I made the mistake this morning of plucking Nigel Slater’s The Kitchen Diaries off the shelf and opening it to August. I had thought of him because when we were at Claire and Dan’s this weekend I was thumbing through one of his old cookbooks and had said that I would need to get a copy of it and she had graciously given it to me since she had planned to drop it off at a charity shop.
It was a mistake to read the August chapter of the diary because he is going on and on about how lovely and warm the weather is and all of the meals he makes are appropriate to hot weather when today is a bangers and mash day. Rain, rain and more rain. And it’s cold to top it off. Are there really two weeks left of August? I feel like we have landed in a Dr. Who time warp and the date is really November 19th, which is lovely. . . WHEN IT IS NOVEMBER!
Last Wednesday night when we all went out drinking and I consumed all of my alcohol units for the year, I failed to mention that I was wearing wool. A long wool skirt, a long sleeved dress shirt and a wool v-neck jumper. Shoes were long black boots. I was wearing WOOL in August and I wasn’t uncomfortable.
Last weekend the weather was delicious. Warm but not oppressive, lots of big happy sun. When the sun is out in London the world feels like a perfect place. Stuart took me to the zoo because retards love the zoo*. We had read that owl babies had been born so we wanted to see the owl babies.
We got off at Regent’s Park, walked through the park stopping first at a café in the middle for a tasty sausage roll with lots of spicy English mustard. Once we got through the initial queue it didn’t feel too crowded, but there were lots of families. I warned Stuart about this.
“Honey, you know how we are going to the zoo?”
“Yes Thomas?”
“There’s going to be a lot of kids there.”
“Oh no. . .”
I have decided it is not children that I hate, but their parents, but I will save that for another post.
Not long were we there when Stuart said we should bring Emily our niece.
“But then we would be like all the people that you hate.”
“No. It’s different.”
“Because she’s ours?”
“Exactly.”
We weren’t able to see the baby frog mouthed owls (we did see their parents) but didn’t take a picture.
Stuart did however get a great picture of this sleeping barned owl.
We loved that he was balancing on one leg.
The Toucans were lovely as well.
What you can’t see in the picture is how bright blue their eyes are.
The exhibit for the sidewinder annoyed me.
Why is it necessary to show that this snake lives in the southwest of the United States by including a crumbled pack of cigarettes and an empty bottle of Bud?
After a few hours we were zooed out. We still need to see the lions and the bughouse and the gorillas were napping so there will be lots of things to see when we go back with Emily.
As I said, the entire reason I said we went was to see the baby owls which if you read the hyperlink article were only born because of all the rain and crap weather we have been having so I guess I can’t complain too much the weather is wooly. For every season, turn turn turn. . . there is a reason for the crap rubbish weather. Baby owls.
I suppose I am not too grumpy because in addition to crap weather bringing baby owls, in one week, at this moment I will be in Spain. We land in Seville and will be renting a car and winding our way over to Barcelona.
I am dreaming of flamenco, olives and wine. And sun. I am dreaming of sun.
*Rocky Reference. “Take her to the zoo! Retards love the zoo!”
August 20th, 2007 at 6:50 am
OMG - that snake photo is too funny! y’know, in a horrifying kinda way!