Friday 30 June

Because it is the Exam season we had the afternoon off. I should have had Woodwork but Simon said we had all worked very hard and we deserved a reward. Personally I think he wanted to go dillying and even dallying with Miss Smith, for the day is pleasantly warm and no doubt some grassy knoll beckons, or perhaps I mean dell, for dillying (etc) on a grassy knoll could render one a bit conspicuous, “knoll” meaning a small rounded hill, according to Mum’s Collins English Dictionary.

I have been to the library and borrowed a book called Crime and Punishment. It is by Dostoyevsky, and it appears to be a thriller, like my James Bond book. I hope it will take my mind off things.

There was still no sign of the Letter when I popped in to church to check. With luck the Post Office will have lost it, as they lost the letter from Auntie Grimsdyke at Christmas, the one with the £5 note in. I wrote to them to complain, but they didn’t reply (that letter probably got lost as well!)

It is all very well going around losing people’s letters, but there can be serious financial consequences, especially to Professional Musicians, who are regarded as being so dedicated to their Muse that they shouldn’t expect to be paid as well. Auntie Grimsdyke was very annoyed when she received no thank-you letter from me, and she phoned Mum to ask why. Mum said we had never received her letter but I don’t think Auntie Grimsdyke believed her, for when I spoke to Auntie Grimsdyke to ask if she would mind sending me another £5 note to replace the one that had been lost by the Post Office, she said something so rude that I cannot repeat it here and then she said she would not never send me no money again ever, and when I pointed out that she had just used a double negative, she said the rude thing again and slammed the phone down on me. I calculate that if I live to be 70 (the customary span, according to my Bible) I shall be out of pocket to the tune of £270, and it is all the Post Office’s fault. The best thing the Post Office could now do to make amends is to lose my letter to Rachel (or Brenda.)