Friday February 14, 1986

 Moorhouse Inn, Leeds LS11 5NQ

Valentine's Day

Very cold morn. Bradford always is cold though. It could be tropical in Leeds. St. Valentine. Dear old Reg Scott, on his last legs, is celebrating his birthday, as is Muriel Rawnsley. What a prodigious memory I have. We were back at the Moorhouse for 10. Stock take with Rob Young. He gave the Kennedys a £17 deficit. They have passed a quiet, uneventful week. Mrs Kennedy it seems wore the same bottle-green flying suit every afternoon and night. She was unpopular with the customers. They were snatching glasses from the customers and ejecting them into the street at 10:45 every night. 

LG called in on them last Tuesday for no particular reason. We are having a quiz here on February 26 v. the Brown Hare at Harehills. I have a note informing me that I have a driving test next Wednesday at 9am. 

At 4:50 we were at the doctors. Samuel has a cold again. We saw Dr Danks, who made him giggle. 

Tonight Marlene and Frank came in at 9:30. Apparently, Mark is working for Telecom, only a stones throw away. He came in at 10 o'clock for half an hour or so. They haven't been here since May. The pub was busy. Obviously, all the customers are coming back in to see me.

-=-

Thursday February 13, 1986

 Chillandham Cross, Itchen Abbas SO21 1AS

Ally and Bessie just don't get on at all. For a few days together they are OK but a week is far too much. They almost came to blows today, and it was very snappy over breakfast. Bessie even told me to stop bashing her china around. I am usually exempt from B's attacks. Ally didn't speak all day because she didn't want to put her foot in it.

Frank gets out of bed at a ridiculously early hour every morning and wakes Samuel in the process, and so we feel that this holiday has been more tiring than life at the Moorhouse. We were up at 8am and sat watching a video of 'Quo Vadis?' from last night. It's in three segments.. Ally was in the bath and then packed and didn't appear until 11 or so. Samuel went to bed for an hour and we left at 1 o'clock. 

Back at Club Street and peace. We really should have come here for a week instead of traipsing off south. Winchester has had it. It's time they came up here to see us instead. We watched the end of 'Quo Vadis?' and then all slept together in the big bed. Very cold here. Snow etc.

-=-

Wednesday February 12, 1986

 Chillandham Cross, Itchen Abbas SO21 1AH

Ash Wednesday

Breakfast was awful. The atmosphere very bad. Ally and Bessie just rub each other up the wrong way. We went out to Winchester when Samuel had his afternoon nap. We went to a travel agent and Ally borrowed a video of the island of Lesbos where, for some reason, she would like to holiday. I have always imagined Lesbos to be crowded with butch ladies in deer stalkers, plus fours and monocles. Those ghastly feminist types with more beard growth than George Michael. In fact the island seems peaceful and suitable for small babies. We would like a foreign holiday in May or June '87 when baby will be 9 or 10 months old. ______. We went to the Old Vine to see Graham and his brother-in-law Michael Lynn, who works for the Hampshire Chronicle. Graham is en route to Leeds, would you believe, where he is to meet the adonis Anthony Browne, who makes Oscar Wilde look like a brickie. 

-=-