Was horribly reminded today of the steadily growing, gnawing pain in my stomach and the months when it will only get worse! They didn't mean it, I guess, but you'd think the newbies would have a little more consideration given what we have to put up with out here.
Some French newbie's been going around all day today with a giant paper fish stuck to his back! Every time he walked past someone, they turned away and started laughing. Some old French tradition, I understand. Makes you wonder about the French, if they find that funny! Now if they'd written 'Kick me' on it as well, now that would have been funny!
Had a little nose around for the code for the flare cupboard lock this morning. Didn't manage to find it but I was interrupted! We had an earthquake! Well I thought we had an earthquake. Is that the same thing? I was in the station, which I had thought was empty as usual. I was just opening this drawer, when suddenly, the whole building started to shake. The floors, the internal walls, they were all moving!
Now, penguins don't have hands, we don't have opposable thumbs, it's hard for us to hold onto anything. So I hunkered down in a corner, confident in my low centre of gravity, and just tried to ride it out,
Slowly, the shocks subsided. The building returned to normal. Just a few pictures askew and a smashed mug on the floor where it had fallen off someone's desk. Relieved, I was just about to leave my sheltered position in the corner of the room when Frau Doktorin Gerhardt emerged from a room, stark naked, with a glassy stare in her eye and went off for a shower.
Now I wish that I could put this down to coincidence but somehow I can't! Oh and she doesn't have the colouring of an orca! She was mostly pale with a red sort of glow around her neck. No doubt someone will write this up in the station log today and I can find out what it was all about. Quite frightening though. I've never experienced anything like it. I only really know that it must have been an earthquake from what Havelock has told me about the last one, before I was hatched.
I think I've said before that I don't read newspapers much. However, I thought I'd look and see if there were any funny 'gag' stories today. I thought the one about Robert Mugabe stepping down as President of Zimbabwe must be one but the BBC were running it so.............Perhaps I'll check tomorrow and see if there are developments. I did however come across one of the most arrogant statements I've seen in a long time from a human.
Apparently some scientists have managed to create hybrid embryos from cow embryos and human skin cells. They only live for about three days but they say they're vital to stem cell research because there aren't enough human embryos to go around. It seems that they might be able to find treatments/cures for diseases from this work. Does that sound reasonable to you? I can't say I find it particularly objectionable. The means isn't so awful, after all the embryos are probably in no way viable. The end result could well be very beneficial. Well the Brits are going to debate a law which will definitely allow this kind of stuff.
So what does some bl**dy cleric start shouting? "It is difficult to imagine a single piece of legislation which more comprehensively attacks the sanctity and dignity of human life than this particular bill." Excuse me? What about the dignity of the cow's life? Or any other animal they might care to use? Were they all screaming when they cloned Dolly the sheep? Did anyone ask Dolly if she minded being cloned? Ah, yes, but only people have souls! Only people can get saved! What arrogant nonsense! What avian gonads!
I can well understand that you might think a person more important than an animal, I think a penguin's more important than a human, but to suggest that there is some kind of hard and fast league table that places human beings above everything else, including the planet we all share, has absolutely nothing to commend it even if your job as a bishop depends on it! A lot of the reason that you (and we) are in the mess you're (we're) in, is because of people like that!
Rant over.
Sometimes I just wish we had hands with opposable thumbs. No really! We'd maybe look a little odd but you'd get away with a lot less of this arrogant sealshit!
The gang are continuing to improve but Cozy is less than pleased with my performance over the flares today. I just hope I can find the code. I think Cozy's now a bit fixated on his idea and is likely to be a little difficult if I don't come up with the goods. Well, he is an awful lot bigger than me and not a penguin you would necessarily want to bump into on a dark night behind the helicopter landing pad!
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