This page contains a significant number of German words and phrases. Possibly Google Translate can help, though it's pretty flaky.

Sunday, 1 October 1967	Hamburg
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Up again late this morning—well, what the hell, it was Sunday, and I feel I ought to have some rights on such a day. Why is it, though, that I so often wake up just before somebody comes in. Is it a sympathetic reaction to what they are thinking (i.e. „Is he awake?“), or what? It seems to occur too often just to be a coincidence. In any case, today came in Frau Plehn with an immersion heater, a Topf to immerse it into (presumably only when filled with some heatable liquid), and the rather interesting news (which was the excuse for this interruption in the first place) that Matin had as yet not come home from dancing last night. Well, admittedly, it was 1145, but St. Pauli never really seems to close except for a short lull round about lunch time, and neither of us were particularly put out about it—though I wonder what Mum and Dad might think about all this if they knew I was getting about in the company of such types. I fear, for all their good points, Mum and Dad, like most people over about 30, are tending to become somewhat conservative—which I can only assume is a part of getting old and (let's face it) somewhat tired.

Finished off my letter to Mum, concurrently with experimenting with attempt to boil an egg, after the first of which decided that my immersion heater was not really warm enough, and so cleaned out Matin's Topf and did it in that. Then dressed up, put in my camera (damn nuisance about the Edixa)

This appears to be the first mention of the fact that the left lug for the neck strap had broken off.

... and then off to town, and to take some photos of the Alster, and in the process changed my Gevapan out of my Edixa into my Pentax, so I can take the former to Wiesenhavern tomorrow and (hoffentlich) get it repaired. Will also, I suppose, have to spend the odd 60 DM on a prism, and possibly an eyecup. Noticed Meritars going for 30 DM—um so besser. Down to Wiesenhaverns, and then back, spurred on by a well nigh bursting bladder, though I still had about 2 kilometers to walk before I got home and to the bog.

Then into my room, and more work on my exposure notebook. At least I am making headway—I note what slow shutter speeds and small apertures I used 2 years ago. Experience would have to cure that—f/5,6 1/30 135 [mm] is little short of crazy, but that was 6/29 (16.VIII.1965). Oh, it came out despite so what the hell.

Sitting around finishing off makan when reappeared Matin, after a visit (or attempted visit) from the friend with whom he went out last night. Women [?]—5 times between 1200 and 2200, and he was völlig erschopft [sic; should be erschöpft]. Went to try to phone up his friend, but no go, so back, while we facncied that we heard on the SW bands something that sounded a bit ominous about Nasser—but nothing conclusive.

Monday, 2 October 1967	Hamburg
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Up, as intended, at 0800 this morning, and after recovering from the effect of getting up at so early an hour, in to see Matin and to wake him up, who was obviously of like mind about the hour. Then in and prepared myself for my visit to the Uni, and after a while in to see what the position with Matin was, and found him facing the opposite direction, but otherwise little changed, so woke him up again, and this time he stayed up, and prepared himself for the day. Eventually (this bloke also gets on my nerves with the way he takes such a long time to move) off to Mundsburg tube station, and got off again at Mönckebergstraße, and across the road to Wiesenhavern, and showed a rather astonished-looking counter hand how my D ring lug had broken off, and he said something about sending the thing off to Wiesbaden and having the thing done there [by the manufacturer], which could take up to 5 weeks. What the hell. Should have enough money for a prism by the time the thing comes back, and in the meantime I always have my SP (which I suppose I shall get done over when I get the Edixa back). Then off to the Australian High Commission, and they took down my name, etc, and were not very helpful about how to get my cheque changed, and so off to the Vereinsbank and the Dresdner Bank, both of whom didn't want to know.

Off to the Uni, and after coffee and cake to the Institut (Chemisches Staats= understood), where I was told there was a waiting list of 20 for the labs, and would I like to apply in writing?... Off to see a friend of Matins in the Organ. Präp, and then to the Mensa for makan.

After that, to the Rotes Kreuz Wohnheim, and had tea, and a bit later off, and after buying some food in the Alsterkaufhaus, off home in some not-very-nice weather. I am rather looking forward to winter, perhaps rather in the way Sandy Schaedel likes it, with somehow the cozy feel of being away from it all, and somewhat protected, that one just can't get in summer. Anyway, tended rather to isolate myself from it, and set to in my room (after doing my best to satisfy my appetite. Main trouble in the Mensa seems to be not the grotty food but the minute quantities. New bread I bought today is much more typical—Altmärker or something, though I still can't get over how expensive all bread here is.) to do a bit more about my photographic records, and in fact got quite a long way, getting (eventually) up to about film No. 15 in the exposure records, and doing up to about 69/65 in the development records. Another few days and I should be on top of it.

Then out in the evening for a walk to get away from it all, after which, with Matin's aid (or at any rate guidance) wrote my letter to the Institut.

Tuesday, 3 October 1967	Hamburg
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Well, today was by no means a disappointment—everything, in fact, went for the better, and for a while, at any rate, I felt myself floating on air (or similar suspension medium interspersed between me an the ground). Up late, as I had intended to be at the Uni by 0900, but as I was late I decided to accept Matin's offer of tea, and while he was letting the water boil, down to get the mail. Oh, beloved Jayne—a letter! Matin could hardly believe it, being convinced as he was that it finished when I left her at Hyde Park corner. So much for that—she is coming in December—not „wants to come“, but „is coming“! And what a beautifully decorated letter that also doubles as a birthday card. Showed me a detail, of her designs—that is aber beautiful, and rendering it on the letter must have taken her an hour. Even Matin had to admit that she had taken care over it.

Off, happy, to the Uni, and handed in my application for the place im Labor, and it was a herrlicher Morgen, and I didn't feel like going into the U-Bahn again, and so walked home. Got back, and Matin gave me a telegram—money at Hongkong and Shanghai bank. Just as well, too, because in a while came Frau Plehn and told me that it would take a week to cash my other cheque, and in the meantime, she wanted the balance of my rent.

Writing to Jayne, or doing my best to while Matin and Frau Plehn were at each other's throats trying respectively to prepare us makan and ensure that nothing out of the ordinary happened—the latter intention failed miserably.

Had makan, which was not too bad, if a bit tasteless, and then back to my letter to my beloved, and this time closed after only 5 pages, but then she said in her letter something about a guilt complex because she had only written 4. Still, should satisfy her. Off into town, posting the letter on the way, and to the Hongkong and Shanghai bank, where the bloke recognised me, but unfortunately said there was no money there, but also that the „TT“ at the top of the telegram meant „telegraphic transfer“, and that it should be here tomorrow.

Home again, and after a bite to eat, thought about reading a couple of old letters from girls, and ended up writing a letter to Jan Peters, from whom I have not heard for over 2¼ years—she could be dead by now, for all I knew. This took a while, and in the middle of it, boiled a few eggs for makan, and then on, finished the letter, and reading „Quick“ for a while, after which decided to get down to my photographic notes again—have decided to do 5 films a day, which should get it done by the end of the week. Then in with Matin for coffee, while he told me he was thinking of going to Helsinki in a couple of weeks time, after his Colloq. Wouldn't have thought it the best time of the year.

Wednesday, 4 October 1967	Hamburg
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Not quite sure why I woke up so late today, but I did for some reason or another, and didn't actually get out of bed until 1140 or so—so much for the idea that is still lurking in my mind of getting up early some morning and meeting the 0902 from Lüneburg at the Hauptbahnhof. Oh, what the hell.

Shortly after getting up, Matin came in and delivered the somewhat interesting information that there had been 2 policemen here this morning, who wanted to know who lived here, and subsequently whether I had registered yet, which I have not, and so, in Matin's opinion, I had better hop to it. Was preparing to do just that, after a token breakfast, when he came in again, wanting to know if I felt like going shopping. Said I was off to the police, but he said something to the effect that they were only open 9-12—like a surprising number of similar offices in this country—and so off to go shopping with him. To Produktion (i.e. the Supermarket) again, but this time all we got in the way of comment was the Verkäuferin calling him „Herr Doktor“, which amused both of us. Matin trying to pick up a bird for me later, though I was not feeling in a very coöperative mood, though she seemed to be. Lives across the road, anyway, so I might have a go later.

Then worries (as ever) about lunch, and in the end just cooked some soup and drank that along with some bread. Supposedly Italian Vegetable soup, but it tasted of nothing. Oh, what the hell. I wasn't hungry anyway. Meanwhile, Matin told me of the girl he went 37 km to see, only to be told no go.

Then off to town, and to the bank—645 DM must be $500 [Malaysian]—I have got that sum again, and it can't just be a coincidence.

From my recollections about a year later, this assumption was correct.

Then off to buy some developing stuff, and after a long time, wondering what to get instead of Promicrol (which was sold out), bought some Acufine, which is supposedly good, and not too expensive. If it lives up to its claims, it ought to be the second best developer in the world (second only to Diafine, which costs the earth, here as in in England—19.80—whew). Then off home, and reading about the stuff—seems OK from what I can gather.

Then Matin off for a while, and I carried on with my development records, getting 1967 up to date before 1966 so that I have somewhere to put my records as they come (as they undoubtedly will). Beside, I have this year developed nothing like last year's all time high (as strongly suspect, unless I turn pro) of 159. That will be fun writing up. Old bag in, doing her best to be friendly. Must be lonely.

