GRAN CANARIA If wrapping up warm for wintry romance isn't your thing, escape for a week in the Canary islands, where winter temperatures are usually around 20C. Gran Canaria, with its rolling sand dunes and lush palm plantations, has a stark beauty and, perhaps more importantly, a smattering of slick spa hotels.
She gestured to a flower-seller with long, braided hair and the traditional huipil (embroidered blouse) and voluminous skirts of the Juchiteca – but the hands wrapping dripping stems of tuberoses and hibiscus were enormous and hairy, and there was a prominent Adam's apple poking out above the neckline of the blouse.
Since its first recorded use in 1509 – on a ceiling in the Master's Lodge at Christ's College, Cambridge – the British have been wrapping their walls with decorative printed paper.
Kerry Mason, from Letterbox Library (who administer the award) added, "From boys who take up knitting to peace loving forest birds to fighting fascism, this year's shortlist entertained, tickled, provoked and rallied- but in the end, for all of our judges, Scarlet Ibis stood out for wrapping up very 'live', pressing, social concerns within skilled, gripping, storytelling".
On the way we stop to inspect a solitary bunch of flowers, its Cellophane wrapping tied to a wrought-iron railing, a withering memorial to a wicked act.
Based on Finnish myths, it has the genre's usual procedurally-generated dungeons, battling and looting, but does a good job of wrapping a story around the action.
I come from a superstitious lot, with a grandmother and mother who not only did the standards – knocking wood, throwing salt, gathering four-leaf clovers, U-turning if a black cat crossed their paths – but also practiced a more homespun lunacy that included wrapping red ribbons around our wrists, stowing sugar in drawers, and assorted bizarre rituals to counter The Evil Eye.
Indeed, by emphasising outward appearance, the design guide will only encourage the practice of what is known in the industry as "jacketing" – simply wrapping the same standard house type in different cladding to satisfy local planners and the market.
When he learned of Duchamp's death, he said, after a long pause, "He was wrong!", while proclaiming of contemporary artists, "They loot Duchamp's store and change the wrapping".
6.50pm: With the Dutch debate on the cabinet resignation over, I'm wrapping things up for the day.
Ed Miliband wrapping himself in a fricking saltire wasn't the moment when things really started to feel wrong.
