I seem to have done 33 on the list. Some of the items haven’t been relevant e.g. Build a network file server – I have a file server with RAID array already and so didn’t need to create my own. For others, my definition my vary from that listed – by the list I haven’t installed a content management system, but I would class WordPress as a CMS.

The kids were excited, they hadn’t been on a train before and there was the zoo as well. We travelled from Hemel Hempstead station rather than Luton, it’s a smaller station and made the London change easier. We had previously bought a Family and Friends Railcard which gives discounts on family rail fares. It would have made a bigger saving if we had been travelling during the week as originally planned, but still saved us some money. We only had to wait about 5 minutes on the platform for the train and were able to get seats as the train wasn’t full at all. After about 35 minutes we arrived at Euston and (after a toilet break for the kids at 30p a visit,) changed onto the Northern Line underground for one stop to Camden Town. I had printed out the zoo’s directions for getting to them, but didn’t need them as it was signposted from outside the station. It took about 15 minutes to walk from the station to the zoo and then we were there. After presenting our Friends of ZSL passes we were in. Time to take my obvious camera bag out of my plain backpack.

The first thing that you notice is that the entrance area is smaller and more compact than Whipsnade. This isn’t surprising as the zoo is much smaller only covering 36 acres compared to Whipsnade’s 600 acres. It was first opened to the public in 1847 and contains many buildings designed by leading architects over the years including 2 Grade I, and 8 Grade II listed structures. In 1991 it looked like the zoo was going to close, but the public support allowed the zoo to balance its books and embark on a program of restoring its buildings and creating new, more suitable, environments.

We followed the green trail (a painted green line) around the zoo, this leads you right around the zoo, breaking off at several points to see the attractions in that area. We followed the trail from the entrance area through the west tunnel, which goes under the Outer Circle road, to the northern section of the zoo. The first thing we went to was the ‘Into Africa’ area.  This is located to the left of the path, between the road and Regent’s Canal. The first animals were the Red River Hogs, which were in a fairly large open area close to the canal, next were the warthogs in a similar enclosure and in the final enclosure were the African Hunting dogs.

Next, the path moved back from the canal around the older buildings. The first paddock there was for the two okapi, which are horse sized with striped legs like a zebra. They have a long neck – not as long as a giraffe – and use it to reach leaves on trees, which they grab with their long tongues like a giraffe does. Unfortunately, unlike Whipsnade where this sort of animal would have been in a large enclosure, they are in an area maybe 30′ by 50′. Next door to them were three zebra, again in a small paddock. The three giraffes were next to the zebra, and still have their original 1837 Giraffe House. This, due to its functional design, still remains in use, however the enclosure is much smaller than that at Whipsnade and looks rather small. Next to the giraffes was the Malayan Tapir, which was rather camera shy – we got lots of photos of it going the other way!

We then crossed the bridge over Regents Canal to ‘Snowdon Aviary’. This was built in 1964 and is quite a feature to look at. You walk through it and initially are on the same level as the Sacred Ibis nests, but soon you are high above the rest of the area, which combining the height and the shape of the structure can be a bit disorientating. After the Snowdon Aviary, we went along the path by the other aviaries. These were very disappointing, small, old and embarrassing to look at. I didn’t realise there were birds in some of them, the plants were all dead and brown. Hopefully this will be another area to be refurbished soon. From here we crossed back over the canal and then back to see the otters (they weren’t about), the meerkats (only one on sentry duty) and then the Clore Rainforest Lookout.

The ‘Clore Rainforest Lookout’ opened last year and recreates the South American rainforest. It provides canopy and forest floor levels for the public to wander through; you walk in at canopy level. When we first got there, the water jets were spraying the area, so when taking photos you had to watch you didn’t get your camera soaked. One of the two-toed sloths was very active, which in the reduced light made it quite difficult to get a photo without the sloth being blurred. Once the jets were turned off for the talk, the rest of the marmosets came down from the very tops of the trees. After the talk was over a couple of the silvery marmosets decided to take a closer look at those taking photos. One was showing a lot of interest on my lens and I had to keep moving back to keep it in focus (I don’t have very close focus with my 70-300 zoom).

