CHILDHOOD. Childhood is important time for everyone.

GILL'S CHILDHOOD
growing up in St John's Wood is the best place to be with so many parks and London zoo.

I lived on the High street with my Grandparents and at home we had lots of animals, all kinds of birds, we had budgies a mynah bird an owl my dad loved birds and had a large aviary. I kept my rabbits in the bottom of the aviary I also had guinea pigs a tortoise, I was never allowed to buy pet mice though as my nan didn't like to have them in the house, I did manage to get some white mice once which I hid in a cage made from an old sewing box with a piece of wire mesh on top, I kept this cage on top of the wardrobe in my bedroom, one day I got home from school and the mice were gone I never knew if they escaped or the cat had got them maybe they just chewed through the sewing box I kept leaving food for them but they never came back.

We also had reptiles, we had newts, toads, small snakes in the spring we would go up to Hampstead Heath with old jam jars to collect frog spawn which we then kept in a tank at the back of the shop until they transformed into frogs.

My grandfather liked tropical fish and he had a huge fish tank in the dining room. We had a chipmonk that bit me, one dog called Trixie and one cat called Tibby.

The house that we lived in was a corner house it had no garden but it had a lot of space, we had the roof terrace at the back then a small court yard then my granddad's workshop which seemed huge and was a great place for keeping pets and just hanging around, to get to the workshop you had to go through the dining room the kitchen out the back yard then step down a big wooden step into another world full of machinery, tools the smell of glue and leather and the sound of hammering with guinea pigs whistling in the background. A huge spider lived in the old wooden door post and my uncle used to leave dead flies in its web and I would sit and wait to see if the spider would come out for its food.

LING'S CHILDHOOD Spending my childhood in a middle city of north-west China, where is brilliant place with fresh air,blue sky and herds of white sheep, I love it, I Love my hometown and my childhood. It is a happy time to me, a lot of thing that I Can remember clearly. I lived with my family. It is a significant thing for me that my childhood let me love the nature, such as trees, wood and forest. At that time, we often went to pick some wildfruits in the countryside near my city, I remember clearly, one of my friend broke the branches of tree when he was picking up the fruit, So i told him 'NOT do that, it is not good for the trees'

The best time for my childhood is school holiday, because my parents are both teacher,when holiday was coming, whole family were in holiday. My mum's favouriate activities was designing and cutting papers, different colourful picture she cut is so lovely ,so brilliant, till today,she also cut papers and presented us for good luck,i liked watching she cutting when i was child. My old sister was in university at that time, she was good at playing piano and drawing.Sometimes,she tought my young sister and me dancing and drawing, sometimes we sang with her accompaniment.My two old brother liked playing football and volleyball, so in the holiday we can playing many kinds of activities together.

ZHANG'S CHILDHOOD
Childhood is most wonderful time in my life. I was deeply loved and protected by my parents. My childhood is a memory without pressure,competition and I did not need to warry about anything except I had fears of snake and gecko.

In China, we have several important festival: the Spring Festival, the Dragon Boat Festival, the Mid-autumn festival, ect. I liked these festival very much, because I could wear new clothes and eat many delicious foods especially moon cake in these festival. But I liked Children's Day most . Because I could do anything I like, and I could get my favourite gifts from my parents. My parents took us to visit the park. We were very happy all this day.
In my childhood, I felt my mother was more strict than my father. When I made a mistake, my mother criticized me very strictly, but on the contrary, my father was very kind of me this time. He could help me recognizing the mistake and told me why I made this mistake without criticization. I thought I prefered to my father's way because my mother's way could make me very nervous.
There were happiness and sadness in my childhood. But I thought childhood was the most colorful time and it also was the most innocent period which I could not find when I grew up.

LOCALITY

Sand hills
It is well known that Shah lake, which is magic lake survived in the desert, and Shapotou , where the sand can sound like the bells when you are sliding down.
There are a lot of sand hills around my city when I was a child. I grew up with it, where was brilliant playground for me, everyday after school, my friends and I must go to sand hills, there we play “ Royal family”. Some of the sand hills felt smooth and soft, you can’t help yourself taking off your shoes and running onto it. You can built a huge castle, where you can felt yourself really are princess. you can built the beautiful sand castle and huge farmyard by yourself, where you could plant a lot of” flowers and vegetables”. Till today, I remembered it clearly. Last summer, I went to the hometown with my son. It is the first time for him to visit the sand hills which I loved for many years; my son was so joy that he climbs the sand hills and slide down again and again. (Ling)

Regents park in London 2009

I remember from St John's Wood.



where the Beatles crossed the road.
GILL'S STORY.

ZHAN'S STORY
MARILYN'S STORY
My mother lived in St John's Wood over 30 years in a small but cute flat onthe 9th floor. From the balcony you can now see the London Eye and great views of London. She used to keep binoculars to look out. Although nobody could see into the balcony she would not let me stand up and sunbathe naked, but only lay down naked.

GAMES WE PLAYED

Marbles

Ling:When I was a child, there was no internet, no telephone, and no television, so what we like best is playing outdoors. Many games to play, for example ,passing the parcel, skipping, rubber bands skipping, hide and seek, kicking shuttlecock and earthbags, but I liked better is hide and seek, we like to playing the hide and seek at the moon night, and went home very late. One day, I was on my way home, something sounded "chaoo,charoo,charoo.....", when I stopped and looked back, nothing, but when you went continuously, the sounds came again. At the second your hair seemed all stand on your head, is it possible that there is ghost really in the world? oh, my goodness,what can I do? how can I do? After thinking about seconds, I run to home as fast as one's legs could carry, when I arrived home, out of breathe.” Mum, save me? Mum save me, there is ghost chase me!” what’s matter? Darling” said Mum, I told the whole to her, My mum looked up and down on me and laughed,” why do you laugh,Mum”,I asked,” it is not a ghost but only a little branch of tree”. I checked and find it sticking on my shoes. The next day, I went out to play hide and seek as usually.

SCHOOL AND EDUCATION

Barrow Hill primary school London

Ling: I went to nursery at 6 years old and went to school at 7 years old.

Gill: I went to Robinsfield and then to Barrow Hill primary school as did many members of my family before me, my son now goes to Barrow Hill.

WORK AND PLAY

LOVE AND MARRIAGE

I am being visited by the reporter-my lovely son.