Checked with a friend who has attended an acupuncture college in LA for a full-time course the past five years. Recommended versions of the Neijing, please? I ask. Bought one, ten years ago, but it´s not great. Just bought his recommendation.

http://www.redwingbooks.com/sku/YelEmpCanIntMed

At 831 pages it might not be the greatest thing to yank around London, but hey, it´s a good translation with both original chinese text, english translation and commentaries.

The Neijing is the bible of classical chinese medicine. Big subject. I´ll write more about it later. The first version of it was written 2200 years so I think it can wait.

I discuss needles with my friend by e-mail, him from 2 in the morning in Los Angeles. Two thirty-something Westerners discussing needle-types and their different clinical effects on patients by e-mail across the globe, him in smogfilled Los Angeles, me in quiet Sweden heading for dirty London. Heading for the Smoke, to study acupuncture. Life can be strange sometimes.