Nothing about my limits is interesting and all of it is final

No pain. Nothing that leaves anything behind. No degradation, including the affectionate kind. No other people, ever, in any configuration. No animals, no needles, no breath, nothing medical. And no protocol theatre in public, because I find it embarrassing and I always have.

That list has not changed in eleven years and it is not a starting position. I put it in the post because roughly one man in four treats a stated limit as an opening offer, and I have had the conversation where somebody explains that I have simply not met the right person yet enough times to want to head it off in print.

Thirty four, the west, eleven years leading, two arrangements, the second of them ended last year for the extremely dull reason that he moved to another country.

What is left, once you take all that out, is most of what I actually care about. Rules that run through a week. Household service done properly and checked. A man who reports at a set hour and does not need reminding. Long slow correction that is entirely verbal and does not have to be enjoyable to be effective. Eleven years and neither arrangement ever felt short of anything.

If your interest is mainly in what is on the list, we would waste each other's time, and I would rather you found somebody suited to you. If what is left sounds like your whole life rather than a compromise, write and tell me what a Tuesday would look like.