at the zoo. so many ignorant parents.
the horrible lower class types who knock on the glass to disturb animals so they can get a photo on their shitty old phone, and tell their kids dumb stuff instead of reading signs or admitting they don't know,

at the sea eagle enclosure. the traffic on the nearby freeway sounds a bit like the rhythmic crashing of waves. kind of. i wonder if that helps the sea eagles feel at home. probably not.
more retards complaining that they can't see, that the "exhibits" arent performing tricks

camera lens envy! i find myself noticing people with huge telezoom lenses everywhere. lol.

zebra pooping. elephant pooping. lots of pooping

pronghorn runs 57 miles per hour! surely only short distances? its like a big deer/goat
rock hyrax... rodent? related to elephants...


today I went to an animal prison. an amusement park a freak show.

but a hush prevails outside one cage
the snow leopard, his tail like a powerful snake, his gaze straight into your eyes, straight through you. otherwise rowdy families are suddenly all whispers and awe. majestic. and then he jumps round chasing a ball! unexpected kitten behaviour.

as usual in this country you can sit on a bus and get driven around, 5 seconds at each animal... fair play to the guide though, "but folks the best way to see these cats is if you get out and walk!"

the place got pretty full. fortunately most people too lazy to walk to exhibits, and short attention spans. its like wheres wally - I see it! move on. nobody willing to wait and watch. to be fair most animals asleep.
getting rushed through the panda section, "one photo then piss off!"
mummy panda is awake! and eating bamboo! ooo action! I guess they must eat all day with it bein such stupid nutrition lacking food. red panda (not really a panda) is cool, like a cross between s raccoons, a fox and a tree loving bear. not a Koala though. although they aren't actually bears.
once again I voice my opinion that if any animal deserved to go extinct, its the panda. its like they're trying to. I know its like picking on the weak, but they are the counter argument for evolution, making hardship out of bounty. theyre just lucky they have no natural predators. and that people think they're cute.

flamingo love. that bird loved that keeper, she had to come in on her day off and hug it!

apparently it's Christmas tomorrow, so i'll try to write up some more stories and summaries.

but anyway, since it's already Christmas in New Zealand,

MERRRRRRRY CHRISTMAS!

so i as travel around i've encountered lots of places referenced in songs, which now make a bit more sense. Such as The Thrills album "So much for the city", in which pretty much every song is about somewhere on the california coast-santa cruz, big sur, hollywood, san diego, and err, las vegas, even though the band is from northern ireland.

As i was thinking about this in Los Angeles, i discovered that there are even more songs about Hollywood than there are about New York or anywhere else (well on my ipod anyway, there's 21 songs with hollywood in the title)

Everything from Bran Van 3000's "Drinking in LA" with its LA/Hell-A wordplay to Cheryl Crow's "All i wanna do is have some fun", but i've picked out System of a Down's cautionary ballad as summing up the town best.

Arriving at the youth hostel in San Diego, i was greeted with "welcome back!"
ermmmmm...
apparently i was here in 2001, which makes me feel like i'm in Fight Club with some sort of secret split personality disorder.

Maybe it was the London based version of Stuart Pinchin?? But devastating news, there is also on facebook a Stu Pinchin from Sydney Australia (now based in London). so there's FOUR.
happy? sad? shocked? my whole world crumbling?
mmmmm not so much. too much/ not worth worrying about.

Nuff said that San Diego is already a much nicer town than Los Angeles.
I just met a guy in the US navy / marines / was evasive about what who has been in gunfights in Iraq and Afghanistan, and another local guy who invited me round for Xmas. We'll see about all that when everyone is sober. Great pub though, 20 beers on tab and not a shitty Budweiser in sight!

i'm taking a few "rest" days in Santa Barbara, sitting around on the beach reading and hoping my muscles will feel less sore tomorrow.

It's a nice town - as i've got further down the coast the old spanish influence has become more prevalent, more town centred towns, more stylish architecture, mission buildings etc.

Since Santa Cruz these places have been becoming more and more what you imagine south california to be. duh. palm trees, roller skaters and joggers along the edge of a beach covered in volleyball courts and people playing frisbee. VW campervans with surfboards on the roof, blue seas and crashing waves. San Luis Obispo was allegedly voted the third happiest place in the world (after Copenhagen and Singapore)

But Santa Barbara is messing with my internal compass, because it's on a south facing coast. (rather than as you would expect, west facing).

It seems like the sun is setting in the north...