Dissolved the Acufine, and then loaded the film in the bathroom (which is easily dark enough), and developed, but more trouble with that blasted Pentacon tank, which I shall not use again. Suspect D1 (affected) was underexposed anyway, but D2 came out nicely.

It's a pity I didn't say what was wrong with the tank. When I bought it I was very impressed.

Apart from that, nothing much.

Thursday, 5 October 1967	Hamburg
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Frau Plehn in round about 0930 this morning, waving about what proved to be a model of the Eiffel tower with a bell in the bottom to make it at least a little more practical, and demanded that I got up and out as quickly as possible so that she could clean out my room—not that I was very keen on the idea, but I suppose if it makes her happy, we might as well conform.

Then off into Matin's room, having more or less washed—I am coming to the conclusion that shaving is only necessary every 2 days, or even only 2ce a week. What the hell, anyway, and I decided to go to see the Polizei, and Matin looked at me askance and said „Was, bist du verrückt? Schau mal das Wetter an!“ [“What, are you crazy? Look at the weather!]”, which really was grotty, and so sat there and drank tea with him instead. Time no longer seems to go so quickly by him, which is probably just as well. Talking about dreams—he told me about one which he only later told me was a dream—very lifelike, and I am wondering if he didn't just make up the story instead, as it would probably have been easier.

Row with Frau Plehn because she threw away anything that she didn't understand, including my ticket collection and a couple of [film] cassettes, and nearly a tank top.

Then did a bit of clearing away myself, before she threw it away, and then clad myself up, and off into town. This U-Bahn is fantastic, the way nobody ever checks [for tickets], but I am still worried. I would rather know more about the regulations regarding tickets, ticket checks, etc.

In town, to my shop near the Kennedybrücke, but they only had Meritars in Exakta fitting, as apparently the Praktica fitting ones are out of production—good job, too. To Scheel, and tried to buy a 2,8/50 Tessar PS from a Pentacon there (165 with 135/4 Isotar and tubes—not bad), but they would only sell the lot, and so ended up paying 29 DM at Wiesenhavern for a Meritar 2nd hand, which was then [?] expensive against a new one (were it available) elsewhere for 30. Oh, what the hell. Thing fouls the diaphragm mechanism on my SP—amusing that that should, when a 1,4/50 has no trouble and clearing [sic]. Trying to buy some gloves, but they have never heard of gauntlets, though they have heard of high prices.

Back home buying some radio stuff on the way, and then home and discovered that my new 5U4 fouls the top of the radio case. Will try and take it back and buy a couple of BY103s, and use the socket for something else. Also some headphones, so, after fixing up the horizontal shift on the scope, messing around with the impedance matching on the O/P transformer, and then connected both up—all goes well now, and all I need is to realign the thing.

Reading „Die Leute mit dem Sonnenstich“ again—going is much much easier now. Then developed the film on which I took the photos of Jayne, which was somewhat fogged, and underexposed to boot—another case for Broviren nos 4, 5, 6 damn it. What the hell—I have seen much worse.

Friday, 6 October 1967	Hamburg
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Again woke up not long before I would have been woken, this time by Matin with a letter from Dad posted only 3 days ago—that is not at all bad. I wonder if this be typical of the communication between here and Malaysia—at that rate, it ought to be possible to get a letter from Singapore bearing the previous day's postmark, which would really be something. Dad did not have too much of importance to say—just that he hoped I did not erkrank any further, and that he wanted me to start an account with the Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation, which unfortunately is not possible, and then said something in an earlier letter which he had forgotten to the post, to the effect that in a year or so he might buy a new Citroën. Oh well—let's see if we can persuade him to buy a DS21 Pallas [top of the line at the time]. That should be fun.

Gradually got up, while Matin made enquiries as to whether I should like to drink some tea with him. I suppose it is about time I paid him back for all his tea I have been drinking. He was complaining bitterly to the effect that Frau Plehn came in last night and said his friend (who was overnighting) should not be there.

Then into my room and writing letters to Dad and M&H, and then doing a bit of work on my enlarger, in which I came to the conclusion that the transformer was through and through kaputt, and that I would have to buy a new one, and after an hour or so, in which Matin cooked some rather better than usual makan (seeing as though he now has his spices and stuff from the Studentenheim), and some tea, off down the road to the radio shop, where they had a comparatively lousy assortment of transformers, so I decided to go into town and buy something there, but when I got there, found the choice even worse, and so bought some resistors instead, and decided to buy a 12V transformer and dropping resistors, and then off to Wiesenhavern to buy some paper for the grotty Pan F I developed last night, and discovered that Brovira No. 6 and 5 correspond to Kodak Bromides Nos 4 and 3—odd. Anyway, bought 25 9 × 14 of each, and then off back home, buying the transformer on the way. Got sort of tired of the work about half-way, and off to do some shopping, and then back again, and finished off the thing, which involved an almost complete rebuilding of the power supply. As was on to be expected with a resistor system, the safelight gets dimmer when the enlarger is turned on, but I think I shall put a full 12V across that—it is a 13,5V bulb.

Tried to do some prints later on in the evening, but vignetting was horrible, and I think I am somehow going to have to do something with the enlarging bulb, since everything else seems in order. I wonder if I can get access to some H₂F₂ to frost the bulbs with...

Little after that—reading „Die Leute mit dem Sonnenstich“. Were it in English, I would consider it wet and forget it. What the hell.

Saturday, 7 October 1967	Hamburg
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Up very late today—and I think I know why: it was the somewhat horrible thought of having to peel all off [sic] the photos that were still stuck onto the mirror that kept me in bed, although I woke, feeling quite OK, at first at 0730 hrs.

Eventually got up at the somewhat abominable hour of 1130, and over to the mirror and without too much difficulty managed to peel them all of—so that 4 hours oversleep was unnecessary. They are not even too grotty, and the gloß is quite passable. Now all I need is a new enlarger.

Then preparing stuff which I had to send off to England, and about half way it occurred to me that I could do with some brown paper, food, and stuff, and so into town, and first to Wiesenhavern, where I saw a very nice little enlarger with f/3,5 37,5 mm Tessar for only 99 DM, though without bulb. Very interesting—made by Pentacon, I expect, but at any rate from Dresden. Then to Karstadt, where I searched fruitfully for brown paper, and in vain for food, so off next to the Alsterhaus, where I got a fair amount of Malaysian type food, which, it eventuates, I understand better than European.

Then home again, getting caught in an average drizzle, and coming to the conclusion that the average paper carrier bag was not designed to withstand such conditions.

At home, again attended to the problem of stuff to be sent to England and allied problems, and this included writing letters to Jenny and Paul, the former telling her all about Meritars, and why she should sell the thing and buy a PS Tessar at the earliest opportunity. To Paul telling him about my adventures, and suggesting to him that he bought [sic] the Pentacon body which Scheel's are still (I hope) offering.

Then a letter to Jayne, saying literally nothing more than „here are the photos and let's hear from you“, and then off to the post office, which, to my annoyance, was shut, and so posted the letters and took the Meritar back with me until Monday.

At home, carried on reading „Die Leute mit dem Sonnenstich“, and finished it—how many months is that? In any case, it is possibly the least interesting of the books I have read of late (Unless „Der Boß ist eine Frau“ claims that title), and I was rather glad to get on to „Zwei Töchter auf Pump“, which promises to be better. Trying to make a contrast mask to improve the illumination of the enlarger, but got chick and made a couple of test prints which showed that the illumination differed in evenness with aperture. Will have to buy the Pentacon job.

Then writing up expenses, with which I am behind. Radio India coming in loud and clear.

Sunday, 8 October 1967	Hamburg
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Up at 1230 this afternoon—this is ridiculous. Reminds me somewhat of the situation I got in at the end of April 1963, but the difference there was that I went to bed late as well. Still, I shall soon be forced by pressure of work to get to bed earlier, or at any rate up earlier, which, considering how long I am sleeping of late, is much more to the point.

After getting up—must remember not to leave the blind down at night, which was probably half the trouble—did little, as I had nothing much in mind, though I did get down to something in the way of breakfasting, and then got a little worried about the bread situation—come what may, I am going to have to do something about cooking myself some food in the near future, or it is going to get unbearable.

Off down to a Konditorei round the corner, at which I tried in vain to get hold of some bread, and so decided that it was not really that bad, and so off home again, and thought about getting up to date again on my photo notes which are grinding to a halt, though I no longer have far to go. Matin in, however, complaining that he could not get any work done because his friend was here, and so was thinking of withdrawing his application for his Kollok, which, seeing as it is on Friday the 13th, might not be a bad idea anyway—though seeing as though he knows nothing about the superstitions, probably wouldn't do him much harm. Then rearranged the mess on my Schreibtisch—really must build myself a bookcase somewhere to put the things in, as doubtless I am going to need some more before too long. I wonder if I could fit the thing behind the Schreibtisch.

Then was just about (finally) to get down to my notes when in came Matin and suggested I had tea with him and bird, and so in. She is quite nice, and I think he is a bastard, the way he treat her. She had a cold, so we gave her some tablets... She wants me to develop a colour film for her—CX [Kodacolor X], which should fit in with the rest of my CE's [Eastmancolor, effectively the same film].

