Sunday August 26, 1979

_. 11th Sunday after Trinity

A beautiful hot day. The sun shone as though it might be summer. After a late breakfast it was down the lane to the Plough Inn for a lunchtime session. Midge, the landlady, looks even more like Ronnie Barker in drag, with her new hair do. Tony, her son, tells me that Earl Mountbatten has a 25 year-old girlfriend known only as Mary-Lou, who lives on the Broadlands estate in a 'grace and favour' cottage. I dispute this saying she must be a girlfriend of one of the grandsons, but he [Tony], resident in Romsey for years, says he knows full well what is going on.

At 2 Ally and I had a long walk by the River Itchen, and the scene was a romantic one. However, the constant sound of pounding water gave us the urge to create floods of our own, and we hurried back to the loo at Chillandham Cross over the meadows.

Luncheon consisted of prawn cocktail, roast turkey, late at 4pm, with Ally and Mr & Mrs D. Andrew was out playing cricket.

Graham [Smith] and Charlotte called in later. Back to the Plough until 2am. Locked in the lounge bar with Tony [who must be about 7ft tall]. We drank that Greek drink from Greece ~ Ouzo. Vomit on the way home at 2am followed by severe hiccoughs. I sat reading the Sunday Telegraph in bed, which eased the bilious attack and focused by bleary eyes. William Douglas Home's extracts from his forthcoming autobiography are very good.

Puzzled by a comment from one of Tony's friends who told us that his own mother lusts after him. Incest rearing its ugly head in Hampshire.

-=-

Monday September 15, 1975

A pleasant evening at Miss Maria Macdonald's. John went round at about 8pm and I wallowed in the bath until about 8.20. Mum was at the Commercial & Dad was working and so I was the only one at home.

David came at 8.30 and we had a drink of Ouzo. (By the way, Sarah came back from Corfu bringing me a bottle of the local poison called Ouzo, which is what me and David tried to pollish off). Round at 'George's' Carole was sitting dressed up in Mrs M's pre-war gear - fox fur stole included, and her eye was swollen. Whilst the girls were playing around we rigged up the tape recorder to capture Maria's playing (the piano) forever on record. Mrs M was in stitches, and we hid the microphone in a vase of flowers.

At 10pm the five of us went down to the Commercial for a quick one. Carole bought a round of drinks and wouldn't let me pay. Even Dad came in at about 10.15 straight from work and we all sat together near the fruit machine talking about, of all things, religion. David was reckoning to hate Roman Catholics.

Back to 'George's' until after 12 and I tried in vain to find a track from an LP which Jimmy played for us on his birthday.

John came straight home from the Commercial because he was tired, and when I arrived home he was sleeping like a baby.

-==-

To be continued.