_.I phoned Auntie Mabel to tell the news about Catherine's birth.
Tonight JPH came to tea and stayed until 8:30. He refused to touch his fish fingers and chips, and only wanted biscuits and could hardly contain himself when he eventually had his way. His little head peeping over the table with his cheeks bulging. Afterwards he played football in the garden, and filled his toy digger with soil. We went over to the park and did a circular tour. I pointed out a large, fat blackbird, and he asked: "should we kill him?" Ally and I took him back to Ridgeway and then went on to Lynn and David's to get a run down on Christine & Graham's wedding. ___________.
Ally and I returned from Burley entertained, but under the impression that nobody is without criticism tonight. Lynn complained about everyone and everything. I, according to my sisters, have no feelings whatsoever. Bless her.
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20181123
Monday June 25, 1979
_. After the YP I went over to Carol J's house of ill-repute for three hours of wallpaper hanging in her bathroom. More or less finishing off the work I started in March. The tatty, smelly flat is filled with our feline playmates of the cat variety. Four of them in fact. The place resembles a low class safari park. Home at 9.
I am staggered at the cheek of Mr Eamonn Burke. He phoned Sarah to ask for Ally's phone number in Bradford, and then asked for my home phone number. He cannot now fit Ally into his diary for this week. ___________.
I am staggered at the cheek of Mr Eamonn Burke. He phoned Sarah to ask for Ally's phone number in Bradford, and then asked for my home phone number. He cannot now fit Ally into his diary for this week. ___________.
20181120
Sunday June 24, 1979
To bed at breakfast time. Slept until I was rudely awakened by the phone at 2pm. Unfortunately I couldn't get to pick up in time and so the identity of the caller remains a mystery. Both Ally and I are hideously hung over and in no fit state to receive visitors, but this is what is inflicted upon us in the shape of Martyn and Therese. He brought my ring back, now embellished with one solitary garnet for which I paid him £5. __________. It was a very uncomfortable visit. The blinding pain in my head didn't help. I wanted some Anadin pills, but the child lock on the bottle got the better of me.
John phoned. He says the baby looks like a Macdonald, has long legs, and no eye brows. She is to be called Catherine Elizabeth Mary. Maria's Mum, Molly, is really Mary Catherine, and Maria's sister is Elizabeth, and so there you have the connection. Jim and Molly have travelled up to Dumfries, taking JPH with them.
At 10:15 Maria phoned me from her hospital bed. She chatted for a while and sounded fine. She told Sue that she wants to be back in Stranraer next week. To bed at 1am after seeing a Peter Lorre film from 1930 about a Berlin child-killer. Quite boring really. Ally is quite adamant that she's going out with Eammon Burke on Tuesday. I am bloody furious.
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John phoned. He says the baby looks like a Macdonald, has long legs, and no eye brows. She is to be called Catherine Elizabeth Mary. Maria's Mum, Molly, is really Mary Catherine, and Maria's sister is Elizabeth, and so there you have the connection. Jim and Molly have travelled up to Dumfries, taking JPH with them.
At 10:15 Maria phoned me from her hospital bed. She chatted for a while and sounded fine. She told Sue that she wants to be back in Stranraer next week. To bed at 1am after seeing a Peter Lorre film from 1930 about a Berlin child-killer. Quite boring really. Ally is quite adamant that she's going out with Eammon Burke on Tuesday. I am bloody furious.
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Saturday June 23, 1979
John phoned and woke us at 10am with the news that Maria had given birth to a baby girl at 6:30 this morning. Both are well. The little mite weighed in at four and a half pounds. He was very tired and overjoyed. I have a tiny, little niece!
Phoned Auntie Hilda who says she is going out to buy pink wool. I tried to speak to Auntie Mabel but got no response.
A wet thundery day. Mum and Dad phoned at lunchtime. I exclaimed: "Well, hello, granddad". He was so excited and had no idea the baby had arrived. "Come on then, which is it?" Mum was thrilled but so frustrated to be down in Devon.