Finally back into the room, and caught up with my notes, ad which I carried on for quite a while, and then decided that I might as well have some makan, and while I was at it had a look at the Acufine instructions, and tried to work out how to develop an HP4 in the stuff, and eventually decided to give it as for Tri X, and did, and it came out at about the right density, but so soft. Maybe I should agitate harder, or halve the exposure and develop twice as long—that would be useful, but I wonder what the quality would be like. Still, should be worth trying.

Monday, 9 October 1967	Hamburg
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Despite all my sleeping in of late, my „wake on time“ mechanism“ [sic] has not entirely rusted up, and as I wanted to get up at 0800 hrs this morning, just to be on the safe side, it came into operation at dawn, and so woke first at 0630, and then following the usual pattern until 0700, when unfortunately I relaxed, and slept in until 0900, and decided that, as the talk was unlikely to be until the afternoon, I was in no particular hurry, and so finished off anything that could be considered breakfast, including the rest of a bottle of Holsten Edel, and then off downstairs, where a letter from Jenny stared at me out of the letter box, and so up again, got the key and the mail, and off down to Mundsburg, and read the letters—one from Mum—on the train. Jenny got rid of the Leica, and back again, because the bloke had difficulties with loading and unloading. £50 from Mum because she didn't want me to end up in the red—as reserve. Good idea.

Then to the Uni, where I discovered that the Ansprache was at 1500 in Hörsaal D, and so into town, and first to Wiesenhavern, where I discovered that the lighting of the Adjutar seemed remarkably uneven above f/5,6 (for what that is worth), and so off to Quelle, where I had a look at the Ricohflex TTL (i.e. Ricoh TLS), which is good, except that our meters do not agree. More sensitive meter, though, by about 4 stops. Bought a safelight there.

Then back to Wiesenhavern, intend on buying the Adjutar on a trial period, but they said that if I did not like it, they would only be able to sell me another enlarger... The Krokus there at only 249 DM looks very tempting, especially when they get the colour models in at the same price.

Then off for makan, back to Quelle, had another look round, and then off to sit looking at the Außenalster with my thoughts... love one another!

Off to the Uni, where I heard a load of Quatsch, half of which evaded me, and the other half of which was not new to me anyway. Liked the way the first thing that happened was that we each got a bottle of beer—somehow typical of Germany.

Then back to Quelle, intent on buying one of their enlargers, but somehow they had absolutely no return system, so disgusted off to see what I could get in the way of cooking utensils, and get an electric Topf like Matin's, but with a thermostat. Bought some food, and then off home, losing my butter in the process, and off to Produktion for some beer, and then home to spend the evening messing around with Matin and Frau Plehn, and later talking to Matin about our part of the world east of the Dardanelles.

Later still reading a bit, and dismantled my electronic flash to work out the circuit. Late to bed—SWL'ing, and finished at 0400.

Tuesday, 10 October 1967	Hamburg
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Up correspondingly late today, having come last night to the conclusion that I would, in the near future, have to go to Kopenhagen, and meanwhile Frau Plehn said something to the effect that it was a sin to stay in bed so long, and so I got Matin to convey to her that I was sick, and shortly later in talking to him, and decided that we might as well have another rice dish for lunch, and this we proceeded to do. I cooking the rice in my Topf, and Matin off to buy some meat. Came back, and was rather horrified to think that I didn't put any fat in my rice, and was also not too sure about salt.

This is a difference between the Chinese and the Middle Eastern usage.

Anyway, we got the stuff cooked, and in the meantime he prepared a most unappetising brew which, it eventuated, consisted of spinach, Hackfleisch [minced meat], and plenty of Gewürze [spices], and which tasted quite good, though I was pushing it to get through 2 plates of it. Sambals which I bought the other day—manis and Udang kĕring—went well with it, too, and Matin wants to know where he can buy such stuff.

Then into my room to read for a while—this 2 Töchter auf Pump is much better than „Leute mit Sonnenstich“, but nevertheless I decided I really ought to finalise some things in the Stadt, including, as Mum suggested, getting my self a Frymaster [electric frying pan]. In thus to Mönckebergstraße, and there posted letters to Dad and lens (letter post) to Jennie, and then to Karstadt to look for the elektrische Pfanne, which I managed, after a lot of running about, to find. 98 DM seems rather a lot to me, but maybe Mum was expecting something of this order.

After a lot of messing around, including considering anything I might need for my trip to Kopenhagen—which turned out to be nothing—off to home again, and there was just about to sit down and relax when it occurred to me that I could do with some food, and then off to Produktion, where I couldn't find any of the electric light bulbs that I so urgently need, and so off home again, and Matin's friend came in before too long, and said goodbye, he was off to Darmstadt, and he had had all he could take of this Scheißfrau [bloody woman], and didn't know how we could live with her. Scheißfrau herself in next, and told me her side of the story. I have had this. Then Matin came home, and I got him to get rid of her for me, after which I carried on reading until Matin came in again and said something about makan, and then out again, and about half an hour later I into his room again, and had makan, after which he said something about making a phone call, and so off with him, and later on for a walk, and then stopped at a pub where we discussed a trip to Syria that we are making in March/April, and to which we expect to bring Jayne and one other bird for Matin. Should be fun.

Wednesday, 11 October 1967	Hamburg
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Not up quite so late today, at any rate, though I don't suppose one could exactly call 1100 hrs early, though it was in relation to yesterday. Matin had been making some noises about earlier, but by the time I got up there did not seem to be much sign of him, and so I sat about and messed around and thought about having some breakfast, which I got round to pretty leisurely, and was still in the middle of it when Matin came in and asked me if I had had any lunch. Pointed out that I was still in the middle of breakfast, so he suggested that he cook some lenses (or maybe he meant lentils [same word in German]), and that we eat them. OK by me, so off he went to buy the lenses, and meanwhile I got a move on with my breakfast.

Not much later in his room, while he put the finishing spices to his dish, and then dished out copious quantities to both of us, and observed that we ought to be able to finish this lot off in one go, which I, having even breakfasted (or possibly brokenfast) was hard pressed to do so.

After that, drank tea together and swapped jokes—the Arab ones are, not particularly surprisingly, quite different from the European, and I find them a little childish.

After that, off into my room, feeling vaguely bored, and wondering greatly over sensitometry, etc, and decided to go into town and renew my search for books on that and allied subjects, and so down and had a look in Wiesenhavern, where I was shown a Fish-Eye Kenko, and took some photos with same, though I'm damned if I can use my meter with it. Here is where it would come in handy to be able to connect a Pentax Meter [for older models] to the SP.

Then off to look at a Tele Ennalyt 240/4,5 for 85 DM, but unfortunately Exakta fitting, and so off to look for my books, and after getting pretty fed up looking round town, ended up again at Wiesernhavern again [sic], and there found 2 of 3 volumes of Edwin Mutter's „Kompendium der Photographie“, which I bought—excellent books, and when I got back, discovreed that included in volume 2 were the formulae of two developers from M & B very similar to Promicrol—interesting, and I wrote a lot of rubbish to Paul on the subject, but I wonder how much practical effect that would have, now that I am probably in the process of changing to Acufine anyway.

After that, spent the evening reading. This „2 Töchter auf Pump“ is taking its time. Matin in next door screwing his bird, and came out ravenous at about 2330, and invited me in, whether I liked it or not, to makan, where we talked and farted (beans) until 0115.

Thursday, 12 October 1967	Hamburg
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Up early this morning to the tones of the Eiffelturm, and Ma Plehn said something to the effect that I had better get out and let her in, so had breakfast, in the middle of which felt an impatience to get down to the letter box, which paid dividends with a letter from Jayne, and she really went to town this time and wrote 6 pages, which pleased me greatly.

Then grabbed all the surplus milk bottles, and so off to Produktion where I bought yet more milk, and some Ersatzkaffee (I didn't discover that until later), and then back again, by which time Frau Plehn had already started messing out my room, and so in to see Matin, who was just staggering out of bed. Reading letter again, while we carried on sort of half-heartedly with last night's farting match, and from time to time nasty sounds came from Frau Plehn in my room as she discovered more and more unpleasant facts about my room. Nearly went up the wall about the fact that I had been drying prints on the mirror, because she said it was vapour from my cooker condensing there. Eventually calmed down and decided to cook a packet Nasi Goreng (cook with water for 15 minutes), and in the process managed the most fantastic feat yet—break an egg so that only the shell went into the cup. Still don't understand it. At any rate, after all that Matin liked it, though it didn't taste like the real thing. He is getting rather pandai [clever] at using chopsticks.

After that, back into my room again, and thinking about sensitometry, which was beginning to worry me, as it meant that I could use my camera taking photos of a grey scale on an extinction method as a measure of the DIN value by extinction [sic], and so tried down town to get a grey scale, to no avail—and besides, I am getting sick of going down town just about every day. What I did, however, manage to get was a CdS cell, which is convenient, and besides it only cost me DM 1.60. Now to build some sort of a bridge to operate the thing on.

