Mum’s Diary
Nice day at work. Busy. Wrote Past sub-c minutes at night & sorted out WGBR membership book! Mrs Black rang & asked me to go to see Dr Black for blood test on Thursday 2 pm. IS IT.
Roger’s/My Diary
I decided that I didn’t need a biology practical lesson so instead of that I had private study but I still had to spend about 3 hours at home doing my other homework. At lunch time I was on dinner duty again. Watched the first of a new series of the Goodies it was very funny.
Notes
Mum Worked for Mr Ashken and Mr Stephens
During this period, mum worked as part-time medical secretary for the private practice of two surgeons, Mr Ashken and Mr Stephens, see Chapter 121. This practice was based at 41 Newmarket Road. She worked all day on Tuesdays and Wednesdays and half day on Fridays. On this occasion, as it was a Tuesday, she worked all day. She noted that she had a nice day at work and that it was busy.
Pastoral Sub-Committee Minutes
Past sub-c refers to the pastoral sub-committee of the church she attended, St Peter’s Park Lane Methodist Church, see Chapter 124. Mum had attended a meeting of this sub-committee the previous night. I believe this sub-committee was 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. It appears that she was the sub-committee’s secretary as she wrote their minutes at night.
Membership Book
WGBR refers to the senior Minister Rev Ream (WGBR) at St Peter’s Park Lane Methodist Church, see Chapter 124. I assume his membership book was his record of members in the church possibly along with contact and other personal details. Mum was responsible for keeping a number of church rolls possibly in her role as secretary of this sub-committee. Presumably, she was trying to synchronise the book with these rolls. The fact that she referred to this as sorting the book out and the exclamation mark indicates what she thought of Rev Ream’s administrative and record keeping skills!
Based on her diary, mum’s relationship with him was very difficult. She was unhappy with many of the things he did. 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.
Blood Test
Mum had had surgery for a kidney stone at the beginning of August 1976, see Chapter 116. This surgery had been carried out by Mr Ashken for whom mum worked. She had been found to have high levels of calcium in her blood (hypercalcaemia) and had been referred to renal physician Dr Jack Pryor who in turn had referred her to Mr Alan Green for parathyroid surgery. I believe the diagnosis of primary hyperparathyroidism had been made on clinical grounds but this was to be confirmed by measuring levels of parathyroid hormone in her blood and this was why she had been referred to Dr Black. She arranged an appointment to see him in two days time at 2 pm.
Private-Level Service
I must admit I am not sure why mum had to see a consultant haematologist to get blood taken! Because mum worked in private practice, she saw the individualised service private patients received and she wanted that herself. I know she discussed this with Mr Ashken and he agreed to provide her that individual care without charging her. However, I am doubtful that his colleagues would, or could, have done the same. I know she was in correspondence with BUPA presumably about private medical insurance. Anyway, I suspect she had blood taken by Dr Black because she was being treated as a private patient. I assume Mrs Black was acting as her husband’s private practice surgery which was a fairly common arrangement at that time.
A New Radioimmunoassay Test
Another possible factor was that radioimmunoassay testing for parathyroid hormone was a relatively new test and could only be conducted in certain labs. There may have been specific procedures for requesting this and this could well have required a signature from a senior doctor. However, I am sure Dr Pryor or Dr Black could have signed the form and got someone else to take the blood!
Dr Alec Black
Alec Black was a consultant haematologist at the Norfolk and Norwich Hospital. Born in March 1934, he died in September 2022 aged 88. According to his obituary, he played an important role in the plans to relocate the hospital to Colney instead of earlier plans to move to Hellesdon. He trained in Cambridge completing his medical degree in 1959. He began haematology specialty training in 1964 at St Thomas’. From there, he took up a new consultant post in haematology at the Norfolk and Norwich. I assume Mrs Black refers to Dr Black’s wife. Her maiden name was Alison Butters. They married in Lincoln in June 1966.
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 took one senna-containing tablet (S for Senokot) and one tablet of amitriptylline (T for Tryptizol). Mum struggled with depression for many years and tried various antidepressants. At this point, she was trying to come off them but was having to do this gradually because of the withdrawal symptoms she experienced.
Biology Practical Lesson
At this point, I had just started in the Hewett School Sixth Form, see Chapter 118. I was studying three A levels in pure maths, physics and chemistry. In addition, I was aiming to do biology O level in a year to ensure I was eligible to apply for medicine. I was doing this with one other person mainly in the back of an A level class. This was overseen by the school’s Head of Biology, Mr Watkins. He also offered us additional support out-of-hours and, in this case, offering a practical lesson in what was essentially a free period but which was referred to as private study, I decided that I did not need this lesson preferring to make a start on my homework instead.
At my school at that time, there was strong emphasis on learning by doing and experimenting. This was particularly the case in the Nuffield chemistry A level course we were following. It was difficult to do this for the biology O level we were doing given the time constraints we faced but Mr Watkins tried to provide this when he could. For me, there was a trade-off between what would be learned and the time involved. If it was something I thought I already understood, I think I believed that I could spend the time more profitably doing something else!
Homework
I was just coming to terms with the step up in work load I was facing having transitioned from O level to A level. This was not helped by the fact that, in addition to biology O level, I was also doing Latin O level at the end of Lower Sixth as this had been a three-your course that I started in Form 4. On this occasion, I noted that I had to do three hours of homework at home despite having done some in private study at school.
Lunch-time 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!
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.
“The Goodies“
I noted that I watched the first of a news series of “The Goodies” and regarded this as very funny. I recall watching this programme. It featured Tim Brooke-Taylor, Graeme Garden and Bill Oddie. It was said to combine surreal sketches and situation comedy. There were nine series and two specials released between 1970 and 1982. The first eight series were on BBC, BBC2 repeated on BBC1, and the last one on ITV. Series varied in length from six to 14 episodes. There were 76 episodes overall.
The series I noted starting on this day was series six consisting of seven episodes. Apparently, the episode I saw featured “Lips, or Almighty Cod” also known just as “Cod“. It was on BBC2 from 9.10 pm.
