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I'm your host... What's my name? I'm your host, Anna. I nearly didn't tell you, I just said"I'm your host". I'm your host, Anna, and today I've got some good news. Now, this is a good news article that I read today that I thought this would be something nice to talk about because we all need a little bit of good news in our lives. Now I say it's good news, but is it really very positive? It's interesting, that's for sure. Okay, so what is this good news Anna, I can hear you asking. Well, the good news is about the Tasmanian tiger. Have you ever heard of a Tasmanian tiger? Now, when someone says to me an animal called the Tasmanian, the only thing I would think of would be the Tasmanian Devil. The Tasmanian Devil is, well, from what I know, was a little cartoon character that I grew up watching. This little devil who lived out in the desert, and he would spin so fast, it was like a hurricane. He would spin to travel, and he would make this kind of sound, that's how he would talk. So I've never heard of a Tasmanian tiger before, but I have heard of a Tasmanian devil. Unfortunately, the Tasmanian tiger has been hunted to extinction. There hasn't been a sighting of a Tasmanian tiger since the 1930s, but hang on a minute. I thought this was a good news piece. It is, I promise you. So I'm just giving you the background. I'm laying the ground for you. I'm setting the scene so that you understand the story. So, Tasmanian tigers are extinct. They no longer exist, and there are many species of animal that are, you know, becoming extinct either because of what we are doing or because of hunting or we're destroying their environments. It's very sad, but we're staying happy today, so let's not talk about that. But the last known Tasmanian tiger died in captivity in a zoo called Hobart. Hobart. Oh, I don't know about the pronunciation there. Hobart. I'm gonna go with Hobart. Hobart Zoo in 1936. And then the body of this last Tasmanian tiger was given to the local museum so that they could preserve it and display it and show it as part of its heritage. This is a museum in Tasmania. And what happened? Well, they lost it. I don't know how you lose the body of a tiger, but yes. And this, I know this is all sounding like bad news, but the good news is, they found it again. It had been handed over in 1936 to the local museum, the Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery, and they had lost track of the remains, and they believed that the remains had been thrown out. So this is the bit that doesn't sit well with me. I don't understand it. How can you lose the body of a big animal. It's not like you put it in your pockets and it just loosely fell out as you were moving around. This is a big animal. It's in a museum. My first thought would be, has it been stolen? But it's not like you could easily misplace the body of a large animal. So the museum and gallery said they lost track of the remains. The remains. This is the phrase that you use to talk about what remains of someone after they've died. Usually if someone's been dead for a long time and so the body has started to decompose, that only a few things will remain. Perhaps hair, bones, maybe fingernails. It depends how long it's been, but these are what remain, what is left. And so now I'm going to talk about the remains of the tiger. So they lost track of the remains. Now to lose track of something. We use this phrase a lot, especially when we're talking about time."Oh, I'm so sorry. I lost track of time","I'm sorry I'm late. I lost track of time". So you're normally tracking something that is moving, something that's ever-changing. We track time throughout the day by looking at the clock or asking. Alexa, what time it is? I have to whisper or she'll answer me. Should I ask her? Actually, Alexa, what time is it?

