Day 22: Unexpected Procrastination

Today, I took break from everything.

Some friends and I arranged to go to Dublin Zoo. We met in the afternoon, after picking up bags full of snacks and junk food (okay, it was ALL junk food) before heading in, where we wandered for hours looking at all the animals we'd seen the last time we had each been there. For me, it's been three years since a visit. Not much has changed, though they appear to be minus a lion (which is minus craic) and have changed the rhino, gorrilla and elephant habitats.

Naturally, I had to pay a visit to the red panda. Adorable as always, and sleeping lazily. We also went in search of the sloth. The epitome of the sin, they sat in a box, asleep, one on top of the other.

I think the lazy animals appeal to be because I empathise.

Anyway, I expected that to be my day. I thought we'd go the zoo, eat junk food, maybe go for actual food afterwards, then head home. And things kind of worked out like that. We did get food afterwards. But we didn't head home right away. We ended up going to the cinema.

From animals at the zoo, we went to Monsters University. My love of Pixar knows no bounds.

I can't remember the first film too well, but MU did not disappoint. It was a fantastic film, we weren't the only adults there, there was plenty of fun, and we get the college experience.

The only problem with all of this fun is that I didn't write today. I'm not even upset over that. Everyone has to take holidays every once in a while, and it's been a while since I've actually had a chance to spend a day with friends, mucking about and being tourists. I'd do it again in a heartbeat if it meant getting to see them.

Puppy Sized Elephant

What you see there is the pixelated contents of my Asian Elephant Adoption Pack from Dublin Zoo. I ordered at the start of my exams and have been waiting to get a chance to "show it off", as it were, on my blog. It came with an adoption cert, info on Asian Elephants, a badge that says I've adopted an elephant, and a soft toy elephant.

Three words on that last one: It's so fluffy!

In honour of our Philosophy of Religion exam, which we had the day I first brought the elephant into college - the day after I received it in the post - we named him Darwin. He's just about the cutest thing ever!

What drove me to adopt an animal? I don't know. I just noticed you could - over a year ago, now - and knew it was something I would go on to do, and soon. I couldn't decide for a long while. Settled on the elephant, because... well, elephants are cool. There's also the whole thing of the Puppy Sized Elephant. It's like a regular elephant, only it has the evolutionary advantage of being adorable. And now there's one in my house. It's so fluffy I'm going to die! (name that movie!)

I would encourage you to adopt an animal yourself, if not from Dublin Zoo, then from your own country's zoo. It doesn't cost that much, and you're helping to make up for the mistakes of those before us. Through deforestation, hunting and arrogant stupidity, we have systematically placed the existence of several species of animal into the red zone - if we don't do something to help save their lives, we'll have wiped out yet more species of animals. (Thankfully, only one person ever managed to wipe out an entire species by himself: a species of flightless bird he accidentally left his dog loose on while he reported their sighting... before anyone else could see them alive, the dog had killed them all.)

Click here to be directed to Dublin Zoo's animal adoption centre. Alternatively, you can buy one of the adoption boxes, like I did, by clicking this link. You can also browse through other zoo-related material on the site, and there's even cameras set up in the elephant and penguin enclosures to see the animals. I advise waiting for the penguins' feeding time, for that one! (That's at 2.30pm daily - we're on BST here!)