A few weeks ago I booked today off work and bought myself a cheap train ticket to go and see the bonobos at Twycross Zoo - my favourite animals, which I've never seen in real life. This is the only place in Britain where they can be seen, and has the largest collection of non-human primates in the world. So I was up bright and early and onto the train looking forward to a pleasant trip in the spring sunshine, and a nice day out with some photos to show for it.
But as the train reached top speed just beyond Northampton someone stepped onto the track and killed themself. I could hear and feel the bumps as the the body hit the underside of the carriage. The train came to a halt, of course, and there was silence until the driver asked the guard to come to the cab. There was then a wait of over 2 hours while a relief driver was brought, the emergency services cleared up the mess, and the train was driven back to Northampton to be taken out of service. By then it was too late for me to continue - I would not have had enough time to see the bonobos properly, and my mind was on other things, so I returned to London where I had a very late lunch in Gordon Square Gardens in Bloomsbury, which cheered me up somewhat. Here are some pictures of primates enjoying the sun in a deciduous woodland habitat: http://www.web-options.com/Primates/ It's a terrible thing for someone to be in such a state of mind that they do something like that. Terrible for that person's family and friends, and terribly unfair on the train driver, who is going to have to live with the memory for the rest of his life. Anyway, I'll have to book another day off to see the bonobos. They solve all their problems by shagging each other senseless, which seems like a much better solution to me. http://scienceblogs.com/afarensis/2008/05/11/know_your_primate_pan_paniscus/ Bob -- PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List [email protected] http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net to UNSUBSCRIBE from the PDML, please visit the link directly above and follow the directions.
