'I had 60 birds in here in the summer, and now there are only 20 so I could actually get the Hoover out.'Looking after 300 birds ruins a man's social life, says Oreste 'I don't have a social life as such. As the banking union Bifu calls 19,000 TSB members out on strike in protest at 1,000 job cuts at the bank, it appears that at Barclays some of the staff, at least, share little of the same concern. Britain's failure to capitalise on it may have had something to do with the title he gave it: 'Certain Improvements in Producing and Regulating Electric Currents, and Improvements in Electric Time- Pieces, and in Electric Printing and Signal Telegraphs.'Next week, however, Bain's contribution will finally attract the recognition it deserves. Paul Cons sees this partly as a change in public attitudes towards homosexuals, and partly as a reaction to what is perhaps the most successful club night in Manchester since the Hacienda's halcyon days in 1988-89.'The Manchester Evening News used to be really anti-gay,' he says. The 85,925 people who voted for their new Regional Council in this green, largely French-speaking tip of northern Italy are hardly representative, especially since the biggest party, which also made gains, was the autonomist Union Valdotaine. But they clearly confirmed the shri velling of the established parties: the Socialists, now in process of disintegration, lost nearly 60 per cent of their voters, ending up with 3.8 per cent while the Christian Democrats shrank by 23 per cent to win 14.9 per cent of the vote. 'The recession has hit very hard,' said Peter Boucher, of the ball committee. Dostoevsky, the great Russian writer, is renowned for filling his books with women in hot pants and orange lipstick.

Scandinavian Seaways, tel: 0255 241234.CHANNEL CHOICESAs competition between ferry operators and Le Shuttle hots up, holidaymakers can expect imaginative ideas and keen prices on cross-channel breaks, particularly in the off season.Until April, for example, Brittany Ferries are offering Gites d'Interlude stays of two to four nights for pounds 51 per person in Brittany, Normandy and the Loire, which includes return ferry crossing for car and passengers. Nothing to panic about if you're in a bit of a rush.Mind you, there are still accidents: nursery teachers know all about 'back to basics'. The 'Third Agers' of tomorrow, now in their forties, represent a 'decisive break with the past', says Leisure Futures, from the Henley Centre, the forecasting group. There was probably a clause in his agreement, thrashed out over several late-night soirees at the Savoy Grill, that delayed the broadcast until he was safely spending more time with his family.The claim for True Brits is that it has gained unprecedented access. The average one-year inflation forecast has risen to 3.5 per cent from a previous 3.2 per cent, and the average two-year prediction to 4.4 per cent from 4.2 per cent.Fears of rising inflation come ahead of tomorrow's Bank of England Inflation Report, which is expected to signal an end to further base rate cuts.Incomes Data Services says a growing proportion of pay agreements have been struck at between 3 and 3.5 per cent, with 2 per cent emerging as a 'floor'.

Mostly they were electrocuted, a method which leaves traces similar to the horse sickness, colic. THE STEREOTYPED image of senior civil servants having a secure job for life while the private sector is ruled by 'hire and fire' is beginning to look increasingly untenable in both Whitehall and the company boardroom. In The Knight and the Knave of Swords (1988), a collection which contains the last of these tales, Leiber closed off his own career by commemorating the long fight against death of Harry Fischer, the close friend and fellow alcoholic who first fabricated the two characters in letters written in 1934. Usually release is refused if the board considers the prisoner a danger to the public.Now under the Act he has learnt that he has served several years longer than his tariff. But the new resolution would block these provisions and force states to channel such funds through the United Nations, which Iraqi sources have likened to robbery.. From the sidewalk you can see the juggernaut is about to hit the kerb and overturn but the driver carries on, blissfully unaware of his fate.With the presidential election looming, Wall Street seems to be defying the law of gravity: it floats on hot air. It has employed six law firms along with myriad financial and other advisers in Britain, Ireland and the US to help it draw up the new banking agreements, one of which is 300 pages long and contains 50 appendices.GPA, which has debts of dollars 3.6bn, has thrashed out the agreement over the past six weeks with its 24 core banks and three main aircraft suppliers.It is expected to take a further six to eight weeks to obtain the approval of the remaining 100 banks in its banking syndicate.