Novelty Items

The fine Christmas tableau in Dubai's Wafi Centre seems a little incongruous when the temperatures outside this cool emporium remain high enough to warrant the wearing of short sleeves and sunglasses. But the spectacle of a pack of polar bears, beautifully attired in formal wear, sitting down to a delicious dinner – the dishes include a scarlet lobster – by a host of besuited penguins is enough to put anyone in a festive mood. 

Once the Christmas season is over, the polar bears and penguins will, doubtless, be banished to a storeroom for the remainder of the year. If they could choose, they might prefer to leave these sandy shores for the more appropriate climate of Quebec City, Canada.

For here, North America's first Ice Hotel has just been completed. As the name suggests, the building is composed entirely of snow and ice, 4,500 and 250 tonnes respectively. As such, the hotel is the perfect habitat for the Wafi City exiles who must hurry to reach it since this edifice, as ephemeral as their own appearance at Christmas time, is due to melt away early next spring. 

Whilst there, they can enjoy a holiday from entertaining others. Some may opt to purchase an ice sculpture, others to lie on their frozen water beds awaiting the delivery of a cooked breakfast: considering their ease at the Wafi dinner table, this latter option will probably suit the polar bears nicely.

I only hope that the managers of the Ice Hotel have had the foresight to book an act that will amuse these furry creatures as much as the sight of them at table brings shoppers to marvel. David Blaine, an American magician, who made headline news recently, would be a good choice.

Earlier this month, Blaine spent nearly 62 hours standing in a small cavity inside a six-tonne block of ice located in Times Square, New York. He wore only a pair of trousers, a knit cap and a pair of boots – poor competition, it might be noted, for the costumes sported by our Wafi performers – and seemed to the watching crowds to resemble a rather anaemic iced lolly as he began to freeze. On his release from this icy tomb Blaine was chilled to the bone and in need of medical attention.

A pity really that he didn't have to hand those same resources available to the postman in the city of Qom, Iran, whose exploits were reported in the newspapers recently. 'Freezing man warms himself with hot mail,' the story read. 

But no, this was not David Blaine, talented magician capable of bringing an apparently dead pigeon back to life and producing a snake from a top hat, but an ordinary man who, on finding the weather a little too nippy for his tastes, set a parcel containing letters and books on fire to keep himself warm. Should Blaine attempt such a remarkable stunt again, he could do worse than to have this same savvy Iranian postman standing by.