It's a Busy Old Life!

Jenny told me that as I had spent part of the year working abroad I should be able to claim a tax rebate, so I rang the tax office, filled in some forms and today the tax rebate came through yay!!! It will be going into my savings account towards ‘The Big Plan’ as Jenny and I have called our plans to travel around the world.

Moved into Ashley Court, I’ve been told that the room has been newly decorated so I can’t put any posters on the wall - oh boo, and I have a lovely one of Switzerland. The wallpaper is horrendous, heaven only knows where they got it from. I can imagine that it must be extremely expensive to decorate all the rooms but wasn’t anaglypta available in the 60's?

Emilio asked how I liked my room at Ashley Court - I didn’t dare say that the wallpaper gave me nightmares, so told him how pleased I was that the room had a balcony - he seemed surprised to hear that and said he hoped Head Office were charging me double - and I hoped he was joking..........He said he’d seen how pally I was with Gene and asked if he’d asked me out yet, as if I’d tell the management that I was going out with a guest - not even Emilio!

Len Barry is also staying here - he had a couple of UK hits with 1-2-3 and Like a Baby. He’s a very funny guy and he and Gene together are a scary pair - you never know what sort of trick they are going to pull next. Most of the time Len goes around sucking a slice of lemon - ugh! He says it’s good for the throat.

Janet has returned from Paris and we are all meeting up at Bernies’. It’s good for the three of us to get together and have a girly natter. Later we went to The Gary Owen Club in Hammersmith, where I somehow managed to lose my keys to Ashley Court - had to wait outside until someone came along to let me in the main door, then I had to disturb Harry, the caretaker to let me into my room, oo-er, not a good start. He is also going to have to have more keys cut for me.

I knew that Benny Hill lived in the flat opposite Ashley Court, we had met many times in the street, but now I am on the front and on the second floor I can see right into his first floor flat! He never closes the curtains on the huge windows so he is easily seen. I often see him playing a guitar. I wonder if he can see into my room? =:-O I shall certainly make sure the net curtains on my French windows are always in place lol!

Working my favourite shift 3.0pm - 8.0pm, spent most of the evening chatting on the phone with Gene, he suggested that he, Len Barry, myself and a friend should make up a foursome, I rang Jenny to see if she would like to come over - she said she would. Despite it being against the hotel rules, I went up the back stairs to Gene’s room where we waited for Jenny to arrive. I told Gene that I couldn’t be seen openly going out of the hotel with him and we discussed various hilarious scenarios on how to smuggle me out! But then Jenny rang to say that she wouldn’t be able to make it after all. Gene has a penchant for Grand Marnier, a very potent liqueur. We got quite squiffy on it, Len went off to his own room and Gene and I got ‘cosy’, but before things got too comfortable, I told Gene I would have to go. He was absolutely fine about it, I told him I would have to sneak down the back stairs which unfortunately happened to be at the other end of the corridor. I had got part of the way there when I heard the lift arriving at this floor, so I raced back to Gene’s room tapping urgently on the door for him to let me in. As we heard the footsteps pass, I asked Gene to see who it had been - it turned out to be Emilio! The managers suite was on the same floor! Gene kept watch whilst I scurried down the corridor to the back stairs - phew, my heart was beating like the clappers. I collected my coat from off the peg by the switchroom door, hoping no one would ask why I hadn’t yet gone home, instead the porter quipped "What - going already!" It had been nice having a little smooch with Gene (and that’s all it was!) but the ignominy of getting caught in a guests room would have been just too much to bear - I wouldn’t be doing it again!

Gene likes me to give him a wake up call around 8.0am - he told me this morning that I had kept him awake last night - eh? But wouldn’t elaborate :-/

Maybe it was guilt - thinking about another woman when he is now dating Marianne Faithfull :-(   Kathy Seaton, who I got to know through her frequent phone calls to Gene, came round to the hotel in the hope of seeing Gene, I usually let her know when he is here and when he is likely to be available. We were standing chatting by the switchroom door when Gene came

downstairs hand in hand with Marianne, on seeing us he dropped her hand and came over to say hello. Kathy was thrilled to have a little chat with him, she turned to me after they had gone and uttered the immortal words -" Doesn’t Marianne Faithfull look like you" Ha ha ha - I’ve never forgotten them. Shouldn’t think Marianne would quite agree there ;-) Actually the only similarity between us was that we both had long blond hair (but then, didn’t everyone back in the 60's?) blue eyes, fair skin and roughly the same age, but there the resemblance ended. Marianne was a tiny waif of a thing, weighing about a stone less than me, and extremely pretty with a tiny elfin face - so I was immensely flattered by Kathy’s remark.

Just as I was leaving at 3.0pm, Emilio caught me by the glass doors -"I’d like a word with you, Miss B!" I thought he had a look of mock sterness on his face until I heard him say "...and what were you up to last night, hmmm.....?"