Mum’s Diary
Hair set in am. Typed & dup all morning. Work in aft. Mr S there briefly. Mr A came. Said kidney draining OK but tube will always be narrow. Right back ache at night ?due to collating etc. Bit depressed at night. Had letter from P. 2L 1S.
Roger’s/My Diary
Got a reply from Nottingham University, I have been accepted for their course. I must now see Mr Smith about getting some money in the form of a grant. Mr Rathbone gave James and me the 2 problems for the month which are dreamt up by some Maths Organisation. James is attempting one and me the other. Mine is if the sum of some integers is 1976 what is the maximum product. I have got an answer from an expression which works if instead of 1976 you have 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 15 or 50 but I haven’t developed a proof.
Notes
Hair Set
Mum had her hair set in the morning.
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 St Peter’s Park Lane Methodist Church, see Chapter 121. On this occasion, she noted typing and duplicating (dup) all morning.
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 Friday, she worked in the afternoon (aft). Mum noted that Mr Stephens (Mr S) was there briefly. Mr Ashken (Mr A) also came in.
Kidney Drainage
In August 1976, mum had surgery for a kidney stone carried out by Mr Ashken, , see Chapter 116. The previous day, she had been for a follow-up IVP (intravenous pyelogram). The radiologist, Dr Visick, had told her that the kidney was draining normally but the ureter was narrowed following the stone and surgery. Mr Ashken essentially confirmed this saying that the kidney was draining OK but the tube (the ureter) would always be narrow.
Backache
Mum complained of right-sided backache at night. Mum often complained of nondescript aches and pains, see Chapter 116, and this may have been of that nature. One factor may have been that she had been discussion her previous kidney stone and her narrowed ureter and this was the type of pain she had had with the stone.
Mum wondered if it could have been due to collating the things she had duplicated. This seems unlikely to me although I do recall that mum sometimes duplicated large documents and newsletters which needed a lot of collating and we were roped in to help, see Chapter 121. The way mum organised this was to spread the pages on a table or around the room and each person walked round picking up one page from each pile. I guess if there were a lot of pages and mum had been doing it on her own, she could have had aches and pains at the end of it.
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 was a bit depressed at night. While there were not always clear factors which worsened her depression, it is conceivable that the result of the IVP and knowing she had a narrowed ureter would have made her feel anxious and depressed.
Letter from Tricia
P refers to my older sister Tricia (Patricia) who was away at her first term of university in Cambridge. Mum noted getting a letter from Tricia. Mum was a prolific letter writer and she kept in touch with us diligently while we were away at university. While this was a good thing, it was also a burden as she expected a response! Tricia was much better at this than I was, at least initially. Over time, I discovered that, if I wrote to mum regularly once per week, this minimised the grief I received!
Mum’s Medication
Towards the end of her diary entries, mum tended to note the tablets she had taken that day, particularly at night, see Chapter 116. On this occasion, she noted that she took two long-acting amitriptyline (L for Lentizol) tablets 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.
Relatively recently, she had changed sleeping tablets from nitrazepam to flurazepam. She had started taking two tablets of flurazepam at night but had then varied the dose between one and two. Her GP had recently offered her a higher dosage of flurazepam tablets (30mg). However, mum had not accepted these, preferring to remain on the 15mg tablets. Indeed, she had had a few nights without taking any and she did not take any on this occasion perhaps because she wondered if they were making her feel more depressed. Mum also varied the dose of the long-acting amitriptyline between one and two tablets and the dose of the senna-containing tablet from one to three.
Course at Nottingham University
I received a reply from Nottingham University confirming that I had been accepted on a “course” there. This was not an undergraduate course but was a university taster session. These were subject specific and my sister Tricia had been on the maths version of the “course” in January 1975. I went on this “course“in January 1977, see Chapter 120.
