Wednesday November 20, 1985

 Moorhouse Inn, Leeds LS11 5NQ

The idiot who sinks pint after pint of Diet Pils afternoon and night shuffled off his mortal coil on Monday. He had been mixing his drink with tablets.  Silly, pathetic man. Ally took a sample to Beeston Health Centre. She will have the result at 4:30 on Friday. To this our hopes are pinned. Poor Ally is so pale and nauseous & we have no doubt that the result will be positive. ____________. Sam Smiths can sack us now and be damned. It could actually be an omen. Samuel was conceived in the month I took off from the YP and so another baby might signal the start of a new chapter. Nothing to do with employment will ever break my heart. The loss of family overshadows everything and put the insinuations of LG into proper perspective. Liz Melvin told me she is thinking of quitting, and then changed her mind. I cannot be bothered by it all. Ally was in a collapsed heap upstairs after packing up.

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Tuesday November 19, 1985

 Moorhouse Inn, Leeds, LS11 5NQ

I was visited by an old witch in the guise of a 'true Welsh gypsy' who proceeded to foretell my future whilst standing in the entrance hall. "You will see Devon and Cornwall", she says, and "you have just lost a parent through heart disease or cancer". My wife, she says, will have two children "a son, who will be a footballer, and a daughter who will love me." "Do not trust a Peter or a Tom" she warned. This immediately wipes out half my family and customers here. My luck is "abroad" and I will find "happiness in the country in three years time." Other than my "nerves" I have no health problems. My father, she concluded, will "live to a ripe old age". She then gave six yards of lace, handmade, and charged me £6 for it. It made me very uneasy. One shouldn't knock such old practices by any means. This world holds many peculiarities which cannot readily be answered. Silly, old  'happy mediums' might not all be the devious con artists we think they are. Ally forgot to do a urine sample today and so she will have to go see Dr Sykes with one tomorrow. Fixed the yale lock today.

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Monday November 18, 1985

 Moorhouse Inn, Leeds, LS11 5NQ

Leslie Gledhill arrived at his usual time - 10:57am - and stood murmuring in the tap room. We are not to be dismissed, though others in our position most certainly have been. Should he have any reason to find fault with my cellars in the future we will be sacked on the spot. He went away leaving me furious. It's a case of be grateful to LG because he has spared us. He showed mercy. Very unfair. I think Maureen probably heard everything. She was lurking with an ice bucket at the top of the stairs. We are expected to serve ale as though nothing has happened, grinning like idiots at our customers and all the while with some hair raising traumas abounding. 

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Sunday November 17, 1985

 Moorhouse Inn, Leeds, LS11 5NQ

24th Sunday after Trinity

Clown Janette & Chris.

Feel very healthy. I didn't overdo things. MM and Marita called in at lunchtime to say they couldn't make it here last night. They had tried to phone but of course we have been vandalised. They were en route to see Dave L at the LGI, where he under going treatment to prevent bees from killing him. Very odd. Haven't seen Dave L for over a year. Such a pity. Marita asked if "any little Rhodes babies are on the way"? I replied: "you never know". She is something of a mystic is Marita. I bet she knows. Dad stayed to lunch - roast beef - and went to John's at 6pm after destroying our yale lock. ________. Liz and Chris worked again. Last night he was dressed as a Scotsman.

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Saturday November 16, 1985

 Moorhouse Inn, Leeds LS11 5NQ

Ally was up and gone at dawn to see her dentist, and visit Linfood, &c. She collected our musketeer garb. For a short time last night I almost persuaded Dad to be Porthos, but common sense prevailed. Very cold. Bitter, in fact. We work like stink for this bloody brewery. How many other Sam Smith managers would dress up like 17th century French queers to dispense ale? LG ought to be proud of us. It wasn't a big turn out of people.  (See the photographs). Bakers, Nasons, George & Jayne, Jacq, Ian, Jill, Tim, et al. The usual stalwarts. Dad was a glass collector. Up until 4am. Gary Booth came after. We are invited to Jacq & Ian's wedding on March 22. Lots of bare bums, vicars, tarts, Rabbis and performing clowns.

Fun. _________

Friday November 15, 1985

 Moorhouse Inn, Leeds LS11 5NQ

Ally has decided that she needs Dad here because she is weary and the 'Fancy Dress Ball' arrangements will be too much. I phoned him at Sue's where he was taking tea and he said he would be here this evening. He can be a glass collector for the night. I had to go to the phone kiosk outside the Canning St Club  because British Telecom (or 'BT' as Jan Leeming likes to say) have ignored my pleas to come and fix my damaged appliance. No staff tonight and I had a few swigs of lager. Dad came here at 7 looking fresh faced and well. We told him of our desperate situation with the brewery and he was appalled. It was a steady night, or so it seemed, but we amassed £300 this evening alone. Had a quiet drink upstairs afterwards.__________.

