The Zoo

Zoo

A spontaneous visit to the zoo yesterday, and we saw a baby gorilla and a rhino calf. It was an Aspinal zoo, and it was moderately spontaneous. We were in the general area.

BLISS: What about the zoo?

ME: OK.

BLISS: (Looking up the postcode on her phone) forget it, have you seen how much they're charging? I want to see the animals, not go home with several of them in the boot of the car! That's extortionate, that's...

ME: Well, they do spend it all on breeding threatened species and animal welfare, not for profit...

BLISS: (without pause)...shall I see if there's any online vouchers then?

A kind lady tipped us off to the little rhino in a field with her mum, and she eventually emerged, and even came over to say hello.

I used to feel extremely uncomfortable in zoos. Big cats walking up and down, up and down in very small cages. Those polar bears at London zoo in accommodation that, in human terms, would be little more than a cupboard. These are living things, not exhibits. I don't understand religions that put man at the top of some arbitrary importance of the species list and promote cruelty to animals.

BLISS' camera battery had died, so she used mine and I played with the toy 'digital Holga' for he day. The zoom (I found out) is absolutely useless, but the unpredictability and the psychedelic effects are great, as long as someone's mopping up the important stuff with a proper camera (or as long as there's nothing wedding- or baby-gorilla-like to record. These are my photos because I don't want to infringe BLISS' intellectual copyright or anything. The baby gorilla is on her mother's lap in the photo above, the best one I took all day, I think.

One of MM's best ever birthday cards was the zebras talking to their boy, saying “forget Arsenal replica kit, son, you'll have Newcastle like everyone else.