Tuesday June 2, 1981

 _. New Moon

Sarah: engaged

Heavy rain at first, sun later. Good old Coronation Day, but I suspect that the Union flag fluttering above the YP is for quite a different reason. Sarah today announced her engagement to Trevor Abbott, or Abbot. I didn't go in to the YP until 10 [having worked the night shift last night]. Sarah was obviously gleeful about something which I didn't find unusual. She is always either very high or very low. She could hardly contain herself, and told that at 12 she and Trevor were going into town to buy an engagement ring. She returned at 2 and we howled with laughter all afternoon.

Wedding talks with Ally. At 2:30 we squabbled about items on the wedding list. I want nothing to do with wedding lists and the compiling thereof.

Ally came over at 7:30. Mum was in a miserable mood and so we escaped with a copy of The Times to West End Terrace so that Sue and Pete could look at the foreign holidays on the back page. They have recently inherited £200 each from the estate of Pete's grandmother, Florence Nason, who died last June. Back to Pine Tops at 10:30. Ally stayed over.

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Monday June 1, 1981

 _. Bank Holiday in Rep. of Ireland

Ally went to work and 9 but Dave and I took a leisurely breakfast before joining her for lunch at the Reservoir pub, Chellow Dene. We sat with pints and prawn sandwiches from 12 until 2. Ally went back to labour for Derek Jenkins at 2, and Dave and I scaled Squire Lane, beneath a hard, burning sun. Back at Ash Tree Cottage we had pots of tea and blasted some 'Police' on the stereo. Dave, very quiet, is worried about Garry. He forked out Garry's £300 for their forthcoming holiday, and has yet to get it back. He also says that Garry might not be able to get to our wedding because it clashes with Mr & Mrs Barratt's Atomic wedding anniversary, or whatever. 

Bus to Leeds with Dave at 4. He got the 4:30 train to Stockport. I did the YP 5pm-12. It was quite dead. Home to Guiseley with a comical taxi driver who assumed that because I live on Hawksworth Lane I must be a pools winner. 

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Sunday May 31, 1981

 _. Sunday after Ascension

Hot. Marathon breakfast for the Pudsey mob who had slept over. They did a good deal of laughing at the naughty books Christine B sent me years ago, you know, the Janet and John type books, with the pervy inscriptions inside. Karen, Steve, Jill, Tim, Diane and Paul left after 11, or was it 12?

We took Dave to Pine Tops for an audience with mother. This went on longer than expected and we didn't leave to peep at the Stonehouse Inn until 4. The sun had disappeared and a gloom descended, but it didn't detract from the beauty of Thruscross. David was non-commital. We didn't go into the pub. A ratty little man [Jack], and a young man in Wellington boots [Granville] were surveying the acres and eyeing us suspiciously.

Back to Club St for 7 for carrot soup, and liver casserole. Ally, too exhausted, went to bed leaving Dave and I watching a film entitled Sweet William. Bed after 12:30.

-=-

Saturday May 30, 1981

 _. Ally went for a sun-ray session. She returned looking sexy and tinted. We had breakfast with Dave G. Afterwards he helped Ally make a coleslaw. I went into Lidget Green to do some shopping for tonight's orgy.

We went to the Brown Cow at Horsforth [Stella Artois, &c] and then on to see Denise and pay our honeymoon insurance money.  We called at Pine Tops and then went to Charles the tailor in Menston [my suit], and back to Club St for 5:30. 

Our house party began at 9. Karen, Steve, Jill, Tim, Diane, Paul Edwards, Sue Pete, Jacq, Paul C, Eileen and Steve Burnip, Anne Goodyear, Lynn, Dave, Rachel Judson and Garry, Gillian and Tom, &c. Not a full list by any means because people saw the party from the Kebab take-away across the road and joined us, plus Ally's cronies from the AHA. An excellent night. Warm too, and the overflow of revellers poured into the front garden [probably because we don't have a back garden]. Good to see some YP people. Horribly pissed. All a bit of a blank.

