We went to Blackpool Zoo and it was a glorious sunny day. We took the double buggy (which takes up the entire car boot but gives invaluable options for tired or fussy children). Maisie particularly loved the dinosaur models which are huge and strategically positioned outdoors amongst the scenery with hidden (not always very well, mind) speakers making generic dinosaur land noises inter-dispersed with the odd intimidating 'rooooaaar'.
At lunch we sat down on some picnic tables to eat and witnessed the humiliation which was a greedy seagull swooping down and stealing an entire sandwich from a father who was struggling to contain his small child let alone their lunch options. Anyway it landed grabbed a while sarnie in its beak and took off whilst the shocked man flapped and generally looked a bit incompetent in front of everyone else
Later, as we were exiting the reptile house through a door straight into what Lisa had described to me as a 'greenhouse' a helpful zoo staff member pointed out as I was pushing Lois in the buggy that I might want to hide the dummy she was sucking on. I said 'why?'. He said 'they might steal it'. I was confused but assumed he meant the other punters. I said "Who are 'they'?". The conversation was tedious. He sighed and said "the monkeys that are freely roaming about in here". I naively said "Oh, it's ok - it's attached to her bib". He looked at me as if to say "Who is this prune of a man? Does he think the monkeys won't just yank if off if they want it?".
Anyway, it was I who had the last laugh because although there were monkeys swinging around freely none came close nor tried to take Lois' dummy. So, ha!
