Saturday May 1, 1976

To the Hare as usual with Sue and Pete, and of course Carole. The beer and lager pumps are not functioning and so I drink Campari. Chris and Christine come in and we decide to venture to Oakwood Hall. Sue & Pete wait for John and Maria to give them a lift. Carole and I go with Chris. Boring night. Carole and I say the absolute minimum to each other and Chris and Christine argue like cat and dog. John and Maria come in with Sue & Pete but they leave after an hour or so. John was quiet, and wore a look of contentment on his cherubic face. Maria was animated and chatty.

Leave Oakwood at 1.30 but feel as though it's 4.30am. Carole and I are still silent on the journey home. Mallory Park tomorrow holds little rellish for me because of my crumbling romance.

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Friday April 30, 1976

Carole, Chris, Christine, Martyn and I escape from the Hare & Hounds quite early and head for the Red Lion at Burley-in-Wharfedale which personally I don't like, but I'm not driving am I? We have a good laugh and Martyn and I discuss the events of last Friday. He was violently sick on Saturday too - which makes me feel a lot better. I loathe being the odd one out.

Carole was happy enough in the pub but her temperament changed dramatically on the way home and she left me without so much as a 'goodbye'. Miserable lady, that's what she is.

Cannot help raving about Elton John. He was the sole topic of discussion the whole day at work and we are all now confirmed EJ addicts for life from now on. Even Carole enjoyed it. I expected the usual bitchy comments from the library staff of their first sighting of my girlfriend, but received none whatsoever.

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Thursday April 29, 1976

The Elton John concert tonight was indescribable. Brilliant, and the absolute ultimate in sound. For £6 Carole and I had immaculate entertainment. He came on stage at 8.30 and stayed until after eleven. He did all his famous pieces, and only a minimum of obscure ones. Missed the last bus home and had to walk from Rawdon. Carole stayed at our house because I din't want her walking to Menston. Saw a woman pissing all over a bus shelter in Guiseley, and laughed all the way home. Home for 1am absolutely deafened by fantastic Elton, and crippled. Shagged out entirely.

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Wednesday April 28, 1976

Buy a pair of jeans and go out wearing them tonight in order to give them a trial run for tomorrow night's Elton John concert. Meet Carole near the Hare & Hounds at 8 o'clock and spend a boring, unimaginative, speechless evening propping up the juke box. On the rare occasions we do speak it's only to hurl silly, childish insults at one another. I'm cheesed off with the whole rigmarole. She knows it too. Carole thinks that all couples behave the same way as we do. Look at her bloody family.

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Tuesday April 27, 1976

Dad and I get a lift to Leeds with Jim at 8 o'clock. Jim attempts to describe in full, scene by scene, a fill he watched on TV on Saturday night, which takes up the entire half hour journey. I don't like second hand films.

Busy day. Work through luncheon and leave at 3.30. Collect 'Feelings' by Maurice Albert from the EMI shop and get a bus at 3.50. Bright, sunny journey home, and meet Dad in Guiseley. I don't know how we managed to miss one another. Only two buses leave Leeds in any one day and he was on one and I the other. Typical.

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Monday April 26, 1976

For the first time in months I passed a whole day without seeing or hearing from Carole. I feel better for it really because at times I'm close to suffocation with it all. I need to feel free and uncaged. Not that she imposes any restrictions on me understand. Oh to be Robinson Crusoe.

Busy at the YP. Kathleen is on holiday for the week. See on the 9 o'clock news that Sid James, the comedian, has died. A fan of the 'Carry On' films as I once was - in my youth - cannot help feeling sad at this loss. Best remembered for his haggard face and dirty laugh.

See a good film 'If' starring Malcolm McDowell. I've seen it before and enjoyed it the first time. Shows the public school system in a bad light. Any parent who sends an impressionable child away to a boarding school can only expect to get a feeble, perverted, homosexual back at the end of the 5 or 6 year stint because the places are dens of sadistic cruelty.

