Showing posts with label guiseley. Show all posts
Showing posts with label guiseley. Show all posts

20190131

Thursday July 26, 1979

_. Maria's 21st birthday today. We didn't see her. I think John was taking her out for dinner.

Didn't get into the YP until 9:30 and tempers there were frayed. For £45 a week I think I have every right to pinch the occasional hour here and there. Sarah, seeing my depression, gave comforting words. Lynn just needs time, she says. Delia has given me a photo of the two of us at Ivory Towers last September. Sarah says one of Delia's legendary luncheon parties is imminent.

David B came to help Dad and Jim welding on the car. Constantly welding. It baffles me.

-=-


20190129

Monday July 23, 1979

_. Eventually climbed out of bed at about 11am and waited for Garry and Bill. The bar was open but neither Dave or I could face having a drink. Garry came in saying his car is 'off the road', and so Dave offered to drive me home. ___________.

Home by 2pm. Mum looks well. She filled us in with all the news and gossip which took us until about 5pm. Poor little Catherine has a heart defect of some kind - probably a hole in the heart. Maria took both babies to the RC church yesterday at Burley-in-Wharfedale and had them christened. It is a sad thought on which to reflect that my tiny, innocent niece is banned by law from ever becoming Queen of England.

Susan and Peter are having an engagement party at Otley on Wednesday night. Dave G cannot make it.

Billy is shattered by the Ibiza experience and has vowed never to go on holiday with us again. They, the lads, stayed to tea, and left for Stockport at about 7pm.

Ally was particularly shy, and dashed off for a sauna with Sue. Susie's hair is permed again.

-=-

to be continued

20170216

Saturday March 3, 1979

_. To the White Cross at lunchtime with Susie & Peter and then went on to Otley with the intention of buying Lynn a birthday present. Sadly, Peter's car broke down near Birdcage Walk in Otley and something of a pantomime followed. I made my way to a phone box and contacted Margaret Nason and arranged for us to get a lift from Jim. Back at Guiseley we secured Dad with the tow rope and headed back to retrieve the ailing vehicle.

Tonight: Out to the Regent [Chapel Allerton] with Sarah at 8. I had arranged to meet Sue, Peter, Chippy and Deborah but they didn't arrive until 9 o'clock. I was left talking to Sarah & Richard Burke and his brother Eamonn, which was awkward. The lads don't like me at all, especially Eamonn. It all stems from our mutual relationship with J___, and for some reason this is embarrassing for him.

The night was dull and boring. I don't want to go back to the Regent for a long, long time. Home at 11. Sarah and Richard were arguing. For a moment I thought I stood a chance, but this prospect faded rapidly. She has a strange choice of boyfriends does Sarah - they are always the same.

Watched Bogart in a film later.

-=-

20170213

Wednesday February 21, 1979

_. Mother thinks that the bath is inflicted by a malignant disease, because a mysterious brown patch is slowly spreading over the previous white enamel.

My new hair goes down well at the YP. Sarah thinks it's gorgeous, and dark, sultry beauties throughout the office are flocking around me as though I'm Christopher Reeve.

Alexandra Bastedo: so beautiful.
Back home Mum says I look hideous and Sue, in a hail of laughter, says the whole family have clubbed together for my birthday to pay for me to fly to the U.S for a face-lift. Swines. They don't realise that at 24 I'm beginning to look haggard and baggy and that I need constant reassurance from family members. I need somebody, every day, to point out that I am a God in trousers, a living Jupiter. Ought I to be contemplating to settling down with a wifey, for a life of companionship? Or should I continue as I am in a life of dissipation? Answer: YES, BLOODY YES.

Ran down to Guiseley Library at 5 and picked up "Mrs Jordan" by Brian Fothergill ~ a biography of William IV's mistress. To bed at 11 after a night in front of the smouldering TV. Alexandra Bastedo is so beautiful. 'The Aphrodite Inheritance', a thriller series set in Cyprus, ended and with it my eight weeks affair with Miss Bastedo.



-=-

20160621

Saturday January 20, 1979

Up for breakfast at 10:30. Lynn is acutely embarrassed ~ quite unlike her really. We sat at Lawn Road watching the snow falling all day.

I wandered out at lunchtime to buy tins of soup. The white stuff came up to my knees. Tonight people are saying it is the worst wintry weather since 1963, or dare I say 1947?

Out to the Shoulder of Mutton and the White Cross with Sue, Pete, Lynn, Dave & Alison. I saw Carole in the Cross, and Alison bumped into Martyn in the Shoulder of M. Carole was a wonderful sight, and when she left she gave me a kiss. What fools we are. Martyn bought us a drink ~ it's his leaving 'do' because he starts a new job in Stockport on Monday.

