Cairns

I organised Space for God in the presbytery. I had an anguished call from a parishioner worried about Catholics discussing doctrine with non-Catholic prayer guides but I said only prayer and spirituality would be discussed. One of the guides was disabled and the house was far from ideal. P.1206. Roger O'Hogan died inJoburg. P.1215 !meeting Stravinsky recalled. P.1218 Janet and Lloyd prepared for the house swop. The exchange rate was on our favour.p.1220 Fr Daniel 's Anglican mentor.
P.1228 Jo hn Ewington did not bother to tell us Christopher Dearnley was to be given a Guild fellowship so I missed it. I became increasingly fed up! We flew to Singapore and loved the Zoo and night safari . P. 1230 we arrived in Cairns and bought a 3 day package. Great barrier reef where Louise dived. Snorkelling in the sea complete failure! The steam railway and treetop cable car were great. Really enjoyed the aborigine show for which I had the least expectations.

Wedding music

p.1005 Easter and I sent Dad a copy of the Dubois Toccata. This was my standard postlude at first communion services. p.1006 Sargent conducting Holst in Joburg. p,1011 Bruce is head chorister next month and Louise was to take GCSE exams at Coloma. Music was one of her subjects thanks to Mrs Carroll. p.1014 VE and VJ day celebrations on video. p.1017 we sang in Sheffield and Simon Lole made us very welcome. I was elected to the Council of the Guild of Church Musicians. The secretary John Ewington could be very pompous - he referred to "you Romans". Aunt Gladys died aged 95. p.1925 40th anniversary mass of Fr Denis Paul and I played the Widor Toccata. I was very fond of him - he once walked right across the car park after a long Midnight Mass to thank me - I never forgot that! When he "retired" he lived at Coloma. I played a recital at Upper Norwood during the flower festival p.1008. That Lewis organ is superb! Dad describes some horrendous weddings. I was fortunate that Fr Peter would not allow secular items and Fr Denis told brides 5 minutes ate one hymn goes, 10 minutes late I go! There was a strange one when Mgr Moran married a young couple. The chauffeur and I witnessed the wedding so I realised why I had to play for so long during the signing. Toccata and Fugue in D minor. How sad that the families were not there. One Saturday there were 2 - first one bride in posh white carriage and horses and looked miserable, second simple family affair everyone smiling! I had cassettes which brides would listen to and choose music and I went to the marriage preparation days. One young man asked if he should have Jerusalem at his wedding in Ireland. I replied that it was not a great idea! One bride's mother put her foot down with a groom who wanted Christmas carols as he really was not keen on being married in church at all. In the end we settled for Jerusalem. Soloists could be a nightmare - I once transposed Ave Maria down two tones and the singer still sounded awful!

Fr Denis Paul anointing the sick. He retired aged 70 and I  saw him at David Warner's funeral in 2020

Mr Pewa

The Rhodesian holiday was called a Flame Lily holiday and was based around one plane which flew from destination to destination. We flew over the Victoria Falls which was amazing and visited a crocodile farm. Kariba dam and Wankie reserve were impressive. We stayed at Troutbeck Inn after visiting Salisbury.
I have searched my diaries but cannot find a reference to the most important encounter which I have often recounted. Mr Pewa was the doyen of the library service highly respected by all and he in fact retired on my watch in 1971. He invited me to tea and I accepted. I struggled to drink tea with condensed milk! I asked how many lived in his 4 room house and he said 16. I was shocked and asked why. He said there was nowhere else for them to go. I said "Mr Pewa you will soon retire. We think you and your wife deserve a proper retirement." I went home and told Mum I could no longer live in this country where the elderly were not respected and denied privacy.
My eyes had been opened! I am very frank in my diary about the difficulties I was facing at work and express my relief on being asked to move to the music library as assistant to Shona Wallis. I knew her well as Maurice and I borrowed records and scores. It was indeed a happy year. Rudolf in the record library proved to be a tricky colleague - he was once attacked by an irate Italian and I suspect much of it was his fault! I became the youngest president ever of the Guild of Church Musicians and enjoyed my role.
I continued with my UNISA honours degree in English trying to balance the demands of work, church choir, church youth group,  concerts, organ practice including the Widor Toccata and friends. I mention several people and Lynette Stagg proved to be a good friend. On page 85 Dad describes passing his FTCL exam for which I turned the pages and advised on balance. Revd Peter Gordon died - a wonderful preacher and kind man. I still have books his wife Ann gave me.
By the end of 1971 I was getting ready to leave recording Anna Russell on cassettes to take with me and noting good films and books. I gave Death in Venice an A. In September I went to see "Othello" at St John's a bold move by Walter Andrewes. I gave it B+ and commented that Desdemona was weak and the crowd scenes a little stilted. Mark Wilson was there and John Alexander enjoyed it very much. My departure date was March 16 1972 and the whole trip was planned around flights right up to arriving in London on October 1st. Page 87 and the final holiday together in Plettenberg Bay.

