_. Out to the Ostlers at lunchtime with Jacq. Saw Lynne Mather but we didn't speak. Well, it has been three years. Home in pouring rain at 5:30 to prepare myself for the party at Linda's.
To the Regent at Chapel Allerton with Lynn and Dave at 8:30. Sarah, Carol J, Marilyn, Beverley W, Sue, Pete, Chippy, Dave W, &c. Had a tremendous night with most people in party mood. Lynn didn't like the crowds but an injection of pernod did the trick.
All the Regent mob returned to the house party. From the outset Dave B was in great shape. I've worried about him for a while. He seems to have really quietened since his wedding. Sarah was on top form. We danced to Donna Summer and howled with laughter at everything. Jacq was sweet too.
Have you ever sipped pomagne from a frog-shaped shampoo bottle? I have. We also did some strange things with a rubber shower attachment from the bathroom. Lynn and Dave took Sarah home and I sat with Jacq until the first bus came at 7:30am. Pissing down with rain.
-=-
20170306
Friday April 6, 1979
_. Princess Michael of Kent gave birth to a son today. I had understood that the young Windsor would be 'Master [Christian name] Windsor, but I am wrong. The child will bear the courtesy title of 'Lord' before his name even though his father is not a peer and even though the Queen's own grandson is a 'master'. A ruling by King George V fifty years ago declared that great-grandchildren of the sovereign, in the male line, would rank as children of duke of England, or words to that effect. Lord 'Fred' Windsor is 16th in line of succession to the throne.
To Da Mario's on the Headrow at lunchtime with Sarah, Carol J and Eileen. I had no real appetite but had minestrone soup and a seafood pizza. Sarah has forgiven me now for passing on my germs. _________.
Jacq phoned and enquired about the party tomorrow. I wasn't very talkative. Too hungover. I didn't want to discuss the purchasing of cocktail sausages and tins of salmon. I left her saying I would speak tomorrow, when I hope to be functioning better.
-=-
To Da Mario's on the Headrow at lunchtime with Sarah, Carol J and Eileen. I had no real appetite but had minestrone soup and a seafood pizza. Sarah has forgiven me now for passing on my germs. _________.
Jacq phoned and enquired about the party tomorrow. I wasn't very talkative. Too hungover. I didn't want to discuss the purchasing of cocktail sausages and tins of salmon. I left her saying I would speak tomorrow, when I hope to be functioning better.
-=-
20170303
Thursday April 5, 1979
_. To work by omnibus ~ I missed Jim because of my birthday hangover. Did minimal work and devoured a coffee and walnut cake from fair Aunt Delia. Cards from Sarah and Eileen saying "to our favourite pain in the neck". I like it. I would like to be remembered as a favourite pain in the neck by everyone. Anything is better than blending in with the woodwork. Felt ghastly all day. At 12:30 I met Mum & Dad, Lynn and Dave at Len's Bar for drinks and sandwiches. Saran and Eileen came over for an hour but it was a very quiet affair. Dad was especially quiet because he came straight to Leeds from a colleague's funeral. Pall bearer for Albert Shaw to party-goer with Michael Rhodes. Lynn drank Pernod. Alison was the main subject of conversation once again. Lynn can be very vicious. I'm sure she's Yorkshire Light Aircraft's answer to Henry VIII.
On to Morrison's and then on to Lawn Road for drinks. Jim and Margaret came too. At 9 I joined Peter, Chippy, Dave W and Neil Addyman at the White Cross. Drank vast amounts of Pernod and lager and then went to Oakwood. Addyman was just back from skiing in Gstaad, or somewhere. Was drunk, but an uneventful night. Smoked lots of Embassy cigarettes and didn't dance with anyone. "Come on, it's your birthday!" didn't move me one bit. Home horribly late.