At 11 we went to the restaurant at White Cross. Joined there by Chippy and his young, schoolgirl girlfriend, Debbie. Ate steak. It was over~cooked. Home at nearly 1am.

After my steak I jogged alone up Thorpe Lane knee deep in snow. Lynn, Dave and Ally came back for coffee but left shortly afterwards. They hadn't really enjoyed the evening. Lynn doesn't see eye to eye with Chippy. Nobody seems to like the poor lad.

Sue and Pete arrived after the others had left & they suggest building a snowman in the garden. This we did. But we got quite carried away and erected an eighteen foot monster, and a headless monster too. Susie got bored and left us at about 3am, and Pete and I called it a night when we could no longer reach the top of our creation, even with a pair of full-sized ladders.

-=-

20160324

Saturday January 13, 1979

Dave (Glynn) and I had breakfast with Sue. Poor Mum is in bed with an upset stomach & so she didn't surface all day. Pale and ghastly.

Dave and I had a little pub crawl in Guiseley. We had one at the Yorkshire Rose where an OAP told us that his Jack Russell terrier is pregnant. A tart in the bar referred to the landlord as "you big fat twat". Yes, a nice, tasteful atmosphere prevailed. We made our way to the incredibly dull Regent and finally, at 2:45pm, onto the Station Hotel.



Snow and ice underfoot was something of a hazard to begin with but the more we drank the more confident we became negotiating the glassy footpaths like John Currie and Robin Cousins.{I suspect both these gents are close friends of Jeremy Thorpe, MP}.

Tonight: to Burley~in~Wharfedale with Dave, Sue & Pete to see Lynn and Dave B. The Bakers both looked as fit as butcher's dogs - especially Lynn who is pink and 'radiating'. We all piled into the Red Lion following a pantomime on ice in the car park there. Boozed solidly until 11 o'clock and then took fish & chips back to Lawn Road . We laughed at the fact that for the purposes of the kitty Dave and I were classed as a 'couple'.

We drank until about 1:30am & then Susie and Pete staggered off to the spare bedroom for a further instalment of the wildest pre~marital experience since Anthony & Cleopatra.

Dave B collapsed onto the sofa and didn't bat an eyelid until after 3 leaving Dave G, Lynn and I singing along to Nat King Cole's greatest hits. Dave B makes a regular habit of slipping into a convenient coma at every available opportunity. He hops off to bed or collapses into a medium sized heap on the carpet. Good old Dave. He thrust a £10 note into my hot, grasping hand when I said I wanted to buy a pair of shoes on Monday. (I shall, of course, let him have it back next week). But isn't it marvellous of him to 'see me right'? A real brother is David Baker, a real brother.

Lynn finally carried her husband off to bed and Dave G and I slept in the lounge (or sitting room depending on how posh you happen to be). It was 3:30am, I think.

-=-

20131114

Monday September 11, 1978

Auntie Eleanor is 51 today, and my cousin Marlene is 33.

Took Dave G to Leeds and he went off in search of the K block at the Polytechnic where he starts a week's catering course dealing with special diets.

Back to the YP and down to earth after the high of the wedding. Mum and Dad came to the office this afternoon with a proof of Lynn & Dave from the photographer Bryan Waite. I handed it over to Fred Willis, who says he'll get it in tomorrow's EP.

Dad says he took some floral displays to the Yorkshire Bank in Guiseley this afternoon. Just how creepy can you possibly get? Just imagine the manager, 'Tammy Wynette' Osborne, dancing among his bank notes with garlands of orchids and gladioli festooned everywhere. Nauseating.

-=-

20131113

Sunday August 27, 1978

14th after Trinity

Jacq and Trixie came to Guiseley this afternoon and we all got horribly pissed in the garden. At one point I was incontinent. Trixie told some very filthy anecdotes and sloshed wine all over her Christian Dior gown and half of Hawksworth Lane for that matter.

By 6pm Dad was unconscious, spread~eagled upon his bed and Jacq was flat out on my bed. I've never seen her in such a state. They left after the full works of a 'Royal Albert' dinner at about 1am.

Dear me, it really was lovely if disgraceful. When Dad pulled round in the evening he left for Lawn Road with Lynn and Dave just to avoid us. ________________________________________.


