I want to see Mother Russia. She is taller than the Statue of Liberty, and holds her 29-metre long, 14-ton sword high above her head in the middle of Volvograd, the city once known as Stalingrad. She weighs 8,000 tons and stands proud on a plinth on the top of a grassy hill, kept there by nothing more than her weight. It would have to be an impressive gust of to blow her over, but still her designers left an apeture in its length to let it blow through.

She is nothing, though, compared to the Spirit of Houston. When built she will be over a kilometre tall. A spectacle of shimmering chrome, reflecting the light of the sun onto the city and water. Her eyes will be high enough to look in through the top-floor windows of the skyscrapers in downtown Houston and she will be visible from miles and miles and miles around.

1. Bag ladies
   Every day at four o'clock we go for tea. Every day at four-o-five we come back with a bag full of cups that is invariably...
   
   
2. Fire
   The George was burning down at lunchtime in a most unspectacular manner. It just sat there, billowing smoke from its windows like an old man...
   
   
3. Roming in Rome
   So we made it to Rome, eventually. We passed across the border into Italy, accompanied by smiley border police and their guns who checked our...