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On to Morrison's and then on to Lawn Road for drinks. Jim and Margaret came too. At 9 I joined Peter, Chippy, Dave W and Neil Addyman at the White Cross. Drank vast amounts of Pernod and lager and then went to Oakwood. Addyman was just back from skiing in Gstaad, or somewhere. Was drunk, but an uneventful night. Smoked lots of Embassy cigarettes and didn't dance with anyone. "Come on, it's your birthday!" didn't move me one bit. Home horribly late.
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20170302
Wednesday April 4, 1979
_. The party with John and Sheila continued today. Home from the YP and a few hours later they arrived once again with Valerie and Graham. Auntie Hilda arrived at 9 and Uncle Tony followed on at 11 with his Liberal agent, who was clad from head to foot in red corduroy ~ just the sort of clothes you'd expect to see a Liberal agent wearing. Oh, and why do people who meddle in local politics always wear suede shoes?
It was good to see Tony again. He looked pale and tired but this probably due to a combination of the coming election and the death of his mother. John and Tony made a good conversational combination, and Hilda was nice. It was an excellent pre-birthday party. They all sang "Happy Birthday" to me at midnight. We discussed politics. John laughed until he cried as I explained my reasons for preferring to live under the yoke of a right-wing dictatorship to a left-wing dictatorship.
Hilda made the statement that I am a "confirmed bachelor". In other words she thinks I'm a poof. I objected to this. I may currently be a single man, but dislike people pigeon-holing me. Drank until the early hours.
-=-
It was good to see Tony again. He looked pale and tired but this probably due to a combination of the coming election and the death of his mother. John and Tony made a good conversational combination, and Hilda was nice. It was an excellent pre-birthday party. They all sang "Happy Birthday" to me at midnight. We discussed politics. John laughed until he cried as I explained my reasons for preferring to live under the yoke of a right-wing dictatorship to a left-wing dictatorship.
Hilda made the statement that I am a "confirmed bachelor". In other words she thinks I'm a poof. I objected to this. I may currently be a single man, but dislike people pigeon-holing me. Drank until the early hours.
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Tuesday April 3, 1979
_. Auntie Hilda phoned today to say Karen and Steve are going out babysitting on Saturday and so we cannot have the Grand Gadsby-Rhodes reunion this time. Thwarted again. She told Mum that cousin Derek's wife, Jennifer, is expecting her second baby in November. Karen phoned at 7:30 to say we can all have the great gathering on April 14, which is the day before Easter. I readily agree, and communicate this news to Sue. Mum and Dad with Hilda and Tony are probably going to stay with Ruby and Arthur for Easter, and so the house at Pudsey will be void of parents and eligible for an orgy. Alison is also coming for Easter, and so she'll be included in the party. Gosh, I can hardly wait.
At about 8:30 in walked John and Sheila, from Lanzarote, with Valerie and her boyfriend Graham, a law student at Nottingham Polytechnic. It was such a surprise because we haven't seen them since Christmas, 1977, and following the boycotting of Lynn's wedding, I thought we'd seen the last of them.
Uncle John is just the same self-assured, suave businessman. He never has a penny but is always on the verge of making a fortune. The gold mine is always just around the corner. At 11pm they run Valerie and Graham to Harrogate, and then come back to stay the night with us. We discussed Lanzarote and our wayward, insane family. From Blackpool to Selby and from the Canary Isles to Stranraer we are making our mark on the world.
-=-
At about 8:30 in walked John and Sheila, from Lanzarote, with Valerie and her boyfriend Graham, a law student at Nottingham Polytechnic. It was such a surprise because we haven't seen them since Christmas, 1977, and following the boycotting of Lynn's wedding, I thought we'd seen the last of them.
Uncle John is just the same self-assured, suave businessman. He never has a penny but is always on the verge of making a fortune. The gold mine is always just around the corner. At 11pm they run Valerie and Graham to Harrogate, and then come back to stay the night with us. We discussed Lanzarote and our wayward, insane family. From Blackpool to Selby and from the Canary Isles to Stranraer we are making our mark on the world.
-=-
Monday April 2, 1979
_. Sarah is in a much better frame of mind. _____________. Queer weather we are having - snow, sunshine, rain, fog, and all in the space of half an hour. This did not deter me from pruning our roses trees this evening with my usual Percy Thrower-like gusto.
