Up Close and Personal

I was back at the Zoo today and fortunately I was at the chimp house - this is my favourite place to be as although they have free access to their outdoor area, they come and go quite a lot, and they were inside quite frequently today, so I got to watch them.  The Zoo was quite quiet too,  so there was a nice stream of visitors, many of who wanted to chat and ask questions.

When there were just two ladies in te auditorium, I got my phone out to try and attract Tuppence's attention - she's the chimp that loves phones and who I blipped the other week when she was trying to swipe the phone with her finger.  Anyway, it worked, she saw the phone and came over to the window with baby Dalasi and started pointing at the phone and doing the swiping motion with her finger.  The two ladies were amazed and I told them to try it with their phones, to which they said 'can we?'.  I showed them where to stand and said that as long as they didn't go over the barrier they'd be fine.  Well, Tuppence responded to them, and they were in their element.  I am in awe of these fabulous animals, and love spending time there, it's the best therapy possible, and after 2.5 days in my normal job which is mentally very draining, it's a great way to de-stress.

After my shift I went and got my camera, as I wanted to try out my new rubber lens hood.  It suctions on to glass to get rid of reflections - only £14.99 from Amazon, and I'm very impressed.  It's always difficult to take good shots in the chimp house as the light is quite dark, and the chimps are quite often moving, but I managed to get some.  I then went to see the Snow Leopards and the Tigers, both of which were having their afternoon naps, but the Tiger spotted me and looked right at me!  

After dinner we drove to Warrington to pick up Alan's mum as she's come to stay with us for a few days - being only an hours' drive, it's so easy to do now.