Back to the beginning...

Today I thought I'd go back to the beginning and talk about my earliest memories, as I was intrigued to hear recently that the average age for the first memory is around 3.5 years old. I certainly remember going to see my new baby brother in hospital when I was 3 years and one month, but was more interested in the fact that the baby had brought me a Mr Man tiddly-winks game, than I was with my ickle brother. But I was positively ancient then, as my earliest memory was in fact at the freakishly young age of 18 months, and involves going to hospital to have my head x-rayed after I had fallen out of my high chair onto my head (some may say that explains a lot, especially as it was the second time that it had happened in the space of a few months!)

The first time was when I fell down the stairs and got my head stuck between the bannisters aged just under a year, but even me with my superhuman powers of memory can't remember that one. I don't remember the actual high chair accident itself, but recall holding my mum's hand and walking up steps which I assume was the entrance to the hospital, and then lying on a bed with a machine over me and a small red light flashing on it. Thankfully being dropped twice on my head didn't seem to do me any harm, and I've got a few memories between that and my brother's arrival, but seem to have mostly blanked out living in Essex for the first 2.5 years of my life... Why I can remember this, and useless facts like the names of the four stomachs of a cow (they are called the rumen, reticulum, omasum and abomasum), but not exactly what went on on the night of my 30th birthday, is a question for another day.