An 80-year-old memory suddenly wrecks my system

I awoke this morning shocked by a memory from my early childhood in Cologne, and it threw my whole system into a series of sudden crying lapses and joyful remembrance.

This is what happened (for the first time ever): I was two years old and I suddenly saw myself in the second-storey flat of my young parents in inner-city Cologne's Pfaelzer Strasse looking over a beautiful park or nature reserve.

That must have been in 1938, chronologically - and the funny thing is every time I looked back on the memory I cried. I talked about this experience to a Dutch great-grandmother and near-neigbour of mine at the shopping centre, and sure enough my tears welled up regularly during the telling.

I had just about time to ask her to forgive what my German ancestors did to poor Holland a few years later... and invited her to our Conservation Area to see the beautiful 'park' that Bianca and I have been able to amass and put away for (hopefully) future generations to enjoy.

And when I looked at the young children playing at the rides outside Coles' I also cried with joy and hope - but on the whole I have little hope for the aberration that is Man in this universe...

Now it's my turn to bake our weekly lot of two sourdough breads.

Reality is a potent cure for wayward thoughts!