It was very difficult for us to go away as a family because of my sister's special needs, but the chalet bungalows seemed like the perfect place for us all. We didn't go away all together again after that, I think it was easier for my parents to wait until my sister was in respite. So after that, only the three of us went away on holiday together.
I think it was 1981 and I was six years old, I'm the one in the ballet pose, my sister was seven. It's hard to see from the photo but my sister is sporting a rather fetching red poncho and I am wearing a Prisoner Cell Block H beige boiler suit. I have no idea why, it wasn't fashionable even back then, in fact I think they had bell bottoms, so it was just all kinds of wrong. If you look closely you can see my cousin Joni is wearing a Pierrot tearful clown on her sweatshirt. They were all the rage back in the early 80s. Pierrots that is, sweatshirts have always been around, but those Pierrot clowns seemed to be everywhere.
My Mum as always is looking cool in a timeless jeans and plaid shirt combo, while my Dad was in his Christmas jumper, which he wore all year round for many years. It was a brilliant holiday as it was the first time I was allowed to just wander about wherever I pleased without any supervision. I remember being quite thrilled by the freedom. I shared a bunk bed with my cousin who is eight years older than me which is nothing now, but it seemed like a huge gap back then. It was so lovely to have someone to talk to at night, I wanted her to stay with us forever.
My parents and how they met are the inspiration for my novel Never Judge A Book by It's Cover as my Dad was a missionary in the 1960s and my Mum is from the Bidayuh tribe in Borneo. But that's where it ends. The characters that develop in the story are nothing like my parents!
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