Jacq came at 7:30 to collect a dress from Motherdear and stayed until 11:30 watching a play about Martin Luther King on the TV. She seemed OK and we discussed the party next Saturday. I have said no to food, because the sausages and liver pate only gets trampled into the bedspreads and for weeks afterwards one tends to find peanuts and salmon sandwiches in inappropriate places. She agrees and decide to limit the function to just booze, and lots of it.
John phoned. They are coming down from Stranraer on April 11 because Maria is going for a scan to the Hyde Terrace Hospital. John is quite serious when he says it might be twins.
To bed at midnight with The Secret of Chimneys ~ and finish the book before slipping into a coma.
-=-
Jacq came at 7:30 to collect a dress from Motherdear and stayed until 11:30 watching a play about Martin Luther King on the TV. She seemed OK and we discussed the party next Saturday. I have said no to food, because the sausages and liver pate only gets trampled into the bedspreads and for weeks afterwards one tends to find peanuts and salmon sandwiches in inappropriate places. She agrees and decide to limit the function to just booze, and lots of it.
John phoned. They are coming down from Stranraer on April 11 because Maria is going for a scan to the Hyde Terrace Hospital. John is quite serious when he says it might be twins.
To bed at midnight with The Secret of Chimneys ~ and finish the book before slipping into a coma.
-=-
20170301
Sunday April 1, 1979
___. Passion Sunday.
Out of bed before lunchtime which is something of an achievement for me at weekends. At 11:30 Mum and Dad drove Sue, Pete and I to Burley where we met Lynn and Dave, Trevor and his wife, and went over to the Red Lion for a 'few' drinks. Lynn was of course knocking back Pernod. [Trevor is Dave's workmate with the beard who drank Crème de Menthe with ice on Dave's stag night. Do you remember?] We had a good session until 2 but I felt strangely quiet. We adjourned to Lynn and Dave's for lunch and I demolished a couple of bottles of wine. I created a sensation by lighting a fire in the grate which seemed to amuse everyone. I was always a good fire-maker.
Trevor and his nameless wife disappeared at 5 and Mum and Dad came shortly afterwards, from Threshfield, to take us home. I had a raging, thumping, sickly headache and 'Carmen' by Bizet on BBC2 didn't help.
By 9:30 I felt ill and retired to bed where I went out like a light and only stirred slightly when Dad popped his head round the door. It's a combination of booze and booze, I think. Ah well, it's April.
-=-
Out of bed before lunchtime which is something of an achievement for me at weekends. At 11:30 Mum and Dad drove Sue, Pete and I to Burley where we met Lynn and Dave, Trevor and his wife, and went over to the Red Lion for a 'few' drinks. Lynn was of course knocking back Pernod. [Trevor is Dave's workmate with the beard who drank Crème de Menthe with ice on Dave's stag night. Do you remember?] We had a good session until 2 but I felt strangely quiet. We adjourned to Lynn and Dave's for lunch and I demolished a couple of bottles of wine. I created a sensation by lighting a fire in the grate which seemed to amuse everyone. I was always a good fire-maker.
Trevor and his nameless wife disappeared at 5 and Mum and Dad came shortly afterwards, from Threshfield, to take us home. I had a raging, thumping, sickly headache and 'Carmen' by Bizet on BBC2 didn't help.
By 9:30 I felt ill and retired to bed where I went out like a light and only stirred slightly when Dad popped his head round the door. It's a combination of booze and booze, I think. Ah well, it's April.
-=-
Saturday March 31, 1979
_. Up at 10:30 in the smoke-filled, smelly dining room. The place resembles Winston Churchill's wartime bunker beneath Whitehall. Both Dad and David B are clad in blue boiler suits and puffing out cigar smoke like experimental beagle dogs in one of those cancer research centres. Had a bowl of porridge.
