To the Bridge at Shawford and to an old book shop afterwards. At 3 we went to Alresford to buy Bessie a thimble and stand on which to display it. Tonight to the New Inn [where we bought Andrew a drink for fixing the car lights], and finally to the Horse and Groom where we cuddled.
-=-
Ally and I to Alresford looking at the shops. We bought a china bed pan and chamber pot for £1 each. We went to the Globe, and because of the early hour [11:30am] we sat outside surrounded by ducks, who disturbed Ally. She hates things that move. Then, to the Horse and Groom at the top of the High Street.
Back to the garden at Chillandham Cross. Frank and Bessie went out to dinner at Fordingbridge. Ally and I went out for a pizza at a deserted and characterless place in Winchester. We were the solitary diners, and sat upstairs. Later we walked in the cathedral grounds. It's eerie that nothing has changed for 900 years.
-=-
Ally and I shopping to Winchester. Does Bessie want a garden umbrella for her birthday or would that be a white elephant? We decided not to bother. Drove to the Bush at Ovington for lunch [yes, we are addicted to the place]. We had a ploughman's lunch in a corner. Watching the Hampshire debutantes with their glasses of bitter lemon.
England has no equal on a summers day when the temperature is 80 degrees F. This afternoon we sat beneath a tree drinking a large jug of Campari cocktail and writing ridiculous postcards to home.
This evening we had soup made from the Sunday roast lamb and Bessie and I shared a large trout. Delicious.
 |
| Dave, Lynn, & Frances |
-=-
Whit Sunday
 |
| The Mayfly. |
We discussed Dad's retirement and suggest a family gathering at Giovanni's with a blue iced cake inscribed with 'Let's Be 'Avin' You' or some other appropriate police inscription. Lynn was amused at this.
Lynn continues to 'borrow' Ally's summer dresses and can be found rummaging through her drawers.
This evening we went to the New Inn to meet Graham and Gill, and Michael Lynn. Ally in blue stripes looking like someone in Vogue.
-=-
I think we heard the news that we have taken Goose Green, but don't quote me.
-=-
 |
| Blenheim: orange. |
Our car was making a peculiar tapping noise, but we got to Martyr Worthy for 4:30. Lynn, Dave, and Frances arrived after 6. We ate pork at 10. Very tired. Frank came in pissed.
-=-
The captain of HMS Coventry is a brother-in-law of Richard Luce, MP, who resigned last month along with Lord Carrington at the start of the Falklands crisis. Funny, eh?
Pay day. Brought home £143 for two weeks, which isn't the sum I thought it would be. I have had a pay rise of about £6 before tax. Pathetic but acceptable in these trying times of war and recession.
I gave Geoff Hemingway another tip. Reuben Straker, of a Burke's Landed Gentry family, has become engaged to Sophie Kimball, once a flat-mate of the Princess of Wales. The Strakers hang out near York.
At home: excitment about our holiday. I seems such a long time since we had a break. Packed and went to bed reasonably early.
The Beaconsfield by-election took place today but I've seen nothing about it. The Falklands news has sunk the SDP as well as the General Belgrano.
-=-
Busy day. Weetabix again, but followed by toast with little butter because Ally is letting the 'pantry' run down for our absence in Winchester.
 |
| HMS Coventry |
Home at 6. Knackered. Poached eggs. I went out and put grey paint on the back windows, and watched Ally ironing, with the ghastly European Cup on the box. Went over to see our neighbour Norman at 8:30 and he took our roof rack off for me. I'm like a spastic at times. In at 9 for a lager and watched a grim 9 o'clock news. Saw the captain of the [HMS] Sheffield speaking for the first time and it was heart rending.
-=-
Ally and I sat eating Weetabix and listening to the pathetic Mike Read on Radio One. That was after I persuaded her to climb out of bed. I thought I was bad on a morning but compared with Ally I'm a Margaret Thatcher.
To the YP late and I marched in offering no excuses. __________. Took a walk at lunchtime and intended going to the reference library to look at the 1881 census, but ran out of time. Passed the afternoon tearing up old files.
Home at 6. Dull and threatening rain. David L phoned and made a flying visit to collect his bottles, minus his friend 'Knocker'. Elaine Allinson, something of an expert in the finer points of sexuality, has declared that 'Knocker' is homosexual.
