An elephant for breakfast.

Last week, I had an elephant for breakfast. That might sound a little greedy and anti-green...but I shall explain.

At breakfast time, in Chiangmai, Thailand, where we were staying, an elephant walked past the window, right outside our hotel bungalow. As you can imagine, this was rather a surreal sight. Now, not being one who has elephants walk past his window every morning, I rushed out with a camera and my son, Tiarnan, three, to see what this elephant was up to.

We found the elephant just outside the main hotel building. Rather oddly, he was twirling a hula-hoop with his trunk, which he seemed to enjoy. I should point out that this was a "baby" elephant, or at least a child, because it was not fully grown, yet. He enjoyed playing. Standing beside the elephant was a "mahout".

Tiarnan was fascinated. Here was a baby elephant who liked to play games. He stood beside me, in entranced silence, his gaze upon the elephant's every deed.

The elephant turned out to be quite a versatile animal, with many a "trick" at his command. At one point, he played a harmonica with the air blown through his trunk. Tiarnan laughed at this: a musical elephant. At another, he took the proffered Thai Baht note from my hand, which I was trying to tip the mahout/elephant with, by sucking on it, and passed it to his mahout. He picked up a straw hat, nearby and put it on peoples' heads, then took it off again and put it on someone else's head. All of this, was with his trunk, of course. When we asked for a photograph, the elephant came toward us, somewhat, then lifted up one leg and raised his trunk into the air, to pose for it, rather dramatically. He kept the pose until he had heard the last click of our cameras (my sister in law was taking photos, too), then he dropped his leg and trunk.

Promisingly, the mahout had an easel available, but the elephant didn't seem in the mood for that and so we never saw the elephant paint.

By the time the elephant sauntered off back down the lane, outside our bungalow, back to its waiting mother, both Tiarnan and I were most impressed by this elephant's intelligence. Watching it at play, I rather felt there was a happy, experimental, human child stuck inside its massive body. Indeed, looking at the size of its head, and the brain that was no doubt there, I did wonder at just how intelligent elephants really are. It seems such a pity that some people see fit to shoot elephants for sport or their tusks. They are magnificent and intelligent animals.

Where had the elephant come from? Well, much as a hotel might keep a fine dog, in some countries, in Thailand, this particular hotel kept a young elephant and its mother (both female, I think), on the property. They were there to entertain the children, but seemed well looked after. While we were there, Tiarnan visited the elephants every day. He seemed most interested in their doings and beings. He was a lot braver than he should have been, however, and sometimes wanted to get rather too close to them, while they rested. I would have to pull him back, since, though they seemed friendly and tame enough...I wasn't sure they might not step on my little boy without really noticing him.

One thing is for sure: I will never forget the day I had an elephant for breakfast.

(If you would like to learn more of Ainan Celeste Cawley, a scientific child prodigy, aged eight years and seven months, or his gifted brothers, Fintan, five years exactly, and Tiarnan, twenty-eight months, please go to:http://scientific-child-prodigy.blogspot.com/2006/10/scientific-child-prodigy-guide.html I also write of gifted education, IQ, intelligence, the Irish, the Malays, Singapore, College, University, Chemistry, Science, genetics, left-handedness, precocity, child prodigy, child genius, baby genius, adult genius, savant, wunderkind, wonderkind, genio, гений ребенок prodigy, genie, μεγαλοφυία θαύμα παιδιών, bambino, kind.

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The Land of Pink Elephants

My father has his own ways of engaging with children. These were cultivated in my own childhood, many years ago.

While we were being driven in a taxi, through Singapore, the kids, particularly Tiarnan, twenty-four months, would become restless, at times. My father had a solution. He would point out of the window and go: "Look, there is a pink elephant!". Tiarnan and Fintan would duly look out of the window in search of this fabled creature. They would strain and peer closely at each and every cloud in the sky.

"Oh, it just went behind that cloud!", my father would further explain.

They would duly examine the cloud, for a hint of this pink elephant.

At one point, Fintan even said: "I see it! I see it!"

We turned to him.

"It is a white elephant.", he clarified. "There." He pointed up at a white cloud.

"A white elephant on a white cloud...very good, Fintan." I said.

Throughout his time here, my father would send the children on a hunt for a pink elephant whenever they seemed restless in the car.

When we got to Bintan, in Western Indonesia, we boarded a bus for the resort. The bus drove through an empty land, without any sign of housing or habitation - it was just a forest of small trees and tangled jungle.

While we drove across this green vista, the kids looked out of the window. Alongside the road were a series of electricity pylons (which Tiarnan pointed out to us, as something unusual, for he noted that he had never seen one before. In fact, he was the first to notice them. Singapore doesn't have them.)

Pylon after pylon sprinted past us.

Suddenly, Syahidah burst out laughing. "I saw an elephant, a pink elephant!"

I thought she was joking or had misperceived.

I looked but could not see a pink elephant. How odd it was that even I, now, was searching for a pink elephant.

"It was on the pylon: a pink elephant."

Ah. Now I understood. Some of the pylons had animals attached to them.

I joined her in laughter. After days of my father pointing out the window at mythical pink elephants flying through the sky, we had finally seen a flying pink elephant, suspended high up on an electricity pylon. How bizarre. It reminded me of the time I had promised Fintan a dinosaur mere minutes before stumbling across a large wild lizard. How funny is life: we make a joke with our children and it duly comes true. Hilarious.

So, the kids did get to see a pink elephant after all. My father is wiser than I could ever know. There are pink elephants in this world - and they do fly. At least, they do in that unheralded land of the pink elephant: Bintan.

(If you would like to learn more of Ainan Celeste Cawley, a scientific child prodigy, aged eight years and one month, or his gifted brothers, Fintan, four years and seven months, and Tiarnan, two years exactly, please go to: http://scientific-child-prodigy.blogspot.com/2006/10/scientific-child-prodigy-guide.html I also write of gifted education, IQ, intelligence, the Irish, the Malays, Singapore, College, University, Chemistry, Science, genetics, left-handedness, precocity, child prodigy, child genius, baby genius, adult genius, savant, gifted adults and gifted children in general. Thanks.)