Someone could - or is - making a fortune from such as this home-made version of a sudoku board : with the grid in permanent ink, and providing a whiteboard (erasable) pen... even extra facets.

I made this up because last night i was stuck on one from the book that i bought Monday - it had no 5's at all, so there were at least 2 choices for every hard-to-solve square (you can see i've left one of the 5's outo in the bottom right line 3 in!). This morning - as i avoid going on the computer late at night for my eye's sake - I googled on sudoku hints, and found one that gave me some ideas, but reinforced the practice i had been doing of (as in illustration) putting all possible numbers in the square. Seeing I was in danger of needing another correction pen as well as breathing it in and clogging up the biro by writing on it before it had dried, i remembered this little whiteboard, with the novel's synopsis on it. Rummaging around i found two colours of permanent marker and the whiteboard marker that was attached to it, and ruled up the grid. It will be amusing to see if they do come on the market, for as the back of the book attests, it is quite addictive, and therapeutic for concentration, inference and self-criticism (as well as confidence).

Hmm, the morning is running away, but it feels good to have 'interest' back in life. Will try the pizza dough recipe again tonight, as i didn't spread the dough out enough and it was too thick - but an excellent recipee off a bowienet messageboard thread from her grannie who grew up in Benvenuto (which at first glance i thought was Verdi's birthplace but that is Busseto