Double thank you. I guess I start understanding the use of the Honorific/Humble forms thanks to your reply. It is not only a matter of whom I am talking to, but also a matter of who is the subject of the verb. You see, I had never thought about mixing honorific and humble coz I thought you talk to someone higher in status you use only honorific. You examples made things much more clear thank you.
Hee hee thank you also for the comment about the detective. Actually mine was more a test. I have always used ますです when I typed in here. But since I have been writing for a long time to a person in Japan I wanted to try an get out of the ますです at least with her. But since I have never done I wanted to see reactions in here first...well I guess I will stick with ますです even with her
