Satays – Alpha from Melbourne, Australia, CC BY-SA 2.0
Sunday 30 August 1981 – went to Rasa Sayang for birthday treat – walked town – lazy evening
I’m guessing this will have been an outing with mates from work – I wouldn’t have “walked town” with my folks.
Several of the Newman Harris juniors were from Malaysia and they had introduced me to Malaysian cuisine at the Rasa Sayang in Chinatown three years earlier when I did my first summer job. [A link will be inserted here when I write up that seminal event.] I had fallen in love with that cuisine and would often choose it as a treat…still do 40 years on.
Malaysian style food became a significant part of my cuisine at Keele, not least because I shared flats at one time or another with Mohammad Mohd Isa from Malaysia and Hamzah Shawal from Brunei. Not only did I enjoy the food prepared by the Malaysian gang at Keele but I learnt to cook some Malaysian dishes myself – satays becoming one of my signature dishes. Grilled chicken thighs in a Malaysian-style marinade was another of my specialities. Here’s a link to a not dissimilar recipe, except that my marinade had a secret ingredient or two…naturally. 😉
In August 1981, Sandy Yap will have been involved in the trip to Rasa Sayang no doubt, as would Andrew Choo. I think some from the Alan Prince, Dilip Vora, Lailash Shah, Mike King and Duncan group would have been party to that too.
The word “lazy” features a great deal in my diary for the next few weeks, as does the word “work”, which I was apparently starting to find “tough” by that stage of the summer. I think the managers had worked out that, if they gave me more and increasingly challenging work to do, that I would actually knuckle down and get it done.
Paul [Deacon] gets a couple of mentions that first week; bank holiday Monday at ours and then the Saturday at his place. Caroline for lunch midweek (Thursday).
Sunday 6 September 1981 – Went to Wendy’s [Robbins] in afternoon -> BBYO thing in evening.
I think Wendy was top banana at Streatham BBYO at that time – just coming to the end of her tenure before going off to Leeds Uni. I have no idea what the “thing” that evening was about or even where it took place. I think the club might have been meeting in Norwood by then.
Thursday 10 September 1981 – Hard work today. Went to Hillel after work – met Lloyd [Green] – saw the lads.
Meeting Lloyd Green at Hillel I think was connected with the Anti-Fascist Day we were involved in organising for the coming term at Keele. There had been a groundswell at Keele against a small but venal outbreak of extreme right wing, racist activity on campus and a committee had been formed dedicated to an education campaign against that sort of thing. Joe Andrew, I recall, was heavily involved with that group, as were several other academics and the University chaplains.
The idea morphed latterly, partly at my bidding, into a more positive idea – the International Fair, which became a twice-yearly feature in the Keele calendar and my small part in it was one of my proudest achievements. But at that early stage, the idea was to have an awareness day. Lloyd and I had taken on the task of mining Jewish resources for educational materials against racism; a worthy but thoroughly depressing task.
“Saw the lads” will refer to the students who resided in Hillel House, with whom I had lived briefly the previous summer while filling the inter-regnum in the BBYO office.
Friday 11 September 1981 – Work tough. Ashley [Michaels]’s last day – lazy evening (phone etc.)
Yes, part of my hard work those weeks might have been related to helping Ashely Michaels (who was Stanley Bloom’s manager and who had supervised much of my work that summer) finish off his jobs before leaving Newman Harris. I think he had already returned to the firm by the time I went back the following summer. Ashley was certainly a feature there throughout my articles in the mid to late 1980s.
Saturday 12 September 1981 – Lazyish day – shopped in afternoon – bought suit – lazy evening
The purchase of a suit towards the end of the summer suggests that I knew by then that I would return to Newman Harris and work several more summers, which I did.
These last few weeks of the summer were of course punctuated by that summer’s saddest and most significant family event; the death of Grandma Anne:
While the diary for the first couple of weeks of September didn’t show it, the diary for the second couple of weeks did.
Sunday 13 September 1981 – Went to [Grandma Anne’s] flat to clear -> Knipes -> home for supper – v. tiring.
“Knipes” meant Dr Edwina Green and her husband, Don Knipe. I have written about our family’s unusual relationship with the Knipe family elsewhere – see here or below.
Thems was strange times.
Tuesday 15 September 1981 – Work OK. Met Jim [Jimmy Bateman] in evening at UCL -> The Sun.
I have written up similar evenings elsewhere.
Thursday 17 September 1981. Work OK, Met Caroline for lunch. Lloyd came over in the evening.
Friday 18 September 1981. Work OK. [Sandy] Yap’s send off after. Relaxing evening.
“Yap’s send off” was probably in The Phoenix on Cavendish Square. We were working in this building…
…which made The Phoenix, just across the square, the nearest pub by a long chalk.
Sunday 26 September 1981 – OK day. Pincus family came to tea – easy evening.
Monday 27 September 1981 – Work OK. Met Helen [Lewis] for lunch. Easy evening at home.
Arnold Pincus and his family were long-standing “lands-leit” friends of the Harris family. They probably came to pay their respects regarding Grandma’s passing a few week’s earlier.
Wednesday 23 September 1981 – Discovered we’d been burgled in the morning. Got to work late. Busy day and evening.
The thieves took all of the hi-fi. The big loss for me personally was the Sony TC377, which I loved. We replaced it with a Phillips, which was good but not the same. Years later I bought a second hand replacement (depicted above). We stuggled even more to replace the rather grand Yamaha amp and preamp that dad had bought in 1973; the mid-range Sansui replacements were not of the same quality.
My prevailing memories of the burglary are two-fold.
Firstly, I remember my strongest emotion being relief that none of us had been disturbed by the burglars. I could imagine mum going downstairs and confronting intruders, which might have just scared them away but might have been truly disastrous.
Secondly, I recall dad telling me a story from later in the day, after the police had arrived and long after I had gone to work. Dad bemoaned to one of the policemen that the burglars had taken all of our lovely hi-fi, but had left behind the TV which, as it happened, had recently broken down and was awaiting an expensive repair. The policeman said,
if I’d been in your shoes, I’d have taken that TV out the back and put my foot through the screen before the police got here…
…which absolutely horrified dad, who simply wouldn’t and couldn’t have conjured up that dishonest thought.
Friday 25 September 1981 – Last day at work – OK. Went for drink after -> home for dinner & lazy evening.
Saturday 26 September 1981 – Lazy day. Went over to Anil’s in evening – got back very late…
…looks as though I was starting to ease myself back into student-style life as soon as I finished my summer work.