Wednesday November 22, 1978

Moon's last quarter 21:24

A very historic and sad day. __________________________________________.

At 3pm Jacq phoned to ask if I want the (signet) ring which I ordered from Trixie. I said yes. She reminded me about all her records and belongings in storage at Pine Tops. ________________.

Watched television. Bed at 12:15.

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Thursday August 17, 1978

Wedding fever is taking it's toll on Mama more than most. This morning with Dad and I at breakfast a very violent discussion took place. ______________________________.

To Otley Hospital at 10 with Dad. He disagreed with Mum's opinion, and was quiet and subdued in the car. I was discharged from the hospital and sent packing with a bundle of anti~septic dressings.

A bright, sunny morning. I arrived at the YP at 11:15. Sarah was in a more endearing mood. She says she and 'Auntie' are coming to see us this evening.

I gave Lynn £15 for a wedding present and went with Dad and Dave to Lawn Road. The place looks more like a home than a building site now, and within a week the place will be ready for habitation. Back home at 9:45. Sarah and Delia didn't appear but 'old faithfuls' Jim and Margaret were knocking back beer and munching on peanuts. We watched 'I, Claudius' on the BBC and sat around until 1am. __________________.

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Monday August 14, 1978

To Otley Hospital with Dad at 9:30 where a nurse removed my stitches. The doctor, however, was far from satisfied, and he gave me a prescription and told me to return on Thursday. I left at 10 with my buttocks encased in a revolting anti-septic bandage which resembled a nappy. I felt like a two-year old.

Mum phoned at 12 to say that Uncle Jack (Myers) died at 1am today. Very sad. He has been suffering so much. ___________. Cousin Jackie visited Auntie Mabel this morning, who was asked by Auntie Eleanor to inform everyone else in the family.

Tonight I went to Lawn Road to scrape old pain from the staircase. A gruesome task indeed. We were joined by George Waite for half an hour or so. He has shaved off his beard and had his hair permed - like mine. Angus King, the YP medical correspondent, has been quizzing me about my hairstyle. I believe I have started a trend at the YP which will take on the proportions of the one caused by the skateboard craze.

Home at 10. After eating salad sandwiches I had a hot bath and re-dressed my gaping wound. It looks really revolting. We are all subdued about Uncle Jack. I do feel for poor Stephen (Myers) who is only 12 or 13 years old. To bed at 12:54am.

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Monday August 7, 1978

Bank Holiday {Scotland}

Very wet, revolting day. Lounged in bed until 11 and then had a bacon and egg sandwich and cup of tea. My rear feels slightly more painful today. Had a hot bath.

Uncle Peter dropped in at lunchtime for a sandwich. At 2 Dad drove me to Otley Hospital. A fat, old doctor with half~moon spectacles took a brief look at my buttocks and told me to come back on Monday next week to have the stitches removed.

Home for 3. Watched the end of a 1940 Jack Benny film and did a little reading. To be quite honest, I'm bored silly just lounging around the house. Jacq phoned to enquire about the state of my bottom.

At 7:30 Delia and Sarah came to see Lynn and Mum about the flowers for the wedding. Sarah thinks I look unwell. She suggests I get a doctor's note and have the rest of the week off. I decide to take tomorrow off, but go back on Wednesday.

Wedding fever is now gripping Pine Tops. Mum and Lynn spent the night chatting about flowers, cakes, cards, and booze. Saw a far~fetched Roger Moore film and retired to bed at 11:30.

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Friday November 4, 1977

Leeds, or Atlantis?

Refused point blank to enter a place of alcoholic liquid consumption this evening. It is my own personal protest at the increasing rate of alcoholism which has taken place in the United Kingdom in recent times. By 1996 the whole of Yorkshire and Humberside will be submerged beneath a vast lake of lager, Beaujolais and Pennine Bitter. Leeds will be a pickled version of Atlantis.

I phoned Chapel Allerton (Hospital) to enquire about Carole and they told me she was back at Otley (Hospital) and so I phoned that obnoxious place where a nurse told me she is still seriously ill and not seeing vast deputations of visitors but if I want I can make an appointment and pay a brief visit when nobody else is in attendance. I'll go on Thursday next week with a box of chocolates or something. I shall always love her even though I find her exasperating and diametrically opposite to everything logical. Love is weird. I wouldn't have believed it possible that a couple with so much love for each other could make such a tragedy of what could have been an everlasting, idyllic relationship.

Tonight I stayed home with Mum and Lynn. Dad was out on constabulary duties until 10. We watched TV until the power workers plunged us into darkness at 11.06pm. Lynn and I sat laughing by candle light and retired to bed, in good spirits, before 12. The electricity was returned in all its glory at midnight and the evil power workers must have been grinning all over their faces at the success of getting 55 million people into bed.

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Saturday December 13, 1975

Carole gives up smoking?

Carole's Auntie Anne had a stroke last night and at 2 o'clock the two of us go to Otley Hospital to see her. The coldest day of the year. We walked through Otley with ice hanging from all our prominent extremities.

Auntie isn't as bad as we thought and she'll probably be out of hospital by Christmas. She is in a private room, and we, the relations and friends, made a terrible racket. Her son, Geoffrey, sat flicking live matches at Carole, and she retaliated by giving a high pitched scream every time a missile struck. Little Paul drank all the patient's Lucozade, and Mrs Phillips sat hurling nothing but abuse at her only daughter. I'm quite positive that we can't have done Auntie Anne much good. The three of us, Geoffrey, Carole and me, left auntie in her smouldering bed at 4pm, and walked into town.

Carole demolished a display in one of the supermarkets and we were forced to make a hasty exit. Back to her place where we collected a few presents to go under our Christmas tree (see below) and then go on to Pine Tops. Lynn and David are erecting the tree in the lounge whilst everyone looks on.

I ate a couple of kippers and Lynn and Dave had scrambled eggs on toast.

Back to Carole's at 7.30 and she gets herself ready to go out. We go across to the Hare where Dave L is in residence. We stand about for an hour or so then we go up to the Craven Heifer where Carole renounces tobacco smoking for ALL TIME!!!???!!!...or so she says anyway. Then up to the Cow and Calf with Peter M. Hear from Carol Smith that ________. I had no idea at all. No wonder ______ has been a bit weird of late.

Arrange with Carole to go on a long walk tomorrow morning. I intend getting up at 7.30am. Will he do it? This is the question on the tip of all your tongues.


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