Alexa 5:15

It's 5:44 PM

Anna 5:18

Thank you. So you would normally track time across the day with all these wonderful devices. To be fair, I normally have a watch and I like to keep track of the time throughout the night with my watch that lights up in the dark, but it broke recently and I haven't been able to replace it. Ooh. And I would normally have a clock on the wall in the room that I spend most of my time in. But, lots of clocks. Even the ones that don't seem noisy, if they're manual, you know, tick-tock clocks, then they have an audible ticker, tick, tick, tick, tick, tick, tick. And that's not good if you're trying to record things like podcasts. So we try to keep track of time throughout the day, especially if we have appointments. What else do we keep track of? You might need to keep track of your finances because your finances are constantly changing with money coming in, money going out, lots of bills to pay, so you have to keep track of your finances to make sure that you don't get into debt. We keep track of our weight, of our sleep, of our health. Some people have to keep track of their blood sugar levels. Some people have to keep track of their heart rate. What do you keep track of? So you see, to keep track of, tends to be to keep an eye on something that's constantly moving so you know where it is. So the idea that they lost track of the remains of a large animal in a place where I don't think objects move that much. It's not like a museum is a hustling, bustling, commercial establishment where, you know, goods are constantly changing hands. I don't think. Exhibits don't change that often, do they? I mean, I guess it depends on the actual museum and gallery. Anyway, somehow the Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery lost track of the remains. And they believed that the remains had been thrown out. To throw something out. A very common phrasal verb means to discard something in the bin. So you throw it out of the house into the bin, and it goes to the tip or wherever it's going to. So they thought that someone had just thrown out the body of a Tasmanian tiger. The very last known Tasmanian tiger. I mean, that's it all seems a bit odd, doesn't it? And t hey considered these remains to be lost for 85 years. Now here's the good news guys. They weren't lost. They'd been in the museum all along. If something is found to be somewhere all along or something has been happening all along, then it means it's the whole time that's been happening or that's been present. So you might say, I've been searching everywhere for my phone, but it was here all along, right in front of me and I couldn't see it. So all along means the whole time, all the time. The remains had been in the museum the whole time. They'd been in the museum all along. There were concerns when these remains were considered lost. There were concerns about the preservation of the remains. To preserve something is to keep something in a certain state. You don't want it to, you don't want it to degrade in any way. Like paintings, for example. Paintings can fade and become damaged by sunlight, by exposure to the elements, by people touching them. They have to preserve these items so that they don't degrade over time. Now, of course, remains, if they're not preserved properly, then they could degrade quite quickly. Flesh and things can rot and, eww, so they have to be preserved in a special way. Now there's a name for the art of preserving animals and bodies, and it's called taxidermy. Taxidermy. So if you practise taxidermy, then I'm guessing you're a taxiderm-, a taxidermist. A taxidermist. Somebody who stuffs, preserves, animal bodies. If a human body's prepared in death, to be perhaps shown in an open coffin before they are buried or cremated. Then they go to a mortician and a mortician will prepare the body, but they don't preserve the body long term, I think(human) bodies are kept on ice to keep them from decomposing, they're placed on ice. But, a taxidermist will preserve little animals long term. So I think they like, oh, this is pretty gory, this is not the good news piece I was really anticipating. Uh, so they removed their eyes and tongues, their insides, their innards, we call them their innards, you know, their organs. All those things are removed and then I'm guessing they treat the skin with some special chemicals to preserve it. They put little glass eyes into the animals and then they stuff them so that you know, they've taken all the innards out and then they stuff them to hold their shape. And then you have this beautiful piece of taxidermy that you might want to display in your house. I always find them a little bit creepy. Actually, that's just reminded me, a long time ago, I stayed for a short time in this really amazing little house. I say it was a big house. It was a big old scary house. And we were looking after it for a couple of months. And in this big old scary house, there was this huge, intricate piece of furniture. Uh, it was like this huge, I wanna say like a cupboard, but it was much bigger than your average cupboard. And it was this big wooden standalone cupboard that was carved from wood, and it had all these, it was just such a beautiful carving. It was so intricate. There was so much patterning and it must have taken someone months and months to whittle all those patterns into this wood. And it was dark wood, almost like a black wood. It was beautiful and it had lots of doors, and one of the doors was locked and there was no key. And then one day I was a young child, so I spent a lot of time rolling around on the floor as you do And one day while rolling around on the floor in this amazing old house, I saw that the skirting board had a couple of cuts in it. So there were some lines in the skirting board. It almost, they were quite close together, almost as if it was a little hatch, a little door in the skirting board. So I went over to investigate and sure enough, the skirting