Sue and Pete went out at 8:30 and at 9 Ally and I went to the New Inn at Headingley, and then the Regent at Chapel Allerton. Jacq was in the Regent with her new fellow house mate and Sarah was with Richard Burke, Carol J and Marilyn Wheeler, &c. We went back to Jacq's where I spoke to Cheryl up from London. She began lecturing me about relationships and asked me not to be put off by her, or afraid of her! ____________. By about 4am things got a bit silly and Jacq poured beer all over me. _____________. Paul calmed us down and the dance music on the record player was replaced by Debussy's Clair De Lune, the 'Wedding March' by Mendelsohn, and the bloody Elizabethan Serenade for Chrissake. Eammon Burke was chatting up Ally and invited her out next Tuesday. He told her that her brown eyes were the most beautiful he'd ever seen. Pass the sick bag.
The sun was shining brilliantly by 8am, and we were still drinking. Paul, Jacq, Ally and I were discussing something now lost in the mist of alcohol. A neighbour, clad in the regalia of a bus conductor, came over and told us to keep the noise down. Perhaps he'd been watching us with binoculars. I had now changed into a 'House of Holroyd' shirt because my own clothes had been destroyed by Jacq's fury. She went up to bed and Ally and I drove home.
Phoned Auntie Hilda who says she is going out to buy pink wool. I tried to speak to Auntie Mabel but got no response.
A wet thundery day. Mum and Dad phoned at lunchtime. I exclaimed: "Well, hello, granddad". He was so excited and had no idea the baby had arrived. "Come on then, which is it?" Mum was thrilled but so frustrated to be down in Devon.
Sue and Pete went out at 8:30 and at 9 Ally and I went to the New Inn at Headingley, and then the Regent at Chapel Allerton. Jacq was in the Regent with her new fellow house mate and Sarah was with Richard Burke, Carol J and Marilyn Wheeler, &c. We went back to Jacq's where I spoke to Cheryl up from London. She began lecturing me about relationships and asked me not to be put off by her, or afraid of her! ____________. By about 4am things got a bit silly and Jacq poured beer all over me. _____________. Paul calmed us down and the dance music on the record player was replaced by Debussy's Clair De Lune, the 'Wedding March' by Mendelsohn, and the bloody Elizabethan Serenade for Chrissake. Eammon Burke was chatting up Ally and invited her out next Tuesday. He told her that her brown eyes were the most beautiful he'd ever seen. Pass the sick bag.
The sun was shining brilliantly by 8am, and we were still drinking. Paul, Jacq, Ally and I were discussing something now lost in the mist of alcohol. A neighbour, clad in the regalia of a bus conductor, came over and told us to keep the noise down. Perhaps he'd been watching us with binoculars. I had now changed into a 'House of Holroyd' shirt because my own clothes had been destroyed by Jacq's fury. She went up to bed and Ally and I drove home.
Friday June 22, 1979
Out with Ally, Sue and Pete to the Crown at Yeadon, the Dog and Gun at Apperley Bridge, and the Commercial at Esholt. Ally is miserable and puts it down to a common female affliction. The first two hostelries were drab but at the Commercial we relaxed and laughed. The hilarity was due to the amount of booze we'd put down. At 10:45 we returned to Pine Tops to watch a Monty Python movie from 1972. They ate takeaways from the Chinese and I wept like a baby at the antics of John Cleese & co. Afterwards we clowned around in the garden, or perhaps I should say Pete and I did, and our frivolity resulted in me lobbing the refuse from the Chinese takeaway into the garden next door. Peter rolled around laughing, but Susan screamed and shouted like dear Mama would do. After our garden frolic Sue dragged Pete up to bed and Ally and I fell into the dining room with Rachmaninov, Stevie Wonder and the Three Degrees. We found a bottle of something called 'Ginora' which we drank, and then discussed our relationship. ______________. Once again the tittle tattle of others is spoiling my life.
