The inevitable letter to Santa. With a twist.

One blogger recalls Christmas past in a letter to Santa - back when the trees and presents were a little smaller than they are today.

She writes about how because her family didn’t have much money, Christmas wasn’t about the presents… she’d buy her Dad some pipe cleaner, while her mother would collect things from the flea markets. It was all about midnight mass and the little things.

But sometimes, she writes, Christmas was also full of fear – particularly in Beirut, during the civil war, where it passed without electricity or water, and represented ‘having survived another year’.

Christmas in London came next, where Mich writes that she lost weight by ‘being put off by the quantity of food and drink people buy’. She recalls a sidewalk café, and enough pudding and mine pie to last the rest of the week.

Today the blogger meets up every Christmas in Beirut with her twitter friends – and invites Santa to turn up too…

The ‘Sudanese thinker’ blog writes on findings from wikileaks, also reported in the Guardian, that Sudanese President Omar Al-Bashir may have siphoned off $9 billion from his impoverished country.

The figure is mentioned in secret US diplomatic cables, which recount conversations with the chief prosecutor of the international criminal court.

But the blogger ponders why Al-Bashir would choose the UK of all places to keep the money, especially given its close relationship with the US. He also points out that when Sudanese officials do ‘stash’ money he’s been told that they choose the UAE or Malaysia.

Finally the figure itself seems unlikely to this blogger, in that it’s probably too small…

From-beirut-with-funk blogs from Dubai – also with funk. She lists the things she likes about being in a different city… like being able to stand in line, being able ‘to find anything here’, seeing fancy cars, being called ‘madam’ and sensing ‘order’… ‘feeling safe’.

The Stickshepard features a memorable quotation from the New York Times Review of Books.

Finally, Queen Elizabeth II’s underwear goes up for auction in Chile. Would you pay $9000 for these?