Things have been rather quiet around here for the past 2 weeks, and that is a direct result of my Christmas holidays. I spent them somewhere in the vicinity of the tropics, surrounded by sand, sea, and more than a few attractive females of the Slavic variety – as well as incessant mosquitoes, monkeys, lizards, and assorted wildlife, so before anyone gets any ideas, I assure you, it wasn’t THAT much fun.
I managed to compound the “not fun” element of my trip considerably through my own stupidity, basically. On my very first day of my holiday proper, I got hit by a rogue wave while trying to rescue my sandal from the grip of a very persistent sea. The result was that my smartphone – a OnePlus 8 Pro, which by modern standards is basically a vintage record player – got thoroughly soaked, and promptly stopped working. Multiple trips to a local repair shop failed to get it in working order. Now that I am back, I will have to send it off for proper repairs, but I rather expect to be told that it is “Beyond Economic Repair” and should be scrapped.
Let us just say that it was one of the costliest mistakes I have ever made.
As with most mistakes, though, it came with a silver lining. It is only until you are forced NOT to rely on these smartphones and devices, that you realise just how dependent you are upon them, and how badly they atrophy your actual critical thinking and problem solving skills. I do therefore strongly recommend a “digital detox”, whereby you simply stop using your smartphone, tablet, and other electronic devices for a full day, just to experience what the world is actually like again.
Smartphones have done a lot for us. They are amazing devices. But they are also making us stupider, fatter, slower, and less independent in every possible way.
I also managed to pick up a bad case of what I have taken to calling the “Hong Kong Phluey”. There is evidently a very fast-moving strain of a new bug running around – supposedly it is called “H3N2” or something of the sort – which results in a high fever, sore throat, severe aches and pains, and a generally extremely shitty feeling. That is certainly what hit me for several days, starting on the 27th. It took me the better part of 2 days to shake the worst of the symptoms, and the sore throat persisted all the way through to the New Year.
This was the second Christmas season in a row where I got hit by something nasty and disgusting – last year it was food poisoning, thanks to a particularly bad Turkish kebab. (This is one of the many reasons why, as far as I am concerned, you should AVOID Turkey at all costs as a holiday destination. There are others, but this is one of the big ones.)
So in between losing my phone, getting sick, and actually genuinely having a lot of fun on what turned out to be, net-net, a really good holiday, I had neither the time nor the interest in writing. And considering I got back home at stupid-o’clock yesterday morning, suffice to say, I was in no real mood to poast.
But now we are properly into the New Year, 2026 is well underway – quite literally with a bang, given the events in Venezuela from yesterday – and it is time to get back to work, so let us do precisely that, and get the year off to a fast start.
As I did not poast the very last entry in this most beloved series on the 26th, you get a twofer to start the year off. You’re welcome. Happy weekend – what is left of it, anyway.
First up, we have Madelyn Visconti, age unknown, probably from Italy. As I have pointed out many times before, we rather like and approve of the Eyeties around here – La Dolce Vita being something we admire and envy in equal proportions, especially now that I have experienced it firsthand from my trip to Italy in late 2024. I have no idea what she does, but she is a model of some kind.
And second, we have Alina Enero, real name Alina Valer’yevna (Алина Валерьевна), age 26 (as of tomorrow), born in Vladivostok, Mordor, now living in the FUSA. She is a model of some repute, apparently, and spends her time travelling and flouncing around in various outfits.
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