KINGSTON IS SO COMMON

Kingston on Thames, 1967. Photo: sweetjaneblogspot.com

S A T U R D A Y,  1 4  O C T O B E R

Felt ill in the morning. My legs ached terribly.

It rained until one - the rain swept across the garden in sheets! I wrote to Rosko, at Radio One and  Radio Luxembourg, asking him to play Polnareff for English listeners.

I didn’t know whether to go shopping with Lucy or not, but decided to in the end as I would never be able to contact her at Fine Fare, and she might have stayed waiting for ever. I got there and she’d been waiting for 20 minutes. We got a bus to Kingston and I had to wear a scarf: it had stopped raining but it was still windy.

I had a successful day but poor Lucy didn’t. She didn’t get a thing – not even shoes; and she lost her gloves. We went to some boutiques: Honey at Bentalls, Baroc, Favolous, and Dee’s Place which is owned by Twinkle's mother (we saw her serving). The dresses on the whole were deadly. But in Lewis Separates I got a ripply skirt in black corduroy - it's fab! - and a turquoise semi-skimpy sweater. In Bentalls I got a winter blouse, beige with a flower design on it and tiny tucks around the neck.

“I was staggered to see so many common types in Kingston today. Sounds snobby but it did strike me as a lot.”

It’s not so much the accents as the language they use – “she don’t do that no more”, “ain’t you seen it then?” ... etc!

Had supper at Lucy’s. Richard says at his school they often have pudding before the first course... strange. Then Mrs B took me back. I’m honoured: it’s the first time she’s ever driven in the dark. Did she go slowly!

Re-did my fringe. It got curly in the damp.

Kingston on Thames in the sixties.