Thursday August 31, 1978

The usual visit from the Nasons. Jim says he's going to the Isle of Man next week for a riotous time with his friends at the TT races. Margaret doesn't appear to object to his indulgences.

We saw the final part of 'I, Claudius' starring Derek Jacobi. I do believe that Mr Jacobi is a protégé of Sir Laurence Olivier and it is easy to see why. Jacobi is brilliant and an undoubted star of the 1980s.

-=-

Wednesday August 16, 1978

Dave had kipped down on my bedroom floor and so he took me into Leeds with him at 8:30 this morning. He looked very pale after last night's booze. He told me he's sick to death of Thomson, Spencer & Partners, and is completely at a loose end. Poor sod ~ he does get very low at times. He even said, as we sped along, how he can understand why people take to drugs.

Sarah wasn't in a much better mood today. ___________. She could have me any time she wished, but she never really knows just who or what she really wants.

Tonight Dad, Jim and I continued the renovation of 7 Lawn Road. It is very good of Jim to lend his services. He kept asking for jobs to do and I was ordering him about. Jim looks and acts like an old retainer. The sight of him doffing his cap to a passing squire wouldn't be out of place at all. He also resembles King Henry VIII's ill~fated chancellor, Thomas Cromwell. A nice guy though.

At 10:30 Dad and I went to the fish and chip shop and bought a large selection of fried foods for the unsuspecting people at home.

Laurence Olivier and Felix Aylmer are on TV in a 1943 drama. A good piece of British war~time propaganda. To bed too tired even for Lady Chatterley's demands upon me.

-=-

Sunday March 16, 1975

Passion Sunday. CB's Birthday. Christmas is a few months early this year. Yes, you've guessed right. It snowed this morning and it's so bloody cold all over it's almost like Arctic conditions, where Capt Scott came a cropper. What a crazy mixed up nation of ours this is.

Do sod all today, and sit in front of the television all night. Laurence Olivier in 'Khartoum'. A good film, and I refuse to be lured to the Hare & Hounds with all the others. It's a nice feeling to be able to prove that alcoholism isn't my leading defect as yet, but I do suppose the coming years will give a more clear analysis.

John comes back with Naomi at about 11 o'clock and I can hear the wedding bells quite clearly this time. I know I've said it before - Christine White, Carol Smith, and Jackie Onassis, but this time it's all quite different. The feeling in my bones is definately conveying the impression this time. We are still unaware as to what denomination the Reverend Mr Downing belongs - and I must admit, the situation is perplexing. He's not C of E, so he's either Mormon, Methodist, Primative Methodist, Baptist, Budhist, Druid or Zionist. I doubt very much whether the chap is a Cardinal - not with an 18 year-old daughter. Methodist too seems unlikely, because they are opposed to drink and little Naomi is propping up the bar of the Hare & Hounds seven nights a week.

-==-

Saturday November 16, 1974

Henry III died 1272. Nice to have Saturday morning off. Wake at 10 with the sun blazing through the bedroom window - a brilliant morning. Dad is playing about in the kitchen erecting a new cupboard. John and I decide to go to Yeadon for a spot of shopping and we prowl around the record shop and try to find a bag of sugar in Morrison's which is like trying to fins a haydle in a neestack. Discover that 'due to panic buying' no sugar is obtainable.

Back home I discover lashings of hot broth & dumplings - having had no breakfast I was famished. Mum and Sue go to Bradford after lunch and I sit in front of the TV awaiting my faithful driving instructors arrival. See the beginning and the end of 'Pride and Prejudice'. The noble Lord Olivier appears in the film at the ridiculously early age of 20 or 21.

The ladies come back from Bradford at the disgustingly late hour of 7pm. John and I hurry through piles of tomato sandwiches, laced with the occasional lump of cheese. Dear Denny rings and says she's honouring us with her presence at this evening's orgy at the Cow & Calf. We all meet in the Hare & Hounds and Denny looks gorgeous after all these weeks of seclusion. She tells me that her new boyfriend is called Adrian. He's 19 and he's got blond hair. I have her on about him. The ______are the biggest pair of bitches to inhabit the hills and valleys of the County of York since the likes of Barbara Castle and Coun Joan de Carteret, sometime Lord Mayor of Leeds, dwelled in the area. Denny and I are alone all evening and it makes a pleasant deviation from the usual male companionship which is a bore. Drink lager all night and John brings Christine Dibb and myself home at 2.30.

-==-