Back home again, and Matin was out. Over after a while to the stationery shop round the corner, bought writing pad, gummed reinforcements, plastic rubber and Anmeldungsformular, and home to fill out this last, and then on that [?] to write a letter to Jayne, in the middle of which enter Frau Plehn (oft) and Matin a couple of times, the last with a hand delivered letter from Corinna, saying she had another bloke—in surprisingly bad English. Oh well—no skin off my teeth. I don't think I would have bothered to see her again anyway. Other bloke, according to Matin, is not up to much—what a laugh. I wonder how long she has known him.

Friday, 13 October 1967	Hamburg
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Today, for a change, I overslept soundly, which means I woke up at 1110hrs wondering if Matin and Frau Plehn were up yet. Oh, what the hell, might get something done about this one of these days. Still—why bother for a while yet, unless it be to go and report to the police. When I mentioned this to Matin, he said something to the effect that it was too late to do it today, and that I had better get up earlier on Monday and do it then—and I have already been here 3 weeks then.

Then back into my room for a while, and on with „2 Töchter auf Pump“ unsuccessfully for a while, and then Matin said something about lunch, and so I cooked, according to his recipie [sic] some rice, which I must confess came up quite well. Meanwhile Frau Plehn back, and after I had hidden the rice, into Matin's room to discover that she was böse because I had given her a cheque which she hadn't be able to cash, and wanted hard cash, but was not able to give me the cheque back. Eventually sorted it out, and she said she would wait another 5 days. Hope the Deutsche Bank have got round to it by then.

Then had another of Matin's brews for makan—same (essentially) as the stuff that we had the first time I was here, but better possibly this time.

Then got a bit fed up about various factors, and ended up off in the direction of St. Pauli and Königstraße, and walked the whole length of the Str. looking for No. 50, before I realised that was the zone—Königstr. has no numbers between 34 and 224. To Asahi at No. 28, and they said they could replace my top plate in a day if I brought it back on Monday—which is a far cry from the Rank mob, or, for that matter, H. A. O'Connor. Also will probably get them to clean the whole thing out, and replace the D-ring lugs and the screw in the frame counter.

Then back home again, and (finally) finished off „2 Töchter auf Pump“, with a sad love story about a girl who answered almost to the description of Jayne. Nearly made me cry!

Off to Produktion, bought a few odds and ends, and then home again, and working out what to do, which didn't amount to much—had a look at my radio, which apparently has feedback along the HT line, which is causing the krach [noise] on MW and LW. Will have to put in some bypass condensers at strategic points. Then loaded some film into cassettes, which was more difficult than I had thought because 25 ft of CE were loaded the wrong way into the tin. Then in with Matin, until nearly midnight, finished off the film organising, and loaded a Pan F and Gevapan 30 into tanks, and then writing to Jayne further about life over here—especially after that book this evening. I am feeling pretty lonely generally at the moment. Reading „Der Prozeß“. Horrible!

Saturday, 14 October 1967	Hamburg
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Oh, blissful dreams of Jayne! 2 hours of them, from what I can gather, say what dreamologists will about split-second duration. Who is this Terry bloke who pushed his way in between? I think he is all they boys in London, or most of them, or at any rather the ones who get about with Jayne and in whom she is (supposedly) disinterested.

Woke up at about 1000hrs to find Frau Plehn messing about outside, and my door, for some inexplicable reason, open. She shut it a little later, and so I staggered out, washed, dressed, etc, and then off to eat something, while Matin repeated the proceedure [sic] outside—and after he had told me that he was getting up at 0700 to go to the Uni. Said something about having lost communication with his watch. Got round to finishing off something of a breakfast, and then writing to Jayne (having not posted my letter to her before, mainly on Matin's advice), and carried on telling her of what was happening to me, and then Matin in, and discussing the eternal problem of food, and eventually went einkaufen in another, rather larger, supermarket in the Mozartstraße, which is also closer, and which I think I shall go to in future.

Back home and cooking some more rice, while Matin did his best to cook meat and mushrooms on a temperamental hot/cold plate, and then we had lunch. We really are spending too much time just talking, and I would much rather get something done. Anyway, got my camera with full complement of STaks out, and off with my letter to Jayne to the Alster, on the way seeing again this tart who lives upstairs. She is not at all bad—why don't I do something about it?

On the Alster, everything was beautiful, and I got through plenty of NP15 with even less than my usual regard for quantity of film used, and the rest should be gone by Monday, so I can go in quietly and take my Pentax to be done up on Monday without a film in it. Besides, I am worried about the D-rings, etc.

Home again, saw this bird again. She has nice legs, nor does she hide them. Should I take Matin's advice?.... Reading more of „Der Prozeß“, which is really typical of the „nasty Kafka“, as opposed to some of his quieter works.

After that, developed a couple of films in Acufine, with good results from both, though Gevapan had lots of duds, and possibly could be done better anyway.

Then off with Matin for a walk, after which more „Babyscheiße“ [baby shit], as we have come to call his spinach brew, and then talking to well after midnight about homosexuality and allied diseases, and he has certainly had some unpleasant experiences.

Sunday, 15 October 1967	Hamburg
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Ah, blissful mornings of semi-consciousness, with no particularly compelling reason to make a move—until Matin came in at 1220 and said he wanted me to cook some rice for him. The thing that depresses me about the bathroom here is how cramped it is—a nice, big, easy to clean bathroom is, I am sure, an essential prerequisite for any modern home. Which brings me to the point of whether I should really stay in this country until I get my doctorate, or first go back to Australia—study until I am 27? Seems a bit pointless, when I could do the same in Australia and possibly (no, probably) earn some money at the same time.

Washed and shaved, and then cooking the rice again after Matin's recipie, and spent the time while I was waiting recovering from my long sleep.

Then rice was ready, and Freundin [girlfriend] (Karen, I think) was arrived, and so in to join them and ate part of one of the sickest-looking chickens I have eaten in a long while—and anyway, the way he cut it wasn't exactly made for chopsticks.

Then out and shampooed my beard, and back in again to drink tea, which was a bit of a problem, as Karen doesn't believe in strong tea.

After a while, in which we spent the time discussing the molecular structure of LSD, vaguely [illegible, uncopyable, but not dissimilar to the formula in Wikipedia], into my room to clean out my syringe [used for measuring developer], and left Matin and Karen to their orgy, and got fed up with the appearance of my room, and thought about completely rearranging everything, and eventually came to the conclusion that all would not have been too bad had there not been a connecting wall to Frau Plehn's bedroom, and as a result left all except the two little tables where it was, and contented myself with Frau Plehn's suggestion of putting my books in the Schrank—though it makes it a lot less convenient thus on the table. Oh, what the hell—all life is a compromise. Put my radio on the little table that was in the corner, and the whole no longer looks too bad.

Then Matin wanted me to come with him and Karen to the Studentenbar, but I didn't feel like it, and so stayed at home, and messed round for a while and fed myself, finished off my letter to Sandy (which I started yesterday), and then thought about doing some printing, as I have quite a lot that could be done, and eventually set up my equipment—printing is not really too bad—and rattled off some 3½×5½s of the last Gevapan, as far as I considered worthwhile, and then the last Infrared, which I developed in D163, and which looked no different for it, and then a couple of 10×12s of Jayne, which came out quite well. Matin home after that, and sat drinking tea for an hour or so.

Monday, 16 October 1967	Hamburg
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Oh, boy, what a day. Most activities seem, for some reason, to clump together like grain on Isopan Record at 41 DIN in Rodinal, and this occasion seems to be no exception.

Up at in the order of 1000 hrs, and in to see Matin, and discussed with him the Anmeldung [registration] that I had finally decided to hand in at the Meldeamt, and then had a cup of tea and away down the Mozartstraße to Barmbek, and discovered the place was not quite where I had thought it to be, and so walked a bit further and eventually handed in my Anmeldung, and the fellow wrote me out an Abmeldung from Lüneburg, and then sent me off to the Polizei in Berliner Tor to get an Aufenthaltserlaubnis [residence permit]—though then suggested that I came back when I had a Studentenkarte [student card], as I was allowed 3 months without anything anyway.

Home again, by which time it was 1300, and told Matin all while he told me about his near misses in the S-Bahn, etc, of being caught, and I was rather incredulous. Had a bit of makan—what do I do wrong that makes my eggs always crack? Should I bring them up to the boil?—and then thought about getting my Pentax overhauled, and so out again, and down to St. Pauli, and then to Asahi in the Königstraße, where I also had a look at their display models—including the 1000 odd parts of a Spotmatic, all stripped down, and including 234 screws and washers, also half an SP (actually rather less—the left hand side—and a couple of motor drives, which are not yet on the market, and the 150/4 STak, which I didn't find very fantastic compared to the 135/3.5—though what I do find pretty good is the fact that the little Jap in the Technische Abteilung will have my SP finished tomorrow afternoon—fantastic, especially considering how long the Edixa takes—and that is a local camera. Pentaprism for Pentax only costs 35 DM—not at all bad, but I can't see how I could build one into an Edixa.

Then to Mönckebergstraße and bought some paper and a 50 cm heavy duty cable release, and then home to Mundsburg, where I got caught without a ticket, and had to face up to a 20 DM fine, which irritated me, and Matin as well when he heard of it, mainly because he is afraid of getting caught as well. Still—I reckon to have travelled more than that already on the UBahn, so nothing is too bad. Then wrote a letter to Mum—or at any rate started one—and off to read after that, and decided I could do with a bath, and so had one, after which in to talk with Matin, who is now working hard for his Colloq, and then into my room again fairly late—must try to keep more normal hours.

