Spring Term 1958
1 March
My aural lesson went quite well. Irene asked me whether I was going to sight sing or sight play the piano for the music exam. She has given me until Tuesday to decide. Irene wants me to sight sing because she says it will get me used to doing aural in front of other people and it will help me for the French aural. I don't know what to do – if l sing I will probably just dry up and yet I get terribly nervous and chewed up when playing. It takes me all my time to play in front of Dorothy in my piano lessons.
I have had fibrositis in my shoulder since Tuesday evening. It has stopped aching a bit now and just feels tired. It put my arm out of action a bit. Rosamond has been giving me some lamp treatment in her room during siestas and that seems to have done a lot of good.
We had the Third Man on Saturday. I had forgotten most of it and was not a bit disappointed.
On Monday Ruth C-B and I cleaned out John's room for charity. We are having a charity week for the 'International help for Children's fund'. He gave us2/6. People have been darning socks and cleaning shoes, washing and ironing. I don't think the staff like charity week because the money comes mainly from them and they are left stoney - you can't expect any of the kids to have any money left at this time of the term.
On Tuesday we had a recital given by Jimmy Maddocks and June Mills - they play the violin, piano, harpsichord, flute, and oboe. I didn't enjoy it very much because my shoulder was hurting.
On Wed. morning I was practising in Irene's practising room when June Mills came in and asked me if I could get her an iron. I had to go and find Irene and then go up to the flat to get the iron and then take June up to the Hill's bedroom to plug it in. What a mess up there!! The bed wasn't made and everything was just chucked everywhere. It resembled our dining room sometimes.
The snow here has been shocking. The farm sent up a snow plough to clear the drive but no sooner had it cleared the snow away than more came. The plough wasn't very good. It just packed the snow down and made an icy surface. All the grocers and mail vans have had to be dug out.
On Thursday Irene invited Judy, Ruth Mc, Brenda, Stephen and I to go and hear the people who had entered for the Harrogate Music Festival. Viv and Belinda played a piano duet and came third. Anthony Hopkins was the adjudicator. Irene entered Cassy for a mozart Violin concerto which was too difficult for him and he absolutely bungled it. It was awful. At the end Anthony Hopkins just pulled him to pieces. When we got outside Irene burst into tears and apologised to Cassy for having let him play it and said it was all her fault. It was terribly embarrasing. It gave me shock because I didn't think a teacher could break down and cry in front of her pupils. It all seems like a horrible nightmare now; but Irene has always been a little over ambitious with Cassy and this brought her up with a jolt. Irene was still crying when we were all in bed and she came to fill her hot water bottle. I wanted to go out and talk to her but there was nothing I could do.
Yesterday Sam and Roger Dingley played the clarinet and flute. I wanted to go with them so I asked Irene. She said I could go if l didn't have any lessons and as I didn't have any I went. There was just me, Sam, Roger and Irene. I was worried in case anything went wrong again but they played beautifully - Irene was nearly crying from sheer joy. It was wonderful to see her looking happy again. We both did a little dance for joy. I never thought she would let me go with her but I guess she wanted someone to give her moral courage and someone who had been there the night before. She has asked me to go to a concert tonight. There were only 30 tickets and I didn't think she would ask me because I had been last night and the night before. I must say I see Irene differently now than from before. Just little things like that make the biggest differences. I feel as though I have known Irene all my life and its nice to be able to share joy and sorrow with somebody else in this way. I feel as though I understand her better.
Well I must not rattle on like this - you must think I'm absolutely daft but you probably won't understand how I feel and yet maybe you will.
P.S. Did I tell you I had a Valentine card from Sam?
Judy sends her love and says she hopes I can go and stay with her at Easter.
Sunday 8 March
Last Saturday we went to a concert in Harrogate. We had to go by train and arrived at the concert too early. Cassy and I wandered around Harrogate for a bit and bought some chips. The concert was for those people who had got into the finals of the Harrogate Music Festival. We heard the winner of Cassy's class and we kept on wishing she would drop her bow or break a string. We were making horrible remarks about her. On Sunday morning Cassy and I cleaned Brian's car for charity - he gave us 2/6d. Mingy rotter - his car was inches thick in mud. On Monday we counted the charity money. Incas had£5.6.7d and the Sherpas had £4.5.7d. We beat them by a whole pound.
