Eyes of the World: A New Mouse Pad in the Year of the Rat?

My new Australia Zoo mouse pad

When I was up at Australia Zoo on Wednesday, I bought a new mouse pad to replace a cheap plastic one that was cracking and falling apart.
It had split apart even further when I picked the mouse pad up in frustration and slapped it on to my computer desk after trying to cut and paste some photos for a blog post for about the 20th time, when the mouse kept getting stuck in the cracks and splits beginning to form on the mat.
I had made a mental note to go back to the spongy more traditional mouse pads if I was out shopping in the near future.
And I found the perfect replace-mat(:-) at a shop in the zoo when I went in to look at Robert Irwin's fantastic photography.
I had already been halfway around the zoo when I found the mousepad in the shop, and I had already been thinking as I looked at the animals looking back at me how we were really all just part of the one same consciousness on some level.
Not that in my human meat suit I would trust the crocs and the cats not to feed off my flesh if the barrier wasn't there.
Guess Where I Was Today?-)

Robert Irwin's 'Bird of Paradise' print

Checking out Robert Irwin's photography was one of my main motivations for heading up to Australia Zoo, as I had bought an unsigned print, like the one pictured above, from the zoo through the mail a while back, which I wrote about in this old post -
Hummingbird Medicine?

National Hummingbird Day

My hummingbird print hanging on my home wall

The Hummingbird Effect/s?

When I received my hummingbird print in the mail there was included a free "Crocs Rule!" sticker, which featured a large green eye staring out at the viewer.
Kind of made me think of David Icke's wackadoo "Reptilian aliens" theory as well as the whole people with green eyes are hybrid alien theory:-)
Green Eyes, a Marker of Alien Hybridity?!

Crocs rule my eye I say:-)

Don't worry I can assure you that I'm not a hybrid Reptilian alien ... I'm another type of hybrid alien altogether;-)
But the day I received that sticker in the mail, I made a goal to go up to the zoo and try to look into the eyes of as many animals as I could ... which only took me another 2 years to get of my butt and finally get up there and do it.
Actually, I had planned on going to the zoo a number of times between then and last Wednesday, but something would always prevent me from going, such as bad weather forecasts for that day, bush fires in the area, etc, etc.
But Wednesday turned out the perfect day for such an intimate venture, because I basically had the whole zoo to myself ... plus in hindsight it would be the last day before the park shutdown with new corona-virus rules coming into effect from midnight Wednesday.

And even though I didn't know it on the day, it would also be the day Bindi Irwin got married at the zoo.
The whole day up at the zoo ... not to mention this whole year so far ... seemed like a black swan event, which hit home to me even further when I saw Robert Irwin's white swan print hanging on the wall in a shop in the zoo, which reminded me of a black swan picture I used in an old post about Robert's hummingbird print, that I had placed a Rumi quote over.

Robert sure is a good wildlife photographer with a big future ahead of him, I think.
He has a good eye for photography ... although I'm not sure if it's a green eye or not;-)

That picture looks more like the elephant in the room to me:-(

There's one with a title my old mate Ken Peterson
 might find interesting:-)

Ken Peterson, top centre

I've had this plastic crocodile (pictured above) in front of me for about a year as a reminder for me to plan a trip to Australia Zoo.
I got it from a Shell petrol station when I had spent over $30 there with a promotion the Coles supermarket chain was running at the time.
You would be given a surprise packet with some collectible, and the odds of me getting this croc was something like 30-1, which in hindsight now is something like the odds of dying from corona-virus, if you get it.
A trip to the zoo had been on my mind when I got this croc figure, but I was kind of wishy-washy about going up there at the time before I got it.
But when I got this plastic croc I took it as a sign that I had to go when I could get the chance.
So, I put it on my desk to the side of my computer to stare at me until I went.
My plan was (and still is) to give the figure away to relatives' kids once I had been to the zoo.

Ironically when I was buying a few things at the Australia Zoo shop I asked the guy behind the counter if they sold gloves.

He asked what kind, and I told him just woolen ski gloves or something along those lines as I wanted to put them on to avoid touching the petrol pump when putting fuel into my car, so I wouldn't risk someone with the virus touching the same pump I happened to use.

He said they didn't sell gloves but slipped me a pair of disposable gloves across the counter and said to have a pair of these for free.

So, I got a croc from a petrol station a year ago to remind me to go to the zoo, where I get a pair of gloves to use at the petrol station:-)

And now I'm happy to get rid of the croc off my back ... and desk ... and for it to stop staring up at me:-)

I couldn't help but smile:-)

The trouble now is though that I have a mouse pad on my desk with eyes staring up at me as a reminder of the day I went to the zoo and the day Bindi just happened to get married up there, as well.

Not to mention the day the zoo shutdown because of the corona-virus rules taking effect at midnight that day.

Timing is everything in life, it seems:-)

And now I have an owl staring up at me to replace the plastic croc that I'm gonna give away.

But that is a story for another post, for anyone WHO cares to read it;-)

I hope my financial contribution on the day made an effect to the zoo, even if it was just nothing but a hummingbird effect;-)
No More Dancing in the Streets ... for a While?