The Inner Birdy

We read so much of The Inner Child nowadays, as in "I'm so hungry I could eat my inner child". But what of the The Inner Birdy? He's the one that says " I must have some of that sweet cake and that Cassata, fata in casa."

This leads me seemlessly to the information I read in Time Out magazine that it is common in Argentina amongst middle class families to arrange for their dogs to receive cosmetic surgery so as to resemble the older family members. I can see no reason why this might not lead to the family members having reconstructive work done so as to resemble their older pets.

It's a big old goofy world and stranger by the minute. Chinese astronauts when asked what their favourite music listened to in space was, opined that it was The National Anthem.

Here in Taormina the variably (for obvious reasons) 3,300 metre Mt Etna soars magnificently like a broody hen over the valleys below. Her peak is sugared with snows and she is wreathed in perpetually swirling clouds. We watch for the signs of eruption. The last two big ones were in 2001 and 2002 although the last earthquacke on its slopes was only two weeks ago.

To be a pure tourist is quite liberating . We, of course, are all tourists on this planet.