I’m enjoying taking part in ‘Bloganuary‘. Day 4 today and the topic is:

‘What was your favourite toy as a child?‘

Not a toy as such, but a desk I could keep my papers, pens, exercise books and diary in and write away to my heart’s content. The picture below is not my original desk, but the one I had looked exactly the same apart from the fact that the seat and desk legs were red.

It was great for playing at ‘schools’ with my best friend Marie as well. We took it in turns to be the teacher and when Marie set work for me to do it was a hundred times easier than the the work I had to do in class. In the summer we would take the desk out into my garden and enjoy ‘al fresco’ lessons.

I lost contact with Marie when I was 13 when we moved from East London across the river to Kidbrooke (South East London). By that time I had outgrown the desk and now in my new bedroom stood a rather flash bureau containing lots of nooks and crannies, a lock and key, bookshelves underneath, and a fold-down table where I could sit and write and do the hated school homework.

There’s something about a desk which I love. Perhaps because it’s mine, it’s in my ‘space’ (the ‘only child syndrome’ strikes again), and contains just my own personal possessions. I now have 2 desks at home that sit opposite each other in my front room; one I use for my paid NHS work which I do in the mornings, and the other one is the desk where I write my novels and blogs in the afternoons.

I had lots of toys as a child, but that little wooden desk is the one I loved the most. Second on the list would have been my Spirograph, and third maybe my roller skates or my Etch-a-Sketch. Note the lack of video games, iPhones or computers! Yes, I’m an old girl, but hey, despite the lack of electronic distractions my childhood was a happy one.