In which I continue my studies at Reading University.

Wednesday 16 May
I went to see a performance of Mendelssohn's oratorio “Elijah” with Pat. I quite enjoyed it but Pat seems to be very cool.

Wednesday 23 May.
I went round the Simmons Brewery this afternoon. Tony is writing a paper on brewing so we thought we would have a practical examination. It was very interesting even though I have been around Whitbread's Brewery in London. We also went around the bottling plant which I found very interesting indeed as I haven't seen one before. We were given quite a large amount of free beer and had a long talk about brewing.

Friday 25 May
I went home to Orpington today.  I came up to Paddington on the "Capitals United Express" (having let the train before go because it was diesel-hauled), hauled by a Castle. It was a very good trip but was spoiled by a signal check at Westbourne Park.  I made my way to the British Transport Commission headquarters near Marylebone station to buy a Steam Locomotive Engineer's Handbook.  This will come in very handy for when I am working on the footplate in the summer. I came home by the youth hostels Association shop in John Adams Street where I bought a map of Greece. As it is my birthday next Tuesday all the churcher side of the family came down.

Monday 28 May.
I have been doing some work on my paper on British railways. I caught the 8.55 diesel hauled train back from Paddington having seen Dad after he came back from work.

Tuesday 29 May
My birthday today. I received several cards and quite a fair amount of money. Tony and I went for a celebration this evening. He is still doing the paper on brewing so we thought that we would sample the beers of Reading. We went in nine pubs (5 pints) and had a good time. Of course I got merry but it was great fun.