Still hot summer’s weather today. I am in London to catch up with life in the big city.

Yesterday, I mentioned that it is A level results this week. I hope all my young friends will be happy. Disappointment makes the heart sick.

Geoff went off on a gap year after finishing at Tonbridge, a boys’ boarding school in Kent. During his travels he found himself washing up in a hotel in Interlaken, between Lake Geneva and the capital Bern. So many times he told young Anna and Hugo the story of the stolen chicken Kiev.

It is part of our store of family stories, told over and over again, so they can be repeated almost verbatim. Like the imaginary friend he made up during one particularly long and tedious car journey. His name was Eric the Elf, but Eric was pronounced “Ewic” (Eric had a lisp), and he was in love with Raquel, but Raquel was in love with Gary. Even I found Eric funny, and I consider myself the comic in our family. Eric, forever more, travelled with us on car journeys, until the children were older.

Back to the hotel in Interlaken. One night Geoff was working in the kitchen washing up. Pedro the waiter hid a chicken Kiev in a  drawer to eat later. Geoff saw him hide it. He nicked it and ran outside to eat it in the bushes. When Pedro discovered that his precious morsel had been stolen, he threatened to kill whoever had taken it. Geoff pleaded innocence. Pedro, of course, suspected Geoff, but he could not prove it. Just like Fawlty Towers!

Geoff’s 50th year was a year of much change for our entire family, although this was still eclipsed at the time of his birthday.

We celebrated it in March/April with his youngest brother, Patrick, at his chalet in Verbier, Chalet Alsica, by the sports centre.

Patrick had been living there for some time, and it was a perfect opportunity to introduce the children to skiing. Patrick, of course, looked like he was born on skies and put us all through our paces. Geoff didn’t mind being shown up, as he had always adored his youngest sibling.

 

After two weeks’ wonderful skiing, we went off in search of the hotel in Interlaken, during our tour of Switzerland to celebrate Geoff’s five decades. The kitchen, thirty two years later,  was still exactly the same!

Today, I have friends to see. The summer holidays is isolating at times.