Saturday February 18, 1984

The lounge bar: carry-out jugs

 Moorhouse Inn, Leeds 11

Sunshine. L. Gledhill was here for 10 o'clock. He breezed in very cheerful and inspiring. I find him an excellent area manager, so far. This is presumptuous of me because my meetings with him have been somewhat limited. He went off warbling about the delights of his visits to provincial France and on his way to buy a William Russell Flint print. I hung up plastic carry-out jugs, and busied myself as pub managers do. John and Janette appeared as 12 which smashed a hole in Ally's planned agenda. The shopping went to cock. Idleness reigned. Drank with J and J and then Michael Brown and his wonderful father joined us. You can see where Brown gets 'it' from. Ally joined us for a martini but kept floating off upstairs. The girls went out shopping at 4 leaving John and I with Samuel for an hour or so. John held his nephew for the first time. He does so miss his own children. I opened up 'early doors' and worked on my own for an hour. John went back to collect Chris Ratcliffe and they came back at 8:30. I felt done in and exhausted and they 'overstayed their welcome' as Ally says, and we didn't get rid of them until almost 2am. They had a guided tour of the cellars, &c. Samuel squealed until dawn. Bless him.

Takings: (B) £201, (L) £155.

--=-

Friday February 17, 1984

 Full Moon

Moorhouse Inn, Leeds LS11

Samuel woke gurgling at 5:30. Now more vociferous, as if he's trying to talk to us. What do they think, these babies? 

Brown.

No time to write a diary, but to stop would kill me. A card arrived from the YP saying my copy neg. of Bessie is ready and so at 3:30 Ally and I went over to the YP to collect it. Saw Penny Falkingham, who never changes. Went upstairs and found Kathleen alone (Sarah is off with one of her heads). Kathleen was busily destroying ancient news cuttings. Her 'auntie' lives hundreds of feet up in the clouds in one of the flats looking down on the Moorhouse. She says she's too busy to call in on us. Eileen Jones and Michael Brown were in the office. Michael says he meets his papa at the Moorhouse every Saturday lunch. Dave Bruce, the idiot, made fun of my haircut and sagging gut.

Back at 5:15. No visit from Oliver Smith. I expect one at any moment. I'm told that he usually drops in on new managers disguised as a vagrant alcoholic. 

News: The Mark Thatcher 'Oman' deal is causing something of a stink. 

Takings: (B) £240 (L) £176.

-=-