I can't take credit for this, but it's rather amusing, and shows how ridiculous the English language can be...

I take it you already know,
Of tough and bough and cough and dough.
Others may stumble, but not you,
On hiccough, thorough, laugh and through.
Well done! And now you wish, perhaps,
To learn of less familiar traps.
Beware of heard, a dreadful word,
That looks like beard and sounds like bird.
And dead - it's said like bed, not bead, For goodness' sake, don't call
it 'deed'!
Watch out for meat and great and threat, (They rhyme with suite and
straight and debt).
A moth is not a moth in mother,
Nor both in bother, broth in brother.
And here is not a match for there,
Nor dear and fear for bear and pear.
And then there's dose and rose and lose - Just look them up - and goose
and choose.
And cork and work and card and ward,
And font and front and word and sword.
And do and go and thwart and cart -
Come, come, I've hardly made a start!
A dreadful language? Why man alive!
I'd mastered it when I was five.

Happy birthday.

Happy birthday to a dear friend,

A beautiful person,

A wonderful lover.

Someone who will always be close to my heart.

Have a great day, and know that I'm thinking of you.

Life is a combination of choices made and chances - the choices you make affecting others as chance, and the choices of others becoming chances for you. As I grow older, I'm becoming less happy with some of the choices I have made in my life, although there are others that I wouldn't change.

I would prefer to live my life on the boil - I perform best under stress and pressure - but it seems things are mostly on the simmer, with just the occasional bubble rising up to disturb the surface.

What would you do differently if you could change things over? It's hard to say - even harder without the benefit of hindsight.

Some of the things that seemed bad at the time turned out for the best - missing one job led to the chance to work overseas for a year - missing another took me to Taiwan, and gave me the chance to meet you.

One thing I would change if I could - I would have met you much earlier, before things became even more complicated for each of us. Who knows where things would have gone?

One thing I would not change for anything in the world - meeting you.

I seem to live much of my life in a deep waking slumber, a state of almost catatonic numbness.

Time spent with you, in comparison, is like the difference between night and day - short burst of magnificent intensity, like the flare of magnesium.

I have just returned from a business trip to Sydney, during which I had a chance to catch up with Celine over dinner. Celine is the person who introduced me to AliveNotDead, and she is someone that I love talking with. If you haven't already done so, look her up: celineblog.

And may I say, she is even more beautiful in person than her photos show.

It was a lovely evening - we ate at a new, hot and happening restaurant, sharing a delectable ten course degustation meal.

For those who are interested, this is what we had to eat:

Opel’s confit of tomatoes with ox-heart tomato sorbet and garlic tulle

Sea scallops with cauliflower puree and avocado crème brulee

Soft shell crab with snapper chips and celeriac puree

Ravioli of bug and salmon with lobster veloute

Tomato water

Lobster crepe with baby herb salad and saffron-carrot emulsion

Wagyu sirloin with foie gras mousse and wild mushroom

Melon ice with black olive snow

Chocolate ganache with chickpeas dust and strawberry caviar

Warm passionfruit sangria with poached pears and rose water ice cream

For me, it was the perfect evening - catching up with a dear friend; sharing a candelit dinner for two with a beautiful, warm, intelligent person; enjoying exquisitely prepared concoctions.

It was one of those delightful interludes that linger with you for a long time.

Celine, love and kisses from me.