An improbable hobby

"Please Mummy, may I….?"  How many times a day do we here these words when our children are small?   Mostly, we respond "Yes, of course", or "No, not this time", and think no more about it.

Our Free Dance 2009 – we are skating to Kirsty McColl's "England 2 Columbia 0", hence the shirts.

This particular request came in September 1994, when our daughter was just starting the 4th year at her London secondary school.   The school liked to offer the girls a choice of sport as...