Monday May 1, 1978

Bank Holiday (UK) St Philip and St James

Pissed down all day. Jacq, Mum and I had a few May Day cocktails and then at 1pm the two of (Jacq + self) went to the Commercial for a few drinks.

Carol (Shires) got married on Saturday, and we saw Anne (Shires) who is over for the wedding from the USA. Jacq and I discussed love and marriage. She told me the most infuriating thing about me is that she can never tell, or even make a guess, at what I'm thinking . It made me laugh. We were quite frank with each other.

At 3 we must have been slightly drunk because we came back through Esholt Woods and went up the tunnel that runs through the hillside where we played when we were children. Then we walked bare foot in the rain to John's at Silverdale. The place was deserted.

Back home for din dins and later out with Sue and Pete to the Shoulder of Mutton, Cow & Calf, the Malt Shovel (Burley). Chippy, Gus and Dave Wainwright were behaving a little childishly (probably more noticeable because I was more sober than usual). Jacq moaned about our financial situation. Fish and chips finished off the evening.

A couple of hours television. Retired at about 1:30. Jacq slept in the ladies room with my loving sisters.

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Thursday October 6, 1977

Squash with Sarah. I don't ache quite as much as I did last week, but still feel as though it isn't for me. I despise physical exercise and all that goes with it. The sweaty changing rooms, the showers, rowdy young men who can only talk about football. It just isn't Michael Rhodes. But, as I told Tony on the phone on Tuesday,  Sarah and I play squash quite simply for sexual reasons. Yes, the game is over by 7.30 and it gives us three or four hours afterwards to indulge in more normal activities in the lounges of pubs _______.

Sarah: discussed relationships

From the Leisure Centre we went to the Commercial where we sat in a corner and discussed our relationships. She talked about Lynne Mather, and looked me straight in the eye and said: "you had me worried there because I thought you were going to go off and marry her." She told me she could never marry because it would be a crime to inflict herself on some poor man. I said she was talking rot, but she stuck to her guns, adding how "sweet" it was of me to be so nice and understanding. ________.

We saw Annie (Lindley) who said I was paralysed on Saturday. We also had a few words with American Carol (Shires) who told me she is going to marry in May. She looked painfully thin and ill, but was friendly and enquired after the whole family. We came back home for coffee (or was it tea?) at 10.30 and saw David's engagement party photographs. Sarah sat and screamed with laughter at them.

The Duchess of Kent suffered a miscarriage - as expected and is to remain in hospital until early next week. What a damn shame. So the three royal Silver Jubilee babies are reduced to two. Ah well.

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Thursday October 7, 1976

Painting everything in sight until 8.30pm or so. CB rings at 6 o'clock to see if I'm going out on the town. I say no. Not like me at all, is it?

See Frankie Howerd on TV and then have a few drinks with Mum & Dad who come back from the Commercial saying Carol has suddenly returned to the USA without warning. What can have happened between her and Raymond? We did try to warn them about holidaying in Wales. ___________________________________.

Retire to bed....

after supping my lager..... tits...... hanging about in all direction.....shagged ......Precisely, he said, with the end of his fist thrust firmly.....

HRH The Duke of Kent is 41 on Saturday!

Good Old Duke. Edward Nicholas Paul Patrick David George William Bill Ernest Frederick..... or something like that.

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Thursday August 8, 1974

Not very good at the YP. Hear from Mrs Beaumont that she is leaving on September 20. What a change that will be!

Feel sick all day after last night's boozy celebrations at Dave Baker's. Glad that he and Carol (Smith) are back together. Anne and Carol Shires, the girls from way out west, go back to New York today. John didn't even get their address - talk about cool!

Speculation all day abut Richard Nixon, the US president, who won't be with us, or perhaps I should say the Yanks, much longer.

Denny rings at 7 and is slightly peeved when I say I don't really want to go out tonight. You can't really blame me. Being an alcoholic at 19 is a bit much.

Sit now watching the tv waiting for news of the fate of President Nixon. Susan, Peter and myself are like vultures crouched around the telly.

Hear on News at 10 that Nixon is to broadcast to the American people at 2am (our time) and I decide to sit up in an armchair and hear what he has to say. Sit until 1.30 and then fall asleep until 2.35 - so that poor Nixon was talking to himself. Missed him altogether. Had Dad not come in for supper at 2 I would have slept in the chair all night. From the tv I gather that Nixon is to resign his office tomorrow.

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Wednesday August 7, 1974

Tremendous evening. Lynn joins John and myself, or perhaps I should say joins John, Peter Mather, Carol and Anne S, Dave (Bless Him)Baker, and voluptuous Carol Smith down at the Hare and Hounds.

Lynn drinks no alcohol whatsoever, and we move on to the Malt Shovel, then on to Dave's where we go through a bottle of Pernod and a massive bottle of whisky. I drink whisky from a pint glass, and I don't really mind admitting that more than the required limit passed through my person. Stay till about 1.30 - just Lynn, Carol S and Chris and myself then Dave brings us home. Coming through Yeadon at nearly 2am we were stopped by PC Copsey in his cop car who just asked Dave the preliminaries etc. Quite frightening really and it's the first time I've been in a car nabbed by the cops.

Back to Pine Tops where John and Peter M entertain their American friends for the last time. I become slowly more intoxicated until at 2 I stagger upstairs and sleep.


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Sunday August 4, 1974

As I've already said, I woke up at about 10.30 or thereabouts on Auntie Eleanor's lounge floor - not two hundred yards from the house where I was born 19 years ago.

