HANGING OUT WITH LUCY

M O N D A Y,  1 7  A P R I L

The weather today was STAGGERING! They say it was the hottest April day for 15 years! But from my diary last year April 30th was just as hot.

I made a note of all the illustrations I have for my Australia project, and did a map of minerals, which took ages. Chump put Rabbit's hutch in with her pen, it gives a lot of shade with she likes. Then I basked in the sun and actually got brown - or rather, red. It's caught my shoulders and legs most.

At last, at quarter to three, Lucy came. She gave me my holiday present: 'La Blanche Caravelle' by Hughes Aufray. I'm so utterly thrilled with it. Honestly, I do hope it didn't cost her too much. Then I gave her the Swiss transfers from Zurich; she thought they were gorgeous.

Pa dropped us off at the tennis club and we walked to her house from there.

“On the way, these two gruesome boys went past us very slowly in their van.”

Then, to our great amazement, one leant out and said, "d'you want a lift?!" Supposing we had??

Lucy told me about Frédéric when we got home. She showed me the photos. He's quite a snazz, but not my type of snazz. Nothing compared to Dutronc. I'm sure he's terribly nice though. We sat out on deckchairs and she showed me her book on Astérix - it's nutty!

We walked to the Bowling Alley as we missed the train. First did our hair, then got Lane 9. There are ten pins here, not nine like at Lech. We wanted a second go but Juniors aren't allowed to after six o'clock - our fault for pretending we were under 16! Had supper immediately we got back. Poor Mr B was in bed because of his mumps. The rest of the evening we sat in the dining-room, read Astérix and listened to French radio. I found all three French stations for Lucy  - she was jolly pleased. Ma picked me up at 9.30.

So FED UP - school tomorrow.

“Astérix or Tintin?”

'Astérix le Gaulois' was the inspired creation of writer René Goscinny and artist Albert Uderzo, who, in 1961, set out to create a humorous character, a defiant Gaul, for whom surrender to the 'crazy Romans' was not an option. Astérix, multi-generational icon, but less irresistible than Tintin (Astérix was not my thing) has been translated into almost every language. His latest reincarnation is a 3D animation, 'The Mansion of the Gods' (2016).