Lion, tigers and bears, oh my

A day at the zoo. Actually, it was the company's family day at River Safari. I wasn't so interested in the pandas, their star exhibit -- who also weren't very interested in receiving visitors. I liked the manatee enclosure, but the rest of the river displays were really fish tanks in a row. So it was all rather underwhelming -- and the boat ride through the Amazon display wasn't operating --  and we were done in two hours. And went next door to the Zoo, where we had a much nicer time.

The only panda I managed to get a picture of was the red panda.

The baboons had their own waterfall.

Is the plural of mongoose mongooses or mongeese?

Kangaroos in the Australian Outback display designed by Steve Irwin, who had a memorial plaque next to the entrance.

Nanuk, the only polar bear born in the tropics. He looked so lonely.

I was very disappointed that I did not get to see Hugh Jackman.

One lazy fellow was lying on his back when another monkey came over,  cursorily removed one tick, then kicked him. Lazy guy rolled over and started grooming his kicker. The other picture that I didn't get because a crowd of laughing tourists were in the way -- two giant tortoises mating. They were loud, very very loud. And he took a really long time. He was still at it when we got bored and moved on. I wonder how she felt.

Eating out today

The diners at the tables around us were taking pictures of their food,  so I thought I would too.

Antipasti plank

Wagyu burger at the far end for L, a bowl of polenta chips to share, and cannelloni for me.

Monday night comfort dinner

Pasta with meatballs and homemade tomato sauce. L was too lazy to skin the tomatoes and grate the cheese (the yellow lumps loosely crumbled on top) but it tasted good anyway.

Breakfast at dinner time

There's something holidayish about having toast, sausage and eggs at an hour that's way later than brekkie time. 

Back to normal programming

The festive curries have come to an end, it's back to L's "patchwork" cooking. Tonight's dinner was meatball soup, made with all sorts of things chucked into the stock pot -- carrots, celery, gingko nuts and even a pork knuckle. It came together nice and meatily, and there's enough soup to last a day or two. It should be good with vermicelli rice noodles tomorrow.

Hari Raya is not over yet

More curry, dhal and biryani rice from the neighbours,

Eating all day

Breakfast

Mutton curry, chicken and sambal prawns from the neighbour's Hari Raya celebration.

Les roasted a chicken for dinner. That sausagey thing is a whole carrot wrapped in a bacon rasher and roasted with the chicken.

Saturday night dinner

Beef stew. Oxtail in Les's bowl, chunks of chuck tender in mine because I don't like fiddly bony bits of meat.

I had mine over ketupat, steamed cakes of pressed rice, left over from a Ramadan break-fast curry meal given to us by a neighbour. She cooked up a storm on the afternoon of the last day of Ramadan, and came over with the food before sundown because she wanted to share with us the specialities that they were having for their last break-fast. We felt more honoured than being invited over for Hari Raya, this was so much more intimate and family-like.

The surgeon is in

The patients. Most got by with minor surgery but one needed an amputation and another was too far gone to save.

The eager assistant. Also the culprit behind the patients' condition. You can tell by the glint in his eyes.