Poor Tim has taken a turn for the worse and is now on Ward 16 at the LGI, with a 'crushed heel'. [Sounds like a cheap cut of meat]. I tried to phone Jill and Hilda after 9 but had no response.
Watched a documentary on the Pope. I do wish he'd stay in Rome.Switching off the TV to come to bed at 10:30 I saw the Ministry of Defence spokesman, Ian McDonald, announcing the loss of another warship, but not Hermes or Invincible.
-=-
Falklands: The EP says we 'invaded' the islands on Friday. Explain how does one 'invade' ones own territory? Anyway, in we went , and we've formed something called a 'bridgehead'. HMS Ardent and HMS Antelope have been lost. Meanwhile, the public are flocking around the PM and treating her like a lesser Queen Mother. At Chequers yesterday the schoolchildren were out in force thrusting forth flowers, &c.
David Middleton came from Kitchen Studios and we said yes to his scheme. I gave him a cheque for £50, and he wants another £277 before June 10.
Graham Smith phoned tonight to say Charlotte had given birth to a daughter, Isobel Clara, on May 21, at 2:30am. Eileen phoned Sarah too this morning to say she had given birth to a son, Daniel Paul, also on Friday, Ally's birthday. Babies seem to dominate.
Egg and chips for dinner. Billy Wright phoned at eleven just as we were getting into bed. He was pissed and making no sense, and speaking from the Robin Hood.
Did you know that Francis Pym is descended from the Earls of Leven & Melville and the Lords St John of Bletso?
-=-
Stayed late in bed. Up and moved bottles to the cellar. We consumed 30 bottles on Friday! Damp and humid. Didn't go out to paint the back windows until after 4. Had lamb for dinner.
Ally watched a ridiculous Agatha Christie film based on the book 'Ten Little Niggers', but no doubt due to pressure from the likes of Lord Scarman it 's now 'Ten Little Indians'. Pathetic.
Watched an interview with the Duke of Edinburgh on the BBC at 10:30. Such silly questions. 'What's your opinion of the Crucifixion, Sir?' Does the BBC think he's the bloody Pope? And on the subject of the Pope I'm saying nothing. The devious little man has apparently deferred his decision on whether to come to Britain in June, handing over the responsibility to our RC bishops. Talk about Pontius Pilate. This pontiff may be the darling of the media, but I have my doubts.
-=-
Hideous. Up at 10. Gave coffee to the two Davids and 'Knocker', and they left at 11 looking worse for wear. We took Glynnie to Leeds and said goodbye at 1pm. On to Valley Road to see poor Timothy, who was encased in pot. On to see Auntie Mabel. Her friend Eveline Falkingham died on Tuesday. She was very upset, but looks at it in the right way. 'We all have to go one day'. Poor Mabel. She's all alone again. Auntie took us to Pudsey Market and Safeways, or somewhere, and we bought kidneys and bits of dead sheep. Home for the evening knackered.
-=-
Ally is twenty four today. I was awake at 6 feeling festive and not wishing to return to the land of nod. We squealed with delight like children. I brought a tray upstairs with boiled eggs and toast and a bottle of fizz [Pomagne]. Ally opened presents. I gave her the Soft Cell LP 'Non Stop Erotic Cabaret' and Simple Minds 'Promised You a Miracle' plus mounds of toiletry requisites for the bath and under arms, and blue plastic earrings &c. The book 'Therese Raquin' by Zola and Agatha Christie's 'Evil Under the Sun'. Bessie sent £10 and Mum a fiver.
To Guiseley and stole Mum's glasses for the party. On to Leeds and spent three hours in the shops. Hideous. Nowhere could she find size three shoes.
Met Glynnie at 3 after a swift one in Jacomelli's. Went to Da Mario's running through torrential rain. We sheltered on the way in Dacre Son & Hartley and saw Jacq.
Home at 5. Glynnie advised Ally on the making of her Quiche Lorraine. Glynnie and I went out to the mysterious Staircase Bar where he expected to find tarts but in fact the place is full of aquaria and OAPs. We left at 8 disappointed. Ally, a bombshell in a new blue mini-dress and blue earrings. Tragedy struck though when Karen phoned to say that Tim had fallen off a roof in York and had broken his leg. He and Jill didn't materialise.
