Anecdotes

We were booked on Lloyd Triestino’s Oceania from Bombay to Venice. Mum was invited to sit at the captain’s table again, thanks to her looks. There was no shortage of […]

In a letter to one of my mother’s sisters, she complained that there were King Cobras and Black Mambas in the garden, especially when the grass was long. Then as […]

I was a quiet baby, a quiet toddler and a quiet five-year-old. Due to difficulties with my birth, my parents might have started to think I was damaged. One evening […]

When you think of Africa, you tend to think of elephants, well I do. Many people have stories of their encounters with elephants, here are mine. The family was on […]

Oyster Bay was the first of three homes we had in Dar es Salaam. It was just up the coast from the city. We were a stone’s throw from the […]

All children have accidents. I just think my family had more than their fair share. Being accident-prone seems to be a family trait, something I have handed down to my […]

Most families have cats and dogs as pets and we were no different. Except for a chameleon, we had no exotic pets, there was no need for them as they […]

Most of the dozen or so homes we had throughout our stay in East Africa had a shamba (garden). They were of various sizes; some covered as much as an […]

Every few years my father was entitled to a ‘long leave’, this was for the family to visit the UK. For some reason, this entailed long sea voyages as opposed […]

I had to undergo surgery on a hernia, this was something new for me to boast about. So, for the next couple of months, I would walk up to complete […]