One of my funniest memories of John was when they were flooded in 2000. The fire brigade wanted them to leave the house as there was water right through it, however they thought they would stay put for a while. In the early evening John rang us and asked us to get someone to come and rescue them as the water was still rising. He then added "tell them not to rush as I am just grilling some sausages that needed using up". He was standing in water using the electric cooker!! Mustn't let those sausages go to waste!

A memory about my dad ‘Dad Boycott’s out !’ That became the standard thing to say to dad when he woke up from a nap in his chair watching TV. It all arose from a time when the England cricket team had their backs against the wall against Australia in an Ashes series and we were dependent on a long and dogged defence at the crease by Geoff Boycott to try and save the match. Unfortunately even Geoff Boycott lost his wicket eventually but not before his rather boring but very determined innings had sent my dad to sleep. This then became the standard slogan to use whenever he woke up from a nap in his chair whatever he had been watching on TV beforehand .

A memory about my dad As we left to live in Canada we left our final lottery ticket with my dad to check the numbers for us. I think my dad had forgotten to do this and it was only when Sally had a dream telling her to check the lottery numbers in our first week in Canada that we realized we had matched 5 numbers. We phoned my dad as soon as we could and found out that dad had put the ticket out in the paper recycling bag that morning ready to be collected that day. Fortunately they were late with the collection that day and my dad phoned back to tell us he had found and retrieved the ticket. That was really good news as the winnings from that ticket were just enough to pay for mum and dad to fly and come and visit us in Canada and they eventually had two really enjoyable holidays over there and these were also some of their last holidays overseas.