Guests: Sue, Pete, Lynn, Dave, Glynnie, Dave & Elaine Allinson, Karen, Steve, Di, Paul, with some friends, Jacq, Jackie, Barry [who was violently sick], Dave L and 'Knocker' Knowles, his 17 year-old friend, who wore a suit, and looked like President Galtieri. ___________. Dave L gave Ally fireworks which he wanted to ignite at 1am, but we refused to let him. 'Knocker' played all my records with typical teenage bravado, and his presence irritated Ally. Sadly, my reports of parties are always bitty because I recall very little. Glynnie was with Sue all night ~ they are very close. He took to his bed at 3am to escape Dave and 'Knocker' and the idiotic conversation.
-=-
Ascension Day
To the Co-op. Bought party food and then set to making a party. I made a mackerel pâté. Ally thought about a quiche lorraine but decided to leave it until tomorrow. Re-arranged the chairs, selected the music, squirted cream onto trifles until almost midnight.
I read with interest an article in today's Times by Robert Muldoon the New Zealand PM. It is sickening to think that such a good spirit talks such sense from the southern hemisphere when people at home like Michael Foot and Tony Benn would desert the Falklands and creep away from British territory as if it didn't matter. The Labour party members should be forcibly deported to the South Atlantic. Bed after 12.
-=-
Sarah worries who will pay the mortgage when Trevor is called upon to sail with the Task Force to the South Atlantic. ________.
Ally ran a gauntlet of pickets at Chestnut House. Both NUPE and COHSE are grousing about pay and Ally, not being a member of either union, is stuck in the middle. She waited at the office with a few of the girls until a suitably sized 'task force' was assembled and then they marched through 'the big men with sticks' to the safety of the works department. Sit over dinner tonight listening to Ally's dramatic account of the latest industrial dispute.
'Coronation Street'. Ally put Jacobean wood dye on the front [and indeed only] door. The rain prevented a show of labour on my part.
Mum and Dad arrived in Portorož, Yugoslavia, today.
-=-
Ally spoke to Bessie, in lieu of Frank, and they talked about the tattooed kitchen man. Frank was out at Rotary Club and couldn't speak before 11. Ally cannot possibly stay awake so long. He has taken a close look at Kitchen Studios, and when he is satisfied all is well we'll have to go ahead. £1600 isn't too much, is it? __________.
Stephen Sanderson is twenty four today. He phoned this evening asking us to join them for drinks at the Stansfield Arms, Apperley Bridge. We went. The barmaid was stone deaf and the place cold and unfriendly. Steve wanted to move on to the George and Dragon but we had to wait for Tony, who was in a meeting. Hilda came in with Jill and Tim. Discussed the Falklands. Steve says they'll never land [the British that is], but I hold the view that the prime minister will not call a halt now. Hilda told me of their visit to Buckingham Palace where Diane received a Duke of Edinburgh Gold Award, not from HRH's hands, but he was present. Hilda says Prince Philip is only a tiny man. I'm sure he's 5' 10ins, or even more. On to the George & Dragon and then back to Wilsby where we admired Tony's parabolic archway separating the dining and sitting rooms. Home at 12.
-=-
Rogation Sunday
Unable to get out of bed until after 2pm. Ally kept coming into the bedroom and looking solemnly down at me. She was making busy downstairs and eventually I struggled down and played with some paint on the windows. At 6:30 a horrbile little man bedecked in tattoos came in and talked about making us a new kitchen. It was a far cry from Kitchen Studios. He made a pitiful drawing and went away leaving us despondent. It is going to cost us £2,000.
Mum and Dad left for Yugoslavia on a coach at 7:30am and they are staying somewhere in France tonight.
-=-
Went into town and bought baby Christopher a china mug and egg cup from Rackham's. I painted before going into Bradford, and again afterwards. To Guiseley at 6:30 and sat with large whiskies in jovial spirits with Mum & Dad. The subject of John and Maria was only lightly touched upon ________. On to see Sue and Peter. Sue wearing a mini skirt. Peeped at the baby. A gathering of both clans ~ including Pamela and the elderly Peter. Much drink. Home at a disgusting hour.
-=-
Moorhouse Inn, Leeds, LS11 5NQ If I miss the YP for anything it is that daily morning scan of the national newspapers. I do not have time fo...
