Cute animal blip!

Swimming this morning was rather annoying. A chap swam with his head up and his arms out at right angles. Not all the time, you understand, but at each arm swing, they skimmed the water sideways. Don't know what stroke he calls it, but it's like nothing I've ever seen before.

Anyway, this made swimming in the Slow Lane rather hazardous, because he, or part of him, was always on my side of the lane. I spend most of my time banging the knuckles of my left hand on the wall or the rope, keeping right over, but this chap was unavoidable. We did smack knuckles a couple of times.

Got me thinking about the Commonwealth Pool (the Commie in local parlance). There will be more room there. It's been refurbished. But it's dearer than the normal pools. I enquired how much more I had to pay to use my Swim Card and make an occasional visit. £4 a session instead of £5. How much more was a membership that included the Commie? £4 a month. I did a quick calculation and decided it was worth it to join.

After breakfast I set off on my Zoo expedition. Very exciting. I haven't been in the zoo for years. It's set on a steep hill, and has wonderful views over to the snowy Pentlands. I have been loads of times with classes of children, and so enjoyment was optional and usually minimal. No, I kid you - seeing their wee faces when they saw the animals was always rewarding.

There were about 60 folk there. Most of them, it seems, are regulars, and have been to many many courses over the years. They all got out their notepads and clipboards... This was serious stuff.

We had a talk about the Zoo and the new names they'd given themselves. 'Education' was deemed too boring and is now 'Discovery and Learning'. They certainly seem to be doing good things. They don't have giraffes and elephants any more because they need more room and they like to live with a crowd. Zoos can't provide this. Limoniad has given a rather good account of the talk.

After a cuppa, we were then free to wander round the Zoo. I spent AGES watching the Gentoo penguins. I loved them with their huge pink feet and shiny black toenails. They were comical to watch. There was one bit that was easier to dive in from, and some would try other places, change their mind and trot to the easy bit every time. There were some teenage boy ones who dived in anywhere. I tried to get a good shot of them diving in, but was just fractionally out most times. I've got lots of splashes, LOL. I will try next time.

There were many enclosures with no animals on view - they were all in their beds, sensibly. But the meerkats were out and about, being cute. So it had to be a meerkat.

How predictable.