Snakes alive!

Bank Holiday Monday saw Jon, Oll, Richard and me visiting Tropiquaria at Watchford, near Minehead, in Somerset. Jon’s godson, Greg, along with Greg’s brothers (David and Ross) and parents (Roy and Kaye) came along for a day out too, but I am sure Jon will fill you in on the details in his own blog. Anyway, whilst there, I took the opportunity to say hello to one of the snakes – a rather charming boa constrictor who goes by the name of Miss Dynamite. I persuaded Jon to take a picture of me with her so I could put it in my blog, as an accompaniment to my inane scribblings.


I like snakes. However, the photo here is definitely not one to show my mother, as even the word ‘snake’ brings her out in goosebumps! So much so, that we have promised never to keep such creatures here at the cottage, as it would mean that she would never venture so much as to even poke a toe across the threshold ever again.

According to the source I looked at, this particular condition is known as ophidiophobia. Hmm, now that has done it. Having a grasshopper mind, and being easily distracted when something interesting comes along, I have now been sidetracked and have found myself looking into the names of phobias. Triskaidekaphobia (fear of the number 13) is my favourite so far, purely because of its name, but there are plenty more to spend many hours investigating. In fact, I was not really aware as to how many there are in existence until about half an hour ago.

There are such things as the fear of knees, the fear of garlic, the fear of infinity and even the fear of peanut butter becoming stuck to the roof of your mouth. I am, by no means, belittling the fact that many people suffer from such things – I tend to suffer from the fear of enclosed spaces and fear of heights – but only occasionally which is weird, but these are pretty routine compared to some I have seen listed. I think my greatest fear is having a gun pointed at me – be it a water-pistol or a real one (not that the latter has ever actually happened as far as I know!) I have my own theory on this particular dread of mine, but I shall not go into it at the moment.

All completely off topic from the one I started with, and I have completely lost the thread of our trip on Bank Holiday Monday, but I am really glad I don’t suffer from zoophobia!

I am sure Mark will not mind if I post a couple of the pictures he took at Tropiquaria a couple of days before we went along, but these definitely have the 'aww cute' factor, so I couldn't really resist.


To the left is a mongoose and to the right is a mara.