Dear Dr Xi,

what a quaint rejoinder! i really must jot that one down for the archives...i'm sure there's a button here somewhere i can press to save me the trouble...though really, it's marvellous isn't it when those who have arrived so late in life to what they think is the English language make such courageous attempts to deduce what has been expressed by others more competent than they! nothing encourages like encouragement as my old stan struggled so bravely to express from the strictures of his iron-lung confinement after that puzzling episode following the great Scone rodent plague of 1973...but there i go again with my silly reminiscences...what an old fuddy duddy i am!

yours encouragingly,

Miss Tick.