#35 – 1984 Week 37: I hate writing diaries. Etc.

I have just decided that I am overworked.

Monday 10 September 1984
254-112 Week 37

This morning I was presented with my prefect’s tie. At break we had a meeting with the deputy head. Back to Monday mornings again!

Wasted my time at scouts and afterwards I wasted my time doing homework.

The photo must be from 1985. My brother, the deputy head Geoff Taylor (see also Geoff’s funeral in Week 11 of this year), Kit Denny and Chris Hayward, a brilliant musician, who sadly died in a tragic car accident in 2007. I found this account of the accident.

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Tuesday 11 September
255-111 Week 37

Today at break I held a prefects’ meeting. At which I explained a few things and told the bums to keep the room clean. Well, no one will take any notice of that. At lunchtime I had an Oxbridge lesson. Every minute counts in this world.

After school Bev phoned and really annoyed me. She wanted to go dancing. I did not. I had to. I did not want to.

We got our certificates and did not even go to dance. I only passed my bronze ‘commended’. Afterwards we came back here and, oh dear.... When they had all gone at last, I sat down and did homework until 12:30. I wanted to do more - out of spite.

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Wednesday 12 September
256-110 Week 37

I hate writing diaries. Etc.

In the afternoon we went rock climbing. I was so looking forward to it, but when it got to it, it was the same old thing and I wasn't any good anyway. Richard Topping and I did about three climbs on our own and nothing else. He is a good bloke.

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Thursday 13 September
257-109 Week 37

I have just decided that I am overworked. Most nights I work until after 11 now. I have no time for Diaries. Therefore, I shall stop writing this unless there is something worth writing. The situation is that bad.

Well, this evening we went to the Proms. We had a box as every year. A Haydn Symphony, Bartok, Third Piano Concerto - really beautiful, I had never heard it before - and Mahler’s First. What can you say about that piece? I met Chas Doyle from school during the interval. Afterwards, we went for a meal at RSJ, a restaurant on the South Bank. (Coin Street, closed 2016)

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Friday 14 September
258-108 Week 37

Part of the new plan.

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Saturday 15 September
259-107 Week 37

I have been forced into a concert with the Trinity Orchestra. Six hours today. The atmosphere is much better than the Lydian. I enjoy it. Ros Jones plays, and she is no longer going out with Jon. I have been introduced to Sophie Bradley, who is also very nice. So I'm not left on my own there. At lunch, us three went to McDonald's for a burger.

Listened to the amazing Last Night of the Proms.

Did an essay: Is silence golden?

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Sunday 16 September
260-106 Week 37

After church, 6 more hours of rehearsal. When I got home I had to go for a short run before working.

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2024: Well this is good. I usually like to get to the BBC Promenade Concerts at least once or twice every summer. Quite often I hop on my bike and cycle down to the Royal Albert Hall, it’s not far. This year, with one thing and another the summer has been so busy and I thought I wouldn’t get to go at all. The only real possibility was yesterday, Friday 13th September. The programme looked easy enough to take my son to. Mozart’s First Symphony (oh, bloody hell, he wrote it when he was 8 years old!), the Third Symphony by Louise Farrenc (why have I never heard of her, a successful French woman composer in the 19th century, sitting somewhere between Mozart and Beethoven - a very lovely work, see Aurora Orchestra’s video below), and the splendid Eroica Symphony by Beethoven, always surprising you by apparent endings being diverted into new sections. So I bought tickets. His first Prom. Not too many youngsters there to be honest. Exactly 40 years ago to the day, on 13 September 1984 I went to the Proms with my Dad and family. I like that. That is kinda cool. Threads. And I’m listening to the Last Night as I write to get this off for tomorrow morning.

Here we are. I’ll share all three pictures, just cos you can.

Welcome to new follower Richard T, my climbing companion. Phew, I said nice things about you. Though you are about to cause me a moral dilemma! ;-) Please post your rock climbing memories in the comments!

As you can see I’m trying to assert my Head Prefect’s authority - to myself mainly I think: “Well, no one will take any notice of that.” I’m more a believer in quiet, behind-the-scenes authority. No, actually, I am.

But I think the main thing that comes through this week, if you read carefully, is that I’m miffed about only getting a ‘commended’ in my Bronze-level dancing test. Commended? After all those evenings we put in? You’ll have to go back and read the diary from the start to understand what efforts we put in to ballroom dancing - decades before ‘Strictly’ was a thing.

“Every minute counts in this world.” Over 21,000,000 minutes have passed since I wrote that. I’m not sure if that is more or less than I would have expected. And I’m not sure now that every minute counts as much as all that. Or maybe every minute, one by one, is all that we have.

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