Tag: secret codes

The Diary That Was – 31st December 1979

~ shaun tenzenmen ~ 1 Comment

29th Sep 2022 – And so we are here, at the mysterious back pages of the diary.

Record of the week: The Greedies – Merry Jingle

29th Sep 2022 – Phil Lynott from Thin Lizzy and Steve Jones and Paul Cook from the Sex Pistols were the Greedies and this song is a fun, romping Christmas song but as with most Christmas songs, won’t hold up at any other time of year. I wonder what it is that makes people think to write a Christmas song? If it’s your last resort maybe it’s time to give up?

29th Sept 2022 – Paul Mariner, Mick Mills, Mick(?) Lambert, Bobby Robson, Trevor Whymark, Roger Osbourne, John Wark, George Burley, Paul Cooper, Kevin Beattie…the other faces are familiar but names stuck somewhere deep in the noggin. I’m going to go search the rest of the names as a reminder.

Frm Fidy tety sx nw cod i sudrtkn

29th Sept 2022 – Any codebreakers got this one? I reckon ‘From Friday Twenty Six…….” – any significance to the missing letters? Children and their warped minds.

Andrew said “I don’t think the FONZ is very interesting.”

29th Sep 2022 – It was all downhill from here.

Lief
Leif

29th Sept 2022 – Me trying to work out how to spell Leif Garrett, and yes, I had to look it up again just now.

Me —— Them
Golf
-8 —— -2
-2 —— -2
-3 —— -6
-4 —— -10

29th Sep 2022 – In my childlike imagination my bedroom was a golf course. Using one of our eating knives as a club and a marble as a ball, I devised a course around the bed, chair, floor, drawers etc.

I remember the knife well, it was one that was least favoured to be used at the table, it was the odd one out in the cutlery drawer. It had a cream handle, some kind of imitation ivory, bakelite maybe? Where the blade joined the handle had a small piece missing that added to its devious charm. The tip of the knife was an industrial semi-circle shape, with no pointed end as with our other knives. It was ugly. So it became my mini golf club and I loved it for that.

Of course, I just played against myself, labelling the scores Me and Them and generally always favouring Me, naturally.

When you chatted up the girl with the great big boobs
I don’t make a fuss, I just kept me cool

29th Sept 2022 – The genesis of getting into writing lyrics and trying to make them outrageous as per my idols. I didn’t yet have the vocabulary and ability but genius (haha!) must start somewhere!

Bed (curtains) 2p
Bricks 102p
Make own tea 2p
Make both teas 5p
Make tea to drink 1p
Collect coal 1p
Collect wood 1p
Extra jobs… 1p
Depending how hard… 2p
It is 3p and so on

29th Sep 2022 – Keeping track of potential earnings. No matter, I would always spend more than I earned, well into my late 20s. Some lessons take a long time.

Racing
Kempton 1.30pm 10p stake
1. Be Better 8-1 80p
Kempton 2.00pm
Catechism 7-1

29th Sep 2022 – A minor interest in Maths, betting and odds developing. I soon realised what a con gambling is, though when I say soon, it probably took another ten years as I did usually put some money through the fruit machines of pubs I attended for a while.

29th Sep 2022 – Artistic skills don’t look particularly promising but that never stopped me from trying.

I want Sex Pistols book, LPs and Clash ‘Give ‘Em Enough Rope’, dartboard

29th Sep 2022 – I ended up with all these except the Clash album which I curiously never owned on vinyl and even now when I listen to it it still sounds fresh and new as many of those songs are not so familiar to me. Weirdly, I think I only ever owned the first album and Sandanista on vinyl and I’m not sure why I missed out on London Calling, which is also a little less familiar to these ears.

Friggin’ in the Riggin’
Ch.
Friggin’ in the riggin’
(repeat two more times)
Cos there’s fuck all else to do
Stick glass up your arse
(repeat thrice)
Cos there’s fuck all else to do

The captain’s wife is Mable
And when she’s fully able
She’ll give the crew the daily screw
Upon the mess room table
The captain’s name is Dodo
And he’s a lazy bugger
He isn’t fit to shovel shit
From one place to another

29th Sep 2022 – As Graeme Gray introduced me to the Sex Pistols through this song I would ask him to repeat these lyrics for me until I could remember them and write them down. Not accurate as expected but filthy enough to warp the precious minds of eleven and twelve-year-old potential brat-punks.

75m – 11.2

29th Sep 2022 – I was obviously pleased with myself for being a fast runner.

Chorus to Pretty Vacant
We’re so pretty, oh so pretty -ow
– Vacant
(repeat)
And now, we don’t careeeee!

