Sojourn in the Medway Towns

I used to consider myself to be someone from Kent who has lived for a long time in London. I finally did the math the other day and worked out that I have lived about 29 years in London - 25 of those since I arrived an innocent fresher at UCL, but also four in my early childhood.

My parents lived for a while in Hackney and then... Finchley! My first memories are of Finchley. We lived in Long Lane and I went for a term to Martin school. My mother was very young and did cleaning jobs for Jewish ladies. (That's what she called them - 'my Jewish ladies'. I imagine they called her 'my cleaning woman'.)

So, totting it up, I only lived 15 years in Kent. Formative years, mind you. I'm visiting my mum in Rochester now, or, rather, house-sitting for her, looking after her cat and ploughing through the most enormous amount of tedious editing work. Back soon.