Friday January 23, 1976

My financial situation isn't very good at the moment and we go to the Hare & Hounds with light-weight wallets and purses. (Carole isn't in a better monetary state either).

Peter M stormed out of the Hare after Chris told him he was going back out with Christine. I was chuffed to hear from Chris that I am responsible for getting them back together. Christine says she'll kill Pete if he doesn't stop acting so childishly, but I keep telling her that the poor lad is completely besotted.

Have no funds to go to a disco and have to fork out £2 for a camera for Linda's 21st tomorrow.

Carole and Maria are going to Leeds tomorrow morning so I'll be able to have a few hours extra in bed.

We come back to our place and watch a film and then sit talking until 3am. Lynn sat with us for ages chatting about her job. (She handed her notice in tonight, and her boss brought her home). I tell her she should go on the stage or screen. She'd make a brilliant actress. We all have a good laugh really.

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Thursday January 22, 1976

Booked my Spring holiday for May 3-10th. Carole and I, with Chris and Christine, are going to Worcester, all being well, and I can hardly wait to have yet another rave-up in Sacha's with all those cheap shorts.

Go to the Mecca in Bradford with Carole and her Mum & Dad on the Highroyds loony bin staff annual piss up. See Shelley Masterson with her husband Clive. Also see Barbara who isn't with Shelley & they seem to have fallen out. I hate the place and don't particularly like Mrs Phillips (she's rough). However, Carole and I have a good time which is spent rotating around the building sipping gin and orange which is abominably priced.

Home at 1.30 and leap straight into bed.

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Wednesday January 21, 1976

To the Hare & Hounds with Carole, John, Maria, Chris and Christine. Now that the two Cs are going out again it means that the whole of the 'happy family' are paired off with few exceptions.

For some reason Carole and I forget the squabbling and we get on like in olden times. Have the usual passionate scene at the bus stop and trot off home.

See the late current affairs programme 'Tonight'. A revolting old judge is blubbering away saying that most murders are 'accidental' and that no man really wants to kill another man. This loony has obviously sat in court with his eyes shut for the past 60 years, because even I know otherwise.

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Tuesday January 20, 1976

I ignored the alarm clock this morning and got up in a panic at 8.15. John drove me into Guiseley, and I managed, by some stroke of heavenly providence, to catch the 8.20 33 bus.

Do the indexing with Sarah all morning then complete the list of top christian names for 1975. I devoured piles of sandwiches for luncheon, and then showed Eileen how to file cuttings. So all in all, it's an industrious little day at the YP.

The weather is shocking at the moment. People are being crushed in freak winds and gales. The weather has all gone to cock in the past few years and I can forsee the day, not too far ahead, when Royal Ascot week in June is cancelled because of snow, and when temperatures reach 90F on Christmas Day.

I'm worried about the Carole affair. I would hate to hurt her in any way, but feel she is too dependent on me. I loathe responsibility of any kind and feel horror struck by the way she relies upon me for everything. I don't want to cut off our relationship completely, but wish I could have more freedom and time to go out seducing other nubile wenches. God! I am only 20. I don't want to be stuck with one woman at my time of life! Aaarrghh! Yes, I know I'm a hard hearted, vain, self-seeking swine, but at least I admit it. Lots of you would be ten times better off if you'd only accept your own faults and vices once every so often.

Go with Mum and Dad to the Commercial - and John of course. We have a goodf night. I wish we could go out in a family group more often than we do. Dad likes us to go out with him.

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Monday January 19, 1976

I'll be glad when Wednesday is over and done with and the 40,000th edition of the Yorkshire Post is out of the way. Sydney Burton and I have been buggering about with the old files now for what seems like months.

The 40,000th edition is on Wednesday which is the day before the 75th anniversary of Queen Victoria's demise, and the day after the 40th anniversary of the death of George V. It's a pity really that King George couldn't have hung on for an extra day, or on the other hand it's a shame that Queen Victoria didn't die a day earlier.

From 3pm until 5 I helped Sarah go through the YP birth columns for 1975 to discover the most popular christian names. James and Elizabeth are in the lead at the moment and I'm surprised really. Elizabeth doesn't seem particularly popular to me at all.

Kathleen says that she's been to the Henry Jenkins pub many years ago and remarks how nice it is and that it's a typical country pub.

Later: Carole rings me to say she thinks I want to finish with her and that I'm just being 'nasty' to make her finish with me first. Being a typical coward I cannot end it and say nothing when she keeps asking me if I want to stop seeing her. I inform her that I soon become bored and that I'm a restless, roving soul. She understands and concludes: "Oh, I am relieved that it's all settled and worked out for the best". Nothing is settled or worked out at all, as far as I can see.

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Sunday January 18, 1976

2nd Sunday after Epiphany. I wake at 11am and lay about in bed listening to the radio for an hour. John's bed is still in the same condition it was in at 2 o'clock this morning - unslept in, and I assume that he spent the night at Maria's.

Mum and Dad go off for the afternoon at 12 and Lynn and Dave follow in the same pattern shortly after.

Susan is down at Peter's, and I am left quite alone until Carole comes up at 3pm. I make bacon, sausages and toast for lunch and listen to records until 2, when an Erroll Flynn film based on the 1745 rebellion is screened on the BBC in glorious technicolour. Carole came at 3, and Sue and Peter followed shortly afterwards.

We didn't say much all day really. I can honestly say the more I see her the more I feel we should make a complete break of it. After all, six months is about as much as any man can stomach - when 20 years old anyway.

Miss Linda Smith rang at 6pm to warn me to be 'prompt' at her 21st birthday party on Saturday._________.

We (Carole and I) stay in to watch another film on the BBC and David takes her home at eleven o'clock. No doubt Carole had another good weep on Dave's shoulder when he dropped her at her house. I'll have to question him about it on the morrow.

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Saturday January 17, 1976

Up at 10.30 and do nothing at all all day. Carole comes up at 3 o'clock and we stick more photographs in our album. We then watch an Alastair Sim film on the TV and laughed with Dad at the corn of it all.

We then go for a walk and end up at Maria's to find her in hair curlers and looking hilarious. We leave 30 minutes later after coffee and biscuits. Carole returns to her place and I return home for tea.

I go to Carole's at 8pm and hear that her brother _____ was picked up on a stolen motor bike today, but Carole points no finger of chastisement in his direction and laughs off the whole thing. We go over to the Hare & Hounds tap room with Sue and Peter and stay until 10.30. Carole and I then go through to the lounge where Peter M offers to take us to Oakwood Hall. We go with Pete, Keith, Carol S, and CD. Have a good night, but argue again with Carole about nothing specific. We don't get on at all now and it's only a matter of days before the whole bulwark of our relationship will crumble and crash to the ground. I can't say I'll be sorry because it's been foolish the way I've ignored our differences over the months and we are like chalk and cheese together. Home at 2.30.

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