Mum’s Diary
Took E & Nicola to riding stables at 8.45. R went to work. A cut branches off tree in back garden. I typ & dup all day. Depressed all day – picked up a bit in evening. R went to ?party at Bramerton. 1D 1L 1S.
Roger’s/My Diary
Still haven’t got my pay-rise but Mr. Peake has promised it for next week. Got home, quickly had a bath then dashed out to this party and called for Mascy who needless to say wasn’t ready. Party was good, in the cellar of a pub with a disco. Norwich lost 2-1 to Leeds today.
Notes
Riding
E refers to my younger sister Liz (Elizabeth) who was 11 at this time. She was really into riding at this point, see Chapter 122, and sometimes spent the whole day on Saturdays helping at the riding school. Nicola refers to friend and next-door neighbour, Nicola Drury. On this occasion, mum took them both to the riding school for 8.45 am.
While Liz recalls Nicola, she does not recall them going riding together, Liz does recall going to Keswick Riding School a couple of times and wonders if she might have gone there with Nicola. Liz started to learn to ride in Drayton but then went to two main riding schools, Palomino on Mousehold Heath and Redwings in Frettenham, see Chapter 122. I am not absolutely sure which riding school Liz and Nicola went to on this occasion.
Saturday Job
In her diary, mum noted that I (R for Roger) went to work. At that time, although I was still at school, I had a Saturday job at the Scientific Anglian bookshop, see Chapter 119.
Pending Pay Rise
At this point, I had been led to believe that some kind of pay rise was coming. I had hoped that it would have been through for a number of weeks but that had not happened. This issue dragged on for a further week. I finally got a 33% pay rise from £2.40 per day to £3.20 per day on 23 October.
While I now look back on my time working in that secondhand bookshop with great fondness, I also recall that I earned much less than my friends who worked in other places, such as Sainsbury’s. Ultimately, I did leave and went to work at Sainsbury’s in Anglia Square.
Cutting Branches
A refers to my younger brother Alan who would have been 14 at this point. Mum noted that he cut branches from a tree in the back garden.
192 College Road
At that time, we were living at 192 College Road, see Chapter 117. This is a large semi-detached house on the corner of College Road and an alleyway that runs to Recreation Road and which separates the house from the Parkside School. The house does not really have a classic front and back garden, rather it has a strip of garden running along the side between the house and the alley although this does curl around the house at both the front and the back. Indeed, the “front” and “back” doors of the house are both actually on the same side of the house just in different positions.
Front and Back Gardens
I think mum distinguished between front and back gardens because the side strip was divided into two by a wall which ran across the garden at ninety degrees to the alley and the side wall of the house. Such a wall is still present. When we lived there. mum had mainly flower beds at the front.
A Back Yard
The back was more of a yard. There was no separate garage as there is now. Rather, there was a garage attached to the house and this was accessed from the alley through a big heavy gate which is no longer present. There was some kind of shed in the back garden roughly where the garage is now. On balance, this looks as if it is the prefab shed that we had there, and in which I later stored my motorbike, and it has been converted to a garage with the addition of a modern door and some loss of garden footprint. Crucially, in that back yard/garden, there are three trees. The one in the corner looks older and appears to have been pruned. It is possible that this was the tree from which Alan cut branches.
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 that she did typing (typ) and duplicating (dup) all day.
Depressed
Throughout the late seventies, and at other times, mum struggled with depression and anxiety, see Chapter 116. On this occasion, she noted that she felt depressed all day but that her mood picked up a bit in the evening.
Mum’s Medication
Mum tended to note the tablets she took each day, particularly at night, see Chapter 116. On this occasion, she noted that she took two flurazepam (D for Dalmane) tablets to help her sleep, one long-acting amitriptyline (L for Lentizol) tablet for depression and one senna-containing tablet (S for Senokot) for constipation. She had been trying to wean herself off both antidepressants and sleeping tablets but had been advised by her GP to increase them once again because of her current feelings of severe depression.
A Party
R again refers to me Roger. Mum noted that she thought I had gone to a party in Bramerton,see Chapter 122. I think she was not completely sure about this as she included a question mark.
It is clear from my diary that the party was not in Bramerton but at a pub in Norwich! I don’t know if I had deliberately lied to my mother but I would have been happy for her to think it was at a friend’s house rather than at a pub particularly as I was only 16 at the time. However, I don’t know why I would have told her Bramerton. In general, I tried to give mum as little information as possible about what I was doing, where I was going and who I was with. However, I recall facing barrages of questions on such matters. Where possible, I remained silent. When not possible, I gave simple answers such as “out” or “with friends“. I might have said “a party” at a push but I doubt I would have told her where it was.
In my diary, I noted that I rushed back from work, had a bath and called for my friend Everard Mascarenhas who I called, on this occasion, by the highly original nickname of “Mascy“. I noted that he was not ready but I was not surprised by this!
Everard Mascarenhas
I knew Everard Mascarenhas through school, see Chapter 118. He and I were close friends in sixth form which we were just starting. He lived near me in Park Lane so we often walked to and from school together. Also later, we worked together at Sainsbury’s in Anglia Square, see Chapter 119. In 1976, he won an endeavour prize. In 1978, he passed A level physics. He was part of the school football team. Apparently, he read physics at University College Swansea, has a PhD in semi-conductor devices from Nottingham Trent University and an MBA from Imperial College. On this occasion, we went to a party together.
Louis Marchesi
I noted that the party was good and that it was held in the cellar of a pub with a disco. This sounds like the Louis Marchesi, see Chapter 114, to me especially as, two days later, I noted that there was to be another party at the Louis Marchesi. I recall attending a number of parties there around this time.
The pub was first named the Louis Marchesi in 1976, after the founder of the Round Table Great Britain and Ireland. The Round Table used to meet there. The name was revived in 2017. The part of the pub I remember was a downstairs basement that is now known as The Crypt.
Norwich City 1 Leeds United 2
I noted that Norwich lost 2-1 to Leeds United at home. Leeds led 2-0 with goals from Frank and Eddie Gray before Roger Gibbins pulled one back for Norwich.
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