Thursday March 10, 1977

Half dead all day after the excesses of last night. Buggered is the word.

News: Gough Whitlam said some ill mannered things about the Queen at a banquet in her honour. What can we expect from the Aussies? Culture? Manners? Prince Edward is a teenager. President Carter has been making strange phone calls to lots of weird people in America.

To Batley Variety Club with Tony and Martyn. Madeline Bell sang. Absolutely brilliant. Why she hasn't been more of a success I will never know. Blue Mink, the group with whom she was the singer, were good in their day but she's a star in her own right. She has a good sense of humour too. I only spent 60p or so. Yes, it was one of my first attempts to 'pull in' as Denis Healey would say.

Tony says I've become subdued over the past couple of weeks. Why? He tells me that Carole and Fogarty are not contemplating an engagement. _____propaganda machine must be failing, eh? It's Tony's birthday next Wednesday and he's taking Martyn and Carole to Batley. I'd like to go but with £3 left it's impossible. Besides, with Miss P attending I'd only spoil things.

Thank God no work tomorrow. I feel as though I've been slaving away non stop for weeks on end. Should I perhaps change my job? I do need the cash desperately  but I'd miss the mob at the YP and the dear old news cuttings.

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Monday March 10, 1975

A filthy day. Rains non stop and to make matters worse I had to go up to the Merrion Centre with Mum's Mother's Day present and swap it for one more in keeping with her size.

The noise in the YP building is becoming much worse, and our nerves are on edge and cracking up. Sarah looked pale all day & Eileen is still under the influence of flu. A sad state of affairs indeed. Nothing in the news other than the grim details of the Lesley Whittle murder. The Prince of Wales has returned to the (HMS) Hermes for a further 6 months at sea, and the little, cherubic Prince Edward is eleven years old today. Revolting Denis Healey is to open his tatty Budget box for all to see on April 15, and Alison Dixon's dog, Frisky, passed away into the great unknown over the weekend. It's amazing what one can dig up by way of news when one tries hard enought.

Home for tea at 5.15. Mess about in the lounge for an hour or so afterwards, and decide that my hair needs washing. (You all wanted to know that). Tonight is the final episode in the 'Likely Lads' series. It will be the end of a fantastic set of programmes.

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Sunday March 10, 1974

2nd in Lent. Edward VII married Alexandra, 1863. Prince Edward born 1964. Wake up at 8.20 on the sofa in the dining quarters of a strange house. The mother of my host thrusts a weak, milky coffee onto my lap and laughs at my apparent lack of awareness of time, place, month or year. Vic piles me into a car and at 8.45 and I am standing in the bleak bus station at Ilkley. One of Andy's pals joins me on a 63 and I stagger home to be in time for breakfast. Mum thinks I am mad and Dad simply laughs at my obvious vitality.


'Jealous Mind' Alvin Stardust.

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