29 November 1994

I just got home from Jessica’s. Julia let me go over to Jessica’s house for tea. She lives in a very pretty house at the edge of the village, surrounded by trees. Jessica’s mum called it ‘quaint’ (Julia just told me how to spell that. I think Julia is really rather clever). Jessica lives in a cottage with a big garden. She says we can play in the garden if it snows on Christmas Day. I don’t know if it will snow on Christmas Day but I’d like to play in the snow in Jessica’s garden if it does. Her mum cooked us spaghetti bolognese (Julia helped with that spelling too). I’ve never had it before but it was nice and we had ice cream for afters. Jessica’s room is very small but her mum called it ‘cosy’. She has posters of Take That and someone called Bryan Adams on her wall. She put on the radio and it played a song called ‘Love is all around’ by Wet Wet Wet. I liked the song. Her mum said next time we could watch a film. Jessica said that we could watch her favourite film, Robin Hood, and her mum said only if it was the real one not the cartoon. The man that plays Robin Hood looks like Jessica’s dad, so her mum says. I don’t want to ask where Jessica’s dad is. I haven’t been able to find a red room but Jessica said I can come around again next week so I’ll have another look. Jessica’s mum seems too nice, like Julia, to have a red room.

Samantha E Wills