Tuesday, 17 October 1967	Hamburg
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For some equally inexplicable reason up again late today, and I am now getting convinced that I should get to know a few friends, so that I don't get so hellishly bored, and to give me some reason to get up earlier. In any case, up round the 1100 hrs mark this morning, and got dressed fairly quickly thereafter, and thought about post, so down to have a look, and found a letter from Jenny—this must go down as the first time in history I have had 2 letters from her, unless it was over last Christmas/New Year—no, not quite. Anyway, the contents were by no means unwelcome—£8··10··0 in cheque on her father's account—I wonder how much Gebühr [fee] I will have to pay for that. Still, it comes at a good time.

Then decided, while I refilled my tanks, that I might as well write to Jenny, though I hope I will not have to write many more—not for a while, yet, until it cools down quite a bit further, or I get engaged to Jayne or something.

Then finished off my letter to Mum, having taken a Pause and gone round to Bolle [supermarket] in the Mozartstraße, and bought quite a bit of food. Heated up some stuff called Bami Goreng which I had bought, and which tasted abominable. Would possibly have been better if it were not for the luncheon meat content, but there it was, and so, for better or worse, I ate it, and then drinking chai with Matin, who was rather disappointed when he found out that I knew what it meant. After that and a bit of talking, off down to the Königstraße to pick up my Pentax again—the winds today were abominable, and at times it was all I could do to walk against it—Matin told me later that there were winds of up to force 12 in town. I make that hurricane force—and shipping was at a standstill. Still, I battled my way down the Reeperbahn, accosted only by one sailor, and then got my Pentax, on which the bloke did a couple of last-minute jobs, and then back again, and again on the Reeperbahn got a photo taken on an Edixa Reflex B and 55/1,8 STak, and got talking to the bloke—also HP4, so very a man after my own heart. Then off to Mönckebergstr to post a letter, but the P.O. was already shut, and so off to order an Edixa KLARG [clear glass focussing screen] at the place on the Alster, and then walked home.

Talking to Matin, and also writing up expenses, while he taught Frau Plehn to say „Telahasi tresi“  [kiss my arse] (or how you write it in Arabic) and I exposed a Pan F for sensitometric work, and then had makan and carried on with my film notes—I should have it all sorted out by the beginning of the Vorlesungen [lectures], so that should not have to worry me.

Then in with Matin and ate a considerable number of chilies, which are quite cheap. Will have to get some. Showed him my S-level papers—he was quite impressed.

Wednesday, 18 October 1967	Hamburg
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Up equally late today, this time perhaps for a more comprehensible reason, as it only represented 9 hrs sleep, and so had the usual sort of half-hearted breakfast, and then down to see how the post situation was. Little note that if I were to go sometime today to the Hofweg P.O. with 33 Dpf and my passport, I would be likely to find something to my advantage there. Frau Plehn around, saying how terrible it was, that it was only mid-Oktober and already it had begun to snow, and so on, so after finishing breakfast wrapped up warm and off to the Hofweg P.O. where awaited a letter from Paul with a 6d stamp on—as well as a lot of other stuff. Paid the Gebühr [fee], and then home again to chew on a Mars bar and read about Paul's first escapades with women, which sound frightening, though he is not very happy with the situation. I wonder what his mates are like.

Then started on a reply to him, while Matin came in and discussed what we should have for makan, and a bit later to find out if I had liked the smell of the tin of broad beans which I had opened, and then back in again and called me in a little later, by which time I had given up on the letter to Paul and was busy taking photos of my room (having first cleaned the thing up somewhat) and then in for makan, and I consider it amazing what the 6 odd spices that Matin added have done for that tin of broad beans—quite nice.

Then got a bit fed up with lack of money, or, to be more precise, lack of a bank account, and so down to town, the Rathausmarkt, and opened an account with the Dresdner Bank there—very easy number 660608—and then bough an envelope in the Mönckebergstraße and then wandered up to the Hauptbahnhof before catching the U-Bahn back home again.

At home, finished off my letter to Paul, and then got all my stuff together, and to Hofweg PO to post the stuff, taking care only to put a 30 Dpf stamp on the letter to Paul, which might make him a little more careful in future.

Home again, and in to see Matin, and persuaded him to get me 125gm of Butter when he went downstairs, as I needed it, had forgotten it, and couldn't be buggered to go down again.

In a bit later, and discovered his girlfriend there, and no butter, though he gave me some of his—nice of him, and then I into retirement for a while, to eat and to read books, and most of all to tidy up—I wonder if I could, with a little (minimum) effort keep this place tidy all the time.

Then reading Stern, after which decided to develop a film, and loaded the NP15 and Pan F that I finished of late, and developed the first, down to Mundsburg with Matin and Karen, and then back again and developed the Pan F. Seems that they both show a considerable speed increase.

Thursday, 19 October 1967	Hamburg
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Oh well, it's the little things in life that make it worth living. Frau Plehn in at 0830 odd with her Eiffeturm [sic; should be Eiffelturm (Eiffel tower)], and ensured that she got a sound out of me by pulling my hair and my beard, pushing my nose and tickling my feet—did not notice that my eyes were open all the time.

Up, got dressed, and then, after eating and noting there was no post, off in the direction of town to foot, and in the Hofweg saw, near the post office, a real live 1968 DS21 Pallas with the wheels and lights at all angles. Spoke to the owner (frog) in English—says it takes a bit of getting used to the lights, but they are good.

Jn [sic] town, saw a pair of gloves that particularly attracted me, and though they were expensive, after a bit of consideration bought them—go nicely with my Pentax. Then down to the Jungfernstieg, where I proved to myself that the gloves did slow down use of camera, and finished off my CE and the best part of a Pan F I subsequently bought taking photos of a cow and farmer milking there—managed to blend in pretty well with the professionals there, one of whom was using an Edixamat B, and the others with Leicas and Nikons (not Nikkors-why?). Got a few angles which were then followed by the Leica men—funny.

Bought a Neofin color set at Wiesenhavern, and then off home where Frau Plehn was on the warpath as usual on Thursdays, and then got her out, into the cupboard, loaded the CE and developed it in the Neofin, which certainly moved quickly, and then washing it, and had makan. After hanging it up to dry and while drinking tea with Matin, decided to sell it [the photos] to the Hamburger Abendblatt, and so developed the Pan F, hung both up to dry, and, as soon as they were dry (spent the time clearing up the mess that Frau Plehn made) off to look for the Hamburger Abendblatt, and found half of Springer's organisation at the same time, and tried to flog it to Hör Zu and the Bild-Zeitung as well—the former pointed out it was only of local interest, and the papers already had photos of it. Pity, but I didn't really expect any more. Bought some food in the Alsterhaus, and then off home in the rain, where I told a somewhat disappointed Matin about it. At any rate, they said that they would be interested in any other work.

Then set to reoganising everything in my room (which still looked as if it had been hit by a hurricane) and then ate with Matin, who managed to feed Frau Plehn a pickled chili—what a laugh. She later expressed intentions of pairing me off with the bird upstairs—good for her, if she makes it, but what if she doesn't?

Late to bed, though not quite exhausted.

Friday, 20 October 1967	Hamburg
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Up again late—it really is about time I did something about keeping more regular hours, as otherwise I am bound to be missing lectures right, left and centre. Oh, well, I suppose an alarm clock wouldn't be too expensive.

Up, anyway, and found Matin also messing around—he gave me a letter from the Bank—statement of what I did the day before yesterday—and a slip from the Zollamt [customs] which looked suspiciously like my Pan F, so went off down to Dammtorwall, which is some way from Dammtor, and picked it up. Not everything that I ordered was there—just the Pan F and hypo clear, which cost £2··0··0, which seems a lot. Also DM 2.50 in tax [duty]—hell of a price to pay.

Then home again with the parcel, and opened it—oh well, I can get some negative album refills elsewhere, and anyway, they're not that important.

Makan with Matin, and another brew of Hackfleisch and Pilze [minced meat and mushrooms], which didn't taste at all bad, but which was hellishly filling. Then Matin expressed a desire to sleep it off, and I to my room to ponder life's ways, and then thought about buying some more labels for my cassettes, and also thought about having a haircut, as this hair of mine is getting too long even for my tastes.

Got some similar labels to the ones Matin gave me—very cheap at 50 dpf a gross, and some smaller ones 280/50. Then to the nearest Friseur [hairdresser], in the Herderstraße, and had my mane trimmed, although the bloke didn't do a fantastic job of it—well, I can't expect him to have much experience—it did not look too bad.

Few people in Germany had long hair in those days.

Back home again, and decided to develop a CE, and so loaded the tank, and discovered Matin was having a bath, and that the chemicals and room temperature were at 23,0°, and so left the former on the balcony to cool down for a while while I had a bath.

After my bath, into my room again, but feeling a bit peed off with continual development of films—I am certainly giving it a go of late—and in to drink a cup of tea with Matin first. Had a bit of trouble with temperature control on the film, and it came out a bit dense, probably overexposed rather than overdeveloped. Matin trying to persuade me to go down to St. Pauli and pick up a tart, but instead loaded some Pan F—80 ft odd of it—and spent the rest of the evening (well, over an hour) sorting it out. That should keep me going a nice long time—though only a couple of months if I carry on at this rate.