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Sunday April 25, 1976

Low Sunday. Out of bed at 11.30am feeling quite fit. I am worried about yesterday's performance (vomit, &c) and realise only too well that I may be getting out of the habit of being pissed. Friday night was always a good night at Wikis and the following day rarely saw me with such after effects and ailments. Am I just getting out of the habit or simply too old for staying up half the night? It can't be the latter.

Sue and Lynn go out at lunchtime which leaves me alone with Mum & Dad. I wash the dishes and clear up in general which must be a flag day. Carole comes at 3pm and after sitting for half an hour without uttering a single syllable we drift off down Thorpe Lane and into Guiseley - an action packed place on Sunday afternoons.

I get a bus at about 4.30. Carole and I are definately heading for the rocks and even she is realising it now. Work 5-11. Scive off an hour early and arrive home to find everyone fast asleep. Devour half a can of baked beans. Certainly a thrilling, exciting day to remember isn't it?

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Saturday April 24, 1976

Wake up at approx. 10.30 and vomit. Unusual I know, because if any vomiting's to be done it usually makes itself apparent much earlier. But that's what happened. Stagger downstairs, but return immediately to bed on smelling the breakfast. Lay in bed until 4.30pm and regret it because the weather is beautiful. Susan and Peter were even managing to sprawl on the lawn - the first time this year that a family member has made an attempt to sunbathe.

Carole came at 3.30 or thereabouts. We decide to have a quiet night at home in front of the television. Carole comes up at 8 and we send Dave out to buy a bottle of apricot wine. Watch TV until it closes down and sup the whole bottle of wine in the process. The two of us don't speak much.

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Friday April 23, 1976

Good Old Saint George's Day. Get to work at 8.30 and spend an hour altering Harold Wilson's file. He doesn't look like a Knight of the Garter at all and I can't help wondering what made him accept the honour. During his premiership no hereditary peers have been created and political honours have not been looked upon in a good light, and now he goes and accepts the highest honour 'bestowable' by the Monarch.

Ring David L at 7.30 and Sandra says he was taken to hospital a few hours before - something wrong with his heart! The whole Lawson house is in uproar and so I quickly vacate the line - promising to ring tomorrow for a further bulletin. David - a heart attack!! Horrific and nauseating.

I inform everyone in the Hare & Hounds except CB who is down with tonsilitis. Leave Carole at 11 and go to the Cow & Calf with Pete M and Martyn Cole. First night out with the lads in ages. I never usually desert Carole. Get intoxicated and don't remember much about the night at all. CD and Carol Smith were with us.

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Thursday April 22, 1976

Work was uneventful and I'm not going into great detail on that miserable subject.

Carole rang twice this evening and both times asked me what was wrong. I insist that all is well, but she feels sure I'm wanting rid of her.

John came round at 9 o'clock for a bath. The Macdonald central heating system caved in over Easter and subsequently the Mac family are parading round Ridgeway smeared in four days supply of filth.

Mum and Dad went out for a drink but returned and 10.30 with fish and chips which John also endulged in. Sue also cut John's hair.

Hear on the midnight news that Uncle Harold is to become a Knight of the Garter after all. No doubt the left-wing rabble of the Labour party will find this is something they can get their teeth into, but uncle is a scheming old lad. A man cannot be Prime Minister for sixty years without picking up some of the tricks of the trade.

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Wednesday April 21, 1976

The Queen, 50. Do not hear the alarm clock again and Mum wakes me at 8.20. To Leeds with Jim Rawnsley and study the national newspapers immediately upon my arrival at the YP. The Queen's party at Windsor went on until 3am today - and at 2.40am Her Majesty's time of birth - she was dancing around the Waterloo Chamber with the Duke of Edinburgh.

Some papers criticised Mr Callaghan for not attending and I can only see this as a snub to the Queen. Uncle Harold Wilson and Thatcher attended and even Edward Heath. She is already a legend in her own lifetime and it's hard to imagine how we could ever manage without her.

Meet Carole at 8.10 but only have one drink in the Hare before returning to our place for a coffee. She is behaving quite differently today bit I pretend I haven't noticed. She is doing her utmost not to be 'lovey dovey' and too serious with me.

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