So Happy Together

Ninja turtles. Remember them? Here one minute, gone the next, and the drains of the UK and elsewhere were awash with unwanted terrapins when the passing fascination had gone and they had been flushed down the loo. At least they were relatively benign if they managed to come back up the waste-pipe and catch you unawares. Not so, it would seem, a particular turtle that has been found around the Albufera nature park. Apparently, it is a rather aggressive turtle. Personally, I had never thought of turtles as being aggressive. Big tortoises really, like water, swim around and that's it. Some animal life tends not to register on the more violent scale. Years ago at university, a group of us were looking to buy a pet for one of our number as a birthday present. The bloke in the pet shop said he had a "vicious gerbil". It was very unusual and very tempting, but we settled for a rabbit that wasn't vicious. But even the more placid of wildlife can have its moments, as is the case with the Albufera turtle, which was a threat to the more meek fauna hanging about in the park. The question is though, how the hell did it get there?

As a nearby resident of Albufera, it has crossed my mind that a certain degree of malice could be visited on the nature park if someone were suitably perverse. Let go a whole load of baby crocs, and see where that gets you. On second thoughts, don't, as they have a tendency to be aggressive towards humans as well. I don't know if the turtle is the work of some miscreant or if it somehow managed to just pitch up. Either way, the good guardians of Albufera have got it well banged to rights.


To different animals, or one in particular. There are some restaurants around these parts which, for all that they are well-known, have been a total mystery to me. For some reason, I had never ever set foot into Las Delicias until the other day. Yet it is a place that carries a fair reputation, if only for the facts that you see the Las Delic van around and that the restaurant carries a sort of logo in the form of the Pink Panther (the cartoon variety and not a Peter Sellers-ish human version). Which does of course raise the question - why? Why the pink panther? The question is good enough to merit a return in order to find out the answer. Certain cartoon characters have more direct association with eating or drinking establishments. There is the Bugs Bunny whatever it is place down by Linekers and The Canny Lad, and then there is, are or maybe were Woody Woodpeckers and Billy Bunters. As such, the whole place hangs, therefore, on the name of the character, but in the case of Las Delicias ... Don't know.

And just on places around The Mile (as in Bugs Bunny, Woody Woodpeckers), word is that Carol is no longer at Cheers. No longer at Cheers!? Now that is an end of an era.

But coming back to Las Delicias, if you don't know, it is to be found next to the Pointed Thing Roundabout, just over the border into Playa de Muro. And what do you know? It is a specialist in meat. Yep. For nigh on 40 years, too. Not the same meat though. Indeed, one thing you notice about Las Delicias is that you can see into the kitchen. Spotless. And the meat the chef was carving ... perfect. Not panther I trust, or turtle.


QUIZ: Yesterday - Oxo advert. Today's title - why this, what's it got to do with today's piece?

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