The London Zoo

Map of London Zoo

I am hurrying to do my blogging before Duncan does his.  I do mine for free.  He gets paid £2 a blog post.  I never thought I would be rushing to tell my side of the story first.  With grandchildren, someone has to tell their truth first, and I choose to be that one.

Do I want him telling the rest of my relatives that I left to go to the zoo this morning, and had to go back and get my keys to the house before we were even out of the yard?  I was Alex’s mercy.  Would he answer the door after I was gone – or stay glued to his x-box game, unaware that I was flipping the mailbox to get his attention?  He opened the door, I picked up my umbrella, since it had started to rain, and left ... without the keys again.  Alex opened the door a second time.  I started out again, pointing Duncan towards the tube, but it wasn’t many breaths later that I was saying, “Whoops.  I forgot my camera.”  There may also have been a swear word in that sentence. 

I was afraid I would lose my day companion if I let Duncan go back into the house one more time.  He doesn’t know how much fun I am yet and he was already to dump me.  Or perhaps I should say he bases his perception of my ultimate worth on the fact I force him to play cribbage with me (Don’t I know it is an old-fashioned game that no one plays anymore?). Further, I take him to the London theatre against his will (He doesn’t know, yet, that he will be writing me a letter in 20 years, thanking me for this...maybe.)

For my part, I already knew I had a tough sell on the day if I still want him to call me grandmother in the future. 

One card finished today!
Forty-nine cards left to go!

He was also irritated that I was bringing along one of the cards out of the City Walks with Children Series called London: 50 Adventures on Foot.  Card 11 takes us to the top of Primrose Hill (a nice view of all of London) and to the London Zoo (established in 1847). I was busy passing him the card, having him show me exactly how to get there from here, and reading the notes to him about what we should be attentive to.

He wouldn't know how many mornings I walked in Regent’s Park when I stayed on New Cavendish Street. Why not let the event be a real adventure with all of the thrill of wondering if we would really make it there.

When it is winter in London and there is rain in the air, the zoo is not a preferred tourist destination – except to me.  We wandered from the royal blue and red feathered exotic birds, through the enclosure where we were really in the cage with the monkeys, and on to see the giraffes from a viewing platform.  Some of the animals from South Africa weren’t allowed to come outside today – too much ice on the ponds in their enclosures. 

When Duncan’s legs were so tired he didn’t know if he could go on, we sat in a bird hide to rest, eating from the bags of candy I had brought along.  I may forget my keys, my umbrella and my camera, but I am always well-stocked with candy bars.  People kept coming in to ask if we had spotted any birds, which made us laugh.They would have no idea of how much sugar we were consuming.

Can a game of cribbage
compete with the joy of an x-box,
headphones to adjust,
a pizza and a frozen smoothie?

When the clouds came in and evening was falling and we walked along zoo avenues and didn’t pass anyone for a long time, Duncan began to get fidgety.  “Grandma, I have been playing zombie video games for a some time now, and when you walk down a path for a long time and there is no sound anywhere, something is going to jump out of the bushes and I am starting to get nervous”.

Nice.  An added thrill at the zoo.  I had the same nervous reaction when I passed the lion’s enclosure and found myself asking, “Is that lion really secure in there, or should I be ready to run at any moment.”

I wanted to stay on the Camden High Street for supper, but Duncan has a limited food palette.

At MacDonalds he orders a bun/burger/bun – no condiments, no vegetables.  At Subway it is the same: bun, ham and cheese.  That is it.

So we slipped a frozen pizza in the oven at home.  I made him a smoothie: rice milk / banana / frozen blueberries and strawberries ... and when I passed them to him he smiled and said it had been a good day.

I thought so too.

Actually, a luxury -- being one-on-one with a grandchild at a beautiful zoo.

Arta