"She's a card!"

Carla celebrated her first birthday on Easter Monday whilst we were staying at my parent's home in Norfolk. My brother was also visiting from Leeds with his girlfriend.

Carla is a very entertaining young lady and after one of her amusing performances my Mother exclaimed "As your Granny Bysea would have said 'She's a card!'". Granny Bysea was my paternal Grandmother who grew up in Battersea and had a good selection of old London phrases.

Later on that weekend, my brother, who had not been present when my Mother made the former observation, turned to Carla (who was displaying signs of hunger) and said "Do you have a hole where your tummy should be? As my Granny Bysea used to say."

In retrospect it is probably quite obvious that, when with Carla, Johnny and Mother should remember turns of phrase particular to my Grandmother , since the last time they heard those words might have been when we were children displaying similar characteristics. Nevertheless, at the time, I found it rather eerie, almost as if Bysea had come to join us for a while, especially as on my own I would never have recalled those phrases which sounded so familiar the moment they were spoken.