After that, carrying on with my exposure notes. Matin in halfway, telling me how to pick up a Jungfer on the Jungfernstieg, but nevertheless finished off my notes by about 0200 hrs.

Saturday, 21 October 1967	Hamburg
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And again not up too early, despite the best of intentions to please Matin by picking up a tart on the Jungfernstieg—he in fact came in and woke me up, and said something to the effect that I should be up and about, but I had a bit of gutrot, and so flicked him a V (good thing I taught him what it meant—it comes in handy), and then slowly came to my senses and staggered out of bed. What is wrong with my guts? Is it something to do with that horrible Kaffee-Ersatz-Mischung that we had last night?

Up and into the bathroom, where Frau Plehn did her best to make a nuisance of herself (a very able best, I might add), and then I back into my room. I am still in a fair state of chaos, and must do something thereabout.

Gradually got dressed, having written up for last night, and then in to see what Matin was thinking about weekend makan, and disturbed him in his necking (or more) with Karin, and then off to Bolle and got a fair amount of stuff, and then back and trying to work out what to do about my films loaded record, and eventually used my typewriter instead of a ruler for the lines, and was just about to get down to some work on it, when in came Matin and said something to the effect that I had not much taste in rice, whereupon I noticed I had accidentally got some beras kusah [? Beras is Malay for rice, but I can't identify the other word] by mistake—it was mislabelled—and so back to Bolle to change it. Then cooking rice, while Frau Plehn tried to sell me on some pigeon photos, but, as usual, nothing like enough light for a 400 [mm lens, maximum aperture f/8]—but then, you can only use that in bright sunlight with Pan F [which had a sensitivity of 18° DIN/50 ASA]. Wish to hell I would get my Edixa back—this is ridiculous, only having one camera.

Nowadays you only need one camera, but in those days you'd expose two or three different kinds of film concurrently. In this case I had probably thought about using Ilford HP4 (27°/400) to take the photos.

Then messing around taking photos of Matin and Karin, and then had makan, after which I left them to it, and got down to my films loaded record, which went quite smoothly, as did the rest of the Pan F I bought on Thursday, which I developed in Rodinal, and got no such grotty fog on it as last time. I wonder if I just had an accident with the Neofin as well, but it seems odd that every film I developed in it was fogged.

Then it got dark, and I sat round trying to work out how best to organise my negative albums—I am going to need a new one in a while—and then tidied up a bit, and had Abendbrot, and then sat around playing some music, which depressed me, and so off outside for a walk, took a couple of photos, and back again and started reading about developers in my Kompendium, and again in comes Frau Plehn, this time asking me to look at the Wohnungsmarkt, and on. Matin in later, saying he won the fuck 8:3, and then talking for a while about different customs in different countries, and again late to bed as a result.

Sunday, 22 October 1967	Hamburg	Images for 22 October 1967
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Something is going to have to happen if I don't want to end up completely on the night shift—up this morning woken by Matin, to suggest that he had despite yesterday's Leistung [achievement] had less sleep than I, so surely I must be ausgeschlafen. Got up, anyway, and before too long he was in again to say that he would like me to cook him some rice, in which I obliged, and then up and dressed in a sarong, just to make a change, and in the meantime arrived Karin, looking suitably puzzled at my Kleidung [clothing], and before too long we had lunch. I notice that Matin has to a greater or lesser extent given up drinking tea after meals—perhaps because of the fact that it makes Karin sick. Anyway, off discreetly, perhaps because it didn't look to me as if Matin was really going to work, and then, after a bit of thought, decided to do some work on film S59, which I exposed as a test strip for the D/Log E curve for Pan F/Acufine, and so mounted all the negatives individually and measured the light transmission with my SP, and then came to the conclusion, after drawing a rough graph, that the DIN value of the film was 21,5, which makes it OK for the 21,0 at which I had been exposing it:

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In fact, Pan F should be 18° DIN/ISO (50 ASA), so this is rather more than double the sensitivity.

Then had a go at the ASA speed, where useful gradients came into play, which makes it more difficult to work out, but came to a value closer to the limit 140 than 115—125 would be conservative. All the better, as far as I am concerned.

Off for a walk, trying to puzzle this out, and took plenty of photos, and then back home again and drew out another graph, which took a bit of time, as I wanted to measure exposure in lux seconds, and in the meantime brought Frau Plehn in a copy of Hör Zu and let me read the latest installment of „Der 8. Himmel“, and then I gave it back to her and carried on with my sensitometric calculation, and tried to draw a γ/log E curve, with very little success, what with γ varying between -1,0 and 2,5.

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Working it out from the slope of the D/log E curve, it comes to exactly 0,80, which is supposed to be the “standard”—I wonder how HP4 reacts—I am sure I am developing it to too low γ. If I could only find a way to do these tests without using so much film!

Frau Plehn meanwhile having complained about light, and Matin having come in with something about people putting all their larger items out of rubbish out for removal tomorrow morning, we went off to see what we could find, and found fairly quickly a sofa which Matin swore was better than the one in his room, and so off with that, showed it to Frau Plehn, and then off again after having a bite to eat, and found a chair which took my fancy and brought that back.

Very late to bed—why can't I get to sleep?

Monday, 23 October 1967	Hamburg
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And again up late, not surprising seeing as though I didn't get to sleep until 0400 this morning, and in to make a few grunts at Matin and make some tea with peppermint in it, which tastes rather odd—am not too sure whether I like it or not. Then Matin put on some clothes and down to find out what mail there was—a letter from Dad saying how pleased he was that things were going well for me here, and that he is winding up the practice in KL at the end of this month. Mum will do likewise before April, and he is building a house in Kuching—so I will never live in our house in KL (nor will any of us for that matter), and also that we are going to make another go of the Madras—London trip next August, this time withe the whole family. Looks as if I am going to get my passport filled before it expires after all. But best of all, if I don't make a balls up of it before then, I am liable to cop the Citroën and a Wohnung as punishment.

Then started writing a letter to Dad, having mildly gefrühstückt [breakfasted], and talking with Matin about the rearrangement of the furniture in my room, but I can't see, having considered it all, that it can get any better than it is now, and so left it. Then talking with Matin about the state of the world, what is going to happen to Germany's economy, etc, and somehow ended up talking about Arabia and Israel again—he is rather happy that Egypt has sunk an Israeli destroyer.

Then off to do some Einkaufen [shopping], and this took a while while Matin decided to have macaroni for makan this evening, and after that back again, and tidied up my room somewhat, and then washed my cutlery etc, and Matin in to say that we had been double charged for some margarine, and then I have to my meditation, etc, but before long had Frau Plehn in, and Matin wanting me to cook some pasta in my Topf, which proved well-nigh impossible, and then off to let him do it, carried on with my letter to Dad, and then had makan.

After that, feeling a bit peed off, and decided to go into town and see a flick, and so off, and arrived in town far too early, and so walked around taking a few photos, and saw a Mecablitz for only 40 DM, and met a couple of Finnish hippies who wanted 2 DM to get back to Lübeck, though I have my doubts, and gave them that, and then off to see „Wenn es Nacht wird auf der Reeperbahn“, and it turns out to be about a chemistry student at the Uni—and it is true. Very worrying, though, and they were all LSD types—not for me.

Home again, where Matin was rejoicing about the immenence [sic] of war between Israel and the Arabs. Odd.

Tuesday, 24 October 1967	Hamburg
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Somehow managed to get up early this morning, if 0815 can be considered early, and messed around having breakfast until 0900 so that I could have a look at the letter box before I left for the Uni. Damn. No letter from Jayne—what has happened to her. Surely she is not offended that I haven't sent her any flowers? Anyway, off to the Uni, and to the dome shaped building, which seems to be the centre of the place, and things were really jumping with the Anmeldungen, and filled in about a dozen forms, spoke to Frau Rennstedt [?], who told me to come back on Friday after I had had my Deutsch test and so on, and give her a form at the same time. Met Herrn Watanabe from Japan/GI [Goethe-Institut] Lüneburg while I was there—he is studying in the Hamburger Opera there, and gave me his address.

Then off by foot into town (couldn't be bothered catching the UBahn) and to Photo Scheel to talk business about the Mecablitz. Accu comes to a further 26 odd DM, and they tried to persuade me that it wouldn't work off the mains without one, which I proved wrong by practice, and decided to buy the thing, and off down to the Bank to get 50 DM—as I feared, I am running low—and was just about to go and pay for the Mecablitz when I met a Turk, whose name I forget, from GI Lüneburg and spent ¾ hour helping him find the Carl-Duisberg-Gemeinschaft in Große Bleichen (only he didn't know that,) and then off to pick up the Blitz and back home, showing it to Matin, and then into my room to take it apart. I suppose I shall have to buy an akku for it one of these days—I wonder what will become of my Sunpak.

This was a Mecablitz 300, an enormous, old shoulder-pack job:

I'm not sure why I even wanted it, though it seems that it had a guide number of 46 with the reflector in “normal” position. But it was clumsy, and I never used it much.

