And all the people (Alleluia!) Rejoiced

Ahhhh, yes, I can hear Handel’s Zadok The Priest ringing in my ears as I write this, clamorously celebrating this crowning moment in the blogosphere (hey, nice alliteration). One hundred posts. My oh my. How did we get there? And what extreme sensitivity you’ve all shown to permit me the honour of posting the hundredth when I know you all must have been scrambling over dead bodies to write something yourselves. My heart has been pumping custard pies in gratitude.

But back to life, or what passes for life at this end of the spectrum. We have a tentative date for the launch of next year’s expeditionary campaign to Asia and Central Europe. Monday, 17 March, is most probably when the school holidays begin with a bit of a roundabout journey to the final flight destination. After studying the various paths to be taken, the carriers and their extravagantly divergent prices, it looks like the Taiwanese are to be favoured with my custom. China Airlines it is then, via yet another deadly stopover at Sydney International Airport for five hours, Taipei overnight, and then on to Delhi where the carbon emissions end and the burning of the winter storage of lard begins. Where’s Charlie hiding out with his newly acquired wife these days by the way? Perhaps he could show me the sights of the Taiwanese capital for a few hours if he’s domiciled back there again.

I see the Ruskies have been taking Defence Minister Martin Bartak to task again for the “big mistake” of supinely and sycophantically bending over to expose an orifice for the placement of some “anti-Iranian” missile defences. Putin has even relaunched strategic bomber flights over the Pacific to within range of the US. Yep, nothing like some old fashioned great power rivalry to put the world to right. Such nostalgia. And now that the ice cap over the North Pole is thinning out nicely, it’s time to rush in and dig up all that fossilised carbon and help generate some more heat to uncover the deposits at the other Pole. And some people call themselves optimists and see a rosy future for humanity. I see a rosé future straight out of a bottle after reading those stories.