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I think the Sunday Times check this weblog.. this week I have been spared the vile and venal from the Homes supplement. Unfortunately this is more to do with Murdoch making more money than any consideration for my feelings. THe European edition has a new 64 bumper 'best of' supplement, which replaces the 64 pages Culture sectionand the 40 page Homes Section but gives me Jeremy Clarkson pontificating, and the horoscopes. It means I have fewer book reviews, less Culture, but, inexplicably, 32 pages of UK television guides. Why? I shall be sending a virulent email shortly. What's galling is that it costs the same.

I stood behind a little old lady in Mrs Overrall tights at the lottery shop yesterday. She was describing her dream to the woman behind the counter who was leafing through the 'Smorfia' a dictionary of dreams and symbols that is required reading for anyone playing the lottery in Naples. Red headed boy.. 44, .... doesn't have quite the same ring as two fat ladies. Anyway she put ten euros on the numbers suggested by her dreams, which didn't come up.

I've been having a strange recurring dream... well the result is the same, but the settings are different. I am in Florence, but in different places, doing different things each time, but the upshot is that at 06.55 there is a violent earthquake. Sometimes I am inside, sometimes in the street., but the earthquake always comes at the same time. Strange really, as Florence isnt in an earthquake zone.... or is it?? Perhaps I have become a clairvoyant.

The Philip PUllman 'Dark MAterials' trilogy has been read in a week. I was hooked. Wipes the floor with Harry Potter and Tolkien. It's beautifully written and was completely gripping. Fortunately Amazon have just sent me the next consignment of reading matter so the new biography of the Medici is next on the list.