... there was a little girl with lots and lots of brothers and sisters.

We spent a lot of time driving to holiday destinations - Umhlanga Rocks, KZN (Durban), The Wild Coast, KZN, Kloof (Rustenberg), Cango Caves, Oudtshoorn;  the Kruger National Park straddles the provinces of Limpopo and Mpumalanga and various other Parks and Destinations... at least 6 children in the car whether with my Mom and Bonus Dad or with my Dad and Bonus Mom.

Long drives can be boring.  Having been brought up on Terry Pratchett, Roald Dahl, J.R.R. Tolkien, Lewis Caroll (Alice in Wonderland is still my "go-to" favourite story), I would make up stories with characters as real as we were and as diverse as we weren't. No two stories were alike and there was no shortage of storylines and interesting characters.

I don't remember any of the stories but I don't have to because I can still weave a tale with characters, twists and turns, rollercoasters of emotive intrigue and unexpected resolution.

My English Literature degree introduced me to the formalities of English, a more structured process of storytelling: nitty-gritty of grammar, ways to layer the telling of a narrative (original or classic), and led me to my favourite authors - Jane Austen, Virginia Woolf, George Elliot, Oscar Wilde, Iris Murdoch and Leo Tolstoy - more specifically, Anna Karenina (1878), Victor Hugo's Quasimodo (1831), and, of course, his Les Misérables, a French historical novel, first published in 1862.

In 1996 I was introduced to the magical world of Opera - an electrifying genre of costumes and over the top makeup and storylines.  Pagliacci, La Traviata, La Boheme, Rigoletto, Cavalleria Rusticana and my commiseration with the enchantress, Maria Callas - her personal life, both dramatic and romantic, equally comparable extremes of her roles in many, many operas.