Dusseldorf, Day dreams and Doodles
I also loved horses with a passion and you could often see me on my space hopper bouncing over home made jumps. In my mind I was taking part and winning the Grand National on a stunning race horse and it was in Dusseldorf that I finally achieved my dream and was allowed to go horse riding. We would ride around in a circle following the lead horse, not quite the Grand National, but I could still dream. Once someone left the fence bar down, the lead horse stepped over it and our horses dutifully followed it down the road with the trainer running behind, such excitement.
I was about 9 when we ended up in Dusseldorf and I was now an avid reader and would read anything that involved horses, magic, fantasy and dragons. I'm sure this love of reading stemmed from the stories my father read to us every night before bedtime. I lived in my imagination and books which caused heated arguments when my brother would hide my books saying I was getting boring.
Another way my imagination ran riot was on paper. I couldn’t be near paper without doodling all over it, my teachers at school were not happy that my text books were covered with pictures all over the covers and in the margins. I loved to draw and make up stories and remember some odd characters I made up called The Chippoles and a cartoon story with pictures called The Lonely Dinosaur.