Kontarsky signed the library Stockhausen score

Soweto

I have already noted some turning points in my life. The trip to England in 1952 and the concert by the Vienna philharmonic in Salzburg were definitely life changing moments. Add to this a growing desire to be independent. Wonderful as they were Mum and Dad were both very strong characters and Mum always said she pushed me out of the nest. Otherwise I would probably never have married and continued returning home regularly for food and no doubt washing! None of us could see that the bubble would burst eventually and I was about to have my eyes opened.

1970 began with attending a Mass at St Mary's cathedral with the Bishop and clergy falling all over each other which I comment was medieval popery with incense and bicycle type bells. I did love all this at school but of course it was done decently and in order! Helen Joseph a notable campaigner against the government said she would support Dad in his application to become cathedral organist. This did not succeed mainly through ffrench-Beytagh's being away. We had a holiday at  Champagne castle involving walks and I think I had a go at bowls but not horse riding. Our table won the quiz because I knew the zoology questions in the last round. Many got a tummy bug and it rained.
Before we went away I was longing to be moved from the branch HQ job and I was duly appointed as Non-European branch organiser.. Note  the title as I was in charge of 14 libraries for Africans, Coloureds and Indians. I shadows my predecessor Claire Wiltshire for a week. She had found a librarian dead in front of a library. There were murders very weekend. Maurice queued 4 and a half hours for SABC orchestra season tickets at th Civic theatre. I note my frustration with Essie Aremband who was too demanding and fussy. There were too many people thinking they were in charge and arguing for position in that office! I went for the tea with the Mayor who was fairly interested. I was a combination of boss, delivery man of books and pay and referee. We had a weekly meeting of the librarians and they fought cat and dog over every little thing dividing along racial lines. I was assure that I was very safe as any attack on me would be immediately reports by police spies. The one Asian librarian at Lenasia 20 miles away was determined to get me to make political comments which I never did. the really stupid thing was having to wear a white coat over my safari suit (shorts) which got filthy every day. Could I wear a brown coat Mum asked? No that was for the Non-Europeans as they were called! I was not doing my back any favours lugging heavy boxes about in and out of a white Landrover. The next week I had a collision - the cops came but drove past! When I phoned again on a landline they came after 45 minutes and monad at me for not stopping them. "We don't have time to look for accidents!"

I was very scathing about the SABC orchestra concerts in my diary. Dad told off Maurice for being "too critical and spoiling it for others" but of course Maurice was right but perhaps h would have done well to choose his audience for his remarks! Knud Nielsen came to give organ recitals from Copenhagen with his wife Myrli - they were charming and we took them to Pretoria. I proposed a toast to the guests at the Guild dinner and my jokes went down well. (page 74 for the start of the Guild)

All the staff were called Mr. Mr Makhudu was my assistant and said to me "Mr Woodhouse you're a good man" . "I try to be" "You will never understand us because you do not speak our language".
He was so right. How much better it would have been to learn Zulu instead of Latin with the dreaded Spike.Or instead of French at university.
I went to a Lent group with Miss Laver and Dad - she did not like his unorthodox comments! Bosmont library was burgled twice leading to lots of for fillings. I went to the cathedral to hear the wonderful Donald Coggan who I met later in London. He was then Archbishop of York and spoke magnificently on the spiritual and physical hunger of the world with the population growing by 8000 every hour. 

Guild of Church Musicians

On page 71 Dad describes the news of the passing of his mother when we were are at East London. I am afraid I did not join him on the sea shore. Perhaps I felt he needed to be alone and what would I have said? Of course I missed Grandma and Granddad but they were distant figures. Dad wrote to York every Sunday evening and he maintained this correspondence with Auntie Nellie who stayed at 22 Park Grove.
On page 74 Dad describes the Guild of Church Musicians. It was unfortunate that there already was such a Guild in the UK. I became President of the Guild. Ronnie Jones and I were exact contemporaries as we learned the organ and we enjoyed organ crawls and later giving recitals at the City hall and the Catholic cathedral. Once a year we would visit the Delens in Pretoria. Pieter was Dutch Reformed and a great organ enthusiast. He had an organ and piano in his home and on one occasion "The Holy City" was played, His mother was unimpressed describing it as poor music.
page 78/9 gives Dad's take on St John's college. The maths teacher he confronted was Doggie Chamberlain who commented that he had no idea what went on in the Prep. I ended up having extra maths lessons with him on Saturday mornings and the result was a B in Maths in Matric. It is true that I hated having to watch rugby and cricket on Saturday afternoons. I would much rather be reading or playing the piano. Once I had said my "Adsum" at rollcall at half time I would slope off and Dad would pick me up near the A field. This exercise was supposed to instill school spirit - in my case it did not achieve its aim!