Went to Leeds with Sue & Peter. They really are my constant companions these days. Leeds was overcrowded. We had a couple of drinks at the Ostlers and, for my birthday, they bought me "New Boots and Panties" the Ian Dury LP. Pete bought a new squash racket and oddments of clothing. Back at home at 3:30 the LP refused to play and made a queer noise on the turn table and it rattled and shook. Oh dear.
Stayed at home this evening. Saw a film about General George S. Patton, the US war leader, and finally, at 11:20, "A Night at the Opera" featuring Groucho Marx and Co. Very hilarious.
Mum and Dad are the picture of domesticity, he rug making, and she knitting away.
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 |
| Ian Dury's New Boots and Panties ... |
Stayed at home this evening. Saw a film about General George S. Patton, the US war leader, and finally, at 11:20, "A Night at the Opera" featuring Groucho Marx and Co. Very hilarious.
Mum and Dad are the picture of domesticity, he rug making, and she knitting away.
-=-
Friday March 30, 1979
_. The Liberals have won Edge Hill from Labour in yesterday's by-election, but this news is overshadowed by a hideous crime committed outside the Houses of Parliament this afternoon. Airey Neave, the opposition spokesman for Northern Ireland and one of Mrs Thatcher's closest friends, was assassinated when his car was blown up in the MPs underground car park, at 3pm. He is the first MP to be murdered in the precincts of the Houses of Parliament since prime minister Spencer Perceval was shot there in 1812.
I was delayed at the YP because of Neave's murder and the shock really hit us all. It is a hideous, brutal crime against a good gentleman and MP. Mrs Thatcher cancelled a BBC broadcast scheduled for this evening and returned to her home broken and shattered. Will the loss of this close influential aide affect Mrs T's electioneering? We shall have to wait and see.
Ursula phoned tonight and said she had been speaking to a reporter at the scene. His description of the dead Mr Neave is almost too hideous to describe. The mans limbs had been torn off and his crumpled remains resembled a Guy Fawkes dummy.
Tonight: Out with Sue and Pete to the Shoulder. Joined by Chippy and Debbie. Went on to the White Cross. It was slightly better here. Met Naomi and Jill. Naomi told me she has bought Mick Orchard's house on Victoria Road. They are out next Thursday to celebrate my birthday.
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 |
| Airey Neave: like a Guy Fawkes dummy. |
I was delayed at the YP because of Neave's murder and the shock really hit us all. It is a hideous, brutal crime against a good gentleman and MP. Mrs Thatcher cancelled a BBC broadcast scheduled for this evening and returned to her home broken and shattered. Will the loss of this close influential aide affect Mrs T's electioneering? We shall have to wait and see.
Ursula phoned tonight and said she had been speaking to a reporter at the scene. His description of the dead Mr Neave is almost too hideous to describe. The mans limbs had been torn off and his crumpled remains resembled a Guy Fawkes dummy.
Tonight: Out with Sue and Pete to the Shoulder. Joined by Chippy and Debbie. Went on to the White Cross. It was slightly better here. Met Naomi and Jill. Naomi told me she has bought Mick Orchard's house on Victoria Road. They are out next Thursday to celebrate my birthday.
-=-
Thursday March 29, 1979
_. I have to be very diplomatic these days. Sue & Pete's squabbling makes the Thursday nights out with the lads a delicate and highly inflammable operation. So, at the YP, I decided to give tonight a miss and instead go to see Lynn & Dave at Burley. I made all the arrangements with Lynn, who was pleased because I have ignored the Lawn Road branch of the family in recent weeks.
Chippy phoned this afternoon and went berserk when I said no to the weekly Oakwood Hall jaunt. Foul language flowed from him like lava from Vesuvius, but I was not deterred from my path of righteousness.
Dave B picked me up at 5:30pm and we first went to John Little's where he collected £25 for a drawing job. Bessie Little was her usual, delightful self. On to Lawn Road where Lynn made a paella for us. She never eats. One day she will collapse with starvation in Yeadon.
