Then there would be the sumptuous dinners amid the Pugin wallpaper and oak panelling of the dining rooms, the gins and tonics in the comfort of the House of Lords' many bars and the long afternoons engulfed in a big leather armchair in the library.What would I call myself, if successful? It would have to be Baroness Dillon of Scarborough - they'd be very proud at home. And the coat of arms? Fish and chips, a pint of Theakston's XB rampant and a few blue wavy lines at the bottom to represent the sea. Perfect.So now I wait, my ambitions in the hands of the Commission, Mr Blair and, ultimately, the Queen. A wistful last flick through the blurb they sent with the form, and there it is - real hope. The criteria and process for choosing the "people's peers" is "not fixed forever" Great. Even if I'm not ready to be a Lady yet, there's always next year..

An unknown number of people are believed to have been buried by an avalanche Sunday in the western Austrian province of Tyrol, according to local media reports. An unknown number of people are believed to have been buried by an avalanche Sunday in the western Austrian province of Tyrol, according to local media reports. Early reports said as many as five people could be buried under the snow mass, but no exact figure was known. The search has concentrated on the Rosskar ski area.Police from the small community of Obergurgl 215 miles west of Vienna, have mounted a search for survivors, the Austria Press Agency reported. The tiny resort is very isolated and is situated almost on the Austrian border with Italy, south of the city of Innsbruck.Around 60 people from the regional mountain rescue service, together with specially trained mountain dogs were involved in the search. Tourists and skiers were reported to be helping in the effort.No other information was immediately available.The avalanche follows on the heels of Austria's biggest ski disaster last weekend when 155, mostly young people and children, died in a fire on a funicular train, inside a tunnel in the Kitzsteinhorn Mountain at the resort of Kaprun in the province of Salzburg.. Four Britons - three men and a woman - were killed in a road accident in Belgium yesterday.

Four Britons - three men and a woman - were killed in a road accident in Belgium yesterday. The four were in their 20s and believed to be from London, according to a Foreign Office spokesman. Their car appeared to have hit a bridge on the E17 motorway at Temse, south-west of Antwerp, and no other vehicles were thought to be involved.Belgium has one of the worst road safety records in Europe, with the level of accidents similar to that of Greece and Portugal. The south-eastern corner of Belgium is the European Union's most dangerous single region for road accidents; high-speed tailgaiting is common and the Belgian death rate is two-and-a-half times that of Britain. Until 1970, no driving test was needed to get a licence.Meanwhile, Saudi police are no closer to establishing a motive for the death of a British man who was killed when the car in which he was travelling exploded in the Saudi Arabian capital Riyadh. Christopher Rodway, a 48-year-old expatriate, died in hospital after the blast in the centre of the city.Mr Rodway, who worked as an engineer in the Royal Military Hospital in Riyadh, had lived in the country for eight years, a Foreign Office spokesman said.Prince Nayef, the Saudi Interior Minister, said last night that the motive remained unclear and that Mr Rodway was not known to have any military links. He said: "The motives behind the incident could be either personal or political.

It is not possible to rule anything out."Mr Rodway's wife Jane, 50, was also in the car but suffered only superficial injuries. The blast comes in an atmosphere of widespread Muslim and Arab anger towards the West for its perceived support of Israel in the ongoing Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Although anger towards British interests has been relatively muted, the explosion came five weeks after a man threw a bomb at the British embassy in neighbouring Yemen.. On Monday and Tuesday, both lunchtime and evening, the Hippopotamus Grill in the Place de Ternes near the Arc de Triomphe was deserted.