Tuesday, October 03, 2006
Give a gorilla a bananna...

The thing about London is, you never quite expect the unexpected. The next morning as I awaited J-Fan and Charlie's arrival, I decided to take a walk around the South Bank/Southwark area since we were staying basically around the corner.

I love this area of London, it has to be one of my favorites. It was a gorgeous day out, and there were people making the most of it by strolling along the Queen's Walk, eating lunch outside, and generally enjoying the view. I started by walking towards the Oxo Tower to go up to the observation deck and get a good view of the entire river. It was when I got down and continued my walk, that things got weird.

I saw a gorilla running towards me.

No, make that three gorillas.

There were actually dozens of gorillas, running around this area this morning. People in gorilla suits, running.

Huh?

I think I stared at them for a long time as they dissappeared around the corner, but it wasn't until another oncoming gorilla waved at a lady while casually strolling by, sipping their iced Starbucks drink from a straw, that I walked up to her and said, "What IS this?"

"It's a charity race," She explained, "They run all of the bridges in London, it is several miles."

"Oooooh..." I kind of tapered off, pretending that this made sense to my jet-lagged self.

Why can't we have silly races like this where I live? You know, people wearing random animal suits while jogging for charity- Can you imagine? Gorillas taking over Susan G Komen race for the cure?

I just stood there and watched the spectacle. Two gorillas walked by, wearing Viking helmets. On my way to the Tate Modern, a few walked by, pushing a shopping cart. I thought nothing of it at this point, until they stopped it next to me and offered me a bunch of banannas.

Banannas? You have no idea.