Then had makan, after which spent some time in the afternoon messing around with my Mecablitz, and also charging up the condenser on the thing. Then across the road to the Drogerie there and bought some Badidas and some cigars on the way back, and then had a bath, of which I was beginning to feel the need, but unfortunately made it too hot, and as a result could hardly sit in it.

Then out, and shortly later Matin succeeded in locking Frau Plehn in the bog, which was funny. Into my room and finished off my letter to Vati [my father], after which enter Matin, and out again before too long, and I thought about dropping a line to Allen at KCT and telling him about how to make Promicrol, and then reading on, and noted a note to the effect that n-monoxyethyl-o-aminophenol was not available commercially—damn nuisance. Trying to work out how to make the stuff, and so worked out that I had forgotten all my organic chemistry, and so started learning all that again, after which tried some test shots with flash on Pan F—with the Sunpak as well as the Mecablitz. Finished the film, discovered it had not been winding on, and then loaded it again and had another go, after which finally took the test shots again, and then did some 23× blowups to see how Acufine and Promicrol compared, and in the process found that still Pan F is finer grained than ciné.

Wednesday, 25 October 1967	Hamburg
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Woke up again at 0810 but carried on dozing until 1030, and only then actually got out of my (by now destroyed) bed, and dressed and almost immediately down to see if I had a letter from Jayne—no such luck. Why does she write so sporadically? I hope I can put it down to lack of practice rather than lack of interest—I hope she is not losing this latter. Nevertheless, had some mail from England, from Paul, who is still trying to settle down into the social whirl with women:men ratio of 1,05:1 that is Reading, and seems to be enjoying the sensation. He still seems to have done no photography, but noticed in a PS (which, in typical fashion, he put at the tip), which was a prayer for a 5m flash cord. Started a letter to him, telling him about my experiences with Acufine/Promicrol, and about my Mecablitz, with which I am very pleased.

Then cooked myself something in the way of breakfast, and carried on with the letter, and also sorted out some photos to send to him, some of Hamburg, couple of Matin and Frau Plehn, and one of Jayne and the developer test 23X blowups.

Then all was over, and I thought about tidying up a bit, worrying about Jayne, etc, and before too long suggested Matin that we had lunch, which sounded like a good idea, so cooking the rice, after which got into an argument with Matin, who insists that American cars are infinitely better than European, and didn't think a Citroën could compare even with a Chevy Impala. Ugh. Brute force and ignorance.

Then had coffee, and prepared to go into town for various reasons, several of which I put off until tomorrow, and then decided to wait for Matin, and both of us down to the Uhlenhorster Dresdner Bank, and got some money, and then down by foot into town, and had a look in the showrooms at the new Citroën DS21. Very little different from the old models, apart from the front. I wonder if I could fit one to the ID?

Bought a 5 m cord for Paul, though the price was higher than I expected at 6:90, but still cheap compared to what he would have to pay for it. Also bought a 16 µf condenser for my flash gun—should give a nice short duration. Back home again, again by foot—since being caught on the U-Bahn, I don't like to push my luck. At home, wrapped up Paul's extension cord and sent it off to him, and then home and removed the condenser from my flash gun and put in the 16 µf. Recycling time down under ½ second on batteries, and almost nil on mains—as soon as I press the open flash button, it lights up again.

At first sight, this looks like a scatterbrained idea, and maybe it was. But electronic flash guns of the day did not have the option of delivering less than full charge, so the idea wasn't that crazy.

Very dim, as well, but my attempts to measure the duration of it with my CdS cell were spoilt by the WDR, who have a fantastic signal strength round here.

Presumably this would really have been the NDR.

Finished off the Pan F in the process (for the second time), did some reading, fixed my radio, and to bed.

Thursday, 26 October 1967	Hamburg
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Up at a normal time again today, as had to go off to the Uni for all sorts of nasty things happening to us, and dressed up pretty heavily, as it was cold without. Off thus—damn Jayne, no letter from her—and on the U-Bahn to Hallerstr, loading an HP4 in the process. Hallerstr, it strikes me, is a hell of a way from the Von-Melle-Park, and perhaps Dammtor would be nearer at hand. Anyway, found my way in to and to the 5th floor of the Philosophenturm, which was already pretty full of people. Applied opposite, and then after a while enter a bloke who gave us a short but ziemlich tough Diktat, followed by a 5 min Pause which I could have done without, and then on with something about Bibliotheken, which he hesitated to call a Nacherzählung, though it really was. Finished that, but no means first (have to assume that the others didn't know what they were on about), and was told to return at 1420 for an Oral exam. Verdammt! I had hoped to have a bit of free time then. Oh well. Walked into town—the weather had cleared up wonderfully—and then seeing the crowd before Kaufhof, decided not to go in, and so home, having at any rate saved 30 pf. No letter from Jayne, and when on top of that I was bolted out, I really got annoyed, and took it out on Matin, who showed a bit of arab temperament and damn nearly clobbered me as a reward.

Had makan—bloody awful tinned curry—and then off with Matin into town, he to Kaufhof, I to Dammtor and the Uni, where we got our testz [?], mine about traffic and population problems, and we merely had to orally précis them, which I apparently did quite well—at any rate got in without any Deutschkurs, which is apparently quite rare. Got out after that with a bird called Trudy Olson, who is quite a bit older than me, I think—she used to be a high school Deutschlehrerin, but can't speak German as well as I. Odd. Anyway, she is quite nice. Walked to the Berlitz school, where she paid a bill, and then off for a cup of coffee. She is from Minnesota, which is apparently mid-West, and fairly interesting. Ended up in the Citroën showroom, which I found interesting, and if she didn't, at least she made a few appropriate comments. Then, after seeing a 5CV (1922), off to the Uni direction, and as there was still a lot of time, sat a while on the banks of the Alster until it got too cold, and managed to change the subject from cars to photography. Then off to the Philosophenturm, where we floated around for a while, and then off to the Auslandsstelle, where we heard our Besprechung. It occurs to me as I write this that all this time I have been doing the talking and Trudy the listening—I must get her to talk. Learnt nothing new at the Auslandsstelle, and then off home, with Trudy as far as Dammtor station. At home, did little—for a change got an early night.

Friday, 27 October 1967	Hamburg
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Up this morning at 0840, which was rather confusing, as I was due at the Uni at 0900, and so threw on yesterday's clothes and off straight to the U-Bahn. Arrived at Dammtor at about 0905, and on the way up Rothenbaumchaussee met the american Physiker whom I met last night, and so off together—though people kept arriving for a while later, and Trudy was 7 minutes later than them. What they had to say was, I suppose, interesting and helpful. Then we were divided off into Fakultäte, and we 3 Wissenschaftler off downstairs, and left the rest up there—arranged to meet Trudy for lunch—and found out that the bloke there knew less about what lectures I should than Matin, so got my Zettel signed and off, realised I didn't have my 'A' level Zeugnis with me, and so into town, bought some food at Kepa, and then back home—still not letter from Jayne. Oh well-Trudy is nearer, even if yet older—born 7.V.1942, which is a hell of a long way out, but what the hell. Still, see what I hear from Jayne.

At home, had breakfast and a chat with Matin, who had some arabic coffee there, and then pretty soon off again, and to the Mensam, where Trudy was not yet, so to the Von-Melle-Park, ballsed around for a while, and back finding her there, and so in for the usual Mensa fare, whose automation amused Trudy, who had not been there before.

After that, I had feared that she would be off home, but such was fortunately not the case, and we wandered off in the general direction of the Fernsehturm, and then in to have a look round Planten un Blomen, which I have not seen before. Of course, late autumn is hardly the best time to see such a place, but we had fun wandering around there—though I notice it is only 30 pf for students, as opposed to 80, which we, without Ausweis, had to pay. Then looking round the botanical gardens, which were also schön, and then wandered in die Stadt. Poor Trudy—even I am getting a little tired! Ended up in the Kaufhof, where Trudy wanted to do some shopping, and I bought some stuff as well, and then she invited me across to a Bierstube bei the Hauptbahnhof, where she insisted on paying for ¼ l Bier each, and then had a bit of a chat under more gemütlichen conditions, and then she said something about having to work... arranged to see her tomorrow evening, which could be fun. I hope she doesn't make too much out of the age difference.

Home, and did little for a while, and later Krach with Frau Plehn, and then cleared that up, and ended up showing her a lot of photos, after which developed my flash test film of the other day, and in the process was again interrupted by Frau Plehn, who had blown the light bulb in the bathroom. Never a dull moment. Guide No. for Mecablitz (Pan F) 38-44. Not bad.

Saturday, 28 October 1967	Hamburg	Images for 28 October 1967
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Up late this morning—oh well, what the hell, I will not have much more chance to, so might as well enjoy it while I may, even if it is rather pointless.

