A GLOBAL ROMANCE

Love comes along when you least expect it – and maybe with several leaps into the unknown.

- PAT MCDERMOTT

No matter how many pompoms, ribbons, or toy kangaroos you tie to the handle, it takes forever to find your suitcase on a luggage carousel.

It was more than a few years ago, and I’d just arrived in London from Canada. Like the rest of the world in the Swinging Sixties and Seventies, I was in love with everything British.

England was full of ‘working holiday makers’. Some got jobs in proper offices with lunch vouchers and views of the Thames or Westminster Abbey. Others pushed wee babies or cranky toddlers called Beatrice, Rupert and Camilla around London’s pleasant parks so their tired mummies could have a break. Their daddies were busy doing important things in the City, often until very late at night.

“We’re fine,” we assured our parents during the occasional expensive phone call. “I worry about you being so far away,” my mum said softly.