Not often do I get personal on this web log but, let me make an exception today, just for once.

Yesterday was quite a traumatic day for me, what with my ruling planet Neptune entering into a new sign of my zodiac (Pisces) for the first time since 1998, thus alerting me of a profound shift in my feelings and my perspective on the world around me. Let me quote from a weekly horoscope: ‘what surfaces will revolutionise your thinking, especially about many seemingly fixed elements of your life‘ (end of quote). I am uncertain now as to whether the law obliges me to disclose the source of this quote even though I only iterated 15 words of a much longer blurb. We’ll see to that a bit later, shall we?

Anyway, if there should be any substantial change forthcoming to the shape, format or content of the Mallorca Daily Photo Blog you now know that you’ll have to blame Neptune, and not me, the author.

But now, for the drama. Our goldfish died yesterday. We have had nine lovely and lively Common Goldfish creatures (Carassius auratus auratus) in a small water trough in our townhouse patio (courtyard) and since this Neptune thing happening yesterday, they are no more. We are quite devastated. The little fish had been with us for a good eight or nine years and had given us endless pleasure and enjoyment. The thing is, you may want to know, that last Friday we had the plumbers come round trying to help with an assumed cloggage in our hot water pipes. The plumber defined the problem as a matter of cal (limestone) which is a regular problem in Mallorcan water supply and which could well have been the culprit. His answer to the problem was to flush our pipes with a cal dissolving liquid which should free the clogged areas. The pipes were flushed, the hot water still does not get to our upstairs shower and we are at a loss, together with our plumber. That’s another problem we’ll have to deal with, any time soon.

Last Sunday, our patio fish-tank needed topping up with water. By then we had forgotten that the solvent had been in our pipes a few days earlier and we proceeded to fill the fish basin without further thought. When I went to feed the fish on Monday, I spotted a dead goldfish. I was not alarmed because, now and then, you loose one of the little critters. But then I saw another one floating, belly up as it were, and another one and so forth. Not one of them had survived the attack of the acid fluid that we had unwittingly inflicted on them. Now we’ll have to sue the plumber.

But first, I’ll have this out with you, Neptune, one way or another.

The photo was chosen from my archive. It was taken in Palma de Mallorca, Baleares, Spain. The date: October 29th, 2010. The time was 12:40:01. The photo is not of our water trough nor of our goldfish. Rather, it was taken at the Jardí del Bisbe. Those goldfishes are still alive and kicking, I assume.