Wednesday November 19, 1975

Wet day. Much more mild than it's been for a couple of days, and I set off down the lane at great risk of getting a thorough soaking.

Work was quite busy and I work through lunch and 'hold the fort' whilst the girls go on a spree into town. I leave at 3.30 to get Carole a birthday card. Dash across Leeds in the cold and drizzle in order to find her a decent card. Why do birthday cards always have to be slimy and pathetic? I hate sloppy verses.

I am so glad that the Prime Minister is making a firm stand on this devolution subject. It is obvious that he wants nothing to do with it, but has been forced to drop promises here and there from the Queen's Speech in order to pacify the rabid Scottish Nationalists and insane Welsh MPs. This feeble legislation is only making things worse because the devolutionists expected and wanted a good deal more. It will be a grim day indeed when we wake up to find Scotland, Wales, Rutland and Humberside all with individual administrative bodies. I don't mind the Commonwealth going, but I draw the line when matters get closer to home.

Carole rings at 5.30 and I tell her I have bought her a card. Sue, Pete and I walk to her place at 8 o'clock and we sit with her brother, Paul, whilst she tries on her new dress. A beauty it is. Suits her down to the ground, if you'll pardon the pun, and goes well with the new hairstyle.

The four of us go over to the Hare. John and Maria join us, and Sue and Pete leave at 9.30. We have a good laugh really and book a meal in the restaurant for 9 o'clock tomorrow. It will be our first meal out together - alone. We went to Maria's birthday thing in July, but that was a drunken affair when Carole meant little or nothing to me.

We walk up to Harry Ramsden's at 10pm and sit about on a wall discussing marriage, and children's names, of all things. She says that a would-be son of hers would have to be called Michael. I love her and think she is sexy beyond everyone else. Carole gets so jealous over me and CB. I wonder at times whether I am good enough for her. A pure Angel she is, and naive and vulnerable too. ________.


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Tuesday October 29, 1974

Good day at the YP. Carol invites Sarah and I to her 'Bonfire Party' next Tuesday, and I noticed that Sarah was more than insistant on my going along.

Kathleen was on half day and we took it easy this afternoon. A cold day - even worse than yesterday.

Home at 6 for hare and Yorkshire Pudding. Alison looked somewhat startled when she saw the size of my portion of that little, four-legged creature.

Saw the Queen's Speech on TV at about 7 o'clock and I don't think I've seen it televised for some years. Princess Anne looked superb, but suffered a slight mishap in the Mall when her coach and horses became entangled with one another. Subsequently the Princess and Capt Phillips arrived at Westminster before the Queen and the duke. It strikes me that Princess Anne is accident prone. Her Majesty looks perfection itself, though probably a little wrinkled ubder the eyes. The Duke of Edinburgh sat on the Queen's left looking slightly bemused. Other Royals in the Lords numbered about six in all, including the Dukes of Gloucester, the Duke and Duchess of Kent, Lord Snowdon, Princess Alexandra and Earl Mountbatten of Burma, who didn't look at all well. It's nice to see Parliament opened properly, because when it was done last time, in March, none of the regalia wasused, and the Queen wore the same clothes which she adorned herself with at her daughter's wedding.

See TV all evening, including 'Jennie, Lady Randolph Churchill'. Bed at about 11 o'clock and sit reading 'Lord Emsworth and Others'.

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