Colin's Daily

[Fintray]

Enjoy your time with your family and have a great weekend.

[Colin Deng]

2025.7.6

It’s just super hot today!
While picking lychees, I think I got a pretty bad sunburn. But it’s okay—I usually recover within a week, so I’ll be back to normal soon.

Sorry I didn’t take a photo of today’s lunch—I was just too busy.
My nephew loves catching fish from the river and trying to raise them in a fish tank. But honestly, fish are picky about water quality. In the city, the tap water is disinfected, so I’m not sure how long the fish will survive in the tank.

By the way, how do I post a video on this forum?
Should I upload it to YouTube first and then share the link here?

The river near my parents’ house is looking more beautiful these days.
My father grows lotus flowers in the river, and they’re blooming beautifully right now. There are also some plants growing around the house that we use as Chinese herbal medicine. We can dry them, boil them, soak them in white wine, or cook them in soup. It’s like magic—they help heal or prevent certain illnesses.

It was just too hot today, so I’ve already come back to Shenzhen.
Tomorrow, I’ll bring some fresh lychees to my colleagues and let them have a taste too.

[SimonSays]

Sorry I didn’t take a photo of today’s lunch—I was just too busy.
My nephew loves catching fish from the river and trying to raise them in a fish tank. But honestly, fish are picky about water quality. In the city, the tap water is disinfected, so I’m not sure how long the fish will survive in the tank.

If your water supplier uses chlorine as the disinfectant, you can use a dechlorinator to make the water safe for fish.

Once you're made the water safe for fish it's a case of keeping nitrite and ammonia levels down. Nitrite and ammonia comes from fish waste, so regular partial water changes (using the dechlorinator on the new water) or a water filter, even an air powered one, will turn the ammonia into nitrite and then into nitrate that you then remove with the water changes.

[Stinsy]

Sorry I didn’t take a photo of today’s lunch—I was just too busy.
My nephew loves catching fish from the river and trying to raise them in a fish tank. But honestly, fish are picky about water quality. In the city, the tap water is disinfected, so I’m not sure how long the fish will survive in the tank.

Hi Colin.

In the UK you can buy purified water from aquarium stores. This is referred to as "RO water" in reference to the reverse osmosis method of purifying the water (distilled water should be avoided for fish because the copper content is usually unacceptably high).

[Crastney]

Thanks for these Colin, most informative.
in the UK, and almost certainly Germany, the tap water is drinkable, so we wouldn't necessarily buy bottled water, which is why it's more expensive. That's one thing I noticed when travelling is the amount of drinking water in plastic bottles available, but also the number of empty plastic water bottles thrown on the ground. There's been a move towards having a drinking water bottle, and just refilling it from the tap. In restaurants we would normally ask for a bottle of tap water, which would be free. They would charge for bottled still/sparkling water.
Some people over here grow their own fruit/veg, probably more than average on this forum. it's not as common as it used to be.

[chris_n]

Thanks for these Colin, most informative.
in the UK, and almost certainly Germany, the tap water is drinkable, so we wouldn't necessarily buy bottled water, which is why it's more expensive. That's one thing I noticed when travelling is the amount of drinking water in plastic bottles available, but also the number of empty plastic water bottles thrown on the ground. There's been a move towards having a drinking water bottle, and just refilling it from the tap. In restaurants we would normally ask for a bottle of tap water, which would be free. They would charge for bottled still/sparkling water.
Some people over here grow their own fruit/veg, probably more than average on this forum. it's not as common as it used to be.

Plastic water bottles here in Austria (and Germany) are returnable with a €25c deposit per bottle so that pushes the off the shelf price up. All of the supermarkets have automated return facilities which are often combined with beer bottle recycling which we have done for years, not sure what they do in smaller outlets e.g. garages etc.
If they are discarded (not the culture to do so where I am, we will see what happens in high tourist season), someone will pick it up and return it. I understand in some areas of Germany they are having problems with people upending bins to retrieve empty bottles

[Colin Deng]

Sorry I didn’t take a photo of today’s lunch—I was just too busy.
My nephew loves catching fish from the river and trying to raise them in a fish tank. But honestly, fish are picky about water quality. In the city, the tap water is disinfected, so I’m not sure how long the fish will survive in the tank.

If your water supplier uses chlorine as the disinfectant, you can use a dechlorinator to make the water safe for fish.

Once you're made the water safe for fish it's a case of keeping nitrite and ammonia levels down. Nitrite and ammonia comes from fish waste, so regular partial water changes (using the dechlorinator on the new water) or a water filter, even an air powered one, will turn the ammonia into nitrite and then into nitrate that you then remove with the water changes.

Thanks for the information on this
My nephew will take care of that , it will also need a Oxygen pump when the fish is not live in the flowing river.
Some people from the city will come to our village to get some fish and sell it to the shop. According to one of the guy i met, he told me the good-looking and strong one can sell it at 30￥/pc,at about 3£ each
Attached is the good looking one for your information

[Colin Deng]

Sorry I didn’t take a photo of today’s lunch—I was just too busy.
My nephew loves catching fish from the river and trying to raise them in a fish tank. But honestly, fish are picky about water quality. In the city, the tap water is disinfected, so I’m not sure how long the fish will survive in the tank.

Hi Colin.

In the UK you can buy purified water from aquarium stores. This is referred to as "RO water" in reference to the reverse osmosis method of purifying the water (distilled water should be avoided for fish because the copper content is usually unacceptably high).

I also tried raising some fish in a fish tank once.
But I never bought an actual fish tank—I just used an empty battery case since it’s transparent.
The fish didn’t last long though, especially in Shenzhen where the hot weather and water quality make it difficult.

So I brought this “fish tank” back to my father.
Now he’s using it too and takes really good care of the fish.

The fish is called a Paradise Fish.
We used to catch them in the river when we were kids—just having fun with friends on weekends.

[Colin Deng]

Thanks for these Colin, most informative.
in the UK, and almost certainly Germany, the tap water is drinkable, so we wouldn't necessarily buy bottled water, which is why it's more expensive. That's one thing I noticed when travelling is the amount of drinking water in plastic bottles available, but also the number of empty plastic water bottles thrown on the ground. There's been a move towards having a drinking water bottle, and just refilling it from the tap. In restaurants we would normally ask for a bottle of tap water, which would be free. They would charge for bottled still/sparkling water.
Some people over here grow their own fruit/veg, probably more than average on this forum. it's not as common as it used to be.

It’s a pity that I don’t know if the tap water here is drinkable.
And I haven’t seen anyone drinking directly from the tap either…

Somehow, I really miss sparkling water, especially when it’s so hot in Shenzhen.
I just finished a cola though—that works too!

[Colin Deng]

2025.7.7

Today is Minor Heat, one of the 24 solar terms in China. It’s the eleventh solar term and the fifth of summer, marking the official start of midsummer.
“Shu” means heat, and “Minor Heat” suggests that it’s starting to get hot, but not yet at its peak.
Although Minor Heat isn’t the hottest time of the year, it’s followed closely by “Great Heat,” the most scorching solar term.
As the saying goes, “Minor Heat and Great Heat are like steaming and boiling”—the real heat is just around the corner.

The weather is getting hotter and hotter.
I really wanted a slice of iced watermelon today, but since my electric scooter ran out of power, I didn’t make it to the fruit market.

It’s just too hot—the air feels thick with heat.
I’ve canceled my usual after-meal walk because it’s unbearable outside.

Later, I’ll take a shower, head into my room, turn on the air conditioner, read a book, and quietly call it a day.