A very charming Japanese colleague goes to Hokkaido and brings me back a present. It is a squid. She says – Neil-san i have put the cooking instructions on the packet_.

I look and this is what I see.

Nuke those squid.

My sniggerish reaction was how cute, she got the English wrong in a cuddly Japanese  way. I mentioned this to a friend who said _ My kids always say nuke when they microwave something_.

So her, my gift giving colleague, English was way ahead of mine.

Be humble in this journey through the valley of the shadow of death.

By the way, someone poured a bottle of Awamori into my keyboard at the last party. I am now using a borrowed Japanese key board on which I find not inverted commas.