CARISTAS

And who am I to deny you? While Canada, Britain and other nations got the export model Lada with four headlamps (and later, square headlamps), the two-headlight Russian domestic model was among Lada variants that found their way to Cuba. Based on the Fiat 124, Lada's square four-door was produced from 1970 until 2012.  Rear bumper brackets are bent, but the rest of this Lada 2101 is in great shape.

   Nothing like a hard drive crash to bring home the importance of backing up irreplaceable photos. I have an external drive, but for some reason  —  OK,  laziness  —  I hadn't copied anything to it for 12 months.    So when my main drive gave up last week, I thought I'd lost a year's worth of material  —  including nearly 800 Cuba images. I was bummed.    Fortunately, after a series of manoeuvres that would make a Cuban mechanic proud  —  yes, including the freezer trick  —  I was able to bring the drive back to life. Photos and less important stuff, like tax returns, are safely backed up.    And I'm even using that same drive as I write this, though I realize it's living on b