After this we went through the East Tunnel, opened in 1830, back to the south part of the zoo. We ate lunch at Oasis Cafe, where we all had the cumberland sausage, which was nice and filling. After we had eaten we visited the gift shop before continuing along the trail. We missed out the penguins and after looking at the queue for the Butterfly Paradise, we decided to come back to that later. We saw the parrots and then went down to the pelicans and flamingoes. There was a bird not on the books here – the pool had gained a grey heron, which I thought was a fake one to keep the real ones away, until it moved. We went past the tigers which were all boarded up, heading for ‘B.U.G.S.’ (Biodiversity Underpinning Global Survival), where we saw the ants, beetles, spiders etc.  We looked in on the anteaters, but didn’t see them. We saw the lions, lazing on their platforms and stopped briefly by the Luberkin Pool, the old penguin pool, which is Grade I listed.

After seeing the llamas, we saw the bearded pigs at ZooWorld and the camels and pigmy hippos. Next we went through the ‘African Bird Safari’, another aviary that you could walk through. This was great, just a shame they didn’t have space to make it larger. It opened about three years ago replacing three out of date enclosures. They had Abdim’s Stork in there, which were sat with their wings out and facing up. There were also superb starlings and a lilac-breasted roller.

We then went to the area that I had been waiting for all day, ‘Gorilla Kingdom’. The gorilla enclosure is an island separated from the public by a moat or floor to ceiling windows. Once we had got through the first section with some additional birds in, we could see the gorillas. I could see one up on the right at the end of the water feature on the ‘island’ and another partially visible under some of their climbing equipment. I took quite a few photos of the gorilla I could see. I wasn’t sure if it was the silverback, but after moving further round found it wasn’t. It must have been the oldest female, 32 year old Zaire. Further round on the other side of the island was Bobby, the 23 year old silverback. He was sat there looking like the king of his domain, and who was I to argue with him. He had a very intense look as he scanned around. A bit later, the three females wandered over to his side of the island and he went back into his ‘cave’.

After the gorillas, we went to see the Komodo Dragons, the wallabys and emus, then onto the reptile house. We saw all the snakes, even if I did miss spotting the plaque mentioning that this was where the zoo scene in Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone was shot. We cut back through the zoo to see the vultures, where I got some nice photos of the striated caracara and the Ruppell’s Griffon Vulture. We finished off with the butterflies, but I didn’t get any good pictures; they were too fast moving and didn’t settle in the right places for me…oh well not the end of the world.

We left the zoo at about 20 to six, only 20 minutes before the zoo closed. We walked back to Camden Town and got on the first train back to Euston, standing room only. Arriving at Euston, we saw that there was a train leaving in about 2 minutes that only stopped at Watford Junction before Hemel Hempstead. We had to run a bit as the end of the train was a way up the platform. We just got on before it left. Unfortunately, it was full and we all had to stand until Watford Junction when some people got off. Then Jo and the kids got seats, but I stood until Hemel. I was glad to get back to the car to sit down. I definitely couldn’t commute to London.

Late last night I downloaded my photos for the day and sorted out some of the best for my photo gallery – London Zoo 23rd August 2008. It’s taken ages typing up the days visit, not quite as long as the visit, but it seems that way.

We went down to the kids ‘Forest Swings’ play area by the adventure golf this morning and played there for an hour or so. They had some fun swings and a large platform see-saw, about 20 foot long, that kids and ‘older kids’ could run from one end to the other to make it tip. After this, we popped into the Pancake House for our last pancakes here. We briefly played in the play area on the beach, before moving on; the wind was whipping the sand into our faces, so not too pleasant. We went back to the Forest Swings play area again for a while before heading back to the villa. On our way back we briefly stopped outside The Venue to look at the birds of prey. I had a session booked there in just over an hour, so was just getting my bearings and having an early look at the birds.

