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PARABENS PARA VOCÊ!

I'd just like to say an intercontinental Nice One to my dear friend Lawtey, who was born 38 years ago on this very day. He is in TEFL in Málaga, on the Costa del Sol, Spain, where he wears a beard despite the elevated temperatures, and writes precociously.

Lawtey is also author of one of the most fascinating comments on TEFL I've ever heard. It is, he has reasoned, like sitting in a stationary railway carriage in a station when another stationary train is alongside, and when one of the trains starts moving, one doesn't know which it is... I'm not quite sure what he means, yet I am - that's the genius of his observation.

He has been known to pop in from time to time and stalk me, and if that's he case, this tiny effort won't have been wasted.

Parabéns para você
Nesta data querida
Muitas felicidades
Muitos anos* de vida!


(*) - In Brazilian, "anos" doesn't mean "anuses" like it does in Spanish, incidentally.

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