Live Event, Regent's Park, 3am

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 London's possibly at its politest at 3am. Last night Regent's Park's Outer Circle was almost entirely silent apart from a soothing chewing ten feet up in the air. The night was humid enough to blur the top of the Telecom Tower and the heat had brought out the giraffes. I kept very still by the railings. I'm not sure I was seen. Zebra butts were also visible in the sodium light from the NHS hearts recently installed on the giraffe house, but the giraffes themselves were lit like dancers now, completely silhouetted now, renewing their strangeness wonderfully. I could have been looking at the Loch Ness Monster.

 I was glad I hadn't brought my camera, you know, my phone, and then I wondered why. I was definitely feeling that the fact I couldn't record this sight made the moment of my experiencing it more important, and by "important" I maybe just mean "something to which there is no satisfactory alternative". This was a wonder rather than an opportunity to record a wonder, and would remain a wonder only for as long as I decided to stay and find it wonderful. This is how I used to live, of course, before carrying a camera. I started thinking then about the idea of wonders, and monsters again, and how we're not scared of fire, and for how much of humanity's existence science simply meant not being scared of fire. I'd resumed walking by that point.

 Giraffes suited the hour. They always seem very polite. Look at their antlers.