Hope springs eternal in the human breast, so they say, and I was still hoping to have a letter from Jayne, which was probably why I hopped straight out of bed and down to the post box to see what there was there for me—no letter from Jayne, damn her—why? Might hear from her on Tuesday, but I doubt Monday. Maybe the letter was so heavy that it was surcharged. One can always hope. Still, a letter from the Chemisches Staatsinstitut to say that if I wanted my Arbeitsplatz im Labor, I had better hop to it before 1.XI.1967, which I most certainly shall. Burst in on Matin to tell him the news, and found him in an interesting embrace with Karin. Oh well. Also a letter from Mum & Dad, and it looks as if money is, if not here, then at least on its way. As a result, off down to the Hongkong and Shanghai bank, who I could have sworn were open on Saturdays, but they were not, and so back home again, and then wondering about makan, as I was unlikely to get an invite from Matin under the circumstances, and instead just took the odd nibble at a belegetes Brot, which kept me going. Decided that I could probably do with a bath, and then paid Frau Plehn 50 Pf for the privilege, and did just that, and spent a goodly time at it as well. Then out, and thought in a bit more detail about what Trudy and I were going to do this evening, and it occurred to me that I might look a little more respectable if I were dressed in clean clothes, and so washed a couple of shirts and some underwear, and then hung it up to dry in the bathroom and left it for a while and back to my room, where apart from reading “Quick”, etc, I accomplished little, and so off after a while to observe the progress of my clothes, which were not drying as fast as I would have liked, and so turned the radiator on and hung my shirts by that, and before long enter Frau Plehn, who thought it terrible that I be wearing only a sarong and singlet, and at the same time have the curtains open.

Borrowed some money from Matin (I was badly in need thereof), and off to the Hauptbahnhof to meet Trudy. Arrived there at 1900, and she did not appear to be arriving, so decided she had interpreted my directions as 2000. Waited until the last train before 2100 hrs, and then off, annoyed and somewhat disappointed, back home, where I had a bite to drink (i.e. soup), and Matin later in to tell me that Karin was spending the night here, so he would not be about. Comparatively early to bed.

Sunday, 29 October 1967	Hamburg
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BST ends

Nothing like a nice long lie-in on Sunday mornings, a thing to which I shall probably become more attached as time goes on. Still, I think it could be shortened without doing me too much bodily harm. Up at about 1030 this morning, and staggering around doing little for quite a while, and then had a bite to eat, and reading more of “Quick”—at this rate I am going to have to read every article in the book before too long.

After that, started on a letter to Mum and Dad, and carried on with this for a while, which did not get me very far, so feeling hungry, opened my tin of Brathering. From what I could gather, Matin opposite was still with girlfriend, and so left them to it. After I had finished nearly half the tin of Brathering, which had me satt for the time being, he came in and told me something about them both hitting it off together for the first time, and that she would be back this afternoon. Then in to try some of his food, rather indian in taste, and talking about sleeping under bad conditions, which tempted me to bring out my diary for 1965 and tell him what happened to me in Ashford two years ago today.

Then in to write up my diary for yesterday, and for the first time in 5 years started on the wrong page, so promptly cut the page out and stuck it back the other way round—though the fact that I had to do so annoyed me greatly. Still, it doesn't look too bad.

That was my opinion at the time. I didn't take into account how adhesive tape ages. It has now completely disintegrated and discoloured the page, which is no longer attached to the diary. At least it gives me an opportunity to scan it in and show what it looked like:

Image title: diary page          Dimensions:          1275 x 1755, 1776 kB Make a single page with this image Hide this image Make this image a thumbnail Make thumbnails of all images on this page Make this image small again Display small version of all images on this page All images taken on Saturday, 28 October 1967, thumbnails          All images taken on Saturday, 28 October 1967, small Diary entry for Saturday, 28 October 1967

 

Then messing around in the afternoon, listening to the radio (on which, for a change, there were some good programmes), and then changed the input P/S filter to a choke system, which should improve it somewhat. Then messing around again, considering the purchase of an Edilux enlarger/copy stand/lighting unit, and subsequently in came Matin and started trying to work out how to make N-monoxyethyl-o-aminophenol, and soon Frau Plehn in, accusing me of stealing her light bulbs, and as a result I got annoyed, and she out, coming back a bit later, by which time I had written half a side of DIN A4 in type, and had quite a long argument before she more or less apologised, so in to Matin and Karen (who is a Karen, not Karin, and proud of it), and had a bit of a chat, and took a few photos of what was going on there. After that, back into my room, and came across my book, which I started writing over 6 months ago, and suddenly got an urge to continue, and wrote 4 pages, which took me about 2 hours, and then in for coffee with Matin. I have now got somewhere with this book, and should be able to continue.

Monday, 30 October 1967	Hamburg
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So much for my intentions to get up at 0700—despite preparing for it, I slept through it, dreaming of Jayne sending me flowers and of hanging on for dear life in a Fahrkorb system that was going at 5 times normal speed, and didn't wake up until 0900.

No idea what I meant by „Fahrkorb system”. Maybe a Paternoster?

Oh well, at any rather there wasn't the urgency of Friday. Had a bit more herring for breakfast, and then off in the direction of Mundsburg, reading (or trying to read) a letter from Jan Peters, who even admitted that it was she who forgot to write, and not I—good memory that girl has. It is difficult to think of her as 17.

Off to the Institut—they really ought to have an U-Bahn station „Universität“ somewhere near the junction of Grindelallee and Grindelhof and Rentzelstraße. It would help a lot. Still, I think that boat is the best way to travel.

At the Institut, saw Dr. Klar [?], who told me to learn 100 pages of Jander-Blasius, and then have a Kolloq, and then I could do my Praktikum. OK by me.

Off into town to pick up my Edixa. They wanted 78 DM for it! [This was for replacing a strap lug] Went up the wall, and spent an hour odd arguing about it, and eventually they suggested I come back at 1330, which I agreed to, and off home, but at the UBahn entrance I met Trudy, who still has the cold that caused her absence on Saturday night, and who was looking for a book [?] like the one she had broken. Helped her look for it, but no luck, so off to the old Mensa for lunch—I think the queue there moves quicker—and then she said something about a lecture or something that doesn't interest me at all, so arranged to meet her at 1230 tomorrow for more Mensa fare, and then back to Wiesenhavern. They have quite a nice Verkäuferin there, who seemed only too pleased to show me a Praktika mat—which does not appeal very much to me—and then I got my Edixa free, by which time I discovered that they had adjusted the film transport and shutter and put a Wirgin split-image rangefinder in, which helps. Off to the Photo Haus an der Alster, and bought a prism for 60 DM, but the clear glass screen was not yet there. To Quelle and had a look at the Revue 7 meter (i.e. Zodel), which I liked, so bought it, and then some food at the Kaufhof and home.

At home, Matin was having breakfast, and so into my room and did my best to fix up the diaphragm mechanism, which the Wirgin mob had done something indefinite to, and then off with Matin for a walk, in which he tried to make a phone call for Frau Plehn, and we found the Landungsbrücke for the boat to the Uni—every 20 min is not too bad. More work on my book—on page 19 now, not too bad—and tried to get an early night.

Tuesday, 31 October 1967	Hamburg	Images for 31 October 1967
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Matin woke me at 0720 this morning, which was probably just as well, as otherwise I would probably not have woken at all. As it was, got up quite leisurely and had breakfast as I liked to, and then strolled down to the Mühlenkamp Landungsbrücke, and there caught the boat to Rabenstraße. Don't feel any more disreputable than usual today, but a kid outside the school thought I was a Hippie, and another suggested I was a reincarnation of Jesus. What the hell.

Over to the Uni, where even at 0850 there were enormous queues all over the place, and then into room 148, fortunately about the only place without a queue, and got Frau Remstedt to do the necessary for me, and then waiting outside. Pity I had to use these old KCT photos of me for such permanent things as my Studentenausweis and Studentenbuch. Still, after all that off to the Hauptbahnhof, after which to the Hochbahnhaus and got myself a Stammkarte and stamp for November, after which off to the Photohaus an der Alster, where they still haven't got my KLARG, so caught the boat from Atlantic to Mühlenkamp-80 pf, wow—and home. No letter from Jayne, damn her. Did little else apart from tell Matin what a bitch Jayne was, and then off again to the Uni, and spent my time until 1230 (when I was verabredet with Trudy) taking photos of the Aud. Max., and then along came Trudy, and so off to the Mensa. We will have to go somewhere else together—this is almost a sickening student romance. Anyway, it has its Vorteile, as Trudy couldn't get through an Eintopfessen, and so gave about half of it to me while we discussed our family trees—she has a pretty interesting one, too, Olsen being about as likely a name as LeHey or Herbert—and her mother was adopted. She seems to be mainly Scandinavian.

Off then to elementery [sic] french, which was elementery, and off to Allgemeine Psychologie, where there must have been 1000 students, but it was interesting—will have to carry on with this. I wonder where I find out what books I will need.

From recollection, this was in the Auditorium Maximum. The lecturer told us that most of us would drop out, and that future lectures would be in a smaller lecture theatre. He was right: I was one of the dropouts.

Then that was over, checked that Trudy was not about outside, and then off to Rabenstraße Landungsbrücke, where I had a half hour wait, having just missed the last boat—boy is it cold today. I think towards the evening the temperatures went up to 8° or so.

Home, and Matin was annoyed because he had not seen Renate, and so into my room and recovered, and working on my Edixa—I am going to have to see if our little Jap at Asahi can improve on that.

Then Frau Plehn in with the Mieterechnung [sic] for November, and messing around with Matin. Wrote more on my book—it is really coming along now—and then in for tea with him and heard more of his pessimistic diatribes.

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