We have some hand-made camels.

Neva River, St Petersburg

I was reading the latest edition of Dogs Monthly and saw an article about an Austrian dog who can recognise 340 words.

Now they say that the dog can recognise the words – but I am not sure that makes it intelligent – I mean Dick Cheney could recognise words - but let’s not quibble.

I told Muffin about this and she snorted derisively and – if she could speak – would have said. ‘Why would it bother?’.

Exactly Muffin. Why would a dog want to recognise 340 words when about 6 will do the job quite adequately. There is stuff that you simply do not need to know. Cats recognise these boundaries but the problem with dogs is that they try too hard.

I do of course apologise to all dog owners who feel slighted by my blog entry and really do believe that their Rover is the most intelligent and wonderful creature on the planet. I particularly apologise to my son and his two dogs Lenny and Bandit who I am sure are both remarkably intelligent.

It is a bit hard to tell because on the two occasions I met Lenny he spent the whole time hurtling around barking and then trying to piss on my feet and it is hard to gauge a dog’s IQ when it is doing that.

William has made some telling points about building pyramids and I need to do some more research. The documentary I watched was quite compelling but the ‘ramp up the middle’ concept makes much more engineering sense.

I think my documentary maker was using flawed research and is not as smart as the Egyptians who built the pyramids. I must also apologise to any of the still living free Egyptians who built the pyramids. As Merisi has explained – they were not all slaves - and in fact I think my documentary showed this but it was a piece of information I did not retain.

I have reached the age where if I retain new information some old stuff falls out the other side so I need to be careful with what new stuff I collect.

We have finally solved our guest bedroom lamp imbroglio and have purchased two camels – one sitting and one standing. These are made out of resin and are just fabulous. Well they are to us but to an untrained eye they may seem a bit strange. They are hand-made locally by Lori Rosenberg and I shall provide pictures next week.

I turned off my Data Roaming in Russia – except for when I used the iPhone for navigation and once when I left it on Roaming overnight. This cost €93,75. This phone must have relatives in Zambia which it calls when we travel!

I did not respond to the debate about Tafelspitz but should say that I find it strangely unappetizing. Like Merisi – I prefer a good steak. I think Tafelspitz is one of those things – like Lamingtons and Vegemite – that you have to be brought up with to appreciate.

And as for Topfenstrudel – if anyone out there has ever eaten one – and enjoyed it – please let me know. It is singularly the most unappealing thing I have ever eaten.