Londo Zoo Revisited

Seth posted a while ago about how we have to accept that some things just won't recur. The media have for as long as I remember been searching for the next Beatles, applying this tagline in even the most pitiful of cases (Kajagoogoo anyone?) when of course, there won't ever be anything like the Beatles again. Just as on a personal level, one's schooldays will never be recaptured (there is a huge variation as to whether this is a good thing or not of course) nor will the initial rush of enthusiasm for a new hobby (without starting another and the recently-divorced ponce de leon has been mocked sufficiently by more worthy pens than that of the PMC..

..so it was in this spirit that PMC man in London (this week) went to the Zoo for the first time in over quarter of a century. With that in mind, it was actually quite good. Not so huge as the writer's eight year old memory had retained, and it was perfectly doable in half a day; some of the animals didn't cooperate of course but we've learnt to accept that too, and watching the pecking order within a group of hyenas as the keepers threw half a mutilated calf into their enclosure made an impact.

I'm not too keen on the 'hey, animals are really funky, check out these [insert piss poor alliteration here] spiders/bugs etc; surely the animals themselves are the draw, they certainly used to be in my day (same applies to the same patronising and rather silly treatment that seems to be applied to history nowadays) and the entry price is, well, London priced;  but you know what you're getting, and there's something timeless about the appeal of viewing other species than our own..for a bit anyway.