There were only about 9 of us on the Falconry session. We were introduced to many of the birds they had there including Billie the Common Buzzard, Romeo and Prince the Harris Hawks and Bruno the Striated Caracara and a European Eagle owl and Ferruginous Pigmy owl. There was also a barn owl and another couple that we weren’t introduced to. Billie had been hand reared and was very vocal throughout the entire time. We got to feel the reptile like skin under the eagle owl’s foot and some of the others held the pigmy owl while it was on the glove. It was a tiny bird only weighing a couple of ounces. After the introductions were over, we went over to the shed and put on gloves. We then had the opportunity to fly the Billie the Buzzard and Prince the Harris Hawks on a tether. Bruno, the Caracara was brought out and performed his trick for us. We were each given a flowerpot with a piece of chicken in and asked to put it face down in the arena, he then proceeded to run around the arena turning the pots over and eating the chicken. He got an egg as a reward, which he kicked until he broke it so that he could eat it. At the end we were able to have our photos taken with the birds; Jo was allowed to come in with her camera. I was trying to decide between the buzzard and the eagle owl, but the falconer said it would be fine if I wanted to do both. The eagle owl, although a light one only about 4 pounds, was quite heavy on my hand. Jo got some photos of me with the birds. We had a bit of a panic as we were leaving the falconry, the key snapped off on one of the old bike locks we had been using; we had a spare key, but I did wonder for a moment if I’d be able to get the remainder of the key out.

We went up to the Foresters’ Inn for some drinks and to let the kids play. After an hour or so we went back to the villa, where we realised we didn’t have any milk left. The Forest News paper indicated that the ParcMarket was open until 8pm, unfortunately this wasn’t the case.

We were back at Foresters’ Inn for our meal this evening. Unfortunately the service wasn’t up to previous standard. After being shown to our table, we had to wait about 10 minutes before the menu was brought and this was the story at each stage of the meal, after the drinks order, after the drink refills order. Jo and I had starters tonight; Jo had smoked salmon and I had a rocket,mozzarella cheese and tomato risotto. The kids ordered off the children’s menu to be served with our main course; my daughter had breaded chicken and chips as she had had each time and my son tried the sausage and mash (a smaller portion of the meal I had the other day). Jo had the braised lamb shank and I had the Supreme of chicken.

[update re woodpecker - the male greater spotted woodpecker has a black crown and red patch at the nape of the neck, the female has a black crown and nape and a juvenile has a red crown, so we have seen all three.]

It was getting quite wet by the time we got there, so coffees were the first order for Jo and me. We ordered our food and the kids went off to play in the children’s area. I had the cumberland sausage with mash today and Jo had the fish and chips. By this time it was raining fairly heavily and constantly, so we extended our time here with some more drinks. The kids didn’t have a problem with staying longer as they were having a great time in the play area, even if the slide was wet.

We finally gave in to the temptation of free WiFi. All of the main facilities have free WiFi, but although we had taken Jo’s laptop, (to copy our photos onto,) we had resisted taking the laptop out with us until today. I must admit, I had checked to see that we didn’t pick up the edge of the signal from our villa on the first night. I spent a couple of minutes checking some of my emails and checking any activity on cre8Buzz, before Jo checked her stuff. After we’d been at Foresters’ Inn for a couple of hours, we headed back to the villa in a break in the weather.

We were at Strada for our meal tonight. The kids had pizza and chargrilled chicken from the kids menu. I had ‘Risotto all’aragosta e gamberoni’, lobster and tiger prawn risotto with garlic, chilli, white wine, thyme, broad beans and roasted Italian tomatoes, Jo had Spigola al forno again, seabass stuffed with thyme and fennel, grilled lemon and roasted cubetti potatoes. This was a really great risotto, in my opinion the best meal I’ve had this week.

Back at the villa, the kids played with the kids in the next villa who had moved in today.
We ate at Huckleberry’s this evening, and again the food was fine. I don’t know, it’s probably because we have eaten at Hucks so many times, I’m just getting bored of the same menu; it hasn’t changed in since we first visited five years ago.

The kids wanted to eat at Forester’s Inn again, so we tried to book that for tomorrow night, but I guess its really popular and there were no Saturday reservations available. We have booked there for our last evening on Sunday, and managed to get an early table at Strada for tomorrow night.

