Flehmen Unkind

Kitty cats large and small have a special organ in the roof of their mouths that increases their ability to smell, which is why you will often see them smelling stuff - or more often the air - with their mouths open. It's called the Jacobson's Organ, and the action is called "flehmen".

Well when you house some anoa (a species of small Indonesian buffalo) next door to the new tiger enclosure in a zoo, two things seem likely to happen: the anoa will be reluctant to come outside; and the tiger will lose all interest in mating with his new love and pace around dreaming of hunting his own dinner - even if he has been bred in captivity and has never hunted more than a stray pigeon.

That's what's happening to JaeJae at London Zoo.

He started the day enticingly close to the glass, enabling parents to get their vile offspring in the same photographic frame as the big boy. He stayed that way during "enrichment", when a keeper tried to lure him to the fence with offerings of meat.





Later, though, he woke up to the smell of fresh anoa and paced around trying to catch a glimpse, and perhaps a morsel, of his potential prey:

He stood on top of a convenient rock demonstrating the flehmen reaction:




In the old tiger enclosure it was too cold for the pygmy hippos to venture outside, so one dozed inside by the window doing an imitation of a leather sofa:



One of the colobus monkeys has a new baby. She's just three weeks old:







I knew I should have made a note of the names of these two types of snakes, but I didn't and I've forgotten. The first is a tangle of two or three, the green beauty just drapes itself over a branch in coils like a complicated piece of washing on the line:





On the subject of snakes, here are my new glasses - the ones that set me back over £450. Could have bought a real snake and a vivarium for that.

Signs of Life

Delicious Daryl. So young, it feels like paedophilia to say it.

Sweet Sound

Of helicopters. London Marathon day and the start is only a mile or two away. Though the elite runners went 50 minutes ago, so it's quiet ended down a bit. The ordinary folks don't count so much...

Salute of the Jugger

Damaged but alive - and still alive at the end! Gar. The name is the same as the sound I would make if we did the dirty dance together, methinks.

A Question...

...for the US Senators who think their loyalty should be to the gun lobby rather than their constituents.

As a mere UK citizen, I watch a lot of US cop shows, and when a school is featured, there always seem to be security guards employed there.

We don't have that over here. So tell me, please, how do you work it out that YOU are the guardians of freedom in this world, when even your kids need protecting from the guns you love by such a huge curtailment of their freedom in what should be the safest place for them?

We had a school gun massacre once, nearly as bad as Newtown. Just once. We immediately restricted gun ownership even further, and made sure all target weapons were locked up in gun clubs. There were few complaints, and none of our elected representatives was against the changes. No one lost a freedom that was truly valued.

You people are the dregs of the world. Protect ALL your citizens, not just those who make guns or those who love to shoot. You aren't living in the wild west any more. Reject the bribery of the gun manufacturers and be men (I guess most of you are male) by standing up for what's right.

A Tale of Two PMs

One Prime Minister built up post-war Britain as a home for heroes. The other dismantled as much as she could so as to enrich the rich still further.

Which one deserved a ceremonial funeral? Not the one who got it.

Clement Attlee oversaw the creation of the welfare state and nationalisation of public utilities and some industries.

Thanks to him, Britain prospered. We had publicly owned companies to give us water, electricity and gas, to provide our bus and rail services, to produce steel and build ships, and to dig up coal.

Margaret Thatcher took his legacy apart, giving the profits from OUR services and giving them to shareholders rather than ploughing them back into those services. Now her acolyte Cameron is trying to finish the job that she started by destroying our greatest treasure, the National Health Service.

Attlee wold not have come across well in the TV age. He was not a great orator. He was not a larger-than-life character like Churchill, with whom he served as Deputy Prime Minister during the wartime coalition government. There was a contemporary joke that an empty cab pulled up and Mr Attlee got out.

He was later created an Earl, and his title continues, just, though his grandson, at 57, is still childless. The title will therefore die - just as well, because this treacherous man is a Conservative in the House of Lords.

I would be so proud to have such a distinguished ancestor. John Attlee, hang your head in shame. Think of the good you could have done if you'd followed your in illustious grandfather's footsteps.

The Salton Sea

The completely unprepossessing Pooh Bear.

Yet somehow cute, and all because of his portrayer.

Looking for Love

This is Mjukuu.



