Jacquie and Kevin (my favourite cousins) - Sadly we are out of touch, but I have such fond memories of their visits.
Old Face Ache - Mum's boss at the dentist
Pat and Mick - Mum's friend and her husband
Dr. Currivan - Our family doctor in Dartford
Nanny Annie - you all know her by now
James - my baby brother
Our Dear Joanne/Vince,
Tuesday 27th March 1990
Here we go again. The weather has turned quite cold again, I suppose it is to be expected for England, but it's very sunny as well although not a lot of warmth in it yet. Apart from the other week of course, which came out of the blue. Everywhere is looking very pretty though, the pink clematis down near the bird house is full of pink buds, should be lovely when it is out. I really do love Spring.
Nanny rang me to say that Kevin rang her (surprise surprise) to say Jacquie has had a little girl. I can't send a card because I don't know where she is in Australia, but maybe she will send Nanny a letter.
Dad has just come back from the careers centre with James - he's got a load of forms to fill in, but he hasn't got a clue what he wants to do, well apart from that he wants to work outside in Summer, inside in Winter and wants to take home £100 a week. Dad said you'll be lucky. I think he's got a shock coming to him, or the people who employ him will have a shock coming to them!!
Wednesday 28th March 1990
Pay day today and our quarterly bonus. Lovely! Poor Angie did not get her full bonus because she is still away. Old Face Ache gave it to Pat and me - he said because we have been doing most of her work. I suppose that was good of him, so he is not that bad really? Anyway, did not go to the pub today as Pat had to go and see the solicitor about Mick's old house. So I went and had a good spend up - wish you had been with me.
James has been in the wars again, he has chipped a bone in his elbow, but there is nothing they can do about it, it has to heal on its own. He was rock climbing at the time with the school, he said he did it trying to save somebody's life (oh sorry, he DID save someone's life) - you can both stop laughing now! James is a hero and he hopes he'll have all the girls running after him.
Just been outside to try and get Sam Cat in before I go to bed, but the little devil keeps running away. The house at the end of the block has new people living there and they have this pretty black and white cat and Sam thinks she's a bit of alright. He sits with her on top of the garage in the daytime, but can't get him in at night. Randy little bugger!
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| Mum and Pat, her good friend from work |
Thursday 29th March 1990
Your letter arrived this morning. I get so excited when the postman comes, I can hardly contain myself. What a lovely letter, a bit sad to start with, but then I have bad days as well, it's to be expected I guess. Your letters are so long and you explain everything so beautifully, it's just wonderful and everything seems to be going so well for you both. I must say you seem to be doing a lot of eating. Hope you're not putting on too much weight or you won't be able to get in your new car!! You sound very proud of your car, can't wait to see it - does Vince wear a flat cap? Ha Ha.
Sorry to hear about Heather's Mum, hope she will be alright. Would you please thank them from me and Dad for giving you a happy birthday. They do sound so nice and next time Sheila invites you up for desert, let us know, and we will join you. Can you imagine how much weight I would put on?! I better go on a crash diet before we come at Christmas.
Glad Vince didn't stay with Cool King Refrigeration, they didn't sound very reliable and it's going to take some time before people realise how good he is at his work, then they'll be crying out for him.
You'll have to tell us more about your job - will you drive there when you get used to the car or will you get the seabus. It must be better than going by British Rail!
Went to see Nanny this afternoon - she had a red final notice to pay her electric bill, but she hadn't told us about the first bill that came. I found it in her cupboard so now I have to rush down and pay it before they cut her off. I don't know what we are going to do with Nan, bless her.
Friday 30th March 1990
Lovely and warm today. Went shopping with no coat and made Dad come with me. I think it does him good to see how much the Sainsbury's shopping costs these days. I am sure it goes up each week. We had to buy some more brandy for me today and it would not all go in the decanter, so I will have to drink what's left in the bottle tonight. If you would like to come down tonight, we could share it together!
James is going to a fair in Dartford tonight and wants me to take him and Darren, so I told him he has to clean his bedroom thoroughly, put everything away and leave it spotless AND change his bed linen. He's not very pleased and said he would rather walk, but he's getting lazy, perhaps you can nag him for me.
I have just cooked Sam cat some coley fish steaks - the ones you gave us. He really loves them, sits and looks at the microwave all the time they are cooking. He said to say thank you to Smokey Cat because it was really nice of him to leave them in England.
I must tell you this now: I have just said to James 'have you got anymore washing for the machine?' and he promptly took off his pants and gave them to me. I might add that he was walking around in his pants and t-shirt and after giving me his pants, ran up the stairs and bent over at the top, it was not a pretty sight I can tell you! I told him I'd tell you in my letter and he just creased up laughing!
