Alison Garwood Jones

With my “head full of brains and my shoes full of feet,” good God I’ve travelled to some great places.

A hat tip and a deep bow to my employers, my friends and, above all, my family. Because of you, meus mirus prosapia, I’ve …

Crossed the same meadows as Yeats

Looked out the same windows as Marie Antoinette

Moved along the same asphalt as Terry Fox

Tripped on the same cobblestones as Mozart

Motored around the same monuments as Chanel

Been struck by the same beam of light as a Vermeer model

Picked the same flowers as Van Gogh

Turned the same doorknob as Dr. Johnson

Gripped the same banister as Franklin Roosevelt

Slid across the same marble floor as Michelangelo

Been slammed by the same surf as Greg Brady

Climbed the same mountain as Paul Cézanne

Drunk wine in the same cellar as Napoleon

And nursed a pint in the same pub as Frank McCourt

And it doesn’t end there

I’ve also dined in the same steakhouse as Al Capone

Studied in the same library as Hillary Rodham

Warmed my hands at the same hearth as Frank Lloyd Wright

Pushed open the same screen door as Lyndon Johnson

Driven around the same rally grounds as Hitler

Marched down the same aisle as Lady Diana

Dabbed on the same fragrance as Oscar Wilde (the original Eau de Cologne)

Gone to concerts in the same halls as Strauss and Caruso

Booked into the same hotel as Charles Dickens

Lived in the same neighbourhood as Obama

Dashed down the same side streets as Victor Hugo

Crunched along the same pebbled paths as Rudyard Kipling

Stood on the same muddy field as George Washington

Stretched out on the same plain as General Wolfe

Stared into the same mirror as Anne Frank

And placed a flower on the same grave as Jacqueline Kennedy

Still to come: India, China, Japan, Africa and Australia.

Oh! The places I’ll go — I hope, I hope!