Second verse and chorus to Silly Thing
People here, people there
People around you everywhere
What you gonna say
What you gonna do
Now you’ve missed out once again
But I thought you knew
Ch.
Oh, you silly thing
You’ve really gone and done it now
(repeat)

More songs
Bodies
There’s a girl from Birmingham
She’s had an aboushtion
She looks a screaming mess
Screaming mess
Fuck this, fuck that
Fuck that fucking little brat
She don’t want a baby like that
I don’t want a baby like that
She looks a screaming mess
Screaming mess

29th Sep 2022 – More outrageous Sex Pistols lyrics. It’s really hard to comprehend what an impact this band had at the time. For folks like me, it has been a lifelong inspiration and influence that I am proud to be a part of. It all looks old-fashioned and pointless now so I’m forgiving of anything that kids are into these days and forgiving of those who were consumed within their own subcultures that were at pinnacles in the past. We don’t have to understand what they like but we can understand the feelings that it gives them.

RAD DID IT
GRANDAD DID IT

29th Sep 2022 – I had an irrational dislike for my grandparents. Being a snotty kid around Victorian/Edwardian grandparents was never going to be easy. I did like them when I was smaller but perhaps they were more forgiving then too. I would soon be driving them crazy with super loud music and friends visiting for drinking parties. I never really reconciled with my granny (as I called her and my mum wished to be called by Hayden) before she passed but I was more sympathetic to my grandad as I got to my late teenage years. I was surprised to find out at one point that they were actually quite liberal and were members of CND. They weren’t quite so impressed when I showed them the lyrics to Crass’s What The Fuck but they did seem to get the sentiment.

This fucking’ little bastard
Was a fuckin’ little burk
He didn’t know what to do
When he went to work

29th Sep 2022 – Prophetic!

The Week That Was – 19th August 1979

~ shaun tenzenmen ~ 1 Comment

Record of the week: Cutouts – D.I.Y.
Highest entry: Crusaders – Street Life

6th Jun 2022 – The Cutouts D.I.Y. is a great quirky tune, of its time, much in line with early Devo, XTC and Cardiac Arrest (pre-Cardiacs) though not quite as manic. There’s a tune on the guitar practice app I use (Yousician) that reminds me of this too. It’s fun to play and takes me exactly to 1979! Street Life has some cool funky elements but production values were already changing in this pop genre to what would become very familiar in the 80s.

19th August 1979
Nothing memorable today.
Saturday bought a book of cars and a special 12″ limited edition of Hersham Boys
2p 167p*

20th August 1979
Carnival in Aldeburgh
Bought some things
2p 165p*

6th Jun 2022 – No recollection of Aldeburgh so I had a look on the map. I believe Eileen and Dick lived in Saxmundham, at least, that name rings a bell and Aldeburgh is not far away. Finding photos of Aldeburgh too, upsets me a little that I don’t remember anything about it.

What I love about doing this investigation is seeing all these Olde English names again on the map. After watching The Last Kingdom over the last 12 months it’s interesting to see how names have changed or been influenced over time.

I’m a little bit more interested in English history than I was in school where things like the cavaliers and roundheads got boring very quickly. None of that stuff was given any context (that I remember anyway). Being a teacher now makes me think about the tough job my teachers had with me and my classes. How to make a class interesting for everyone?

21st August 1979
TBX B MBNCPSHIJOJ VSSBDP T
SAW A LAMBORGHINI URRACO S
2p 163p*

6th Jun 2022 – Perhaps inspired by old war movies I started working on secret codes, though this one is pretty straightforward – no need for a Turing machine.

22nd August 1979
Arsenal 0-2 Ipswich
TBX B NBUSB TJNDB CBHIFSSB
SAW A MATRA SIMCA BAGHEERA
2p 161p*

23rd August 1979
1. Cliffie
2. Boomtown Rats
3. BA Robertson
4. Ian Dury
5. EWF
6. Darts
7. Sham 69
8. Specials
9. Abba
10. ELO
2p 159p*

24th August 1979
Come back from East Anglia
My room’s fucking bloody mess because of a puff
2p 157p*

6th Jun 2022 – Whilst we were away, Lorna and Jim would have stayed over and my cousin Elise would stay in my room. On this occasion, I had pinned string across various parts of the room to make it difficult to move around. Of course, she would’ve immediately taken it all down and thought I was an idiot!

But I was annoyed that she had done this and resorted to the common insult of calling her a puff, without knowing what it even meant. Probably we all called each other that at school.

I wonder if anyone that I went to school with was gay or not? There’s definitely no one that stands out. Being gay was still often derided then and coming out was a real big deal. Here, in the classrooms of Thailand, it is very obvious who is gay and no one cares. There may still be some in the closet but being an extravagant extrovert gay-as teenager is very common here. Girls too, have no problem, talking about liking girls. It is refreshing.

