Friday May 12, 1978

Met Jacq at the Hog's Head at 12 and we discussed our finances. I'm supposed to be changing over to receiving my pay on a monthly basis in October or November but because I'll be a month in hand I will have to work for four or five weeks with no cash. Like a nightmare, eh?

Kathleen was ill ~ dying at home. Sarah went off this afternoon with John MacM. Tomorrow they go to the RL Cup Final at Wembley.

Oh, I forgot to say that last night both Tony and Martyn phoned to invite me to Tony's flat warming in Shipley. I said yes immediately. Martyn said: "bring along your little lady friend from Clapham, or wherever." He ended with a typical "are you engaged, yet?" Silly sod.

Tonight I met Jacq off the 8:45 train from Leeds and we walked to the Crown at Yeadon. We did have quite a good evening. Didn't see Philip K. Carol Smith was in with her boyfriend, Trevor. Jacq and I propped up the bar and had three or four pints.

Alan Thompson, the EP film critic, was in with his hippy son. He told me he won't be on the Father's Day trip to Blackpool this year because he wants to keep his limbs intact for a little while longer. It was on the Father's Day trip in 1976 that Denis Haywood fell off the pier into the murky depths.

At 11 we walked back to Guiseley in a mild drizzle stopping at the bus shelter near Aireborough Grammar School in the hope that somebody would stop and pick us up, but no such luck.

Home at 12:15 and we read 'The Woman He Loved' by Ralph G. Martin. Yes, we both sat like Ryan O'Neal and Ally McGraw wrapped in one another's arms with our eyes riveted to the yellowing pages.

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Sunday June 20, 1976

1st after Trinity. Evening Post Father's Day trip to Blackpool. Need I go into the details? Spent most of the day with Peter Lazenby, both wearing bowler hats. In fact, Peter's was a top hat and the label inside read: "By Royal Appointment to HRH The Duchess of Connaught." She died in 1916-18 or thereabouts which makes the hat virtually Victorian.

Everyone attempted to get pissed, but it wasn't half as bad (or good, which ever way you look at it) as people told me it would be. Poor Denis Haywood fell off a jetty and injured his arm but otherwise we had no casualties. Home at 12.15 still wearing my bowler (hat) after sitting in the Albion pub in Skipton from 7.30. A good day indeed. Father's Day too.


(HRH The Duchess of Connaught died March 14, 1917, aged 56 years - MLR).

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