Tuesday January 11, 1983

 Our alarm clock pinged at 6:30 but we didn't stir until 7. I climbed down to visit Ally in the bottom bunk. Downstairs on tip toes to avoid waking Mum & Dad. Brewed tea and made toast. 

The specification for our grant for the roof arrived on Friday. It looks complex. I keep taking it out of the envelope and looking at it. Mum is going to give us a hand with it. We'll contact Steve O'Connor for an estimate.

The EP carried my tip on the Dundas engagement. I phoned my contact at Debrett's for the date of birth of Alexander Lascelles, Lord Harewood's heir of line. He told me. 

To Rawdon and my dentist at 5. I've been climbing those stairs there for 16 years. Tortuous. The moustachioed little dental person gave me an X-ray and three fillings and put me through an hour of misery. I was laid back in the chair reciting the order of succession to the throne to myself to take my mind off the goings on in my mouth. I never seem to get past Princess Margarita of Rumania. I left at 6:15 minus £13.

Didn't get home until 7:30. Ally looking dishy in one of my old T-shirts and Mum and Dad, cutlery in hand, like starving Third World people. I have no appetite because of my face ache. A pie, peas, and chips, followed by two large, stiff whiskies. A documentary about Alastair Sim helped to cheer me.

Mum and Dad say they will move on tomorrow. They sign for Waltergarth at 11am.

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Monday January 10, 1983

 Mum and Dad hear from their solicitor that Horton-in-Ribblesdale is going to have road improvements and that a major development is going to take place within 200 yards of Waltergarth over the next 15 years. This is a grievous blow. Mum thinks the current owner of the house knows all about it, and has kept quiet. Well, he would, wouldn't he? Dad rang a county councillor at the local pub there who assured him that nothing serious is going to take place, but they'll have to wait for official confirmation from Northallerton which could take six weeks. You know what bureaucracy is like. 

A frantic day at the YP. Mondays are obscene. Lord Bruce Dundas, youngest son of the Marquess of Zetland, has announced his engagement to Sophie Lascelles, 24, a fourth cousin of Lord Harewood. Her mother is a Baring, and so she's also closely related to the divine Diana. I passed it on to the EP newsdesk, but they didn't do anything about it today. They can be very slow at times. I'm going to keep a record of my tips to Geoff (Hemingway). 

Home at 5:40. Ally and Dad were making a fish pie. We all sat watching tv and then it was back to the bunks. Mum and Dad will have to rename Waltergarth 'The Tarmacs', or something else appropriate to the construction industry.

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Sunday January 9, 1983

 1st Sunday after Epiphany

Out of bed at 10:30 to sausages and eggs and beans and things. We haven't had a proper 'full English' since we were both struck down with food poisoning last summer.  A day of furious industry.

I went outside and cleaned all the windows and swept up the dead leaves on the path. Ally did the house from top to bottom. I told her she gets more like Mrs Ford every day. __________.

I splashed around in a luke-warm bath, and afterwards I set about a geranium plant and hacked it to pieces. Is this intricate description of my mundane every day a toil for you? I know I would dearly love to be able to read of the daily activities of my great-grandfather. All I know about any of my 'greats' is their names, and a few dates of birth and death. It is sad that whole lives have disappeared, unrecorded for posterity, with no details of their Victorian existence. I don't want to go the same way. 

Mum phoned from Skipton to say they are on the way over. They stayed in Settle this weekend and spent today in Horton-in-Ribblesdale inspecting their new home, Waltergarth. They arrived at 5 and we dined at 6. It is strange having lodgers. Our house is so small. We gave them our bedroom and slept in the bunks, both in the bottom one, until about 4am when I climed up to the top. Mum and Dad are really ready to move now and want to be in Horton by next week.

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