Adulthood and Working Life
- Major journeys and travel
- Childhood caravan holidays at Hayling Island and Weymouth; a school trip to London in 1977; honeymoon on the Isle of Wight in 1984; family camping trips in the New Forest; first overseas holiday to Majorca in 1994; a family driving holiday in Normandy in 2002; and shorter later trips within southern England with Alan.
- Important places
- Portsmouth, Portchester, Fareham, Havant and Emsworth in Hampshire; Hayling Island, the Isle of Wight, the New Forest and Weymouth for recurring holidays and days out; Majorca for the family's first holiday abroad in 1994.
Shanklin for Four Nights
Two days after their wedding, Margaret and Alan take the Chevette and ferry to Shanklin for a four-night honeymoon.
The New Forest Tent
A low-cost family camping holiday in the New Forest begins with a borrowed frame tent and competing ideas about how to put it up.
Our First Flight
The family takes its first overseas holiday, flying from Gatwick to Majorca for a week in a modest apartment.
Weymouth Again
Margaret returns to Weymouth with Alan, Claire and Michael and tries unsuccessfully to identify the boarding house from her childhood holiday.
The Gallbladder Year
Margaret’s recurring pain is diagnosed as gallstones, leading to surgery and an unwanted demonstration that home and work can continue without her.
The Computer in the Dining Room
The family’s first home computer takes over one end of the dining room and creates new uses, instructions and arguments about whose turn it is.
A Phone That Did Too Much
Margaret’s first smartphone proves useful, irritating and capable of turning a reply into an accidental telephone call.