Page 60 - A Life - my Live - my path

School - my youth

insignificant reasons which are nevertheless
fundamental principle".

In simpler terms: you can't always do what you want.

I've never been able to find the author of this quote, and so
I've never been able to refer to it, but from time to time, at
dinner parties, when I meet new people and some of them
- rightly so - play it up a bit, I enjoy reciting this sentence,
which, with practice and the right intonations, hits the nail
on the head every time.
In July 1969, I was 17 years and 8 months old. I was going
to be 18 in November. My two friends decided to spend a
fortnight on the Belgian coast, as the parents of one of them

had booked a flat with several bedrooms. They offered to
take me with them for a week. It was the first time I'd been
able to go on holiday on my own with friends. My parents
agreed, so my mother packed a small suitcase with some
clothes and my father gave me a bit of pocket money. It
wasn't much, but it was enough.
My problem was my age, because by law I had to be
eighteen to be allowed into the nightclubs. On my cardboard
identity card, the 1 in 1951 was almost erased. So, I was able
to round it off easily to a '0' and get a slight 1950. That's how
I spent a wonderful week at the Belgian coast.

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