LIFE IS NOT PARTICULARLY EASY AT THE MOMENT

I have always done my best to be truthful in these bloggoposts, and when things have been going well I have told you so. Sadly, at the moment things are not going particularly well with a whole string of problems having beset the CFZ.

The first, and biggest - of course - is money. We are approximately fifteen thousand pounds worse off each year than we were three years ago. This is basically because of the perfidy of people whom we had considered friends and whom we had trusted. I cannot go into any further details because there is a court case pending concerning the widow of one of the people who is directly responsible for our current situation, and the whole affair is sub judice. I think that it is likely that the other affair will also end in legal action, and the whole thing just makes me deeply unhappy.

We have also had a string of computer problems, which have been exacerbated by the fact that someone (and it could have been any one of six people) borrowed a vital piece of software from the folder without replacing it. We hope that this will be sorted out by Tuesday, but it does mean that various things are held up, which should not have been held up.

And of course the most emotionally draining is the current situation with Marjorie Braund and Noela Mackenzie. In the case of the former, whom I love very much, there is little that I can do except visit each day. Roy, Kaye and the boys are being magnificent. But in the case of Noela, I have been thrust into being in loco nepotensis (no doubt Ronan will correct my Latin), and as most of the powers that be who are meant to be looking after her are as much use as teats on a bull, we are doing what we can.

So things are in a state of fluz. There will be some economy measures announced in the next few days, but be assured of one thing. The CFZ will continue to do what we do, and we shall continue to do it to the best of our ability.

Slainte

CFZ ARCHIVING PROJECT: BHM Part Fifteen

As you know, Oll has been working on the archiving project since early February, and he is now working on the BHM section. This 15th trenche is from 1994 and contains bits and bobs from the journal Track Record. Good stuff.

HERE

STRANGE STORY FROM THE HIMMALAYAS

A few weeks ago our old friend Paul Cropper send us THIS PDF, which tells the improbable story of an encounter with yetis in the snowy mountains of the Himmalayas. As Dmitri Bayanov (who also received a copy) notes "It's clearly fiction, but it's source and tips are noteworthy".

I couldn't agree more, and it is a suitable ripping yarn for a cold, wet November morning.

MORE ZOOKEEPER HUMOUR

Someone sent me a whole slew of these recently, and to my great embarrassment I cannot remember who it was. So apologies to all concerned. However, I am posting them piecemeal because I think they are very funny..

NEIL ARNOLD: The Grotesque Stickman

There are some mysteries within the field of the paranormal that simply defy any explanation. Take for instance the creepy case of the Stick Man. In 2003 a story that appeared on the message board of Fortean Times magazine, a man claimed that several years ago he'd encountered a bizarre humanoid in the Brockley area of south-east London.

Read On

ONLY A WEEK TO GO

One week to go till the Midland Charity Auction in Redditch on Sunday, 6th December.
15 breeders have requested auction lot letters so far & fish have started going onto the web page. During the final run-up week to the auction I'm kept busy updating this list. Remember, as always we get many species not put on this list.

We are expecting a lot of fish as is normal for the December do, so please try & get here early as we would like to get the first auction underway around 10.30am. With the nights drawing in it's nice to finish early so everyone can start the journey home in daylight. Last year's December do saw over 500 lots going under the hammer.

Please try to bring plenty of 50p, £1 & £2 coins as well as £5 notes, which are always in demand.
We have invested in a microphone & amp this year so those at the back should be able to hear us. We should have had one last auction but were let down. Now we have our own equipment.

If you need an early breakfast please let me know & I will give the figures to the girls in the kitchen. By this I mean those arriving around 9am. Please be aware this year that we have people in charge of admission fees, which are only £2. We have had to tighten up on this area. This is a charity fundraising event & we hope you understand this. Last December we raised £500 for charities so we would like to match or exceed this if possible.

The raffle makes a lot of money towards this total. If anyone can help out with some donation for prizes it would be greatly appreciated. Representatives from most associations like the BKA, BLA, BCA, catfish & probably Anabantoid will be at the do so you can chat or join them.

The club have now bought a marquee so next June's auction will be bigger. We are looking at some interesting ways to fill this & are working with various people at the moment.

If you are bringing the kids why not bring some bread & feed the birds on the pool, which has ducks, moorhens, gulls, swans & even great crested grebe?

OLL LEWIS: Yesterday’s News Today

http://cryptozoologynews.blogspot.com/

Those of you who have been following the progress of the story of the discovery of the tomb of Tutankhamun by Howard Carter in 1922 via this column will be interested to know that today is the anniversary of the day he first opened the tomb to the public. Today was also the day in 1972 that the video game Pong was first released.
And now for some news and a bad pun:

Cows stampede through quiet housing estate
Table for zoo, sir?
Loch Ness Monster 'family-friendly' to boost tourism
Puffer fish Russian roulette ends as scientists breed non-lethal version
Couple tries to crack case of mystery egg
What an egg-citing mystery.