Having been informed that my fate was to get a ‘severe dose of the slipper’, ‘a whacking’ or ‘my bottom tanned’ (she used the terms interchangeably), she would never punish me immediately but tell me when she would administer it, leaving a good while for me to meditate.
Typically, like a school, she would tend to save up my punishment till the end of the school week, and administer it when I got home on Friday afternoon.
Like the boys at school, I knew what was coming and had all day to dwell on it.
I’ve always considered one of the more memorable sensations from my school days the feeling of increasing unease as it got nearer the time for me to go home.
I would feel sick in my stomach, weak-kneed, couldn’t concentrate and would need to visit the loo.
When I got home, my mother would send me to my bedroom, where I would try to concentrate on my homework – but usually failing, since the anticipation of a whacking always left me in a real state.