board easily pulled away. It was a little door, a little secret door in the skirting board, and in there I found an old key. Oh, what could this be for? So I had a, a, a try of a few things around the house and then realised the cupboard had a door that wouldn't open and it had a hole for a key. So I went and put the key in the keyhole and sure enough, it was the key for the cupboard. And when I opened it, there was a huge fox head that had been stuffed and mounted and it looked terrifying. It was posed in an angry snarly face. It had a snarl, which a snarl is when you pull up your lip. Uh, to bear your teeth in an aggressive way. So it looked like it was about to have a fight. It was a very angry piece of taxidermy. Um, yeah, I thought that was really odd that someone would lock it in a cupboard and then hide the key in a secret hiding place in the house. Oh, that makes me feel a little bit, oh, what's the word, shivery. Yeah, it's a bit spooky. I'm getting goosebumps, literally getting goosebumps thinking about that time. I was very scared in that house. Anyway, where were we? Taxidermy. Oh, yes, the museum were concerned about whether or not these remains had been preserved or not, because 85 years is a long time to have misplaced the remains of an animal. If they haven't been preserved, then there's not going to be very much left. But luckily, when they finally found these remains in the museum, they realised they had been preserved. They just hadn't been cataloged. So to catalog something is to mark it down in an organised list of things in categories. So you categorise saying, I have this preserved animal, these animal remains, they must go in the natural history category. And you give lots of details and you organise your data of everything you've got in your catalog. So you have a catalog of everything that you have. When I was younger, I had an obsession with cuddly toys, with stuffed animals. And I'm not talking about the taxidermy style, I'm talking about teddy bears or teddies, soft toy animals. So we call them stuffed animals, but they're not real, they're toy ones. So I had lots of stuffed animals and I was also quite obsessed with being organised, and so as a young girl, I'm talking, you know, 13 years old. I liked to catalog all of my soft toys, all of my stuffed animals, they all had a name. So I'd draw up a table and I'd write the stuffed animal description, the colour, and you know, generally what they looked like, what type of animal they were. And then I'd write their name, and then I'd write where in the bedroom they belonged, normally. Where would they sit? Did, were they my favorite? Did they belong on my bed? Did they sit on top of the wardrobe in the corner of the room. Yeah, it's a really strange thing for a child to really want to do, to catalog your toys. Anyway, so the museum had preserved the remains of the Tasmanian tiger, but they hadn't cataloged them, and that's how they lost track of these remains. They actually found the remains, and I'm quoting this from the article I read stashed in a cupboard. Now, this really struck me as being an unusual word to choose because to stash something is normally... I always relate it to someone who's stolen some goods. They then have to stash those goods. They stash them in a secret hiding place. So to stash something is to store something in a place that's hidden or secret. So I often talk about having a secret stash of chocolate in the house. We hide our chocolate and eat it secretly because as soon as the boys catch wind of us eating chocolate or catch wind of where the chocolate is stashed, then they will not stop until they gain access to the chocolate. To catch wind of something is to become aware of it. Almost as if you are smelling something on the wind. What's that smell? Something's going on. Yeah. So to catch wind of something, we use it metaphorically to say that you've become aware of something. So they stashed the remains in a cupboard. Now what had actually happened... they did discover that they were stashed in a cupboard in the educational department, and they found that actually the remains were being taken out as part of a travelling exhibit. They used that Tasmanian tiger because it was the best skin in their collection that they had at the museum, so,"oh, that's nice. That's quite a nice skin. Let's take that on the travelling exhibit. Let's show it around. Let's move it about". They were completely unaware that actually this Tasmanian tiger that they had was the last of its kind. And that actually it needed to be protected, and not just moved around the country and, and stashed in a cupboard. It was the last thylacine. Now this word is new to me. Thylacine. I've never heard this before. So a thylacine is a dog-like carnivorous, marsupial with stripes across the rump, found only in Tasmania. Okay, so a carnivore, someone is carnivorous. They are a carnivore. It means they eat. Okay, so it's a dog-like, carnivorous, marsupial. A marsupial is a mammal that's born underdeveloped, it's not fully grown to a point where it can survive outside when it's born. So then it goes into a pouch on the mummy's tummy. Can you think of what animal is the typical marsupial? It's a kangaroo. A kangaroo. So the baby is, oh, it's amazing. Have you ever seen a kangaroo being born? It's unbelievable. It's teeny tiny. So the mum just pops out the little teeny tiny baby kangaroo, and it's this thing. It's got no hair, it's pink, it's tiny, and it climbs up the mum's fur, it climbs all the way up the pouch, and then pops itself inside the pouch. The mum doesn't do it. The baby does it. I think that's amazing. And then they sit in the pouch for a long time, suckling the mummy's milk until they grow and they're big enough to survive in the outside world, and then they pop the heads out and say, hey, let's have a bounce around. Anyway, so this Tasmanian tiger is a dog-like carnivorous, marsupial, and it has stripes across the rump. When