The French School and Living on Kennedy Road
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Audrey and I began our school life at the French Convent
(also known unromantically as St. Paul's Institution) at Causeway Bay. Our nuns were of the Order of St. Paul de Chartres. We loved them,
and were very happy at the Convent. To get to school we walked to the bottom of Garden Road, and from there travelled by tram to Causeway Bay.
Audrey and I shared a double bed for years. When we were very
young, we used to play "wheelbarrows" on it! In the summer we slept under a mosquito net which was tucked in all round the bed. If you moved in your sleep and any part of you touched the net, the mosquitoes would bite you, and there would be blood on the net in the morning. Audrey, lively even when asleep, was always falling into the net where it was tucked in. Mamma would
come in to see if we were all right, and Audrey had disappeared
off the bed.
We loved to play House with our dolls - I was always
"Mrs. Bouchier" and Audrey "Mrs. Parr" - the originals were
two Shanghai ladies who came to Wei Hai Wei in the summer.
Another favourite game was Ships, played on and under the dining
room table. The table top was the deck, the chairs the stairs, and
underneath, the cabin.
I used to be terrified of the huge spiders and the flying
cockroaches - the cockroaches were revolting, especially when
squashed! I always had to call for help when confronted by a
giant spider - Amah would come, or Mamma or Audrey who were
braver than I! The spiders were nearly four inches across with
their legs spread out, with huge black hairy bodies. Once a female
spider fell from the ceiling, and the white pouch under her body
burst and out of it came dozens of tiny spiders racing all over
the floor.
But Mamma and Audrey were not so brave in thunderstorms.
These were incredibly dramatic with earshattering bangs of
thunder and brilliant forked lightning that lit up the room at
night. I thought them exciting.
There were two more flats in Kennedy Road. Mamma was
restless, and we were always moving. The new flat was on the
ground floor, and here we had a dramatic burglary. The windows
were barred, but even so one morning we woke up to find that our coats had gone from their pegs on a wall, and outside lying
on the ground was a long pole with a hook at the end of it.
The next flat was at the Wanchai end of Kennedy Road, near the
Methodist Church. Miss Pedden, a Canadian missionary, lived nearby
and used to come and play the piano. We always had a piano
- everyone did - and Mamma played and Audrey and I sang. We had music books with collections of the old songs:
"Swanee River", "Killarney", "Loch Lomond", "Annie Laurie",
and also the latest American song hits in sheet music:- "It's a Bird!",
"Cornfed Indiana Girl".
At this time Mamma made friends with Mrs. Nellie Babbage,
the wife of a Sergeant-Major in the Army. She ran the Alexandra
Cafe in Des Voeux Road, where we used to buy delicious French
pastries, including my favourites, cream horns! Mrs. Babbage was
a glamorous lady, quite unlike anyone I had ever seen before, and
I admired her. Once I went to stay with her, and in the morning I
watched her making her toilette as she sat on the floor in the
sunshine in front of her Japanese dressing table and mirror. She put
on lots of powder and rouge, but although it was rumoured that
she wore a wig, I never found out if that bright auburn hair was
false! One sad day there was a great fuss and bother. Mamma
was angry with her erstwhile friend Mrs. Babbage, and we were
forbidden ever to speak to her again. It was a great mystery, and I
was sorry to lose my kind friend.