-=-

Thursday August 24, 1978

St Bartholemew

Nightmare of a day. At about 8 this morning I sprained my ankle, or perhaps twisted it, down in Guiseley whilst going for my bus. I tripped on a crooked pavement and fell through the door of Rhodeses Newsagents shop and landed on a revolving Christmas card display, showering shoppers with cellophane, glitter covered robins, and grotesque Santa Clauses.

Wracked with pain for the rest of the day I staggered about the office to the moronic amusement of my colleagues. What with my arse, and now this.

Jacq dissolved when I told her. She came and collected me with a wheelchair and pushed me across to the Central for a quick anaesthetic. She cried with laughter. The swelling worsened in the afternoon and I had to resort to asking Papa to pick me up at the bus stop to ferry me home.

Reclined in the bath later. Found solace with Lady Chatterley at about 10:30. Dave B accused me harming my own ankle on purpose to avoid working at Lawn Road.

-=-

20130619

Saturday June 10, 1978

Sun rises 04:44 Sun sets 21:16

Birthday of Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh

At 3:30pm I met Jacq in Guiseley and we tracked down John and Maria at Ridgeway. Maria's parents are visiting Hugh in Canada. Jimmy Mac took some photos of me and Jacq and that was the only bit of excitement other than watching JPH attack an ice lolly. Maria was looking tanned but I was told it's painted on. She'd forgotten to do one of her legs. From 4 until after 6 we sat with John, Maria and Pamela Horrocks (nee Moffat). I was bored but the ladies didn't notice my yawns through the blanket of smog and coal dust thrown out by their endless 'assembly line' of cigarettes. Jacq must have had 10.

By 6pm my polluted lungs could take no more and I dragged Jacq back to Pine Tops for sandwiches. At 8pm Jim and Margaret came and after watching 'The Good Life' on the BBC we went with them and Mama and Papa to a barbecue on Carlton Lane (at Penny's Farm?). Alcohol flowed like pig swill. Our party managed to consume most of it. Sue, Pete, Gus and Chippy were there. The food was mediocre but the company was interesting with such old cronies as John Little, Joan Taylor (Kevin's mother), &c. In fact, all the old Silverdale mob appeared. Jacq, Sue, Pete and I were among the last to leave and Mum and Dad tottered out (both really legless) shortly before us. We were in high spirits. We got home safely enough ( I don't know how) and we immediately plugged in the headphones, selected a suitable record and poured out of the lager.

Mum was locked upstairs in the WC for two or three hours (Oh dear) and so Jacq was forced, much against her will, to urinate in our well stocked herbaceous border. How embarrassing. I had to do the same, but on opening the kitchen door I espied the car abandoned on the drive and I was temporarily distracted from the call of nature. It was the car. It had a huge hole in the right hand wing and a considerable amount of paint was missing. Oh no! But who drove home?

It was almost dawn when Mum alighted from her watery throne and she admits the culprit is she, although she cannot recall striking anything. Obviously, it was a dry stone wall. Dad, who had been too pissed, had handed her the car keys.

Mum was soon in floods of tears. Jacq always sees her in this sorry condition.

-=-

20130612

Saturday April 29, 1978

Moon's last quarter 22:02

Sun rises 05:37 Sun sets 20:30

Slept until 12:15pm and then did very little other than swim around in the bath listening to the record player. Dad spent the day hacking in the shrubbery and Mum attempted to persuade me to join him but I resisted.

At about 5:30 - 6 o'clock I walked down to Guiseley and attempted to get a bus to Leeds but failed. I met the small, young YP photographer who'd been to the Guiseley Town football match, and we went for a train which didn't come until 6:30. I collected Jacq at 7.

A couple of Jacq's colleagues from Dacres took us to the Lawnswood Arms where the Dacre, Son and Hartley dinner/dance was under way. We drank, ate and danced until 1am.



Pleasurable it all was. Jacq was wearing the pink number she wore at Pete (Sate's) 21st. One thing's for sure ~ Jacq is very popular with the menfolk. They flock to her like bluebottles in a public convenience, and just stare, open mouthed. Her Cockney accent is a leading hypnotic power. I certainly had the feeling that 2,000 over-sexed estate agents would like to see me beneath the wheels of a West Yorkshire bus.

I got a lift home and sat with Mum, Dad, Sue and Peter arguing about politics ... again. Nason is now a bloody communist.

-=-

20121214

Saturday December 10, 1977

Mum woke me at 7:30. I felt ghastly. Close to death in fact. I was in two minds about whether I should stuff my £2 bus ticket to Manchester and just go back to bed. I didn't. I have splashed curry sauce all over my new trousers. Stood in the bathroom looking at my piteous reflection. I nearly vomited. Oh My God, the Christmas season is upon us again!

