A day of ups and downs. Spent the morning packing for the weekend, then headed to Enfield where Dave works to meet this fellow, Arnie.
Many people dream of swimming with dolphins or sky diving or climbing Everest. I dream of seeing a real, live armadillo - and Dave's college have got one for their animal care students to practise on! The armadillo thing - yeah, it's a bit weird, but I've been a little obsessed with them for decades but have never seen one for real - and I got to touch him too, all warm he was and very cute the way he scuttled along the floor after the titbits thrown to him.
I then left Dave at work to head back home to do a bit of present wrapping. Thought it would be clever to nip off the bus at Southbury where there's an enormous Sainsbury's so's I could pick up bits and pieces then hop back on the bus almost all the way home. Unfortunately, when I tried to get back on the bus, it took ages, then was so full of schoolchildren it didn't stop, then there was another godawful wait for the next one. And it was unbelieveably cold. So I rushed back into Sainsbury's and phoned Dave to get him to pick me up on his way home.
So had to leave for Bristol with all presents unwrapped still. Picked up my mum and then made rather startlingly good time along the A406 and M4 - not a single bit of gridlock at all. How novel. Tulin had rustled up some pasta for us so we had a good munch then retired underneath the duvet as it was still extremely cold.
@fueast - I'm sure they do, he did look well happy (though not sure how much the students will get to use their armadillo care skills in the future - unless they move to Texas of course ... )
excellent!! I have got a very long personal anecdote from when I used to work in a zoo and take animals out to schools about an incontinent armadillo and a causeway and the incoming tide and a broken down car in front of me that is much too long to go into here. aaah happy memories!!!
@judithg - oh good idea, I'm going to check them all out - this woman had never seen a live one either, only dead ones! http://365project.org/wannabe/365/2012-09-13. Of course, they're extremely common in some of the southern states - a bit of a pest I suspect the way the one I saw was getting his nose into everything. A bit like an armour-plated fox after your rubbish, but with the added value of being able to burrow like billy-o.