Plans of a nice meal out the window I dashed into the kitchen and hastily threw together three plates of salad. I was just adding the finishing touches when the doorbell rang, and I hurried into the hall and let them in. My mum greeted me with the words: "Have you got the kettle on?"
Immediately I realized that I had misunderstood her meaning by 'tea'. It was, of course, a perfectly reasonable mistake, and nothing to be embarrassed about, but I panicked and decided to hide the salads so they wouldn't know. The only place I could think of to put them where I could be reasonably sure my parents wouldn't look was in the freezer, so I hastily thrust them in as my parents entered. Later, after they had gone, I tried to defrost one of them. I need hardly say that it was not a success.
At Christmas a mutual friend of Jon and mine was selected for jury duty, and we went along to watch. Being Christmas, I was of course wearing my Christmas socks. The musical ones, which had caused me so much embarrassment when they went off in a mock exam. It was no less awkward when they went off in a crowded courtroom. Fortunately the judge was the stereotypical deaf old buffer, and didn't appear to hear a thing, so I wasn't done for contempt of court. But I got some very odd looks from the lawyers.
In the summer holiday after the first year Jon and I went on holiday to Amsterdam. I remember getting hopelessly lost in the Red Light District, an experience not to be recommended. We went to the clog museum and were given a free silver clog, which we decided to share on the same basis as The Nature Trail Book of Garden Wildlife. Since my turn with said tome was well overdue, when we got back to England Jon gave it to me and kept the silver clog. We intend to swap back in another nine years.
