twists and turns

This fell out of a book that I started reading yesterday and made me think of my life's twists and turns.
Eleven years ago to the day, I sent a present to my sister Raquel. I went to the usual post office near the St Martins-in-the-Field church, not because it was closer to the place where I lived (in fact I had to take a bus and the underground to get there!) but, because it was the only place where Î could choose the prettiest, coolest and most recent stamp designs around. the people at the till already knew me by then, as this happened around the start of my second year in London and every time I sent a letter or a package, I would be there bothering them (I was a prolific letter writer).
I cannot remember what I sent Raquel, most probably something symbolic and a bit off centre, I really didn't have that much money at that time, but I always made an effort to sent my siblings something unique.
My second year in London was full of contrast, it was the happiest and the loneliest time of my life until then... It was that year that I discovered that there was such a thing as an animation course and career!!! Honestly!! Up until then I thought that people outside the US fell into animation, at least that's what happened (and, to some extent, it still happens) in Portugal!
But, man, when I was told that I could study animation I went crazy with joy and spent the entire year between bothering the tutors to the ground with questions about animation, reading any last piece of information about the subject that I could find and shooting my animation with a 1946 Russian 8mm camera, that one of the nice technicians dug out from the bowels of the college.
1996 was the year when my love for animation that had been in me all my life, finally materialized...

Oh well, sorry for the rambling, but, it is amazing how a tiny piece of paper with stamps can conjure up such memories!