Where's That Cheese?

This week was definitely one to remember, my school mates would understand why ;)
But all the excitement and 'events' aside, I feel that it's time I commented on a topic that's blatantly taken for granted....

:)

Yes, the smile.
Throughout yesterday and today, I've been in several snaps taken at school...
And damn it, some of those those smiles couldn't get ANY faker -_-
Take the typical scenario - End of the year class photograph.
One of the things I used to do in class after receiving my copy was to sit down and point out how many of those 100 watt bulbs were just glass casings with a coat of white.

Rewind to 7th grade, 
For some "genius" reason our teacher decided to give us our answer scripts right before the photo was taken. 
Now, for anyone who isn't familiar with the mindset of my batch, if you didn't score in the 90th percentile...you were just a personal failure. Quite simple, no?
So we walked towards the props for the photo, dreary, teary-eyed faces et all. I was still trying to console the girl next to me.
We stand in our spots, face the camera...and we each let out this huge fake smile.
That's like mild mental torture. I'm pretty sure all our collective sadness turned to critical anger and was unleashed upon the one creature in our field of vision.
The photographer.
 
Photographers have been the primary target for curse and ridicule alike, at least for us.
9th grade brought us one that set the flash off 15 times before discovering that he forgot to include his roll of film / memory card.
Being rendered temporarily blind is no joke. Even more so if you're standing in the back row. 
By back row, I mean a row of rickety tables, of course.

Now, I really do despise being forced to smile. So, I rely heavily on the class clown or a comedian to lighten the mood. Unfortunately, I also equally despise lame jokes, a speciality of the comedian at that point of time.
I think that they should consider trying -at the very least- to get us to laugh at something.
Not that they would drag a random person in front of us and smash a pie into their face.
[That would warrant laughs though...*gets hit with stray projectile*]

Now, I have come to terms with the fact that I smile too much.
Too often I have landed up in hot water because of my proclivity to crack a wide, dimpled grin...at the wrong moment.

But queue the moment of the forced photograph?
Meh, that thing NEVER comes out.
No, instead I face a backfire. My smile comes out completely weird.
Seeing a weird smile on my face in the photo is as good as a slap on my face.
By weird, I mean I hold a sarcastic, unentertained or critical look on my face, accompanied by an elevation in my left eyebrow.
That's usually attributed to the fact that the photographer said something particularly odd at that point of time. Not odd enough to make my crack a grin, but enough to make me look the way I did.
Yes, I also include the 'i-smile pleaz', 'first, second, thehd' and 'okaiii'. As much as misspelling those words makes me cringe, I do it to give you an idea of the why I might look the way I do.


So next time you find yourself the focus of a camera lens, and feel stoic, I suggest you try your level best to get out that smile...because quite honestly, fake ones just plain suck.


:D

This Thursday :)

6 a.m's lazily growing sunlight accompanied the din that was created when my father tried (and eventually succeeded) at waking me up.
Needless to say, I was disoriented and remained in that mental frame until we got into the car.
My mother then handed over the Navigator. "Set this to Al Ain Zoo."
Al Ain Zoo?

....?!

So I finished off a sandwich in the car (courtesy of a convenience store on the route) as breakfast. It was decided that we were wasting daylight if I ate at home :P

After a wild goose chase, mostly due to the combination of the Navigator and my mother, we finally reached the Zoo.

So, how did I spend my Thursday?

With the animals.

Now I could rattle on about the animals I saw...actually I'll do just that. But to spare you excruciating details, here's a condensed list:

-Nubian Ibex
-Barbary Sheep

-Wild Dogs
-Meerkats

-Sacred Baboon

-White Tiger

-African Lion

-Chimpanzee

-Spotted Hyena

-Puma

-Saltwater Crocodile
-Leopard

-African Spurred Tortoise

-Jaguar

-Bengal Tiger

-Cheetah

-Western Lowland Gorilla

-Macaque

-Brown Capuchin

-Steppe Eagle

-Imperial Eagle
-Fennec Fox

-Emu

-Peacocks

-Penguins

On retrospection, that isn't a condensed list, is it?
Anywho, it was intriguing to observe, interact with and just spend time with the animals.
Noting that a couple of them were even in the endangered spectrum was even a bit worrisome.
Though this Zoo did provide a good, comfortable habitat for the animals, I did see one thing common to them all - Boredom.
Boredom in its most basic form - sheer and pure.
With the exception of the macaques and meerkats, the rest of the animals seemed to be lacking serious mental stimulation.
I really can't blame them, they have to put up with the same crowds of humans pointing, clicking and banging on the glass day after day. It's akin to being forced to watch a never-ending and redundant infomercial.

It was interesting at first, but then....*crash*. It goes downhill.
I felt the worst for the felines and primates of the Zoo, the Gorilla reminded me of depressed people I see in school...that should never happen.

Also, I noticed that people threw plastic litter into some of the open-air enclosures.
How stupid are you people? Would you like someone dumping their non-degradable plastic waste in your favourite chair?
Go sit in the dumpster you pathetic person -_-
It isn't bad enough that you litter. It's even worse that you do it at a Zoo, and stark raving mad that you throw it into an enclosure.

Now on to the other surprise of the day: Lunch at Hilton, Al Ain.
Wow. That was some decent food.
What gave that edge to dining there was the ambiance. We sat facing the pool with occasional breeze blowing by. That kind of stuff does wonders for the mind :)
I decided a salad and some kung-pao fried rice was quite enough for lunch.
After all, I was more interested in the desserts :D
A creamy mango tart, a petite eclair pastry, a blueberry crumble with vanilla and cocoa sauce. And of course, a shot glass of creamy chocolate mousse.

The whole meal was concluded with a cup of green tchai :)
Gastronomic heaven...for that moment.

I must also mention that I was eating this with an electric-blue tongue, courtesy of the blue raspberry slush that I had an hour earlier. Yes, I was warned not to have it.
What did you expect would happen? :P

We returned to the Zoo for the Bird Show, something that was mentioned by my mum's colleagues. After a walk through the Bird area, we settled down to the 30 minute show that included wonderful performances by birds such as Peregrine Falcons, Eagle Owls, Steppe Eagles, the Egyptian Vulture, Ibis and the Lappet-faced Vulture.

With the show over, the Navigator set to 'Home' and the LED display of the clock at 1900 hours, we began our drive back home.
I was, however, out cold in the back seat with Norah Jones's album playing though my earphones.

That's what I call a day well spent.
Now on to some studies.

 ♪- The Nearness of You [Norah Jones]