It’s Dora’s mum’s birthday today, so they haven’t visited, but the rest of the family has.  Bacon and eggs for breakfast, roast chicken for lunch – the dishwasher has been on twice and it’s half full again.  Zerlina, Gus and I made more cakes for tea and they have all gone.  I don’t really need any supper, but I don’t suppose that’ll stop me eating something – I’ve got a leftover baked potato, so I might well mash its innards with cheese and leave it in the Aga while I go and have a bath.  I’m quite tempted to lock the doors (I forgot one again last night) and go and have a bath, then lounge in front of the fire in pyjamas.

On Facebook, John G was asking what was the first film people remember seeing at the cinema?  I was no use at all, I can’t remember.  I guessed that it was probably a Walt Disney cartoon.  I’ve always loved the cinema and have seen many hundreds of films – fewer in the last decade than ever before, but that’s a matter of geography, not having anyone to go with and leaving Russell alone – we never minded being left alone, either of us, but as he went out less in the evenings, I tended to do so as well.

Anyway, in Lowestoft in the early 1960s there were plenty of cinemas to choose from and there was always a long and a short feature film, a cartoon, a newsreel, sometimes a cartoon or a documentary, as well as the usual ads and previews.  It didn’t matter when you arrived as the programme kept going – you just stayed until the point you arrived at.  At the end of the night, of course, the National Anthem was played – a rush to the exit because respect demanded that you stood and waited while it was played, so if you got caught by the first few notes, you were stuck.