Missed wedding anniversary...

I'm currently in New York. Last Wednesday night, I woke in the middle of the night feeling as though I was about to explode... And then I did!

All day Thursday I lay on my own, in the dark in a hotel bed on 5th Avenue as sick as a dog. I felt awful. I simply couldn't muster the strength to get out of bed.

Fortunately, after a similar kind of bout last year in China, my dear friend Inway Ni, administered some Chinese herbal remedy for just such an ailment. It worked like magic. At the bottom of my toiletry bag I had kept two of these magic (if foul tasting) pills. And sure enough, even that one small dose gave some small relief.

The kind people at the hotel sent out to Duane Reade just across the street where they were told that dozens of people had been in with the same symptoms. And no, they hadn't heard of the Chinese Lee Man Shan pill. So, it was the Imodium plus, Pepto-Bismol Max diet for the next 24 hours.

Inway, you must send me a new supply!

Of course, during this period, when I spent hours shouting for Huey and Duey down the big white telephone in the hotel bathroom, I forgot to order the gift I wanted to send to Tatiana for our ninth wedding anniversary the next day.

So, for the first time in nine years, no gift for my wife. I felt so bad about it. But, of course, Tatiana was happy to forgive as she knew I had been so ill the day before. So, T, here's a belated happy anniversary and I'll make it all up to you next weekend.

And here's a little reminder of us as two lovey-dovey-birds just after we got married nine years back!