Thursday, October 06, 2022

elephant of donington

hello there


pretty much what it says right there in the title. well, kind of, look you see. no, so far as i am aware, there are not real, life sized (or "proper") elephants wandering around donington as such. but there is a service station there, with one of them vending machine arrays what fascinates me so. 

on one of my most recent expeditions, being travels for verk related concerns, i was blessed enough to be able to (once more) stop off at donington to make use of their services. whereas for the most part i have come to accept my continued acceptance is merely forfeit of payment for sins presumed or real, every now and then momentarily it feels like some great reward dawns, presumably in exchange for some good deed i did somewhere. being able to visit donington falls within the explicit remit of the latter. 


routine and regular readers of this blog shall be well aware of my proclivity to engage in transactions, financial rather than the broader fiscal in nature, with select vending machines on offer at service stations. mostly, indeed exclusively, this is so when what is on offer in return for my money is an effigy, or other such representation, of a hedgehog. adventures of this nature can be further explored here, and indeed here. yes, the frequency with which i indulge this appears to become ever more frequent. 

before considering my latest acquisition, more on the subject of donington services. and this is indeed due to how the pictures (of which there are many) have been added. from what i recall it was so that last year donington won the prestigious "best service station of the year" award, and i have no reason at all to doubt that those who determine this will do so again this year. it would be no act of folly to do so. 


any questions about why it is so magnificent are likely answered in the image above. but, for clarity, so far as i can determine, it is the closest one can get to stopping off near castle donington, the fabled and cherished land where monsters of rock once happened, without actually going over to castle donington itself. yes, certainly, i would wish to visit the place directly. but to do so simply is not practical when well within the midst of several hours of driving. it is sufficient for me to be reasonably close to where legends once tread the grounds to perform their art. 

my main reason, or motivation, for stopping off at donington services was for a comfort break. to make use of the facilities. spend a penny, so to speak. or go for a p!ss if you prefer a more direct approach to such subjects. but also taking a break is prudent and wise when driving for long spells, and it also a kind of contractual obligation for me. whilst doing some of that i, of course, had a look at the vending machines, so as to see if they had any further predominantly plastic based tributes to the magnificent splendor of the hedgehog. 


not directly, so to speak, or not of a guaranteed nature. i would like to think the majority of you reading this know exactly what tribute to what animal (or creature) i got, but let us go through the motions. 

donington services has about four (4) of them vending machine things, but none (zero) are dedicated purely to effigies of hedgehogs. the closest i could find was, as pictured above, one offering squishy animals. it was a random factor or game of chance as to which animal in squishy form you might end up with, in exchange for £1 in the form of a (new) one pound coin, but as you can see there was the suggestion of every chance of getting a hedgehog. 


elephant was what i got, then. oh. well, it's not bad, as you can see, above, with it presented in an animated variation of the greater good and glory of Commodore 64 mode. yeah, the green things in the background are the casing (or shell) what it came in, out of the vending machine. 

certainly i of course wished for a hedgehog, but no, i am not displeased or distressed by that which i have ended up with. elephants are, of course, rather smart. in a very specific, pertaining to actual, real elephants, and of course things like the album Elephant off of White Stripes. once upon a time i could also do a really smart elephant impression, but i believe doing it now would get me arrested for lewd behaviour. 


it feels like a fair bit of time since i have thrown one of them "selfie" things on here, so there's one above, featuring, as is the nature (if not definition) of such a thing, moi. yes, i am looking all reflective, pondering and what have you, enjoying the last throes of summer whilst in, or rather on, the hallowed and celebrated grounds of donington. 

just about everything to do with the picture and paragraph above says yes, i have not a great deal to say on the subject of my latest squishy animal related toy. except, yes, a non-Commodore 64 mode image for those interested. 


hmn. quite like the purple (lilac?) colour of the elephant. not sure on the decidedly, if not distinctly, overtly priapic nature of the trunk, mind. i reasonably believe, or assume, these toys, if they are such, are mostly intended for children, and not people on long, boring drives looking for a slight distraction to break the monotony of it. 

for those of you who have read this far, or simply scrolled down to the end, something of a bonus. quite a while ago i found this video on the internet, but have not really had reason to add it on here. to be honest it remains so, since there is no direct reason to add it here. but then it does have an elephant in it, so here you are, yes, we have got a video.  


also has Commodore 64 in it, too. which is just an added plus if you were only interested in elephant videos. 

right, that's just about that for this. not sure, at this stage, if me purchasing these things off of service stations shall become any more frequent, or in some way come to replace my weirdly popular updates on using car wash facilities. if you keep looking at this site and read future (as well as past) posts, you will find out, truthfully. 




be excellent to each other!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!





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