A restaurant in Athens called 'Espresso"

I was 25 years old and travelling overseas for the first time.

It was May 1981 and Fred combined a holiday with a business trip to Telemecanique in France.

Our first destination was Athens and I sent this card home to my parents who were living in Howick. The excitement in the writing is tangible, 'Athens has been incredible and strange so different to our world. The museums have been astonishing.'

I was completely in love with travelling from my very first trip even though I wept buckets when Olympia Airlines went on strike and cancelled our flight to Crete. It took me a while to regroup and make alternative plans.

Looking back it must have been Fred trying to cheer me up that made him so cavalier at a restaurant called 'Espresso' in the Plaka, the old part of Athens beneath the Acropolis.

We had the only, rather cosy, balcony seat with a view over the busy streets. Their card 'urges' you to come to dine and drink, and so we did.

Taking in Athens, summer of 1981.

I have no clue what we ordered or drank looking at this bill.

It was the first and only time I have ever experienced Fred throwing caution to the wind in a restaurant, ordering food and drinks at will, he said yes to everything, but not without consequence!

I riffled through my photo album from 34 years ago as I remember keeping both the restaurant bill and our hotel bill.

Fred had spent more at "Espresso" for the one night of dining than for the 3 nights at the Plaka Hotel which included food too.

He still tells this story, he laughs now, but on the night he was unaware, too much alcohol to read the fine print, so it only dawned on him when he got the hotel bill what had happened.

He was shocked for quite some time.