Saturday July 12, 1980

_. Bank Holiday in Ireland - a day may be given in lieu

Up at 9. A hot bath. Breakfasted with Mum and Dad. Ally came at 11 and carried me off to York, that seething, crumbling hole of a city. Graham and Charlotte are not drunks, like some people I know, and so we had only the one drink in a very busy pub packed with Japanese and West Germans, weighed down with cameras and bags crammed with cheap British goods. It may have been a splendid place in the eighteenth century, but the advent of the motor car has killed any desirability. Shopped all afternoon, and bought Sue a camera for her 21st. Graham dragged Charlotte away to the National Railway Museum, and Ally and I returned to Club St. They joined us at 6 and we had a large dinner, steak, salad, strawberries, cream, cheese and biscuits, washed down with Graham's wine. We afterwards played a dreadful board game, the name of which sounds chinese [Mahjong].

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