Zoo 2 - Failed selfies...

I've never been good at this stuff. Various types of failure...

Zoo 1

So I had a whole day at the zoo today. Wonderful.  Some illustrative piccys...

Peckham Rye, on the sunny morning, on the way...

The old elephant house has an iconic shape, although finally it is being sensibly repurposed...

Super Gorillas...

Camel-y

 Ferret Polecat ...

... and meerkat in the old elephant house.

Empty of everything, not just penguins,,,

...more to folllow...

Droning on

Well.  The first thing about the mini-drone is that I've cut my hand twice (fending it off, not trying to catch it).

The little *** is hard to control...

Farewell shop

So sad. Just went into Epsom Maplins. 

An almost empty shop, selling stuff at half price. Where will I go next time I need an odd cable and a specialist geeky person to tell me exactly which one it is?

I left bereft.

And with some tools and a small drone.

Graduation

 

Graduation day at @BirkbeckNews is such a joyous occasion! Congratulations to my MA #Medieval Literature & Culture students (here I am celebrating with new graduates Graham, Ruth, & Lucy) and to all the @birkbeck_arts graduates on their fantastic achievement 🎉 🍾 🎓#BBKgrad pic.twitter.com/rK6xuQG9lh

— Anthony Bale (@RealMandeville) April 26, 2018

Recent Reading

I was in King’s College Hospital in January between the 12^th and the 26^th - and since then I’ve been recuperating.

While in hospital I tried to read Connie Willis’ Doomsday Book, but its focus on a pandemic illness and plague seemed unhelpful.  So I stopped and read John Le Carré’s The Night Manager instead.  I went back to the Willis later, once home.

Anyway, from my time in King’s onwards I read (not necessarily in this order):-

The Night Manager, John Le Carré

The Doomsday Book, Connie Willis

Injury Time, Clive James (I enjoyed this, but still feel his Sentenced to Life is better - or at least it speaks to me more).

Come on Everybody: Poems 1953–2008, Adrian Mitchell. (Good fun).

Family Values, Wendy Cope

The Geek Heresy, Kentaro Toyama (Says stuff we all know, or all should know, and it is a little overlong and American).

The Quantum Astrologer’s Handbook, Michael Brooks

Collected Poems, Clive James 

The Daughter of Time, Josephine Tey (This was really good. I went to look at a copy of the paining in the NPG afterwards)

Mr Darwin’s Gardener, Kristina Carlson (trans. by Emily and Fleur Jeremiah)

Deus Homo, Yuval Noah Harari.  (So terrible I found myself thoroughly enjoying disagreeing with it).

Back When We Were Grownups, Ann Tyler.  (I know a lot of people like this, but I found it sad and quite depressing).

Summer 2017 on Romney Marsh