Thanks Technut & skeezer; I've tried installing osso-statusbar-cpu from the application manager but I get an error message that some hildon application packages are missing (hildon-libs0, hildon-status-bar-lib0, libdbus). Does this mean I'm missing a repository? I currently have:

Nokia catalog
nokia catalog 3rd party software
nokia System Software Updates
maemo Extras
Maemo Hackers
Pidgin On Maemo

Thanks. I think its the RSS reader so I'm going to try turning auto update off and the desktop app off and see if that helps in the meantime.

JT