Mush!

We are going to Lapland for the New Year and will be staying at a place inside the Arctic Circle. 

We will be where the red dot is. 

Well we went to St Petersburg last New Year but it and that was not really cold enough for us so we thought we would try something a bit more frigid. 

I think we have found it.

This place looks brilliant - it as far North as you can go without being an Arctic explorer. 

Gwenyth is of course coming with us so there is every chance we will get lost in the wilderness and be eaten by Polar Bears. 

I have booked Husky and Reindeer expeditions. Should be loads of fun.

Loonies abound at the moment. 

If you look at a composite photo of the Earth at night from space you will see that North Korea is as dark as the inside of a bag. This is because they don’t have much electricity - or indeed anything else of much consequence - expect dirt - without much growing in it. 

I was reminded of this image thing (which I first learned about in an episode of West Wing) when I read a report yesterday that the Korean Workers Party is to have its first Party Conference in 30 years - probably to elect the son of the ‘Dear Leader’ Kim Jong-il as his replacement. 

30 years is a long time between conferences but I guess they think things have been going pretty well - considering. 

I mean there was the Great Famine which killed many millions and the Annual Famine which kills a few hundred thousand and there is almost no industry and bugger all in the way of household goods or equipment (but as there is no electricity to run them anyway this is not really a problem) and there is nothing to watch on TV - which is also just as well because there are no TVs.

Well maybe one - I image the Dear Leader's son wants to watch MTV, Jersey Shire and Pimp My Ride. 

And they don't make an anything at all worth having - except nuclear weapons and there are almost no occasions these days when you can explode these without causing a ruckus.

I guess all they can do for recreation is fire rockets into the ocean and sink South Korean ships - which they can apparently do without any repercussions except huffing and puffing by all and sundry so I guess will keep doing it. 

All the people really have to do is to continue to starve, polish their donkeys and sew (by candlelight) gaudy costumes for the Dear Leader’s next birthday. 

But I am sure the new boy will be better. He is apparently well educated, speaks three languages, is a terrific basketball player and is quite possibly as mad as his father. 

I imagine he will have a garage full of Ferraris and be just as concerned about the people as his father is. 

The world is an amazing place - with more than its fair share of loonies.