Last week I got a text from seffie, telling me that the TMC was going to be giving a talk at our local pets@home, did I want to go, Definately I replied, so last night seffie picks me up and off we set, all excited like 2 school kids giggling in the car, thinking of the bargains that we might be getting, after being told there would be plenty on offer.
Seffie parked the car, eventually and narrowly missing the children running around behind the car, she got it between the white lines
18.30 bang on time, there were quite a few people there, we found ourselves a good viewing corner and prepared to listen to a talk on how to care for our fish and aquarium properly, chappie began, now I'd like to point out at this stage, we had stupidly positioned ourselves right next to the marine tanks with lots of fishes in, swimming around all looking a bit shocked by the amount of people they found themselves faced with, many of them peeking nervously out of their caves. and 2 dragonets (like what bronzecat has got) eyeing each other up through the glass, they didn't like each other!!!
The first 10 minutes we listened to how everyone else catching fish and inverts are doing it wrong, then the next 15 minutes or so, we kind of drifted off to be honest, as it became clear that all this was about was promoting the TMC and
not about how to care for our own little eco systems in our houses, then suddenly seffie became very animated, pulling at my sleeve whispering in my ear, at first I thought she had taken a big swig from her hip flask (it goes everywhere with her
) and she was choking
but no she had spotted a fish but not just any fish, it was Ben1987's wrasse, well not Ben's actual fish but you know what I mean
, What a lovely looking fish
As you can tell we got kinda distracted by the fish as they were ultimately more intersting than the speech
and now we'd been standing up for about 35 minutes and I'm not saying we're old but seffie does have a back problem and I am still recovering from my op, so we were beginning to wilt, there was a lady in front of us in a wheelchair and being honest it was looking dodgy as to which one of us was going to turf her out first and sit down
Anyway it did get slightly more interesting for the last 10 minutes or so, when he was showing us pictures of their tanks and my god they have
BIG skimmers.
He ended his somewhat long speech promoting the TMC, just over an hour, leaving seffie and I dissappointed as it was not what we had expected
But again seffie sprang into life, bargains
and off we went to look around for them, we walked around the store twice because we thought we might have missed them the first time, but no, no bargains
Now we're thinking of the mac D over the road, yes we thought much better idea
But hang on, whats this, a raffle with lots of prizes and a Red Sea Max to win, well I got the tickets and we started planning what we were going to do with the tank when we won it, 10 mins we were told and the raffle would be drawn, so I sat down on some boxes while seffie was watching the VERY RARE Odontanthias borbonius Anthias (
) swimming around in the tank behind me, now at this stage seffie's purse began to twitch, and I thought oh no, I see a purchase coming, 'I wonder how much they want for it' she asks with that glint in her eye, 'Lots' came the reply, trying to head her off at the pass, but nope off she goes to find Mark (manager), a couple of minutes later she returns with Mark in tow, 'How much' she asks fluttering the eyelashes, 'just sold it' replies Mark, as I exhale rather alarming (phew) But someone got a bargain for £75
Right onto the raffle and they draw the Red Sea Max first, ticket in hand, ready to collect our prize and nope some chap with a face like a wet kipper won, he didn't even smile, after we muttered a few unsavoury words under our breath, we accepted the fact we would just enjoy the smaller prizes on offer
Well we would have done if Craig hadn't of been there, 10 prizes later and he had won 8 of them
(me thinks they didn't mix them up to well!)
So looking at seffie and knowing that if we didn't leave soon, there could be bloodshed and we'd end up in handcuffs and before the night was through, we'd be in a little room with a hard bed
We departed, empty handed and with no bargains, to have our burger and eventually managed to find the humour in our evening.
I'm really not sure what the moral of this story is, but if you get invited to a talk by the TMC
RUN LIKE HELL
/cgi.ebay.co.uk/HEAVY-DUTY-SALINITY-...t_Supplies_Fish?
