Atlas Atlast

I've been trying to get hold of a world atlas for a long time, a real good, updated one and stick it into the kid's room. Finally, I managed to nail one in and have been having a lot of fun poring over it. Doing so immediately makes me a kid, trying to know what the world is all about (like: where is Ougadougou and which country's capital is it- and where the Azores islands are).

World Maps are a curious fascination- in my mind's eye, I take a ship cruise that moves off from Mumbai, into the Red Sea, through Suez and into the Med- what a trip that must be.

I look at Tasmania and wonder whether its the same size as SriLanka, or whether the scale distorts size. I look at Chile and am fascinated by the way it looks.

I know I'm never going to visit all these places. But hey, I have visited them already, from my own home.