Secretary Birds

Location: San Diego, California, USA
Address: 2920 Zoo Dr.
Date: Feb 2014
Website: www.sandiegozoo.org

  Take a memo.  File these reports.  Cancel my 10 o'clock.  These birds have nothing to do with this kind of secretary.  In fact these days someone performing this type of work would be an administrative assistant.  Also, more and more, these tasks might be performed with a cellphone.  Anyway, having one of these almost four feet tall birds strutting around the office would probably freak people right out.
  We have seen secretary birds at the Toronto Zoo as well as at both the San Diego Zoo & San Diego Zoo Safari Park.  In the wild they can be found in the savannahs of Africa. If you see them up close they have some wonderful eyelashes and red and yellow around their eyes. 

  You can tell from their beaks that they are a bird of prey.  You can also tell that they are very strong.    We enjoy watching them walk around on their extra long legs.  (See the video at the bottom of this post for a bit of walking, but mostly standing, by one of these impressive birds). In fact they prefer not to fly, but capture most of their food by stomping it to death.  Their food usually consists of small mammals and reptiles.  They appear on many stamps, flags and emblems across Africa and after seeing a few of them for ourselves we can understand why they are so admired. 

---

Map of Our World
San Diego Zoo (Secretary Birds)

---

Post # 74

I Promise It Will Always Be This Way

Location: Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Address: Lamport Stadium 1151 King Street W.
Date: Oct 2008
Website: www.jonsasaki.com
 
  Nuit Blanche is an evening of art and performances which started in France but is now popular in cities around the world, particularly in Europe.  Toronto is one of six Canadian cities that have held Nuit Blanche or White Night.   We attended the event in 2008 with close to one million others.
   One of our favourite performances was “I Promise It Will Always Be This Way”.  This piece consisted of a group of mascots rallying the crowds at Lamport Stadium.  Nuit Blanche runs from about 7 PM until 7AM the next morning.  As the evening wore on the mascots would get to test their endurance.

  We heard the music pumping as we headed towards the stadium. We walked inside and came out in the bleachers.  Dancing with Myself by Billy Idol was cranking out from the sound system and a group of mascots were keeping the crowd going.  There was a snowman, a cat playing a guitar, a bald eagle and many more.  We were instantly caught up in the excitement.  It's funny how if a group of University students were trying to get the crowd going by jumping and dancing around you might get into it, but dress those same students up in animal costumes with over-sized heads and they can easily whip the crowd into a frenzy.

  We arrived about midway through the evening and there were already a few mascots in dire need of a break  Just as we walked into the stadium, a bald eagle went and lay down on a bed and did not move for the rest of the time we were there.  Some of the performers may have been wondering why they got involved in all of this in the first place.  That was the point of the art experiment.  To see how things would evolve as the night stretched on.  To challenge both the performers and the audience.  We are not sure what we ended up taking away from it all, except that it was a memorable bit of fun. 

---

Map of Our World
Nuit Blanche (I Promise It Will Always Be This Way)

---

Post # 73

Look Kids. Big Ben. Parliament.

Location: Lambeth, London, England
Address: Lambeth Bridge
Date: Aug 2015
Website: tfl.gov.uk/modes/driving/congestion-charge/congestion-charge-zone

   We had just finished walking along the Thames from the South Bank area.  We stopped at Lambeth Bridge and looked back.  Hey look !  Big Ben and Parliament!  Hardly surprising as we could see them any time we looked across the river during our walk.  Now driving in this area would be a different experience altogether.  The Griswolds had this experience in the movie European Vacation.  Chevy Chase (Clark Griswold) drove his family into a roundabout and was unable to get out again.

  They drove over Lambeth Bridge and past the pointed columns called obelisks and entered into the roundabout.

  Roundabouts may have been made famous in England, but they are becoming more popular around the world.  Instead of using traffic lights, the traffic from all sides enters into a circle.  The traffic already in the circle has the right of way.  You go around the circle until the road you want presents itself and you turn out of the roundabout.  Fairly simple unless you find yourself stuck in the inner lane of a busy roundabout.  The Lambeth Road roundabout is actually the least round of all the roundabouts we encountered.  It has more of an amoeba shape.  It is on a weird slope and has trees growing on it and also part of it has a bike only lane chopped through it.

  We know that this is the same roundabout from the movie since it is the only roundabout in all of London that provides such a perfect view of Big Ben and Parliament.  If you found yourself stuck in the inner lane you would get that view each time you passed the Lambeth Bridge, again and again.  So even though the buildings surrounding it have changed since the Griswolds wreaked havoc across Europe in the 80s, we knew this was the right place.  One building which has not changed and is briefly noticeable in the film is the entrance to Lambeth Palace (pictured below).  Lambeth Palace has been the London residence for Archbishops of Canterbury since the 13th century.

  There is a much rounder roundabout on the opposite side of Lambeth Bridge.  Chevy Chase would have been forced to drive through this one in order to get to the other side of the bridge.  He must have had only a simple turn to make and not ended up stuck in the inner lane.  Otherwise they would have spent the night circling this roundabout instead.

  Just in case anyone was thinking what fun it would be to take their rental car for a few spins around Lambeth roundabout we offer a word of caution.   London has a large area where vehicles incur a congestion charge. (See the website at the top of this post)  This charge is about 11.50 pounds and can be many pounds more if not paid properly and you receive a fine.  We did rent a car in London and we flirted with the western border of the congestion charge area.  We did make many wrong turns as we attempted to return to our hotel and we probably broke a few other traffic rules.  We also managed to never enter into that area and eventually reached our destination.
  Driving in London can be quite the experience on its own as most people need to adjust to driving on the opposite side of the road and sitting on the opposite side of the car.  If you are lucky you might even be able to take your attention off driving long enough to notice the view.
Kids?  We know, Big Ben. ... Parliament. 

---

Map of Our World
Look Kids. Big Ben. Parliament.

---

Post # 72