The White House has argued that, although Mr Clinton misled the public, they do not. His lawyers say it is a personal matter and he has apologised. and just acknowledge, 'Yeah, I've done some really bad things, I've really screwed up here', my gosh, I think the President could get through this."Opinion polls show the immediate impact of the release of the Starr report has done little to affect the President's approval ratings. An ABC News poll from Saturday shows that Mr Clinton's approval rating has held up, at 59 per cent,marginally below his average for the year. The percentage saying he should stay in office is up five points from Friday to 55 per cent.Although the public mood has toughened in terms of the punishment demanded, it is towards censure, not impeachment. "I decided that, as I was going to have a child, I would never travel again and that would be it. So we took off."They hired a car and drove to Cologne and through the Ardennes.

"Oddly enough, it was the first time I'd seen trees cased in ice." Vancouver Island, in the south west, has a temperate climate and doesn't get hard winters like the rest of Canada."We stopped in a village near Malmedy, in Belgium, to look at a memorial to 26 American soldiers who had been shot by the Germans during the Second World War. A lady came out of her cottage to ask what we were doing - she had seen our German licence plates and wanted to check up on us. We talked and she invited us into her house for coffee and told us her story. As a young girl, she had been taken to see the bodies of those young boys.

When we met her, it was Christmas time and close to the anniversary of their deaths.Because of Christmas, a lot of the shops were closed. "In Clervaux, in Luxembourg, I was wandering around window-shopping when I spotted this ceramic pear-shaped bottle. It was beautiful: rosy and gold with a little green leaf on it. I fell in love with it - it really was exactly the same sensation as falling in love - but I couldn't do anything about it because the shop was closed.Two days later, I told my husband I had to go back for it - I just had to have it. It was very emotional and totally irrational, but I bought it. Years later, I sprayed oven- cleaner on it and ruined it, but that is another story!"Novelist Marilyn Bowering's latest book, `Visible Worlds', is published by Flamingo, pounds 10.99..