Sunday September 19, 1976

14th after Trinity. No news from Maria. The poor little baby must be tired of waiting. It is nine or ten days late now. Will he/she come on John's 20th birthday next Saturday? Wouldn't it be great? [All say 'yes, Michael'].

All day painting my bedroom. That is 12 noon until 8.30. Dark green walls, pale green door, window, and radiator, &c. It looks smashing.

Watch John Cleese in 'Fawlty Towers' and then Richard Attenborough in '10 Rillington Place' - a film about John Christie and Timothy Evans. Good film but a ghastly story really. Lynn was frightened to death.

Sleep on a camp bed in the lounge for the fifth night in succession. Reading 'The Beatles' until after 1.30.

The Sunday papers are full of Davina Sheffield again. The future Queen returned to London from the outer Hebrides this afternoon and was met by a mob of 200 press photographers. Her future Majesty then bolted into a public convenience and remained concealed for 30 minutes until a young policeman managed to procure her escape. Everyone seems hell bent on marrying the prince & Miss Sheffield.

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Saturday September 18, 1976

Spend all day with Dad in my bedroom hanging [wall]paper. Peter N joins us after lunch and we manage to get most of it done by the evening. Poor Dad is in one hell of a state. The threatened closure of Guiseley Police Station is driving him to the brink of insanity. On Wednesday he is to have a personal inteview with the Fuhrer [Ronald Gregory, Chief Constable of West Yorkshire] and the outcome of the meeting could decide Dad's future in the police force.

Out with Susan & Peter to the Hare & Hounds. Christine Dibb comes in with her ear-ringed boyfriend but leave after an hour or so. Carole is entertaining the boy [Peter] Fogarty at the opposite end of the bar and no convsersation takes place at all. They go too. CB arrives and we have a few laughs. Sue & Pete go off to the Menston Arms and come back and collect me at 11 after leaving me alone with CB for an hour. We chatted about times gone by, as we always do, and when Peter came in she went off to the tap room to get a lift to Oakwood Hall with one of the bar staff. A right girl is our CB!

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Sunday September 5, 1976

12th after Trinity. Out of bed at midday for a cooked breakfast with the Mather family [except Donald, who is decorating]. Horror of Horrors! I smashed a rare Meissen plate when I dropped a half-ton butter dish onto it. Mrs M laughs it off but I feel terrible. I never break anything at home. I also accidentally knocked Peter's electric razor off a dresser, showering particles & bristles all over the kitchen.

Lynne and I then creep away to the Cayley Arms. Talk about things. We don't like Jane, and neither does Donald & Vera. I say how much I like her parents - which isn't crawling - but quite sincere. Only us in the pub, which isn't very nice, and so we go for a drive round for an hour or so. Bright sun. We laugh at the sight of a massive 18 stone woman astride a tiny, pathetic, crippled pony, which seems to be dying beneath the weight. Lynne wants to contact the NSPCC or something. Isn't that for cats?

Back to Ty-Onnen for hilarious lunch and then settle down to watch 'Cromwell' starring Richard Harris and with Alec Guinness as the martyred monarch. Retire to bed at midnight after cuccumber sandwiches and Tchaikovsky's 'Swan Lake' on the record player. Listening to Lynne and her father discussing work over supper I realise how terribly ambitious she is. I don't like ambition one bit. I tend to think people become eaten away by it and finish up like Hitler.

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Saturday August 28, 1976

Up at 8.30am!! Planned to see CB but changed my mind over a cup of tea. Go up to see Mama, and she sends me to Dr Ludlow to get some tablets for her pathetic back [ache]. I also go to the library and get a pile of books to entertain her while she's bedridden.

Home at 12.30 and go straight out again. This time with Dad to Morrison's. Do the week's shopping and after lunch the two of us go down to 69 Silverdale Dr where we get on with the decorating. I rub down and sandpaper the lounge window and undercoat it. John comes in just as we are leaving to inspect our efforts. He stands around like the 1st Duke of Marlborough watching the progress of the building of Blenheim Palace.

