Monday June 8, 1981

Haworth.

 _.Up at 8. We phoned our respective places of employment pleading illness. We took a leisurely breakfast, and phoned Mum at 10. I didn't want her phoning the office to be told I was at home in bed. We packed a picnic of egg mayonnaise sandwiches and went to Haworth at 12 for a tranquil afternoon at the 'Bronte Waterfalls'. A peaceful walk on the moors with my love disturbed only by schoolchildren squealing at the falls. We looked at the shops, and returned to Guiseley.

To Rawdon at 5:15 for a session with my bearded, garlic smelling dentist. Just a clean and polish and it cost me £3. Ally, sat in the waiting room saw Mr Miller, one of the AHA bosses, and so hid behind a four year old edition of Horse & Hound. On to Guiseley.

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Sunday June 7, 1981

 _. Whit Sunday

To St Wilfred's Church, Lidget Green at 10:30 to hear the Banns on our marriage spoken by Mr Nudds, the vicar. He preached very solemnly from the pulpit, booming through his microphone of the perils of drug abuse and a tale of a Thalidomide child. Home at 11:30 for bacon and eggs.

Rachel, Anne and Penny.

After a soak and a change of clothes we walked to Chellow, armed with a bottle of Papa's apple wine, to Rachel Judson's afternoon party. Her live-in boyfriend Garry is a caterer and the display of food looked like something from the Savoy. A large salmon, turkey, &c. Some bitchiness enused between Rachel's Halifax friends and YP ladies. The Halifax girls all resembled desert island castaways, in shorts, with lots of tanned, bare flesh. Penny Wark likened the tans to 'gravy browning'. Evidently I provided some musical accompaniment to an old, scratched Abba LP, but this was after 9 when everyone seemed to be staggering drunk. Rachel was quite overcome by it all. I've always said she is a little girl at heart. This afternoon for instance she was in her kitchen sobbing because she thought nobody was enjoying the party. Eileen and Steve Burnip were fun, as was Gavin Summers. We staggered back home after 10, and in pouring rain, and sat by the fire in a state of undress listening to Dohnányi's 'Theme on a Nursery Song'. Hot toast and tea, and decide to skip work tomorrow.

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Saturday June 6, 1981

 _. Because I am so rarely at home I find that compiling this journal is becoming more and more difficult. 

Ally and I had a fruitless day in Leeds drifting aimlessly around the shops. Saw 'Mrs Slocombe' and her sister Wendy. We went into the Ostlers chiefly to allow Ally to answer the call, or perhaps the scream, of nature. Obviously, we didn't leave the pub without sampling its excellent ales.

The afternoon was a catastrophe from start to finish. I had no enthusiasm for spending money, or more correctly, the bank's money. Ally took exception to my reticence. I did succumb to a pair of trousers costing £26 in Primo's. They're a bit military looking, not out of place on Moshe Dayan.

Back to Club Street. I made a Spanish omelette. First though I had to march down the High St looking for red peppers and onions. We went to see the Rev Calvin Ward at Esholt at 7. We had a full-scale wedding rehearsal - quite beautiful. He was so enthusiastic and cheerful, as if it was his first wedding. Back to Pine Tops. Mum packed me up with bacon and eggs, &c, and at 12 we returned to Club St.

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Friday June 5, 1981

 _. Boring day at the YP. I cannot go on much longer. I am quite wasted doing what I'm doing. Thoroughly wasted. Sarah was so very happy about her invitation. I chastised her for not telling me sooner of the canceled Scottish trip.

Home at 6. No sign of Mum and Dad. They were out all evening at the Stonehouse compiling an inventory. This afternoon they visited an accountant in Harrogate.

Ally came for tea. Just beans, eggs, &c. To the Cow & Calf Hotel to discuss a few minor details with the management. You know, table flowers, wine &c. Took the wedding cake to be iced at Mrs Rusby's. She has a poor spastic daughter who must be my age. An only child too. Visited Lynn and Dave too, and baby Frances was frantically sucking upon a dummy.

At the office I picked up some free tickets for a late showing at the ABC Cinema, Leeds tonight, for 'The Exterminator' starring endless obscure actors, and Samantha Eggar, an almost obscure actress. I phoned Dave L and told him to be outside the cinema at 10:30. He complied with this request. It was a very poor film but amusing in places where probably it shouldn't have been. Would have felt robbed if I'd payed money to see it. Back to Bradford at 12:30.

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Thursday June 4, 1981

 _. Feeling frivolous I bought two rump steaks and went to Bradford at 5. I now have my own key you know. I let myself into the empty house. Ally was at the hairdresser having her hair permed in readiness for the wedding. She was back looking extremely bonnie at 6:30, and we dined at 7. 

Bessie: 59.

My future mother-in-law, Bessie, is 59 today. It's a year since we had a mad four or five days in Winchester. The trip to Windsor and the t-bone steak there still makes my mouth water. And I'll always remember a sun-tanned Ally on Itchen Downs, a poppy arranged sexily behind one ear.

Afterwards we watched the increasingly snowy TV. Sarah has announced that she and Delia are not now away in Scotland on our wedding day. Communicating this to Ally she immediately phoned Bessie to add them to the guest list. I phoned Delia, who almost burst into tears saying she and Sarah had been quite 'heart broken' at the thought of missing the wedding. Obviously, Trevor is now on the list too.

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Wednesday June 3, 1981

 _. Sarah appeared at the office wearing an engagement ring.

Ally came this evening and so too did Hilda and Tony. We debated, at length, the pros and cons of having an Access card, and the suitability of Lady Diana as a royal bride. Auntie Hilda is a comic. She can be very 'dead pan'. Tony attempted to rope Dad into attending a Rotary Club dinner in October. Obviously, Dad can never commit. The Gadsbys had been to see baby Frances before landing with us. 

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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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