Getting back to the villa has made me realise just how much I’m enjoying riding my bike; I think when I get back home, I’ll miss jumping on my bike to go anywhere. My daughter has really got into it too, she said tonight that she enjoys riding her bike so much, that sometimes she doesn’t want to get off her saddle.

After lunch we headed back to the villa to collect our swimming stuff and went to the Sub-Tropical Swimming Paradise. It was just thinking about raining when we arrived at the centre, so that was good timing. There are loads of changing rooms, from single to family size, with 2 doors to each, one on the entry/exit corridor and one on the poolside corridor. After you have changed and leave by the poolside door, there are banks of lockers available for a £1 refundable deposit (just remember to leave some pound coins out when you pack your clothes away). After walking round the corridor around all the changing rooms you get to the showers and foot bath before you get to the pool. Now, I must be a soft southener, the Elveden Sub-Tropical Swimming Paradise was hot, sub-tropical you might even say; Sherwood Forest is futher north and I think the same approach has been taken with the pool, the air temperature wasn’t hot, it wasn’t even warm, it was down right fresh. The pool seemed a lot smaller than Elveden and was a lot cooler, it was a toss up between the air and water temperature. I’m not a great lover of swimming and swimming pools, so this took the edge off of any enthusiasm that I had mustered. We were there for a couple of hours and the kids had a great time.

We ate in Strada again tonight, the kids both had Margherita Pizza from the kids menu this time and followed it with Panacotta again. Jo had Salmone con Lenticchie, roasted fillet of Scottish salmon wrapped in pancetta, served with braised lentils, green beans and a mustard dressing and I had Pollo alla Milanese, sautéed chicken in seasoned breadcrumbs with a tomato, garlic and basil sauce, served with green beans and roasted cubetti potatoes. We came out of Strada and booked for Huckleberry’s tomorrow night and then made a quick getaway as it was just starting to drizzle. We had been expecting rain all day, so didn’t want to get caught out in it if we could help it. I think we had been back at the villa for about 30 minutes before it really hammered down and then it rained heavily all evening and into the night.

We had lunch at the Pancake House. We had a table outside as it was looking nice, but part of the way through I thought we were going to have to change table as it looked as if it was imminently going to start raining.

After lunch the kids were booked into an activity ‘Who is Robin Hood’ – we thought it was one where we could leave the kids, but it was adult accompanied. They decorated robin hood hats and bows, had their faces painted and then practised firing their bows against the wall in the next room. We came back to the villa afterwards for a rest/ more firing of arrows. The heating had been fixed and the villa was at a roasting 25′C.

I took my camera down to the bird feeding hide, about 100 yards down the road from our villa to see what it was like there. When I first got to the hide, there wasn’t much to see, just a rabbit eating some of the food. Over the next 30 minutes or so, I saw a couple of greater spotted woodpeckers, some squirrels, a few chaffinch, a treecreeper as well as coots, moorhens and swans on the lake. A large group of people came into the hide before I left and not surprisingly with the kids stomping up and down the hide, they didn’t see much. I think I also saw a song thrush as they were leaving, but they were making so much noise it was only there for a brief moment.

We ate in Huckleberry’s tonight as we had made our reservation, although when we arrived we weren’t asked if we had reserved; I guess they must have had some spaces. The kids agreed that they wanted to eat at Strada tomorrow night, so we managed to get early reservations before we headed back to the villa for the night.

Q1: What is your first name and what does it mean?
A: Ian – Gaelic form of Johannes, from the Hebrew meaning ‘the Lord is gracious’.

Q2: What is your last name and what does it mean?
A: Hedges. The Hedges surname is one that is ‘locative’, derived from location of abode.

Q3: How old are you?
A: 40.

Q4: Where do you live?
A: Bedfordshire, England.

Q5: Any Hobbies?
A: Photography, Reading, Computers.

Q6: What colour socks are you wearing?
A: Black.

Q7: Club or Bar?
A: Neither.

Q8: What time did you get up this morning?
A: 6:15am.

Q9: When is your birthday?
A: 7th July.

Q10:What is your favourite TV show?
A: Dr Who.

