The Vocabulary of Everyday Life

Then I shave, brush my teeth and wash my face and go back to the bedroom to dress. I brush and comb my hair, take a clean handkerchief out of the drawer and go downstairs for breakfast at a quarter past eight. After breakfast I sit and read my morning paper and smoke a cigarette, or in the summer I have a walk round my garden. I go into my study at nine o'clock and meet my students there, and the day's work begins. At twelve-thirty I have a break for lunch. I usually have this at home, but sometimes I go out for lunch and have a chat with my friends before beginning work again at two o'clock. I generally finish my work by about five o'clock. Then I have a cup of tea and a biscuit, and in summer I spend an hour or so in the garden and play a few games of tennis, or I go to the golf club and have a round of golf.

We have dinner about seven-thirty or eight o'clock, and then we sit and talk, listen to the wireless or look at television, or Mrs. Priestley plays the piano. Sometimes, in the summer, we take out the car and go for a drive in the country; in the winter we go to the cinema or the theatre. But that is not often. I have a lot of work to do, and usually after dinner or supper I go to my study and read or write until twelve or one o'clock.