-=-
-=-
Thursday June 21, 1979
Overcast and damp. Mum phoned me at the office to say they are going to Devon for about a week, and then probably go on to Scotland to see John and Maria. Maria phoned John this morning to say she was having labour pains again. Meanwhile, JPH is at Molly and Jim's for some unspecified period of time.
Had a bath at 5:30 and an hour later Ally and I bombed over the moor to Burley-in-Wharfedale to have dinner with Lynn and David. Ally produced a bottle of wine and we ate like starving fiends. Afterwards we walked over to inspect Dave's allotment and to see them both inspecting the potato plants and clucking hens was a tonic. It goes to show that life can still be happy, simple and uncomplicated and not at all devious and dirty as is so often portrayed on the centre court at Wimbledon or in the Old Bailey. From the allotment we marched to the Red Lion for a couple of drinks, but due to our pathetic financial status we couldn't go full-out and cast caution to the wind as we so often do. Lynn is beaming and glowing like a miner's lamp. Back to Lawn Road for coffee and discuss the ghastly topic of house buying. I'll never be able to afford even a humble garage, let alone a crumbling semi-detached. Home at 11:30pm.
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Had a bath at 5:30 and an hour later Ally and I bombed over the moor to Burley-in-Wharfedale to have dinner with Lynn and David. Ally produced a bottle of wine and we ate like starving fiends. Afterwards we walked over to inspect Dave's allotment and to see them both inspecting the potato plants and clucking hens was a tonic. It goes to show that life can still be happy, simple and uncomplicated and not at all devious and dirty as is so often portrayed on the centre court at Wimbledon or in the Old Bailey. From the allotment we marched to the Red Lion for a couple of drinks, but due to our pathetic financial status we couldn't go full-out and cast caution to the wind as we so often do. Lynn is beaming and glowing like a miner's lamp. Back to Lawn Road for coffee and discuss the ghastly topic of house buying. I'll never be able to afford even a humble garage, let alone a crumbling semi-detached. Home at 11:30pm.
-=-
20180620
Wednesday June 20, 1979
_. A revolting hangover today. Annie & Arthur Greenhoff returned to Mexborough and obscurity, and we rolled around on the lawn drinking cheap, fizzy plonk. Lynn & David had stayed the night, and it was she who organised the booze on the lawn. The idea hadn't entered my head.
Alison slept on the lawn from lunchtime until 6pm, making the occasional grunting sound and hideous slurping noises.
Mum and Dad seem sublimely happy. They have given each other rings. I smile at Papa because he keeps holding out his hand to admire the golden adornment. Mum had said that she would not buy him a ring until he promised to give up the hideous habit of nail biting, but she has obviously given up all hope.
Had fish and chips. Went out to cut the lawns. The grass was flat and yellow where Lynn had been sitting. The patch looked as though eighty tons of pig iron had been resting upon it for six months. It is, I know, an uncharitable comment to make about my blooming, rotund sister, but true.
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Alison slept on the lawn from lunchtime until 6pm, making the occasional grunting sound and hideous slurping noises.
Mum and Dad seem sublimely happy. They have given each other rings. I smile at Papa because he keeps holding out his hand to admire the golden adornment. Mum had said that she would not buy him a ring until he promised to give up the hideous habit of nail biting, but she has obviously given up all hope.
Had fish and chips. Went out to cut the lawns. The grass was flat and yellow where Lynn had been sitting. The patch looked as though eighty tons of pig iron had been resting upon it for six months. It is, I know, an uncharitable comment to make about my blooming, rotund sister, but true.
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Tuesday June 19, 1979
_. Mum & Dad's Silver wedding day dawned to brilliant blazing sunshine. Laid, as I was, on the settee, I could hear the chinking of glasses and slurping of champagne at 9am. What a good start.
It was Alison who provided the Moet & Chandon and some silver goblets to boot. Breakfasted with the happy couple and Annie and Arthur, who are terrible bores. Their sole topic of conversation is centred upon Barry, their son and heir, and after several hours it becomes infuriating. We made for the garden and lounged until noon.
