Mum’s Diary
Went to play for Primary. Went walk in aft round Felthorpe Woods. 27 went. R went to play football. Went to Drayton for tea. Mum had had letter from P – 10 pages. I wrote to her at night. Went to St P at night – so did A. 2L 2S
Roger’s/My Diary
In the morning I went round to Everards to help clear up the mess and then in the afternoon we played football. We lost 2–1 and felt a bit unlucky as their last goal came right towards the end. However we could have lost by a lot more as they missed a penalty, hit the woodwork twice, cleared over the bar three times and kicked off the line twice. Felt very tired afterwards and had a sore throat so went to bed early.
Notes
Playing Piano
In the morning, mum went to St Peter’s Park Lane Methodist Church, see Chapter 124, where she played piano for the primary Sunday School. While mum could play the piano, she did not often play in public but played a few times for the primary Sunday School around this time.
Walk in Felthorpe Woods
In the late seventies, there was usually a church social activity in the afternoon (aft). In the summer, this was usually a trip to the coast but, between October and May, it took the form of a church walk or ramble, see Chapter 124. On this occasion, they went to Felthorpe Woods and mum noted that a particularly high number (27) went.
Felthorpe Woods
I confess that Felthorpe Woods are not well-known to me in comparison to other similar areas such as Mousehold Heath or Ringland Hills. Located between the villages of Felthorpe and Horsford just north of Norwich, the woods are in the same area as what is now Broadland Country Park. Different parts of the woodland are known as Felthorpe and Horsford Woods depending on which village they are closest to. There are, and were, multiple footpaths in the area and this may explain why mum went walking there on this and other occasions, for example in April 1979.
Football
R refers to me, Roger. Mum noted that I went to play football. Although I loved football and played a lot at school, see Chapter 118, I was particularly inept at it so never made a school team and was rarely asked to play football outside of school. Indeed, even in our playground games, I often suffered the ignominy of being last chosen. Consequently, I tried to inveigle my way to being captain so I would be the one choosing, a bit like a country like Qatar hosting the World Cup to make sure they qualified!
Anyway, on this occasion, I was asked to play and noted the game in some detail. I think my assessment that we were unlucky to lose 2-1 because our opponents’ second goal came very late on was definitely a case of rose-tinted spectacles given the litany of near misses we endured. It seems we were completely outplayed and were lucky to only lose 2-1.
Drayton for Tea
Mum noted going to Drayton for tea, that is to my grandmother’s. It was our usual practice to go there for tea on Sunday afternoon throughout my childhood and teenage years, see Chapter 122. Given the proximity of Felthorpe Woods to Drayton, it is possible that mum went straight from the walk/ramble to grandma’s. Mum does not specify who went with her, if anyone. I don’t refer to this in my diary so it is possible that football took up the whole afternoon and I did not go to grandma’s.
Meal Terminology
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. On this occasion, mum referred to going to Drayton for tea.
Letters to and from Tricia
P refers to my older sister Tricia (Patricia). She was in her first term of university in Cambridge, see Chapter 120. Mum was a prolific letter writer and kept in touch with us conscientiously while we were away at university. While this was great, it was also a burden as a response was expected! I think Tricia handled this better than I did, particularly initially, although later I got into the habit of writing weekly and mum grew to accept this.
Tricia was also a good correspondent and, on this occasion, she had written a ten-page letter to grandma. While mum might simply have been documenting the number of pages, I detect a competitive tone in her diary note. Clearly, she would expect Tricia to write longer letters to her than to grandma! Mum noted that she wrote to Tricia at night.
Evening Service
Mum noted that she went to the evening service at St Peter’s Park Lane Methodist Church. While this might seem unremarkable as mum was a member at Park Lane, she had got into the habit of going to one service per week at Bowthorpe Road Methodist Church. This was partly because she had a difficult relationship with the senior Minister at Park Lane, Rev Ream, and did not like his services, and partly because she got on very well with Rev Malcolm Carter, the Minister at Bowthorpe Road, and liked his services.
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 two senna-containing tablets (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, the GP had changed her sleeping tablets from nitrazepam (Mogadon) to flurazepam (Dalmane). 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 sometimes had nights without taking any sleeping tablet such as on this occasion.
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.
Post-Party Clear Up
The previous night, I had hosted a party, see Chapter 122, with a school friend, Everard Mascarenhas. It had been at his house in Park Lane and I went there in the morning to help clear up.
Everard Mascarenhas
Everard Mascarenhas and I were close friends in the Hewett School sixth form, see Chapter 118. He lived near me so we often walked to and from school together. 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.
Sore Throat
It seems I was starting with a sore throat, see Chapter 116. I also felt tired, probably from playing football, so went to bed early.
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