Evening Fennel

I was supposed to posting a picture of Miss E with her new goldfish tonight.
Alas we are still a fishless household.
How times have changed since we used to win fish at the fair, carry them around in plastic bags all day, plop them into a bowl of unadulterated tap water and watch them swim merrily around.
Until we overfed them and then had to flush them down the toilet.
Nowadays, apparently, you need an advanced zoology degree to be allowed to leave the shop with a fish in a bag.
Miss E was giddy this morning that the day had finally dawned.
She's been looking forward to it all week, already named the fish Lucy and even arranged the letters on the bathroom wall to say mummys getting me a fish today
She was jumping up and down like a pogo stick by the time we got to the shop. She only deigned to go into Nana and Papa's for a bit beforehand with a bribe of chocolate ice cream. At 11am if you please!!
In the shop she spent hours choosing her fish, looking in every single tank, boinging around and squealing with excitement.
She plumped for a lovely goldfish, checked it was a Lucy rather then a Luke and the lady put it in a bag.
Then we went to buy the tank and the day took a downward turn.
They won't sell a goldfish to go in a small tank. It's illegal apparently. Has to be a 60 litre tank at least!!
Oh and you can't buy a tank and a fish on the same day because you need to leave the water to sort itself out for a week.
A week!!!
And you can't buy shells - which Miss E had chosen - to put in the tank because they're not suitable for freshwater fish.
Needless to say Miss E's excitement levels dropped somewhat. She looked heartbroken.
First of all she couldn't understand why she couldn't have the fish she'd chosen but was really grown-up, accepted it and chose a couple of little ones instead.
Then she had to deal with not having any fish at all today.
I know I'm ludicrously oversensitive on her behalf but I could have cried. She was obviously so disappointed but trying to be brave.
Eventually we came to an arrangement with the woman that we'd buy the tank - bright pink with bright pink gravel and seahorse stickers. Nice! - and come back for the fish tomorrow. She'd decided 24 hours was enough to sort the water!
Miss E took it so well, I was so proud of her.
I was sorely tempted to ignore the woman and buy the bigger fish for the smaller tank and bung it straight in (like in the good old days!!) but on balance I decided it would do Miss E no favours to find it dead on day two!
So all the photos I've got of a happy, excited Miss E choosing her fish aren't really suitable now. It'll have to wait.....