I had an awful aural lesson on Tuesday but Irene was jolly nice about it. I had a talk about it with her in the evening. She said that I shouldn't let the things I don't like doing spoil the things I do like doing. Anyway - she went and told Brian that I was 'in the dumps'.
On Wednesday I had a row with Dennis about eating parsnips and I walked out of dinner. He brought me some out and I had it in our form room. I also skipped hockey too. When I was working in the form room in the evening Brian came in and asked me if I wanted to talk to him. I didn't answer so he said "Would you like me to make the decision?". He did - and yanked me off to the drawing room. He said I was working too much and that the reason why I was popping off at all the staff was because I wasn't coming up for air. He said I shouldn't have to work all my free afternoons. We had a nice long talk from 8 to 8.45 when Irene came in. They brought out a 2lb box of chocolates and started stuffing me. We had a little chat unti19.30 about Sunday school, women's guilds, and newspaper reporters. I suppose you have heard that H.M.S. Ceres is leaving and they are turning the camp into a borstal. There has been an awful lot of bother about it. Brian has had write-ups and photos in the Yorkshire Post and the Wetherby News. It's going to ruin the school from the point of view of prospective parents. Anyway on Wednesday evening Brian and Irene and I talked about this and then I went to bed at 9.30.
On Thursday Dennis took the whole of our form (8 of us) to the cinema in Wetherby to see '3.10 to Yuma'. It was a Western with Glen Ford and Van Heflin - not a 'bang bang' western - but a good thriller. Dennis had also noticed that the form was getting cranky and he wanted to give us a break. Brian told me that we are the hardest working U.V. there has ever been at Wennington.
Dennis paid for the eight of us and bought a lIb bag of sherbert lemons and lIb bag of mint humbugs. On the way back we went to a fish and chip shop and he bought 4/-worth of chips. We brought them back to school and had tea, chips and digestive biscuits in the form room - we finally got to bed at about 11.15 but I felt much better. It did the whole form good - we are not in the dumps any longer. It was jolly decent of Dennis to be concerned about us in this way.
On Friday evening a funny thing happened. We were letting the air out of the radiator in my dorm cap back on but succeeded only in burning her hand. Then someone got the waste paper bin and put it under to catch the water - I dashed out and called John in - he couldn't do anything and told me to go to the staff room and get Martin. The whole dorm was in a flap and I had visions of us being flooded out. Martin came in and just calmly turned the radiator tap at the bottom off. Of course we just howled with laughter afterwards - it was so simple but none of us had thought of doing it.
Yesterday we had a fancy dress dance but I didn't go dressed up because I couldn't be fagged to change back into my dance dress afterwards. I thoroughly enjoyed the dance. I danced mainly with Cassy and I did the statue dance with Philip again. I'm sure we would have won it only a wisp of my hair got in his eye and he blinked.
This morning we kept the records out and danced from 10 - 11am. I did a bit of jiving with Jo again. Then I did half an hours practising. Judy has got a migraine - it's the first one for ages now.
Now for what I hope will happen next week. On Wednesday we are hoping to go to an opera given by two schools in York; Bootham and the Mount. Irene isn't sure whether we can go yet.
By the way I am not taking Physio in G.C. this summer. I had another talk with Brian on too cheerful about them and he said that if I could pass English Lit. two years under age I could do just about anything. Tomorrow he is going to write to Cheshire and tell them that I am a suitable person for advanced level and he's going to ask them how long they intend to keep me here. I feel much better now and have ceased to worry.
About Sam and Roger. Sam got 73 marks and a certificate and Roger got 84 marks, a certificate and a bronze medal. If the open woodwind class had been playing at the concert on Saturday Roger would have played but that class wasn't on the programme.
The snow cleared up last Saturday and the Sunday was gorgeous - just like summer only on Friday it decided to snow again and it is freezing.
Must close now the tea orderly bell has gone.