Friday November 5, 1982

 Heavy rain. Lots of snotty nosed children will be wailing tonight when bonfire parties are cancelled. [Kathleen took a half day yesterday to go 'chumping for firewood'. She is 39 in three weeks]. 

Phoned Mama. They're considering going away on Sunday. John is spending the weekend in Scotland. Randy bugger.

Home, wet at 6:45, after squabbling with Malcolm Barker. [Obviously, we didn't squabble as such. He did the squabbling whilst I knelt at his feet sucking upon his toes], on the subject of the TUC Transport 'day of action' planned for Monday. Did Len Murray ever say 'not a wheel will turn in Britain on November 8'? If he did, I couldn't find it in the cuttings files. Malcolm, with eyes bulging, demanded very loudly that I put this cutting on his desk on Monday. He'll have a long wait. 

Dave G phoned. He may be coming next week with the lads. He's taking Lily to Tenerife on Nov 16 where he says he hopes to meet a frustrated Blackpool landlady.

Took off my [illegible] and made pancakes for tomorrows  seafood pancake course. A peculiar sight it must have been. Ally made a chocolate gateau. 

Watched an excellent film at 10. 'Harold and Maud'. I'd seen it before. Bed. Fireworks. 

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Thursday November 4, 1982

 The leaves are gone. Only last week we ate breakfast watching the birds on the ash tree full of golden leaves, but today the branches stand bare.

YP insignificant. Spent my lunch hour at the market buying aubergines and peppers for Saturday's dinner spectacular. Home at 6 to roast breast of lamb and jacket potatoes. Top of the Pops was followed by that dreadful series Tenko, full of sweaty, old menopausal women in a Japanese labour camp. Like Emmerdale Farm in a heatwave. Ally seems to like it. Definitely a womans sort of programme. We sat with the curtains open all evening to deter little mischief makers. If it was only young glue-sniffing hooligans I wouldn't mind. Mary is holding court again for her leech-like Tupperware ladies. Miss Moore is like Lady Londonderry -  a great hostess. [Not the present Lady Londonderry. I'm going back a bit].

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Wednesday November 3, 1982

 Graham, now the contented father, is twenty seven today. Ally spoke to her mum who told her that Matthew is quiet, blonde, and quite unlike anything or anyone in the Dixon family. Bessie bumped into Midge in Winchester who told her that Tony is to be a godfather. Will perhaps the babe be dipped at Christmas so enabling Ally and I to attend? 

The State Opening of Parliament this morning. The Queen was accompanied by the P. & Pcess of Wales. Philip is in Japan. The tv coverage is abysmal. Saw three news bulletins which showed little or none of the pageantry. Seal culling is aparently more important. Diana was wearing the Spencer diadem. Has Raine relinquished it? The speech wasn't up to much and the pundits say we'll be flocking to the polls before Her Majesty is in ermine again.

Jacq phoned this afternoon, after I'd been soaked to the skin in a downpour at lunchtime, and asked if she could come to dinner on Nov 11. Told the two newsdesks that the Archbishop of York's son has married a divorcée by the name of Monica Malone. Cosmo Gordon Lang would not have liked this. Mum has been to Sue's again. She is having a 'check up' at Otley tomorrow.

USA elections: Ronald [Reagan] isn't doing too badly and may stand again in '84. He'll be the first octogenarian president if so. [Quite impossbible, for after 2 terms he'll only be 78 - Ed]. 

News: Viscount Linley is 21. King Vidor is dead. King Umberto wants to return to Italy to die - he was exiled in 1946.

Home at 6. We have a new kitchen sink. Ally [clutching the vacuum cleaner] was fuming at the workmen. They left such a mess. We had a shepherd's pie and watched tv. Ally cleaned the kitchen. Bed after 10:30.

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Tuesday November 2, 1982

 Election Day, U.S.A

Phoned Dave Middleton who said he'd bring us a new sink tomorrow. 

I really should curtail my drinking. I can recall very little of what happened at Mary's party and evidently my 'Jekyll & Hyde goes to Morley' routine has given Ally some heartache. I am thoroughly ashamed of myself and will do everything in my power not to upset Ally again. She doesn't deserve such shoddy treatment.

YP sensations: Kathleen scampered in at 8:40 today and told Sarah she was making her deputy librarian in readiness for Kathleen's proposed retirement in circa 1987. Sarah doesn't want to do a librarian course but feels she must. What would happen if an outsider was brought in instead?

This evening we sat eating sandwiches watching the new Channel 4. Much of it looks very dull. The Princess of Wales was on the news opening something - a new wing on a hospital for the blind, I think. The girl is such a charmer. She has everything of the Queen Mother about her and her laugh is deep and hearty. The prince couldn't have picked a better bride. Rumour has it that HM is going to Althorp next week. I only hope she won't be RAINED off!

Up to bed after 10.

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Monday November 1, 1982

 Ally in a black mood ____________. I went to Austick's at lunchtime to look for the Molly Keane book which almost won the Booker Prize last year but couldn't find it. Petal wants it in hard back for Christmas.

Read in one of the Sunday papers that Audrey Whiting [the royal expert who always gets it wrong] that Prince William will not be going to the colonies with of P of Ws next year. Audrey says the Queen has won the battle to keep the child at home. I never believe anything dear Audrey says and although I'd like to think of the infant prince spending his first Spring among the daffodils at Windsor I am now firmly convinced he'll be cradling at Alice Springs. Queen Mary would never have tolerated it.

Home for chicken stew and dumplings. Exquisite. Ally has bought a flying pelican for Matthew and two baby grows. ________. We sat brooding in front of Coronation Street. Mum and Dad visited Sue this morning and gave her a hand. Dad seems to spend his days pushing Christopher's pram around Guiseley.

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