THESE photographs of the Forth Bridge, which were taken a fortnight ago, demonstrate one certainty and one possibility. The certainty is that the various heirs and successors of British Railways are very short of cash. The possibility is that this lack of cash is shortening the life of the most famous steel structure in Britain and arguably (always remembering the Eiffel Tower) in the world.

TOKYO - Directly opposite the window of my flat is a three-storey apartment building. I can also see a few trees, an elevated expressway, Tokyo's imitation of the Eiffel Tower, and a Zen temple - all nestled in a mosaic of roofs.

BY HOVERCRAFT: 'Eiffel Tower appears to have been moved'

Richard Thomson, who has conceived and organised 'Monet to Matisse' for the National Gallery of Scotland, declares in the catalogue that accompanies the exhibition that 'landscape painting is a cultural receptacle constantly remoulded to accommodate external values'. Quite what he means by this is unclear - it may simply be an inelegant way of repeating the truism that changes in art reflect changes in society - but Thomson's definition of paintings as receptacles seems involuntarily revealing. That is certainly how they have been treated in this exhibition - receptacles, for the most part, for his own theories about them.

MOSCOW - The face of this city is changing so fast these days that if you leave town for a short break, you hardly recognise the city when you return. The Kremlin remains but it seems the streets are forever being renamed and now they are getting a new look too.

Oliver, 12, is the singer and double bass player in Animal Jack Senior, a rockabilly band. The other members are his father, Andy Brindley, and sister, Joelle, 13, though not his mother, Fernanda. The family live in Pembrokeshire.

Even the most assiduous rivet counter would have been exhausted by Ferdinand Dutert's Palais des Machines. This heroic building stood for 20 years, from 1889 to 1909, in the shadow of the Eiffel Tower. It boasted no fewer than 640,000 rivets punched into 20 massive steel trusses. It was one of the largest buildings of its, and any other, day and hugely influential.

Despite its money troubles, Euro Disneyland has established itself as by far the No 1 tourist attraction in France, AP reports from Paris. It outdraws such landmarks as the Eiffel Tower and the Louvre by better than 2-1.

Merci, merci, thanks a million, I thank you]' One expected Grappelli to get a rousing reception just for still being alive, but the standing ovation at the end of this concert came as a thoroughly deserved tribute to genius. Although the whole evening floated on a cloud of sentimental goodwill, no special allowances had to be made for his performance. Grappelli at 86 years of age is, in essential respects, the same as ever.

THIS WAS the show Robert Altman didn't film. The presence of the wise director and his cameras by almost every other catwalk during the recent French collections, culling scenes for his next film, Pret-a-Porter, had lent a new level of surreality to what is already one of the most self-conscious of events.

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Tomorrow Councillor Eric Flounders of Bow Neighbourhood, east London, will - one supposes - rub his hands with glee as House, Rachel Whiteread's prize-winning sculpture, is demolished. House has filled column yards of newspapers over the past fortnight. Thousands of coutured aesthetes who have rarely, if ever, travelled east of Whitechapel Art Gallery, and thousands of others, simply curious, invaded Bow at the weekend to gawp at, touch, climb over and photograph the object of Councillor Flounders' scorn.

Sir: Cllr Eric Flounders' decision to enforce the deadline for the removal of Rachel Whiteread's sculpture may be within the law, but his comments (Letters, 25 November) typify how inflexible the committee he chairs can be.

HERE are some of the anniversaries you might otherwise have missed during the coming week, traditionally a good period for the universe, the United States, and women, except in Italy.