She is the female gorilla who was deprived of her baby by David Field, a London Zoo hotshot, husband of a bigwig for an endangered species organisation and so not liable to sanction. He decided to send a new male, not the baby's father, in with the mother and baby just as littl'un was getting independent. The baby was killed. The breeding age females in the group would not get another opportunity to breed as the male was known to be infertile.

Finally, after months of delays, the infertile male having been removed last year, a new male has finally joined the group. His name is Kumbuku. He arrived at the zoo on Thursday and is not yet mixing with the girls.

But Mjukuu and Effie were deperately trying to get into the inside enclosure with him. They tried everything just to get a glimpse. Old Zaire was not interested.

Here's the boy they can't wait to get flirtatious with:





Blurred but obviously very handsome. He wowed the humans with some really butch displays. Then he set about dismantling the climbing wall.

Clever boy.

Nunzio's Second Cousin

Hot sexy Sgt Tony Randozza.

How much???!!

The loathsome author of the privatisation of all our publicly owned utilities; she who sold off all our assets, such as North Sea oil and gas and gave away our heritage and inheritance so that private individuals could profit from the ordinary people; she who destroyed British manufacturing industry and gave power to the finance industry (we all know where that led); she who has a rich family, including a gun-running son who has somehow obtained a knighthood, and ultra-wealthy friends; in these days of austerity where many have to resort to food banks and support for the disabled is being slashed; her funeral is to cost £10,000,000.

Her family may chip in. But why those she impoverished should have to pay for her obsequies, while those she enriched just get to go along and enjoy what the plebs pay for, I fail to understand.

All in this together, Mr Cameron? Yes, all bearing the expense of the witch's last rites. But the rich continue to bear nothing at all except the agonies of having to watch the protests of the anti-Thatcherites being squashed by a police force that, being itself hacked to pieces by the government, should be facilitating these protests, not putting them down.

Meanwhile, a campaign to get this number to the top of the charts has been successful, but "out of respect" for the person who never earned any respect in her lifetime, and deserves none in death, the radio chart programmes have been urged not to play it.

The Red Sneakers

Mercado the inept baddy.

The Newton Boys

Dock says "Hi!" Well, bits of him do...

Men Never Learn

In the supermarket today I saw an elderly man with two boxes of cat food pouches under his arm, and an empty pouch in his hand, which he was scrutinising. The boxes he held were from this range, at two boxes for £6:

I love cats. I like to be helpful. So I asked him if he was trying to identify the box the pouch might have come from. He was. He obviously had strict instructions from someone as to which pouches to buy. "Did a neighbour ask you?" I said, "Or a friend?" No, he said, his wife. I looked at the pouch and identified it as being from this range, at two boxes for £7:

I pointed out where the boxes were that contained the food his wife had asked for. He hesitated. He pointed at a similar box, which was the same brand but for senior cats aged 7+. I asked him how old his cats were. He said 3 or 4. So I redirected him back to the food he needed. He kept hold of the Whiskas boxes. No matter what I said, he kept repeating that he thought he was going to buy those.

I did try to warn him that he was going to be in trouble with his wife if he didn't take home the right food. Still he dithered. I went on with my shopping.

Five minutes later, he was still dithering in front of the cat food.

I don't know which he finally bought, but I can imagine his wife's reaction if he went home with the Whiskas.

Mystic Pizza

Ah, beautiful Bill. Anyone here doesn't wish they were giving him that particular pleasure?

Hooray!

Just heard Thatcher's dead! Evil old bitch. I doubt we'll ever recover from the damage she did to this country, which her darling Cameron is determined to complete.

If there's a heaven and a hell, I've NO doubt which one she'll be in.

Ruby Anniversary

Wow! Today marks my 40th wedding anniversary!

Sadly the divorce was seven years later, three years after the break-up.

One day I might scan in a few wedding photos. Or I might not.

We remained friends for years. I even went to his second wedding, and was invited to his third. But I don't think it took place, 'cos in 2000 he failed to return some calls, and I left him a message telling him to piss off. Maybe he was heartbroken by the split from Number 3, or maybe he was ashamed. Or too self-absorbed.

I think I might still be getting Christmas cards from him, but as I know a couple of guys called John with similar scrawl, I can't be sure. Nor do I really care.

