Tuesday May 19, 1981

 _. Full Moon.

Ash Tree Cottage.

Mum and Dad came to Club St for dinner. I went there straight from the YP. Carrot soup [again] and lasagne. Very pleasurable. Ally excels in her almost derelict kitchen. Mainly pub talk. They are going to see Houldsworth at Barclays at 3pm tomorrow. They left after 12 and Ally and I drained the remaining wine bottles. We are christening the house 'Ash Tree Cottage' thanks to the sapling at the bottom of the garden. It's so much more welcoming than 'number 5'.

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Monday May 18, 1981

 _. Rain. Walking through town at lunchtime, looking in the window of an electrical shop, I saw, on the telly there, Princess Anne leaving hospital with baby Tracy. The infant is yet to be named. Elizabeth is bound to be in there. Kathleen says Joanna. I say Kathleen. In the end the opinion of the office is that it's wide open.

Mum and Dad went to the Stonehouse and had a showdown with Joyce and the shifty, Godfrey. Hands were clasped and shaken, yet again. These queer little people are obviously ruled by the moon.

Saw Ally tonight.

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Sunday May 17, 1981

 _. 4th Sunday after Easter

Steve Sanderson's birthday. Another substantial breakfast at 9. Charlotte is obviously 'cutting down' on her food intake. Back to the Dales, but in Graham's car, in search of Malham. We took a few wrong turns and finished up at Aysgarth and then Hawes at 1:30. By now we were hungry, but several pubs refused us food because of the hour. We were there, in the street, howling like injured wolves. Graham, in booming tones, told one landlord that he much prefers Lancashire. Oh dear. Back to Club St we finished off the carrot soup, made a salad, and then the Smiths disappeared. We have agreed to make a return visit to see them in Hampshire.

Ally and I, alone at last, opened a bottle of red wine, and then phoned Mum. She was greatly distressed. She took Mabel, Marlene and Frank to the Stonehouse yesterday [without Dad], and Joyce turned on Mama threatening that if they don't come up with the money and quickly within the next few days, they'll sell the pub to a more willing buyer. Depressing.

The Bankhouse.

We drove to Pudsey in gloom. To the Bankhouse pub with Karen, Steve, Jill, Tim, Diane, Paul, Tracey and Eugene. On to the Royal at Stanningley, where we met Hilda and Tony. Back to Wilsby at 11pm for an hour. Then back to Pine Tops. My great Aunt Annie has bought us a tea set.

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Saturday May 16, 1981

The Strid.

 _. Woke with a thundering headache which remained with me for the day. Graham and Charlotte had been up for hours and were banging around downstairs. Charlotte was already half way through her third Agatha Christie novel. We all had a big breakfast before piling into the Citroen and heading off to the sights of the Yorkshire Dales. We went to Bolton Abbey and walked to the Strid, which has shrunk, surely? I always think of it as a large thunderous, force of water, a breathtaking sight, second only to the St Lawrence Seaway. Obviously not. Graham took a few photographs with his enormous and very expensive camera. We drove past the Stonehouse on our way home, didn't stop, only two cars in the carpark. To Otley and Curlew Pottery there.

Later, to Leeds and met Sue, Pete, Barbara and Frank Makin and Fiona [Ally's bridesmaid]. Sue and Fiona had a fitting for their bridesmaid dresses, and Pete, Graham and I went to buy Ally a new stylus for her record player.

Home to Club St at 6:30. Took Anadin. Felt better. Barbara, Frank and Fiona left, and we and the Smiths had a sing-song around the piano. You name it, we sang it. On to Pizzeria Mama Mia's [Manningham Lane]. A long dinner.

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Friday May 15, 1981

 _. A fun packed day. Kathleen, becoming increasingly madder, predicts that I will be departing the library staff within the year. No men, she says, have ever stayed long on the staff after marriage. Obviously, I am going to require more money. Let us hope the Stonehouse project comes off. It could be my salvation.

Home at 5:30. Mum and Dad had a good afternoon with George and Joyce and Co at the Stonehouse. The old boy promised them a piano each and told them a tale about 'Witchy Waite's Chair'. All good stuff. Mum and Dad were in high spirits.

Princess Anne and Tracy.

Ally came at 7 looking gorgeous. We went on to Club St, and we prepared dinner together. The Smiths, Graham and Charlotte, arrived at 9. We had carrot soup, chicken sweet and sour, washed down with our own wine and the inevitable lager. They are so eccentric and great fun.  We listened to the radio during dinner and heard that Princess Anne had given birth to a daughter at 8:15 at St Mary's Hospital, Paddington. We debated what forename the royal infant will be blessed with. Charlotte insists that the little mite will be 'Our Tracy'. We all became quite intoxicated, and took to our beds at some forgotten hour. Charlotte hopes to bring forth a child next year.

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Thursday May 14, 1981

 _. To Club St at 6. Had fish and chips. Ally is going mad cleaning in readiness for Graham and Charlotte's arrival. We watched 'Top of the Pops' and then went shopping to Morrison's. 

Dave G phoned. He's coming May 28-29, and so we have decided to throw a party, a belated birthday party combined with a pre-nuptial orgy.

Bessie, not Mrs D.

Mrs D phoned. I musn't call her Mrs D. I shall have to call her Bessie. Obviously, I could never call her mother. Ally's aunt, Elsie Swire, also phoned. We are commanded to go into the depths of Lancashire to visit her next Wednesday. We will also call on Auntie Annie in Colne. 

