Hello from the above- we left Australia about 11 days ago and the temperature was over 40 degrees Celsius. Tonight it was minus 24.7 Celsius.
Just a bit of housekeeping- last night in Oslo we caught up with Gukumatz, the former board moderator. It has been 7 years since we have seen him and it is like The Picture of Dorian Grey- he has not changed- still slim and athletic- and we are groaning with age. We had far too many craft beers with him but he was still sprightly. It was a real pleasure.
Then off to Longyearbyen.There are large white cats here that the locals call Polar Bears. One has been roaming the streets and there is a warning about running like hell if you see it. So- it is as dark as inside a cows guts all day (no sun at all- it is dark here all day) so when you have no experience with snow, bears or complete darkness, what do you do? We went for a walk.
I didn’t believe you could be so cold and survive. Slipping in the snow we didn’t give a care about the damn bear, more like how many doctors in Australia can treat frostbite. Naturally we walked the wrong way (it was dark) but a nice lady pointed us in the right direction and the bar staff at our hotel thawed us out and gave us a nice hot meal. It will be an interesting New Years Eve.