h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

I'm a little tipsy on Bailey's (mmmm) so forgive any typing errors! I'm not that tipsy so there shouldn't be too many.

Well I had a nice day! A nice long sleep, got out of bed when I wanted to - about 11am. Went out in the afternoon to buy some more FISH! For our aquarium that is. We got some littluns, I can't remember their names. We got six of them. They're pretty small (about an inch long), and in the light their scales shine green but otherwise they look blue. They've got pretty tails. I wanted to get some guppies but apparently the other fish we already have would bite their beautiful fins and tails off, the little buggers!

My mum and I are contemplating starting a new aquarium, for marine fish. I'd love to get some anemones and starfish, and - above all - I'd love some perculas (they're beautiful little things, stripy with bright white and red, black or yellow). If we did, that'd be in the far future. Of course there are the issues of money, space, and the amount of work (the water has to be kept at a pH of between 8.1 to 8.3 - what we have at the moment is just the usual 7; and also it has to be at a certain salt concentration), and who would look after them when I go to uni (my mum and my cousin with 2 fish tanks?).

My mum and I are also redesigning our dining room, as it is faily ugly at the moment (was decorated by my dad's first wife about, uh, 20 years ago at least). It is currently BROWN. Ew. As in, *ew*. We're probably going to get some Laura Ashley interior designers in to have a look and recommend some stuff. Apparently Laura Ashley's interior designer people consult for free! That's kind of shocking, but I guess they make enough money anyway (the place isn't exactly cheap). Anyway, we're thinking maybe dark pink, or dark blue. Probably dark pink.

I'm also going to change the light in my room for a starry one. I can't really explain it. It's a star-shaped lantern, 23cm diameter, made of dark metal.

I also got an email from a Bulgarian girl. My German teacher asked for our email addresses once, and we gave them to her, trusting. But what did she do? Nothing but PASS THEM ON!! Gah. Then again, she passed them on to some "young people of the world" thing (or at least the Bulgarian girl called it that) which links children to foreign children, to help them practise that language. So my new Bulgarian friend (Maria) is learning English. She seems quite nice. I just hope my German teacher gives us some e-mail addresses of people soon so I can torment them too.

My German GCSE starts in 8 and a half weeks. I'm quite afraid! My French one starts just after. I yesterday bought some books for revising vocab (which is my weak point - or at least, genders are my weak point) but I haven't had a chance to look at them yet. Njan is away for a while next week so I'll have some evenings free to revise.

I also bought "Veronika Decides to Die" by Paulo Coelho. It's a sad story, of a girl who decides to overdose on sleeping pills. She wakes up in a mental hospital to find her heart is damaged beyond repair (funny, I would have thought it'd be her liver!). It seems a good read, though Veronika's outlook on life is very pessimistic. If I didn't have Njan, I'm sure it'd have driven me to be suicidal too.

Love,

- Lisa.