Yesterday there were winds of up to 100mph across the UK, and at least 13 people died, including a toddler crushed by a wall collapse. Next week we're expecting cold and snow. But today was fine and sunny, I didn't have to work, and I was feeling a bit better, so I thought, what better way to clear my sinuses than to go to the Zoo.
They'd closed early yesterday because bits were falling off trees everywhere, and none of the animals would come out (more sense than humans). The journey passed very pleasantly with interesting chats with complete strangers. (I'll talk to anyone, and obviously so will they!)
The big cats were very obliging. The tiger was beating the bounds of his territory. The lion had to stir to sort out his two ladies who were having a bit of a punch-up. The serval was being a bit of a poser.
The giraffe wasn't sure whether it was safe to come out.
The squirrel monkeys had gone in to enjoy a meal. Turnip seemed to be the favourite. They kept rubbing it on branches or the glass, maybe to tenderise it, but it didn't seem to have much effect.
The parrot keepers regaled me with stories about how the Hyacinths excavated a hole in the breeze block wall overnight, and both pairs were together in one room. On another occasion they made short work of the new perches and fittings some workmen put in, dismantling the whole lot in an hour, unscrewing bolts and everything.
Best of all was the relative shortage of humans. At Easter the zoo is opening the new Gorilla Kingdom, which will be great, but I think it will be like a zoo there then...
Peter Bazalgette, who created the reality TV show, is the 2 or 3x great grandson of...
... Sir Joseph Bazalgette, who gave London the sewer system that banished the scourge of typhoid from the capital.
