STEPHEN FRY

@Katrina: oh yes, very cute
I want to "meet" a meerkat one day.
And recently I was working on a competition article in a company's magazine. It's about that you can win a visit to the zoo in Zurich. I was checking out the zoo's website and animal photos for it.
And suddenly I had the urge to check out the zoo (I haven't been to a zoo since more than 10 years and it's not because of lack of interest).

Back2topic:
Doing re-exams and having this relieving feeling after many weeks of studying and finally having time again for private things like hobbies.

Oh, Katrina - you're so right. Meerkats rock. One of our local parks has a massively exciting attraction called 'Butterfly World' (it's the wildest dive in the area - they have one-hundred-and-seven varieties of crysalises, four quails, several Ghost Koi and literally dozens of butterflies. You pay £5.50 to walk around a wood-chip-strewn path amidst various exotic plants whilst butterflies alight on smelly pieces of semi-foetid banana all around you. It's just like 'Last Chance to See.' It's mint.) A few months ago I visited and they'd installed a meerkat exhibit. And, get this, they had BABY MEERKATS. Leetle tiny BABY MEERKATS with BABY MEERKAT ARMS. They were the cutest things I'd ever seen. I nearly collapsed from the Cute.

D'yknow, I never saw the Sexy Panter-ness of Colin Firth, lol. I was bowled over by his performance in The King's Speech, though. Epic.

My Lovely Little Thing is that I can now call Mainstage Bingo! This is a massive breakthrough. I called the entire Late Session on Tuesday and the last three pages of the Mains on Wednesday. The only hairy moment was when I said 'Eight and eight, eighty-eight,' instead of 'Both the eights, eighty-eight.' Too many eights, there, I fear. I managed, however, to avoid some of the most common novice bingo calling mistakes:

1. Saying 'Two and zero, twenty,' instead of 'Two-oh, twenty.'

2. Saying 'On its own, the number ten.' Terrible one that.

3. Neglecting to finish saying the entire number if someone shouts 'House!' halfway through it. Apparently customers shout and throw things.

4. Accidentally saying the number twice, i.e. 'Sixty-nine, six and nine, sixty-nine,' in an ordinary, in-house game. This style of calling is reserved for the National.

5. Getting a number completely wrong. The day has gone down in Bingo History when one of our callers had a lapse in concentration and called out, 'Seven and eight, the number nine.'

6. Missing a claim. This is apparently the Number 1 cause of mortality amongst bingo callers.

Today I shall call the Earlies. Wish me luck!

I have a feeling Mercycroft that we live very near each other...

mercycroft said:
Ooooh... Have you too tasted the delights of Butterfly World? Or perhaps somewhere remarkably similar. There must be many such places scattered around the country. Unless... You're not North-Eastern, are you?

I do indeed live in the north east. And not too far from a tropical "paradise" with butterflies and meercats.

Oh boo, it was going so well... no the park's name begins with 'R' not 'P'. But I'm now rather worried, your description was so perfect of the place I'm thinking of. Is the north east of England littered with butterfly houses with rancid bananas, wood chip floors, koi and meerkats?

I had a horrible nightmare that it snowed one more time. Then I woke up and it was in the sixties!

Congrats. :). Hope it's a place with Internet connection.