Wednesday May 13, 1981

Mad Turk shoots Pope.

 _. A mad Turk has attempted to assassinate the Pope in Rome. He failed miserably. Typical of the Turks, don't you think? I was traveling home at the time of the shooting quite oblivious of this anti-papal attack. Caught up with it on the news: crowds of wailing nuns running amok beneath the Basilica in St Peter's Square.

Back to this morning. I forced Ally out of bed at 6:50 because she had to do something with the mounds of bread in the kitchen. Her ears have gone into decline now. She can hear nothing, and as I sat with my humble breakfast looking across the table at her I could hear the wax squelching around in the labyrinths of her gorgeous ears. She left for Bradford at 7:50. Dave B came shortly afterwards with the Oliver, Kitchen and Flynn report [he's been looking at it to make a structural survey]. Jim Rawnsley is on business in London and so I went to Leeds with Dave. A hot day.

Frank D phoned Mum and told her to make an appointment with a Mr Houldsworth at Barclays Bank, Otley. She did as directed. Frank has had a word with him, and they are seeing him at 10:30 tomorrow. It's now in the lap of the Gods. I do not think Frank would have set this up if he didn't think they stood a chance.

Denise has sent me a bill for a further £15 for the Ios honeymoon. I phoned her at 3. She had been to lunch with C. Ratcliffe and Lynne Mather and they'd just been talking about me. My ears were burning.

Had a couple of talks with Ally. We are like Mrs Thatcher and Helmut Schmidt these days. Watched 'Private Schulz'. Bed 12.

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Wednesday October 18, 1978

St Luke

Laughter. Sarah and I went out at lunchtime and I posed for some ridiculous locket photographs in a booth at the bus station. Quite hideous. I have never been photogenic, but these are the ultimate. Mel Hulme, the EP photographer, also took pics of me in the YP car park to illustrate the article going in Postscript regarding my adventure on the Father's Day trip to Blackpool in June. Tony Green came over after lunch and took down the sordid story of my motorway excursion from Hell. I'm sure he thinks I am raving mad.

The new Pope is still alive, and I think well, which seems strange after the recent epidemic of papal stiffs over the past few months. Dr Cobweb, our revered Archbishop of Canterbury, is to attend the Pope's installation in Rome next Sunday. He was criticised last month for failing to attend Pope John Paul I's 'knees up' so I suppose he is making amends.

Lynn and Dave had a bump in the car on Queensway this morning. All the front of his car is smashed in but neither of them sustained injury. Lynn was slightly shook up. Dave estimates damage to the spitfire at £100, and the offending other driver also suffered in the entanglement.

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Monday October 16, 1978

Full Moon 07:09 First Day of Tabernacles (Succoth)

There's speculation all day about the conclave of cardinals. The voting, they say, is proving more difficult this time and Rome has been shrouded beneath clouds of black smoke all day. However, the boys in velvet made a decision and at about 7:30 the news was telephoned to me by a frantic Ursula, who could find no photographs, and before the BBC news flash, and the residents of 58, Hawksworth Lane where the first people this side of Leeds to discover that the new Pope is a non~Italian for the first time since 1522. The new pontiff is in fact a Pole. In fact he's the Cardinal Archbishop of Kraków, whose name I cannot attempt to pronounce (Karol Józef Wojtyła). No doubt my Aunt Jadwega is skipping around in her massage parlour showering kisses upon the residents of Mapplerley, Notts. So, it's failure for poor Basil Hume, but amazing that the cardinals have gone for an outsider. Do our purple friends want to keep well in with the Eastern bloc now that Italy is on the verge of going completely red? Dad's immediate reaction was to ask if the new pope is a Bulgarian. On the news Angela Rippon told us that during the Second World War Pope John Paul II worked in a Nazi~occupied umbrella factory. (Unless you know about Georgei Markov you'll be in the dark about this little joke).

Watched a violent film starring Burt Reynolds. Mum says she objects to paying the tv licence to watch such rubbish, but this Mary Whitehouse attitude is quite wrong. I see nothing wrong with a spot of violence. Bed at 12:05 am.

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