Upsetting the Table.
We were at the 20 Churchwardens in Cockley Cley. Two families lunching en famille. It must have been the early eighties. Our Richard was about ten.
At that time the signature dish at the pub was cottage pie - individual with lots of mashed potato and melted golden cheese on top.
Lunch was served outside on a slightly ricketty garden table. Cola,beer,wine was to hand. We had just said "cheers" when Richard, for a reason best known to himself, decided to duck under the table and stand up.
Cottage pie on the level is a wondrous dish to behold. Cottage pie at a twenty degree angle escorted by beer and cola becomes a weapon that brings out the instincts of a slip fielder and the side step of a matador.
The next few seconds became a blur of broken crockery, spilt liquids and spoilt clothing.
I fumed,I spluttered, I apologised, I looked at John. He looked at me, smiled and said "Steady Charlie he has just given you your first wedding story".
Dishing the dirt
"As kids, John also took great delight in flicking me with his dishcloth while drying the dishes together, just too great a temptation for a big brother to resist ..!"
Lizzie Gill (sister)
In the Louvre
"As an 18th birthday Coming Of Age treat, John was taken by his father for a weekend in Paris. Arriving at the Louvre metro station on their way to visit the Louvre, John noticed big posters featuring Louvre artefacts. "Oh," said John like quicksilver, "There's no need to go into the Louvre, we've seen it already!"
John's mother and father, Roy and Margaret
The angel
"The most angelic photo of John ever, was taken on a day out from his boarding prep school, wearing his smart school uniform. We'd gone to look at a nearby section of the new MI being built at the time, and are standing on an footbridge over it, to get a good view. For some reason, butter wouldn't melt in his mouth that day."
Photo to come!
John's mother and father, Roy and Margaret
John's arrival
"John was pulled into the world after a 24-hr labour with the cord wrapped round his neck three times, by his parents' old medical teacher Anglo-Egyptian Dr Fahny, who played rugger for Scotland."
John's mother and father, Roy and Margaret
The joy of socks
I remember being at granny and pop's in Spalding, aged about 6, and uncle John tying my socks together.