Monday October 6, 1975

A nice autumn day. Work was quite busy, and will be so for about a week because Kathleen is on holiday. Nothing astounding in the news other than Ireland again.

Home at 5.20 as usual, and bump into old Harry Monkman from next door. He asks me about John's party and wants to know whether I heard him banging on the wall at 3am. I say 'no' and he raises his eyes to the heavens and says: "I still haven't got over it." The mean people we meet in life are really too numerous to mention other than to say he (Monkman) is one of the leading "meanies" alive at the moment. An unreasonable old gent.

Today is the fifth anniversary of our living at Pine Tops. Now that Mum and Dad have gone off the idea of a brewery owned pub I think we shall be in a Free House by this time next year. Dad, for one, is becoming increasingly impatient with his job and cannot be expected to do a decent days work whilst feeling the way he does. It is unfair to the police force just as much as it is unfair to him.

Carole rang at 7.30 and I had to laugh at her. She said she had skipped all the way to the phone box wearing her newv woolly mittens. Feeling devilish and wicked she had also attacked one of our innocent feline friends with a half-brick! Her sweetness is so endearing.

Spend a quiet evening. Jump into the bath at 9.20 after the news, and come down for a snack at 10.30. They all drift off to bed and leave me watching a Barbara Stanwyck film. Retire at 12.05am.

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