Mum and Dad saw Mr Houldsworth at Barclays Bank, Otley. He seemed very interested, but hasn't given the go-ahead as yet. He would like a timber survey.

Church news: the Pope is making very slow progress.

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Wednesday May 13, 1981

Mad Turk shoots Pope.

 _. A mad Turk has attempted to assassinate the Pope in Rome. He failed miserably. Typical of the Turks, don't you think? I was traveling home at the time of the shooting quite oblivious of this anti-papal attack. Caught up with it on the news: crowds of wailing nuns running amok beneath the Basilica in St Peter's Square.

Back to this morning. I forced Ally out of bed at 6:50 because she had to do something with the mounds of bread in the kitchen. Her ears have gone into decline now. She can hear nothing, and as I sat with my humble breakfast looking across the table at her I could hear the wax squelching around in the labyrinths of her gorgeous ears. She left for Bradford at 7:50. Dave B came shortly afterwards with the Oliver, Kitchen and Flynn report [he's been looking at it to make a structural survey]. Jim Rawnsley is on business in London and so I went to Leeds with Dave. A hot day.

Frank D phoned Mum and told her to make an appointment with a Mr Houldsworth at Barclays Bank, Otley. She did as directed. Frank has had a word with him, and they are seeing him at 10:30 tomorrow. It's now in the lap of the Gods. I do not think Frank would have set this up if he didn't think they stood a chance.

Denise has sent me a bill for a further £15 for the Ios honeymoon. I phoned her at 3. She had been to lunch with C. Ratcliffe and Lynne Mather and they'd just been talking about me. My ears were burning.

Had a couple of talks with Ally. We are like Mrs Thatcher and Helmut Schmidt these days. Watched 'Private Schulz'. Bed 12.

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Tuesday May 12, 1981

 _. Mum phoned me at 1:30. Clive Osborne at the Yorkshire Bank isn't prepared to give them a loan to purchase the Stonehouse Inn. Banks, he says, are not lending money on licensed premises.

Later at 8pm Dad spoke to Frank Dixon who says the Yorkshire bank have mishandled the whole thing and assures him that he will find them a a good business manager. Dad was embarrassed contacting Frank, but I do not share his qualms. Doesn't this world function on the lines of who you know, not what you know?

Ally came at 7:30. We had a drive around Menston and Hawksworth. Back at Pine Tops Ally baked three disastrous cakes, and a heap of brown bread. Indigestion. 

Tension tonight after a day of nail biting terror. Ally stayed. Bed after 12:30.

A judge was murdered today. Quite a rare thing.

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Monday May 11, 1981

 _. Ally is feeling slightly better. She drove off in the coughing, spluttering Audrey at 7:50. 

New president: Mitterrand

Francois Marie Mitterrand, 55, is the new president of France. Why are world leaders getting older when they come into office? Giscard d'Estaing was 55. Carter was 55. Reagan is 71. Foot is older than Callaghan and Wilson. Why not bring back George Lansbury and have done?

The IRA exploded a bomb close to the Queen at a Scottish oil refinery at the weekend.

Home at 6. Dad is now full of woe about their prospects of taking the Stonehouse following a telephone conversation with Clive Osborne. The bank manager is grumbling about the valuation and is demanding the accounts, &c. They're seeing Mr Osborne at 11 tomorrow. Mum phoned her 'friend' Joyce and asked for the accounts. She wasn't happy.I smell a rat.

Phoned Ally at 6:30. Graham Smith and Charlotte are coming at the weekend. We are told that Charlotte has shed 2 stone. 

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Sunday May 10, 1981

 _. 3rd Sunday after Easter - Mother's Day, U.S.A & Canada

Spent the day discussing the Stonehouse. The excitement blots out talk of family weddings and new babies. It's all consuming. Whilst Ally sat knitting baby clothes this afternoon I took down a few home made wine recipes for us to dabble with at Rue Club.  Rita Hayworth on the telly - a ghastly 1940s movie. We puzzle as to why it was ever made. 

Sue and Pete came for half an hour before tea. Chippy, Gus, Johnny and Tony Smith have taken a rented house at Chapel Allerton in close proximity to the Regent pub.

An evening of repeats on the telly. Part one of 'Pride and Prejudice' and part one of 'Private Schulz' [last seen on Wednesday]. Watched just half of a Tennessee Williams film, which was gruesome.

Retired to bed at 12.

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Saturday May 9, 1981

 _. Rain. Ally and I had a successful day in Bradford looking at the shops, drooling over the fashions. We walked hand in hand around the damp city. Ally had to have a toilet break in Rackham's.

Bought a couple of birthday cards for Steve S and Dave L. Ally booked £15 of sunray treatment so that she'll be brown in June for our big day. She says she wants people to see where the dress stops and the skin starts. It's hard to believe it's only weeks away. 

Hutchison: scored at both ends

Home to Guiseley at 4. Saw the end of the FA Cup Final. It ended in a 1-1 draw for Tottenham Hotspur v. Manchester City. Amazingly enough the same player, the hapless Tommy Hutchison, scored both goals. He put one in at each end. Silly sod. Lynn, Dave, Jim and Margaret were watching the game, but all were gone at 6:30.

At 8 we went with Mum & Dad to the Stonehouse [in John's ailing Escort], where we met George Deacon and his daughter, Joyce. The old man had Mum behind the bar pulling pints, and applauding her finished effort. Joyce said how much she wanted Mum and Dad to have the pub, adding that she regards Mum as a 'close friend'. Oh dear. We were there until 11:45 and came home quite confident.

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