This last week or so I have been involved in a number of events, including a quiz for the Pulse Community Gym, a coffee morning for an orphanage in Nairobi, teas for the town band concert and, of course, the countdown has begun towards the Rose Community Theatre’s comedy production.

I enjoy every minute and consider myself very lucky to be able to take part in community life so wholeheartedly. Guests at ‘Number Ten’, on hearing my Cockney accent, often ask how I came to be living in Sedbergh.

I wonder myself at times as to how I ended up living in my very own idea of Brigadoon. I can make the story a short one or a long one but, given the word allowance (approx 370), I’d better make it short. I used to live in Suffolk and worked for Social Services. The job had a stress factor comparable to the strain taken by the anchor chain on the QE2 and so, after seven years, it wasn’t surprising that I burned out.

In another life I had toured around with a folk rock band and made friends all over the country. So in 1997, while I thought about what I might do with the rest of my life, I came here and stayed with a friend in Kendal. After a while I rented a flat and did a variety of jobs, from selling ice-cream to market research. The friend and I went into business together but it took quite a time to get ourselves organised. In the interim period she found herself a chap and consequently lost interest in our business.

I began to notice that the lion’s share of the work seemed always to fall to me. However, I had made friends with a very nice chap who used to pop in to our shop from time to time. Eventually he asked me on a out on a date. One date followed another, then we had a weekend away, a trip down south and as the new year dawned I moved in with him. We got married in 2006 and he inherited three daughters and six grand-children, (eight now). Yes, it was my Keiffy, what a brave chap.