The hot bidding was due to the Pugin syndrome – the craze for architect-designed furniture. Gehry is reportedly so shocked that his junk furniture is fetching fine art prices that he has refused to make any more.! Engaged Issue Four: available for pounds 10, post free from Rachel Steward, 334a Kennington Road, London SE11 4LD. Though the autumn months are typically plagued by typhoons, they can also be a time of clear high-pressure systems coming off the Siberian land mass to the north. There, in the Rocky Mountains, they are small, modest shelters run by the Alpine Club of Canada, with no electricity or other modern conveniences.

In Japan, they not only have public telephones, delicious food and vending machines that sell canned coffee, beer and cigarettes, but also televisions.
While these were modern intrusions which we resented, they did keep us updated with weather reports that warned us of the season’s vagaries. The sansos, some of which can accommodate as many as 600 hikers, are luxurious palaces compared to the huts we were used to back home in Alberta. This was the seventh day of our 250km traverse of the Japanese alps and we were getting used to roughing it, Japanese-style. Scattered across the mountains are 250 public and private facilities such as this one – 3,000m up, below the summit of Mt Yarigatake – so we were never far from comfort. When the call was repeated, we realised we should abide by hut regimen, and shuffled along with the others into the huge cafeteria. We downed miso soup, rice, pickles and green tea and promptly went back to sleep.

With a typhoon raging outside, we knew we weren’t going anywhere that day, and we snuggled deeper under the warm quilts. Very good value for money.”Jacqueline Watson was pleased with the results on most of her load, but she found the powder let her down on a soiled baking tin. On balance, she said, she wouldn’t buy it.STOCKISTSClearspring is available from health food shops, other products from supermarkets nationwide !. At 5.30am, in the pre-dawn greyness, we were roused by loud but unintelligible instructions issuing from the loudspeakers It was hard to believe we were on holiday. “Is this some kind of Orwellian wake-up call?” Pat muttered, his breath leaving clouds of vapour as it collided with the ice-cold air inside the Yari-dake Sanso mountain hut. This didn’t appear to greatly affect washing ability, but it also turned out to be one of the least convenient.