The London Escapade

we were bored of staying in camb, and so decided to run away to london for a day. and to capitalise the wonderful weather of spring, we visited the london zoo =)

me at platform nine and three quarters, trying to ram into the magical world

there were a bunch of school children (they were oddly wearing gowns) at the platform when we were there. so, chien fen, jo and i had to 'fight' for picture opportunities at that famed platform with them...we call ourselves twenty-year-olds.. tsk tsk.

at the zoo:

this zoo is different from the other zoos i have visited, for it places a lot of emphasis on conservation efforts and on educating the public about biodiversity and wildlife, which i think is what a zoo should do instead of merely exhibiting a range of animals.

even the animal show was designed to showcase natural animal behaviour instead of having the animals do a multitude of circus-like tricks to impress to audience. the parrots didn't, and most likely couldn't, talk; the skunk was on stage to dig through soil and rummage a garbage bag, the lemur was there to jump from pole to pole and the owl was there to fly in the direction of food. the show presenter even explained why the owl was brought out in broad daylight when it is 'supposed' to be nocturnal. it turned out to be that not all owls are nocturnal, and the eagle owl brought out is one of them. i wonder why i have never considered this before even after watching owls swooping in and out actively to deliver mail in the day in harry potter films...hmm.

other interesting facts: the south american macaw parrot can live up to a hundred years, while the queen of the leaf eater ant can live up to fifteen years; the malayan tapir is most closely related to the horses; piranhas show minimal movement in water, unlike most other fishes that swim around; okapi is an african animal and alpaca is one that is found 4800m above sea level in the south american moutain ranges; and there are penguins that are native to south africa (i.e. not all are found in the icy land of antartica).

an educational trip indeed.

at night, we watched 'we'll rock you', my first ever musical in london. i just cannot say how impressed i was, and still am, at the live singing and live music.

whee =)