Rambling Around the World

This week Lena, a fellow blogling, asked if people living in the country really care for their pets...? “I mean, I went a walk there today and could not believe the amount of rabbits which had gotten out of their hutches and were running riot! I may be a townie but my level of security is second to none!”

Also this week one of my girl friends asked me:- ‘What's the fastest way to a man's heart?’ When I found out the answer was ‘Through his chest with a sharp knife’, I struck her off my Christmas card list.

Another of my girl friends sent me a picture of the perfect man. Since most of my readers are female I thought I would share it with you...

You didn’t really think there was one, did you ???

As usual I have visited lots of super blog postings this week but the one that my mind keeps coming back to is Doreen’s “ Circle of Peace”. Well worth a visit.

I know Halloween has now long gone but if you want to see the biggest pumpkins you are ever likely to see visit Lilas Conuts's blog from Nouméa. As she wrote – Even without being carved they are pretty scary!

Lilas left a comment on one of my postings and when I went to her blog I have to admit my ignorance came to the fore. Where was Nouméa, I wondered. The answer is New Caledonia (Nouvelle-Calédonie), a region of Melanesia in the South Pacific. That sent me searching for it on Google Maps since I knew Polynesia, Micronesia, and Indonesia but couldn't place Melanesia.

Melanesia is a subregion of Oceania extending from the western end of the Pacific Ocean to the Arafura Sea, and eastward to Fiji. The region comprises most of the islands immediately north and northeast of Australia. The name Melanesia literally means "islands of the black-skinned people". The term was first used by Jules Dumont d'Urville in 1832 to denote an ethnic and geographical grouping of islands distinct from Polynesia and Micronesia.

New Caledonia has a unique status between that of an independent country and a normal overseas department of France. It comprises a main island (Grande Terre), the Loyalty Islands, and several smaller islands. Since 1986 the United Nations Committee on Decolonization has included New Caledonia on the United Nations list of Non-Self-Governing Territories. New Caledonia is set to decide whether to remain within the French Republic or become an independent state in a referendum to be held between 2014 and 2019. It has a total population of 249,000.

This is Nouméa on a cloudy day.

I hope you enjoy your rambling around the world this week-end.