Dave G phoned to say he has eventually secured a night off and would be arriving at about 3. To the Commercial with Mum, Dad, Annie, Arthur and Ally, who managed to secure a half-day. Not a particularly exciting session. Arthur Greenhoff is the image of the bottom slapping dwarf on the Benny Hill Show. All the women naturally think that he, Arthur, is a dirty old man. Home at 2 to sprawl upon the lawn. Dave arrived with very sad news. His cat is dead. Dad, an expert on matters feline, says the peculiarity of cats is that they are very hardy creatures, but at the hint of a virus - bang - they're off.
Out at 7pm to the Yorkshire Rose. About thirty couples converged for the nostalgic trip down memory lane. I cannot possibly mention them all. Uncle Arnold and dear Auntie Janet, Hilda, Tony, Mabel, Marlene and Frank, my great-aunt Annie Kirk, Pauline Walker (Mum's large and immoral bridesmaid) the Nasons, and a host of others. I became horribly drunk and made a spectacle of myself dancing flamenco style with the Yul Brynner-like barmaid. Jim Nason was pulling Uncle Tony's leg about Jeremy Thorpe and the Liberal slaughter.
Alison shunned me like the plague. In fact she became very cold and off-putting. I ended the evening cuddling Auntie Hilda.
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It was Alison who provided the Moet & Chandon and some silver goblets to boot. Breakfasted with the happy couple and Annie and Arthur, who are terrible bores. Their sole topic of conversation is centred upon Barry, their son and heir, and after several hours it becomes infuriating. We made for the garden and lounged until noon.
Dave G phoned to say he has eventually secured a night off and would be arriving at about 3. To the Commercial with Mum, Dad, Annie, Arthur and Ally, who managed to secure a half-day. Not a particularly exciting session. Arthur Greenhoff is the image of the bottom slapping dwarf on the Benny Hill Show. All the women naturally think that he, Arthur, is a dirty old man. Home at 2 to sprawl upon the lawn. Dave arrived with very sad news. His cat is dead. Dad, an expert on matters feline, says the peculiarity of cats is that they are very hardy creatures, but at the hint of a virus - bang - they're off.
Out at 7pm to the Yorkshire Rose. About thirty couples converged for the nostalgic trip down memory lane. I cannot possibly mention them all. Uncle Arnold and dear Auntie Janet, Hilda, Tony, Mabel, Marlene and Frank, my great-aunt Annie Kirk, Pauline Walker (Mum's large and immoral bridesmaid) the Nasons, and a host of others. I became horribly drunk and made a spectacle of myself dancing flamenco style with the Yul Brynner-like barmaid. Jim Nason was pulling Uncle Tony's leg about Jeremy Thorpe and the Liberal slaughter.
Alison shunned me like the plague. In fact she became very cold and off-putting. I ended the evening cuddling Auntie Hilda.
-=-
20180616
Monday June 18, 1979
_. Odious day at the YP. It is rapidly dawning on me just how much work I do in comparison with the vast majority of my colleagues. ______________.
Sarah took a half-day, just to be awkward - bless her. I met Jacq at luncheon at the Ostlers. We get on very nicely. I do delight in her sense of humour. Ate nothing. Came home at 5 - very hot afternoon.
Annie and Arthur Greenhoff, from Mexborough, arrived for the festivities and a full-scale Royal Albert high tea was laid on. They look very much the same as they always did. Little Arthur is the very image of the bald-headed geriatric stooge on the Benny Hill Show. Saw a film on the TV, starring Frank Sinatra and Jacquleine Bisset.
I slept downstairs due to the influx of silver wedding party revellers and turned in about midnight.
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Sarah took a half-day, just to be awkward - bless her. I met Jacq at luncheon at the Ostlers. We get on very nicely. I do delight in her sense of humour. Ate nothing. Came home at 5 - very hot afternoon.
