Monday November 24, 1980

_. To make matters worse I now have diarrhoea which is most inconvenient. Wet. Diarrhoea's wet too. Woke at 8 to hear Mum giving Ally her alarm call and went back to sleep until 10.

Sat in my warm bed reading about Edward VIII's abdication, which reminds me of my own abdication from the YP. Poor Shazzo is alone with Carol at the office amidst all the Yorkshire Ripper chaos and the Italian earthquake. Sarah is with John MacM in London. However, I do not feel fraudulent in any respect because I simply refuse to shit myself in a newspaper office for £55 a week.

Ally phoned and was bubbly. She's carrying on painting tonight. I had a salad for lunch whilst clutching a hot water bottle between my knees at the same time. An odd combination.

News: The Prince of Wales has gone to India for a week or so which might halt Lady Diana speculation, if only briefly. The boy is far too busy to think about becoming engaged. A report in the Daily Mail this morning likens Lady Diana's eyes ~ the colour ~ to those of Elizabeth Taylor. That will do for me.

Stayed in bed until after 3 when I tired of Edward and Wallis and took up Hardy's 'The Trumpet Major'. I haven't read Hardy before. Spoke to Ally twice. Gill had a motoring accident on Friday and might have broken her nose and hurt her knee whilst writing off her car. Bessie is buying Ally a tumble dryer for Christmas. No longer will Club Street resemble a Chinese laundry. Ally is nervous about being alone in Bradford since the latest Ripper murder. She felt the same after Barbara Leach's murder, &c.

What has become of our poor nation? Just seen footage of a demo in London on Saturday by the so-called British Movement. Pre-pubic skinhead yobs. I'd shoot the lot of them.

-=-