Sunday January 10, 1982

 1st Sunday after Epiphany

Up at about 10 to hear Dave clomping around in the bedroom singing. They get up ever so early now that Frances is on the scene. We had a large fried breakfast at which I was chief cook. Ally hates frying, and the unpredictable, spitting cooking fat.

The Bakers left at 12:30 to look at a job at Bingley. But first Dave went around the house with a screwdriver. He was under the bed, spreadeagled, adjusting the bolts. He is invaluable to any household. Stuff Black & Decker, I have a Baker.

Afterwards I watched the football on TV and peeled nine and a half pound of Martyr Worthy apples to make seven pints of apple wine. This theraputic exercise took two hours. Ally was upstairs putting bees wax on our Hepplewhite. We are industrious little people.

At 5:30 I watched a late Clark Gable film and then we had steak and kidney pie, or pudding, by candlelight. Last Thursday we gave Mum 'Princess Margaret' by Nigel Dempster, and yesterday Lynn delivered it back for us to read. Mum read it in two days. Spent the day reading about the poor, downtrodden princess. I have always said it was Snowdon who was the first to be 'naughty' in the marriage, and it's refreshing to see him having a spattering of shit for a change. Princess Margaret, we are told, keeps a diary. Now that would make excellent reading, but her writings are not likely to see the light of day in my lifetime.  Bed at 9:45.

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Saturday January 9, 1982

 Full Moon

Sunny, cold, icy. We woke when Lynn phoned. Despite having a cold she and Dave are coming this afternoon.

We made our weekly pilgrimage to John St Market for meat, veg and fish. Home at 3 and Ally had a lasagne bubbling. Lynn and Dave came at 5. [Frances is with Granny at Pine Tops]. We had a few drinks and Dave put the brass handles on our bedroom chest. Blimey, it looks very Hepplewhite now. 

Lynn gave her own highly amusing account of Dave L's annual party. It was a case of 'them and us' with a break-away group gathered in the dining room. Tony Brotherwood, she says, had an engagement party last Saturday.

At 7:30 to the Odeon Cinema to see 'Eye of the Needle'. Poor. After the book it was a great let down. Donald Sutherland played a gawky, gormless 'Needle', and Kate Nelligan the heroine. It cost us £2 each to view the disappointing film. 

Back at 10:30 for lasagne and bed at 12. Lynn and Dave in the bunks.

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Friday January 8, 1982

 Horribly cold again. Snow hindered my arduous journey to the office. Sat on a smoke-filled bus coughing and spluttering with all the regular 40 cig-a-dayers.

YP hideous. Kathleen is so frustrated, we have decided, because she's been sharing a bed with her mother since before Christmas owing to the presence of a dreadful cousin with a heart condition.

Lady Hartwell is dead. The daughter of the brilliant F.E. Smith [Lord Birkenhead] and wife of the Daily Telegraph's proprietor.

Weather news: winter here with a vengeance. In Scotland last night temperatures in some parts fell to minus 27c. The floods in York and Selby have now frozen over and the windsurfing in the Shambles has given way to ice-skating. I know it's a bore to talk about the weather, but the recent blizzards and floods are the worst in living memory and it would be quite wrong for me to ignore them.

The Prince and Princess of Wales are to visit St Gemma's Hospice in Leeds to open a new wing on March 30. I'd like to see Diana in the flesh.

Visited book shops at lunchtime. I'm into Ken Follett at the moment. Home at 6. Bought fish and chips and watched 'The Hound of the Baskerville's' [1939]. Good stuff. 

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Thursday January 7, 1982

 Freezing. Jack Frost does his worst. Ally stayed at home to regain her strength and lounged in bed all morning.  I went off to the YP.

Lord De Clifford, holder of one of England's most ancient peerages [1299 I think] and the last peer to be tried by his peers in the House of Lords [1935], has died aged 74.

Lynn phoned after lunch to say she is now full of cold and postponed our cinema visit by one day to Saturday.

Bumped into Jacq in Leeds and she gave me a 'run down' of Dave L's party. She and Paul will be at Karen's on Jan 30. In town I bought Ally an Agatha Christie novel, just as a new year gift. I phoned her a few times in the afternoon [she had slept all morning] and we whispered and giggled. It's pure love, it really is.

Mum & Dad.

Home at 5. Ally was snuggled down listening to Ella Fitzgerald. We dressed and went over to Guiseley at 7 for a candle-lit dinner with Mum and Dad. They were both pleased with their delayed birthday presents. Dad particularly was in high spirits and is developing his own peculiar eccentricity. Mum was pale and slightly thinner. We left at 11 and drove home in Arctic conditions. Our breath froze on the car windscreen.

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