Rake's Progress

Life in 25 easy steps:

1 Making mud pies.
2 Loving Margaret Benbow, Sheila Stanworth and Edith Johnson.
3 Finding birds' nests and making a collection of their eggs.
4 Enjoying French and Latin grammar, but not letting my mates know that.
5 Discovering the pleasure-pain of being attracted to big girls.
6 Learning to play the piano, thanks to my mum.
7 Learning to play "Whispering" and the "Teddy Bears' Picnic".
8 Discovering traditional jazz.
9 Learning whole episodes of the Goon Show by heart.
10 Learning to be funny from the best mate I ever had, Chic Goode.
11 Trying to become an "intellectual" in the Sixth Form.
12 Winning a place at St John's College, Oxford.
13 Listening to Sid Phillips playing Sleepy Time Gal.
14 Falling in love once too often.
15 Going to teach English in Italy.
16 Meeting my wonderful Liverpool girl, marrying her and having two gorgeous children.
17 Getting back into birdwatching and taking up bird ringing.
18 Making a career of English Language teaching.
19 Changing mental direction after a seminar in Barcelona in 1974.
20 Writing my first ELT book.
21 Succumbing to the adulation of women teachers.
22 Changing career and learning to eat and drink too much.
23 Losing the plot.
24 Getting back into academia thanks to an old friend
25 Working in Turkey and many other countries and learning to become a mensh again.

I am working on 26 before it's too late!