Men In Black

The Bug. Trying very hard to fit into his new skin. Brilliant.

Evil Personified

I don't know if news of our latest native-born monsters has reached foreign shores. Here they are:

Michael "Mick" Philpott and his wife Mairead had six of his seventeen children living with them in a three bedroom house. His mistress, who had also shared the house with them along with the five children she had borne him, had left, and he wanted the children back.

He obviously thought he needed something big to help him along, as he was already facing a road rage charge, and he cooked up the idea of seting fire to the house and heroically rescuing the kids, blaming the fire on the mistress. He was helped by his wife and his best friend.

The fire got out of hand and the six children died.

The couple did the requisite crying on camera in an appeal for witnesses to come forward. But the police were not fooled, and this week the evil man and his wicked puppets were sent to jail for manslaughter. Sadly not murder, as there was no intent to kill.

Now I understand why man-slaughter can also be read as mans-laughter. In 15 years this monster may again see the light of day.

Unless some Good Samaritan regular murderer bumps him off in prison...

Men In Black

Edgar.

Great Oaks

We all know great oaks from little acorns grow. But not every oak is as great as it pretends to be - or as great as oganisations like Government, spending our money, would have us believe.

About 10 years ago I worked with someone who used to go out with a guy who sold his supply teaching agency for a million quid. That agency was called Capstan. The new owners reinvented it as Capita.

 

By the time I got my early teacher's retirement pension Capita had taken on the contract to run Teacher's Pensions. Their first attempt to assess the pension to which I was entitled was about half the amount they'd told me just a year or so earlier. No one knew how the cock-up occurred.

 

A couple of years later I ordered some Christmas cards fom the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds. I ordered them early, but they didn't arrive. I phoned up several times, and received a different excuse each time. Sometimes they were in the warehouse, some time later they were just about to arrive there. I had to buy other cards to send to my friends and relatives across the Pond, and the charity lost the money I tried to spend with them. The company they had chosen to perform the simple task of filling orders was...Capita.

 

When I was made redundant (the same time as receiving my early pension) I signed up with the nearest supply teaching agency - the former Capstan, renamed Capita. They contacted me once with one day's work. A couple of years on I was doing some work in a school where they phoned up about another supply teacher they had sent there (they made no effort to check they were talking to the right person) and that is when I discovered that this person was sent by them from the other side of London every day, while I, a local, never had a sniff of work from them.

 

The latest fiasco concerns, of all things, providing interpreters for court cases. Last time I was on jury service, we had an interpreter for the defendant. The judge watched her closely and decided she was not translating enough of what was going on to the accused, so next day she had been replaced. Last year the job of supplying interpreters went to Capita. News today says they consistently fail to provide people, to the extent that some cases cannot be heard.

 

I don't really know what it takes for a company to stop gaining contracts, and to start losing the ones they have. I think Capita should be the test case.

JFK

It may have been an atrocious thing to witness, but Bill Newman did have one bit of luck - being portrayed by Vincent.

It Don't Pay To Be An Honest Citizen

And it doesn't please me that I don't know this character's name.

Ashton

For those doubters who thought I might forget about him.

Guess how I spent my birthday?

Jae Jae was separated from Melati when I first arrived. He was where Melati had been last week.

 

 

He was spending the time chomping on a bone.

 

 

 

Melati was in the place that last week had been Jae Jae's domain. She was very relaxed.

 

 

 

Suddenly she became more alert.

 

 

 

They'd opened up the whole enclosure, and Jae Jae was looking for a chance to sneak up on his girl. But he had to content himself with waiting, wondering and dreaming.

 

Once a landmark birthday...

...now 60 is just another year older.

Time was I would have started to collect my old age pension today. I understand the need for fairness by equalising men's and women's retirement ages - but I'd always assumed they'd bring the men's age down as well as raising the women's.

I was in my 50s when they decided to raise the women's. We were assured that women already in their 50s would not be affected. They lied.

They recently changed it again so that my friend, whose birthday is not till July, instead of retiring in September, has to wait till next March.

On the plus side for her, she will receive the new higher flat rate pension, while I will miss it by days. My male school friends will be similarly recompensed.

Meanwhile, the retirement age for all will eventually rise to 67. And there are mutterings that it will one day in the not too distant future rise to 70.