-=-

Friday May 29, 1981

 _. Muggy again. Ally and Lynn spent the afternoon shopping in Leeds. Ally had a fitting for her wedding dress and Lynn went crazy in Mothercare. At 2 I met then at Stylo where we were fixed up with wedding shoes. 

Dave G.

To the railway station at 5 and collected a bearded Dave G from Stockport. To Pine Tops for dinner. Dave had his first showing of baby Frances. We all over-fed, so much so that our drinking capacity was severely impaired for the night. At 8 we went to Chaplin's [that used to be the Belfry]. A silly, bitty, place, with numerous bars, and full of pimply 15 year-old youths. Saw Dave Porritt, and Robert [Janet Simon's ex]. We went on to Mucky Willies. Dave is worried about Garry, who is slow in paying up his £300 holiday money. Mr Barratt is having second thoughts. Back at Ash Tree Cottage Dave occupied a bunk in the pig's room.

-=-

Thursday May 28, 1981

 _. Ascension Day

Had a restless night. Up at 6:45 feeling uncomfortable, unrefreshed. We'd been to bed leaving the sitting room windows wide open to all the thieves and crooks of Tranmere Park.

Pine Tops is to be advertised for sale at £38,000 in Saturday's YP. It is a bit steep, don't you think?

Phoned Ally at 7am. She wants me to meet her in Bradford at 5pm so that she can show me a suit she'd like to wear as a 'going away' outfit after the wedding reception. Butterflies have started. Just four weeks to go now. Last night Mum said how much she'll miss me after June 27. I've been with them throughout their married life, the first to arrive, and the last one to leave.

Dave L.

To Leeds with Jim R. To Lidget Green at 6. A warm, muggy evening. Dave L came at 8:30 bringing Rowan, his Gordon Setter. I immediately began to splutter and dribble into my lager. My allergy to dog hairs. It was a gasping couple of hours. He left at about 10 to get a good night's sleep. He has a busy day at school tomorrow inseminating the pigs.

Primarily to take the air Ally and I walked to Mucky Willie's for a couple of drinks. She looked incredible in her very short pink mini skirt, and dangling gold earrings. 

-=-

Wednesday May 27, 1981

 _. Stonehouse: Joyce phoned to say they had received a letter from the solicitor yesterday, and now the sale is in official hands. Mum and Dad are going tomorrow morning.

Sticky, thunder too. Mum says it shook the house this afternoon. Home at 6. Saw Lynn and Frances on Hawksworth Lane. [F was of course strapped in the back seat of the car in her bonnet, and was scowling at me through the window]. 

with Jackie and a rasher of bacon.

Mum was sipping whisky, she says for her chill. Dad was being objectionable saying he is going to devote his time re-laying the patio instead of turning his attention to the house interior. Silly sod. Ally [who entertained Catherine Brook for lunch] phoned enquiring about my cousin Jackie's address, for a wedding invitation. I phoned Auntie Eleanor, who gave me Jackie's new number. She [Jacqueline]
moved into a new flat on Saturday and was busy decorating. She says she is coming without Peter to the wedding.

Saw 'Private Schulz'. Drank whisky. Went to bed at 11:30 with a plate of salad sandwiches.

-=-

Tuesday May 26, 1981

 _. Up at 7:45 and out at 8:45. Ally waved me off, pressing her face against the glass panel on the door, making hideous, ghoulish faces. Obviously I arrived at the YP late. The bus service is in a state of collapse. One would think we were living in Somalia or an Eastern bloc country.

Lady Diana.

