Britta's Letters from her life divided between city-life in German's capital Berlin and life in a Bavarian village

Wednesday 15 May 2013

Planning ahead!

Britta Huegel


As I am going to London next week, today I will only give you a part of the hilarious "The Diary Of A Provincial Lady" by E.M.Delafield -  (another part on Sunday) - to show you my mood and my amusement of watching myself...

July 17th. - Robert sees me off by early train for London, after scrambled and agitating departure, exclusively concerned with frantic endeavours to induce suitcase to shut. This is at last accomplished, but leaves me with conviction that it will be at least equally difficult to induce it to open again. (...)
Arrive at station too early - as usual - and fill in time by asking Robert if he will telegraph if anything happens to the children, as I could be back again in twenty-four hours. He only enquires in return whether I have my passport? Am perfectly aware that passport is in my small purple dressing-case, where I put it a week ago, and have looked at it two or three times every day ever since - last time just before leaving my room forty-five minutes ago. Am nevertheless mysteriously impelled to open hand-bag, take out key, unlock small purple dressing-case, and verify presence of passport all over again.
(Query: Is not behaviour of this kind well known in therapeutic circles as symptomatic of mental derangement? Vague but disquieting association here with singular behaviour of Dr. Johnson in London streets - but too painful to be pursued to a finish).
Arrival of train, and I say good-bye to Robert, and madly enquire if he would rather I gave up going at all? He rightly ignores this altogether.
(Query: Would not extremely distressing situation arise if similar impulsive offer were one day to be accepted? This gives rise to unavoidable speculation in regard to sincerity of such offers, and here again, issue too painful to be frankly faced, and am obliged to shelve train of thought altogether.)
(...)

15 comments:

  1. I love this post! Have a wonderful time in London town my dear and come back home and share your adventures and photos with us please. Minerva x

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  2. Dear Minerva,
    isn't she wonderful, the Provincial Lady? I have read the sequels more than twice, and still giggle reading it anew. Thank you for your good wishes! Britta x

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  5. Dear Tom, wonderful! I only deleted the comment because George Orwell might not have foreseen Google+

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  6. Dear Britta,
    I love this post.
    Have a wonderful time in London, show me pictures when you come back.
    Bisous, Babi

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  7. Dear Babi,
    thank you, I will do that: take a lot of pictures.
    Bisous, Britta

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  8. Facebook and the like are not so original after all. The Provincial Lady's style of journal writing and the reading public's consumption of it are quite the precursor to what we know as social networking. Fiction and nonfiction are so entwined, it's difficult to separate them.

    I hope your suitcase surrenders more readily to your inducements. Safe journey!

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  9. Dear Walk2write,
    thank you! Yes, she had a broad network - and her way to depict 'spoken speach' and thoughts everybody has is so hilarious.
    Can't write anymore - have to sit on my suitcase :-)

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  10. That was a very fun read, B. Had me smiling all along. :)

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  11. Dear Suze,
    I believe you would like the whole book. (4 Sequences I think)

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  12. Dear Britta - I am late to this post, struggling as I am with a patchy connection in the Fraser Valley, where I am working this week. I hope I am not too late to offer you a Bon Voyage. For now, I will travel vicariously through your posts.
    I enjoyed the little bit from the Provincial Lady - odd, but it reminded me of preparations for The Great Dane's departure for Denmark last weekend. :)

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    1. Dear Pondside,
      thank you for finding the time when you have so much to do at the moment! Funny that you could feel with the Provincial Lady just as I :-)
      And Bon Voyage to The Great Dane, too!

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  13. Dear Britta

    Long time no see. I'm afraid I am too late to comment and to say Bon Voyage.. I was in Kobe for a while because of my Mom's illness.
    Have a great time in London, Britta! And thank you so much for posting this. I have not read "The Diary Of A Provincial Lady". The part of it you've given made me smile!!

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  14. Dear Sapphire,
    I'm sad to hear that your mother is ill, and wish her dearly to get better.
    Thank you for the Bon Voyage!

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