May 12 2010

This was the day diary I submitted to Mass Observation (MO) in 2010 when they started day diaries on 12 May. I wrote a longer piece than this which I can’t find (but is on a memory stick somewhere probably). This version was edited to 750 words for submission, which was presumably what was asked for. I’ve slightly expanded in places for context and made a minor alteration for publication. This was just after the General Election in which I’d voted Green for the first time (although I had previously in council elections) and helped elect Caroline Lucas. Until 2005 we’d been in the Kemp Town constituency and I’d always voted there for Labour and Des Turner, who was on the left. But the constituency boundary changed and we found ourselves in Brighton Pavilion. Unknown to me when I wrote this, this would be our last spring in Brighton because ‘A’ got a job in Aberystwyth later in the year. She had an interview on 9 July and we moved at 6 weeks’ notice to arrive in Aber on the August Bank Holiday weekend. Further thoughts at the end. Here is the diary (the ellipses are where it was originally cut at the time of submission from the longer draft):

I am 45 years old, a university lecturer and live in Brighton with my partner, ‘A’, and youngest two children, ‘M’ and ‘a’.

‘a’ (3yr old son) came in at quarter-past seven but it was ‘A’’s turn to get up and so I managed to doze on to about 8 and got up just after ‘M’ (13) had left for school … As went down stairs, remembered that Cameron was now Prime Minister … hmmmm … Had breakfast … and then helped ‘A’ and ‘a’ to get off in car … Went to Newsagents and bought Guardian … Went back to bed …

After paper, read some more of the recently-published James Hinton’s Nine Wartime Lives: Mass Observation and the Making of the Modern Self (2010) … My colleague P rang about 11am … went upstairs to my attic office … My father in law rang up at quarter to twelve to wish me happy birthday for 2 days before and to talk about our daughter, ‘S’, who isn’t currently living at home. I told him that she had come out to a pub meal with us the previous night to celebrate my birthday. Then I had a vicious fight with the printer/photocopier … [presumably to print notes for speaking later in the day]

By now running late, so got dressed and out of the house … Lovely sunny day (despite the unseasonal cold – probably another reason beside Tories and post-birthday blues why I felt depressed) and I walked quickly, cutting down through Hanover and then across the Steine … and got to the Jubilee Library by half past twelve for a conference organised by Brighton University: ‘Engaging Mass Observation: New Perspectives on Contemporary Material’.

Picked up badge and conference pack … Spoke to a few people and then listened to Ben Highmore’s keynote speech, which I enjoyed very much and found interesting for what he said about ‘singularity’ and the ‘future anterior’. ‘A’ had come in late after finishing her teaching and I managed to kiss her in passing as I filed out of the room at the end. Then moved on to the Life Writing workshop, where Margaretta Jolly… made me work with her dad looking at an extract from Zita Crossman’s diary on the Labour Party conference 11 May 1940 …. So I was able to tell him background about Zita having been Harrisson’s lover etc. By now I was beginning to enjoy the day and Margaretta’s main point that you have to read MO writing as literature chimed in well with my thoughts from reading Hinton …

Then we had a coffee break and it was time for my participation in the closing plenary panel …

Afterwards we had wine and I talked with M and R from UWE about Video Nation before joining ‘A’ and K and talking about taking children out of primary school, the merits of Dorothy Stringer High School (a local comprehensive) and different parenting arrangements. I drank several glasses of white wine, people dispersed, ‘A’ went off to pick up ‘a’ from a friend’s house and I went with the organisers and other speakers to Carluccio’s for some dinner. This was enjoyable … Drank several glasses of red wine and ate the sea bass, which was good … We began to disperse just after eight. M was off to the Lord Nelson to watch Fulham in the Europa Cup final and R and I joined him and assorted friends and acquaintances  there … watching Fulham lose … and talking about various things such as Brighton University, Sussex University (including how crassly it is managed), Xbox games (several fathers of teenage boys there – particularly we were talking about how the boys ‘take the piss’ out of the games: playing hide and seek in ‘Call of Duty’ and as my son did once, stealing a policeman’s bike in GTA and riding the wrong way up a one way street), Stringer (again) … R, meanwhile, had discovered that T was an enthusiast and expert on magic lanterns, which obviously dovetailed well with her own interest in mantelpieces. I’m not sure that after several pints … my contributions to this conversation were particular useful. And then it was nearly eleven and time to depart. I walked with R back as far as Wagamama, from where she could find her hotel back by the Jubilee library, and said the final goodbye of the evening.

When I got home I said hello to ‘A’, who was watching television … The next thing I remember is waking up lying face down on the pillow… but by this time I’m pretty sure it was after midnight.

I donate my 12th May diary to the Mass Observation Archive. I consent to it being made publicly available as part of the Archive and to it being reproduced in full or in part on the MOA website, on other websites and in publications as approved by the Mass Observation Archive Trustees.

Afterthoughts: despite the academic component: different person, different life! It’s been a long time since I bought the print copy of a newspaper on a daily basis. My father-in-law has since sadly passed away. There are a few things I’d forgotten about that time that I didn’t particularly want to be reminded of and have been now. Much as I love Brighton, I was glad to get out. But that was a good day and evening. I’ve no idea what I said in the panel but some of it drew on a review I wrote of Hinton’s book for the Journal of British Studies and I think the ideas then fed into this review of Mass Observation Online. But it seems an awfully long time ago: ‘a’ had just moved out of the toddler stage and is now a teenager; ‘M’ is in his twenties and lives in Bristol; ‘S’ does now live at home once more; I was ‘young’ then and I feel a lot older now. The move to Aber did mark a huge nodal point in our lives. But also the full impact of the 2008 crash and the years of Tory austerity was yet to be felt – I think I had earlier that spring been on the first couple of demos/protests that I had been on since the 2003 anti-war march in London. In many ways, this period was still the long hangover of the 1990s. Everything has changed since then.