Christmas lights story of the year

I'm not supposed to be here. I'm supposed to be at the in-laws. But I found this and couldn't go until I'd shared it. I think it has got to be the Christmas story of the year. It's the standoff in Havana between the Cuban authorities and the US interest section.



To sum it all up, the Americans put up some HouseBling! in a fenced off area of Havana, along with a big number 75 representing the political activists serving long term sentences.



Here's the BBC's version of events

Remember, this is not a diplomatic mission, just what's known as the "US Interests Section". The Cubans asked the Americans to take down the dsiplays and when they refused, the Cubans put up giant posters opposite the blingstallation depicting pictures of the Abu Ghraib prisoners alongside red swastikas. Colin Powell has apparently termed the Cuban reaction as "unwise". Now apparently the Cuban students are involved adding gigantic caricatures of Bush and his chief diplomat, James Cason

It's the Christmas equivalent of the Cuban Missile Crisis. Without the threat of mutually assured destruction, obviously. Still it puts the Cotswold Cowards into perspective, don't you think?

And that bring me to the more exotic locations that I was asking for last week. Here are some late entrants into that category.

Zocalo Square, Mexico City


Paris


Moenchengladbach, Germany


Is that a real dog, do you think? This last one, found by Houseblingers on the China Daily site.

Right, better get off to the in-laws and beat the Christmas traffic.

GJ.