Mother kept Rhode Island Red hens intensively in a wooden hut with deep litter in a corner of the back garden. Russell and I, when sent to scatter the grain, often dug out the sunflower seeds and happily ate them, Russell loved animals, and he adopted a hen whom he called Spotty and played with her and his cat Tickey. It was real bliss for him when Dad eventually gave up his conviction that dogs were a bad health risk with children, and Bink, an Irish Terrier, was given to him. Bink for many years was an integral part of the family. He slept at night in a basket on the halfway-up landing. We kept a tortoise in the back garden, which to our delight once laid an egg, and we suffered agonies of worry when it disappeared during hibernation, but were so pleased when it surfaced again.

Missing a term that year didn�t seem to hamper me as I was happy at school and had few problems with learning. I was an avid reader, and when I was put to bed with measles in a darkened room and unable to read I was very unhappy - a state of mind which was not improved by the enormous feeling of guilt which I had because I had brought home a school library book (A Tale of Two Cities) strictly against the rules, and I couldn�t think how to get it back quickly unnoticed.~- And what would happen if I died? In sewing class I made a child�s gingham dress which I gave to Gertie's little girl when Mother took me on one of her periodic visits to her at Kuils River.

Books always kept me happily occupied - now it was "Ann of Green Gables", "Little Women", "Sixth Form at St Dominic�s", The biography of Mary Slessor, a missionary in West Africa, and all Angela Brazil�s schoolgirl stories. This was another cause of envy for Rita - she owned every single one of Angela Brazil�s books, while I had one only! But Rita had a lot of illness as bronchitis laid her low frequently, so her mother kept her well supplied with books.

"Shirley, keep your mouth shut", "Shirley, shut your mouth" were commands familiar to me until it was decided that I should have my adenoids taken out. This was done at Hof Street Nursing Home, where I spent a day with plenty of books and I don�t remember any discomfort.

Another instruction was from Mother: "Turn your toes out. Ladies always walk with their toes turned out, not in." I followed this injunction, but when I was married, Pat did not approve at all. "All athletes walk with their feet at least straight, preferably a bit pigeon-toed. I don�t like the way you walk." So I had to re-learn that bit!

We had no games at Tamboers Kloof School, but Mother insisted on various cultural pursuits. Besides dancing lessons in the playroom, for years I struggled with piano lessons - poor Miss Coralstein, who lived round the corner in Warren Street, must have despaired of me, but Mother wanted me to continue the lessons; practising was sheer torture, and I never learnt to "listen" to music. On Saturday mornings, with May and Vola Moore-Anderson, I went sketching with Miss Beaumont on Signal Hill, but sadly I showed no aptitude in this field either. Then I had private elocution lessons which I thoroughly enjoyed. I obviously needed these, as when we were in Glasgow my cousin Ian and I could not understand each other - he with his Glaswegian accent and I with my South African one. (When we next met, in New Zealand in 1983, we had no communication problems.)