03 April 2009

Michelle Obama at Elizabeth Garrett Anderson School

I heard on the news yesterday about the big event when Michelle Obama visited a girl's school. It was only today that I realised that it was the Elizabeth Garrett Anderson School in Islington.

I suppose it is no big deal that Mrs Obama would visit a school, but I was especially interested that it should be this particular school. Over several years in the 1980s I visited this school every week to take flamenco dance lessons, and we used this very hall where Mrs Obama was speaking. We worked up quite a lot of passion as we rhythmically stamped on that floor for many hours. Although it all seems a distant memory now, it was one of the most enjoyable times of my life.

Another thing I remembered about this school was that during one of our flamenco dance lessons my car was broken into in the school's car park, the only time I have ever suffered a vehicle robbery. The person who smashed my car window and stole my brief-case probably never knew that there were sensitive papers inside it, associated with correspondence I had had with the Ministry of Defence about my security clearance. Luckily the brief-case was found in the waste disposal chute of a nearby bank, and everything except my electronic calculator was recovered.



Michelle Obama speaking at Elizabeth Garrett Anderson School