Garry Barratt.
Got the 9:30 bus out of Leeds. An uneventful journey. I slept for part of the way. Met Dave at 12 and we began drinking on the spot. By 3pm I'd consumed about seven pints of lager. Dave and the boys bashed about playing billiards or pool or whatever they call it. I wasn't even a bit pissed. I realise how disgusting and horribly working class I sound. I may just as well be a coal miner or sheet metal worker if my social life is anything to go by.

After a meal prepared by the great Lily Glynn we went out to the Armoury in Stockport for 8:30. From here we went with Bill (Wright) and Garry (Barratt) to Rotter's disco ('First there were discos, now there's Rotters', is the slogan). We each had to put a £3 deposit down before the management would let us in the God damn place. I think the poor misguided souls took us for rogues! We did get the money back when we staggered out at 2:00am. We did have a good time. Why can't someone open such a place in Guiseley or immediate vicinity? They'd make a bomb. Oakwood Hall is the closest thing and that's light years away in comparison.

On the way back to Dave's it happened. Yes, I was sick. All my own doing.

-=-

20121122

Friday November 11, 1977

Met Jacqui at 4.45 at the bus station and the weekend began disastrously when the bus broke down and we got caught up in a snow storm. By the time we arrived at Guiseley after 6pm it was so bad we were compelled to seek refuge at the Station Hotel where I phoned for assistance from home and we both had half of lager. I was carrying a pheasant (courtesy of Delia, who did not desire removing it of its feathers and innards) and the bird's beak poked through the polythene bag, dripping blood over the pub carpet.

Dad collected us. He says Mum may have a kidney stone. Dr Mellor says she must shed a stone in weight. Her blood pressure is high. She is pale and ill.

Jacqui.
The rain, snow and gales persist and at 8 Sue, Pete, Janet Simon and Chippy take Jacqui and I to the Fox & Hounds. They then leave the two of us alone and we saw none of the usual Friday night visitors. No Tony, Martyn or 'Piss and Crete'. We had a few at the Fox and then went to see Judith R and Kathryn at the Hare where I became quite pissed. I blame the vivacious Miss Young entirely for my condition. We sat in the Tudor Bar until midnight and then I ran around in the car park with my 'inflated' umbrella until it was smashed to pieces in the high winds. It disintegrated into a warped mass of fractured metal and plastic.

At home the two of us drank 2 bottles of Beaujolais and listened to the record player at a very low volume until about 5am. Nobody could possibly have heard us. Sue and Pete slept on the settee - snoring contentedly - until I had the foresight to awaken them after 3. Poor Pete dashed off home. He's working at 7.30am.

-=-

20120808

Tuesday August 2, 1977

Mum and Dad went to Pamela Nason's 21st (birthday party) with Susan and Peter and I sat at home, quite alone, watching the television. Had a bath at 9 and seriously thought of retiring to bed afterwards, but no. Dave B came up at 10 and dragged me off to the Hare to have a drink with John. I dressed like a madman and we sped down to Menston.

Judith.
John looked pale. He left at about 10.45. Judith was in - looking slender with her hair all curls. Lynn was working, and when the pub was cleared Tim (the manager) bought us a drink. Lynn and David brought Judith, Kathryn and I home for home-brewed beer. We all became a little intoxicated, and when Mum and Dad came in at 2am they said the Nason party was still underway at the Nason residence. An old glint came in my eye and Judith, very like-minded, realised immediately what the outcome would be. 'Let's go down for a few', says I. Lynn escaped to bed. David went home and Kathryn exclaimed: 'it's out of the question'. So just Judith and I went down to Filedhead Road until 5am. ___________. Judith and I sat on the floor drinking gin and tonic and a bottle of Dad's home brew. We didn't say much. Just watched the others. It can be really entertaining at a party wondering just who is related to the woman in the lurex blouse, &c.


-=-

20120527

Wednesday May 18, 1977

A good Spring day combined, sadly, with diarrhoea. A sad sentence to have to compile, but very true.

Marita brought me as far as Rawdon in her mini and when I told her I'd been out with Carole on Thursday she went into raptures saying how perfect we are together and that I haven't looked as happy since May '76.

Tonight Tony and I went out and said that I - for twelve months - had given the appearance of being thoroughly bored by the company and that my face always held a look of far-off expectation. Is all this a big publicity campaign paid for by Carole?

Tony came up at 8.30 and we bumped into Pete Lazenby on Park Road and out of courtesy we accompanied him to Guiseley Working Mens' Club. Nice, cheap lager, but oh the people. Honestly, I'm no snob and no one likes good honest people more than me but the sight of the people therein is ghastly. As though they're hating every minute - just waiting for the sirens to go off summoning then back to the factory floor.

