Animal Passion

No I am not talking about the raw and unrestrained animal passion in our human hearts. Not today anyway. According to a report, there has been steadily increasing number of youths who go to the Zoo of Barcelona, not accompanying or accompanied by children. It obviously seems a pleasant place to visit, passing some enjoyable hours outdoors with the desired companion; not for strenuous exercise like hiking or climbing mountains, but to laze about, to strengthen the friendship or, why not, the budding love, with cuddles and kisses, in the fresh air instead of an enclosed space, amongst roars and howls, contrasting with the tender sentiments and gentle caresses.

There are others also without children, middle aged or old couples not encumbered with unwritten duties of looking after or entertaining their grand children. They go too to the zoo to have a leisurely day, entertaining themselves, for a change, contemplating the animals, the vigorous pacing of the gorillas, the majestic air of the lions and, watching the happy and smiling faces watching the animals with delighted squeals.

With more than a million of visitors to the zoo each year, the zoo staffs, administrators and animal care takers have collected some interesting anecdotes to tell, quite funny I thought:

• In search of shoes - One of their frequent jobs is to go around gathering up objects some absent minded visitors left behind. Very recently a carer had to practically fight a huge hippopotamus to retrieve some shoes.


• A donation - A cheque of €60 was received by the zoo, with a note attached from the kind hearted donator, which says: "This is to help with the cost of insecticide against flies that continuously annoying the camels."


• Friend of the bears - One afternoon a zoo staff and a visitor greatly surprised each other, when the latter was caught red handed throwing some liquid out of a jar on a couple of bears. It turned out to be the urine of that same young man, who justified his strange act with the explanation, that he wished the animals to familiar themselves with his smell, so that he could go over the fosse (moat?) to play with them.


• Against sexism - Also about bears. One of these were picking up dried leaves with one of his paws. "It's a female, right?" asked a child. " As it's doing some cleaning up." His
  'logical' deduction. It was actually a male.


• The fable - A teacher asked his very young pupils: "What do wolves eat?". One of the youngster said: "Children." and another said: "Red RidingHood."!

Tags:redriringhood,zoo

Current Mood: Cheerful

Braggers, Ventriloquist And The Psychic

** The braggers

Becky, Sadie and Hannah are bragging about their sons.

Becky says, "My son is very successful. He is the best lawyer in London."
Sadie says, "My son has done better than that. He is the best doctor in London."
Hannah says, "My son has not done that well. He does not have a very good job and he is gay. But he has these two great boyfriends - one is the best lawyer in London and the other is the best doctor in London."

** One Upmanship

Moshe was at his golf club and went into the clubhouse to see whether anyone could offer him a lift to Hendon. His own car was off the road being serviced.
 

"Sure," said Morry, "I'll give you a lift. My Rolls Royce is just outside."

As they're driving along, Moshe says, "Morry, what's that thing on the dashboard ticking all the time?"
"That's my digital clock."
A few minutes later, Moshe asks, "And what's that thing on the dashboard moving up and down?"
"That's my tachometer," says Morry.
Then a few minutes after that, Moshe starts to ask, "But what's that ..."
 

"Hold on a minute, Moshe," says Morry, "I can see you've never been in a Rolls Royce before."
"Never in the front seat." says Moshe.

** The ventriloquist

Issy had received no work for six months. So he went to his agent and told him he needed work badly.
His agent said, "There's no call for ventriloquists, but there's plenty of work for psychics."

So Issy went home and hung a psychic sign outside his house. Within an hour, a woman knocks on the door and says, "I want to talk to my deceased Bernie. How much will it cost me?'

"If you just talk to him, £50. If he talks to you, a bit more, £75." Issy replies. "But if you talk to each other while I'm drinking a glass of water, that will be £150." "

Tag:ventriloquist,braggers

Current Mood: Amused

No Speak English

A Russian woman married a Canadian gentleman and they lived happily ever after in Toronto . The poor lady was not very proficient in English, but did manage to communicate with her husband. The real problem arose whenever she had to shop for meat & groceries. 

One day, she went to the butcher and wanted to buy chicken legs. She didn't know how to put forward her request, and in desperation, clucked like a chicken and lifted up her skirt to show her thighs. Her butcher got the message, and gave her the chicken legs.

Next day she needed to get chicken breasts, again she didn't know how to say it, and so she clucked like a chicken and unbuttoned her blouse to show the butcher her breasts. The butcher understood again, and gave her some chicken breasts.

On the 3rd day, the poor lady needed to buy sausages. Unable to find a way to communicate this, she brought her husband to the store ...

What were you thinking?
Hellooooooo! her husband speaks English!
Now wipe the disappointment off your face

Tags:sausage

Current Mood: Amused

Widows Of The 25th

Every city in the world has it's own characteristics, manifested in it's tradition, custom, culture, or whatever other aspects. One rather unusual city scene, I would say unique, is that on the day 25th of every month, there would be a gathering of widows in the Plaza (Square) of Sant Jaume, in the centre of Barcelona. They have been doing this for the last 12 years, with the number continuously and gradually increasing. They are there seen by all but they might as well be invisible. No one ever shows the slightest gesture of empathy and, after such long years, not even curiosity any more.

Most of these women there are of middle or old age, battling with no more weapon than their stubborn insistence, against injustice of being systematically ignored by the public service authorities, of their precarious financial situation and lack of adequate assistance, and their cry silenced by the indifference of the government and it's politics.

I never knew about this until recently when a local press published a report of it, giving voice and visibility to this reality of a social problem. 3 of every 10 widows (300,000 in Catalunya and 800,000 in all Spain) are at the threshold of extreme poverty and social exclusion.

I wonder why it took 12 years before just one newspaper decided to bring the situation to
light??

Tags:poverty,widows

Current Mood: Anxious