I never really thought about the ageing process until I was twenty-five and my new employers, the South-Eastern Electricity Board, sent me to London on an induction course. I was a very timid soul in those days and it was a big adventure for me to be ‘allowed out’ on my own without either my parents or my husband to look after me. The course members came from all over the country but were billeted in the same hotel. On the second to last evening everyone decided to go down to the bar for a farewell get-together. I didn’t really want to go, but I was too shy to get out of it.