I think of the word rump, I generally think of meat. So it's the way we describe steak, which is meat that comes from the bottom. So it has stripes across the rump, meaning it has stripes across, its lower back or across its bottom, basically. All right. And it's only found in Tasmania. You'll be very pleased to hear that now they've rediscovered these remains stashed in a cupboard. They've taken it out of the cupboard, they've cataloged it, and it is now on display in the museum. It's very safe, hopefully. That got me thinking about the fact that we always laugh when my mum says"I've put it in a safe place". Growing up my mum would often tidy things away, put things in a safe place, and as soon as she said she'd put things in a safe place, you just knew you were never gonna see that thing again. My mum had this habit of tidying up in a way, that you just couldn't find anything. Maybe it would turn up like a decade later. So yeah, my mum's safe place is a never to be found again place, or at least you'll never find it during the time that you need it or a time when it's actually important to you. It was usually things like cards or letters or things like that. She'd be like,"oh, I've got a nice birthday card for you. I've written it and then put it in the envelope and everything. But I've put it in the safe place. I don't know where it is." And to be honest, I am kind of the same when it comes to cards, so I tend to see things when I'm out and about. I'll see a card or something and I'll think, oh, that's perfect for my uncle, or that's perfect for my son. They would love that card. They would love that present, but it's not their birthday yet. And so you buy the thing and you put it in a safe place. You stash it somewhere in the house and this time, I really mean stash it. I want to hide it somewhere that's secret and hidden. So you stash the thing somewhere safe where they won't find it, but then you forget. You forget that you have something stashed, the birthday comes around or the event comes around and then you think, oh, it's their birthday, or it's the baby shower, or it's the wedding now I should buy them something. I should get them a card, completely forgetting that you already got something or you might remember."I'm sure I got them something, but I've got no idea where I stashed it, so, I'll just get them something else." And then it's frustrating because you find the thing you stashed away, and it's not relevant to anybody else. Like for example, I bought a 70th birthday card for a family member, and I don't have anyone else who's turning 70 anytime soon. I forgot where the card was, I had to buy another one, and now I've got this 70th birthday card that's not relevant for anybody right now and won't be for about six years, it's very frustrating. Sometimes I will forget that something's special and I want to feng shui my house. I want to bring down the clutter. And so I'll think,"oh, do I really need this? No, I don't need this. I'll get rid of it", and I'll forget that something's actually got some special meaning to me or that I was saving something for a special occasion. For example, I used to collect theatre programs. If you've been following me for a long time, you'll know my background is in the theatre. I love the theatre. I particularly love Shakespeare and classical theatre. I made a habit of collecting a theatre program, you have to pay for a program. when you go to the theatre, it's very rare that they are given out for free'cause they have printing costs. So you buy a program, they're normally about five pounds. It's not cheap. And I was buying these when I was a student, so I didn't have much money. But for me, they were valuable. They were important. I wanted to keep every program of every play I ever went to see, and I kept them in this huge box. And after moving 5,000 times, I was always moving a lot when I was younger. And moving all these boxes. I used to have so many books, books and scripts and theatre programs, and I just had so much paper that eventually I said,"oh, I have to get rid of some of this paper. I can't keep storing all this paper. I never really get it out". So I looked at what I had and I was like, okay, I can get rid of some books, I can get rid of some sheet music, I can get rid of some of my lesson teaching material. I can digitalise this. Theatre programs. What are we gonna do with those? Well, do I really need them? Do they really mean that much to me? No. So what did I do? I threw them out. I got rid of them, put them in the recycling. And then about three months later I remembered, that one of my most memorable theatre trips was to go and see the Merry Wives of Windsor in Stratford-upon-Avon to see one of my favorite actresses, Judy Dench, she's now Dame Judy Dench, on the stage, and afterwards I waited at the stage door and she came out and we had a conversation and I took a photograph with her and she signed my program. And I threw that program out. Absolutely devastated. You know, of all the programs, that was the one that had meaning to me. That was the one that represented a time when I met someone I truly admired and respected, and she wrote my name and she signed her name in this program, and I was so upset when I realised what I'd done, because obviously I didn't take the time to go through all the programs. I just chucked them. So to chuck out is a slang way of saying throw out to chuck it out. I chucked it out So I chucked them all out without thinking and lost one of the most valuable programs I ever had. Anyway, you know, you can't cry over spilled milk. That's a proverb. Don't cry over spilled milk. Meaning don't get upset and waste your energy on things that can't be changed. This has been a bit of a ramble. I do hope you found today interesting. If you did and you're still here, thank you so much. Perhaps you could give this some sort of rating, a like, or a comment or whatever it is you'd do. Otherwise take care and goodbye.