I guess that subconsciously I was content that all would be well on the folk-rock scene. Steeleye Span released the “Parcel of Rogues” LP, and the Fairport Convention project seemed to be back on track.
Anyway, once the “A” levels were done, I went abroad. This was entirely due to the school I was at knowing, uniquely as far as I could tell, of the existence of the “European Schools Day Essay Competition”; so if you entered it, you won it. Resultant doggerel:
“Switzerland II”
A Schools Day Essay Prize you’ve won –
Ten days in Switzerland – well done!
In fact it’s mainly grief and pain;
Swiss rain is much like English rain.
What’s more, the pound is rather weak
Which makes the whole thing somewhat bleak;
And whisky costs a quid a glass;
The beer – it would as soft drink pass.
The food is bad and boring too –
Spaghetti, noodles, nothing new;
And if you want to drink at all
You have to pay a price not small.
The rooms we sleep in too are bad
And just to make the place more sad,
There is a virus going round
Which knocks most people to the ground.
Already half the kids are down –
It’s spreading fast through all the town –
And though it lasts for just a day,
it lays you out – in bed you stay.
I wish that I’d not come abroad;
This holiday was just a fraud –
Lots of work but not much leisure;
A distinct lack, in fact, of pleasure.
And then there’s Sheffield parties missed
At which I could have got well pissed,
Away from all this foreign care,
O how I wish that I’d stayed there!
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