There is a rather old-fashioned English expression to describe two people that are extremely similar. They are peas in a pod.

I think one could safely say that Olivia and I peas in a pod. She looks like me (or rather like I used to) and we have scarily similar personality traits. For example, we have both been described as control freaks on numerous occasions. In fact the first time it happened to Olivia was at her christening. Mrs Miller, her godfather’s wife, held her in her arms and said: “This child is a control freak.”

Olivia told me last night on the way back from playing tennis that she remembers her christening, if not Mrs Miller’s early diagnosis.

“I thought you were trying to throw me in the lake,” she said. “And all around me there were people crying.”
It is very possible that there was weeping, due to the auspicious occasion, but there was no lake.
As I mentioned we were driving home after playing tennis. It seems even on a tennis court we are peas in a pod.

“Every shot I hit either goes out or in the net,” she yelled at one stage.

“Welcome to my world,” I told her.

Having said that, if she continues to have lessons at the rate she is (yes, somehow she has managed to convince me to arrange private tennis lessons, as well as the group ones she has, because she too wants to see Rafa and Federer and her big tournament is on the 21st), she will at least be able to hit the ball over the net when she gets to my age.

I suppose you could call that evolutionary progress. But it’s not cheap.

Copyright: Helena Frith Powell 2009