I loved this “course” and described my experience of this in detail in my diary. Even now, I recall attending one lecture where the lecturer told us that we had probably been told not to heat liquids in sealed containers because, if we did, this is what would happen and there was then a loud bang!! This experience, and my sister’s experience of university life reinforced for me that I wanted to go to university and could not wait to go!
A Grant
I explained elsewhere in my diary that there was a £20 fee to attend, see Chapter 120. Finding money for this was not a foregone conclusion for me. However, I learned that it was possible to apply for a grant for this. I noted that I had to see Mr Smith about this.
Mr H H Smith
Mr H H Smith was one of two Deputy Heads of the Hewett School when I was there, see Chapter 103. I do not recall him. There was, however, a report from him in my end-of-third year report but I do not recall him/her. Initially, I missed it but he also signed my end-of-year report in 1972.
Monthly Maths Questions
In sixth form, I was studying pure maths. In addition to A level, I also took S level maths and I attended lunch-time lessons for this. I think the incident described here refers to one of this lunch-time lessons where the teacher, Mr Rathbone, set me and another boy a question each which I described as having been dreamt up by “some Maths Organisation”. In fact, this was the International Maths Olympiad. They had developed six questions for 1976.
Full Questions
The full questions were:
- A1: A plane convex quadrilateral has area 32, and the sum of two opposite sides and a diagonal is 16. Determine all possible lengths for the other diagonal.
- A2: Let P1(x) = x2 – 2, and Pi+1 = P1(Pi(x)) for i = 1, 2, 3, … . Show that the roots of Pn(x) = x are real and distinct for all n.
- A3: A rectangular box can be completely filled with unit cubes. If one places as many cubes as possible, each with volume 2, in the box, with their edges parallel to the edges of the box, one can fill exactly 40% of the box. Determine the possible dimensions of the box.
- B1: Determine the largest number which is the product of positive integers with sum 1976.
- B2: n is a positive integer and m = 2n. aij = 0, 1 or -1 for 1 ≤ i ≤ n, 1 ≤ j ≤ m. The m unknowns x1, x2, … , xm satisfy the n equations: ai1x1 + ai2x2 + … + aimxm = 0,for i = 1, 2, … , n. Prove that the system has a solution in integers of absolute value at most m, not all zero.
- B3: The sequence u0, u1, u2, … is defined by: u0= 2, u1 = 5/2, un+1 = un(un-12 – 2) – u1 for n = 1, 2, … . Prove that [un] = 2(2n – (-1)n)/3, where [x] denotes the greatest integer less than or equal to x.
One Question Each
I noted that James was attempting one and I was trying another. Mine was “the sum of some integers is 1976 what is the maximum product?” This was question number B1. I noted that I had got an answer from an expression which worked if instead of 1976 you had 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 15 or 50 but I hadn’t developed a proof. On the 29th, Mr Rathbone gave us the answers. It seems I had solved it correctly. I noted it was a shame I had not sent it off. Essentially, the answer was 2*3658. The highest product would always be achieved with as many threes as possible and then zero, one or two twos.
Mr Rathbone
I believe Mr Rathbone’s first name was Richard, and possibly his middle name was Simon, but everyone referred to him as Basil after the actor. Sadly, Mr Rathbone died in October 2022, aged 92. A short death notice was published in the EDP. I particularly remember his beard but he was also well-remembered for his bike.
James Jarvis
James refers to James Jarvis. He was extremely bright and often came ahead of me in different exams. In 1976, he won subject prizes in biology and additional mathematics. Then, in 1977, he won the subject prize in physics and also the Harmer Memorial Prize for Mechanics. In 1978, he won the subject prize for pure maths. He and I did S level lessons together. However, from memory, he got an inexplicably low grade in one of his A levels. According to the 1978 examination results booklet, he gained five A levels in applied maths, pure maths, pure and applied maths, physics and chemistry. He gained a distinction in physics and a merit in pure maths. According to that year’s prizegiving leaflet, he went on to study physics at university in London, see Chapter 118.