A chance to do some soaking up of Africa presented itself: this trip was to leave us with an iconic image that still makes us smile today. Anna was ten […]
Anna had an unorthodox start in life. Rick and I had no idea about being parents. That isn’t unusual for first-time parents, but we lived a different sort of life. […]
Vivid in my mind are our families’ visits to Uganda. I recalled their faraway presence in faded watercolours and this vexed me deeply, but our holidays together left bright, tangible […]
Despite the tragedy of the Rwandan genocide on our doorstep, apart from the little things like boiling our drinking water (it came from the lake which was the final resting […]
We have the sky to ourselves. I peer out at the Rift Valley sprawled below, framed too neatly in my aeroplane window and watch the shadow of our light aircraft […]
“Ah, this one. It goes in the Special Drawer”. My heart skipped a beat and I felt myself lose all colour. Miss Kabego, the receptionist, was referring to the […]
We had been burning the candle at both ends. This was starting to take its toll on both of us and there seemed no sign of a letup in the […]
Doc Gibbons and Dick were keen to welcome more sports medicine into their practice. One service they already offered was medical cover at sports events. Some years earlier a group […]
I’m kneeling on the floor of my Kampala consulting room eye level with my friend’s groin. It’s not actually his groin that I am studying, but a rash at the […]
If days were suitcases, those first ones in Kampala were stuffed with the paraphernalia of summer fun and bursting at the seams. We worked hard. We played sport every day. […]
I had side-stepped into a radiant world. Here there was sun every day – the perfect side of the sun; generous with a warmth that holds your face, massages your […]
I woke with a bump, as the aeroplane touched down at Entebbe Airport. I was disorientated momentarily, then as I surfaced so did the butterflies. In a flash, I was […]
The traffic lights were blinking amber. Continuously. I sat there watching them and chewing on my fingernail. This was the only set of traffic lights in the entire country and […]
My blog is a memoir called The New Girl. It tells of my beginnings in the Zambian bush, born into a line of intrepid explorers. Most of my childhood, however, […]