Friday September 12th

Not one free period and triple Biology too! First lesson was English with Giles – more discussions of the poems – and then the first of my three Biology lessons, all with Newsholme, during which we stained starch grains in potato tuber cells, looked for glucose in apple cells and generally messed around. Our course in ‘A’ level hasn’t really taken off yet, and at the moment we’re doing quite simple, straightforward things. I suppose really it would still be possible to change!

We were on second lunch and instead of having a dinner I went up into the Common Room where, predictably, sat Jeremy Beaumont, tall blond and affected and Duncan Verity, with attendant toads (eg Angela Reid). I was just settling down to wait for last lesson when Mark Pittock reminded me that we still had thirty minutes of Biology left. Three hours of Biology all at one go is a bit much.

History was in P20 instead of C7, and will be from now on. Ingham was quite forceful and critical of our note taking (or lack of it) and as a result, today’s was the least enjoyable of my five History lessons to date.

Walking home, the wind was gale force – (force 7-8 westerly) and had broken several branches of trees around school (it also knocked over Mandy Jenkinson’s bike). I didn’t enjoy today at school, in contrast to yesterday. I felt that I was being mocked and taken the mickey of but whether or not it is just my habitual paranoia I don’t know.

I got home at 2.40 p.m. and slumped in the dining room for an hour, waiting and deciding when and where to go. Both my library books were due back yesterday, and I had to check bustimes because I’m going to Dearnelow tomorrow to see Robert & Carol. I had ages to wait for a bus in Moxthorpe, so it was late – fivish – when I finally got to Easterby.

I got my bus problem sorted out first; there is one bus to Sheffield via Dearnelow at six minutes past every hour as from seven o’clock tomorrow so if I catch the 11.06 bus I should get there for about one thirty. Once this was over and done with I felt easier and in a good mood so I took my “Collins Field Guide to Archaeology in Britain” and “Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance” back. I renewed the latter and got out two more books: “The TM Technique: An Introduction to Transcendental Meditation and the Teachings of Maharishi Mahesh Yogi,” by Peter Russell and “Unended Quest” by Karl Popper, a philosopher.

I’m into a ‘philosophy/what-is-the-true-meaning-of-life/find-eternal-happiness” fad just now, especially after that “The Greeks” programme and no doubt soon it will wear off, just like all the others have.

Robert rang at about nine-thirty to confirm that I was still going. He told me that he’d just finished playing in a teachers v kids soccer match at his school. He played in a forward role (!) and the Teachers XI lost 2-3. He seems to be settling in well. I’m looking forward to tomorrow now.