Sep 12th diary

Written by a 52 year old female Librarian from Finchley.

Written on September 12th 2010.

It’s 10am - I’ve wokem up very late - found it difficult to sleep due to M’s snoring. I’m hoping yesterday’s Leigh on Sea air will have a healing effect and I won’t feel so tired. Had a lovely time with J & G on our annual outing to the seaside. There was a regatta on and we were a bit put out as we were used to having the place to ourselves and it was very noisy and crowded. M’s daughter, A, arrives at 11.30am and we have brunchy-breakfast - cereal, toast, honey, marmalade, Jasmine tea and freshly pressed pear juice from the tree at the bottom of the garden. Last year it was covered in ivy and hadn’t produce fruit for years - this year there are hundreds of pears!

The Grand Prix is about to start, the reason A is here. They’ve been watching the racing together over the past few months. I’m hoping Lewis Hamilton wins today! I’m meeting L (A’s mother, M‘s ex-wife) today. We run the Greenacre Writing Groups and Workshops. We’re meeting to plan next Saturday’s workshop. Waffle, Muffin and Marmalade are very pleased to see me - meowing and squeaking until I give them jelly meat. I jump in the shower, have a quick tidy up and almost instantly, the doorbell rings.

It’s L, she’s not feeling very well and looks tired. We’re running a creative writing workshop about dialogue and come up with 3 exercises: 'Bad News' this is about a conversation on the telephone e.g. flight cancelled due to ash cloud; 'Balance of Power' one person has information that other wants e.g. information about an inheritance; 'The Power of Silence' a conversation between two people, one of whom can't talk either physically or emotionally - one part of the desription involves just dialogue and the other physical appearance, expressions, gestures etc.

After 3:15: Lewis Hamilton won!!!

At 3:15 the telephone rings - it is M, he and A are coming for lunch.

I prepare salad with balsamic dressing and olives. After lunch we have raspberries and yoghurt, earl grey tea, organic ginger cake - yum yum. L & A leave about 5pm - they’re off to watch a girly film together. M & I watch a romantic comedy and before we know it M has to rush off. He has A’s car and she wants it back by 5pm. I’m supposed to go with him so we can get some shopping but I can’t find my keys and eventually he has to go without me. I spend the next hour hunting for my keys and eventually the phone rings. It is a very apologetic M, he picked up my keys by mistake!

I spend the rest of the evening catching up with Greenacre Project work, typing up minutes and contact lists, fine tuning my article for the Greenacre Times - all about Mass Observation Communities Online project - and finally phoning children to catch up with all their news.

At 11.55pm, I eventually get to bed and read one page of ‘Cheerful Weather for the Wedding’, by Julia Strachey, before falling asleep.