Thursday 15th November

A short stay at Magna Charta this time! I have already arranged to leave and am looking out for fresh digs. A place needs to be warm – in the full sense of the word. Magna Charta is precisely the reverse.

It is 11.15 and I write this in bed; supperless, except for a snack at Waterloo. My shamrock shaped window is open; buzz of traffic on the main road below. One advantage of this place is that I have more sleep. The brutal fact is, one receives no encouragement to remain out of bed in the evenings. It is too cheerless!

Travel up and down with Jones every Thursday. Perhaps he and I will still be together, twenty years hence – who knows?

(1982 I last saw Maurice Jones on September 19th 1963. Thirty years with Paripan and for sentimental reasons I made the excuse of a business trip to Egham. How sad, since the take-over by Carsons. Mr. Randall is dead. Daly and Branford sacked – the 19th was their last day – Maurice at last becoming Works Manager but soon to be sacked himself. I only had two months to go myself and guessed it, when I saw what happened to better men.)

Work still remains my chief interest and I’m happy. The only cloud is being so hard up, waiting for the time when I shall not be..