Likes and Loves
The following provides an insight into the real Hilary by sharing her likes, her loves, her behaviour and a little inside knowledge of Hilary to help you understand the person she was.
Favourite Music
Favourite Books
- Pride and Prejudice
- Any recipe book
- Anything by Neville Shute
- Anything by Dick Frances
Favourite Recipes
- Coronation Chicken
Favourite Places
- Liverpool Airport, Liverpool
- Schiphol Airport, Amsterdam
- Sennen Cove, Cornwall
- Southwold Pier, Suffolk
- Tate Modern, London
Her Irreverent Sense of Humour
- Pushing people into our swimming pool…
- Making young children giggle by licking their cheek instead of a kiss or jokingly offering dog poo sandwiches and just acting plain silly to raise a smile…
- Cheating at group Pictionary while her team players were amazed at how good she was…
- Unpicking a classmates jumper as she sat behind him in chemistry lessons…
- Telling people she and Garry Williams [ long term close friend ] were once Olympic Ice-skaters similar to Torvill & Dean. Believe it or not most people could never be certain if she was being serious as she was very convincing.
- When heavily pregnant with Jonty, turned up at Mark Stradling’s [ Garry’s partner ] theatre in Haymarket, London asking to see Mark as it was time for him to take his responsibilities seriously. A briefly embarrassing time for Mark while he tried to convince his staff the unborn child was not his and she was joking.
Favourite Activities
- Jumping in puddles
- Wave watching
- Meeting new people
- Flying
- Fires
- Listening to BBC Today programme
- Listening to BBC Saturday Live
Favourite Artwork
- Anything by Misha Gordon
- Anything by Kandinsky
- Shotgun Art by Various
Favourite Restaurants
- Zédel, London
- Effes, Cambridge
- Serendipity, Georgetown USA
- Cheesecake Factory, Friendship Heights, USA
Favourite Films
- Anything by Mike Leigh
- Bodyguard
- East is East
- Gavin & Stacy
- The Gladiator
- Love Actually
- Napoleon Dynamite
- The Patriot
- Romy and Michele’s High School Reunion
- Robin Hood Prince of Thieves
Favourite Food
- Pancakes
- Mars Bar cake
- Baked Alaska
- Lemon Meringue Pie
- Red Cabbage
- Coronation chicken
- Home made Quiche
- Cheese and Marmite sandwiches warmed on a car dashboard
- Stuffing on Toast
- Glacé Cherry’s
- Fizzy water
- Coffee and Walnut cake!
- Squeeze Mustard
- Pickled Walnuts
- Steak
- Raclette
- Mince Pies
- Christmas Pudding
- Ice cream
- Co-Co Pops
- Unripe bananas
- Olives
- Onion ring crisps
Favourite Objects
- Her 2CV Dolly – only car she really loved
- Anything penguin
- Tomato UGG boots
What Made Hilary The Memorable Person She Was
- Rewarding children when they stood up to bullies – normally with chocolate.
- Calling Bush while at school to ask if she wanted a trench dug in the garden to help with her World War One poetry project.
- Joining dad on a trip to Liverpool for his work and then spending the day in Liverpool airport and getting a passing taxi driver to take a photo of her with the Yellow Submarine.
- Every time we would drive into Cambridge, as we passed one particular house in Hills Road telling everyone that the large concrete balls on the gateway were mounted on the day Jonty was brought home from the maternity hospital.
- For those whom annoyed her – FOAD [F**K OFF AND DIE]
- When the family at home, on going to bed and shouting Goodnight John Boy to us all… [from Little House on the Prairie]
- Sidle up to complete strangers; on the beach, in the desert or just the supermarket carpark and start a conversation. Because of this we affectionately called her the moron magnet as she always insisted it was others that made the first contact. While we all knew it was her.
- Helped children understand that it was OK to be them and made them feel included
- Voodoo doll always on hand for her own use or others to help make them smile when someone makes them down.
- Excessive use of Lenor fabric conditioner that gave the whole Gibson family that “Gibson smell” which meant clothes in school changing rooms instantly recognisable as well as children recognised as a Gibson when walking into a room even before being seen.
- Asking if Marjie’s hamster was OK when talking with our kids when staying with others. The response was code on whether they were OK or needed picking up.
- A family cuddle couldn’t escape the phrase “Mind if I kiss the Monkey? Hair ball!” from Disney’s Aladdin.
- Favourite expression of love when messaging – “Love you lots and lots like jelly tots and vodka shots and Marmite on toast”