Why DO we Shans have such a strange affinity for largely unloved creatures?!? I'm not sure what the answer is, but there's no doubt that we do, as evidenced by these photos of myself and my daughter Gaia.

The first two, of me, were taken at Wild Lights in Dublin Zoo, which I wrote about in last Sunday's post. I nearly fainted with joy when I saw this giant blue spider, and while most patrons gave it a wide berth, I was straight in there for a quick snap!! I'm not so bothered about snails (I don't THINK I've ever written about them, although I'm happy to be proven wrong!), but I still thought the huge snail was also incredibly cool, and hurried in for a photo under that one too. It might sound strange, given the number of snaps I've posed for over the decades, but I don't really like having my photo taken, and Mrs Shan normally has to bully me into getting in front of the camera lens, but I was the one who insisted on these two being taken -- yes, yes, I know, I'm WEIRD, but hey, that's hardly news to any of us, is it?!?

The third was taken in Legoland, where Gaia was smitten with a strange green dinosaur made out of Lego bricks. And the fourth was taken in a department store's Christmas shop -- of COURSE she fell in love with the ugliest toy rat imaginable!!!