Early Memories

Pakistan:  I have a hazy memory of being taken by our bearer to visit his family.  We came though a corrugated iron door in a mud brick wall into a court yard with about 5 or 6 people.  There was a donkey, and rooms at the back.  The sun was bright and hot.

Hong Kong:  I remember our first flat on the 8th floor.  My room overlooked Argyll Street, 6 lanes of traffic.  I liked the room; the smell of the air-conditioner which had that damp towel smell, that you used to get in the London Tube.  I remember hearing the Salvation Army playing Christmas Carols down below in the parking area around the base of the adjacent tower block.

We sometimes were visited by a vegetable seller who used to come round the flats with two baskets suspended on a bamboo pole.  He used to come into the flat and Mum bought vegetables from him.

I remember counting taxis from our window ledge with Peter, looking down over the dual carriageway, and watching people walking up the spiral walkway to the private hospital across the road from us.  We also saw Hakka women dressed in black, with wide brimmed sun hats, cutting the grass with sickles.

I remember being given the choice of what colour to paint my bedroom.  This as a very special choice.  I chose orange.  I remember looking at the wall thinking 'so that is what it would look like', and liking it very much.  Peter chose electric yellow.

I remember the trauma Mum went through when she looked after a friend's gerbil.  The idea was that the new off-spring were going to be for us, although by the end of the week, the mother gerbil had killed all the babies, and trumatised my mother.  I do not remember it as being traumatic, except seeing the effect on Mum, which was quite bad.

I remember feeling this insect crawling on my shoulder.  I swatted it, and there was a great crash.  It had been an orchid in a vase rather than an insect, though the natural deception had worked on me.  Mum was very good to me about the broken vase.

I remember when some other children came round and the 'big girl' bit a chunk out of a glass.  I don't think she cut herself, by Mum was very concerned about her.

I remember visiting dad at his office in the evening, down by the Star Ferry.  I don't know if we were taking him some food, but I understood that he was going to be working though the night.

I remember (how can I forget) when Peter and I persuaded Mum and Dad to leave us outside the supermarket, Dairy Lane, while they shopped inside.  After about two hours of waiting, Peter and I concluded that they must have forgotten we were there, and gone home without us seeing them.  We went home ourselves, which involved crossing the duel carriageway.   We were surprised to find the parents hadn't got home yet.  When this did get home, they seemed very flustered.  We both got spanked that evening, which was very confusing, but I don't remember any pain, just confusion.  Mum said that we would think twice about crossing a busy road again.  Perhaps true, I have not risked it since then.