Annie and Arthur Greenhoff, from Mexborough, arrived for the festivities and a full-scale Royal Albert high tea was laid on. They look very much the same as they always did. Little Arthur is the very image of the bald-headed geriatric stooge on the Benny Hill Show. Saw a film on the TV, starring Frank Sinatra and Jacquleine Bisset.
I slept downstairs due to the influx of silver wedding party revellers and turned in about midnight.
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Sunday June 17, 1979
_. 1st after Trinity
Hot, sunny, &c. John phoned at 11:30 to say Maria has been taken into hospital in Stranraer, yesterday. She isn't in labour, but she's had a 'show', whatever that is. It conjured up a vision of my sister-in-law throwing a Royal Command charity performance from her Scottish caravan. john says she will be in hospital for a couple of days. It is very unlikely that he will make it to Mum & Dad's Silver wedding party.
Ally, Sue, Pete and I went to the Half Way House on Hollins Hill and sat in the garden for a couple of hours. Pete remains silent on his wedding plans. Home for 2:30. We sprawled in the garden until dusk. Sue and Pete then departed for Fieldhead Rd to consummate the first Sabbath of their engagement. Ally and I had a Chinese meal with Mama and Papa (£7.20!) and then drank Ginora and various types of vino collapse, until late.
On Sue's return the party became even more jolly. Poor Dad was quite drunk. A stroll into Guiseley followed, which was peculiar.
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Hot, sunny, &c. John phoned at 11:30 to say Maria has been taken into hospital in Stranraer, yesterday. She isn't in labour, but she's had a 'show', whatever that is. It conjured up a vision of my sister-in-law throwing a Royal Command charity performance from her Scottish caravan. john says she will be in hospital for a couple of days. It is very unlikely that he will make it to Mum & Dad's Silver wedding party.
Ally, Sue, Pete and I went to the Half Way House on Hollins Hill and sat in the garden for a couple of hours. Pete remains silent on his wedding plans. Home for 2:30. We sprawled in the garden until dusk. Sue and Pete then departed for Fieldhead Rd to consummate the first Sabbath of their engagement. Ally and I had a Chinese meal with Mama and Papa (£7.20!) and then drank Ginora and various types of vino collapse, until late.
On Sue's return the party became even more jolly. Poor Dad was quite drunk. A stroll into Guiseley followed, which was peculiar.
-=-
20180615
Saturday June 16, 1979
_. I left my bed at 10am to feast my gaze upon the Trooping of the Colour spectacle. It's a marvellous event that never changes other than the fact that the poor Queen gets older with the passing of each year. One of these days Her Majesty will be observing the pageant from a bath chair.
At 12:30 Ally and I went to Burley-in-W where I passed the day in Dave's garage 'helping' him strip the engine from his Mini. I didn't do much but at least I gave Dave something to laugh at for the duration of the afternoon. He is such a mellow, mature character.
Dad and the ladies went on a shopping expedition to Otley.
Tonight, despite all that we've said, we went out with Sue and Peter to Dick Hudson's pub, the Hare and Hounds tap room, and finally the Commercial at Esholt. At Esholt Annie Lindley informed me that she's leaving in 6-8 weeks. Things just won't be the same. Poor Ron is in no condition to work. On to the Prachee at White Cross, which was ridiculously extravagant, but amusing.
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At 12:30 Ally and I went to Burley-in-W where I passed the day in Dave's garage 'helping' him strip the engine from his Mini. I didn't do much but at least I gave Dave something to laugh at for the duration of the afternoon. He is such a mellow, mature character.
Dad and the ladies went on a shopping expedition to Otley.
Tonight, despite all that we've said, we went out with Sue and Peter to Dick Hudson's pub, the Hare and Hounds tap room, and finally the Commercial at Esholt. At Esholt Annie Lindley informed me that she's leaving in 6-8 weeks. Things just won't be the same. Poor Ron is in no condition to work. On to the Prachee at White Cross, which was ridiculously extravagant, but amusing.
-=-
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