Received an email, in perfect English, from my friend in Avignon. She claims my French is 'good', which means not only can she write fluently in a foreign language, she can be ironic in it too.

Saw yet another film yesterday. Yet again, everyone is dead at the end, apart from a small child. The subtitles, though, kept me amused. The film is in Italian and was shown with the original English subtitles, written, presumably, some time around 1947 when the film was released. They have clearly been written to ring true to an English 1940s audience, and as such jar rather if you have even my pesky knowledge of Italian, or, indeed, any sort of knowledge of anything remotely non-British. Why, for example, would an Italian rebel shooting at German soldiers from the hills shout out to one of his comrades, "Look out, old chap!"? At certain points of the film, the subtitler seemingly gave up altogether, and there were long gaps when nothing was translated at all. Then there was all the religious language, which the subtitler presumably thought too exotic for an English audience (and perhaps rather too over the top for cinemagoers who would be largely Anglicans.) The word "Prego" (literally "I pray") pops up all the time, and is usually translated onscreen as "I hope", which I would argue is not the same thing at all. As for the many pleas to the Virgin Mary, these are pretty much ignored altogether, which is a shame, as they are, presumably, not all that difficult to my granny frantically crossing herself and exclaiming at speed "jaysusmarianjoseph!"

As it turned out, I needn't have paid £3 to sit in amongst an eclectic mix of Italian twenty-somethings and that certain type of middle-class, retired woman who probably lives in Hampstead and frequently goes to see foreign-language films and provides a knowledgable running commentary throughout, just loudly enough to irritate me: it's apparently on BBC4 next month.

I have found a new flat, and move in in 6 weeks. It's in Kentish Town, so doesn't earn many points in term sof glamour, being as it is on the edge of a huge Council Estate, its only highlight being the public baths on the corner which Camden is currently trying to close. It does, however, have the distinction of being (as far as we could tell) mouse-free and devoid of huge holes in the bedroom wall. It's got a gorgeous kitchen and is wonderfully bright, with velux windows in the two main rooms. Most importantly, though, it's cheap (though not worryingly so), so I will be able to save for a deposit so I can move into my own hovel rather than throw away cash for the priviledge of living in someone else's. I would show you a picture, but they are so ruthlessly efficient that it has already disappeared off their website.