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Welcome to the world of the Vincent D'Onofrio obsessed - and a bit of real life thrown in.


Wednesday, April 01, 2009

Grrrr20

It's great to live in London. I wanted to go to London Zoo yesterday in the sunny warm spring weather. Everything about my journey went like clockwork. I got there in 75 minutes - a record. It was a great day in many ways, though there were 1400 schoolchildren there, and it is only a relatively small site. Then there was the large Scandinavian couple trying to sneak grapes to the meerkats (which eat insects, snakes, scorpions, NOT fruit). I told them to stop, but they acted as if I was stupid and at fault. I later managed to sic security on them :)


The journey home started off promisingly. I realised my bus would take me to the Angel Islington (now sadly just a tube station, the eponymous pub being long gone) which was good, because the station I usually go from had the down escalator out of service, and that meant walking down 96 steps of a spiral staircase. No way.


I had three stops to go on the Northern Line before changing at Bank station on to the Docklands Light Railway directly home. One stop away, they informed us that the police had asked them not to stop at Bank. The name's a clue here. It's at the heart of the City of London, the capital's old financial centre, and home of the Bank of England. Outside, thousands of protesters were gathered on the eve of the G20conference. So I stayed on for an extra stop, to London Bridge. Here I had to make a choice. Take an overland train home, or get on the tube and then change to the DLR at Canary Wharf, the NEW financial centre. Usually at times like this tickets are usable on any transport system, but no announcement had reached my ears, so I stayed on the underground.


Amazingly, all the priority seats were taken up by unfortunate young people who were clearly blind, as they were unable to see the creaking oldies who were "less able to stand" than them. My legs and feet are still complaining loudly, as struggling to remain balanced on odd-length legs uses muscles that usually lie dormant.


Was it worth it? You tell me when you see the best of the animal shots I took.


Oh, and by the way, the Today Programme on BBC Radio 4 (the radio programme which is official used by submariners to gauge whether the world had ended when they surface - no Today, no Britain) today broadcast a report that London Zoo's dominant female gorilla, Zaire, was being brought doughnuts by squirrel monkeys that they had sneaked past electric fences to steal for her. She loves food. But it's the colobus monkeys who have access to her island, so I couldn't quite work it out. The volunteer on duty soon clarified matters for me by asking, "What date is it today?"


How can such an organ, pillar of the establishment, pull such a fast one?


An extra P.S. - America, we have your President, AND WE ARE NOT GOING TO GIVE HIM BACK!



7 comments:

Eliza said...

As ever I'm extremely grateful you shared your pictures with us..just love the tigers!!

Sorry your journey home was such a strain..I don't exactly have a problem with the protesters, but it did descend rather fast from being a 'peaceful protest' into trouble..rent-a-mob at work again :-(

val said...

Goodness knows I've been a protester enough times in my life. I know how the police can provoke trouble - they verbally supporte the National Front to us during their march and our counter-demonstration back in the 70s. The people smashing up the bank and looting it, though - that's OUR money as taxpayers that has to be spent putting that rihgt.

JoJo said...

Cool! I love the tigers and meerkats. Stupid ignorant tourists. I just wanna smash people like that.

Years ago we were in Yosemite w/ my parents. There was a very large, fallen tree w/ a big sign 'DO NOT CLIMB ON TREE'. Japanese tourists were climbing all over it. Brian and I spoke up and told them to get off the tree. My parents wanted to crawl under a rock.

Jane said...

As I told Diane earlier....You may NOT keep our President. He is a breath of fresh air isn't he :)

I love the tigers..

SnarkAngel said...

The monkey babies are adorable! Thanks so much for sharing! Did you see where Michelle Obama and The Queen actually exchanged some physical affection? I'm thinking that must be a first!

Anonymous said...

My feeling is an awful lot of those whith their faces carefully hidden were just there to start shit, be that throwing missiles at the police, or trashing an empty bank. How proud they must be!!

I already told Tess we're keeping President Obama, and sending them 'Dour Brown' in exchange. She's not too happy about the swap tho' :0)

Anonymous said...

Cool! I love the tigers and meerkats.

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