“Beautiful” —the word elbows my tired mind with force. It feels like a horseman spurring his exhausted mare to get going. It's useless. After a restless night, my mind cannot understand the scene at all: a hairy forearm, white skin, obviously mine, cuddling a female torso. The lower part of the female body is cut off from view by the bed sheet at the waist, right where it curves and becomes the hip. The legs are invisible, mere bumps under the cover. What I'm seeing is a strange, distant image, as if looking through a telescope and watching someone peacefully sleeping in a sandstorm. I rub my eyes to get all the sand, dirt, and grit out. Almost immediately, I start to see clearly. The sandstorm has petered out, and I realize that my wife is sleeping in my arms.

... except one happens in a few million years, and the other happens in half a century

How to Find the Woman of Your Dreams By Learning Mandarin

The snow virgin, so sad I worried my arms would fold themselves around her on their own, was sitting on a chair in front of the window. With the curtains drawn, she was looking at passersby on the street, dressed in winter clothes. I knew she wasn’t aware of my presence, and I didn’t mean to let her know about my being there. If I had, I would have risked breaking my train of thought.

In view of the Corona Virus and what is currently going on in and around Wuhan it is difficult to say the words “Happy Chinese New Year Everyone”. How can this be a happy New Year with so many of our wonderful Chinese friends and family facing such a threatening and fast spreading disease?

In part 1 of my blog "From Boy to Man", there is a strong emphasis on self-love and self-respect. While self-love and self-respect are essential to the formation of a  great relationship with a woman, they are not enough. What else is needed? In a word - connection!

A young, 20 or so years old, Chinese male disembarked from the Laurel in Sydney in 1818, just over 200 years ago. The first or perhaps the second legal immigrant from the Middle Kingdom to Sydney. Surely many other itinerant Chinese had landed in the north west diving for beche-de-mer (trepang, sea-cucumber), and perhaps Zheng He had come there too, 400 years earlier. Others had been shanghaied or press ganged and later jumped ship, probably from the Pearl River region, whence Mai Shiying (aka Mak O'pang, Mak Saiying) came too. At some point shortly after arrival, He was assigned the name of John Shying, willy nilly, clearly resulting from the confusion over family names.  That name thenceforth appears on marriage and birth certificates. From John Shying Circa 1798 to John James 1823, John Joseph 1844, William John 1868, and Jack Reuben my grandfather the male chain continues, but Reuben had four daughters, so Narelle, mum, was the end of my branch of the Shying chain.

I was having a rather interesting text-chat last night with a female CLM member who is known to many of us here.

Depending on where you are in the world at the time I post this New Years Eve is approaching or may have slipped by in the last few hours. Either way we want to wish you all a very happy New Years Celebration and a fantastic year in 2020. May you all live in peace, enjoy good health & prosperity, enjoy a loving relationship with your family and either maintain a loving relationship with your current life partner or find such a relationship with a new life partner. 

A few years ago I was fortunate enough to meet the nicest person I have ever met in my life. She would have been in her 30s, never married, nor ever likely to be lucky enough to find a guy who would find her physically attractive, yet she was an awesome human being.