Look what came in the post!

I have been suffering from a cold for a couple of days, and this morning, I did not feel great at all. Just when I thought I didn't have to get out of bed, and could sleep in a little longer, I heard someone knock at the door. It was the postman with a large, rectangular, heavy parcel, and I unwrapped it to find MY FIRST TEXT BOOK. It felt like Christmas. I suppose it may be a little odd dedicating a whole blog post to the experience of receiving your first university textbook, but I could not contain my excitement when I read the word INVERTEBRATES on the cover, decorated with a photo of a beautiful jellyfish.
Here's the front cover:

Just flicking through the complex diagrams makes me excited, and I love the beautiful drawings and sketches of some of the animals. Here's an example of one of the pages (it is upside down because I can't work out how to rotate the damn thing):

Squid are a particular favourite of mine, art-wise, because they have an extremely odd shape, and their eyes are proportionally huge. If you've ever seen them on an Attenborough program, you will have witnessed their immense grace when they swim effortlessly through the water. They are, in my opinion, stunning organisms.

One thing that surprises people is just how intelligent squid are. Humboldt squid especially are very inquisitive creatures, and will quite often swim up to divers and prod them with their tentacles. Some even steal things- I found a video of one stealing a camera lens from a diver's pocket!

Humboldt squid do have a bit of a bad reputation, unfortunately, because the suckers on their tentacles are lined with many, very sharp teeth, and where their tentacles meet their body sits a large, black beak. There are many horror stories from fishermen in the Sea of Cortez where their friends, or someone they have known, have fallen out of their boats, and large tentacles have grabbed them and pulled them under. But these stories are often exaggerations, and they do not often attack.

That's enough from me, for now. I'm awaiting the arrival of another textbook, which should come tomorrow. I will try and find the footage of the humboldt squid, because it's really quite cool!
Also, hopefully I won't be as ill, because it's not fun.
Bye!