Back in Oz

I'm back in Australia now after 3 months in Liverpool, UK doing a course. I stopped off in Singapore and Thailand to catch up with my mother and brother (who has just completed a 5 month stint in South Africa). Also managed to see my grandma, aunt and a whole host of relatives in South Thailand and Singapore.

The violence in South Thailand has not abated despite the change in Government after the coup. My grandma is OK.

I also attended one of my best friend's wedding to his sweetheart of 7 years in his garden in Ocean Grove, near Geelong in Victoria. It was a simple ceremony and very beautiful. There was a buffet dinner following that.

This is the reading he got me to do (adapted from Roy Croft):

My Friend

I love you, not only for what you are,
but what I am when I am with you.
I love you, not only for what you have made of yourself,
but what you are making of me.

I love you because you have done more
than any creed could have done to make me good,
and more than any fate could have done to
make me happy.

You have done it without a touch, without a word, without a sign.
You have done it by being yourself.

Signs and Symptoms - China

Now what coffee would you like again?
Summer Palace outside Beijing. Probably not what the Empress Dowager ordered.

This and that - Hot Dog

New York, USA, Helsinki, Finland and Zheng Zhou, China, more like Five-spice dog.