What is some of the best advice your father ever gave you?

I remember sitting with my Dad, when I was teenager, in the kitchen, while he concocted a late night snack for Mum & I. He was endlessly creative with tasty things from tins and from the fridge and all were served with panache - the way it looked on the plate was as important to him as the ingredients. Often he had been away on one of his marathon trips around Eastern Europe and he had lots of tales to tell as well as advice to offer on any teenage problems I shared with him.

The piece of wisdom that I remember best, I think kind of sums up the sort of person Dad was as well: ‘Never run after buses or men… there’s always another one coming along behind’ There’s a whole world of philosophy in that sentence. ‘Don’t bother to run after buses’…..is anything in life really worth knocking yourself out for? You may think you have missed out on something really important but another opportunity will happen. ‘…or men’…teenage angst can make it seem as if the world has come to an end… but there are ‘plenty more fish in the sea’ and lots of time to make decisions.

Good home spun advice!