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 A tentative blog to test the temperature. |
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Ten years ago I was writing several blogs on various subjects - F1 motor racing, Music, Classic Cars, Great Romances and, most crushingly, a personal journal that included my thoughts on America, memories of England and Africa, opinion, humour, writing and anything else that occurred. It all became too much (I was attempting to update the journal every day) and I collapsed, exhausted and thoroughly disillusioned in the end. So this blog is indeed a Toe in the Water, a place to document my thoughts in and on WdC but with a determination not to get sucked into the blog whirlpool ever again. Here's hoping.     |
| Elephants People seem to like elephants. I canât speak much about the Indian ones, but the African elephants scare the bejabers out of me. Having spent a quarter of a century in Africa, I have seen and been close to (literally, not emotionally) many elephants. And those fellers are scary, believe me. Itâs all very well to think them cute and cosy when youâre in Europe or the new world, but the reality of them is something else. For a start, they are huge. They are the only animal that can kill you even if youâre in a car. All they have to do is sit on it. You might think that elephants have delightful placid temperaments and they wonât hurt you if you donât harm them. Donât be fooled. These guys are nasty, extremely bad tempered, and are happy to go out of their way to squash you. I have seen a mother elephant with a calf object to my presence from half a mile away. She covered that distance in far too short a time for my comfort and it is only the fact that a car is slightly faster than an elephant that I lived to tap out the tale on this keyboard. Perhaps the worst of it is that they understand perfectly just how easily they can give us heart attacks. Many times I have been idling along, minding my own business, only to have an elephant step out from his hiding place in the bush to trumpet his presence in my ear from a few yards. When you have to look up to see his face and his ears are flapping like giant windmills, there is only one thing to do - get out of the vicinity pretty damn quickly. Itâs true that most of the time elephants will ignore humans, especially when theyâre in a herd. But watch out for the lone ones, the ones who seem to have a grudge against anything that moves. There are plenty of them and theyâre completely unpredictable. So donât tell me your favourite animal is the elephant. What you mean is that you like the nice grey jumbo in the cartoons that are incapable of harming a mouse (frightened of mice, thatâll be the day). The real ones are the most terrifying creatures in Africa. Word count: 386 |
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What if it stayed because it liked the taste of rabbit? Good grief 