Auntie Eleanor and Uncle Jack seem very unsociable and not very talkative. They don't really speak to poor Neil who is going to Cyrpus or somewhere equally offensive until Christmas at least. Sue and Peter are still in love - after last night, though she still feels very sick. We leave the Myers home at 11.30 after bidding farewell to dear Jackie, my favourite cousin of all time.

Walk to Auntie Hilda's where we drink home brewed beer till after one without having any food at all. Sandwiches with the Gadsbys was quite a laugh, though Uncle Tony departed up a ladder to paint the bedroom windows with the aid of Steve, Karen's boyfriend. Leave for Bradford just after 2 and we are all back at Pine Tops by 4. Mama makes tea for us all - that is Denny, Sue, Peter, Ronnie, Lynn, John, Carol and myself - not forgetting the most important one of all - Uncle "I'm God's annointed" Tony.

To the Hare and Hounds with Denny at 7.30. Carol doesn't speak to John and I fear that Linda must have told her of John's liaison (set for next Wednesday) with his American friend, Carol Shires.


"Rock Your Baby" by George Macrae.

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Sunday July 28, 1974

7th after Trinity. Nice lunch at 1. See 'African Queen' on tv in the afternoon - Katherine Hepburn and Humphrey Bogart. Denny rings at about 5.______________________________.

David went out with Denny, MM, and Marita last night - if I'd have thought about it I'd have asked him, David that is, to accompany us to the Stansfield. Ring Dave at about 8 and he says he can't come out tonight because of a shocking cold.

Go to the Commercial where John and I meet the two Americans, Anne and Carol. Peter takes Anne and John takes the other. MM and Marita bring Denny, and Mum, Dad, Auntie Hilda and Uncle Tony come shortly after. Tremendous evening. Auntie H is a brilliant success really. MM and Marita decide to come with Denny and I to Spain. Me and Den. are going to Marita's on Monday evening to decide the colour scheme for her bedroom. My painting 'Seascape, 1970' is to be the central feature. I'm quite proud. Chris, who I haven't seen much of, along with Christine W and Carol Smith come back for coffee, Bacardi, Martini, etc. Uncle Tony drinks out of the Spanish wine thing brought back from Malgrat. Hilarious night. Go to my bedroom at 1 and sit re-styling the whole place in my mind. Sit in bed waiting for John to come to bed (It's an old tradition that I am always the last to be awake at night). Seeing Marita earlier and discussing decorating with her has given me the urge to re-do my room. The main problem wit this room is the size, which is ridiculously small, and sharing with a younger brother cannot make matters any better. I decide to go Victorian. Glance at Queen Mary and at 2.30 call it a day and switch off the light.

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Saturday July 27, 1974

Work all day - my first full-time Saturday. Leave the YP at 4 and go straight home - completely dog tired on the bus and sleep from Kirkstall to Green Bottom, Guiseley. Strawberries for tea and then leap into the bath.

Peter Mather calls for John at 7.30 and I accompany them as far as Linda's house. John, Pete, Carol and Anne (the American) to to the Cat's Whiskers in York for a very cosy evening, and they are still missing when I retire to bed at 2.30am.

Carol Smith looks gorgeously sexy, wearing a perfect full-length red dress. We sit waiting for the arrival of Chris listening to the 'Band on the Run' LP by Paul McCartney and Wings. Go to several pubs down Apperley Lane before going on to the Stansfield Arms at 9.30. Hell Fire! We didn't get a table until after 11pm! Helen Willis appeared at our table in full capacity as a waitress, and Linda looks daggers at her. She drifted about the restaurant giving shoddy service to one and all, telling everyone in ear-shot that she was 'as pissed as a newt' - which can't have been good for business. Home at nearly 1am and sit with Dad talking about his strange brothers until 2.30 on Sunday morning.

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Friday July 26, 1974

To Hare and Hounds in the evening. John is quite entraptured with Carol Shires, the girl from Ohio. Peter Mather sits rather too close to Carol until we go to the Fox, and from then he devotes his attention to Anne Shires, the better of the two sisters. Don't like the Fox and Hounds really, but Denny likes it, and the crowd fancies a change. All to Wikis at 11 - except Raymond and Jill, who have better things to do. Enjoy it for a change and dance with Denny for quite a while. John and Carol Shires stood in the centre of the dance floor hugging each other tightly until 1.30!! Dance with Sandra, Dave L's sister, who is a very pleasant lady. The crowd seem to think it amusing that I had picked up such mature company. See Helen, who was once the associate of Keith Brown - looking quite gorgeous with her hair styled much shorter, and looking more well-groomed and classy in general. She eventually went with Paddy Saunders. Pete brings us home in the back of his van - Denny and I clowning around much to the disgust of our friends from the American Colonies. Bed at 2.30. Very pleasant day altogether. -=-

Wednesday July 24, 1974

John is becoming quite serious over Carol, the American girl. She goes home next Wednesday. Chris says John is insane pursuing this romance when it has no other option but but to end in a weeks time. How positively unromantic. What can be more heavenly than a few days of blissful love before an eternal separation? Anyway, the Atlantic isn't very wide these days. John can almost afford to spend all his weekends over there. Good luck to them anyway.

Mum and Dad go to the Commercial. I sit with a pernod and orange in front of the tv - see the Queen at the Royal Horse Show. George V Cup and Elizabeth II Cup. The Yanks had the upper hand again. Her Majesty wasn't very cheerful.

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