jumbo hunt

so at 3:45pm on a cloudy sunday afternoon, eli, valeria and i decided to go for an elephant hunt in london. apparently a big mechanical wooden elephant was roundabout town as part of a drama troupe from france. so imagine, the three of us, hurriedly walking along greet queen street in the direction of picadilly circus, having a conversation that went something like this:

g: so, what's this again?
e: the elephant. it's at picadilly circus. i went there earlier and they said it's gonna start walking at 3:30.
v: and this is a wooden mechanical elephant, yea..?
e: yeah, i saw a huge bowl of water at one of the streets. i think the elephant's gonna drink from it.
v: come on.. why would an elephant drink water from a bowl? it's a wooden elephant.
e: i dunno.. but that's what i saw.
g: so, the elephant's gonna drink the water huh. what's it gonna do with the water?
e: i dunno.. but that's what i saw...

so yeah, the elephant was HUGE.... REALLY HUGE.. as tall as a two storey building. it pulled a stage which carried a live band that included a bagpipe dude playing funky music. it was "driven" by eight people, each controlling the different appendages of the elephant: forelegs, back legs, trunk, head.. And on top of the elephant was a mongolian looking person decked in some kind of maharajah outfit looking exoticly fierce and ringleader-ish. and yes, the elephant did indeed drink from the huge bowls of water that eli saw, and it was spraying water onto the crowd with its trunk, although i couldn't quite figure out where the elephant kept the water.. huge bladder must be.

so fun. i love london.