Christmas Markets, Bug Invasions and Roast Camel

Don't worry, I didn't get frozen (despite the weather getting down to -3 degrees) and so I'm back to keep you updated on everything that's going on here. Well, everywhere actually. But not everything.

Anyway, as December has now started all the cities, towns, villages and hamlets have opened up their Christmas markets. And yes, they are exactly the same as last year, and the year before that. Even the stands selling the same things are in exactly the same location within the market as last time. Don't they ever get bored? Maybe there's a law saying which stand is allowed to go where. There is one thing that is new though. They now have a sign showing a map of the market, and where the food and drink etc can be found. It might have been better putting up the emergency exits, as once within the crowd you can't get to where you were planning to get to, rather you get taken to where the masses are going (which is usually the Glühwein stalls anyway).

Staying in Germany for the moment, a bavarian village has decided to erect a wall to protect from attack. Not from locals from other villages, nor from the people of foreign countries. No, here they need the walls to protect them from being attacked by millipedes.

Are you up to date with the online world? You can now build a virtual house, have virtual adverts, fight in virtual wars, play in virtual casinos, make virtual love. Well now you can also be arrested for virtual burglary, as a Dutch teenager found out when he stole some virtual furniture from a virtual hotel.

You here about animal species dying out every day, but had you ever heard of languages dying out? Well that's what looks like is going to happen in southern Mexico where the last two native speakers of an indigenous language have stopped talking to each other. Maybe one of them had been caught going to a virtual supermarket...

There are many moments when people are predicting the end of the world as we know it, so it was refreshing to see that the possible solution to this doomsday scenario has been started. The ark (okay, cave) will hold many species of important crops at a low temperature to preserve them for the possibility of having to start the world anew after a nuclear war, asteroid impact, climate change etc. Let's just hope that we resist putting the genetically modified variety in there...

So you think your barbecue this summer was big? Well think again. A Frenchman has managed to spit-roast a whole 550 kilo camel. I suppose when they were serving it, the eaters were asked if they would like one lump or two. Sorry, I'll get my coat...

Just when you thought that it would be great to eat that camel, maybe you should take note, that people are being turned away from New Zealand for being too fat. Yep, time to go on that diet again...

It is often considered very thoughtful when people offer to donate money to help the less able (whether financially, physically, or mentally). Some people might however have reservations about what a woman in Chile is doing in order to raise money for disabled children. She works as a lady of the night (alright, prostitute) and has promised to donate her earnings from 27 hours to the charity.

So, time to put the wood on the fire (or turn up the radiators) and snuggle up to a good film. In fact that's what I did the other day (just the film part). "Maria, full of grace" it was called, and despite it's hard subject matter (drug smuggling), was a well filmed moving story.

Talking about Colombia, here's an interesting story from the BBC about Garcia Marquez country.

Enjoy...