Things with Ann are going well. We have been seeing each other for 7 months now and being a couple with cultural difference (did I really say that?), trust has taken time to develop. I can understand her point of view very clearly, for how potentially fraught is it to enter a relationship in a foreign land, with an inhabitant of said place, without prior recommendation or any real knowledge of that person's character. Australia is a Western liberal democracy which has taken all its cues, until recently, from the the UK and the USA. Only latterly has there been a pivot, so to speak, to Asia.

Thailand is another world by comparison - a society strongly informed by Buddhism, a powerful group ethic and extended family ties and obligations. Relaxed and liberated it might seem to tourists, but scratch the surface and you will find an abiding conservatism.

So Ann and I are negotiating this divide as best we can. I am very open-minded as a rule, though critical of the contemporary interpretation of liberty and freedom in the West. So it is much easier for our minds to meet on many issues.

Ann will move in with me in November, even though this will necessitate a long journey to the city most days. But it will test our relationship and that is a good thing.