Panda!
Tuesday, 13 May, 2008
I heard about the earthquake in China this morning, discovered it affected Chengdu and immediately thought, “Are the pandas okay???” (Never mind the people; what about the pandas? What's wrong with you, Karen??? *Sigh!* I apologise for not caring as much about the state of humanity—even that part of humanity I am more closely related to—as pandas ...)
Neil fans, however, will remember that Neil went to Chengdu last year and got to actually hold a panda (view photos). And this is what he wrote:
Let's see. Pandas. I knew about the Chengdu Panda reserve because I had a friend who worked there for a summer. Really, it was all I knew about Chengdu. It's lovely. And it's a wonderful thing being an honoured foreign guest somewhere like that—you get shown all the cool stuff, get to see Pandas, red ones and giant ones, and then find yourself put in a blue disposable smock and gloves (to protect the pandas from you, and not the other way around) and you get a year-old Panda placed on your lap. Utter, utter happiness. Better than any number of awards. Makes being a writer completely worthwhile. I suspect that world peace and harmony would come about in weeks if people just got to put pandas on their laps every few months. Honest. (Source)
A couple of weeks after I read that post, Ben and I were in Hong Kong for my grandmother's funeral. On the last day of the trip, we went to Ocean Park, a funpark built into the side of a mountain range which has pandas—two adults (who have a blog) and two babies (oh, I never blogged about that ... oh well ...). We saw Le Le, the male, tucking into some quality bamboo, and then pace around his enclosure and go to the loo on the back wall, and then the two babies—An An and Jia Jia—sleeping on a raised platform. (Hmm, just found a webcam.)
After we saw them, I thought of Neil's post—about people putting pandas on their laps—about world peace and harmony—and thought that perhaps he may be onto something.
(I did a bit of Googling and the LA Times reports the Chengdu pandas are fine.)
Blinks:
A way of funding writing in the future: pitch and idea and get people to support it.
Place where you can hire play equipment for parties, etc.
How to recalibrate the home button on your iPhone.
Unsolicited manuscripts accepted by Pan Macmillan with certain conditions.
Thought Balloon is a group blog in which the writers tackle a new theme every week? month? with one-page scripts. This URL is for their Phonogram ones.
How to sew a zipper on a knitted garment.
Issues organised by tale.
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