Stone Trough
On to the Stone Trough until 10.30. A completely dead place. Even the juke plays at a whisper. Later Tony comes back home for a cup of tea and egg mayonnaise sandwiches. We discus phases one, two and three and I insist that they were started by the Heath government in 1973.

Janet Land is visiting Lynn.



-=-

20120114

Monday January 3, 1977


Oh Hell. I'm going raving bonkers. I'm sat here crouched on the lounge floor wondering just what to write. I'm worrying about the 1977 holiday. Martyn, Glenn and Dave G are all set in the idea that Ibiza is the place, but Pete and Chris are just dithering about. I'm also pondering on the subject of Miss Lynne Mather. ________. This is the end of our relationship. I can feel it in my bones. Now I know why King Henry VIII had six wives. With some men boredom sets in quite rapidly. King Harry and I would have seen eye to eye on most things I imagine. Would that I had an execution block and a skilled swordsman______.

-==-

20120113

Saturday December 25, 1976


Christmas Day. Wake up at 9.30 or so on Lynn & Sue's bedroom floor. Go for a 'Merry Christmas' session around the house first paying a call on John, who is sat in my bed nursing JPH. Mum and Dad are downstairs and I can hear Maria talking with Lynn and Susan. John says he has recovered from the illness that descended on our house like a plague yesterday. The baby is laughing and gurgling - so fantastic. His first Christmas.
John, Mum, Maria and JPH, Christmas Day, 1976

Meanwhile 10 minutes later: we all gather in the lounge for the present opening ceremony. The baby is amused with the Mickey Mouse brought to him by Santa. I have a black pullover from Sue & Peter, Eau Savage from Lynn & Dave, and the same from Miss Thornton-le-Dale. Mummy and Daddy gave me £5. That's enough present details. It gets monotonous. Late lunch at about 4pm. It is fabulous. A candelabra on the table and Royal Albert china. Posh eh?

Laze around for the rest of the night. See the usual things on TV like Morecambe & Wise and then Rod Steiger in 'Waterloo' and much more. Sleep kept creeping upon me and I frequently passed into unconsciousness in the chair. A lovely Christmas day - but unusual. Probably because John's always been here on Christmas Day and he was round at Molly & Jim's for lunch. Mum keeps mentioning his name as though he's miles away.

-==-

20111121

Tuesday November 23, 1976


Go to the library [Guiseley] with Mama at 7.30 an come home with a book on the wives of the Roman emperors. It's very good and I read 100 pages before midnight. Don't even think about having a bath or anything and by the time I realise what time it is I discover everyone has deserted me and gone off to bed.

-==-

Sunday November 21, 1976


Last after Trinity. Wakened by Mother who brings baby John into my room at 12 o'clock. He slept in her bedroom from 1am until 6.30 this morning and then from 7 until 10. A beautiful, placid and contented child. Breakfast isn't so pleasant though: Lynne is like ice and says few words whilst attacking her sausage, bacon and fried egg. I don't give a damn. It's been a weekend of squabbling and bickering and I can't say that I was particularly thrilled last night. I danced more with Maria than with Lynne, who was dull and so like ________.No doubt it's just an off weekend. She goes at 1pm and at 2 Mum and I take JPH back to John & Maria's where they are just beginning lunch with Lynn & David. They are thrilled to see the little lad after so long a separation. It was the first time J & M had been to a disco since my birthday at Oakwood Hall on April 3!

Home to Pine Tops where Mum, Dad and I watch an old film on the BBC. I keep drifting off to sleep - that is until Mama mentions fish and chips. Within minutes I'm queuing in the November cold at Harry Ramsden's. Later see a David Hemmings/Gayle Hunnicutt film which is quite good and I retire to bed at 11.20 after the thrills and excitement of 'University Challenge' on ITV.

--=--

20101115

Tuesday April 13, 1976


Meet Carole at 6.30 in Guiseley and go to the library where I collect 3 books: 'Queen Anne' by David Green; 'The First Moutnbatten's', and the first of the Palliser novels by Trollope. Walk her to White Cross and then get the bus home. I am bored with her and cannot see the relationship lasting the month out. Being bogged down with the same girl - no matter how nice - is not a situation I rellish, and I need to get out of it soon.

-==-

Sunday March 25, 1984

 Moorhouse Inn British Summer Time begins 3rd Sunday in Lent Bacon sandwiches and the Sunday Telegraph. Fuss about the Queen's visit to ...