Tuesday 18 March 1975
Played with number puzzle, played Tri-tactics and (roker) and other games. Got dressed. Had lunch, played Tri-Tactics again. Did English II exam, got 38 out of 50. I started my Latin paper and got 65%. I came up to bed to read a history book. Forgot to send Mum a birthday card, because I was in bed all morning, sent it—new price list: 7p first class and 5 1/2 second-class stamp.
Even in the sick dorm, I kept myself occupied with games and puzzles, suggesting a certain restlessness or a need for mental stimulation.
I remember Tri-Tactics. I don’t know who had boards or if we had many, but it was played often for a period. Fifty years later, we play Catan as a family. Board games bring people together. I would have played Tri-Tactics with anyone; in that sense, it was a leveller.
I performed well in exams despite having been unwell.
It frustrates me that I hadn’t progressed with the year group I’d been in for the previous four years. By now, they were all settling into Haileybury, Harrow, Stowe, Winchester, Eton, Fettes and Gordonstoun. And my brother was at Sedbergh. We had been destined for Rossall, my father’s old school. With Mowden, something of a feeder school to Sedbergh, that’s where we wanted to go.
It frustrated me that these exam results weren’t contextualised.
Being away at school meant our only birthday at home was my brother’s, as he was born in early January. My birthday, which fell between 8 and 16, was several weeks into a new school year and was, therefore, written off. We also missed the birthdays of our parents, siblings, and grandparents. Basically, boarding school fragmented a family that was already divided by divorce even further.
Fifty years on a first-class stamp is £1.75.
I may have found a book on Lady Anne Clifford, who owned Appleby Castle in the 17th century.
Letters were our only connection to the outside world.
If you wrote them, you wanted them back; you expected reciprocity.
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