Oooo-be-do, I wanna be like you-u-u

I wanna walk like you (there was lots of that), talk like you (again, plenty of that - well I was there wasn't I ;) ) too-oo-oo.

Do you get the link with the song?  Did you, did you?  Today I turned 32 (32 years of still being lucky to be alive and not kicked to kingdom come my parents may say at some points ;) ).  And to celebrate, off we went to the lovely Monkey World in Dorset. http://www.monkeyworld.org/home.php

The day started quite well at 7:30, whence I actually obeyed the alarm at this unusually early hour for a Sunday, having had a fairly okay night's sleep and obviously keen to get birthday related fun underway!

Much thanks goes to the mother for making us both some lovely scrambled eggs and toast as I felt I deserved a cooked breakfast today.  Unfortunately, that took us til about 8:15ish somehow, and after spending some time messing around being very constructive online, I looked at the clock and it was 8:50!!  8:50!!!   Mother you do know I wanted to go at 9, you're still in the bathroom and I haven't had my shower yet?????   AAAARRRRRGGGGGHHHHHH!  I think we eventually got to Shirley to pick up some friends at 9:35, and then to Considerer's place so she could follow me with her niece and nephew.

So I set the sat nav up.  We left at 9:45.  I think at this point it estimated an arrival time of 11:00.  And we headed for the motorway.  And we joined the slip road - and - crawl, crawl, crawl.  Now the British have this odd behaviour in brilliant basking sunshine as it was today.  It is obligatory, as such days are very rare, to get in your car and drive to the nearest beach to enjoy the sunshine.  It feels like the whole world and their dog takes to the road.  And living on the South Coast, not too far along from Bournemouth, and Monkey World being the other side of Bournemouth - well, you can imagine!  Luckily, I had one of the two presents I had allowed myself to open this morning, from the mother (big hints were dropped) of Stooshe's album to keep us entertained.  (They really are very good don't ya know).

Considerer is also a fan, and at one point we were able to hold up the album for her to see (the tail-to-tail traffic having one benefit!) and got a big thumbs up :). (She must let me know if she wants to borrow it???).

At one point I think Considerer had a "well I'm fed up with sitting here in this slow moving traffic in lane 1 malarkey!" moment and I saw her pulling out and overtaking me!  Not wanting to be outdone, I thought I can't be having this, and promptly moved out into lane 2 myself (I was meant to be leading her, being the one with the sat nav ;) ).  She did concede then and we re-swapped positions and normal play was resumed.

So, about 11:45 (an hour and a quarter after I had wanted to get there) we managed to find the other poor lost souls all waiting in the cafe.  We managed to make one big group over two tables and devour one cake which had been brought for me (the other would come out for tea break later ;) ) and then we split into two groups - those with children who wanted to burn off energy in the play area and headed down there, and those who went to see the orangutans and hear a little talk about them.

There are many many apes in this park, it's about 20 times bigger than the small monkey sanctuary I went to in Cornwall a few years ago, and I think we must have only seen about half of it all!  They all seemed to be very well looked after and having good lives, especially the occupants of the orangutan nursery, two of whom were having a good rolly-polly chase down a slope, hilarious!  I hope it's just an ape thing, and they're not ACTUALLY sad, but some of them did have the most sorry looking faces :(.

 I think a good time was had by all, I don't believe anyone got heat exhaustion or sunburn despite the high temperatures, and I even managed to resist the trappings of the gift shop on the way out (there was a bag which nearly got bought, and if I go again and STILL like it, it might have to become mine!).

Luckily the journey home was somewhat better than the journey there and despite hitting a little traffic it was flowing okay.  On arrival home I have opened all my presents and cards (which were all very lovely and I am very appreciative for) and am going to bed feeling a very lucky, loved, blessed and happy girl.

The cat even had a good time with what was effectively the rubbish - doesn't take much to please her!

So that's all folks, will check in again soon with more tales from the Emmaverse!