2006-01-01 - 5:10 p.m.

I'm back!

I returned yesterday from eleven sunny, adventurous days on the island of Maui, all brownly freckled and festooned with shell leis. It was unreservedly the best vacation I've ever had. As souvenirs, I have a cracked rib (from body-surfing the massive bathwater-warm waves), a fancy mahogany ukulele (complete with impromptu lessons from a toothless old Hawai'ian master), and, most importantly, a fiancee!!!

Three little diamonds in a yellow gold ring, slipped on her finger near the 60 foot plume of the Nakalele Blowhole, elicited a warm and tearful "yes."

So congratulations to me - the bee and the monk are now officially a permanent fixture.

There are so many pictures and stories that I will have much to relate in the coming weeks, but I will save the juicy details for now. Suffice it to say that it feels like I have been gone for years. The world here seems so unfamiliar and grey next to the residual tropical colours in my mind's eye.

But I am glad to be home all the same.

Happy New Year, my friends.