Saturday February 21, 1987

 Moorhouse Inn, Leeds LS11 5NQ

Margaret Rushton, our absentee barmaid, graced our abode with her presence at luncheon. Her mother is flat out in Killingbeck Hospital weighing in at 4st 7lb. Curtains it seems. Grey-faced Margaret's days are also numbered. We cannot cope with unreliability. Here's a little vignette from Bill Gilmore, a former Scots Guardsman with a large red nose. Someone said to him that perhaps Leeds Utd might win the coming FA Cup. "If Queen Anne had bollocks, she'd be t'King", he quipped. Quite excellent. Ally  and Samuel cleaned the car. I cleaned the beer lines. Ate mounds of liver and onions. Just Ally and I tonight. It was good to see Bernadette McCarron back on form. Ally is delicious. We enjoy the intimate 'staffless' weekends. Poor President Reagan is heading for another Watergate. Poor old sod.

This is piquant. The Princess of Wales has asked for a souvenir of her childhood - a grubby window with 500 telephone numbers written on the frame- to be sent to her at Kensington Palace. The old sash window, with four panes of frosted glass, was found at her birthplace, Park House, Sandringham. Mr Frank Chapman, the site agent, said the Princess told him that she had written some of the numbers and would like to have the window as a keepsake because it brought back happy memories. The window was removed from the telephone room at the rambling Victorian house when it was being converted into a hotel for the disabled  at a cost of £1,500,000. The numbers scrawled in pencil, include the chimney sweep, the hairdresser, the laundry, the fishmonger, the Princess's old school, and Sandringham House. Mr Chapman said: "I've also shown the Queen, the Duke of Edinburgh and Prince Charles round. The Queen likes it very much. She felt it was ideal for the disabled. The Queen, who gave the house to the Leonard Cheshire Foundation, will open on July 31. Dennis Maiden, chairman of the management committee said: "It's the only hotel of its kind in Britain. Obviously, because it's Princess Diana's birthplace, it will be a big attraction." The room in which the princess was born has been turned into a double bedroom. Her nursery has been converted into two single rooms. ....

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