Last week I participated in a funeral in the Taoist tradition in Hong Kong. While funerals are not most peoples' preferred activity the older you get the more of them you witness.

The Chinese experience is so different I thought I'd share it. Firstly, Taoism is the traditional religion of China with multiple gods and "saints". The terms don't translate exactly, so I'll approximate.

I would not normally recommend a movie on this site , and believe me, this is not an advertising pitch, but I just saw the most wonderful film on a plane. The title is 'Stardust' and it really is a magical movie which includes TG/TV sequences (Robert De Niro as a TV pirate!) and it is one of the nicest films I have seen in a long time, but then I'm a silly sentimental old romantic.

Some vital points were raised by participants in the recent blog discussion about food instigated by SueBrown and left unanswered, because she flummoxed me and I had to concede that I did not have the information readily to hand. In addition I was falsely accused by Sarah Lynn Morgan of hastening the demise of the Homing Leek. I will demonstrate below that this is a monstrous calumny.

Can someone please explain why the voting mechanism works sometimes and not at others?

Hi everybody. I just discovered BC. A little later than most, I guess. At age 65 I am still theoretically male externally, but confused internally. If only the internet had existed 50 years ago! Anyway, I missed my best chance at the age of 19 through a combination of a lack of maturity and utter cowardice in a time when transsexuality was almost a capital crime and only brave souls like Christine Johannsen and April Ashley made the journey. I did not have their guts. Not complaining. My decision, and life compensates you in other ways.