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Thursday November 14, 1985

 Moorhouse Inn, Leeds LS11 5NQ

A freezing day. We went into town and Leeds market and I wheeled Samuel around. Ally phoned the brewery and spoke to LG and Ken Gilbertson. She came right out with it and asked LG whether we are now to be sacked. "I doubt it very much", he replied. "I think you have suffered enough". Feel easier. We have always known that this game is precarious. To Homburg's (fancy dress hire). Ally and I are to be musketeers on Saturday. Wigs, &c. "All for One, and One for All" &c. We paid £8 each plus a £20 per person deposit. Margaret worked tonight. On TV: Miss Cleckheaton is the new 'Miss World'. The Prince of Wales, fresh back from Washington, is 37.

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Wednesday November 13, 1985

 Moorhouse Inn, Leeds LS11 5NQ

LG appeared at 8:30pm. I was upstairs and Chris and Liz were working. Fortunately we were busy. LG was dour. We sat in a corner. Once again he told me the returned barrel of OBB was below specification, and recommends I take a sample to an independent analyst. "I hope you understand the gravity of the situation", he cringed. "Serious questions" need answers, and he asked me, 'sotto voce', whether I want to own up to anything and admit my mistake, all confidentially. The man obviously takes me for an imbecile. No way will I put my head in a noose. Ally was upstairs feeling sick and asked me to invite LG up but he wouldn't be drawn. He later poked around in the cellar and left leaving me down and depressed. I have the distinct feeling that I am going to be sacked. Earlier, the phone in the entrance hall was vandalized as Maureen opened up. Swines.

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Tuesday November 12, 1985

 Moorhouse Inn, Leeds LS11 5NQ

New Moon

I am eaten away with excitement about Ally and the prospects of another baby. It must be on the cards now. I went down to the cellar at 8am and Ally took Sam to see Dr Sykes, but you know how ineffectual doctors are. He sent her away with a bottle of medicine saying 'he'll eat when he's ready.' Ally asked about herself and he told her to go back in a week. It's all nail biting stuff. Auntie Mabel phoned  and gleefully told us that cousin Jacqueline is engaged to Barry. 

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Monday November 11, 1985

 Moorhouse Inn, Leeds LS11 5NQ

Ally much better. Our fingers are crossed. I phoned Dad twice yesterday. He'd been to the Crown in Horton on Saturday because 'the Theakston's arrived'. He was concerned about my sickness and offered to come, but I put him off. Sue and the children are going to Horton tomorrow. Samuel still weary. This afternoon I took him to the park and the post office and he wept because I made him walk. He trundled along sluggishly, without his usual bounce. In the park he struggled to climb the slide and asked to be lifted down. Lethargy abounded. Ally is bright and confident of imminent good news and has charted a plan of action should she be pregnant. ________. Sue phoned. They are coming on Saturday in answer to my postcard plea. Tonight, at bedtime, Sam awoke when we banged around upstairs, and was violently sick over the both of us. It's the doctor tomorrow.

World News: The Prince of Wales and 'Princess David' (as Uncle Ron Reagan called her) have taken Washington by storm. They are received with adulation wherever they go. They make a laughing stocks of republics. 

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Sunday November 10, 1985

Queen Mum: poppy the size of a dustbin lid.

 Moorhouse Inn, Leeds LS11 5NQ

Remembrance Sunday

Hawkins: awful.

Ally was flat out in bed all morning looking very pale and complaining of griping pains in her tummy. She has the bug I had earlier in the week. Samuel and I made a lot of noise and ate breakfast watching the Cenotaph ceremonies from Whitehall. Samuel found the marching a great joke, but the trumpeters appealed. The Queen, wearing that same old black overcoat, and the Queen Mother up on the balcony (with King Olav) wearing a poppy the size of a dustbin lid, Good old girl.

Tim Elmer's birthday. I don't have a clue how old he is. I went down at 12. Two hours of the Egan's 'grand tour' of Europe. _______. A slothful afternoon. Watched 'Eastenders' at 2. Ally laid upon the settee like a large, pink shrimp. We watched a noisy epic, with an Egyptian theme, featuring Jack Hawkins as the Pharaoh Khufu and Joan Collins as Princess Nellifer. Awful. No staff were planned for this evening , and we didn't of course account for Ally being ill, but Chris appeared at 8:30. A God send. Argued with Jack Collett and Harold about the monarchy and the history thereof. Poor H assumes that because a man was Duke of York (Wars of the Roses) that he was born and bred in the county.

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