elevision presenter “I’d bought a special present and a
T Cheryl Baker still blushes
at the memory of the
day she turned up at the house
lovely card and had driven miles to
be with them,” recalls Cheryl.
“They welcomed me with open
of her boyfriend’s parents, arms and clapped loudly when I
clutching a big birthday sang Happy Birthday, only to sit
present and a card. She knew me down and tell me afterwards
her boyfriend was abroad, but that although I’d got the right
she still wanted to celebrate day, I’d got the wrong month.
his birthday in style with “I never was much good at
his Mum and Dad. reading dates!”
Cheryl Baker’s
birthday blunder
Right man, right place, wrong day!
If you have to write an important letter, you need to
get the spelling and grammar right. Look for tips at
www.bbc.co.uk/skillswise
ne of the most When the chemist offered me
O amazing experiences
of my life was seeing
a landscape on the island
a free film and just £50, I was
furious. I phoned them every
week for six months to see if
of Madagascar that took my film had turned up but got
my breath away. Sadly, nothing from them.
the most disappointing
moment of my life came
when the chemist lost I had planned that
the photos. It took me trip for months and
six months to get any spent thousands of
compensation from them. pounds on it.
“We had spent nine days
Kate Humble son getting to this place, which was
like a mythical forest out of a
“Finally I wrote a short, polite
but very firm letter, explaining
holiday snap fairy tale. Large outcrops of
rock rose up like cathedrals,
with narrow valleys below
that I was a journalist and
needed the photos to write
about my visit, that I would
that looked like alleyways in never get the chance to go back
a medieval town. It was again and that the pictures were
“My photos were absolutely mind-blowing to see. irreplaceable. We finally settled
irreplaceable – and the “I took nine rolls of film on on £500, which didn’t bring
chemist lost them!” that holiday and, would you back my photos, but it was
believe, the chemist lost the fairer than the £50 they’d
City Hospital’s Kate one roll that had this landscape originally offered me.”
Humble will never on it. I had planned that trip for
see her dream shots months and spent thousands
of pounds on it.
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