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Transcription of Letter
April 25th 1983.
Dearest,
got your letter & requests Saturday. Herewith your Beatles tape. PEST!! Don't you think I make a
good box.? I shall try & get a paper back "W.H."[1] when I go into
town, if not I have a book
here which I will send to you towards week-end. I'll buy you "Middlemarch" for your birthday, but will keep
it till you come. Surely you
liked "Tess of the Dvs" though I wanted to kick "Angel" up the backside, a very weak
character, but then I suppose the
story would have had
a different ending if he had been otherwise. Judy bought me a book "The diary of Adrian Mole," supposedly by
a boy of 13½, A.M. I
mean.
It is hilarious & a great insight into the mind of a 13½ year old boy. I laughed till I cried at parts.
His feelings towards his grotty
parents, his doting granny, girl friend & his own awakening sexuality, he measures his "Thingy" every
five minutes & cannot
understand it
having "a life of its own", it really is funny.
Dad seems a little better, some days not too bad at all. I've had diarrhoia since Friday,
though it seems to be on the wane now, lost 5 lbs Alas, only fluid loss, not F.A.T. It's poured for days but
sunny now. The garden is a
picture, I wish I could get a snap for you, I did ask Phil, but he's so busy & obviously forgotten. The daffs will
soon be over, but lots of
tulips, lillies, pansies & many other flowers & shrubs ready to bloom. I have to get a water lily for the pool,
but they're very pricey &
not yet available, May, I think. Well, dear, time is rolling on, Ray is tiling the bathroom, I went & ordered the
tiles on Friday & paid for
them £157-50, that is 17½ sq. yds. a pale, pale creamy green, with a daisy patterned one here & there.
The fella also threw in
4 × 12" mirror tiles which Ray is putting on the big wall. I don't know what the labour will be
but Ray is a perfectionist, so I
know it will look great & I'm sure you'll be pleased.
I'm counting the weeks now till you return, if end of July about 14 weeks.
All for now My love, take care
Love as always
X X X Mother, Dad &
family.
P.S. Marcus[2] is waiting for you to show him how to make
models, see him swim, roller-skate
& ride his motor-bike!!
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Notes
- I was teaching extracts from English literature to the senior classes at Siping. One extract in the textbook was from Wuthering Heights, a book I had never read.
- Age 6 at this point.