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A Bevy in London
2010-08-29 19:20I really should try to get to Whipsnade Zoo while I'm in Britain. I grew up with Gerald Durrell's A Bevy of Beasts about his experiences there as a young zookeeper. But it's like a couple hours away by bus. Today my sleep still sucked, but I managed to make it to London Zoo, in Regents' Park, by 2 - and it closes at 6!
I didn't take any pictures, but I did take a lot of videos. Will take some effort to label and upload them. A couple might trigger phobias. I assuming I can reasonably post them at all, the longest is 120MB.
It's a nice zoo of moderate size. I saw most things in my 4 hours, not all. Ring-tailed lemurs are diurnal and loud, to my surprise. There were multiple aviaries, though only one really struck me. A Nightlife exhibit had lots of rats and some bats. Another exhibit had more brown rats, in more light. I saw a mock kitchen covered in cockroaches (one in front of a magnifying glass) amd a case with lots of locusts.
Afterwards... Social thing fell through. I found myself at Camden Town again, and Camden Lock; a whole bunch of shops stretched above Regent's Canal. Including food shops offering mixes of their stuff for only £3. Edit: Had an Indian mix-up, tandoori and chicken korma and land curry. Not bad, though hardly spicey at all. Wandered around, saw yet more food shops, including "Brazilan hot dog". So many Chinese stands, all offering the same free sample chicken, I suspect they're all related, like the Amish Olde Lane Orchard mafia at Bloomington Farmer's Market. But then I saw a *Peruvian* stand, 4 pound mixer, I had a bit of 6 different things. Good. They also had Inca Kola, a drink John and I discovered years ago in LA, though they didn't have any right then.
I didn't take any pictures, but I did take a lot of videos. Will take some effort to label and upload them. A couple might trigger phobias. I assuming I can reasonably post them at all, the longest is 120MB.
It's a nice zoo of moderate size. I saw most things in my 4 hours, not all. Ring-tailed lemurs are diurnal and loud, to my surprise. There were multiple aviaries, though only one really struck me. A Nightlife exhibit had lots of rats and some bats. Another exhibit had more brown rats, in more light. I saw a mock kitchen covered in cockroaches (one in front of a magnifying glass) amd a case with lots of locusts.
Afterwards... Social thing fell through. I found myself at Camden Town again, and Camden Lock; a whole bunch of shops stretched above Regent's Canal. Including food shops offering mixes of their stuff for only £3. Edit: Had an Indian mix-up, tandoori and chicken korma and land curry. Not bad, though hardly spicey at all. Wandered around, saw yet more food shops, including "Brazilan hot dog". So many Chinese stands, all offering the same free sample chicken, I suspect they're all related, like the Amish Olde Lane Orchard mafia at Bloomington Farmer's Market. But then I saw a *Peruvian* stand, 4 pound mixer, I had a bit of 6 different things. Good. They also had Inca Kola, a drink John and I discovered years ago in LA, though they didn't have any right then.