Home at 7o'clock and after a hurried bath I go down to the Hare with Lynn & David. Lynn sitting on my knee in the [Triumph] Spitfire. See Judith and Kathryn and they have people in stitches with their quick flowing repartee and humorous chit-chat. CB and I go into the tap room and ring to book a taxi to collect us from the 'Upstairs, Downstairs' disco at the Stoney Lea. She gets pissed and tells me that she wants to go to bed with me. She always says that when I'm involved with another woman.

Tony and his 'latest' [girl] from Hertfordshire come in to the Hare at 10 o'clock, and they take CB, Carol Smith and me to the British Legion in Ilkley where we pass a hysterical hour waiting for Martyn. Up to the Stoney Lea at midnight with Martyn, CB and Carol S in a taxi, and don't remember all that much about the next couple of hours. CB and I are together all the time, and I feel revoltingly guilty, deceitful and unpleasant. I bet Lynn and Dave have something to say in the morning because I had the distinct feeling that disaproving glances were coming my way.

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Wednesday April 30, 1975

Feel much better today but am not too happy yet about my throat. My nose is clear, but I fear the contamination will creep down to my chest. It always does.

Good day really - Kathleen was off again - she always is lately, and I must admit that the atmosphere is a lot better without her dashing around finding unnecessary jobs for everyone to do. These women will do absolutely anything to get out of taking life at a leisurely pace.

Home at 5.20 to find Mama preparing the lounge for the coming onslaught of dust-sheets and paint cans. After tea I help Dad splash a bit of emulsion around and manage to watch a 'St Trinian's' film and a good documentary about the death of Hitler in between. Hitler died 30 years ago this week.

Whilst I was making busy in the lounge John was busily drinking with Chris and Co in several of Guiseley's ale houses. I rarely miss Wednesdays supping sessions, but today, mainly for financial reasons, I decided it would be wise to do so.

(Christine rang at work to say that Maura isn't joining me for a drink at lunchtime tomorrow. She gave no excuse, and I suppose Christine's been having words with her. I'll say no more about that.)

Before leaping into the bath I talk with Dad about me buying his car! Yes, actually buying a motor vehicle. He says I'll be the first on the list when the times comes for him to sell, and Mum agrees that it would be a good idea. I'm pulling myself together at last. I know I've always let life slip by without even realising - so unlike John - but the time is now ripe for meto begin a new trend.

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Saturday October 26, 1974

Lynn has the usual horrid task of getting me up at 7 o'clock. I go through the usual rigmarole of refusing all food, and laying helplessly on the dining room floor. Get the bus after 8 and arrive at the YP before 9.

See in the paper that Lord Ulster continues to be a cause for concern. He'd have died by now if anything terrible was going to happen at all. Sarah and Carol say he isn't going to survive, but I completely disagree.

Intend leaving at 12, but Nigel, who used to work in the Library, comes in and keeps us talking until after 12.30. Don't get in for lunch until nearly 2.

Pork and apple sauce is awaiting my inspection. John begins decorating the kitchen ceiling & the record player sings merrily to us all from the dining room. Can't think of anything worth doing this afternoon so I suppose I'll have to read quietly in a corner. However, at 3 I decide to go for a lay down in order to make me fit for the oncoming onslaught of tonight.

Sleep for 3 and half hours and John wakes me at 6.30. In my half dazed mind I thought I had slept through until 6.30am - relieved to discover otherwise. John goes off with Carol, Linda and Andy, probably to the Hare & Hounds.

Chris picks me up at 9 and we both go the Hare, where Lynne and Peter M have been waiting for half an hour. Lynne and I drift into a corner near the juke box. John and Andy sing along to the records in a drunken fashion.
Talking with Linda I hear that Phyllis Whitethighs and her boyfriend from York are too serious to describe. She even hinted that it may even mean a Christmas engagement. Chris was stunned when I disclosed this secret to him. Peter, Chris, dearest Lynne, and me move on to the Commercial where I see the chap who went out with Diane Rushworth whilst I had my affair with Helen Taylor. We were ages in remembering where we'd seen each other before. Peter takes Lynne home at 10.30. Chris comes home for coffee.

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