Well if anyone's interested: Baroque on Lamma have been denied their bid to conctretise South East Lamma: HOOORAY!

And on another note, back in Paris: Last week, two days after his 98th birthday, George Whitman of Shakespeare and Company, died in Paris. Today, the winter solstice, he is to be buried in the Pere Lachaise. There will be Champagne at the fabulous bookshop on the Left Bank. To read about sojourns in the bookshop, click here.

May George rest in peace.

December 2011: Flashback to October beach clean-up and development objection on Lamma Island Hong Kong.

November 2011: What is new? The firewalking picture below is not new, so to bring it all up to date - on Sunday I went to the Occupy London gig at St. Paul's with Iona. It all looked quite familiar, like someone had torn off a corner of Glastonbury Festival and tagged the tents and the hand-painted signs onto the collage of London. St Paul's was very gracious and accommodating in allowing us to graze the hem of her marble skirts.

We idled past the tents and peered into the Tea and Empathy tent. `That looks like Saskia ...' And indeed it was Saskia, in her element, doing what she was born to do: co-ordinate and facilitate the huge spectrum of protestors having their say. Well not right then actually as it was Remembrance Sunday, but she's involved to her eyeballs. We know Saskia from Hong Kong in the eighties, where she prepared for this work by organising the yearly pantomimes on Lamma Island.

Now the pantomime plays itself on the steps of the cathedral. A whole society has formed itself around the call to conscience, a brave and colourful mandala flung up by frustration and desire for change. We drank tea, empathised, admired the wooden shelves in the kitchen, made by a carpenter, a man of Jesus's trade, and listened. People talked with conviction, as if something, finally, might change, while on the other side of the glass the people in Starbucks drank their coffee. The glass was porous as people glided from one state to another; there were no police but photographers and microphones everywhere.

Everyone had a different angle, enlivened to freely express an opinion on one percent of the population owning 74% of the land (or something like that), the greed of the bankers, the polarised society. Yes, the event has become a peaceful magnet for weirdos and anarchists, but many of the curious are credit-crunched and getting in touch with their weird and anarchist sides. The architectural magnificence of the Cathedral was not demeaned but illuminated by the scene. Inside I lit candles, while worried-looking men in dark suits worked the gate for the worshippers. Heavenly music glided up to the Whispering Gallery and Iona and I shimmied off over the glittering Thames to the Tate ... but not for long.

The free food was appropriate for people camping out but not for day-trippers like us. We fed our beastly bellies in Pizza Express over the road - not my usual dining choice but the service was delightful and the salad delicious. It seems that business is up in the area as a result of the occupation. Saskia brought along a couple of key players, one of whom read us Hamlet's speech from his i-phone, the one about whether it is nobler in the mind to suffer the slings and arrows of outrageous forturne or to take arms against a sea of troubles and by opposing end them.

And there, in the heart of the Square Mile, we learnt about the Remembrancer and the secret sanctity of this chosen plot, and just why the City of London is the hub of global finance. So what's it all about, apart from the realisation that credit is a limited crop? I suggest going to Scrapper Duncan's blog: www.scrapperduncan.com

Firewalking at Sunrise Festival, 2009 ... Woo hoo!