A letter to a little girl

One of the reasons I put this blog up is as an aide memoire to myself. I have an atrocious memory for events in my own life but have an excellent memory for factual things like the date and purpose of the Peace of Westphalia (1648, ending Europe's religious wars). I have forgotten something like 99% of the events in my own life. So this blog is a sort of substitute for the memory I don't have.

I was therefore greatly pleased that one of my twin stepdaughters recently found in her things a letter I had written to her many years ago when she was 12. I had forgotten just about everything in it. I was in Sydney at the time while she was in Brisbane. And her mother and I had our toddler son with us in Sydney: Joey. Below is the letter. You will note that we had pet names for one another. We always got on well.:

6.5.90

Lady Von,

Thank you for the letter that you wrote to Mummy and me.
I am pleased that you enjoyed your trip to Cairns. I thought that you might get car sick. Maybe you are growing out of that.

You will like my place in Sydney when you see it. It is quite a pretty house. In my room there is a marble fireplace. It has very pretty green and brown tiles around it. When it gets cold I may light a fire in it to keep warm. It is not very cold at the moment but when we do have cold days I normally just put the electric heater on. It is a lot easier than lighting a fire.

Did you have lots of rain in Brisbane? In Sydney it has been raining almost every day except for the last week. For the last week there has not been even a cloud around so it has been a nice time to go for trips. Yesterday we went for a ferry ride on Sydney harbour. Everything looked very beautiful. Joey loved looking at the water as it went by. He always likes looking at water. He loves fountains.

We also went to the beach yesterday. Sydney has lots of beaches so we go to one every weekend. Joey always plays ‘sandcastles”. He has his own little plastic bucket and spade to help him build them. One day last weekend we went to places that did not have beaches. When we went to go home, Joey cried and shouted out ‘sandcastles”. He didn’t want us to go home until he had been to the beach. He has never had enough of the beach.

Whenever we want to go home from the beach he always complains. He would stay there all day if we let him. We never stay long, however. Neither Joey nor I can take a lot of sun. We would get burned. So instead of going to the beach once for a long time we go to the beach often for short times. It only takes a short drive to get to the beach in Sydney so it is not as hard to go to the beach as it is in Brisbane. I am sure your mother will take you to the beach when you are in Sydney.

Cheers!

Johnny