A Rash Of Redoubts

Yes, We Are Back To Albania
Land of the Eagle.*  As mentioned yesterday, the Albanian Communist regime (for which read 'Enver Hoxha' the merciless dictator, a man with all the sense of humour of a sack of coal) had a thing about bunker building. O did they have a thing!
     Enver decided that, to be part of the modern world, to bring the nation into line with the 20th century, what Albania really needed was - bunkers.  Lots and lots of bunkers.  10,000 of them, in fact, dotted everywhere across the country.  Art?

Bunkers, bunkers everywhere, and not a drop to drink -

     Conrad remembers a BBC documentary report that looked into Albania from the safe distance of Greece.  And the one thing they were able to comment on?
     Bunkers.  Lots of them.
     Enver wanted all these bunkers to allow the population to defend Shqiperi (which is Albanian for Albania), since the idea was that the valiant locals would defend their own lands, in their own individual redboubts.
     However.  There were a few problems with this idea from the Glorious Leader.
     Problem the first: there were no supplies or food or water or ammunition stored in these bunkers, nor did they have any form of communications (not even flags) between each other, so they were utterly isolated and would only last as long as the valiant defender had bullets.  Art?

Lonesome dalek

     Problem the second:  nobody wanted to invade Albania.  Let me repeat that: nobody wanted to invade Albania.  Glorious Leader was convinced that the Greeks - those eeevil Greeks!** - wanted to acquire Albania and looked upon it with greedy eyes.  He based this on the assertion that Greek maps have Albania down as "Northern Epirus", which is probably a joke on the part of Hellenic mapmakers.  Nobody else ever evinced the slightest interest in acquiring the European equivalent of North Korea.  And why would they?

Because - bountiful beautiful bunkers?

     I have to add in a little detail here: Albania was an impoverished starving sinkhole of a country, and I strongly doubt that the Greeks, even if they are ever so eeeeevil, would want to acquire a social, economic and domestic basket case.  You don't see China rushing to acquire the land of Norks, do you?  It's not as if Albania had any friends in the world - they had successively fallen out with the Sinisters, The Populous Dictatorship, the Yugoslavs and indeed the Easter Bunny and Santa Claus, so there was nobody to back them up.
     Anyway - bunkers!


The Terror Of Travel
Conrad strongly suspects that First Bus act as management advisors to North Korea, in what is an act of sabotage organised by the CIA, because how else?
     I believe this to be so because they practice being inept on us passengers here in Babylon-lite (Oldham to you if we're being formal), as evidenced by my journey to work today.

Happy as Larry.
(Larry must be a miserable git, too)

     The 9:35 bus didn't turn up, nor did the 9:45 bus.  During this time my Bus Wait Rate theorem did indeed hold up, because 4 buses went up the hill opposite me. 
     "Well," I thought to myself - no speaking to myself as this was out in the open air and I might scare passing joggers - "They are running, at least.  This is something."
     Don't scoff - that sinkhole at the bottom of the hill has been filled in, but there's now a lot of water leaking from the road where it once gaped.  So there might well have been a diversion in place, and of course the last people to be informed would be - the passengers!  because we're as eeeevil as the Greeks.
     To cut a long and seething journey short, I got into work 10 minutes late.

First Bus spokedemon says "And?"

Finally
We've not covered a lot of ground today, have we? So I'd better add in a little extra to compensate.  Enter LITHIUM-WAFER BATT - then again, maybe not.  How about - STRANGE RUSSIAN SKIING DEATH MACHINES!
     Yes, Vulnavia, they do exist.  Art?


Skiing Russian death machines.  Proof.

     These unlikely-looking beasts were designed to float o'er the frozen wastes of winter-time Russia, where wheeled vehicles would simply bog down or stall thanks to their wheels getting iced up.  They carried a small complement of soldiers and could tow others on skis, and were used for reconnaissance, medical evacuation, raiding and generally putting the wind up their Teuton opponents.
     There are modern versions used for fun (yes the Ruffians do have a sense of fun), such as this -

Which was surely inspired by -

     - someone has been copying from someone and I suspect that lawyers got involved at one point - Art?

Hay Pesto!

This Parthian shot will only be understood by South Canadians -

                                          Bunkers!






*  National symbol is a two-headed one.  Wonder what they'd make of The Giant Claw?
**  They invented forensic rhetorical analysis, after all, the swines!