A few weeks ago I had the opportunity to join the chap in Orlando, Florida for a couple of days. Now I must admit that this wouldn’t be my first choice of destination but we had his work to thank for a conference he was attending there. In any case, determined to get into the spirit of things, we went to one of the parks there – Discovery Cove . I have to admit that despite myself I really enjoyed it (no we didn’t meet Mickey). A particular highlight was swimming with dolphins – of course it was a carefully stage-managed interaction but none the less moving for all that. I’ve seen dolphins quite close several times while diving but I just loved the opportunity to stroke and swim with them. I loved that they are so curious and independent minded (the dolphin we were interacting with swam off for a bit to go and investigate some other people before coming back to us). They have big brains so really are amazingly intelligent – well, they lark around and play all day so they are definitely more intelligent than we are…
The real surprise is how they feel to the touch. They feel exactly like aubergines – smooth but firm to the touch.