Saturday 1st Feb 2025

Posted first payment for when me and mum go away. Busy at post office, a new Harry Potter themed shop has opened in High Street. There's an owl (not real) in the window and swords. Knowing our stuffy council & the reputation of Warner bros, it won't stay open long.

Sometimes when I look out the landing window of my parents into the darkness. I can see all the lights of the houses nearby, there's a flashing chain of colourful lights on the hill. You can get them in Robert Dyas, I wouldn't mind some.

Look towards the city and there's a white glow against the night sky, once orange from all the sodium lights in the city; its now white. Mum once told me her and dad used to stand at the top of Devizes road overlooking  Stratford valley, and the streetlights  used to blink on one by one. Sodium was the lighting used during, and before the war.

I've often wondered what it was like during my grandads lifetime, and during the blackout. Gran would of had to hang up blackout curtains, had an Anderson shelter in the back garden.  Some of my grandparents letters mention the war.