HANGING OUT WITH LUCY
The window through which the painter stared
T U E S D A Y, 2 2 A U G
It was so embarrassing – I’d just taken off my skirt in my room and revealed my frilly pants when I looked up - and there was the painter at the top of the ladder STARING IN!
Chump and me went down the garden to play tennis, but because she was pretending to be Micky Dolenz’s sister we were giggling too much to play properly. Then she went to June’s for the tennis and I did my Diary. About 5 to 11 Lucy arrived in her pink dress as she doesn’t have tennis things and we whizzed round to June’s on bicycles. Tons of children there, including Richard, Bill and Suzie. Our coach Donald Fraser is rather a weed; I wish we still had Mr Stonebridge. Donald has a Scottish accent and speaks so quietly you can’t hear. He also attempts to make jokes. We did the grip and 'racket-ball-stop-play'. I don’t imagine I’ll learn anything new. Still, practice makes perfect. Lucy and me walked home as Chump and Joanna took the bikes.
Lucy went to Brighton yesterday. She says it's better than most places because there's this fab old shopping area called The Lanes. She gave me my present - a large bottle of Yardley Eau-De-Cologne with the most absolutely fab smell. I gave her the ring from France, which she was very pleased about.
We went for a walk down to the Bog Garden, chatted about the books we’ve read this holiday and had our lunch – sausage rolls, bread and salad. Lay down and got awfully hot. Back at the terrace we sat in the shade.
“Lucy read my Petticoats and the painter kept staring.”
About 3pm Ma took us all to Buford Bridge. It cost her £1-14-0 to get the four of us in because it’s the holidays. It was so splashy and noisy that I couldn’t concentrate properly on 'Mansfield Park'.
Chump and Joanna stayed in the water the whole time, I went in twice, only for about five minutes each time. My hair did get rather wet, but it dried out OK. Poor Lucy got stung by a wasp on her lip, it swelled up like anything, but went down much sooner than we expected. Back home we played tennis and practised grips, and rallied up to 20 from half way between the base and service lines. Chump and Joanna were ballboys for a while, then we were ballboys for them. I find Chump is very bossy when her friends are around.
Had fab chicken for supper. Lucy says she’s gone down in weight again, she’s now only 6 stone 4oz! I’m 8 stone 6oz (I think). Played records in my room - Adamo at Olympia, all my Polnareff LP, and ‘Ame Caline’ which Lucy absolutely adores. We had the lights very low and we lay down - just the best way to listen properly to a record. We drove her home pretty late.
Jean Shrimpton, face of Yardley, 1967
