17th April 1942

Busy this morning buying the coalcart – got it for £14, quite reasonable. This afternoon had a great piece of luck. Went to tea at Jacklins’, and who should be there but Mrs. Betty Prior, now back from London. We had tea together. Most charming woman. Talked a good deal more about her troubles with her husband, who not only lives with another woman but employs her sister as a housekeeper.

After tea I decided on the spur of the moment to go to the Playhouse and see a George Formby film, and in the lobby met little Miss Banell, so we went in together, and I had the pleasure of seeing a very funny and very vulgar film, while holding a pretty girl’s hand in the dark. A most pleasant evening, ending up with supper at Culver Street and a walk home in the dusk.

Cloudy tonight, for the first time for 10 days. The usual searchlights were sticking up, to act as “markers” for the RAF, but I could only hear a few planes, far off towards the south.

2 comments:

Barbara Critchley said...

Tea at Jacklin's was one of those treats we were able to enjoy up to the 1990s, if we lived in Colchester. We are now anticipating tea at Tymperleys for a treat in the near future.

E J Rudsdale said...

Thanks Barbara, I shall look forward to having tea at Tymperleys too. It's such a beautiful building and the loss of the Clock Museum there was a great shame as was the loss of the Social History Museum at Holy Trinity Church some years previously. CP