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JPG · January 27th 04, 08:48 AM posted to uk.sci.weather

On 27 Jan 2004 00:20:42 GMT, (TudorHgh) wrote:

when I were a lad you merely had to insult a commissar and you could go to
Siberia for nothing

Jim Webster

Nice one! But every cloud has a silver lining. The small town of Ojmjakon
was used as a place of internal exile for people who didn't toe the line in
Soviet days, and had that not been the case, it might well not exist today, and
certainly not have a met station. As it is, it's the coldest town in the
world. But you'd get very bored, if you survived at all, with a January mean
of -50°C. It's barely possible to go out.

Reminds me of the time I worked at Beaufort Park and there was an old Ukrainian
who was a retired Senior Scientific Officer re-employed as a Clerical Assistant
(Met O 10 wouldn't even re-employ him as an ASO) and he used to do general
duties.

One particularly snowy day I remarked casually, as you do, "it's like Siberia
out there".

I got a withering look from the old fellow and rightly so, as it turns out he
had served some time in one of Stalin's Siberian labour camps. I was suitably
humbled.

JPG

Tudor Hughes, Warlingham, Surrey.