Q11:What did you have for breakfast?
A: Corn Flakes with cold milk and a coffee.

Q12:What is your favourite cuisine?
A: Roast Pork with apple sauce.

Q13:Your favourite potato chip?
A: Cheese and Onion.

Q14:What is your favourite CD at the moment?
A: Fiona Pears – Memories of Home.

Q15:What kind of car do you drive?
A: Volvo V70, had it for nearly seven years and very happy with it.

Q16:Favourite sandwich?
A: Ham and Tomato.

Q17:What characteristics do you despise?
A: Dishonesty.

Q18:Favourite item of clothing?
A: Jeans.

Q19:If you could go anywhere in the world on vacation, where would you go?
A: New Zealand.

Q20:What colour is your bathroom?
A: White and green/brown with silver fittings.

Q2: Favourite brand of clothing?
A: Not fussed about brands, but Levi jeans.

Q22:Where would you want to retire to?
A: Never thought about it.

Q23:Favourite time of day?
A: Sunset.

Q24:Where were you born?
A: Luton, England.

Q25:Coke or Pepsi?
A: Coke.

Q26:Are you a morning person or night owl?
A: Morning or night owl, depends on the day; burning the candle at both ends.

Q27:What size shoe do you wear?
A: 9.5 (UK)

Q28:Do you have pets?
A: Yes – 2 cats

Q29:Any new and exciting news you’d like to share with everyone?
A: My blog was 3 years old yesterday.

Q30:What did you want to be when you were little?
A: Train driver – steam trains even though they were no longer in use.

Q31:Favourite sweets/candy bar?
A: Plain chocolate!!!

Q32:What is your best childhood memory?
A: Not sure I really have many childhood memories.

Q33:What are the different jobs you have had in your life?
A: Paperboy, Electronic Design Engineer, Computer Support Engineer.

Q34:What colour underwear are you wearing?
A: LOL, had to look, grey with red stripes.

Q35:Nicknames?
A: None.

Q36:Piercing?
A: None.

Q37:Eye colour?
A: Grey

Q38:Ever been to Africa?
A: No.

Q39:Ever been toilet papering?
A: Don’t think so, whatever it is.

Q40:Love someone so much it made you cry?
A: Yes.

Q41:Been in a car accident?
A: Yes, only minor.

Q42:Croutons or bacon bits?
A: Not fussed either way.

Q43:Favourite day of the week?
A: Sunday.

Q44:Favourite restaurant?
A: Don’t eat out often, but Italian or Chinese.

Q45:Favourite flower?
A: Fuchsia.

Q46:Favourite ice cream?
A: Vanilla.

Q47:Disney or Warner Brothers?
A:Warner Brothers.

Q48: Favourite fast food place?
A: Tong Sam – local Chinese takeaway.

Q49. What colour is your bedroom carpet?
A: Burgundy.

Q50: How many times did you fail your driver’s test?
A: Three.

Q51: From whom did you get your last email?
A: Cre8Buzz, telling me I have a new message in my inbox.

Q52: Which store would you choose to max out your credit card?
A: I’d be restrained with computer stuff, but photographic equipment causes money to burn a hole.

Q53: What do you do most often when you are bored?
A: On my computer or read.

Q54: Bedtime?
A: Usually 10.30 – 11p.m.

Q55: Last person you went to dinner with?
A: Jo.

Q58: What are you listening to right now?
A: Nothing, I rarely listen to music while on the computer.

Q59: What is your favourite colour?
A: Blue.

Q60: Lake, Ocean or river?
A: River.

Q61: How many tattoos do you have?
A: None.

Q62: Which came first, the chicken or the egg?
A: Egg.

Q63: Which seven famous people would you invite to your dinner party?
A: It doesn’t say they all have to be living, so: Sting, Scott Adams, Raymond E. Feist, Prince Charles, Morihei Ueshiba (could be a translation problem – but hey), Brian Blessed, Patrick Stewart.

Q67: Which animal best describes your personality?
A: Wolf.

Q68: ‘Centre of attention’ or ‘on the sidelines’
A: On the sidelines.

