4th Sunday after Easter
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| William and nanny. |
Royal news: Watched the BBC and ITV coverage of the royal tour of New Zealand. Saw Prince William arriving at Gatwick with his nanny. The boy is always barefoot.
Roasted a chicken and the usual oddments and we ate at 7. An evening of continuing idleness. Watched 'Brideshead Revisited' on Channel 4 which was amusing. The drunk scenes are exceptional. Saw Glenda Jackson (a future Dame Glenda) and Walter Matthau in a romantic film which was good.
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We stayed in bed until about 9:30 when we heard Steve O'Connor's ladder banging against the wall and then heard him up upon the roof. We breakfasted on eggs and bacon and lashings of coffee. I went out and bought a Daily Telegraph but it contained nothing of great worth.
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| True: Spandau Ballet |
Ally says what a beautiful evening we had last night. I had a trout and she a piece of veal in a mushroom sauce, but washed down with a wine not as good as the wine we 'brew'. The dinner cost a mere £13 and we came away happy and relaxed.
We walked to town and bought food and the Spandau Ballet LP 'True'. Excellent. Later: Terry Wogan, 'Dynasty', and five minutes of the film 'Shaft'. Went to bed and found sleep almost immediately.
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Steve O'Connor was here for a few hours and then succumbed to the call of the Second West. I suppose he spent some time looking down on that establishment from the lofty heights of our roof. A temptation that would weaken even the most strong willed person. Later the fitters came from Kitchen Studios and replaced our sink - the third in six months. The enamel is now banished and replaced by a stainless steel sink which doesn't look bad and will not chip or scratch. I took down an old book, which I don't recall looking at previously, of the Plantagenet monarchs from Richard II. This era is all very vague to me and I am ashamed to say I cannot tell you which order the different Edwards and Henrys came. I am OK from Edward IV onwards.
Royal News: The royal tour of Australia ended today and the Prince and Princess of Wales have gone on to the Bahamas to holiday for 10 days with the Romseys, I suspect. It's been a triumph for the princess and the shyness and pink flushes have gone. Ally and I both agree that the princess will return to London pregnant, and another infant prince will be born by next February. On the subject of progency I do hope to give myself an heir shortly. You, dear reader, have waited very patiently for almost two years and I have said very little on the subject, but be assured we have been trying. The signs are that this is it.
We went out at 8 and dined at Mama Mia's Pizzeria on Manningham Lane.
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Steve O'Connor and a man in a pom pom hat came at 7:30 and started stripping the roof and throwing the debris down onto the ground. I sat at my typewriter listening to the crashing. The weather was foul and they went over the road to the Second West for the afternoon leaving rolls of felt and a sweeping brush on the roof. Ally came home and looked at the roof in horror, but I was assured by Mr O'Connor that the rain will not come in. We went across to the Co-op and spent £12 on a few vital provisions. We ate funny pieces of fish in sauce out of plastic bags, and feel ashamed for this weakening for convenience foods, which are in fact most inconvenient. The plastic bags proved difficult to open and I showered parsley sauce all over the kitchen.
I despatched a birthday card to Valley Rd Pudsey for Jill, who is 21 tomorrow. __________. I also sent John a list of family birthdays and anniversaries, because he always forgets them. In some respects John has a perfect memory. He can tell you the day that Rod Stewart's 'Maggie May' reached number one, and so why can he not remember the birthday of a niece?
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Full Moon
I played at Mrs Mopp and went about the house with brushes and cloths. I gave the piano a polish and dusted Augustus and Ocatvius the pot dogs. We have a dispute about Octavius because Ally seems to think he started off with another name. I know for certain they have these names because they are named after two of the sons of King George III.
When Ally came home we both went out to the fish and chip shop where a nauseating OAP in a Gannex raincoat jumped the queue in front of us. I suppose that he thinks that because he was at Dunkirk he has the right of priority over us. In an fish and chip shop queue I wouldn't even give precedence to the Duke of Edinburgh. We ate like something from a jungle scene and collapsed afterwards. 'Coronation Street' and 'Dallas'. To bed after the news. With volumes, but we don't read.
