Complex and emotional

Lotte Berk my mother, the most complex and emotional person I have ever known, was adamant.

‘Don’t even try and please me. I hate it when people try and please me. What is it that saying? What does it mean?”

“I think it’s showing how much people care and admire you”.

“Rubbish, there is a hidden meaning behind all this trying to please stuff”.

“How do you feel when people give you fresh flowers? Isn’t that nice?”

“No, it’s annoying, I don’t want to find a vase and do all that arranging, I just throw them on the floor”.

“What good is that?”

“It’s good for the cat, she likes to play with them”.

Much later in my life I understood what mother meant. Of course she was right. Mother was deeply intuitive about how the mind works. Possibly because she had to discover and learn to come to terms with her own inner turmoil. Her exercise technique was created from her desire to express her feeling for her need for love and fun which may well be the reason they’re so popular with her followers who experience the fun, warmth and joy of life. Kelly, one of my trainees who is now practicing in California said, and I quote “Lotte Berk, not just a work out, but a work of art”. How right she is.

This wasn’t treats, this was an addiction

Healthy living was not a priority for my mother. Look inside her refrigerator, each shelf stuffed with chocolate. This wasn’t treats, this was an addiction.

Each time I visited mother in London we would go out for lunch. She really didn’t enjoy cooking. One of her favourite places to eat was Churchill’s, and a great teat for me. Mother always ordered the same lunch for both of us. A large plate of smoked salmon. Churchill’s do the best smoked salmon I’ve ever tasted. More often we went to her local crepery where mother ordered a lemon and sugar crepe for her lunch. I couldn’t survive on that and enjoyed a stuffed vegetable one. Luckily I prefer savoury foods. Next we’re off to mother’s favourite patisserie in Moscow Road. In the window on view was a gallery of the most fabulous cakes. Just looking I put on pounds. Mother indulged, I on the other hand let my eyes do the eating. Both my parents were sugar addicts.

Being dancers they burnt off the calories. Just as well that after retiring from dance mother evolved her unique exercise technique and kept her figure for ever.

As for me, after my second child I ended up three stone heavier, but that’s another story.