Stephen Williams / Bushy House, Bushy Park – – aka “Andrea’s New Mansion” – via Wikimedia Commons
Following the theft of Paul Deacon’s car from outside our house in Woodfield avenue, reported in the preceding piece…
…one might have expected the week to have become less exciting as it went on – not a bit of it:
Here follow transcriptions and explanations of the highlights:
Wednesday 17 August 1983 – …Chinese meal for lunch – met Jim [Bateman]after work in Bloomsbury – quite pleasant. [This was no doubt similar to after work “meetings” reported previously]
Thursday 18 August 1983 – Lotsa work to do today – went to Daquise with Ashley [Michaels] after work in evening.
Ashley had an approved, private evening job arrangement with one of the firm’s client’s, Daquise Restaurant, to keep the books of account in good order ahead of audit. Over the years I went there with Ashley after work a few times – a symbiotic combination of mentoring and helping him to get his tasks done.
The things that made this arrangement interesting were the historic clientele of the restaurant (see blurb on the home page of the Daquise website), which had been going since just after the second world war, plus the original owners of the place, who had been adagio acrobats in the 1930s as part of a then famous act, The Ganjou Brothers And Juanita.
The following wonderful video shows more, for those who like this sort of thing. Very slow start (the first two minutes is very dull) but after that the acrobatics is simply stunning and the “interview” hilarious:
Serge Ganjou was ever present at Daquise in those days, so I got to know him quite well on the back of my visits with Ashley. Serge’s wife, Juanita, was also there in the restaurant sometimes. Ashley and I were always fed on those occasions – I already had a taste for that sort of Central/Eastern European food.
Friday 19 August 1983 – Work OK – Chinese lunch – quick drink after -> [then on to] Andrea’s New Mansion – stayed over.
Andrea’s dad Paul headed the National Physical Laboratory, which resulted, around that time, in the family taking up rather grand residence within Bushy House.
I love the casual mention of it in my diary at that time, “->Andrea’s new mansion” as if I thought I’d get used to visiting folk in mansions. Mind you, forty years later, in the autumn of 2023, for one reason…
…I guess I am now getting rather used to it.
I remember a good few fun parties and sleepovers at Andrea’s grand place – no doubt they will come up in future diary notes.
Saturday 20 August 1983 – …got back lunchtime. Lazyish afternoon – Mays [George and Winifred] came over in evening for dinner
Sunday 21 August 1983 – …Angela & Vivienne [Kessler] came to tea…
I have no idea why (or whether) John wasn’t there. My diary squiggles are almost illegible, but I think he was away on business on that occasion.
The following week was very quiet by comparison:
Tuesday 23 August 1983 – …went over to Jilly’s for evening – most pleasant
Friday 26 August 1983 – drinks at lunch – went home – lazy evening [those were the days, eh? Half holiday ahead of a bank holiday]
Sunday 28 August 1983 – birthday – went to Inn On the Park for lunch – v nice.
All that ahead of a significant change in work pattern after the bank holiday, as I was then assigned to Laurie Krieger’s Harlequin, Pricebuster & Leisureplay empires. All will be explained in the next instalment.
That holiday weekend, my head was probably still full of adagio acrobats and mansions.