The Telegraph & Argus had an advert for a barman and I phoned but the landlord told me the vacancy had been filled. It was a pub on Little Horton Lane wherever that is.
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Boiled eggs. Further doubt about the authenticity of the Hitler Diaries. I thought so.
Steve O'Connor returned at 8 confused about when he is starting here. I walked Ally to the AHA and bought a Daily Telegraph on Duckworth Lane. A girl passing in a car smiled at me and I recognised her as the girl who worked at WH Smiths and went out with Peter Mather in '77 and was also an escort of Tony's. What was her name? It is reassuring to know that after six years I am still recognizable.
I changed the festering bed and then did some washing and put it out on the line. Mrs O'Brien was doing likewise and we smiled at each other over the wall whilst clutching our damp underwear. (That doesn't sound as perhaps it should). Our other neighbour Mrs Greenwood is home from hospital and still with us and battling on. She is visited by several nurses and I suspect she is confined to bed. No. 6 Club Street is up for sale and I phoned Whitegates who tell me it's on the market for £9,950. It is nowhere near as 'well appointed' as ours. Ally pleased at this. Our place must be worth about £10,000.
Sarah has sent me a list of Knights of the Garter so created since the Queen's accession. She has made 41 appoinments to the order in 31 years.
Ally phoned at 11 and laughed at my washer woman activities. I told her that our red pyjamas from Ios are now flapping on the line.
Later I cooked and we sat watching the rain and listening to the thunder and flashes of lightning.
News: The British Leyland strike is over after 5 weeks. The CBI says we are on the road to recovery, or at least Sir James Cleminson does. Garden gnomes are banned from Chelsea Flower Show because they lower the tone. Good thing too.
Later eagerly awaiting the start of the Marilyn Monroe film 'The Seven Year Itch'. An excellent comedy. Bessie phoned. Graham, Gill and Tara the dog are going there for the weekend. We had a glass of elderberry wine with lemonade and so ends this twenty sixth day of April in the Year of Our Lord Nineteen Hundred and Eighty Three.
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A wet, dismal day to begin with but a bright afternoon and evening. Ally left and Steve O'Connor was here at 9:10 to strip the roof, but I hadn't notified the Housing Department and so he went away arranging to begin the task on Thursday. He asked me if I am related to Malcolm Rhodes, the infamous Lidget Green 'head banger'. Thankfully not. ________.
Later I went to town on foot and saw the man at Kitchen Studios. They are coming with yet another new sink on Thursday or Friday. Came home at 4 minus £5 with nothing to show for it.
Royal news: an idiot on the TV is saying that Prince William is overweight. These so-called child experts know nothing. We saw the news and the young prince crawling on the lawn at Government House, New Zealand where the Prince and Princess of Wales are carying out engagements until the weekend. Afterwards they go on to the Bahamas for a ten day holiday whilst Prince William returns to London with Barbara Barnes. The baby seems to have tremendous spirit. What a life he has mapped out before him.
I had food on the table for starving Ally when she alighted from her bus at 5:10. A blind man with his guide dog got off the bus at the same time. Ate fish fingers. I attempted to insert a film into the Olympus Trip camera and got into difficulties and phoned Dave B. He sounded to be down in the dumps and I came away none the wiser.
Peter Adamson who plays Len Fairclough on Coronation Street has been remanded on bail on two charges of indecent assault. Watched 'Brass' and 'Panorama' which dwelt upon the US involvement in Nicaragua, followed by the news and a Lana Turner film. This saw us safely through until 11.
To bed. Don't read. Sleep.
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Moorhouse Inn, Leeds, &c Still dull outside. Who cares? Our alarm clock is on the blink and refuses to sound off. Samuel laid patiently...
