Sunday May 5, 1974

3rd after Easter. Rise at 12. Weather is quite cheerful until about 1.30 when it suddenly dulls over and begins to rain. Have lunch and a beer and a couple of glasses of horribly sweet sherry. John and I have driving lessons at 2, and we both go together, that is John sitting in the back of the car until 3, and then me sitting in the back between 3 and 4. Get back for tea and find Mum and Dad gone, Sue and Peter doing homework, and Lynn watching tv. We all have tea together.

I read "Anne and the Princesses Royal" by Helen Cathcart, which is a shocking book and I'm sure that I could write better. Cathcart has written hundreds of books on royal personages but the authenticity I find doubtful - too gossipy by far.

No one rings in the evening and when Sue and Peter go and see 'Mash' and 'Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid' at Yeadon Cinema, only Lynn, John and myself remain all evening.

See Charles Laughton in 'Hobson's Choice' - a very good film indeed. Bed at 12. Mum and Dad are quite intoxicated, though more with high spirits than alcohol.

"Waterloo" by Abba.

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Sunday April 28, 1974

2nd after Easter. Up at 11. Rains all day and it's quite a typical Sunday. Have remarkable lunch - my favourite - beef and then read all afternoon.

Lynn, the poor creature, is bogged down with her CSEs and I fail to deter her from doing too much revising.

At 7.25 see a programme on the BBC about Queen Margrethe of Denmark, who pays an official visit to Windsor from April 30 to May 2. A very attractive woman - six feet in height, and the youngest reigning Queen Regnant in Europe. Not that she's got any competition however. Queen Juliana (of Holland) is about 65 and of course our own dear Elizabeth who is 48. The Queen of Denmark can actually walk through the streets of Copenhagen without so much as a stare or inquisitive glance - impossible for our monarch in the UK. Bed at 12.


'Waterloo' by Abba.

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