove them rather than leave them alone and hope they adapted for that reason. It's just a pain in the butt, that's all.

Quite annoyed with myself that I didn't manage to get all the melted bits out of Weehawk's tank though during the water changes today. Hopefully no harm will come of it during the next couple of days until I next get a chance to change the water.

[Sparrowhawk]

I think I'm going to spontaneously combust from excitement. My piercing training has been booked, and 12 weeks from March 23, I'll be qualified to perform basic piercings on people! After that, I can enter advanced training and perhaps specialise in something a little out of the ordinary so I can offer people something different as a selling point. WOOHOO!

[Sparrowhawk]

Okay, so I'm still on cloud nine about finally being able to do the piercing course, and not only that, I've found some lighting to die for! For my budget, power consumption needs and aesthetic, they're perfect. Absolutely perfect. We might be buying them today, but if not, we'll purchase them another time.

I can't put into words how excited I am for the way life seems to be heading. Usually, whenever something goes right, something of equal magnitude goes wrong. Like a balance thing. So I'm a bit scared that something absolutely devastating is going to happen - things tend to go that way in my life as I said - but the fact I'm finally going to study what has been my dream for many, many years (my dream of dreams was to do piercing as a day job, and do amateur musical theatre on the side, guess I'll get to theatre later) is just exhilarating.

My fish tanks are also going well. I'm having some trouble getting over the first hurdles of cycling the uninhabited tank, as I'm trying to keep ammonia at the recommended level, but dosing such a small tank accurately can be hard at times, so sometimes I'll have too little, sometimes I'll accidentally dose too much and need to do a PWC, but aside from that, so far so good. I've got two tailbiters on my hands, which is a massive pain in the butt, but Falkor has perked up so much since being moved to the small tank, and Feyd... Well, he seems fairly perky now that his tail doesn't smack him in the face during his elaborate routes through his tank, with all the sharp turns, haha.

So there's some speed bumps, and some concerning things with the tailbiters doing what they do (I'm starting to join the masses cursing the breeding of heavy fins as a result of having two out of three take up the habit despite meticulous care) but as a whole, things are going swimmingly with the boys. And as for real life, also some hurdles, my anxiety has been playing up again, as it is wont to do when there's been far too many social engagements crammed into a short period, and as a result of that tensions are high, but stuff is going so well I'm finding it hard to think of anything as a bad thing, really. Dream course, hopefully leading to dream job, beautiful pets, wonderful partner, the only thing missing is oodles of money and a less cluttered/neater house.

I don't mean to gloat, but I'm fairly sure after the downward spiral I've been in since my early teens, that I deserve this period of happiness.