French and American cookbooks obviously share the same subject: They both deal with the preparation of food.

But that’s where the similarity ends. American recipes are very exact, while French recipes are open to personal variation. In American cookbooks, the teaspoon of sugar, for instance, is described as rounded or flat. French cookbooks are inclined to be less precise. The French cookbook writer thinks nothing of listing a “sprinkling of pepper” or a “pinch of salt.” French cookbooks are also likely to tell the reader to “season according to taste.” American cookbooks, in contrast, don’t seem to have as much faith in their readers’ ability to get the recipe right from taste. They tell readers exactly how much seasoning to use.

I have chronic pain and at times this is severe, but this is managed with opiates. I know the general public has a very perverted view of opiates because they think street addiction, heroin, drug smugglers.

However, if prescribed correctly by doctors in the right dose for your height and weight and you manage it well yourself, I haven’t increased my dose of 80 milligrams of morphine in the last 18 years. So that’s a fairly good illustration, that no you don’t double it every ten minutes the way the general public think. And also it’s very well looked after by the government. I have to present myself to my GPs who all get to know me very well every 30 days, and they have to phone to Canberra to have authorization, and I get my monthly dose of opiates to keep me going till the next lot.