Just Kathleen and I at the office. She was in her usual fluster. Details of the royal wedding were released today. Lady Diana will leave from Clarence House in the state coach, whilst Charles [weather permitting] will travel in an open landau. After the marriage, and once again, depending on the weather, the Prince and Princess of Wales will travel back to Buckingham Palace in the landau, open to all snipers, H-block sympathisers, and psychopaths who will converge upon the capital for the spectacle. And let's not forget right-wing Turkish terrorists. How brave our royal family are. The Queen insists upon close contact with the public and has made it known that to cocoon her in armour plated vehicles would defeat the whole object of monarchy. All the same, I suspect that security people will be experiencing severe attacks of diarrhoea in the final weeks leading to the wedding of the century. In other royal news, Lady Romsey gave birth to a future Earl Mountbatten of Burma on May 15.

Ally came to dinner. Avocado prawns and then chicken. I mowed the lawns and put undercoat on the kitchen door. Ally stayed the night.

-=-

Monday May 25, 1981

 _. Bank Holiday in UK, USA & Canada

More bloody rain. Spent the dry bits in the water-logged garden tying up bedraggled honeysuckle and climbing rose trees. Is this perhaps the worst May on record?

Ally and I attempted to make the lunch. Mama remained reclining upstairs, and Papa was trundling around in a romper suit looking like a working man's Winston Churchill. The kitchen was submerged in cauliflower cheese and we somehow managed to use every pan whilst cooking. Mum sat there musing at our inefficiency. However, the food was delicious when we eventually served it up.

Ally drove me to the YP at 5 for my evening shift. A dull and very quiet night. Polish Joe came to see me looking for a photo, and two hours later a peculiar looking sub-editor came in asking for an atlas. That was my evening's work, other than the filing of course. Phoned Ally a couple of times and afterwards took a taxi to Ash Tree Cottage. My driver was something of an authority on road construction, and gave me a lengthy talk on the history of Leeds slip roads, by passes and dual carriageways.

Ally was wrapped in a dressing gown reading 'Ten Little Niggers'. We drank cocoa and had chocolate cake.

-=-

Sunday May 24, 1981

At Thruscross.

 _. Rogation Sunday

Pine Tops: for sale sign erected

Headache. Ally and I concocted a breakfast for Sue and Pete. I took coffee up to their room and laughed at them snuggled together in the bottom bunk. We all went to Guiseley afterwards and were surprised to find John and JPH there [Maria & Catherine followed on later]. John was pale. He's had trouble with a tooth. Mum was propped up in bed looking like death warned up. She was cheerful as JPH had been keeping her amused with Scottish tales. Sue and Pete drove Ally and I to the Stonehouse Inn, not to go inside but to walk near the reservoir and soak in the scenery. It is hard to imagine that Mum and Dad will be living here before the summer is out. The coloured sails of the yachts floating above the sunken village of West End made what I hope is a fine photograph.

Back to Pine Tops for the usual chaos of a John and Maria visit. Catherine has started to walk. John said she got going in Stranraer yesterday just before heading south. A 'for sale' sign has been erected on the front lawn. To think Pine Tops is to go after all these years.

-=-

Saturday May 23, 1981

 _. Ally was up and out at 9am, trundling off to the metropolis for the first of a series of sun-ray sessions. I lay buried in the pink marshmallow of her bed until she returned at 11:30. She'd also been for a fitting for the bridesmaid dress she'll be wearing at Catherine & David's wedding on Sept 5.

We went back into Bradford but our expedition was largely unsuccessful. We did a good deal of squabbling in the street, and disagreed on most things. I did manage to buy a pair of jeans and a good shirt. Shopping isn't an easy pastime. 

The Oddfellows: poker incident

Back at Ash Tree Cottage for 5. Ally so beautiful in her yellow dungarees and blond curls. She phoned Sue and invited her and Pete to join us for the night. They haven't been to Club St since before Christmas. They joined us at 8. We went to the Fiddlers Three for one drink, and then to Wilsden, to a Tetley's pub, then back to the Oddfellows, which was hideous. Rough. A drunk was running amok brandishing a poker. We downed our drink very quickly then went on to Mucky Willie's at Lidget Green. They stayed the night. It was back to ours for more drinks.

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