Thursday October 4, 1979

_. Up at 8 to find myself in bed in Bradford. Ally is attending a course at Minever House on East Parade in Leeds and so she took me to town in the spitfire. Chaotic traffic. Didn't reach the YP until 9:30. Sarah says: "And where do you think you spent the night?" She'd phoned home to be told by mother that I hadn't been seen since yesterday afternoon.

At 1 o'clock I went to meet Ally on East Parade. She has a £4 parking ticket. Traffic wardens are really the lowest form of life. On to Club Street where a man in a van has arrived from Winchester with furniture including the dreaded piano. Taking in the furniture was a doddle, but the piano not so easy. I kept looking over at the Victorian monstrosity and wincing. We reached deadlock on the doorstep and had it not been for a passing telephone engineer we would never have got it in the house. We also struggled taking a double bed upstairs. We had one drink in the pub across the road before heading back to Pine Tops for 5:30pm.

Maria and the children came to see Mama. Catherine was wonderful, but JPH ill and pale.

Out at 6:30 to Bradford where we joined Sarah and Richard [Burke]  at the Alhambra to see Derek Jacobi in 'Hamlet', by Mr Shakespeare. An incredible, gripping performance which held me ecstatic for over three hours. Afterwards we went into the Vaults pub next to the theatre and found Derek Jacobi and Brenda Bruce [who played Queen Gertrude] propping up the bar.

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Wednesday October 3, 1979

_.Fog. Old Callaghan has suffered a trauma at the Labour party conference. It looks as though Wedgwood Benn will be leader of the mob within the next few weeks. As far as I'm concerned I'll be thrilled to see Benn at the helm because who in God's name will vote Labour in a future general election with that 'fiend' in charge of the party?

Ally and I had a night out tonight because her agenda for the next few days is crowded. First to the Shoulder of Mutton, then the White Cross, then the Drop, and finally Oakwood Hall. The DJ had a bit more about him than the usual stiff. I have decided hereon to drink pils lager, no draught ale. We left at 2:30am. To Club Street.

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Tuesday October 2, 1979

_. To the YP at 5pm. I'd done nothing all day except spend Mum's money at the shops in Guiseley. Just a few purchases but the bill came to over £3. Real bandits aren't they in some of the smaller supermarkets? The owner of Dibb's in Guiseley must be a millionaire.

Mum and Dad came back from Scotland this evening whilst I was at the YP. When I phoned home she expressed horror at the amount of money we had spent on groceries. Susan and I had spent £30 on our weekly shopping. Mum says she spends about £12 on the four of us usually.

The YP was amusing. I dug out a photo of the Chilean Radical party leader Anselmo Sule, and dropped it quite accidentally on Gilberto's desk. He saw it and went off into a rage of abuse. It seems that Senor Sule is not universally loved by the Chilean population. Most Chileans, it seems, prefer to live elsewhere, to inflict their communism and anarchy on other countries.

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Monday October 1, 1979

_. Read in a Sunday newspaper that Sabrina Guinness is to accompany the Prince of Wales to a ball at Wilton House on October 27. Miss Guinness, they say, was recently observed renting a tiara from the royal jewellers. Is this it, perhaps? Is Guinness good for him? Geddit? Are we going to have an Irish Queen? [Well, she's probably a Londoner, but of Irish stock]. The opinion in the office is that she is going to be the one. However, all HRHs affairs follow a similar pattern. We will all be in the dark until an announcement is made by Buckingham Palace and then the balloon will go up.

The revolting 'Horse of the Year Show' dominates the tv every night, driving innocent people to the pubs and restaurants.

[Crossing out] Sorry about that. I don't like crossing out. I was going to say that Maria brought the children to see us this evening, but that wouldn't have been true. We saw nothing of her or the children.

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