Saturday 31st March 1990
Another beautiful day. Waited for Dad to get up so he could come shopping with me and again we went without coats. Dad bought himself a new pair of trainers, really posh ones. Came home, he put them on and was dancing round the kitchen like a heavy weight ballerina! After lunch, we went through the beehive for the first time this year and, well, we were gobsmacked!! Three weeks ago, we put on a Super without the Queen excluder, to give them more room to stop them from swarming. Well, she has laid eggs up there too and it was absolutely full of stores and bee larvae and brace comb. The brace comb was full of larvae in all stages, which unfortunately we had to destroy. It was so sad, but we had to cut it off so we could put the queen excluder on to stop her from going up there again. They are working so well, bless their hearts. We should be able to take honey from them in June and then again in August, so we will be able to bring some for you at Christmas.
We have bought some new bed linen for our bedroom. It's called Cottage Garden and is so pretty. Dad said blimey if he wakes up in the middle of the night, he will think he is sleeping in the garden.
As I'm writing this, Dad is cooking Saturday tea:
From Dad - "Nothing changes does it? Still bossing me about! Get the tea on then, she says. There I am trying to do my crossword, no peace for me at all, so I suppose I had better get on with it, keep her quiet! And there's poor old me nursing a bee sting on the palm of my right hand. Nag, nag, nag!!
Sorry about that rude interruption, leave my letter writing for two minutes and Dad takes over, cheek!! Anyway, where was I? Oh yes, after dinner Dad and I walked up the video shop, all the ones we wanted were out, so we got "When the Whales Came". It was a bit slow-going, one of those films you have to really listen to, but it was good.
Sunday 1st April 1990
God, April already, I can't believe it. Today is lovely, I would go as far as saying quite hot. Dad's just cleaned all the windows and he is sweating buckets. I have just put some pansies in the front garden to give it some colour. What sort of flowers have you got out at the moment and do you have the same flowers for each season like us?
Went up and got Nanny for dinner and then took her to Cobham Church Yard to put some flowers on her Mum and Dad's grave. It was a nice afternoon and it's a lovely little village. Nanny went to school there and her old house where she was a child is there and the big house (Lady Baker's house) where Nanny was in service. It was a nice history lesson. However, when we got there, would you believe Nanny didn't know where the grave was! So we just put the flowers where we thought they were. When we got home, she was going on and on about the poll tax, she said she is not going to pay it and that they can take her to prison if they want to!
Was so wonderful to speak to you later and love that we can do this every week. I know we can't say much in the time we have, but just to hear your voice is enough.
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| My Nan (Annie) and her trusy dog, Judy |
Monday 2nd April 1990
I forgot to tell you on Saturday that Oxford won the boat race, 14th year running. HURRAH! Dad blew rude raspberries, he's a bad loser!
Came home from work and washed the curtains and cleaned windows inside, then did all the ironing. Phew! And now it's raining and has come over very dark. It's so different from yesterday, the weather is so very changeable.
I don't know whether you had it on your news, but we had an earth tremor near Wrexham and it was felt as far as London. We didn't feel anything here, good job too! There was apparently some damage from it.
Tuesday 3rd April 1990
Really cold today with sleety rain. You know I told you how exciting it is when the postman comes, well it was not this morning. Our Poll Tax came - £324.00 for Dad and the same for me - bloody stupid!! Still we can't do anything about it - at least you've escaped that in Canada.
Cooked James some spag bog tonight for dinner (yes it was my own) but he always says 'not bad, but not as good as Jo's'. Ah well, nobody's perfect. How are you getting on with your dishwasher? You won't want to ever wash up by hand again, but I must say you needed one (sorry Jo).
Sam cat is sitting here watching me write and it made me think of Smokey cat - how are you getting on cleaning his teeth? They should be really nice and shiny with nice pink gums by now! I bet he gets annoyed.
Wednesday 4th April 1990
Pay day again and would you believe it, we got a raise as well. Don't laugh it was a grand sum of £3.00 - wow what can I do with that? Still it paid for lunch today.
It is freezing today and we had snow that actually settled, but not for long. I was going to take a photo of it and send to you, but I could hear Vince saying 'oh they're just copying us now' haha.
Had to go to the doctors to get some more of my pills. Dr. Currivan is retiring at the end of the month. It's a little bit sad because he has been my doctor since I was a little girl and he has seen all of my children come into the world. He shook my hand and said it was nice to know the Figg Family.
James has got some new trainers and went out in them tonight, but he didn't want to get them dirty and wet, so put polythene bags over them. Can you believe that?
We have a lovely song in the Eurovision song contest called "Give A Little Love Back To The World" - I think it will win and the girl who sings it is only 15.
I better stop writing and send this letter off now, otherwise I will go on and on.
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| Mum's sign off 4th April 1990 |
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