Birds and Whales
Went to London yesterday. At the train station, I sat myself in the only available seat next to some stranger who was stuffing himself, rather incongruously, with a pasta salad. I proceeded to read my paper and chanced upon a section about bird flu.
The media appeared to over 'egg' (excuse the pun) the current threat attempting to cause mass panic on our shores. Anyway I reached a paragraph concerning wild birds, when a pigeon casually walked up beside me and started circling the stranger with the salad in a greedy/mocking type way. Maybe it was the article, but I am sure I could detect a pang of fear on the strangers face when confronted with this potential ambassador of 'Avian Flu'. The pigeon then wandered off to flex 'its' (hard to tell the sex at a glance.) new found stature elsewhere on the platform. I began to think that maybe a pet pigeon might help clear the crowds in London and ease my journey.
On reaching London (without the pigeon) I ended up on the Circle line in a quiet carriage. Three girls were chatting about how excited they were to be going to the Natural History Museum. One then said to the other that her friend told her to look out for the whale. The reply was along the lines of 'no..not the one in the Museum, she means the one in the Thames'. 'Oh' said the confused girl who obviously had no idea what a newspaper was, and looked rather stupid and embarrassed .I guess its not every day you get a whale in the Thames, maybe it was Zaphod Bebblebrox and his improbability drive flying over London and conjuring up a whale, on the way to The Restaurant at the End of the Universe.
Anyway, creatures aside I ended up at my friend's house for an excellent birthday lunch where I consumed far too much wine. I realised that the subtlety of flavour etc between wines starts to evaporate when one drinks alot. In fact after many glasses they all start to taste the same.
The media appeared to over 'egg' (excuse the pun) the current threat attempting to cause mass panic on our shores. Anyway I reached a paragraph concerning wild birds, when a pigeon casually walked up beside me and started circling the stranger with the salad in a greedy/mocking type way. Maybe it was the article, but I am sure I could detect a pang of fear on the strangers face when confronted with this potential ambassador of 'Avian Flu'. The pigeon then wandered off to flex 'its' (hard to tell the sex at a glance.) new found stature elsewhere on the platform. I began to think that maybe a pet pigeon might help clear the crowds in London and ease my journey.
On reaching London (without the pigeon) I ended up on the Circle line in a quiet carriage. Three girls were chatting about how excited they were to be going to the Natural History Museum. One then said to the other that her friend told her to look out for the whale. The reply was along the lines of 'no..not the one in the Museum, she means the one in the Thames'. 'Oh' said the confused girl who obviously had no idea what a newspaper was, and looked rather stupid and embarrassed .I guess its not every day you get a whale in the Thames, maybe it was Zaphod Bebblebrox and his improbability drive flying over London and conjuring up a whale, on the way to The Restaurant at the End of the Universe.
Anyway, creatures aside I ended up at my friend's house for an excellent birthday lunch where I consumed far too much wine. I realised that the subtlety of flavour etc between wines starts to evaporate when one drinks alot. In fact after many glasses they all start to taste the same.
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home