Reminiscing...

I'm not sure I can, my recall of the story is sketchy, but I'll have a go (excuse lack of narrative text for brevity):

Parents both Brits who met in Paris, father an aero-engine engineer on secondment and mother a secretary in the diplomatic corps. Born in (or around Paris), early life in Versailles (not the palace, which was run down then) where she has clear memories of their house and garden.

Could only have been 2 or 3 when the Germans invaded, father was elsewhere in France at the time. Mother advised to take the three children and leave as quickly as possible, but the British passport was a problem and she managed to wangle an Irish passport out of their embassy through a distant family link.

They made their way through Spain and left word at the British embassy there, eventually to Lisbon where they managed to get a cargo ship to Liverpool.

Meanwhile father had found the house empty and was told where the family was headed, and made his own way back.

Blackpool and Glasgow come into the story somewhere, but I forget the details. Eventually the family were reunited, and settled in Bristol.

Rather like Casablanca.
 
I remember travelling down to Southampton for the birth of a cousin. I remember the train journey with my Mother, my Father following later, also a trip to the Isle of Wight and seeing the flying boats on the Solent. I have no recollection of my older sister, but she must have been with us.

My cousin was two years younger than I. That places me between 2 and 3.
 
My earliest memory was when Mum and Dad took me to his cousins sheep farm for a holiday. I would have been about 4, maybe 3 years old. The specific memory was feeding an orphan lamb with a baby bottle. It was a case of hang on to the bottle for dear life as the lamb was shaking it so much as it drank. It was a bit of a terrifying experience for such a little lad as the lamb was nearly as tall as me. I also remember a trip out to the lighthouse on the nearby coast, and looking down a cliff at what seemed to be a roaring sea on the rocks below. It was an awful long way down for a wee lad.

I also remember being taken to primary school to enrol as my 5th birthday approached.
 
I hated going to primary school, I was not keen at all. I was too happy staying at home, and feel as though that was a long held feeling for me, so I must have been aware that things were about to change.
 
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Is it safe yet to eat pork when there isn't an r in the month?
 
Am I the only person not to be stupid enough to buy bottled water? Dearer than petrol at motorway stops.
 
Bottled water is to be phased out by 2040, in favour of dehydrated water. Fact.
 
Bottled water should be phased out tomorrow, with a ten second 'phase'. Or as an alternative, the sum of £5 as a deposit on the bottle. The stupid rich will still be able to afford it, but it would be good to walk around and not see every other person clutching a bottle of water. What's all that about anyway?
 
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