Steampunk vampire-fanged and demon-clawed mistress, Aemilia Hawk, from Bristol took some time off this weekend to switch for her partner, Ben, who has recently contracted a serious case of the Shibari Syndrome. Apparently, he has been exhibiting similar symptoms to Nina: incessant and repeated watching of videos of the Japanese masters at work, often as much as 20 or 30 times and a deep obsession with the minutae of their techniques. As a birthday treat, she booked a weekend residential Japanese bondage course with me and a set of ropes for him. You can see her blog, Velvet Thoughts, where she describes how it feels to have a bit of time off on the other side here.