VIEILLE POULE A LA CHAMPENOISE
"it was more trouble than it was worth."
F R I D A Y, 2 0 O C T O B E R
Wore corduroy skirt and white jumper.
At break we rang up Mrs Yates at the Knightsbridge Hotel. I did the speaking. Oh, it’s so super - she was terribly nice and she will ring me up when Pol's here. She’s Irish - the girl yesterday told us. At the end she said, “goodbye to you”!
After register Miss Lack talked to us all. Since it’s now 12 and 13-year-olds who are growing up and not just 14 and 15-year-olds, she thinks something ought to be done to help them. Many of them become very miserable, and want to do things their parents don’t want them to do. So she would like a small group of sixth formers to become ‘friends’ of each form. It sounds like a very good idea.
“Current Events was super as usual – we did the strikes.”
It’s absolutely shocking that dockers get £15 a week. It’s all very good when you start off with that at 18, but not so funny when you’re on the same wage 30 years later. We did official and unofficial strikes - the unofficial ones are when the Union doesn’t approve. But the trouble is, the Union is often wrong, and that’s because the leaders are no longer very intelligent. University is available to everybody now, so the people who would have made good leaders have become professional men instead.
Us two spent most of the evening doing our meal. But it was really more trouble than it was worth. As well as simmering the 'vieille poule' for two and a half hours, and poaching the pears for the pie, we had the cream and wine sauce with bouquet garni to do, the creme anglaise, and the green beans, all at the same time on two grills. The pear pie was delicious but the sauce for the chicken curdled, and the washing up at the end was quite depressing. I put my new skirt and jumper on to cheer me up - but there's not much point if nobody notices what you’ve got on.
Don't feel very much like going youth hostelling tomorrow. It'd be ok if I knew there were some fab boys there.
"It’s absolutely shocking that dockers get £15 a week." The Dockers Strike that lasted for six weeks, and put an end to the antiquated practice of piece work.
