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 […]