Pinetrees is built around a tennis court. It's supergrass now, but in the old days it was sand. We have boxes full of old photos of tennis competitions and parties. My mum loved to tell the story of how her mother used to lock her up in the tennis court with her older sister Kerry and the cat, to keep them all out of the way. Kerry used to take Pixie's clothes off and put them on the cat and push the cat around in the pram. It was one of her earliest memories.
Later, Pixie became a very competitive tennis player. Her mother insisted that all of her daughters learn tennis, saying something like: "The two things you need in life are straight teeth and a good game of tennis".
Pixie paid for me to have tennis lessons at high school too. Years later she told me that she had always suspected that I skipped my tennis lessons. I'm a real goody-goody. It just isn't in my nature to skip lessons. Pixie had good reason to be suspicious though - I'm hopelessly uncoordinated and I never wore my glasses. Despite the expensive lessons I never seemed to get any better at tennis.
Pixie also paid for years of orthodontic treatment when I was a teenager. I'm pleased to report that I do have straight teeth.
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