Stamp collection must have dwindled as an area of interest.

Making lead soldiers and objects out of lead pellets never was healthy, but it was done.

What is the breadth of craft application?

I thought we were at least three generations removed from the wife/ woman in the kitchen stereotype.

My grandfather did most of the cooking himself not only because my grandmother didn’t know how to cook, but because he preferred to obtain the choice produce and cook it himself. Daughters were expected to further a talent, or five, and occupy themselves outside of the kitchen. That was on the one side, and staff existed on the other. The resultant generations experimented and still do: stripping down techniques to try a different way of doing things.

Under Mintoff, this attitude was no longer a luxury of sorts but a necessity.

We made most of everything we played with ourselves:the usual kites, bows and arrows and other toys, woodwork boxes and objects, decorations, needlework for the household. There weren’t any male / female boundaries. The boys would compete on whose cake-making techniques produced the better results even when the girls weren’t interested. It was no big deal.There would be the bread phase, the biscuit phase, the jam phase, the pickle phase. And many, many more areas of interest.

I’m in favour of a culture of experimentation and self-motivation.

This trying-to-make-a-point HSBC exercise with adult men gives me the shivers in terms of what it reflects about the whole mentality.

I remember taking limes and mint out with me so that when I asked for a mojito I wouldn’t be told that the ingredients (and recipe) were not at hand. It took a further three years for the drink to become standard fare.

If they wanted appreciation, they could have at least got their other halves to do the housework before going to work, put in a day’s work at the bank, and return home not to lounge on the sofa but to prepare the evening meal etc, etc, etc