Page 336 - Demo

332The final disaster was one Christmas when we had decided to hire a hot tub. The first morning it was up, Gabby leapt in and called me down. I said that it was a good idea of mine to hire it and she exploded. She said it was her idea. I was not overly bothered whose actual idea it was and said OK but she was furious and the Christmas was awful. Of course,the hot tub was just the catalyst but we never really recovered. Still, we did host a couple of Ukrainian ladies, one for nearly 2 years And then had Ben to live with us after he had a breakdown. Isolated by covid had been hard for him.On the plus side we now have 5 grandchildren plus Alex is with a partner Jed who has 2 of his own. We have had a swimming pool in the garden in the summer for the grandchildren which has always gone down well. I am in contact with various old RAF colleagues and visit Yorkshire several times a year. This usually involves a %u201cfine ales meeting%u201d and a stay with Keren MacMillan who owns a campsite on the North Yorkshire Moors. She was one of the early female students at Linton and came back as a creamy. She was at Linton when I ejectedand later was a Jaguar pilot. I have also met up with Dode Dahroug who was the student I ejected with. And Caroline, who was my first female student has offered to take me flying. It is hard to decide where to stop an autobiography. You cannot just write AAAH sloping down the page. But this is a good place to stop. And so, %u201cin headaches and in worry vaguely life leaks away%u201d (W H Auden)This in the end proved to be very difficult to write. I have been rather depressed in the last few years, partly because of the drugs I have to take for the cancer which in effect has me in the menopause and I