Monday, February 11, 2013

Now entering decade four; next stop, the zoo

I'm 30 years old today. No existential crisis yet, although I am starting to get concerned that I haven't had an existential crisis yet. Should I have had some kind of epiphany about life at the stroke of midnight? I was asleep (I'm getting on in years, can't be staying up all night any more), so perhaps I just missed it.

To celebrate my advancing decrepitude, we went to the zoo. I don't know why zoos are always built on hills, but I've never visited one that didn't require hiking boots to reach at least one attraction. I should have expected the same in Edinburgh; no matter where you are in that city or where your destination is, you've got to go uphill to get there. Turn around to go back, and you've got to go uphill again. Edinburgh is the only non-Euclidean city I'm aware of - Escher would be confounded by its geography.

Also, it was baltic in Edinburgh today - and the zoo's hillside location left the whole place rather exposed to the wind, which didn't help.

This was the first time we'd been to Edinburgh zoo, so the main attractions were the pandas - although one was asleep and not especially impressive as a result, we did manage to see the other one outside as he... sat on his arse and ate sticks. Majestic creatures.

I've always liked pandas, although my increasing cynicism realises that if we really wanted to save the species we should start eating them. Create a demand, basically.

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