Mum’s Diary
P took car in to have exhaust checked & then collected it at night. Did some housework & typ & dup. V. tired with hwk. Went to Pastoral Sub-Committee at night. WGBR hopeless. Watched “I, Claudius” on TV with R & P at night.
No tabs.
Roger’s/My Diary
Today I realised how hard I am working and that I’ve got to keep it up for at least a year. I spent about two hours tonight trying to do my Physics homework. This lunch-time I was on duty in the dining hall. There were too many prefects there. This evening I watched the start of a new film serial called I, Claudius. It is about the Roman empire.
Notes
The Car’s Exhaust
Mum had a car at this point, a Simca that she and dad had bought in February 1972 before they split up, see Chapter 110. However, it had had problems with the exhaust and had recently been repaired, see Chapter 127. P refers to my older sister Tricia (Patricia). She was 18 at this point and was able to drive. It seems that mum had some concern about the exhaust following repair so Tricia took it back to the garage to be checked. She also picked it up at night.
Housework
Mum refers to doing some housework (hwk), see Chapter 126, although she does not specify what she did. Whatever it was, this made her tired.
Tiredness
Mum often complained in her diaries of feeling tired and sometimes of exhaustion, see Chapter 116. She had had surgery for a kidney stone at the beginning of August and was still recovering from that. On this occasion, she appears to have linked her feelings of tiredness specifically to the housework (hwk) she had done.
Typing and Duplicating
According to mum’s CV, see Chapter 105, she ran a typing and duplicating business from home until 1975. However, she did typing and duplicating after this date, particularly for the church, see Chapter 121. On this occasion, she noted doing typing (typ) and duplicating (dup) alongside housework (hwk).
Pastoral Sub-Committee
At night, mum went to a pastoral sub-committee meeting at the church she attended, St Peter’s Park Lane Methodist Church, see Chapter 124. I imagine this sub-committee would have been responsible for pastoral care of people associated with the church. Mum was a member of this sub-committee from at least June 1975 until September 1979.
The meeting was chaired by the church’s senior Minister Rev Ream (WGBR). Mum’s relationship with him was very difficult. One of his perceived flaws, according to mum, was poor chairing of meetings. On this occasion, she just refers to him as “hopeless“. To be fair to Rev Ream, my experience was that, once you got into mum’s bad books, almost nothing you did could be right!
Rev William (Bill) George Bertram Ream
Rev Ream was born in Stockport in July 1912. He entered the Methodist ministry in 1935 and served in Newcastle-under-Lyme and High Wycombe before coming to Norwich in 1974. During his time at St Peter’s, he was active in Norwich Council of Churches and Amnesty International. Afterwards, he retired but remained in Norwich. He died in Norwich in July 1999.
“I, Claudius“
R and P refers to me (Roger) and my older sister Tricia (Patricia). Mum noted that she watched “I, Claudius” with us at night on TV. I noted watching it too commenting that it was a new series and was about the Roman empire. While perhaps not part of our formal Latin homework, I recall being encouraged to watch it. I am pretty sure all the Latin class watched it too, see Chapter 118.
Mum’s Medication
Mum tended to note the tablets (tabs) she took each day, particularly at night, see Chapter 116. On this occasion, she noted that she did not take any.
Working Hard
I was at school on this day. I had just started in the sixth form at the Hewett School, see Chapter 118. In my diary, I observed how hard I was working and that I needed to keep this up for at least a year. I had just started A levels in pure maths, physics and chemistry. I suspect I saw a big difference in the amount of work needed for A levels as compared to O levels which I had found relatively easy! In addition, I was also doing two additional O levels at the end of lower sixth and this explained why I thought the level of work might ease after a year. These O levels were in Latin and biology. Latin was a three-year course that had been carried across to lower sixth, I was seeking to do biology O level in one year, in the back of an A level class, so that I had the qualifications needed to apply for medicine at university.
Physics Homework
By way of example of my workload, I noted that I spent about two hours that evening trying to do my physics homework, see Chapter 118.
Dinner Duty
As I was now in the Hewett sixth form, see Chapter 118, I was expected to be a prefect. One of the key responsibilities we had as prefects was to supervise the dining hall at lunch-time. We referred to this as “dinner duty” and the incongruity of doing “dinner duty” at “lunch-time” was lost on us then! On this occasion, I noted that there were too many prefects on duty.
Lunch-time
Based on my family’s working class background in Nottinghamshire, we had tended to refer to our meals as dinner and tea. However, given that we had moved to Norwich in 1960, and possibly because we were becoming more middle class, some of that usage was changing and family members sometimes, and perhaps increasingly, referred to a midday meal as lunch, see Chapter 92 although we continued to refer to an afternoon or early evening meal as tea. Here, I referred to lunch-time at school.
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