Zoo Lates

I love penguins, just putting this straight out there, they're the best animal by far. My love for them may have been strengthened by Happy Feet a little (ok a lot) but I've always loved their little waddle and their cute markings that make them look like they're in a suit. 

When Harriet approached me at work asking if I'd like a spare ticket to Zoo Lates that her friends had I grabbed it straight away already dreaming of that penguin meeting. The basic concept is for adults to go to the zoo without being called 'childish', who would be friends with those people anyway? Every Friday and Saturday night London Zoo opens late night 6-10 for an adults only zoo experience. With food vans covering the entrance and a Rekorderlig stand (their new passionfruit flavour is an absolute winner) you can run around like a little kid meeting all the zoo animals with a slightly tipsy eyesight. At 8pm the silent disco gets going, the highlight for me after the penguins obviously. 

After Harriet and I had got our faces prepared at work, thank God we work at Disney otherwise people would just find us plain weird, we headed over with everyone to enjoy an evening of animals. The tickets were bought in advance for £12.50 and because I'm so late posting this it's all sold out but keep up to date with the 2014 Zoo Lates by signing up here.

A lot of people do get dressed up but don't fret if you're coming straight from work they have masks, ears and face paints when you get there. 

We got in, I ran to the penguins and boy was it good. I could watch them waddle for hours, unfortunately none of them started tap dancing or singing Stevie Wonder, maybe that's a thing they do during the day. 

There are so many sections you can't really get bored, after refuelling on a delicious pulled pork bun we visited all of the areas we could including the gorgeous giraffes, zebras and tigers. 

When I was a young waaaarthooooggg!

The tiger got running as soon as Harriet turned up!

We swung by the silent disco just before 9, it got seriously busy about 10 minutes later so I would recommend getting there early. I love a good silent disco, and the crowds that couldn't get in looked on in jealously listening to everybody singing along like nobody could hear. The music mix was great, they only had one channel which was a shame but there weren't too many tunes you couldn't love. By 10pm we were pooped and I ran off to meet Kirsty for a night out in Shoreditch, completely forgetting about my face paint I got a lot of funny looks and questions while we were out!

Get your tickets now, I would seriously recommend it. Just a couple of tips, bring a lot of cash, nowhere takes card and the card machine queue was huge the whole time. When buying food don't make the same mistake as me, head straight to Annie Maes, their Mac and Cheese is ridiculously good and I only noticed their stand on the way out as they packed up, I was devastated! If you do go give the penguins and wave from me!