Q69: Ideal partner: Blonde, Brunette or Redhead
A: Not that it matters, but Brunette – that’s all right then.

Q70: Claim to fame
A: Nothing springs to mind.

Q71: Bank or spend?
A: Spend and know I should have banked.

Q72: Mend or throw away?
A: Mend.

Q73: Hot climate, cold climate?
A: Cold, I’m not a hot climate person.

Q74: What would the epitaph on your gravestone read?
A: To the spirit inside you always be true.

Q75: Are you left or right handed?
A: Right handed.

Q76: On what side of the bed do you sleep?
A: Right hand side.

Q76: Cinema or sofa?
A: Sofa.

Q77: PJ’s, shorts or nothing?
A: Depends on the weather.

Q78: A day at the Mall or a day by the river?
A: A day by the river.

Q79: Have you ever lied?
A: Of course I have, I’d be surprised to find someone who hasn’t.

Q80: Purpose in life?
A: To be happy, to try my best and achieve what I can.

Q81: Favourite Drink?
A: GlenMorange Malt Whisky

Q82: What would your ideal house look like?
A: Large house set in its own grounds in the country, rooms – not open plan, high ceilings.

Q83: What’s the first thing you notice about the opposite sex?
A: Their eyes.

Q84: Are you comfortable with your height?
A: Yes, until I find a low beam.

Q85: Have you ever thought that you were honestly going to die?
A: No.

Q86: Any regrets about anything?
A: I wish I’d started my family tree research earlier, when there were more people to ask questions of.

Q87: Is there someone or somthing you really want?
A: I’d like to have a holiday in New Zealand in the coming years, just have to save my pennies.

Q88: Does anybody like you?
A: Yes, at least I hope so. I’m sure Jo does, so yes.

Q89: Do you believe in God?
A: Yes.

Q90: Have you ever kayaked?
A: No.

Q91: Fireworks..love’em or hate’em?
A: Love’em on Bonfire Night, but at midnight on random nights through the year, I’m not so sure.

Q92: When was the last time you were hugged?
A: This morning.

Q93: Do you speak any other language other than English?
A: I speak a little German.

Q94: Are you allergic to anything?
A: No.

Q95: Favorite Saying?
A: ‘As much use as a chocolate teapot’, or ‘A room without books is like a body without a soul – Cicero’

Q96: Are you close to your family?
A: Yes, even if I don’t visit very often.

Q97: When was the last time you went swimming?
A: About this time last year.

Q98: Can you curl your tongue?
A: No chance.

Q99: Were you ever rushed by ambulance into an Emergency room?
A: Yes.

Q100: Is there a question that you would like visitors to your blog to answer?
A: I’ve done the list, when are you posting it?

She hasn’t really had the confidence that she could ride without stabilisers, so we told her that she could only have the pink bike when she was riding without stabilisers. This proved to be the added incentive necessary. This morning I took the stabilisers off her bike and she was out on our patio, scooting it back and forth to get her balance, then before we knew it she was trying to pedal; there is only really room for a couple of rotations, but she was trying.

This afternoon, we took the bikes out to Marston Vale again. Her bike went out without the stabilisers, they were in a bag in case we had to put them back on. I rode off ahead with my son, while Jo stayed with our daughter. Initially we waited for them to catch up, but then we just went off ahead and did a lap in about 30 minutes. When we caught up with them, they had stopped, but Jo said she was doing well. With that she rode of and instead of the couple of pedals that I expected before she stopped, she pedaled and pedaled and pedaled. She went about 100 yards before she decided to stop….. wow, brilliant. We went on to finish the circuit and waited at the car for them. To see her ride down the path and round the corner towards the car was great.

When we got home, I set the saddle and handlebar height on the Ridgeback and then she was out there on the patio, scooting and pedaling it back and forth.

If you get a moment, checkout Evel‘s alternative 12 days of Christmas.

1st Day

2nd Day

3rd Day

4th Day

5th Day

6th Day

7th Day

8th Day

9th Day

10th Day

11th Day

You’ll have to look for the 12th day when it’s posted.

Have a great day.