It's automatic...

Harper Cullen with his present: a battery
powered insect - good choice Roger!

It's automatic - the hire car of course. Soon got used to driving it and travelling on the right is just like in France. You don't find highways like these near Loches, though. 

We had a wonderfully warm welcome to Canada from our friend Marjorie Cullen and her parents Judy and Ken and three-year old Harper. Marjorie went to Vietnam to fetch him from an orphanage when he was a few months old. Lovely and much loved little boy. We know Marjorie because some years ago she helped me and my brothers find our 'long lost' Canadian relatives. (That is a separate and quite exciting story which we'll tell elsewhere.)

Marjorie Cullen with Jill and Roger after
dinner at The Beach area of Toronto. 

We met Marjorie by email having been introduced by Maureen, the wife of Barbara Follett's step son, Jonathan (keep up). I met her in the flesh when I came over five years ago with my Mum, Dad, John and Nick. We all went for lunch at the top of the CN Tower with Cousin Pat, Dad's relative with links to Ashford in Kent and  the New Zealand contingent (are you still following). We're off to see Pat, now aged 90, in just a minute. She lives in Etobicoke - pronounced Ett-oh-be-co.

Marjorie is a marketing specialist who has just started her own business, helping companies tell their unique marketing stories and, more excitingly, helping individuals with their personal life stories - often something we all mean to do ('must get Dad to write down his memories, etc') but sometimes don't get around to. Find out more at www.marjoriecullen.com.

Oh yes, about the car - good brakes. Luckily! Well, when I put it into reverse outside the hotel I didn't realise Roger was about to unload the boot - or the trunk as they say. I heard his shout and was impressed by the agility with which he sprang from the road to the sidewalk, at which point he came into my view. Several passers by were obviously impressed, too, by the way he remarked: "Oh dearie me, whatever were you thinking of, Jill. I wouldn't be much use without legs. Ha ha."