A bigamist and a boy (Rousse)

I checked in to the Novotel St Pancras and geared myself up for a 48-hour marriage marathon, of which I wholeheartedly disapproved.

My sister J was still dithering over who to choose as her groom, having conveniently forgotten that she was already married to M. She had undergone a complete body transformation in preparation for the ceremony and was now barely recognisable as a size 8 bottle blonde. Most frightening of all were her eyes, now enhanced to a vivid bright blue. I wanted to question her over what she had done to herself, but her menacing azure stare frightened me too much.

Meanwhile, and despite opposition from all sides (including his distraught grandmother), J’s 17 year old son P was determined to drag LA down the aisle as soon as his mother had finished her own business there.

No amount of persuasion would encourage mother or son to change their minds. I raged at P “If you do this, you’ll never play for England, you’ll throw away any chance of ever winning a grand prix, and while everyone else is away enjoying a gap year, you’ll be stuck at home”. He looked back at me blankly in reply. His expression simply read “So what?”

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Dial code memory bonus (Rousse)

The family had just returned from a weekend of stock car racing in North Ormesby. It was clear that they doubted that they had anything in common with me, but I won them over with my knowledge of the STD code for Teesside (01642).

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A terrifying journey to Leith (Rousse)

Provided that I survived the journey, I would be writing a stiff letter of complaint to the MD of Lothian Buses as soon as I got home. Where there was a 30 mile limit this driver was easily doing 40+. Most frightening of all, he deliberately accelerated over the snowy bridges. No wonder TPR and I were the only passengers on this terrifying journey to Leith. Everyone else had alighted at the first opportunity.

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Interpretations of paternity rights at work (Rousse)

My boss suddenly remembered that he was the last of a noble line. It was now urgent that he become a father. If I’d understood that bearing a child was part of my job description, I would never have taken on the role.

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Mrs Thatcher mystery solved (Rousse)

Mrs Thatcher was dead. The few people in the know had all been sworn to secrecy. The embargo meant that the news would not be released until the formal commemorations of the 30th anniversary of the Falklands War were over. Now I understood why nobody had wheeled the baroness out to display at any of the ceremonies.

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Belle in high heels

With the fashion for ever higher heels gathering pace, I was considered one of the best ‘walkers’ in the world. Even with 10 inch wedge-soled shoes, I could walk elegantly over the cobbled streets of the City of London. They were making a documentary about me.

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Isle of Lewis camper van rescue (Rousse)

The weather turned vile and we wondered how our friends N and S were coping in the howling wind and torrential rain on the west coast of the Isle of Lewis. They couldn’t possibly be out in the open cycling, could they? There was only one way to find out: to travel there ourselves and join (rescue) them.

We found them at Garynahine in a camper van! They had abandoned their original accommodation plans soon after arrival on discovering that the guest house was not all that the web site had promised. We persuaded N and S that all was not lost. TPR and I would show them a great time on the other side of the bay.

TPR took charge of the navy blue mark 2 VW Golf and I clambered into the camper van. Somewhat alarming were N’s driving skills. She seemed to assume that the vehicle knew the route. She frequently let go of the steering wheel to move across the van and look out the window on the other side. At this rate we would end up spending the rest of the holiday embedded in a peat bog rather than on the beach.

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Lulu in London (Belle)

The coach pulled up outside the Houses of Parliament and I felt my excitement levels rise. Determined to be the first to disembark, I pushed the other passengers out of the way. I could hear Lulu belting out her number and I wasn’t going to miss out on a second of this ‘Shout about the Olympics’ free concert.

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Green teddy bears seek release from Edinburgh airport (Rousse)

For a reason that I could not understand AA and IR had clubbed together to buy me a celebratory present that comprised a collection of green cuddly toys and some rather bizarre clothing, much of it the same colour. Rather than hand all this over to me in person, they left it in a locker at the far side of security at Edinburgh airport. The only way for me to collect my haul would be item by item each time I took a flight. This would take months due to the strict hand baggage rules enforced by the airlines. If only the pair of them had chosen a locker beside the check-in desks instead.

On the first day that I set off to visit my locker I ran into a newly-retired colleague. My delight turned to shame as she berated me for failing to treat annual leave cards as confidential documents. We never had a cross word when we worked together and now I wondered if she had secretly hated me for the past ten years? I wandered off, my head hanging in shame.

However, I soon cheered up when I spotted GG by the check-in desks all dressed up and looking super-glamorous. She was meeting the rest of her family for a photo shoot. This sounded so much more interesting than how I would be spending the next hour or so: making a decision as to which lucky green teddy would be released from the locker as my companion on the 09:15 flight to Heathrow.

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