Sunday April 30, 1978

5th Sunday after Easter

Rogation Sunday

A wet and windy day. Jacq came after luncheon in the monsoon that ravaged and intimidated the locality today. Mum and Dad were visiting Mexborough. Sue and Pete were playing squash at Shipley, and of course Lynn & Dave were at Burley ~ and so just the two of us at home.

We watched a film starring Robert Donat followed by one starring George Cole. I fell into a coma while Jacq watched the BBC drama 'Lorna Doone'.

Lynn and Dave returned for tea and the four of us had salad (minus the mayonnaise) which made me shed tears for the millions of desperate rabbits who, every day, have to devour tons of ghastly lettuce without the benefit of that all-smothering liquid commonly called salad cream. No bloody wonder our furry, buck teethed friends pack up and die after six or seven miserable years.

Tonight we watched the first in a series on the Plantagenet kings which began with King Henry II and Eleanor of Aquitaine. I enjoyed it, if nobody else did. Later on BBC2 saw a documentary on Jessica Mitford, Lord Redesdale's rebel daughter, which was excellent. Her sisters are Unity (deceased playmate of Hitler), Nancy (the authoress), Deborah (Duchess of Devonshire) and an obscure Pamela.

Bed at 1am - ish. Read a bit of Pepys.

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Tuesday October 26, 1976

Leave the office at 4 o'clock thoroughly pissed off. Salad for tea, which is thoroughly boring, but Mum does her best with it. I have never enjoyed a salad. Soggy lettuce and a bashed up old tomato - crap.

Tony comes up at 8 and the two of us go down to Ilkley to meet Stuart. To the Black Horse at Askwith and then on to the Black Bull at Otley. They like the Black Bull - it's the first time either of them have been. Discuss age and Tony thinks I'm implying that he's an old boy. I never class him as being of a different generation. He bloody well isn't, that's why. Eight years is no real gap. Up to the Hare & Hounds where Tony is in a trance at the sight of 'Winifred', who has him under some sort of spell. They say she closely resembles the late Miss Akroyd or 'Fanny' as she's affectionately known to the millions of W.H.Smith employees throughout the country. Home at 11. Some talk of a party in Manchester on Saturday. I don't know what to think about it. Even talk of going to Old Trafford in the afternoon! Christ! Anything for a bloody laugh.

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