The Adventures of Grace Russ

Grace Enid Baglin's Diary - based on letters (1980s)

Crazy for Bananas! – 21st July 1987

It is a ghastly day here today… again.  The rain is so heavy it is running in little rivulets down the windows.  Needless to say, all the cats are indoors.  When the sun is out I only see them at meal times.

Yesterday I had to go into Woolwich and went through the Market as they were packing up.  One of the stalls had a young lad shouting “3Ib bananas 50p”.  They were all spotty and brownish and as I walked by they smelt all lovely and bananaish, so I squandered 50p and came home with a huge pile of bananas. 

I had two for my tea and took some round for Meg, but she doesn’t like bananas so I brought them back and added them to the banana mound.  I love bananas, but they are not so keen on me.  I can eat one and get away with it, but too many brings me out in heat bumps.  Today, when the Meals on Wheels came, guess what was for pudding? 

Yes, a banana!  This has gone to the bottom of the pile because it is bright yellow and, like Jeffery Archer’s back, spotless!

From Dusk Till Dawn - Tuesday 25th August 1987

It is now 11pm and I have not long arrived at the Centre at New Cross.  I have a 7am duty and find it easier on me, and on whoever I am taking over from, to sleep here over night, because if I oversleep they only have to shake me.  I am in the upstairs ‘Interview’ room where I shall be spending the night on the huge four seater settee.  I have my radio, writing pad, crossword book, a flask of hot water, tea bags (four), jar of coffee, milk, ¼ Ib of cooked meat (roast pork) and a packet of crisps.  So I should be able to get through the night all right!

In the morning I shall be manning the phones from 7-11 (7am to 11am), after which I shall do my paper work and then will stay on to do the cleaning here for a couple of hours.  Between 5:30 and 6:00pm I am being picked up by a gay at Meg’s house.  He is taking me to his house to show me what he’s got and then, if I am interested, will pay me £10 a week!  When I told Mum she said “Oh my God!  Be careful what you are doing” but I told her he is ok.  He is a Samaritan and lives with his two brothers.  His brothers are straight and he was the one doing all the housework because he is more domesticated; just because he is gay doesn’t mean he should do everything, so he has downed tools and the three brothers are going shares in paying me, if I want the job.  It would help me out, an extra £10 a week, so will see what is involved.

Meg is going to Felixstowe tomorrow on a Coach Outing, so I hope the weather is a bit better than today; which has been non stop rain.  This morning neither of us woke up until 10:30am, early for Meg, especially as she didn’t go to bed until 5:30am.  We had a cup of coffee and sat looking out onto her uncultivated overgrown garden, watching the downpour.  The grass is long, like a field, and a Wisteria bush has gone wild and has grown over the path under the window until the fronds actually touch the glass.  So to get to the loo you have to make your way through all this.  We both sat there, wanting to go, yet holding on because we knew we would get so wet.  In the end I had to go and this gave Meg courage and she followed soon after.  It only goes to prove how you take the convenience of an inside lavatory for granted, until you have to forge your way through the undergrowth in wet weather.