1968: 50 YEARS SINCE WOMEN GOT THE VOTE
"Didn't have any lunch because I didn't get dressed till one o'clock! I read the Observer for ages - it's 50 years since women got the vote."
Monday, 22 Jan
French dictée wasn't too bad. German was revolting.
Anya brought in Salut les Copains. In it are three staggering photos of Polnareff and the words of his new songs! Parts of 'Dame Dame' are slightly promiscuous.
"Elle traça d'abord ce qu'elle appelait
Les lèvres, le cou, puis les seins sur lesquels elle insista beaucoup"...(!!!)
Actually it's only about a drawing he did of a woman - not about a real one.
Didn't go home with Vanessa but wish I could. If only she liked me enough to sort of come up and talk.
Tuesday, 23 Jan
Wore beige skirt, green jumper and green socks - très Français.
In Pottery I wedged and grogged St Thomas's Body and then Birdy put it into the mould for me. A dish in two lessons!
Chatted with Claire's lot - they're all so nice. Vanessa says she's looked up my name and found out it's Medieval. Sarah has changed all her 'A' Level subjects and is going to start again from scratch; she wants to do Medicine.
At two I went to the meeting for the notice-board committee. Every notice that looks messy in any way we're to put a red star on, which means the notice has to be done again. I think it's marvellous - automatically people will now find themselves realising how foul things can look. Thirty years ago Denmark started to concentrate on art and design in schools, in all schools, and that's why they have such a high standard now. Of course, England has to start about 50 years late. We're probably the only school thinking about it anyway.
Bed dreadfully late because Pa, Ma and me watched Fanny Cradock - she really is super! You can't stop watching. It's so terribly interesting.
Wednesday, 24 Jan
Hair still good enough, amazingly, to have loose.
It was super after lunch because Claire, Joanna and Sarah suddenly dragged me off to help with the notice-board upstairs. Claire was very complimentary about my powder-blue jumper and locket. We got drawing pins and proceeded to arrange coloured sheets of paper on the board. Final result - super!
Classical Background for some reason was in the Physics Lab but we didn't know so about ten of us went to O3 and lazed around. Tina then took her shoes off and while she wasn't looking Jill pinched them and hid them behind one of the chairs. Then who should come along but Miss Ball, so Tina had the most embarrassing time trying to hide her feet. Then Miss Ball told us where we were meant to be, and as we filed out Tina had to tip-toe behind all the chairs and slip on her shoes without Miss B seeing!
Missed the 20 past to Redhill, and therefore the 80A; everybody at White Horse Drive barged so much we couldn't get on. Saw an accident on the way home - a poor little boy lying curled up in the road in front of a car. Beastly.
Worked solidly from 5pm to midnight, except for dinner and a long bath.
Thursday, 25 Jan
Whenever I eat anything there's a funny lump in my throat.
Went to school to revise all morning. Jill and Lucy were there too. It's rather extraordinary, but the atmosphere in the lounge is just like in the Gasthof Post in the morning when there are a few people sitting around who haven't gone skiing: spacious, quiet and eleven-o-clockish.
At two our French exam began in Hut Y - it was fouler than I'd thought. It was the colloquial passage, not the literary one, that was so beastly. Luckily I met Vanessa on the bus going down to town, so we went over the exam (which she liked, of course - a bit depressing). The poor thing's got to write a speech by Monday for the semi-finals of the debating competition.
'Everlasting Love' is No.1.
Friday, 26 Jan
Wore beige skirt and beige jumper. I look rather foul in the jumper. I put a bit of my hair in bobbles at the back. It looks fuller.
Revised German in the lounge.
The exam was in Hut Y. At the time I thought it was awfully easy. Now I'm not so sure. Waited for the 80A but it never came so I walked all the way home.
Listened to Any Questions in the evening - they spoke about public schools. I think eventually they will have to go, as it's so ridiculous that privileges still exist for people with money. But the change must be gradual. As Daddy says, evolution rather than revolution.
Tried on the old red jumper I gave to Chump - it's fabulous! I think I'll have it back!
Charles Wilson, the great train robber who escaped three years ago, has been found in Canada - such a shame. Thirty years imprisonment for just having a bit of fun - it's ridiculous.
Saturday, 27 Jan
Revised Les Fables and a bit of Andromache.
Worked all day except after lunch when Ma took me to Epsom to look for beige boots. Complete waste of time - they're weren't anywhere. Put me into a foul mood having wasted one and a half hours of my precious time (Ma's too).
Rosko played the Bee Gees' 'Sir Geoffrey' on Midday Spin - in French!!
Ma and Pa went out to the GOLDMANS. Oh, it's not fair, I want to see Mark more than ever. He wants to do drama, such a coincidence. He sounds so super. At the moment he belongs to the Westcott Players or some name like that. I'm going to enquire about amateur drama clubs around here. I'd so love to act.
I've just been reading last year's diary - honestly, I had no idea how much I've changed these last 12 months. I was so young this time last year. Reading March 3rd for instance! I wonder what's made me suddenly grow up? Perhaps it was Dutronc, but I don't really think so. Maybe I've just grown up since meeting all the new people at school.
Sunday, 28 Jan
Didn't have any lunch because I didn't get dressed till one o'clock! I read the Observer for ages - it's 50 years since women got the vote.
At tea Daddy said he was surprised Mark didn't go to University. Apparently he's very bored with the course on landscaping (?) that he's doing. I thought he was going to become an estate agent.
Saw 'Kenilworth' on TV (Sir Walter Scott), Queen Elizabeth I is marvellous. But I don't know how people stuck it listening to her saying "we" this and "we" that all the time. I would have gone up the wall!
Peter Cook was on Meeting Point - he's absolutely super. He's not over self-confident or anything like a lot of brainy people are - he's a humorous and sincere sort of person.
They were discussing the Devil. Nowadays people simply don't believe in the Devil as a person so why do they believe in God? They're both just symbols, one symbolising good and one symbolising evil (strange that we should abandon the bad one). So why do people go to Church? You're just worshipping a word if you do. The Devil was a very real person to people 500 years ago and so was God. I suppose the reason that God has stayed is because God is such an obviously nice thing and something that gives you a sort of cosy feeling of security, and the Devil is such a foul thing that the quicker you can forget about it the better. Why should we carry on believing? It's so old-fashioned. Peter Cook is baffled by it all.
Daddy sometimes gets a bit fed up being an architect - the managerial side of the office takes up 90% of his time; he loathes it. But there isn't a single other job he's like to do. At the moment I've rather set my heart of acting, both for theatre and films.
If only I could go to Bristol. It'd be a marvellous start.
