Tuesday June 3, 1980

_. Hot day. Ally collected me at 5 in a heavily laden car and we headed down the M1 to Northamptonshire. By 7:30 we were in Towcester and in a pub called the Something Old Oak [Brave Old Oak?]. The service was appalling. The bar staff consisted of one long haired paraplegic with a club foot, and he couldn't add up. Our scampi and chips were late and disappointing.

We arrived at Martyr Worthy at about midnight. Frank Dixon is hospitalised some miles away at Chandler's Ford, awaiting for an op for the removal of a kidney stone. We sat with chocolate cake and coffee. I was put in a bedroom with Andrew and we lay awake talking about his activities. Ally, in the next room, could hear us and expressed amazement at the way I can converse with her 'impossible' brother.

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Monday June 2, 1980

_. Out with Ally to [1] the Cow & Calf, [2] the New Inn, and [3] the Drop. Home at 10, I packed up some belongings and piled them into the Spitfire in readiness for our departure for Martyr Worthy tomorrow.

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Sunday June 1, 1980

_. Trinity Sunday

Dave G is worried about the Ibiza holiday and the fact that women are in the party. I have the impression that he thinks this will spoil things. He only ever sees Ally when she is crazy and giving one of her fine 'Mrs Rochester' performances.

At 9:30am Dave G and I took off for Leeds to join the party from the EP making their annual 'father's day' excursion to Blackpool. This party also includes females for the first time, and notable in this field are Sarah, Lynne Bateson, Penny Wark, and Nicola Gould. It was a hot day at the seaside. We lost Sarah and Lynne on our way to the fairground, and Dave and I were with Ken Yeadon and Dave Pitts for the day. I took a dip in the sea, and gashed my leg on a rock, and told everyone I'd been the victim of a shark attack. The bus took us on to Skipton, as tradition dictates, to the Albion at 7:30 and we supped until 10:30 there. Sat with Penny and Paul. We had fun time with a pair of magnetic frogs. We sang ourselves hoarse coming home.

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Saturday May 31, 1980

_. Very wet day. Went with Dave G, Sue and Pete to daub paint on the master bedroom at 23, West End Terrace. We were joined by Chippy and Dave W, and very soon after we escaped to the White Cross for a 'lunch break'. Ally, Sue, Lynn and Dave B didn't appreciate this dereliction of duty. In fact Ally arrived just as we were exiting the house and I greeted her with a 'we're off to the pub'. Back at the house we painted until 6.

Out later to the White Cross and New Inn with Ally, Dave G, Sue, Pete, Dave W and Chippy. Back to Pine Tops at 11:30.

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Friday May 30, 1980

_. A healthy day considering we had the usual disgusting Thursday night. Hot day. Met Dave G from his train at 5:10pm and we walked across town to the Eagle on North St to be the first on the scene for Paul Vallely's farewell party. We crossed the threshold at 5:30 and remained until almost eleven in an assorted company ranging from the sweet Penny Wark to the mercenary, and tarty _______, fresh from a the Halifax Gossip or whatever, and a sordid affair with the exiled Lord Kagan. Spent some time chatting about the village of Dent with Geoff Winter, who was in the company of his common-law niece, Sue Tirpitz. Such a pleasant, drunken night. Onward to Paul's house at 11 with Dave, Penny and her boyfriend Paul, from Southampton. It was good to see Steve Sharp again. We stayed until one and we got a lift to Guiseley with the kindly John MacMurray [the best man Sarah Collis found and gave up]. He gave me a copy of Nasty Media's 'Spiked Copy'.

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Thursday May 29, 1980

_. Oak Apple Day

Sitting at my desk this morning my thoughts turned to Charles the Second on this, his 350th birthday. Sad that I found no sprig of oak to adorn my person on this occasion. He [Charles] hid in the boughs of an oak on this day in 1651 following his defeat at the Battle of Worcester. Until the mid Victorian period 'Oak Apple Day' was a day of celebration, but it's now largely forgotten.

To Ally's for steak this evening. She met me at 4:30 in Leeds [she'd been in town buying a birthday present for Catherine]. We went on to Rue Club via Pine Tops allowing me to gather a few personal effects to carry on to Bradford. After dinner we went to Oakwood Hall. A dull night really. The bar staff were serving dry Martini in a one sixth of a gill measure instead of the proper one third of a gill measure, and to make matters worse a fight broke out between a guy who looked like one of the Bee Gees and a skinhead type, and all because of a misplaced ice-cube. Home to Rue Club at 2:30. Bed. Lemonade.

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Wednesday May 28, 1980

_. Derek Naylor thinks that perhaps the Queen Mother is a bastard. I must have mellowed with the passing years because in times gone by I would have called Naylor out to fight a duel, or reeled in nausea. But Derek makes his comments in such a way that one cannot help but smile.

Ally is unwell. Her stomach is at fault. She slept through two hours of constant bombardment from me on the phone. She came over to ours at 5 to dine with Mama and Papa. No sooner had she eaten that she felt ill, again, and took to a bed in Sue's room for a couple of hours, leaving me with the journals of William Bagshaw Stevens.

Watched a Swedish epic [with sub-titles] on BBC2, and retired to bed with Stevens.

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