25th August 1979
Wolves 3-0 Ipswich
2p 2p 153p*

The Week That Was – 28th January 1979

~ shaun tenzenmen ~ 2 Comments

Highest Entry – Abba – Chiquitita #8

28th January 1979
Did homework
YUKK

2nd Nov 2021 – I think this term would have been my first introduction to homework and it probably wasn’t too hard but I already knew how I felt about it. I think there wasn’t much I was really interested in that I would want to study even longer than being at school. In my primary school years I was quite a good student and I can remember the exact time when that changed.

It was 1976 and I had just moved with my mum, from Devon to Dorset, where my mum would take care of my grandparents in exchange for free rent. I started a new school and was one of the ‘top’ students, I guess. I tried my best. At Christmas that year I was chosen to be Joseph, opposite Becky Houldey as Mary in the school nativity.

But as the year came to an end, students worked on their individual ‘big project’. This involved excursions and other types of research as opposed to sitting in classes. I started off with gusto and through working with various other students at points became good friends with Paul Sotheran. I loved his sense of humour and crazy attitude to life. He didn’t give a shit about the project and I soon fell into that mindset too!

29th January 1979
Monty Python’s Flying Circus

8th Nov 2021 – I was allowed to stay up after 9pm to watch this every Tuesday night. I think my mum enjoyed watching it too. We both appreciated this kind of quirky British humour. I know Spike Milligan and Dave Allen were amongst mum’s favourites.

30th January 1979
Blondie 1
Ipswich 2-0 Orient (at Orient)
Mariner 2

31st January 1979
OH HELL
Don’t know!!
Nerds Words

8th Nov 2021 – I thought perhaps Nerds was in reference to the candy but a quick search shows they weren’t introduced until 1983. I think this must have been another Happy Days reference. Looking back I can see the creeping influence and Americanisation (with an s!) of British culture already.

1st February 1979
1 – Blondie
2 – Ian Dury
3 – The Three Degrees
4 – Village People

2nd February 1979
REV
3 times 20
AHHHHH
Doctor 5.05 Miss Happy Days
X

8th Nov 2021 – REV? Revision? Reverse? 3 times 20? 60? I don’t know. Perhaps like the X, and tomorrow’s 1, some sort of code I thought I would never forget again.

3rd February 1979
Hey Nerd!
Bristol City 3-1 Ipswich (Mariner)
BLURP!
1

The Week That Was – 21st January 1979

~ shaun tenzenmen ~ 1 Comment

Highest Entry – Blondie – 6

18th Oct 2021 – It seems to be around this time that I was really starting to pay more attention to the charts and leaning further away from pop and disco tunes and towards louder raunchier music.

21st January 1979
Horray no school tomorrow
WO

22nd January 1979
Boring day
WHAT

23rd January 1979
Great, school bus didn’t come so I ain’t going to school

18th Oct 2021 – Already sarcastic, aged 11. Just looking at these words, they could be read as positive – ie – Awesome, no school! But I know that is not what I meant. The school bus didn’t come but I was still up and ready and waiting for it when I could’ve been sleeping in or getting up to whatever other nonsense I usually did on free mornings.

24th January 1979
School today
BLURP
Leeds 2-2 Soton (League Cup semi-final 2nd leg)

18th Oct 2021 – I’m pretty sure these were times when I could tell you all about football teams, players, scores etc even those I didn’t really follow. I think this was the time of Allan Clarke (Leeds) and Mick Channon (Southampton)?

25th January 1979
(1) Hit me with your rhythm stick, hit me, hit me
ID and the Blockheads
(6)
Once I had a love and it was a gas, soon found out had a heart of glass
Blondie

18th Oct 2021 – I loved that this Ian Dury song was number one, after 1978’s What a Waste was a favourite. Somehow I convinced my mum to buy me this single and I was thrilled that the b-side title was “There Ain’t Half Been Some Clever Bastards”, finding it very daring to have what was then considered a swear word in the name.

Blondie’s ‘Heart of Glass’ wasn’t my favourite song from Parallel Lines, which would have been one of the first albums I owned, again, after convincing my mum to buy for me. Anything that featured Debbie Harry and saw the chance of seeing her beautiful image on TV again was wholly supported by my imagination, which had already run wild after seeing the video for ‘Presence Dear’ where I was certain she was talking directly to me from the screen.

I dreamt that she was waiting for me by a particular tree in the woods and hurried that morning to go and meet her. I waited and waited, trying to feel her presence, almost ecstatic and a tingling in my pants that I was only just learning about.

I limped home ever so disappointed as my youthful hard-on waned in my tight pants but I didn’t give up hope.

26th January 1979
Got a new magazine called Superpop
HEYYY!

27th January 1979
Ipswich 0-0 Orient
Hey Nerds!
Rly
Tes

18th Oct 2021 – There are many codes in my diaries that I was sure I would remember the meaning of because they were ‘really important.’ A couple I’m still able to work out and I also left deciphering clues elsewhere in the pages but this entry I don’t know.