My parents used to take me to the pet department and tell me it was a zoo.

I love zoos. Whenever I visit a city the first thing I look for is a zoo. There is something about turning a corner and seeing a Polar Bear that never fails to excite me. In my dotage I also love watching children at zoos. The wild eyed fascination as they stare at giraffes or their spontaneous laughter at the antics of penguins gives me reassurance that everything is going to be OK.

Zoos are not very fashionable at the moment. However since reading ” The Life of Pi” I feel better about my tainted love. The main character in the novel grows up in a zoo and states that the only animals that ever escape from zoos spend their time in freedom desperately trying to get back in. Free food, free healthcare and no-one trying to kill them all the time seems to appeal to animals much as it appeals to me. “Clearly, then, the city is not a concrete jungle, it is a human zoo.” Desmond Morris.

I am very happy that I no longer have to go out and kill my breakfast.

So, yesterday it was off to San Francisco zoo. Bike through the park, along the ocean, tie up Big Red, turn a corner and there is a Giraffe! Works every time.