120 words a minute and a downward 'k'

We were training to be stenographers – shorthand typists to young readers; often we had conversations in shorthand so a ten minute chat took half an hour.  I used to write my diary in shorthand to stop my Mother reading it – many years later I was reading about my adventures and “George thinks I have a nice bum” took hours to translate.

I still write notes to Veronica in shorthand but  have to translate them too, takes the fun out of it, but I could after all be saying anything and she would not know.