Daniel outside Veyo Villa, our house on Male’, Republic of Maldives. We were so lucky to have so much room on a tiny island 1 mile long and 1/2 a mile wide with a population of nearly 80’000 (yes, I did say eighty thousand). I spent a great deal of time reading up on that balcony, it had and amazing view out over the sea to Hulule Airport so I could watch the planes coming and going (about 3 a day in those days!). As you can see there is nothing tall around us, the law for building anything taller than the tallest palm tree had only just been lifted.On Daniel’s beloved dirt bike, down by the harbour on one of the newly paved roads. A dirt bike on such a tiny island was completely unnecessary but since the unpaved roads often flooded higher than the top of one’s wellingtons (in which case nothing to do but take them off and wade) it was nice. Sadly I don’t have a photo of Daisy, my faithful Raleigh bicycle. When Daniel asked me why I called her Daisy I told him because in her heart she was yellow. After one trip away I came back to find he’d taken the whole bike apart, painted it daisy yellow and put it back together, complete with pristine Raleigh insignia. Every other bike on Male’ was black at that time!A typical bumboat bringing in supplies while Daniel waits to unload. They look romantic (I suppose) but they take 1 hour 20 minutes to get to Tanjung Leman, are normally filthy dirty and frequently belch foul smoke.Sorry, this photo is in a terrible state so didn’t scan well but i love it as Richard had just been born and Daniel looks so proud and happy. Think my mother took this as we were both staring at Richard marveling at how clever we’d been to produce the most perfect baby in the entire world (and all you parents know exactly what I’m talking about). It’s odd to see Richard’s hair in that photo because he went bald as a coote very quickly and stayed that way for so long I wondered if he was going to grow any 🙂Richard insisted on this photo, I’m not a fan, but it does remind me what a brilliant idea it was to go to Mum’s for the birth and then stay, especially as my Aunt & Uncle lived right next door. We had plenty of willing baby sitters and had such a wonderful Christmas we did the whole thing again the next year, yes, including the baby part!!!
