Cheeky Monkey Business

It’s our first wedding anniversary today so we took Zachy to London Zoo, the backdrop for our first official date 5 years ago and where we took everyone the day after our wedding last year.

Who would have thought London Zoo would become ‘Our Place’, but after today, it most definitely has.  Well, second to Franklin’s in East Dulwich, but we frequent there more often.  Maybe we should have thought about going to Franklins tonight for a celebratory anniversary dinner instead of sitting on the sofa, blogging, while hubby watches the FA Cup semi final.  Who ever said romance was dead obviously hadn’t been treated to a 1 litre bumper bottle of ‘Italian Red’ plonk from M&S.  When I had hinted about my love of Italian wine, it was in the hope that we’d finally crack open the 1969 Barolo.

Anyway, back to today and first up at the zoo was Gorilla Kingdom, home to Kesho, Effie, Zaire and Jookie with her newborn baby gorilla.  Zachy pressed his curious little face up against the glass and said “WOW” as the silverback pranced around the enclosure.

We hoped to be able to take a photo of the sweet little baby gorilla but a tourist kept standing in front of us, not only blocking our shot, but Zachy’s view as well!  If Zachy had pushed her out of his way, I think I might have pretended not to notice.  As it happens, our son has better manners than she does, so we moved outside to get a better look instead.

“WOW” he says again at the bearded pigs, the meerkats and the aardvark.

The squirrel monkeys roam around you in an open enclosure.  We were warned not to touch or feed them as they may bite.  Apparently, they also have a habit of jumping in buggys and stealing food out of chubby little fingers, so I promptly lifted Zachy out and carried him the rest of the way.  He’s a heavy little fella these days too.

The volunteers at this particular exhibit were fantastic.  Really knowledgeable about the monkeys, very friendly, laughed at all hubby’s jokes “I’m looking for a cheeky little monkey in a blue & white striped top”.  Oh dear.  The volunteer went along with it though and Zachy thought it was funny.

It’s not just the animals, or the volunteer staff, here to keep Zachy entertained either, there’s a bouncy castle, a merry-go-round, adventure playground, splash pool and the list goes on and on and on and on.

We couldn’t get round to see it all, there just wasn’t time before Zachy started wondering where his lunch was… I’ve mentioned before about my son’s rather healthy appetite… he also is a stickler for it being on the table at 12pm on the dot, or else he turns into a little squirrel monkey himself.  The tigers were en-route to the cafe so we quickly swung by to show Zachy these magnificent beasts in the flesh.  He miaowed at them.

Fortunately, we made it in time for lunch today.

After lunch, there was just about time for a quick trip to the Zoo shop to let Zachy pick out a stuffed animal.  After shaking his head ‘NO’ at everything on the shelves, he finally settled on a squirrel monkey before crashing out.

As soon as we got home, hubby did the same.



3 Comments

  1. St. Murphy
    April 18, 2011 / 4:18 AM

    So adorable. xoxoxo

  2. Donna C
    April 24, 2011 / 10:40 PM

    Smudge, I am just loving the blog. It’s a great way of hooking in with you. Zachy is looking as gorgeous as ever. Happy belated anniversary and happy Easter to you, Pan and Zachy, lots of love, Donna xxx

    • Grenglish
      Author
      May 1, 2011 / 4:32 PM

      Thanks Donna!

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