This is because we are all living much longer. For now.

Bad luck for those who don't. Bad luck for those in hard physical jobs who just can't do them any more. Bad luck for those with problems that restrict their ability to continue to work, or cause them to collapse in exhaustion at the end of a challenging day. (Try teaching 30 of other people's recalcitrant children in your late 60s. There will be a lot of teachers - the group I know most about - dying before they even draw their pensions.)

And bad luck for any young person who thought the very high unemployment rate among under-25s was likely to reduce any time soon. Sorry. The oldies are going to be stuck ahead of you for years to come. Whether they want to, or are capable of it, or not.

Well at least I can get free prescriptions now, and travel around London for free.

Whitney

By special request.

Sadly, Botophucket, that amazingly incompetent photo site, has decided to rearrange my pictures in an order which is only non-random to them ie. 1, 10, 100; 18, 180 etc. The option to see the whole album has disappeared, with no alternative. And they also fail completely to answer any contacts.

Arseholes.

Final Olee for now

Love that shoulder.

Tiger Territory

At last! Today was the big day - the preview day for London Zoo members to see the new tigers in their new territory. It didn't disappoint.

Unlike Photobucket, which has repeatedly failed to upload my pictures so I can make a slideshow. They don't answer queries any more, either, now they've imposed their new system on those who did not want it.

So here are some pictures direct from my computer, smaller than I would like, but lovely nonetheless.

There's a tiger-sized climbing frame.

 

   And a nice new pond.

 

Jae Jae seems to be master of all he surveys

Inside and out

 

But Melati has other ideas.

 

Fed up with sleeping...

 

...she remembers seeing Jae Jae off earlier.

 

And now she's arrived he's made a total retreat

and is nowhere to be seen.

 

Olee Again

I just can't resist him. But you might have to do without him for a few days while I get my breath back. I just did a couple of concerts as well as going to work, not to mention failing completely to find time to do any shopping, so it's catching up on sleep and chores now for a few days.

Two's not enough either

I could go on like this forever.

Jaspa's 19th

Today is my pretty Jaspa cat's 19th birthday.

She got her name because I wanted to call her "sister" (who died just after Christmas) Amber. And I thought she was a he. So she started out as Jasper, even through her vaccinations, till the vet had to newter her, and got a surprise. As did I.

Apart from a couple of wasp stings when she was a kitten, and a dental or two, Jaspa has been the model of health. She is very slightly built, she's not fond of cuddles, but is mellowing into snugglabilty with me and one or two of the other cats.

I think of Jaspa as a relative of the aliens UFO lovers call "Greys, because she has a tiny face with great big eyes. Not much room for brains, I guess, but LOTS of beauty.

Because...

...One picture of Olee was never going to be enough.

Good Luck?

The best! Best luck, favourite VDO film, fave character. OLEE!!

Impostor

Major Hathaway - a rare example Of a good baddie, or a bad goodie?

Quick Quiz

What do the Pope, Muslim fundamentalists and the Christian right have in common?

They all want to control women's rights to control their own bodies.

I am SICK of the constant barrage of news about this new pope business. I do not care. Britain is barely a Christian country any more, and disestablished the Catholic church centuries ago.

I do not want to listen to people prattling on about their imaginary friends. Jesus was a real live character from history. He might have been good. That's it.

Religion has caused more deaths in the history of the world than just about anything else other than disease and old age. People, grow up. You don't need a supernatural being to explain the world.

The end.

Imaginary Crimes

And real dimension difficulties! Sorry, Mr Webster. Can I have my physical chastisement now?

Snow over Britain

No, not that sort of snow. Though we have had plenty of that in the last few days.

I'm talking about the Snow family.

There's broadcaster and newsreader Jon Snow, who seems to have been a fixture on our screens forever.

Then there's his cousin Peter Snow, renowned for leaping about on out TV screens, especially at election times.

But Peter's son Dan is making quite an impression these days. He looks just like his father, wounds like him too. He's a history man, and was most recently on our screens from Syria in a documentary about the phenomenal history of the place. Brave man.

Quite a hunk too (though a bit young), a big gangly man like his father, at a mere 6'6".

The family legacy is assured.

Household Saints

All hot and sweaty...

Hotel Paradise

Who could resist the Naked Stranger? Even the snake couldn't.