I love the zoo. For example, I love the Giraffes’ elegant yet arrogant way to look at the world from the top, and love their comical way of spreading the front legs in order to reach water or grass at the bottom. Also nice to see how affectionate a Giraffe father can be with his offspring – assuming that was his offspring, not the neighbour’s daughter, of course.
San Francisco Zoo has a pretty nice African Savannah enclosure; while necessarily much smaller than the real thing, it’s pretty big nevertheless. The animals can roam or get out of each other’s way, and it makes me feel less guilty about keeping animals in captivity.
The best part about the zoo, however, is that you get to see all kinds of animals; those within the enclosure as well as those outside. Children with an attention span of less than five seconds “Look Mummy the kangaroo is jumping about…” (they really were!) “…let’s go!” equally delightful are the struggling parents. Those struggling to keep discipline, and best of all most struggling to answer their children’s question. The best conversation I overheard went like this:
Mummy, where are we going now?
Now, we are going… … … … …this way!
Mummy?
Yes.
Mummy, where is this way going?
$15 entrance fee well spent.
(I also checked out the new fencing on the tiger enclosure. Fort Knox would be proud of it.)
Dear travellers in space and the wild, wild web: W7 is once again away from home, travelling both on business and pleasure. While I hope the business part is not entirely without pleasure, the wife will also join me there for a week of pure, work-free, pleasure. 
Further on the subject of numbers and how they add up: For work, I travel fairly regularly between London and San Francisco. About 4 times a year, approximately 10 hours per leg of the journey, over the last 7 years. That makes it