Day Forty Eight - mind games

'Everyone lies', one of my clients told me as I was trying to build his confidence in me.

'Everyone' he said, looking at me straight in the eyes. That may be so, I thought, but I'm not lying right at this moment so why are you telling me this?

In my attempt to bond on a personal basis the first thing this guy says to me is that he doesn't trust anyone an inch. So much for my client relationship skills.

And when I think about it, my own lies are more self-deception than anything else.

Pretty much everything in the household Loki claims possession over. He's a bit like the King and swans - for some reason swans in the UK are all the property of the King. How that works I've no idea, but that same sense of entitlement seems to be innate in Loki.

For quite some time I managed to convince Matilda that medieval people thought swans were fish. That's about the only interesting thing I know about swans.

Up in the Swiss Alps today. Not a swan to be seen anywhere. And I've remembered the real reason I don't like skiing- I have feet like a duck.

They suffer, all squashed up in my boots and the pain is such that I realise if I was a spy, caught by the enemy, I'd confess in a second if they put my feet in ski boots. Codes, colleagues, family - I'd give the lot up instantly.

Well that's romance for you. Happy Valentine's Day everyone.