Part 181: Saturday, 25th December 1965, 10.25p.m.

.A very brief entry, want to see second instalment of Eugenie Grandet on TV at 10.35. Pain in left shoulder-blade yesterday, quite a definite pain. Gone to-day (except perhaps for a very slight twinge if I think about it, but I didn’t have to think about yesterday’s pain). It’s the schmallippiger Antlitz des Lebens [allusion to Thomas Mann’s “Royal Highness”. The prince’s educator, Doctor Überbein, mentions several times that he saw “life’s narrow-lipped face”] cat playing with the murine Witriol again.

Went to East End, concocted article on Thursday, have just typed it now. Replied yesterday morning to Hugh Stubbs’s  [met at Army training camp 1940] letter of over a year ago. My letter a wretched affair. Not only do I lack the historical and biblical background (H.S. always has the biblical quotation ready, chapter and verse), but I can’t get the flow of language. Well, I said it would be a brief entry.