A change of heart in the Galapagos

For years I have been chastised for having the dolphin as my favourite animal. People have shunned me at parties, I have stood in the corner, drink in hand, the cool liquid my only friend. The high-pitched tones of the dolphin have played in my ears as my friends have turned their backs and talked of tigers and elephants, sharks and snakes. Greater animals, tougher, faster and more dangerous.

Dolphin love is 80s they said, Flipper is childhood thing, the dolphin heyday has passed and will never to reach the heights of the 50s when Opo the friendly dolphin graced New Zealand's shores and played with the wee ones. Why not choose any one of the gigantic beasts from the great plains or a magnificent bird? Why not go left field and choose the Siberian Snow Leopard?

For a time I stood fast, resolute in my love for the friendly sea creature, but not fast enough. For it was in the early 2000s, when my acceptance into a new and exciting University peer group teetered on the brink, that I dropped the Dolphin and slumped for the Bengal Tiger. It was a strong choice and it played well with my friends, you cannot quibble with the orange and black beauty from the sub-continent, but oh how my heart ached.

Concerning guns

It's not the safest border crossing but we'd done our research. Every thing's pointing to one bus company as the best means with which to cross and yet...

3.30am in the morning, immigration control, no man's land. Bleary eyed, it's pelting with rain, mud oozes through my shoes and I'm wet through. Trudging unthinking towards the lights and suddenly a scream. I turn, a struggle, a 6ft giant pressed against my wife and before I can think a gun is at her head - a moment frozen in time.

Screaming ´gun´and lunging forward, all sense of self-preservation is gone. Rugby tackling Kate back into the bus, through the door, legs everywhere and mud all over us, through the next door and slammed shut. Eyes wide and shoulder against the perspex, can plastic stop a bullet? Our eyes meet in terror, the unknown. We're safe? A beat... we're safe. To look at your loved-one's face in this state breaks every fibre of your soul.