Watched TV and bought alcohol from Beasley's. Saw a Humphrey Bogart epic on the BBC and then had a bet on tonight's parliamentary by-election. I bet that Labour will hold the seat, but Dave backed the Liberals. However, we switched off before the results came through.
-=-
Chippy phoned this afternoon and went berserk when I said no to the weekly Oakwood Hall jaunt. Foul language flowed from him like lava from Vesuvius, but I was not deterred from my path of righteousness.
Dave B picked me up at 5:30pm and we first went to John Little's where he collected £25 for a drawing job. Bessie Little was her usual, delightful self. On to Lawn Road where Lynn made a paella for us. She never eats. One day she will collapse with starvation in Yeadon.
Watched TV and bought alcohol from Beasley's. Saw a Humphrey Bogart epic on the BBC and then had a bet on tonight's parliamentary by-election. I bet that Labour will hold the seat, but Dave backed the Liberals. However, we switched off before the results came through.
-=-
Wednesday March 28, 1979
_. A revolting wet day. It's blowing a gale at the moment [12:15am 29/03/1979] .
Auntie Hilda is 43 today. Mum phoned her this morning. Mum suggested that they team up and go to Ruby and Arthur's together at Easter. H seemed to think this is a good idea.
Sarah has been a cow all day. ______________.
Susan and Peter went out for an Indian meal to celebrate their recovery from gastroenteritis. Oh God!
I have excellent news to relate here. At 10:30 tonight the government was defeated in the House of Commons on a vote of no confidence, by 311 to 310 votes. Old Callaghan will have to go to the country at last. The Queen will be asked to dissolve Parliament in the next few days and the general election campaign will begin. April 26 and May 10 are possible dates. It looks like Margaret Hilda Thatcher will be the first woman prime minister. One Labour MP missed the vote due to illness. I'd be interested to know who that was. His vote would have resulted in a tie and the Speaker would have cast the deciding vote with Her Majesty's Government. Angela Rippon was obviously beside herself with glee whilst reading the late news. It's obvious she is a 'true blue'. No government has been defeated in this way and subsequently fallen since Ramsay MacDonald's first Labour administration in 1924, and he was succeeded by Baldwin. Poor Jim Callaghan's 'Zinoviev Letter' is the failure of devolution ~ such a pathetic subject on which to risk all, don't you think?
Things will now hot up at the YP and the build up to the general election will be all good stuff. It's an exciting time. I really pity the poor people of Paraguay or Argentina, where elections of any kind are strictly taboo. They don't realise just what they are missing. ________.
Went to bed with Agatha Christie at 12:25am.
-=-
Auntie Hilda is 43 today. Mum phoned her this morning. Mum suggested that they team up and go to Ruby and Arthur's together at Easter. H seemed to think this is a good idea.
Sarah has been a cow all day. ______________.
Susan and Peter went out for an Indian meal to celebrate their recovery from gastroenteritis. Oh God!
I have excellent news to relate here. At 10:30 tonight the government was defeated in the House of Commons on a vote of no confidence, by 311 to 310 votes. Old Callaghan will have to go to the country at last. The Queen will be asked to dissolve Parliament in the next few days and the general election campaign will begin. April 26 and May 10 are possible dates. It looks like Margaret Hilda Thatcher will be the first woman prime minister. One Labour MP missed the vote due to illness. I'd be interested to know who that was. His vote would have resulted in a tie and the Speaker would have cast the deciding vote with Her Majesty's Government. Angela Rippon was obviously beside herself with glee whilst reading the late news. It's obvious she is a 'true blue'. No government has been defeated in this way and subsequently fallen since Ramsay MacDonald's first Labour administration in 1924, and he was succeeded by Baldwin. Poor Jim Callaghan's 'Zinoviev Letter' is the failure of devolution ~ such a pathetic subject on which to risk all, don't you think?
Things will now hot up at the YP and the build up to the general election will be all good stuff. It's an exciting time. I really pity the poor people of Paraguay or Argentina, where elections of any kind are strictly taboo. They don't realise just what they are missing. ________.
Went to bed with Agatha Christie at 12:25am.
-=-
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