Recent Events (part 4)

On Tuesday 7th September I began my new job, as a librarian!

Yes, that's right, I am sorting out the Inner London Probabtion Service Library (where my mother works). It's very relaxing, I'm arranging it according to the Dewey decimal system and also into alphabetical order within that. It being a probabtion service library, it's rather full of books on crime and punishment, but occassionally I stop what I'm doing and read one of the more interesting books. I'm not getting paid for it, which is great as it means I can stop and take a break whenever I want to and do it all at my own pace. Whilst at the library on Tuesday I was informed by Baz that there was a dud trip to the zoo on Wednesday so, after confirming with Richard that it was ok for me to gatecrash this trip as well, I told the library people that I wouldn't be able to make Wednesday and started preparing for the zoo. For those of you who might wonder what such preparation entails, it involves repeated singing and humming of the following song:

Richard's taking me to the zoo tomorrow,
The zoo tomorrow,
Zoo tomorrow
Richard's taking me to the zoo tomorrow,
We're gonna stay all day

We're going to the zoo, zoo, zoo
How about you, you, you
You can come too, too too
We're going to the zoo, zoo, zoo

Wednesday arrived and I was there at Charing Cross at 10:35 (less late than last time!) where I was introduced to still more of the duds before we set off for the zoo. I sang all the way there, although it did get a little difficult to sing after a while, due to Richard's hand clamped over my mouth. We arrived at the zoo and paid the extortionate entry price of £13 (!!!!) before going to see the animals. Details of the animals we saw and pictures of the day can be found at Richard's blog, Baz's blog, Jon's blog, Dave's blog and other Dave's blog. A dud called Rob was also there, but he has no blog. We had lunch by the empty bear's enclosure where Richard accused me of being strange!! "And what were these baseless accusations founded on?", I hear you ask. It was the fact that, instead of purchasing rather revolting vegetarian sandwiches from a station shop, I had instead brought with me for lunch:

1 Avocado pear
1 small, recycled jam pot full of mayonaise
1 sharp knife (with which to cut the avocado)
1 teaspoon (with which to eat the avocado)
2 tangerines
Half a box of Jaffa cakes
1 recycled bottle of water

I see nothing strange about this which, according to Richard, simply makes me more strange. I think I am right in that I am normal and I am sure, dear readers, that you will agree with me. He also seemed to think it was strange that, instead of throwing the remains of the avocado and the orange peel in a bin, I took them home to recycle them on the compost heap. What, may I ask, is wrong with being environmentally aware???

After lunch, I dragged the rest of the duds over to the children's farm part of the zoo and had a fun time visiting the goats and pigs etc. I responsibly washed my hands after visiting the animals but did get rather damp in the process due to the high water pressure in the taps and the fact that the sinks were designed for people about half my height. This led Richard to make some oh so funny jokes about how I was only supposed to wash my hands which, obviously, led to him becoming rather damp as well.

After this we visited the pelicans and other birds and I became aquainted with some lovely statues, which you can see here. All through the day Richard kept telling me to move this way and that so he could take photos of me and I had no idea what he was doing until he showed me the picture later. In that one he was getting it looking like the bird was feeding me, and in this one, well, the less said about that....

Anyway, as we went through the bird house I started on a new song:

Why do bird suddenly appear,
Every time you are near?
Just like me,
they want to be
Close to you

Or at least, I sang it as best as I could with the aforementioned hand over my mouth. I don't know why Richard doesn't like my singing....

Then it was on to, past the kangaroos...

(Tie me kangaroo down, sport
Tie me kangaroo down...)

...to the reptile house. Where we saw, amongst other reptiles, a crocodile!

Oh you never smile at a crocodile,
No you can't get friendly with a crocodile,
Don't be taken in by his welcome grin,
He's just opening his mouth so he can fit you in

We didn't see any komodo dragons though, they were all hiding (or taking part in a plot to take over the world, depending on who you talk to).

After visiting the insects, the duds left the zoo leaving Richard and I behind. As we ambled along to Camden Town tube station wondering where they were, Rob phoned Richard. He, thinking that this was going to be someone telling us where they were, answered it, only to find that it was, in fact, someone yelling "cock" down the phone to him. (I should point out at this point that, all through the day, Rob had been phoning up all the dud's to yell "cock" when they answered, and Richard had now fallen victim to this.) Richard called the dud's back and assertained that they were also on their way to the tube station a little way ahead of us. At this point, Richard's phone rang again and, seeing that Baz was calling, I answered the phone in my very sweetest voice. The conversation went a little like this:

Me: Hello?

Baz: Ah, um, hello again

Other duds in background: muffled laughter, occassional shouts of "cock"

Baz: confused mutterings

Baz hangs up

It was all very amusing. After the zoo we went to Hamleys and spent a short time there before the rest of the duds went home. Richard and I went to Victoria station instead and had dinner (I had some yummy noodles from Singapore Sam's, they're are sooo nice) and Richard again told me that I was strange because I sang along to the background music (!!!). Who, may I ask, does not do that?

Anyway, after dinner, we went again to the Globe, this time to see Much Ado About Nothing which, I must say, is a much better play than Measure for Measure. I had another yummy cheese and chutney sandwich and we drove Richard home at the end of the evening.