10. California

Illustrating books was great after spending so much time on greeting cards, and I soon landed four titles with Wayland Books (Hodder) a series we called ‘The emotions’!   I feel Sad, I Feel Angry … you  get the idea.

That series I still do today in one form or another and has kept me in annual royalties for many years. I think myself very fortunate to be doing work I love and freedom to do it when I want. There are jobs I do of course that I wish I had never got involved with but they are now few and far between. At this point In my life I felt rather secure, great job, great kids, I loved life, oh if only we had that forsight that said “don’t get too comfortable, life is about to throw you a curve ball!’

Celebrating our success the family took a break and flew over to Canada to see my sister, and later down to LA, calling in at Santa Barbara. One hour after arrival I came down with a nasty case of ‘kidney stone’. Within minutes I was in the front seat of my friends car driven by Maria, who just about managed to scare me to death going the wrong way up the off ramp onto the busy American freeway, We really freaked out some drivers coming towards us, a deranged woman at the wheel and a guy with a paper bag on his head  hyper ventilating, I can tell you now those drivers looked like rabbits caught in the head lights of a monster truck, I only realized our predicament, having my head in a brown lunch bag, on hearing my wife screaming “oh god, oh god!” I spent the rest of my vacation  on a daily dose morphine and I fell in love with Santa Barbara. . .

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